I'm not down...

Hallo ihr Lieben!

I am back in my home town, in southern Carinthia, with my mum and my little sister Anna-Lisa. I am happy to be here, they always make me feel home...and I also have my guitars here and got already two blisters on my fingers because I have been playing so much...and since my skin was not used to it anymore after 6 weeks of abstinence, it reacted...
I have started writing my CSI:Vienna paper...tomorrow I go to Vienna to go out and celebrate my homecoming with my best friend Corina...Arena, I am back in town!!!





Well, here some info on my past days:
The flight to Austria has been a torture!! The day before I had to leave, I felt kind of weak, I had a headache and I just didn't feel ok!! So I didn't do very much, I just went for a bike ride and said goodbye to the many squirrels that I will definitely miss, especially the little, black buggers...their sight cheered me up so many times on my way around Stanford, Palo Alto and Menlo Park...
I also had to say goodbye to Celia. She has been so kind and nice to me, bringing me along to events or Lake Tahoe, Santa Cruz...we have had very many interesting discussions and I'm sure I would not have enjoyed my time there that much, if she wasn't there. And we plan on continuing this good thing by keeping and meeting in Berlin or Vienna....
Next one on the farewell list was my "hostmum" Lynn, who has also been incredibly nice and delightful...she told me to come back as soon as possible, there'll always be a place for me and that they enjoyed my company as much as I did...
Moreover, Humberto and Ana came to wish me farewell...and gave me their adress, so I could say Hi if I ever come to Lisbon, Portugal...
The evening before, I had dinner with Prof. Juan José Sanchez, who was really nice to me...I will miss the breakfast conversations and his advice concerning my thesis!!
I also had to say goodbye to my professor Dr. Fellner after our CSI: Vienna class presentation in House Mitt, where I had to show our project concerning "transcultural music" to some Stanford students while drinking Eiskaffee, a Viennese version of Iced coffee with vanilla ice cream...

I made me really sad to say so many goodbyes...I got really melancholic and had a hard time not to cry while packing my backpack and stuffing all the new shirts and shoes and gifts and copies of texts into it...

My "hostdad" Rich brought me to the airport on Friday morning at 5 a.m. It was good we started out so early because the airport was really busy and I had to wait in line with a 35kg backpack and a heavy purse...after I checked in, I had to run to the gate to catch my first flight to New York. I changed flight there...I was so thirsty so I bought this stupid vitaminwater for the first time...I had resisted buying it because I think it is a complete bullshit...but well, then I didn't care...I was ust thirsty!!

I boarded the next plane to Warsaw...and the plane was crowded, the service sucked sooo much...never again I'll fly with LOT...even if they are cheaper than all the others...
For them, being vegetarian obviously means you only eat things that volontariliy fall off trees or so...because I only got salad!! 4 meals on a 10 hours flight and I only got salad...
Then, I felt really cold and bad...my tonsils were already swollen...so I asked a stewardess for another blanket because they had really small ones....she said she was going to bring one...well, she never came back...I asked another one...nothing...I got so angry...and they always talk to you in Polish...even if they understood that you do not speak their language, they will still adress you in Polish...no matter what...

I was so happy when I boarded the last plane to Vienna, executed by Austrian Airlines...another 1,5 hours and I finally arrived in Vienna. Well, even though I had arrived, my luggage did not...so I had to stand in line for another 20 mins at the Austrian Airline counter and file a baggage report...they told me it could talk a day or two until I'd get my stuff...

My brother Martin and his girlfriend picked me up and brought me to their (my ex-) flat in Vienna...and we had some dinner...then I passed out on the couch...when I woke up, they went to cinema...I slept some more hours...
When I woke up, it was Sunday and I felt really bad....I had sweated the whole night, my head felt like some B52 bombers where doing their rounds right inside it and I couldn't swallow...I got scared...I just came back from the U.S. and had these flu-like symptoms...swine flu alarm!?!?!?...so I decided to get myself checked in hospital...
The cousin of my brother's girlfriend is working in the hospital, so I did not have to wait for ages...first thing I got was a mask...and I had to keep on for the whole time in the hospital...she checked my vitals and told me to sit down in the waiting room...
The scene was so funny...there were hundreds of people, old, young, mum's with kids...and they all stared at me like it had the Black Death...some girls started whispering behind my back...one mum told her child "Do not approach this girl, she could have something really BAD!!"...It made me smile...it felt funny to be the odd person out...
However, after a test of some snot out of my nose, they told me that I did not have the swine flu...just immense tonsils...and they gave me some pain killer...and sent me off...

At home, I watched tv, I felt like being in transit since I had not arrived in my final destination, at home...so I decided to go for a walk in Vienna...and walked around Mariahilferstraße, the main shopping street and down into a little park, next to the Flakturm, a tower that had been erected in WW II to fight off attacking planes and had been turned into an aquarium...I felt so detached...like everything around me was totally unreal...I was a bit sad that I was not in California anymore...but well, what can I do...so why feel sad and not just make the best out of it...

The next morning my luggage arrived and I took the next train to my home region and my mum and little sister Anna-Lisa picked me up at the train station...then I felt like I had finally arrived...and now I'm here...

Since this is my final blog update, I want to thank everyone who read it and followed my story and adventures abroad...I really enjoyed keeping this diary and let people all over the world know what I have been doing...I know it is not the most exciting thing in the world, but in my world this journey was probably one of the most exciting things ever...
And I want to thank everyone who has supported me in any way during my time in the U.S. Without you people out there, I wouldn't have had such a great time!! Thanks guys and gals!!

Well, now I'm back to daydreaming about San Francisco, the Bay area and the sunshine at the beach in Santa Cruz...and I am missing so many things...
The sunshine that woke me up in my room at 8 every morning, my American breakfast, the daily bike ride to university, the Lane reading room, Stanford campus, the Green library, coffee at Moonbeans, coffee at the Stanford bookstore, coming home and talking to my hostfamily, taking the Samtrans bus to Frisco, run around in Frisco, see Haight-Ashbury and its people, say Hi to Derick in the tattoo parlor, eat pancakes at Ann's cafe, riding around with Celia, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, huge milk containers, huge cars, burritos, fish tacos, downtown Santa Cruz, cheap Vans and Converse, discussions with my hostfamily, discussions with everyone there...I guess I could go on endlessly...

Well, I'll be happy to receive some emails of you guys, if you feel like writing me, because now I plan on going into hermitage to write my thesis...I want to get the bugger done until October and then get my degree...and go back to California as soon as possible!!

Big kisses and hugs,

Sonja