The semester is in full swing! And by that I mean that the semester is swinging and knocking me in the head! It's been a crazy past few days trying to get all of our courses figured out. Now, I'm the kind of person that loves everyone and is all about peace and such, but this past week I have wanted to jump on a plane, fly to UK, and throw something at our study abroad advisor! There was no organization when we registered, so Amber and I are just learning that half of our classes conflict with eachother, and some of the others aren't even what we need (thanks a lot.... grr). BUT, Amber and I decided to take matters into our own hands......

This morning, we marched up to the registration office and stayed in there until everything got worked out (which took about an hour and a half!). Now, I am taking International Finance, Global Market Research, Negotiation Management, International Trade, and then my online course through UK Business School about Operations Management. -- When they said that studying abroad classes were easy.... they were lying! I am in for a crazy semester of traveling and research projects! Let's just hope that I can fit it all in! (eek!)

I was put into a small research group for my Global Market Research course. I am the only American in the entire class, so the rest of the kids in my group are native Austrians. I had answered several questions in class that day (making myself known... oh yeah!), so one girl in my group said quietly, "Oh, your English.... we are intimidated because it is so good." Um.... thanks? It's the only language I know! hahaha

In our International Trade course, Amber and I are... again, the only Americans. We were discussing how different countries have a competitive advantage in production of certain products, and how those products are usually what that country exports to the rest of the world. She asked for every country represented in our class to tell one product that their home country exports. Being from Kentucky, I immediately thought of tobacco. When I answered with this, the entire room goes, "oooh yeah! AMERICA!" I guess they are thankful for that, since EVERYBODY smokes over here. -- After class, we were told to form groups of 3 for our group project due at the end of the semester. We have to compare how the different countries that the people in our group belong to do trade, and then prepare a presentation on that. Immediately, Amber and I were approached by Chris from Austria (who had answered several questions in class) who REALLY wanted to work with us. He said he studied abroad at Berkley last year, and was very interested in American trade. Hey, fine with me! This kid must be very smart to have studied at Berkley.... so welcome to the group, Chris! :)

Yesterday on the train back from university, there were about 1 million (give or take a few) people on the subway. I was smooshed up against some of the craziest-looking people that I've ever seen... and some of the smelliest.... eew. At one of the stops, a woman and her 4 small children boarded my car. These were probably the cutest kids that I've seen in a long time, and they were just chatting away to eachother in Arabic. Then they started trying to run around, which made me and several other people laugh. A VERY tall man wearing all black that looked something like a mix between Yanni and Lukasz Orbzut, looked down at me and said something in German. I caught the word "kinder," which means children. He was laughing, so I just assumed that he meant something about how cute they were, so I just said, "Ja!" back to him. About a million more people got on the subway during the next 4 stops, so that's where our conversation ended. Finally, we got to Burggasse (my stop on the U6), and I shuffled out of the subway and onto the platform. Well, so did my large, long-haired friend. As we walked in the same direction, he looked down and smiled at me, continuing to talk German. Man.... I thought... I can't fool him for much longer... the only other thing I can say is 'Ich bin Amanda,' and I'm SURE that's not the appropriate response to his rather lengthy story. Knowing that he was bound to either think I was a little slow (I think I had a blank look on my face, haha) or really mean for not answering, I spoke. "Ein bisschen Duetch," which means "A little bit of German," and kind of shrugged. Then, in perfect English, he answered, "Oh, is English better?" :) He introduced himself (as some unpronouncable name.... so we'll just call him Yanni) and asked what I was doing in Austria. When I told him my name, he had trouble understanding me because of my accent. I appologized and spoke less Kentuckian, but he said that he loved how I spoke. "You are just so cute," he said. I told him about studying business here for the semester and that I was from Kentucky. Very surprised and excited, he responded, "Ah, you're from AMERICA?" Well, I guess the fact that I was wearing gouchos and flip flops, carried a bright-blue Vera Bradley bag, and had a University of Kentucky BCM shirt on wouldn't have given it away! He told me that he was here for a week doing business for Audi car manufacturers. Yanni was actually from Hamburg, Germany. -- We walked out of the subway and outside, where we both crossed the same street, but then started to go in different directions. I shook his hand and said nice to meet you.... but he held on (um... large German man has your hand.... what do you do..... they never taught this in Girl Scouts). He just looked at me and then finally said, "VERY nice to meet you, Amanda. Have a wonderful stay." As I waited for the next cross-walk, he walked away..... but he definately looked back several times.... oh, European men.... hahaha.

After I got home from school, I met up with my other amigos, Amber, Paul, and Greg. I cooked bacon cheese burgers for all of us (but at this point, Greg would want to add that he grilled his, since grilling is a man's thing.... oh, New Yorkers...). After another amazing dinner, we sat down and watched a few episodes of Band of Brothers, the HBO series about the paratroopers at D-Day. I think this might have been "The Unofficial American Appreciation Night" or something haha.