Friday September 28th
Today I ended up doing a ton of stuff. I started out by going to school and running through by first three classes. My fourth was English, and since I don't really need to go my teacher let me go early so I could get to the Bregenz Bezirkshauptmannschaft (city hall kind of). They closed at 11:30 so I had to take the train from Dornbirn to Bregenz (which is cool). Agnes picked up my Maximo Card that day too, which allows me to travel by bus and train throughout Vorarlberg, but I didn't have it on me. I was assuming that I would not get checked for such a short ride, but of course the ticket-checker got on the train right behind me. I was hoping he wouldn't ask but he did, right away. At first I thought I could play the "I don't understand I am an American" card, but that didn't pan out, so I told him the truth, that I had the card it just wasn't on me. He understood and reminded me to bring it with me on the trains and buses, I was thankful and I got to Bregenz on time. Once there I walked to the Bezirkshauptmannschaft and to the Visa office. I was there 45 minutes early, but I ended up waiting outside the door for 50 minutes, until finally I got to go in. It only took about 5 minutes and I finally had my visa in my hands! That was a huge relief! Agnes came and gave me my Maximo card, so I decided to take the train home, just because I could. I went home for a little while, then went to lunch down in Schwarzach with Agnes and Jakob. We went to the outside restaurant by the Rathaus and I had Wiener Schnitzel (great every time). At 2:30 I headed back to Bregenz to meet with Mark, Emily, and Faith. We met at the Bahnhof, then took the bus to Dornbirn (a little counter productive), because they hadn't really seen the city. I showed them the Stadtmarkt, my school, the by-foot-only downtown shopping area, and other spots I knew in town. Then we decided to walk through the residential areas. We spontaneously found ourselves at a museum, that was closed, so we walked through the grounds and looked what we could find. The museum was party devoted to wildlife and they had taxidermy of a bear, a moose, a bison, and a wolf. Hah, I see those things in real life all the time! We checked out a cool man-made pond and then noticed a cage in the yard. We went over and tried to figure out what was in it, and finally I noticed the owl perched in the top of the tree. After we finished at the museum we walked to Sütterluty, C&A and back to the Dornbirn Bahnhof. Mark and Emily had plans with a couple Rotex kids (previous exchange students from over a year ago) and their friends. We meet in Bregenz, then Faith had to go back to Bludenz. They took us to a Mexican Restaurant in Bregenz called Viva. I had a burrito, but it had a curry flavoring in it, and curry is one of the only foods in the world I despise. We had a good time talking and eating, then they took us to the theater in Bregenz. We saw a German Action film, that was so predictable I didn't really need to know what they were saying. It was fun though because we, and about 10 other people were the only ones there and it was a huge 70's style theater. After the movie we returned to the Bregenz Bahnhof, and I went to a party I was invited to by some school friends. It was in Haselstauden at Fabian's house, and Thomas came and got me from the bus stop. It wasn't a big party, we just listened to music, played playstation, etc. I lost track of time, and by the time I went back to Schwarzach with a couple girls from the party who live in Schwarzach also, it was really late. I was worn out from such a long and fulfilling day!
|
The restaurant by the Rathaus |
|
The bus to Bregenz (to meet Mark, Emily, and Faith) |
|
The Bregenz Rathaus |
|
Getting ice cream downtown |
|
The closed museum |
|
The cool little pond |
|
Faith and Emily |
|
A cool reflection |
|
Mark, what a beast |
|
The little owl |
|
Owl cage, you paid to get in a do....? |
|
At Viva for dinner |
|
The Rotex kids and friends |
|
The action movie we saw |
So much fun to read! Are you glad we take you to Yellowstone every year now?? Love ya man, Mom
Great pics of the owl, the pond and reflections!
hey Jackson---curry on, old bean Poppy