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Published: February 5th 2009
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American T-Shirt?
I bought a new T-shirt today and still have yet to figure out what is American about it. Servus Alle,
Ich hab gedacht, dass jetzt bin ich in Österreich mehr als 5 Monate gewesen, deswegen solltet ihr alle gut Deutsch verstehen, weil ich so viel hier gelernt hab. Wie wär's, wenn ich euch auf Deutsch schriebe? Gut, oder? Ich find's gut.
Anybody understand that? One more time:
I thought that I've been in Austria now for more than 5 months, so you all should understand German well, because I've learnt so much. How'd it be if wrote to you all in German? Good, right? I think so.
Alright, maybe not. Anyways, since your eyes last grazed this page, hanging on my every word, wishing you were all me , much has happened, even if it might not seem so.
I've basically been locked up in my room for the last few days, doing agonizing research for my Seminararbeit for one of my classes. I have to write a 15-page paper in Italian with the subject of an Italian's journey around the world with Magellan, documenting the first circumnavigation of the globe. Sounds interesting, right? It's not. Sounds rather easy right, because there surely is lots of information about Megellan. It isn't, and
MY BIKE!!!
I had a chat with the Doorman this morning which led to my acquisition of this bad boy. I have a feeling we're going to be great friends. there isn't. Basically for the last week I've been slaving away reading a travel journal in 15th Century Vicenzan Italian dialect, which is a city in the region of Veneto . Basically, to be able to read this text, you have to be able to understand Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin, and then be able to use the 4 together to make this new language which would be the equivalent of this certain dialect, and needless to say it's agonizing, slow work. Oh well, I'm almost done with reading, though, so hopefully today or tomorrow can actually start to write my paper.
Yesterday I also had the oral portion of my exam for my Humanism in Italy class. Needless to say, it was a disaster. I ended up sitting talking to my professor for an hour, and we just went over my written exam, the parts of it she didn't understand. Naturally, I can't say a lot of things in Italian that I can in English, especially when it comes to describe the mechanics of architecture. Forgive me, but the topic of weigh distribution through the use of flying buttresses, intricate brick-laying, and the ribbing of buildings never came up while we were conjugating "avere" . Anyways, that was finally over, and I ended up getting a 2 in the class overall . Thus, I sort of got the equivalent of a B, but a 2 is actually worth more than a B. It's a weird system and hard to explain. Somehow I've been able to understand it.
Otherwise, it's just been lowkey with doing research and everyone wrapping up the last loose ends of the semester. Libor and I have also been vigorously working, planning our adventures of the month. We have finally purchased everything, and are ready to get underway!
Monday, February 9th, at 5:45am, we ship out from the Grazer Hauptbahnhof, set to arrive in the small western city of Feldkirch, with a quick stop in Salzburg. We'll be spending 3 nights in Feldkirch, which is just a small, medieval city in the region of Vorarlberg. It's the very last region in Austria, sharing the border with Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. From there, we're going to catch the bus one day down to Schaan, the biggest city in the smallest German-speaking country, Liechtenstein. Schaan is connected to Vaduz, the capital of the country, so we're going to spend the day around these two cities. We're also both very excited, because Liechtenstein is not exactly the biggest country in the world. The train system of the country is actually handled by Austria, and the bus system is handled by Switzerland. There's about 5.5 miles of traintracks running across the country of Liechtenstein, that's how big it is. From Vaduz, we're going to WALK to SWITZERLAND. There's a river that divides the two countries, so we decided that we of course will be needing to take an afternoon stroll to the Swiss city of Buchs. We're also planning on going to another Austrian city for the day by the name of Bregenz. It sits on the shores of Bodensee. When you look out from the shores of Bodensee, you can look to the left and see Switzerland, or to the right and see Germany, while you're standing in Austria. Not too shabby, eh? Needless to say, we're both pretty excited for this trip. We were going to try to stop in Innsbruck on the way back to Graz and see the girls , but we decided it's a bit too expensive, since we're trying to save all the money we can for our second February adventure.
On February 17th, Libor, Martyna, and I will be hopping the train in the early morning hours, destination: Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Remember people, Czechoslovakia does NOT exist anymore. It has not for about 18 years. We'll be spending the day in Bratislava, and in the afternoon/evening, boarding a plane, headed north. North is a general statement, so I'm going to give you some clues as to where we're going : Agnetha, Anni, Benny, Björn. Do these names mean anything to you? Maybe the homeland of Volvo will be a better clue? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to SWEDEN!!! We worked our student magic, found some cheap flights, and for 5 days we will be hanging out in Sweden! We're spending 2 nights in the city of Nyköping, about an hour south of Stockholm, which is where we'll be flying to and from. We're then going to also spend 2 nights in Stockholm. We're all very excited, as it should be something totally different from what we've been living in the past few months, and none of us have ever been to Scandinavia . We're then flying back to Klagenfurt , and then catching the bus back to Graz to ride out the last week of vacation .
Overall, it should be very exciting and so much fun! Until then, I shall be diligently writing my paper, so that I won't even have to think twice about it and can just enjoy my break!
Adjö! (Bye in Swedish)
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Hillary
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L'arco rampante
L'arco rampante controbilancia le spinte laterali di altre struttura spingenti (archi, volte), frazionando gradualmente le spinte orizzontali fino ad annullarle. Si favorisce così l'elevazione dell'edificio contenendo l'energia di spinta, e permette in tal modo alla costruzione di innalzarsi in uno slancio verticale altrimenti impossibile da realizzare in un edificio semplice in muratura. Come on, that's common knowledge, the mechanics of the flying buttress, in italiano. (Nah, copied it from Wikipedia.)