Change of Venue

I started this blog while in Waterloo ("wintering" there), and in September I returned to Nova Scotia where I may just stay forever. Except, of course, for my current travels, which have brought me to a hostel in Vienna. On Sunday I'll go to Innsbruck for a month-long clinical elective; this is pretty much the farthest and longest time that I've been away from home. Last year in Waterloo might sort of count as being "away", but being less than an hour's drive from friends and family doesn't quite count. The closest thing previously was way back in 2003 when I went for a 5 week French immersion program in Trois-Rivières. At that time, we were actually forced to speak French exclusively (or, well, as much as possible); now I *should* be speaking (some) German, but my vocabulary and grammar is pretty rudimentry not to mention very rusty.

Now, I'd planned to spend time studying and reviewing some German prior to departing, but... well, it was always hard to that during school, of course, and I was fairly busy and then travelling during the three weeks immediately after it was over. I do actually remember a surprising amount considering it's been *six* years since I've really practised it at all. Currently when I try to think of a German word for something, French inevitably comes up first as my "default" non-mother tongue. A bit frustrating. C'est la vie... (again with the français!)

Otherwise, I think travelling alone can be - unsurprisingly - a bit on the lonely side, but I'm grateful for some personal private space after 12 or so hours of planes and airports. It felt a lot longer than that, though, and how the Zurich airport can justify charging $10 for a coffee and donut is utterly beyond my comprehension. The Berliner was rather short on jelly at that.

Anyway, that's about all for now. Ideally I'll be posting more on this trip (especially to make up for not posting at all in June!).