The Rest of My First Week

On Sunday I just hung out in my residence and relaxed. I didn't have much of a choice because in Austria almost everything is closed every Sunday.

Monday was my first day of work. I got up at 7am, and was out of the door by 7:30. From my residence I walk to the nearest U-Bahn station, Neubaugasse, and take the U3 for 5min to Westbahnhoff where I transfer to the U6 and travel about 7min to Philidelphiabrücke (Philidelphia Bridges?). From there I catch the 8:00 train to Wiener Neustadt, which takes about 30min. From the Wiener Neustadt main station I take a short 3min train to the Civitas Nova station from which I walk another 3 minutes to work. It sounds complicated and long, but it goes by quickly and everything is actually organized and on time (it's not Via) so things flow smoothly.

One funny thing I saw on the train my first day was an elderly woman who was trying to hide her dog under her legs with her coat so she wouldn't have to pay the dog fee and put a muzzle on it. It was pretty funny, it looked like the dog was used to it, and it worked.

Monday-Wednesday I just went on safety tours, and read page after page of background information about my project. For many of you this will mean nothing but I'll include it anyway. The project I'll be working on is studying the electric potential window at which high molecular weight transition metals can be electroplated using non-aqueous room-temperature molten salt electrolytes. This, believe it or not, has real industrial applications for improved corrosion resistance of metal parts and metal deposition for parts used in electronic devices.

Every night I get home from work at about 6:30 and generally just watch James Bond (thank you Bob) or something else on my laptop, while talking to people on MSN.

Today (Thursday) is a religious holiday in Austria so the company has given us all a 4 day weekend! Today I went to the Canadian Embassy, and was disappointed to find nothing but trilingual Austrians without a drop of Canadian blood in them. I wasn't expecting to find Bob and Doug McKenzie, but I thought it would feel more like home. From there I went to the Public library (which was closed due to the holiday). I'll have to include some photos of the library soon because it looks very cool. The entire building is a giant wedge with stairs all the way up the front, with entrances at ground level, half way up and a cafe right at the top. From the library I went to the English Cinema on Mariahilfestraße and saw 'Sunlight' a really bad summer blockbuster about a spaceship which has been sent to re-ignite the sun. Honestly, I just went so I could hear people speaking 'normal' English. It's a very odd feeling being surrounded all day with people who have heavy heavy Austrian accents, especially when the only people who I've heard talk like that up until now were James Bond villians and the bad-guys in every movie about WWI, WWII, or the cold war.

After the movie I phoned my mom for the first type, using Sykpe. We didn't talk long because the mixture of Skype, 4000 kilometers and a cell phone in the middle of Winners lead to some wonky reception. However, the call only cost be about 8 cents, and that includes the 7 cent connection fee.

I guess I've rambled on enough, from now on I'll only include interesting things I see or notice throughout the weeks. Also, soon I'll start taking pictures and including them too.