I'm just relaxing after a long weekend, it was pretty good, and of course getting spun up about Gov. Sarah Palin who just needs to go away. It does matter that her daughter is pregnant. Enough said.
Last week was the first week of real work, spent it working on submitting about a dozen and a half request for orders for various people to come support the new command. Thurday went real long and I was there until 6 PM. I also started a college class, Politics and Society in Africa, it's an undergraduate level, but should be interesting.
Friday I picked up a rental car, in part to get me through the graduate class I have next week, in part to help with the move out of the hotel into the apartment, and in part because of a trip that I had signed up for on the weekend. Friday evening I toured the local Ikea store and looked at wardrobes, since there is a closet, but it has no shelves or clothes rods. I had to be back onto one of the bases by 1:30 Sat AM for a day-trip to Vienna. It was painful to get to base, and then the bus trip was painful, first the drivers had forgotten their GPS, so that took a side trip, then once we got to Vienna, they got lost driving around (in total the trip took 9 hours). Once we got there, it was interesting, I hit a couple of museums, on for the the State Opera, the other was in the National Library and was on Crime and Punishment. And I walked around quite a bit, finished the day with a stop by Starbucks. The service stunk, but they gave me a coupon for a free drink, so I guess I have to go back... Actually next month they open a big Van Gogh exhibit that might be worth going back for, especially if I can coordinate it with an Opera performance.
The return trip took only 8 hours, but was painful, just a bad experience sleeping. Sunday was sort of a lost day, I ran some errands stocking up on water, kitty liter and cat food, at the various stores on base. I took the stuff to the apartment this morning, then went shopping at the local Real (used to be Wal-mart) for an air mattress, so I'll have something to sleep on for the next month, until my real bed gets here. I was happy that it was cheaper than I thought it would be, until I opened it at home and saw there was no pump. I ended up back at the store buying the pump, there was another model mattress with a built-in pump, but I figure with an external pump, I can always use it back in the states.
I took another load of stuff over this evening and then did some general driving around to get familiar. I have to say that the GPS is a real life-saver. It isn't always right, but if I get lost on my own, I can tell it to take me back home and boom, I figure out where I am.
I'll post more about the trip to Austria later, I have some pictures. After I check out of the hotel, I won't have much in the way of internet until I get it established in the apartment.
Evan
