I'm Here!!!

Well, here I am! I'm finally in the lovely city of Bratislava, after spending a grueling day and a half (I'm probably exaggerating) in various airports all over the place.
For the record, the Munich airport is a terrible place. They, obviously, make all of their announcements in German first, then in very, very heavily accented English. And they make you take buses to your airplane. And they don't spell Vienna the way we do. Apparently, in German it's "Wien". I had to take out my boarding pass and go by flight number to find where I was supposed to go.

In the interest of alleviating confusion, allow me to explain:
I got on a plane at around 2:00 pm, Monday, August 24 at North West Arkansas. After that, I had a decent layover in Chicago, waiting for my trans-Atlantic flight. As fate would have it, my Rotary blazer (which very nearly got left at the NWA Airport, due to carelessness) attracted the attention of one of the other passengers on my flight. Turns out, she had gone to Ankara, Turkey a few years prior with Rotary, and was now returning to go to college. She was very nice, and offered the typical spiel: it's so much fun! You'll love it! All in all, it was a very pleasant surprise.
So, we got on the plane at 6:00 pm. After about seven hours of reeeeally pathetic movies, an episode of NCIS that I'd already seen, and almost tolerable airline food, we got off at the Munich airport. I went through customs there. Now, here's the thing: customs was a German guy looking at my passport saying "Where is your destination?"
"Vienna"
"For what purpose are you coming?"
"To be an exchange student."
"To be a student?"
"Yes." German guy stamps passport and hands it back to me.
"That way."
"Thank you."
Now, why can't American customs be like that?
At any rate, I had to go through security again, which was irksome, but manageable. What I didn't like was that they listed Vienna solely under its German name, Wien, on its tv screen thingies. So irksome. They also only had those annoying towel dispensers that are actually cloth, and therefore hooked to the machine in the bathroom, making it a liiiiiittle awkward to dry your face after washing it. I also wish they would get some better English speakers, and that they would learn to but the gate near the plane. I had to ride a bus just to get to my plane!! It was ridiculous.
However, I did conclude that Lufthansa, the German airline, has the best airline snacks. They gave us this yummy strawberry power bar.
At any rate, Vienna's airport was nice, except for the fact that they didn't clearly label the baggage claim. They just had a sign that said "Exit to Vienna" with a picture of a bag. So confusing....
At any rate, I found my bags without any trouble, and my host sister Petra was waiting to meet me with a sign and a sunflower. She's really incredibly nice, and told me a lot about Bratislava, Slovakia in general, and a bit about her own exchange ten years ago to Michigan while we drove the hour or so back to Bratislava.

The first thing I noticed was pretty simple: there are mountains here! I mean, I knew there would be, but I've only seen mountains one other time in my life, and let me tell you, the mountains of Utah have nothing on the mountains of Slovakia. Petra has informed me that my "mountains" aren't really considered mountains, just large hills. They're still awesome, and I still love them. Bratislava is actually situated on one of them. So cool!
The Veselý family lives in a pretty good sized house in one of the best neighborhoods in Bratislava. It is close to the house of Parlement, the castle, and downtown. Petra says I probably won't have to use public transportation for much besides getting to school, because I can just walk downtown! When we arrived, Michaela, or Miša as I am to call her, was waiting for us along with their insane but loveable dog, Mattes, and we had lunch, which was a chicken noodle soup, of sorts, and huloški and perkelt. Huloški (assuming I've spelled it correctly) is... well, it's almost like this mix between a dumpling and noodles. You can't really explain it. Perlt is a sauce, containing cream, spices, and chicken. It's reeeally good. I wish I could have eaten more, but I was full, and I didn't think throwing up would make a good impression somehow. After lunch, I was given the wifi code, and told to take the afternoon to unpack, email my parents, and the like.
So, my room is very nice; it's big, and I have my own little balcony for nice days. While the color scheme isn't what I would have chosen (think lots of pink), it's a very pretty room, and I think I'm going to like it.
Tonight the exchange officer is going to come visit, so that I can meet him. Yikes. Hopefully, I'll be able to speak enough Slovak that I won't look like an idiot.....

That's all for now. I'll let you know when there's, well, more to tell.