the fray wrote us a song as well!

The day's last one-way ticket train pulls in
We smile for the casual closure capturing
There goes the downpour
There goes my fare thee well

There's really no way to reach me
There's really no way to reach me
There's really no way to reach me
'Cause I'm already gone

There's so many words that we can say
Spoken upon long-distance melody
This is my hello
This is my goodness

...

There's really no way to reach me
There's really no way to reach me
Is there really no way to reach me?
Am I already gone?
So this is your maverick
And this is VIENNA.

billy joel wrote us a song!

Slow down, you crazy child
you're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart, tell me
Why are you still so afraid?

Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You'd better cool it off before you burn it out
You've got so much to do and
Only so many hours in a day

But you know that when the truth is told..
That you can get what you want or you get old
You're gonna kick off before you even
Get halfway through
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

Slow down, you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be
Before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight
Tonight,...
Too bad but it's the life you lead
you're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong, you know
You can't always see when you're right. you're right

You've got your passion, you've got your pride
but don't you know that only fools are satisfied?
Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

Slow down, you crazy child
and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile
it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize,..Vienna waits for you?
And you know that when the truth is told
that you can get what you want or you can just get old
You're gonna kick off before you even get half through
Why don't you realize,. Vienna waits for you
When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

making the program.

as promised, heres is a brief rundown of how i made it to now. the process.

PART ONE: GETTING IN.
1. applying. the first step. the application is pretty average: why you want to go, grades, interests, strengths etc. it was
bland enough to make me nervous... how could i make it unique so they remembered me? thats something that cant be
controlled. However spelling, grammar, and neatness can be so i made sure to double check all of those.

2. interview. if there are no glaring problems with your application ((like being an axe-murderer or having a .04 grade point average)) the next step is the interview. oklahoma christian heads up the study abroad programs- they have an entire office dedicated to it- so they typically send a representative up to do the interviewing. this is the scariest part of the entire process! but there was nothing to worry about. just being myself, smiling, and not talking too fast were the three things i focused on. im not sure im allowed to talk about what they asked so i wont reveal any "top secret" questions.

3. the wait/ the letter. i take back what i said earlier. this is the scariest part! everything that you can do to earn yourself a place on the team is done and now you have to wait the week or two for your letter to come. lots of praying. and then it comes. i left campus to open mine. sometimes you have to be alone to be courageous. and i made it!

PART TWO: GETTING COMFORTABLE.
4. orientation. we flew to oklahoma christian university at the end of january and met with the rest of the people going with us to vienna. went out to a conference house about an hour out of oklahoma city. five girls from cascade traveled together- three who were going to vienna ((we lost one group member)) and two who were participating in the latin america program. we shared a room that felt like a camp, two bunkbeds stuck at weird angles with yellow light bulbs. it was lovely. drank fanta and ate munchies and listened to vienna fall 2006 students talk about their trip.

5. spring class. to help get us ready to journal consistently in vienna a journal is required during spring semester. the requirements are journaling at least twice a week and documenting six experiences: an art gallery, a museum, a musical performance, an interview with a foreign student, eating at a foreign restuarant, and watching a foreign movie. some of these were a little tricky but it was great fun. in getting ready to explore vienna we got to explore portand! my favorite was going to see the flying dutchman which is an opera preformed in german. it was my first brush with the language ( excluding clips of hitler from the history channel) and it was interesting. maybe the next time i see the opera ill be able to understand what they are saying!

PART THREE: GETTING KNOWLEDGEABLE.
6. summer class. the summer coursework is actually fall semester work. because we wont be at an actual school with all the resources that come as a part of that much of our coursework is done this summer. so i have a couple books to read, lots of tests to take and a couple papers with matching presentations to craft before september. its hard, but most things that are worth doing are hard. and the classes are all related to europe so its applicable, hands on learning. after reading a chapter on baroque architecture we can go out and visit ten churches designed in that style. it makes it easier to spend hours studying in the summer.

introductions!

first things first.


im going to vienna, austria for an entire semester through cascade college in portland. oklahoma christian university in oklahoma and rochester university in michigan partner up with cascade and take a group of students over every fall to study abroad. this year were taking a group of about fifty.
only two people from cascade are going this fall (thats 1/25 of the entire group..)- danelle and i. shes fun. an actress, shes was in both plays last year and made the traveling acting group for next year. congrats for that! im excited to get to know her and the rest of the group.



so here it is: i'm savannah and I'm from the seattle area and this fall I'm going to be a sophomore biology major, math and history minor. Thats a mouthful eh? i like vanilla ice cream and random british tv and any good classic book.... and im soooo excited to spend an entire semester on a different continent!
thats the basic basics.



more to come on the application process and all the prep from last year..