Haus Merian

Well, it has been a while and my excuse is Haus Merian. Welcome to my humble abode. Let me give you a little background on Haus Merian. Built in 1940, Yes! I said 1940. In the US this would be a historical landmark, I’m sure of it. BUT there is an elevator unfortunately it only goes to the 4^th floor and Leisel and I happen to reside on the 5^th floor. So that is a nice little walk up a flight of stairs. The elevator smells really bad and can only fit 2 people so I try to avoid it. I am pretty sure by the end of the semester I will have killer leg muscles J

So funny story: My room is quite a bit bigger than Leisel’s room. I think it was funny. I live on one side of the floor and Leisel lives on the other. Friday night we met the guy that lives across from Leisel. His name is Brian and he is from Ohio. He has lived here since September and is studying German at the University of Salzburg so he will be helping us with all our German needs. We were talking about how my room is considerably bigger than Leisel’s. This is how the conversation went:

Me: Yeah my room is a lot bigger than this one! ( we were chilling in Leisel’s room)

Brian: Oh you must live on the other side of the hall?

Me: Yeah I do! How did you know?

Brian: Oh that side of the building was bombed. When they rebuilt it they made those rooms bigger.

Me and Leisel: BOMBED?!? (thinking How old is this building?!?)

Brian: Yeah? Salzburg? We are right by the main train station? Duh?.

Yeah that is pretty much how that conversation went. I didn’t realize the we were living in such an old building. I thought this building was built in the 60s. Well my side of the building was built in the 60s. Leisel’s side was built in the 40s. I thought that was funny.

Worst Part of Haus Merian?

BATHROOMS!!

As I was getting the tour of my floor I was shown the shower room. That was when I decided that showering every other day was plenty! There is very little privacy in the shower room. This will be the hardest adjustment that I am going to have to make. I value my privacy and that shower room is an invasion of my privacy. The toilets aren’t too bad. I’m pretty sure one of the toilets survived the bombing because you flush it with a pull chain... The whole building supposedly gets cleaned everyday so everything is supposedly clean but I think age makes things appear permanently dirty.

Best thing about Haus Merian?

I didn’t have to fill out a damage report when I moved in. I’m pretty sure that means they are begging the residents to ruin the place so it can be condemned. Which I think it is only a few years away. Another really good thing about Haus Merian is that it is a 5 minute walk to the main train station. This means that with my semester train ticket I can take a 5 minute walk to the train station and be at the Fachhochschule in about 20 minutes.

Well that is the update from Salzburg for now. Everything is good J I am adjusting to tiny living quarters. Leisel and I (mostly Leisel) made a really good pasta casserole thing on Sunday. And we have eaten a whole jar of Nutella and A LOT of Milka chocolate. Why is European chocolate so much better than American chocolate? Good thing there are a lot stairs to climb up.