I Can't Believe This is Happening!

Well folks, with only fifteen (yes, 15) days left until my departure for Europe, it is finally starting to sink in.  I am going to study abroad!  FOR REAL!  I have been dreaming about this experience ever since the day that I found out about my university's amazing study abroad program.  Which means that I have been dreaming about this since...well, since I was approximately a sophomore in high school and one of my good friends was in Austria for the semester.

In sixteen days I will be living here:

(website for image)

It is called the Kartause Maria Thron and it used to be both a monastery for the Carthusian order, as well as a palace for the Hapsburg family!  The place is older than our country!  And I get to live there for FOUR MONTHS!  (Please forgive the excessive use of exclaimation points and capital letters...I am a little bit excited, if you can't tell...)

Anyways, there are many things to be done between now and then, one of the most important of which is packing.  I am now shamelessly warning you: this is about to become an intense travel blog.  :)