i'm in salzburg. i don't know where to start.

i'm staying in a building that was built in the 1720's and redone ten years ago into the nicest hotel-type center ever, with lecture halls and a coffee shop and a library of periodicals and reading rooms and an atrium.

directly nextdoor is a castle. a palace. the schloss. it is the reason the hotel-type building was built. the workers stayed here while they built the castle for prince-archbishop leopold nextdoor. i have full access, day and night, to the palace. i have a key. it has a dining hall, a great room, a haunted chapel, secret passage ways, a ball room, several sitting rooms, and a two story library. i am in heaven. it is the most beautiful place i have ever been. and it's not like i had to pay admission. they gave me a key for the week. we have our meals there and use the library, as well as using the sitting rooms for our small group project work.

the conference will be demanding. there are about 60 students from the united states and several professors. i'm making friends from all over already and having an amazing time. tomorrow the work begins. three lectures a day and small group work. we are scheduled from nine to nine. wednesday we go to dachau.

this is just out of control. i want to cry it is so beautiful. i'm still nervous about discussion and small group presentations, but i'm sure it will be fine. i can't believe i'm staying in this amazing place...

and the best part is it is all owned and run by a nonprofit ngo known as the salzburg seminar and american studies. all run by donations. they have been doing this since the 1940's. it is amazing. i wouldn't mind devoting my life to running a nonprofit seminar on global affairs in salzburg, austria.

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