Welcome to the Cage of Monkeys!

Hello everyone,

Most of you know by now that I’m going to be studying abroad this year at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. If you didn’t, now you know, and if you did and forgot then consider your memory refreshed. I’m writing this email to tell you all how to get in touch with me and to cover a few other things.

Firstly, contact information. DO NOT call my cell phone. It does not operate in Europe. I will be getting a new cell over there, but I won’t appreciate high international phone bills. In light of that, here are the best ways to get in touch with me:
1. Email. I check my email very regularly whenever I have an internet connection. You can reach me at jashley1@nd.edu, jashley4@comcast.net, or zerstorer.von.welten@gmail.com.
2. Instant Messaging. I use both AIM and Google Talk these days. My AIM screen-name is LordHighPetty. Of the two I prefer Google Talk, though.
3. Voice chat through Google Talk. I recently bought a headset, and I’m working on setting that up. If you have Google Talk and a headset, you can talk to me over the internet without (hopefully) paying expensive phone bills.
4. Snail mail, if you so desire. I’ll notify you with my terrestrial address once I’ve settled into the University.

Now, another matter. To chronicle my adventures in Europe, I’m setting up a blog. It is currently in its infancy, but it will be the place where I will put all further updates, announcements, and news. You can find the blog at http://cageofmonkeys.blogspot.com/

Also, I have bought a new camera for my trip, and I know that you all will want pictures. Pictures will be going up at my Picasa webalbum, which can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/zerstorer.von.welten/
This too is in its infancy stages, so bear with me if I have problems with this setup.

Further details of my trip will be going up on my blog soon. I’m also going to include this information there as well.

I hope that this message finds you well and that your summers are unfolding fortuitously.

-John Ashley

Now, on to other details. I will be leaving the US at 4:30pm from O'Hare in Chicago. My flight will arrive at Vienna sometime in the early morning (Vienna time, obviously). From there I take another plane to the airport at Innsbruck, where I board a bus for Salzburg.

Salzburg is an Austrian city most famous in America as the filming location for "The Sound of Music." I will be staying there for five weeks in the four-star Hefterhof hotel, where I will be taking an intensive German refresher course. This means six hours of German every day, from about 9am to 3pm. After the course is complete, I'm probably heading to Munich for Oktoberfest.

Term at the University of Innsbruck starts on October 10. By then I will have moved in to my dorm and gotten appropriately settled. Term goes until January 31, with a break for Christmas. Then I have the month of February for my winter break, which I plan to spend touring around Europe in as much style as I can afford.

Spring term begins March 1. My current date of return (subject to change) is the 6th of June 2009.

Further updates regarding the study abroad program or anything else will come as they come.

-JA