diff --git a/jrnl/Journal.py b/jrnl/Journal.py
index 60be81ff..a95207f5 100644
--- a/jrnl/Journal.py
+++ b/jrnl/Journal.py
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # encoding: utf-8
 
-import Entry
+try: from . import Entry
+except (SystemError, ValueError): import Entry
+import codecs
 import os
 import parsedatetime.parsedatetime as pdt
 import re
@@ -14,8 +16,9 @@ import readline, glob
 try:
     from Crypto.Cipher import AES
     from Crypto.Random import random, atfork
+    crypto_installed = True
 except ImportError:
-    pass
+    crypto_installed = False
 try:
   import pyreadline as readline
 except ImportError:
@@ -63,6 +66,8 @@ class Journal(object):
 
     def _decrypt(self, cipher):
         """Decrypts a cipher string using self.key as the key and the first 16 byte of the cipher as the IV"""
+        if not crypto_installed:
+            sys.exit("Error: PyCrypto is not installed.")
         if not cipher:
             return ""
         crypto = AES.new(self.key, AES.MODE_CBC, cipher[:16])
@@ -78,6 +83,8 @@ class Journal(object):
 
     def _encrypt(self, plain):
         """Encrypt a plaintext string using self.key as the key"""
+        if not crypto_installed:
+            sys.exit("Error: PyCrypto is not installed.")
         atfork() # A seed for PyCrypto
         iv = ''.join(chr(random.randint(0, 0xFF)) for i in range(16))
         crypto = AES.new(self.key, AES.MODE_CBC, iv)
@@ -90,14 +97,14 @@ class Journal(object):
     def make_key(self, prompt="Password: "):
         """Creates an encryption key from the default password or prompts for a new password."""
         password = self.config['password'] or getpass.getpass(prompt)
-        self.key = hashlib.sha256(password).digest()
+        self.key = hashlib.sha256(password.encode('utf-8')).digest()
 
     def open(self, filename=None):
         """Opens the journal file defined in the config and parses it into a list of Entries.
         Entries have the form (date, title, body)."""
         filename = filename or self.config['journal']
         journal = None
-        with open(filename) as f:
+        with codecs.open(filename, "r", "utf-8") as f:
             journal = f.read()
         if self.config['encrypt']:
             decrypted = None
@@ -174,7 +181,7 @@ class Journal(object):
         journal = "\n".join([str(e) for e in self.entries])
         if self.config['encrypt']:
             journal = self._encrypt(journal)
-        with open(filename, 'w') as journal_file:
+        with codecs.open(filename, 'w', "utf-8") as journal_file:
                 journal_file.write(journal)
 
     def sort(self):
diff --git a/jrnl/__init__.py b/jrnl/__init__.py
index b1116eed..a450d39f 100644
--- a/jrnl/__init__.py
+++ b/jrnl/__init__.py
@@ -12,5 +12,5 @@ __author__ = 'Manuel Ebert'
 __license__ = 'MIT License'
 __copyright__ = 'Copyright 2013 Manuel Ebert'
 
-from jrnl.Journal import Journal
-from jrnl.jrnl import cli
+from . import Journal
+from . import jrnl
diff --git a/jrnl/install.py b/jrnl/install.py
index ca83b8de..acb519a9 100644
--- a/jrnl/install.py
+++ b/jrnl/install.py
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@ import getpass
 try: import simplejson as json
 except ImportError: import json
 import os
-import util
+try: from . import util
+except (SystemError, ValueError): import util
+
 
 def module_exists(module_name):
     """Checks if a module exists and can be imported"""
diff --git a/jrnl/jrnl.py b/jrnl/jrnl.py
index 3b88b43e..f19e8da7 100755
--- a/jrnl/jrnl.py
+++ b/jrnl/jrnl.py
@@ -7,10 +7,16 @@
     license: MIT, see LICENSE for more details.
 """
 
-import Journal
-import util
-import exporters
-import install
+try:
+    from . import Journal
+    from . import util
+    from . import exporters
+    from . import install
+except (SystemError, ValueError):
+    import Journal
+    import util
+    import exporters
+    import install
 import os
 import tempfile
 import subprocess
@@ -186,7 +192,7 @@ def cli():
         raw = " ".join(args.text).strip()
         entry = journal.new_entry(raw, args.date)
         entry.starred = args.star
-        print("[Entry added to {0} journal]").format(journal_name)
+        print("[Entry added to {0} journal]".format(journal_name))
         journal.write()
 
     # Reading mode