Vacation Time

So things are sort of boiling down to a countdown of sorts.

Today, I am going to Niederösterreich to see the new summer home of Clara's family.
Tomorrow, I am leaving to see Waltraud and Josha in Munich, Germany, alone by train.
From there, I am taking the train to Kärnten to spend New Years until January 6 with my family in their summer home.
Then January 9 is my birthday.
Then February 13 I'm coming home.

So I have got to fill January up with great things. It'll be a while until I write again but expect great things! Or something.

Happy New Years to everyone, seeing you guys sooner than ever
.
Happy Birthday to:
5. Jan - Shannon
6. Jan - Michelle
7. Jan - Dad
9. Jan - guess
10. Jan - Jenna!
13. Jan - Maddi

you guys are super.

Navigating the Christmas Season

This week in the mail both my host family and I received two separate letters from the AFS Wien office. Both contained a specially written Christmas letter and a bar of Zotter organic fair-trade Austrian chocolate (they're all super proud of it). My letter told me to enjoy being Austrian for the only chance I would probably ever have around the holiday season and not to think on home too much. The letter for my parents told them not to freak out if I got homesick on Christmas and gave them an emergency hotline where AFS could be reached during the festivities if I start going crazy.

So far I haven't been hit very hard with any homesickness. This month in particular I have been more assimiliated than any other month so far and and can deal with so many things in this language and nothing is really even a problem anymore. My host sister has gotten also particularly attatched to me and when we're both home, we're never far. It's really nice. But when I got for instance, the packages from home, or when I read the last email I would get from my real parents until I come home from Christmas break on 6 January, there were small pangs that actually felt more like guilt than actual sadness. Like maybe it's my fault if Christmas is sort of gray for them at home because I'm not there, which was sort of the tone it was written in.
But this happy season of being at home with friends and family, looking back, is not always the ideal, and I've lived through a few of those already. Like the first Christmas without my mom. Or those Christmases when I was younger and relatives couldn't come over because one of the kids got really sick. It's always survivable, and there's always something good about the day that seems to make up for it.

I told my host family that I was doing okay and not feeling sad at all. They shrugged and said "Well, we'll see what you say the 24th."

And on a merrier note, merry Christmas to all you at home. I sent out a batch of Christmas cards last week, so keep your eyes out.

Lots of love, Julie

Adventzeit

December has been really beautiful here so far. Advent is really a special and celebrated time here, which makes me feel really part of it and gives me a sense of belonging sort of, because of how much I really like preparing for Christmas at home.
It all kicked off for me here on the first of December too! Cory and I decided we had wanted to make a Thanksgiving dinner for everyone who had never had Thanksgiving, and he invited about 13 people to his apartment in Alterlaa. We got together earlier in the day to go shopping, and we realized that thirteen people were a lot of people to feed and that Europe sells food in a LOT smaller packaging than in the US. Also the only kind of meat they sold in the entire supermarket... scratch the super... was from a pig. Ham, pork, salamis, usw, was all they sold. It was incredible. Eventually we decided the idea behind Thanksgiving was good health and hanging out with the family or something? And we loaded up on spaghetti. But they don't really sell spaghetti sauce so we bought tomato pulp, or something. I managed to make it taste like spaghetti sauce in the end and I was quite proud. The night was a lot of fun, but around nine I had to leave because Clara had asked me to show up sometime in the evening at her Adventpunsch.
So from Alterlaa to the center of Vienna is 35 minutes if one is lucky. From my station I walked the kilometer or so to Clara's apartment, and rang the bell, happy to make it before it was finally over. But there was no answer.
So I waited, and rang again, and called Kerstin, who informed me that Clara had a SECOND apartment, four blocks away if one goes in a straight line. But I didn't know I could go in a straight line so I went around in a square, pretty much. Somehow I still managed to get to Clara's house by ten! On the way she called me very sad and said "but you told me you were going to come!" And she was quite pleased to find out I was already underway. That was a lot of fun, and I stayed until about 1 in the morning, when the cantor from my church said she would make sure I got halfway to my house. On the way, we met her son on the street, whom she forced to take me the rest of the way home, even though I insisted not.

The next day, we did not get to sleep so late, because we went to Church in the morning, since our evening was too full to go to Stephansdom for mass in the evening. And afterwards, we went out of Vienna into Niederösterreich to go hiking. By this it meant Kerstin and I would go hiking, since Claudius has a bad knee and Iris has a bad foot. It was cold and super muddy, and my boots were ankle high in mud. Which was sad at the time, since they’re really not meant for hiking. But anyway, it’s something the Austrians try to get in as much as possible. I remember during the Deutschkurs our teacher advised us to beware when our parents said they were going to take us out for a walk in the sun or something, because it tends to be much more vigorous than anyone ever expects. I like it though, Austria is so beautiful so it’s a super place to do it if at all. My host sister Iris is planning to leave our current high school next year, because other public schools in Vienna have better theatre and music programs. In the case of our school, there is no drama (!!!!!!!!! =( sad) and choir and things are just for little kids. One school she would like to go was having a play they sort of wrote by themselves and this night we went to go see it. It was called Hollywood Hotel and was based on Fawlty Towers, the comedy by John Cleese from BBC. It was very funny and well done, so I hope she goes there for school.This was the first night I got to see how important Advent is to my family. We lit the Advent wreath in the living room and we all sang. The next day, we started reading this Christmas story about the donkey that rides Mary to Bethlehem, told from the donkey’s point of view. We read a chapter together every night and light the Advent wreath. It’s super sweet, the kind of Christmases I’m sure all their kids are going to dream about when they’re older.

So the next school week began. On Tuesday the alumni from my school had an evening that ended with the current students displaying musical talents and so on. Clara was playing the flute, so I went, and it was super. It’s weird to be all excited about Christmas time and when someone says “Let’s sing Christmas carols” have them all be something completely different. But some of them are rather pretty, when they don’t sound like really miserable minor key church songs.
Wednesday was the Deutsch Schularbeit. It was the only German exam of the entire semester, and was pretty similar to our finals, without so much material since the semester is only about 2/3 done. It was an essay test that we were given two hours for. I decided beforehand I wanted to write something as well, to see how well my written German is, if not for a grade and if not on the same material my classmates were being tested on. One of the essay topics was to read a short story and to analyze it. I realized I could read the story and understood what the author actually meant by it, and wrote my essay on that. I was done in an hour and mine was much shorter than the others, so I decided to write another story to go along with it. A few days ago we got it back, and while she didn’t grade it for me, she did correct it and everyone in the class applauded for me. Very funny. All in all it wasn’t too bad. I decided maybe I should learn German.
That same afternoon I had my English presentation on Catcher in the Rye, which I sort of messed up, because I realized I had a lot to say about the book, but I couldn’t actually tell you anything about its plot. And I began to speak very fast and I was wondering why everyone was looking at me like they had no idea what I was saying, when I realized, they didn’t. So I tried to get out of there as fast I could after that, haha. I’m guessing my German presentation in January is going to go a lot better.

So, that night was December 5 and we went to Krampusfeier, celebrating the devil Krampus who accompanies St. Nikolaus the day before, and whips the bad children. It was a big party at someone’s office where the dress code was red and black. That’s all that’s really to be said on that.
The AFS Büro had a St. Nikolaus event for all the AFS kids in Wien. Which was like two hours of singing and a guy dressed up like St. Nikolaus came sort of like a party you would go to when you were in Elementary school. But there was food there and friends and that’s always the best part.
My family didn’t actually have St. Nikolaus come to us on the sixth, but the seventh. Their friend Reina from Panama and her two children came over, and my host brother who is actually a professional dress up St. Nikolaus played the role for us. It was very funny and the tradition is pretty much that he comes for the good children with something sort of like a potato sack filled with peanuts, walnuts in the shell, manderins, oranges, lebkuchen (gingerbread?), and chocolates. Reina’s children ended up being really scared but this man with a giant staff and a weird beard and a really strange dress in the living room trying to give them a heavy sack full of stuff, but it was really funny anyway. In normal families, Nikolaus just leaves the goods at the breakfast table.

On Saturday, Heida’s host father turned 50, and her family rented a church hall and invited 150 people. This was a really fun evening for us, Cory, Jordyn, Heida and her liason Hans. I realized that my liason had actually never been in touch with me? Since September? And since my family in the US is actually involved with the Boston chapter of AFS as a liason family I knew if I was actually having problems this is a very bad thing. I sent her a text message, because I found her number on an emergency contact list. Still no word. It’s lucky that I don’t need her, but a shame that I have one less contact. Anyway, I think the birthday was pretty standard Austrian—schnitzel, cakes, one of those crazy German bands with accordians and lederhosen. Heida’s liason told me he wanted to open a ball sometime before he left to go to University in Steiermark, and I offered to with him. He will be in touch if he still needs someone, which is very cool. Me and my balls, as Maddi said, “there is so a Disney movie about that.”

Reina’s family came to us again on Sunday to visit the Waldorf School in Vienna that was having this really gorgeous Advent bazaar, with things handcrafted by the parents. I think Waldorf Schools are only for really talented people, so it was a big deal they were having this bazaar, because it was so beautiful and everything. There were nativity scenes for sell, and handblown glass, and homemade dolls and all the things you can expect from a craft fair.
The next night I went to see Die Walküre, from Wagner’s Ring Cycle. This was FIVE HOURS of opera deliciousness, and also five hours I had to stand. The standing area in the Gallery was PACKED with tourists, all for some reason from Great Britain. I’m sure they were on a tour or something, and happened to go to whatever opera would be playing that night, and didn’t realized it was going to be five hours of EXCELLENCE. So they all left after the first intermission (of two). Florentina and I got autographs after, which is pretty standard with her. She told me she has so many posters from operas that she got autographed, she can’t even fit them all on her walls anymore.

(I should write more often, because when I have to go back further and further I write less and less)

Which brings me to this week, at last. I went to a church with Kerstin on Tuesday to go see handcrafted nativity scenes (Adventkrippeaustellung) and she was super nice to me on this day for some reason, and brought me around to all this really Viennese places I would have never found in the inner city.
Last night Clara had a flute concert and I went with her parents who are really loving and affectionate, which was really nice.
I got the package from my parents this week for Christmas and my birthday, and I have been shopping a few times, but can’t find anything good enough to give my family! I am so stuck. I am leaning in the direction of a really nice dish of some sort, like a teapot or bowl? But they told me in the beginning of the month they really didn’t want anything too nice from me, but I on the other hand want to give them something that says thank you for letting me in? No idea.

Last night we had a party at our house again to celebrate Advent (see a pattern anywhere?) One of the women brought her little boy Johannes who was immediately enamored of me for some reason, and was dragging me around to play with him and asking me a million questions. Some that were really funny happened when he told me my father was home. I told him that Claudius was not my father, and he asked me “Why are you here?” I laughed and told him I have no idea, which my host brother and mother overheard and started dying laughing.
It turns out Johannes was so pleased with me he asked his mother if I could babysit some time and she’s hired me for next Wednesday!

The bell rang, and three periods of working on this is finally finished.

The Ball

Last time I wrote, I was still in bed sick, and so much has gone on since then. My family ended up having me stay home Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, which is the longest I’ve ever stayed out. I wasn’t really sick at all, something I probably would have never stayed home for even a day in the United States (but oh, that’s right, I do work there…) but the priority was mostly that I was healthy for the ball. That sounds like a Disney movie princess thing to do, doesn’t it? Or maybe just someone sort of spoiled. So Wednesday afternoon, my first rehearsal for the ball was at 3. We were supposed to eat at two, but Ferdinand came instead at 2.30, so it ended up being a pretty rushed introduction. Since there wasn’t enough time to walk to Elmayer, Claudius and Dominik took us on the motorcycle and moped, respectively. Elmayer is a really famous, super formal dance school right in the center of Vienna next to the St. Augustin church, where the high masses with the orchestra are, and the same hall where the Vienna Boy’s Choir sings. My dance school, Rueff, is their newest rival because it’s really good dance instruction, except it’s a lot more fun than Elmayer, so most new students go there, ie, me. At Elmayer, for dance class full suits are required for boys and a bit more than just a skirt and sweater, like I wear to Rueff, is required on the girls. Most of the girls I saw there taking dance class were are also sort of wearing skirt and suit sets, if that’s the right way to put it, with a blazer that matched their skirt. At the rehearsal there were only about 20 couples and they arranged us and started making this great big dance, and I was like, well, this is something more than just waltzing. I was still pretty confused as to what it meant that I was opening the ball. When I got home I asked why only 20 couples were going, and my family was like are you serious? There’s going to be hundreds of people there watching you do this in the beginning. And what’s that? You’re in the first row? So everyone will be able to see you most of all.
Oh.
So all this rehearsal nonsense continued every afternoon Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I got a mother of a bruise on my knee from all the rehearsals and having to bow and my knee and things. It’s still there, actually. I got pretty frustrated by non-compatibility of my dance partner and I. He was so tall and it seemed that he always went the opposite way he ought to have gone. Just too langy and too much body to actually be a proper dancer. He was pretty civil though and always walked me home. It wasn’t awkward either because he was one of those people who could talk and talk and talk and talk about things that I probably wasn’t interested in, such as the ÖVP, the conservative party of Austria, or like… actually, I don’t think he talked about anything else.
Thursday was a pretty bad day, as you can imagine, as this was Thanksgiving. We didn’t dance well at rehearsal, and then when I got home at six, my host dad presented me with a 300g bar of Milka Hazelnut cream chocolate, and said this was his Thanksgiving gift to me. He thought we gave gifts like at Christmas, cute. He told me they were happy to have me and he hoped that I didn’t get homesick because there was a huge party going on at home and I was here not doing anything! Of course I hadn’t even remembered it was Thanksgiving, and after that, despite his efforts I got a little teary, but didn’t really do anything about it. We went to go see the worst version of Romeo and Juliet after that. What kind of theatre group has a zombie invasion that eat the corpses after the lovers kill themselves? What kind of show would have Romeo savagely rip apart a watermelon as a symbol for his heart as he kills himself? It was disgusting. When I got home I was eating dinner and then watching my host sister play piano and I was thinking that all these things I do here are just so pretty and I could hardly stand it. I was standing in the kitchen talking to my host dad about something and then all of a sudden I was crying and I didn’t really stop for the rest of the night. My host parents put me to bed and told me they loved me and were glad I was there, which made things okay to wake up the next morning and thereafter. After that midpoint explosion, I think it’s all over for now, because I have a short 2 and a half months left and I can enjoy it without really having to be sad anymore.

Saturday I ended up getting pretty excited as soon as I woke up, for the whole dressing up and looking pretty aspect. My host mother made a bath for me, which was really nice of her, but a bit too cold, and then she curled my hair. However we found I have too much hair, and the whole process of curling my hair was very painful and took much longer than we had anticipated. I know though, that it doesn’t actually HAVE to be painful, since I had my hair curled for prom last year, and that only took a half hour and didn’t hurt a bit. The lady who cuts my hair in the US has so much ease with my hair, and I don’t know why the Friseurrin had so much trouble with it here, and my host mother as well.
Actually, family, I had memories of when I was younger and my mother didn’t allow me to have long hair, because I made her brush it, and I would cry each time she pulled too hard. Haha. Cute.

My friend Clara came over to help me with my hair and all that before I was about ready to go. Most things were finished, but it was very funny and nice to see her.
I got to the Parkhotel Schönbrunn promptly at 5, and was one of the only people there, of course, for at least an hour. What I have finally understood is that Austrians are simply not punctual. Germans are punctual. And to confuse the two is wrong, mostly.
My host brother Dominik’s girlfriend, Eli, was the one running the entire ball. She got there and looked beautiful and Dominik got there as well. Ferdinand got there somewhere in this time as well, and the ball started somewhere after that.

After this point, it’s mostly a blur. It started around 7.30 and went very quickly thereafter. We danced very well, and all that, and then after there was all sorts of other kinds of ballroom dancing in the ballroom upstairs and a disco in the basement. My dance partner kept trying to convince me that the disco was really awesome and tried to drag me down there twice, and both times I hated it, and I told him I was going to do. Oh well. It ended up with him staying down there for the rest of the night and me dancing with my host father or my host brother when I wanted to dance, for real. And that was a lot of fun, because they’re funny people. The whole ball concept was just so beautiful and it was all these beautiful things that make up a magical night and the time flies by and all of a sudden its 2.30 in the morning and you think you ought to go home. I ended up dancing the last waltz with my hostbrother Dominik who dances quite well and told me the whole time that I was also dancing very well and all that. He’s quite sweet to me as a brother, I adore it.

So the week after has been pretty busy! I went to the library a few times and got a giant book that covers the entire Austrian history. It’s quite interesting and it’s also something to do in school. This weekend Cory and I are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at his house for our fellow exchange students who have never had a Thanksgiving before, and that’s quite nice and all that. It’s felt very Christmas-y here the past week, which makes me glad. I went shopping all day yesterday with my host mother for her daughter in Argentina. I can’t afford to buy things and ship them over, so expect Christmas in February. However, I got some ideas of what I wanted those things to be.
Now the question is, what do I do for my host family? Find something here that I learned they like, or get them something I would typically give to my family in the US that they would never find here? Gifts are so awkward, especially for someone who’s doing so much for you.

So all is well for now. I’m looking forward to the beginning of advent, and then Christmas and New Year’s and my birthday! Then it’s only one month more, and it all seems so short from here.

Lots of love, and write me, because then I will write you and I would like to do that…
Julia

Weekend and Krankenfeier

This weekend was Iris's birthday. Friday was a pretty ordinary Friday, I think Cory came over, because it was snowing a ton and he was out in the cold all day. I had dance class and that was well. We're finally learning Wiener walzing and it's about time, since my ball is this Saturday! Ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For Iris's birthday on Saturday we all slept in until noon. The night before her parents took her to see for about the thousandth time (more like 10th or 11th...) to see the musical Rebecca. Claudius taught me how to make schnitzel which I discovered really isn't made out of veal? For the longest time I thought I was eating veal... shows how much I know. It's actually turkey, I think. I'm not really sure if we understood each other when they told me that. Iris didn't want it fried in oil though, she wanted it fried in butter. I had two pieces at lunch and thought my heart might stop. Reina from Panama came first with her children and her only-Spanish-speaking mother. Reina's story is hard to explain and will have to be something told at home. We ate cake, there was a Topfentorte, which is pretty much cheese cake. I don't know why they made it though, since Iris doesn't like it. They made her a nut bread with yogurt and whipped cream and strawberries on top. I ate some of this, sort of interesting. They took Iris to the theatre again that night, and told me to go have fun doing something.

It was also Adriano from Argentina's birthday, and everyone in Vienna got together at the night club Empire. Only a few of them had been there before, but had promised it was amazing. Girls got in for free, but we all had some trouble getting in. Most of us had brought only our school IDs, and when they realized that we were all foreign said we needed passports too? They let us in anyway, but I think that's weird, since we all have either a visa or a resident permit to be here. I was getting really sick for the first time that night and I really didn't enjoy myself and wanted to get out as soon as possible. This turned out harder than I thought, since everyone was going to take the night buses home between 1 and 4, and I wanted to take the subway before it stopped running at half past twelve. However I didn't want to be walking alone a couple of blocks to the station, really weird people about. Cory and Jordyn finally wanted to leave too, but then Cory had to get his coat out of the hat check, and he had to wait behind all the people waiting to go in for fourty minutes. It was packed. Melissa had come upstairs to go home too, and she said she would take me to the subway. It turned out to be a really good idea not to walk alone through Stephansplatz at night.

The next morning I was pretty sick when I woke up. I turned down the invitation to go to the first day of the Christkindelmarkt, which opened all over Vienna on Saturday. It's these wooden stands where they sell crafts and hot punch (with or without rum) and hot chestnuts. There are also really pretty lights and it smells like Christmas. I stayed in bed, and my host paretns came in and told me that maybe some air would make me better, so we went to one of the Christkindelmarkts in the first district. It started snowing while we were outside =) I think this probably is what made me sicker though. While we were in the first district, we visited the apartment where Claudius grew up and his parents still live. It's across the street from a palace apparently, but it all looks like apartments to me. There are a lot of palaces here. I guess I don't have the eyes for them! The apartment was old and smelt like cats, (There were two), but the basement was super cool. It had two floors and it was very old and made of bricks and had awesome ceilings. My host dad told me all the ghost stories that he had seen here. So cool.
His mother makes very good homemade bread and we ate some and salami, and tea that had been made far too strong. It was so funny, watching me Iris and my host mother all pretend to enjoy it. We all went to church at Stephansdom after, which is also old. I realized I've gone to church there more than I have my real church here. Even though it's cold, really really cold, it's cool knowing I'm sitting in a place that's 800 years old. Also the priest gives a sermon thats about 30 minutes long and I never understand any of it, and Austrians bow at all these strange places. Church is church.

There are a lot of tourists around Vienna right now, and lots of Americans. And it's funny, because I don't go a day without hearing someone speak my language natively. But I look at them and I don't feel a bit like them. They're here to enjoy themselves and go home whenever they want to, and I can't. It seems to me like we could be looking at the same exact things and I am seeing something completley different than they are.

I called my Dad and Brian that night for the first time, they were the only ones home. Eric was running the marathon in Philadelphia and Sue was out in LP. Sounds like Thanksgiving is going to be pretty crazy there this year. I'll miss it. I realized what apparently all exchange students are supposed to realize. Home is always going to be there, and things will always have some kind of normalness there. Right now I am not supposed to be there, I am supposed to be here. And that's okay, because after only a little bit, I'm going right back to that old place. And in the meantime, it's pretty great here. I told my host family that, and they told me they had been waiting for me to say something like this and that they were really glad.

So, Monday I went to Math for the first period. Then, I was sent home by my friends and my math teacher. They all said I looked horrible. My host sister called my host dad and signed me out. This made me worried because I had sort of gotten in the way, but everyone was so nice to me and didn't scold me for anything. My host dad set up a table next to my bed and made me drink two pots of greek mountain herbal tea. I couldn't taste anything, and apparently that was a good thing. After a while I really couldn't sleep anymore, and I found catcher in the rye on the bookshelves. In English. I read that in about two hours, and then my host mother found out I was sick and brought me home 4 copies of Newsweek international from her school. I am also not allowed to go to school today, even though I feel fine. They keep telling me being sick should be lovely and it should be a krankenfeier, a party of sickness.

The good news is that I have a dance partner for the ball this weekend. His name is Ferdinand? I meet him tomorrow, because there are three rehearsals for this ball. Ohhhh my god. At least I will know my date a little before I go, but still. We'll see how it goes though?

Until next time, xo julia

A post with a whole lot of things

It's been a while since I wrote, but things had sort of been at a standstill I didn't really know what to do with myself for the past couple of weeks. Then today suddenly, I just started feeling like myself again. It's probably because I got to be with my friends and just sort of spilled everything and heard that I'm actually not alone in being stuck 4000 miles away from home and looking for a way to make oneself in a completely different place.



It's snowing here right now, and I think it will for the rest of the weekend. It's real lovely, considering how it was such a winter last year where we got NO snow whatsoever. This is also the second time it snowed, and the first time, I took photos from my bedroom window, Schau. I got real excited about this small dusting, even though it was gone by noon. And as a note, my apartment buidling is the middle one between two others. So we have no direct street access, and a view to a courtyard on both sides. Not bad I think, because it's very quiet at night and I don't have to listen to traffic when I try to sleep. Today I finally convinced myself that I do actually need all the winter things I needed to buy that I had been putting off. For instance, boots. I never actually used them in the states, but it's really slippery here when it snows, and I hate going everywhere with my jeans all wet. So I got the hat and scarves and gloves and boots I need, at deadly expensive prices, but the best I could find for Vienna.

So in a couple of weeks I'll be going to my first ball. I'm horribly nervous. I got the dress, borrowed from my host brothers girlfriend. It's white, and I told them I would get my own dress, and wear it for prom next year. However, the ball I will be going to is super formal, and you have to wear white. Now this is one reason why I'm nervous. The second is that I am very amateur at dancing. These balls are real dancing, and I have hardly learned the Wiener Waltz yet, and I know only the real basic and very slow steps that are just the beginning to all other ballroom dances. The third and biggest reason is that I do not know who my date will be. The family has gone crazy calling all male relativess who can dance. And finding someone will not be a problem. It is just certain I will be going with a stranger. I was horribly nervous to go to prom last year with someone I knew very well, and where I didn't actually have to dance for real. Americans don't dance. Speaking of which, last year Paris Hilton went to a really famous ball here for New Years, and it was a huge deal and they aired it on TV, where the Austrians found her horribly bored and she left early because she disliked it so much. I had a good laugh at this.

My host mothers birthday was last week, and we celebrated it four times. The first was the acutal birthday at her house with the family. I drew her a really nice card, spent two hours in art class drawing it that day. Then on Saturday we reorganized the house and made a huge meal and about 20 people came for an open house that day. The maid (Bla... i hate having a maid, not joking) came and ran the kitchen. I ended up going out with my friends, because with so many people, I really don't know what's going on, and no one really wants to explain everything to me. Sunday we went out to her sister's apartment for lunch, and then we had a dinner at home in the evening for her. It was Martinitag on Sunday, feast day of saint Martin. This means all Austrians eat goose. It was the first time I ate goose, and I don't reckon it's something I'll be having again. It's really greasy. They dared to compare it to Thanksgiving, but I have to say no. No one understands Thanksgiving! It's just special.

I've been working on getting closer to my host family the past couple of weeks. I stayed in a lot to spend time with them instead, which may have been the reason I was feeling off. Even though I was feeling happy and liked by them, there's something else that you need friends for. I'm not sure I really ever properly wrote about them. My host mom is pretty strict about running her house, but that's understable. She's an english and history teacher at a technical school, which is not the best subjects of all the students. She also makes an effort to explain things to me when we're at the table, and once you get her to laugh she can be pretty easy going. My host dad engineers cranes. I don't actually know what he does, but he makes us really good food, he's an awesome cook. He's very affectionate and loving, and I can tell he's one of those people who has to be loved by everyone. For instance, I know he hates cats, but when someone has a pet cat, he wants it to pay attention to him and pets it the entire time we're visiting. He is very sarcastic and loves to play on words and make puns. He speaks very heavy Vienesse, but I consider it an accomplishment of mine to have such good understanding with him. My host brother Dominik is not really home a lot, and spends him time with university where he studies applied physics and with his girlfriend Eli. He's a pretty typical older brother, and strictest with his younger sister Iris, (hi Eric!) and really enjoys teasing. My host family is always calling him Trottel (idiot) or saying he's blöd... I guess that means dumb, but it can also mean like, bull, or I have no idea. I've heard it used a lot of ways. He went to Australia with AFS. Jakob is the second and teases a lot as well, and especially me. He makes fun of the way I phrase things, and asks me dumb questions. Nonetheless I've gotten to know him better lately. I was the most shy towards him because I didn't like being picked on, and because he's fairly hard to understand. But I tried just telling him random things and he ended up being really understanding. He went to Panama with AFS. Iris is the youngest, and turns 14 this weekend. She's a musical fanatic, and also loves reading and not eating a lot and other things 14 year old girls are interested in. She can be a pretty typical youngest sibling and gets her way so often and that is such a weird age to live. She's very affectionate and loving and is only just beginning to open up to me. She misses her sister Clarissa in Argentina dearly, and Iris considers her her best friend.

I went to see Fidelio this weekend with Florentina and my host sister. It is my favorite opera so far, but maybe because it was in German. It was real cool to understand some things they were singing. I saw Americans here, and let me tell you, I really don't feel like them anymore. I used to want to always talk to tourists and ask where they're from and so on, but now, not at all. I see them and I think there is so much they don't know, and I can't even describe it. I don't feel better than them or anything, I just feel like I have an entirely different perspective on the world than they would.

I am getting fairly closer with Clara, and have met with her a few times in the past couple of weeks. Her grandfather got very sick, and I think he is now recovering. I told her she could always call on me when she needed something, which she took dearly. Her mother is also really fond of me which is nice, because she is one of those people who gets very excited in the company of people she likes. I went to church a few times with Clara, she's really involved with the youth group and altar serving (my church has over 80 altar servers..). I met some people at a youth group there, they're a bit younger but that's all right

I had a big math test monday, there were six problems and I got two right. My math teacher went crazy praising me for taking the test in the first place and even translated it for me. The english was spotless, and I later found out her husband writes international math text books. She is so cute. She has a heavy Wiener dialect as well. For instance instead of saying "Was?" (what?) with a long a, she says it with an o. and instead of pronouncing "wunderbar" as vun-der-bar, she'll say voon-der-bar. I don't know if you can hear the difference but there is. I got an A on my English test too. Surprise! I actually did make some mistakes though, so that was cool.

I know I've been a bit short lately and not really keeping in touch, but I think I just got through a rough period. Things are looking up from here defintely with the holidays around the corner. I feel optimistic, and thats a good thing.

Half time for me is in two weeks. I can't believe it.

Kärnten Photos

Speaking of Kärnten, here are the photos I took there.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002809&l=60a35&id=1232670085

Right then. Just go there.

Things I Have Learned to Like, Things I Have Learned to Miss

The Things I've Learned to Like

• heavy brown bread
• mostly vinegar, then salt and oil on salad
• black currant syrup with water -- "juice"
• Butte tea, but ONLY with lemon. (It's red and bitter tea...hard to explain. It has a particular smell)
• herbs in all the food, the salt "Kräutersalz", etc.
• wearing house shoes. yes. birkenstocks. yes, with socks.
• turning the water off when I'm taking a shower
• shopping
• taking the subway
• duvets
• 3 meals a day, with the main at 2.30 after school
• writing letters by hand
• Speaking German ;)
• the fake euro kiss
• scarves
• the way europeans write their numbers
• reading their version of cursive. what a feat...
• running up three flights of stairs at once
• open windows for fresh hair
• Schlagobers. Homemade whipped cream without sugar

Things (not people) I've learned to Miss

• when I could spend a lot of time alone in my bedroom and have no one think that was a big deal
• a little bit of mess in a house
• the hardwood floors in my house for some reason
• knowing how far away things are. clueless about km!
• Thanksgiving
• doing my own laundry and having a dryer
• hugs
• saying I love you
• SCHOOL
• having a kitchen big enough for people to be in
• knowing how much I weigh, what sizes I wear, etc
• being articulate and being treated like an adult
• cheese that doesn't smell very, very, very strong
• the threatre. I can see as much as I want here, but I can't participate
• optional sports (as opposed to compulsary)
• my stereo
• inside jokes
• my family's cars
• not having enough time to breathe

Herbstferien & Kärnten & Schularbeit

Well it's been a while, but I was away and then school started on Monday and all the craziness that comes with that ensued. It turns out we didn't leave to Kärnten until Thursday. It's not the first time I've mixed Dienstag and Donnerstag up. Oh well.
One thing I can't get clear is the Austrian perception of time. I was told they were very prompt people, and like things to always be on time. However, whenever my host mother tells me to do something like a chore, it's expected to be done immediatley. That's in order. But when she suggests I do something like take a walk and I go to put my jacket on, she'll look at me surprised like, "What? Now?" The reason why I bring this up is that I was all ready to go to Kärnten on Thursday morning bright and early after church. It was a Catholic holy day of obligation apparently (I guess that's whats why we always celebrated All Saint's day at BSS. Way to be on top of things, Julie) and we went to a really famous 600 year old church called St. Augustin. We heard Mozart's music for a High Mass, though its name escapes me right now. I'd never been to a high mass before. They are really, really long.
But no one else in my family was ready. And they weren't ready until 4. If there was nothing for me to help with, I would sit down and write a little, (I know I don't have time to write my November Novel, I know I'm in Austria, but I want to. It's like a habit), and my family would look at me and say "You should finish getting ready". But I was already finished. I think it is good that I make an effort to never hold them up because I know that would be just plain... I don't know.
My friend Clara is here reading this as I write, and she says that with my family it is especially different. They always take the time to talk and everything, and there's so many of them in the first place that it doesn't always coordinate. So anyway.
The drive to Kärnten from Vienna was 4 hours long. We drove through Niederösterreich and Steiermark to get there. Here is a map. See if you can find it. I think if you click it, it will be big enough to see. Our house was right near Villach. I know there is another student from AFS USA who lives in Villach, but I never got any of her contact information. It was a really beautiful drive through the Alpen forelands. It was the first time, I realized, I was seeing acutal mountains. The kind with peaks and snow and stuff at the top. I found them absolutely stunning, I can't even explain what it was like. And we weren't even in the real alps yet, it was just the beginnings of them. Around seven or so, we stopped in this town that was built in the Middle Ages and we climbed to the top of the hill to look at a castle and church ruin. It was really amazing, there are so many stars once you are out of the city. You could see all the constellations, but what was more you could see all the stars that are kind of stuck between and inside them. It was a lot more than I had ever seen. And the sky was really, really, black. I can't really think of how to explain much more. I found the castle and church kind of spooky. My host sister was going in and out of them, and I was so freaked out that it was so old and so dark. Oh ghosts.

So the house in Kärnten was actually a house. This was a surprise to me for some reason. I guess I was expecting something like a cabin. But it was so much bigger than the apartment in Vienna and it was a fairly normal house, as houses go. The walls were white and the floors were wood, sort of like my house in Walpole, and honestly, probably about the same size. The only difference was that it was really cold because the heat was off. We went to sleep once we got in, because it ended up being about 10. We stayed in Ye Olde town quite late eating and and looking around.

So the next day we met Kerstin's sister and kids and we all took a walk around some part of Kärnten. We've done that a few times since I've been here, get in the car and drive somewhere to take a walk. I find that funny. Kerstin's sister was hosting a 13 year old girl from Paris while we were there. After we went to go eat strudel at their house, which was also really, really, old and probably the biggest house I've been in here. We were only going to stay there a little while, and by that they meant 3 and a half hours. See what I mean about perception of time? We played a game all in English, because Paris didn't understand German and we don't know French. My host sister got the oppurtunity to speak to me for the first time in English, and now she has been asking her parents if she can talk to me in English to which we both answer no.

That night I met Kerstin’s parents for the first time. They were very nice and we ate a lot and until very late in the night. They were just back from France. They divide their time between a place in France, a place in Salzburg, a place in Kärnten and a place in Vienna. The grandfather insisted I drink wine with them, which was the first time it happened here. I think teenagers drinking at the table is something oldfashioned, because women and children, basically, aren't even offered something at most dinner parties I've been to. He also made me eat this weird liver stuff on bread. Can I name my dislike here for liver? They really like liver. After dinner they read out loud the letter from their daughter in Argentina

The next morning I took a walk out by myself to the small town Ossiach. The weather was fairly good, bitterly cold , but enough sun to warm you up when you start moving. There is a really beautiful church in the center of town, and it was nice to go down to the shore to see the lake up close. We met Kerstin's sister and her parents again this day at the really big old house. Again there was more eating and playing games with Paris and going home really late. Then they read outloud the letter from their daughter again.

The next morning when we were getting ready to leave is when I began to enter my down period. Kerstin called me out for not joining in on conversation at the table, and then as we were getting ready to leave I did some things the wrong way, etc etc. I guess there are periods when it bothers me more than others when I mess up, and I think its the same for them. There are periods when they're probably thinking "Why can't she just get it right the first time?"

This mostly lasted until yesterday when I talked to my friend Clara at school about it. Things are slowing down here. Its the beginning of the third month, and nothing is really going on anymore except for school, where I do very little in the first place, and the weather is too cold to be outside all the time. Ah well, everything is good during December, we came to the conclusion. There is a LOT going on Vienna during the season, and I'm eager.

Today I had my first test. They take tests four times a year here, and my first one was actually English. We had to write two essays and it said at the bottom "Minimum 600, maximum 800" So I thought, okay, 600 per essay. No. Wrong. So now I have 1200 words and I didn't really finish the second. The second was about black civil rights, and I went into detail starting after the Civil War. That made me miss US History AP, and I am pretty excited to go back to that class in February. AP Weenies!

That's about it. I'll post something with links to photos. (I upload them five at a time. Painful!)

Baba, alles gute, write me. xo julia

My Crisis

Yesterday I left my house at noon to meet Cory in Stephansplatz to help him buy new shoes. He really needed new shoes, my God. I realized I probably had ought to buy my public transportatoin pass, since AFS reimburses us for this anyway. I stopped by an ATM and put in my card and code and money order, and everything was normal. It said it was processing my money order when a red box jumped up and said, "Money order cancelled. Card is being retained."
I stood there in shock for a couple of minutes, walked up and down the street a few times, but then decided to stay at the ATM in case it decided to spit out my card at any second. But it didn't. I called my host brother stumbling over German trying to explain what was happening, but I noticed I was starting to panic and that half the words I was saying were in English. He happened to be out on his moped on the same street as I was, and saw me, and came to me. He understood then what happened and told me not to worry, that it wasn't really a big deal. He called the number on the ATM and I thought, good, maybe it was just a bug, and they can get it back to me.
After he hung up, he told me my credit card number had been put on an international "black list" and that I was going to have to call VISA in the USA to figure out what had happened.
I got home and started to get all worked up. I've noticed any tendency I had towards overreacting is magnified 100x here. I am guessing because all my energy every moment is pushed towards the edge working on understanding and communicating, and then something happens and it all gets pushed over. I called VISA and realized I didn't actually know the number on my card because it wasn't the same as my bank account number. She apologized to me for losing my card in a foreign country and wished me the best and connected me to Bank of America, where the hotlines were still closed.
I got in contact with my parents, calling them for the first time since I've been here. I ended up taking away their Saturday morning with sorting everything out for me. Thank you again guys, I would have never figured out any of that myself.

The problem was that my ATM card was only a temporary and was only valid for 30 days. I've been using it from the end of August to yesterday, with my problem only being yesterday. I'm guessing VISA decided to block the number learning that it was invalid, but being a big company and everything, was sort of late. A new card had arrived for me a month ago in the States, and my Dad is going to send it rushed here.

I still have to go to the Bank on monday and ask for my card back. I am hoping someone there can speak English, because it seems risky for me to talk about say, my identity and my money, when there is still such a high level of misunderstanding in simple day to day life.

Anyway, I survived. I went to see La Traviata last night, which was wonderful, and I am leaving for my vacation in Kärnten on Tuesday still. That's all, take care.

Picture

Oh yes, my school portraits came in! Who wants one?

Some stories from the week

A few more things from this week that I didn't write about last time

• I was in a yarn store near my house on Wednesday thinking of new things to knit. I was standing at a box trying to decide upon the green or the pink to match the colors I was getting, and then behind me there was an Americantourist couple. They asked me very slowly if they could look in the same box, and I responded "Oh yeah, no problem" without even thinking. The woman turns to her husband shocked and says, "My goodness, listen to that English!" I laughed and told her I was from Boston. I could hear behind us in German the store owner was talking to the regular old ladies at the store making fun of the couple, because the husband was wearing the traditional mens hat, except completley the wrong way. The storeowner then wanted to give the woman knitting advice, so I was a go between for them! I felt really good about the German I was using and that I could be helpful about it. I was sort of embarrassed by the awkwardness of their American habits, (like talking REALLY loud in a small space) but whatever, thats really small. End story.
  
• I went on Wednesdsay night to my friend Clara's flute concert! She plays AMAZINGLY. The kids who performed on piano and violin and so on were also extremely talented for their age, in my opinion, and I really enjoyed it. I met Clara's parents who were very kind and touched that I had wanted to see Clara perform. They took me out to eat some Italian with them after, and I got to know them. They wanted to know why I hadn't been over to their house to visit yet. I realized this evening that Clara is also pretty lonely and feeling the effects of an exchange, because her best friend is in Argentina. So really, we are having a similiar experience because I am missing my own best friends and my family so much. I thought for a while she was being kind to me because she knows my family so well, but I realize she acutally needs someone to hang out with as well.

And on that note, today is the National Holiday in Austria, and i am going with Clara's family to the Art History museum. =)

I'm feeling pretty good here as of this week, but of course I think often of home and I am wondering still what is going on in everyone's lives.

I should go, take care, and keep in touch please!

All sorts of things...

Well my week was not particularly Austrian, so I didn’t feel the need to write about it last week. I actually hung out every day of the week with an AFS person in some way. It was all the same people except one day I went out with a girl from Thailand called Anchalin. She’s crazy cool and really loves to shop.
Friday I had dance school again, though for the first time alone. Deirdre from USA quit the Friday class, because she wanted to be social on Fridays. However, I found this was actually a lot better for me and talked to a lot of my dance partners who were really cool, and I started talking to this random girl who was sitting alone. She sort of attached herself to me for the night and next class we’re meeting earlier. She doesn’t have any friends at the dance school because she comes from another district and she started a year late. And I’m the random American. I always surprise random people when they ask “Where are you from?” “Boston, USA” “Bwah! I didn’t expect it to be that far!”
As a note, they saw something like bwah instead of wow. I’ve caught myself saying it a few times. Oh dear.
I went to a locale called Bricks with everyone on Saturday night for Livia from Brazil’s birthday. Before, some of us went to Cory’s apartment and his host mother made some good tasting meat thing and really good mashed potatoes. The few times I’ve eaten at other Austrian’s houses, the food is so rich and delicious. I guess it’s a good thing I’m with a really healthy family because I am not gaining the extra weight that would have ordinarily happened. Brick’s was a lot of fun, though I left fairly early because I had a half hour of public transport back, and being alone on the public transport isn’t dangerous, since Vienna has a fairly low crime rate, however, I still don’t like to be alone. I’m glad I live in the exact center and get to take the really good subway lines. Think about the Orange Line in Boston. You wouldn’t be caught on that in the daylight either. Some of my friends have to take the Vienna equivalent late at night back to their houses, so I am very grateful for another reason for my location.
Sunday I was forced into participation in a Talent Show with AFS. For the past week, Cory and I were practicing doing a horrible job at Hey There Delilah from Plain White T's, cause it seemed exchange studenty and its about the US too haha. However when we got there, we found out talent was required, and everyone knew the song and asked if they could join us, so there were about six of us performing. Funny.
Umm, oh yes. I know Dad will love this because I know how much he loves heights. In Sport class the other day, we went rock climbing and I ended up really loving it. There was a 16 meter wall (4 or 5 stories, I remember counting the windows as I went up) though my partner on the ground got too nervous and only let me go about eight meters. Now my host family is all excited because they think there is finally something athletic I like and are asking me if I want to take a rock climbing course, and wouldn’t it be so great etc.
I made an apple strudel yesterday!!! It was delicious.
In English class right now, for the past month we have been studying black people. It’s so bizarre, it started out as the civil rights movement, and now we are plain studying black people. Such as living conditions, and why they are poorer, in prison more, have more teenage pregnancies than whites in America. The thing that strikes me about it is that we wouldn’t so blatantly study black people in America. It’d be considered so politically incorrect. Accompanying this study we are watching the film Boyz in da Hood.
Tonight I am going to a music school to see my friend Clara from school play flute in a concert.
Tomorrow is the last day of school before vacation. Cory and Jordyn are coming over, and then we are going to Bricks. Friday is the National Holiday and the Austrian Parlament is open for the day for free. Saturday I am going to La Traviata, and Tuesday I am leaving for Kärnten

Alles gute,
Julia

Niederösterreich -- Second Arrival Camp

This weekend AFS had Second Arrival Camp in Neu-Nagelberg, Niederösterreich. It was about two hours away by train, and our youth hostel was right next to the border to the Czech Republic. Good...
It was really nice to get away from my host family for a weekend. Does that sound weird? I mean it to say, it was refreshing and re-encouraging. In a sense. There were a lot of parts this weekend, especially when the AFS-veterans were speaking to us, I was thinking "Oh my God, I am not doing a good job at being Austrian or an exchange student." But I think they were trying to make us feel this way, because they want us to work harder. Or something..

So we all met at the train station in Vienna at 16.30 on Friday. We got to the youth hostel pretty late, and we went outside in the dark and played random circle games. The entire camp was run by no one older than 20. It was mostly Austrians who had done a year in South America, and since mostly South Americans live in Vienna, you can imagine it was mostly spanish. Mostly a group of English mother speakers and those who speak neither German or Spanish huddled together, but then we would get disbanded because of speaking English. And then the leaders would go back and speak Spanish, and we would slowly start speaking English once more.
Anyway, we learned some childrens games in German in the dark, and then we went inside and drank some really bad soup. Then, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, it turns out one of the South Americans brought a bunch of music, so we all crammed into this absolutely tiny hostel bedroom and danced until 1 am. It was so much fun! The south americans told me I could dance really well, which was cool. Maybe it is because everyone else was too self concious to go ahead and do it, but I did! A boy called Felipe who doesn't speak English well taught me this Argentinian swing dance. The only thing we say to each other is "Felipe, Bitte!" or "Julia, bitte!" and then we do that fake Euro kiss on both cheek goodbye thing...
Speaking of which, I am totally pro at that now. I can pretend to kiss people's cheeks hello and goodbye like nobody's business.

The bad thing about this party was that we had to wake up really early to play more games on Saturday. After breakfast and games, we broke off into groups by language. I volunteered myself for the German group. There were only four others. Of the 30 kids who live in Vienna, only four know enough German to participate in a conversation. The leaders of the camp were really shocked by this. Whenever they yelled at us for speaking English they would say, "In America, the German and Austrian kids would speak English together even though they had the same mother language! You are here to speak German, so speak it!"
Unfortunately my group had a degree of unpleasantness to it, because one would just talk and talk the entire time and no one really wanted to listen. We were supposed to talk about my problems, and somehow I had a lot. For instance, being graded in math, having a mother in the house, continuing a relationship during my exchange, and the biggest: being a replacement daugther/sister/classmate. I guess I never really thought of how hard it is to be here, but I think that's a good thing. Because I am always enjoying myself, and if you are constantly thinking of the difficulty involved, it leaves no room to believe: "hey, I am having a lot of fun right now"
My dad wrote me a very wise email that said "I am constantly surprised by how people here tend to think of your trip so glamourously. There is so much work involved in living in a new culture." He's right, but I'm not trying to preach about how noblely self sacrificing I'm being. But what this really is, is creating a new home for yourself somewhere. I was sitting on the U-Bahn today and I was like, wow, this is normal. I know how to connect to the next line and I know how to get home, and I recognize exactly where I am. There is nothing foreign about it. And really, that is the whole purpose of this experience.
And only after six weeks!

We went walking in the woods and I talked more with Jordyn about our problems. (This is beginning to sound more like a support group for some kind of severe condition...) I ended up feeling really down for most of the afternoon. This was my first time in the Austrian country side and forests, and oh my goodness, they are really beautiful. There is green moss all over the ground where we walked and it was really squishy to walk in. The trees were a lot of evergreens and there were many wild flowers. I even saw a Butte plant, which is this weird fruit that they take the seeds from in fall a brew a tea out of it. This tea is one of the things initially I REALLY disliked about my diet, but now I just take it when I have to and don't even taste it anymore. Another fine example of this is salad, which they cover in like 1 part oil and 3 parts vinegar. Ick...

ANYWAY, that night, I don't really remember what but we were all sitting in Cory's room, and I ate all of his haribo, so today I had to buy him some more. Jordyn was trying to teach us how to speak with a New Zealand accent and say "I drove in my car to Auckland." Auckland is really hard to say. Don't even try, because you'll be wrong. Cory can say "Get in the chopper now" in a really amazing Arnold Schwarzenegger voice. (PS-- Austrians don't really have an accent like this). There was another party in the South American room, but we didn't feel like going. I ended up crashing pretty early. I got to know kind of a girl from Thailand who I really liked though, so that was good.

Sunday we mostly wrapped up wirth more games and group discussions. I got home at around 6 or 7 all by myself, which I find amazing. I can take a train two hours away into the city and then the subway to my house and my host family doesn't even have to do anything. I just come when I want! I don't know why this strikes me so much, probably because Kevin or my dad drive me everywhere I need to go back home.

Monday night the AFS people met in a cafe at night in this slightly shady part of Vienna. There were about 35 people there, since many veterans came. It was fun, but I can't think of anything to write about it. It was just a party, I suppose!
Tuesday was a tour for us of the Rathaus (town hall) and then we went out to ice cream after, because it was Livia's birthday. A boy from Japan, Kosei, who is kind of our pet, got lost and had to call me, but didn't know enough English or German that he could understand that he should stay where he is, and that I would come find him. That was frustrating. I ended up leaving early anyway, because my host brother and his girlfriend Eli took me to the English theatre. We saw this really sarcastic two man musical about a woman who thinks she has the most beautiful voice in the world, but everyone actually hates it and comes to laugh at her. It was called Souvenir, and I ended up crying a lot at the end. I'm crazy.

Other points of interest is I finally learned how to weigh myself in kilograms. I am not becoming another fat student (ha, AFS) but I have in fact lost five pounds. Probably because I don't remember the last time my family ate meat.

School vacation for a week comes after next week, and then I am going to Kärnten in the mountains by a lake in my family's vacation house!! I am so excited.

That's all, keep in touch. Baba.

//fake euro kiss.

Another week in Austria (Surprised?)

It's been an interesting week so far.
Monday was sort of a turning point for me too, because I went out with my friend Clara from school. There's a really big pub, I suppose you could call it, nearby called Tunnel. In the basement (Keller) there's jazz music I've heard, and then the first floor is noisy pub style, and then we had a small party on the second floor which is just like a restaurant cause its quieter.
It was Clara's cousins 24th birthday, so she had her friends and invited her younger cousin for some reason. Clara thought it would be a good experience for me to meet a bunch of people I didn't know and to speak with them in German.
Since it was Monday, I only stayed out till 11, but that was a lot longer than I expected to stay. I was really dreading going, but I actually enjoyed myself. Clara and I had Apfelsaftgespritzer, which is just like the sparkling apple juice we drink at Thanksgiving and stuff, except without sugar and 100% juice.
The best part was meeting these people who thought I was just another Austrian, and then them finding out I was still learning German. One of the guys there guessed I was from Ireland because he said I had a very interesting accent he couldn't quite place his finger on. But he had spent some time in Ireland and said I looked like them. When he found out I was from Boston, he said, oh that explains it, because there are so many Irish there. In Boston you must have a sort of Irish dialect, right?
I didn't really know how to explain it but I explained how most of the country has the impression we don't say the letter R.
So that was Monday. So much fun =)

Tuesday I went shopping with Jordyn and Heida on Mariahilferstrasse. This is exactly as it sounds. It is a giant street with many, many shops. There are 4 H&Ms on the street, I disovered, when the girls told me to meet them there. It took a long time to find them.
Well, not really shopping, although I let myself get something I really liked at H&M. I figured that made up for a month of only spending money on registrations and post and a few other necessary things.

Wednesday I started assigning myself writing in German. Because I was sort of bored, and I am writing a lot in English. I went to Libro and got a notebook (in A4 size, because I think the bigger paper is so funny. I wrote a 160 word composition about fall.
Later that night Kerstin said I had to go with her to Turnverein which is an exercise club which meets up at different places every day. I had to! I couldn't believe I was being made to. And of course I really really really didn't like it.
But I got the idea that maybe she thinks I am lazy? She is shocked when she heard I didn't play any sports. I mean, I walk everywhere here and I am stronger than I have been in my entire life. But athletics are simply not fun, which is so different in her opinion and I think most Austrians. They don't care that you aren't that good, they just think that it's fun.
Blah. I hope I don't have to go again. It's not awesome watching really old ladies with the biggest biceps on someone their age I have ever seen running around with 1kg weights...

Today I am going to go to the park after this. Kerstin isn't around for three days or so, but this weekend I am going to AFS camp in Niederösterreich. I don't really know what this involves, but we are staying in a youth hostel.

That's about it really. See you around.

A Bad Day, Dance School, and a really big family...

I noticed here bad days can get really blown out of proportion and can happen over nothing. The thing is, once you start not feeling so good, it automatically makes you assume it's because you're in Austria and that it would never happen in the United States. And all you want to do is go home and suddenly, even though it isn't that long of a stay here, it seems like forever until coming home.
The truth is, bad things happen no matter where you are, and I believe that's part of the reverse culture shock of coming back home to USA. You see once again all these things you were looking forward to, and then you realize you have romanticized these things when you were homesick. We will have to see!

Last week in math she was teaching (and still is...) this really advanced geometry that I couldn't find an english explanation anywhere I looked. So my homework was completely wrong and she makes a big todo about it in front of the entire class, about how I am supposed to ask for help when I needed it and so on. The rest of the class also has no idea whats going on, and they look at me helplessly and say, I can't clarify in german or english. sorry.
By the end of the hour, I put my head down on the desk and sighed. My friend Clara started to soothe me, which of course made me cry. Of course!
Surprisingly, no one in the class made fun of me. In fact, everyone sort of came to me then and was like "Hey Julia, it's not so bad. We know its really hard for you and its so unfair that she expects you to do better than us. Don't worry about it"

Hopefully my host brothers will be able to clarify, because they are math and physics majors. Naturually, being over 20, they are almost never home.

---

SO! On Friday I began dance school, which is a beginners course for ballroom dancing. There are about 50 girls and 50 boys, which is really incredible. You have to get all dressed up before you go, and wear high heels and nylons and a skirt. My host sister, Iris, 13, was bitterly jealous of me and kept fussing with my hair and jewelery before I left. Only three more years until she can begin. =)
After, the other American girl, Deirdre and I went out to a cafe in Stephansplatz with some of her Austrian friends. Cory met us too. I found the night overall pretty unimpressive and went home pretty early.
The next night, a lot of AFS kids came to my apartment and then we went to the night at the museums, where they were all open. Saw modern art, natural history, etc etc. Of course we were mostly there for the humor of being together.

Then on Sunday was a big day for me. I met the entire father's side of the family at a party for the Grandfather's birthday. In Austria, there is a child deficit, but this family, the grandparents had 7 kids, and now there are 35 grandchildren. This was very overwhelming but an hour in, I realized that I understood EVERYTHING that was happening. And someone commented also my accent, saying its very well adjusted to Vienna. Excellent.

I think my host brother needs the computer. I am going to a party tonight (Even though it is monday...) with Clara. I will only be there an hour I think. I get exhausted really easily here still.

Next weekend is AFS second arrival camp in Niederösterreich. And that's about it! I think I will also go sometime this week to see La Traviata at Volksoper...

Happy Columbus Day, even though its just a normal monday for me.

And I heard the Red Sox are doing well????

School Life

My School Life, written from Geography class on 29. September 2007
I just realized I would do nothing this class. I guess the obvious thing to write about would be school as most of my time here is spent in school. And mostly, I have written in emails “School is just school” However, there are a lot of differences between school in the United States and school in Austria. As I am writing in my Geography class full of kids laughing and fooling around while the teacher is teaching, I can safely say it is stricter in the US. I don’t know why it seems that we give more respect to our teachers, maybe because they are more personable or reach out in more appealing ways. Even in my CP1 classes aren’t this bad. Honestly, I think it comes down to tests. These kids have exams 4 times a year in Math English and German. Teachers have not quizzed us in the month I have been in school. These classes are also the only ones we have homework in. 2 or 3 problems a night, tops. As for the huge number of other classes I take, nothing really happens in them, and frankly, no one cares. I sit in the first row, where students pay the most attention. The second row is all girls who at least have their books out. The back table would not be able to tell you what they learned in a day. We remain in the same classroom all day, so it is always this way. Also, no one gets in trouble for writing on desks so everyone does it.
Now, my school schedule is 8am to 1.40, Monday to Friday.
Monday begins with Math, which I guess everyone tries in. Usually it will be like, one person learns and everyone copies their homework in other classes. The idea that math is the same in every language is not exactly true. They use many different symbols and find my problem solving methods strange. They also integrate a lot of math together before they know all the methods of say, geometry or algebra. The teacher moves at a very fast pace and informed me last week I would be receiving a grade in her class. This is bad news because even though some things are review for me, I have never in my life learned advanced geometry or trigonometry or calculus. I will also take exams. However, I look forward to math as much as I dread it because it is something to do. After is a five minute break.Next is either French or Old Greek, and I go to the second year students to take German class with them, (11 years old). The past few weeks I did little, but now they gave me some free books so I can learn too. Honestly, it helps. The kids are very interested in me, but often too shy and afraid of the language barrier. After is a 10 minute breakEnglish class is next which is laughable. The teacher has often fallen back on asking me or Franziska, who lived for eight years in Michigan, to explain things. The kids don’t speak English as well as I expected though. After is the 15 minute break.Next is history, which I know the theme and take notes in, or copy from someone when she dictates. Despite this, I am not actually learning history because I don’t know that much German. I can say “oh, we are learning the Russian Revolution” but that’s it. I can see myself improving already, so maybe by December I can say “we are studying the Russian revolution, and this is what happened” However, I didn’t buy school books, and in this class we use it sometimes. Even if I had the book, I couldn’t read it. Thankfully it is not necessary, just note taking really. Also thankfully, she types out her notes and puts them on the overhead projector. Austrian handwriting is dreadful for me to read and misspelled German words do me no good. A five minute break.Next is Psychology which is very advanced technical vocabulary. I take notes if she writes them, but I have come to terms with the fact that there is nothing I can do in this class. I handed in a paper we had to write, supposed to be like pages or something. It had four lines of text in very simple German where I defined very briefly the terms we were supposed to explain in detail. Under that I wrote in German “This is just comprehension practice for me. Let me know if it is mostly right, but do not grade it” My way of letting them know that I am not wasting my time by just sitting in classes all day with no clue what is going on. A ten minute break.The day ends with 3B who I don’t like so much. Except the day does not quite end. Monday is special. I have my elective on Monday in the eighth and ninth hour. Basically the school gets out at 1.40 every day, but after a one hour break, school resumes until about 7 in the evening. I go home and eat lunch (big part of the family life, which I will write on later) and then come back at 2.30 for Informatik. I thought it would be basic word processing, but it is HTML. They are impressed with how fast I can type and I usually have time to use Email by the end of the class. Everyone else in this class is a 14 or 15 year old boy. The teacher is my religion teacher also, and always wants me to understand. This is so kind and dear to me as most classes they ignore me completely even if I take notes and try to participate.
Tuesday begins also with 3B which is extremely tiring. Tuesday is a bad day for me, there aren’t really any classes I enjoy. Next is two periods of Sport which sucks. Of course it sucks. It sucks internationally. They are shocked that you can get out of the requirement in the US. In Austria, you can’t so someone who sucks at sports does not exist. It is two hours of misery to be there sucking so much.And after this hell is another one: Geography. I don’t have a book, the teacher speaks in dialect and it is almost all Austria. They seem to think that it is the center of the world. We are supposed to be looking at something on the overhead projector right now and taking notes on things she is talking about on the map. No way I can do that. Next is German. They are reading Schiller, I am reading a children’s book. At least it is something to do, and it honestly helps. I feel so proud of myself as I read faster and faster and use a dictionary less and less. Math ends the day.
Wednesday is German again in the morning, then Chemistry. We leave the classroom to go to the lab. The French teacher has this as her other subject. We take notes, thankfully, not by dictation. It all seems pretty basic so far. Sciences aren’t stressed so much ehre as in the US, so that’s why it is only 2 times a week. No homework. Next is Physics which I completely do not understand. They have known it every year since they were ten years old. The teacher looks like the lead singer of System of a Down, with curly long hair and the soul patch. Apparently he’s wicked funny, but he speaks in Viennese dialect. We don’t learn much Physics, I know that for sure. Psychology is next, which already know is a dream. =P3A German in the fifth hour, where the teacher has purple hair. Last week they had to memorize ballads. The Austrians really appreciate Schiller and Goethe and many other ancient poets’ ballads. And for such an ugly language, they are so gorgeous. I relished in listening to them. We got a huge book of them from the library, and there are thousands of them! My family enjoys memorizing them for fun. Wednesday finishes with English, and Thursdays begin this way
After English on Thursday is Chemistry.My favorite German class is this day, 1B. They are ten years old and so sweet. The teacher is the nicest man I have ever met. He is so helpful to me and gave me a bunch of German workbooks the kids use for free. He even corrected my dictation work and wrote things like SUPER and FEIN all over it.Then History, Math, and Geography.
Fridays are interesting and there is little work to be done, which is a good quality for Fridays. It begins with Physics, then German, and then I have an hour free. There aren’t any German classes this hour.Next is religion which is my Informatik teacher. It is always a discussion, things I can almost understand. It is very frustrating because I have so much that I would like to debate on Catholicism, but it is just beyond my grasp. In this class, the child deficit in Austria was brought up. Parents are only having one or two children. My teacher asked, wouldn’t it be nice if women could stay home with their kids. I said no, of course not because there wouldn’t be enough money and women can do more than raise children. Interested, they asked me how many kids Americans have. I said about three, but most people would know a family that has 4 or 5 kids. They found this stunning. My Austrian family is an exception where the grandmother has 35 grandchildren (or 53, I get the German numbers mixed up) Everyone in the family has 4 kids, and one of them has 9.Anyway, next is two hours of art to end the day. And I must say, American kids are taught to draw quite professionally. We can draw whatever we want according o theme. Stress is on creativity, if there is any. The kids do not draw what they really see with shading and depth and tone and directional marks, just symbols, like kids or nonartists. Even my skills, which were at the bottom of my art class seem to amaze them. They think I can draw so beautifully. That’s nice I suppose. The only real downside is that you have to buy all your own surprise.
And that is my school week! Hopefully that was interesting.

Happenings (Life becomes normal)

It’s been a while, though I’m not really sure what’s new. I guess life here is sort of normal for me now and not worthy of writing down but then at times like these in Psychology class, when I realize that I don’t actually have to do anything in this class, I remember how different things actually are.
The big thing to write about happened last week. My host mother introduced me to two girls, Florentina and Julia. Florentina is in the year above me and Julia began University today. They were immediately friendly and a lot more down to earth than the other people I’ve met my age. Last Monday, they came over and my host mother made apple strudel. First real pastry that I’ve had here, and they eat it with this really good hot vanilla sauce. While we ate, they invited me to go with them to the opera on Saturday to see Tosca. It costs €2 to stand in the Gallery, which is not bad at all, even though it’s packed shoulder to shoulder with tourists. Considering, the most expensive seats in the opera cost over €200. There are these screens there that translate the Italian music into German/English so you can follow it even easier. The music is so beautiful and I absolutely loved it. Any tragic love story is great, but there was something so glorious about the voices and the costume and the really beautiful scenes of the Vienna State Opera (Wiener Staatsoper)that makes it an absolutely amazing experience. As my grandmother hoped, I think I will come home addicted. We waited afterwards for autographs and apparently the orchestra director (notably the most polite of all the people we met in the Opera…) is extremely famous. After, we went to Starbucks which is open late on opera nights. We stayed really late and talked and it was a lot of fun, but it was so late that the public transport stopped running. We had to walk home (me in high heels… boo…) and I got home at 12.30. I worried this was a problem and that I would be in trouble, but my host parents thought it was wonderful that I had such a nice time I had to stay out later. I think that when I come home to America some rearranging of my curfew is in order… I suspect I will have a hard time cutting it back to 11. Even this summer that was a problem.
Speaking of the theatre, I actually went to the Staatsoper for the first time two weeks ago. With my host father and sister, we went to see Romeo and Juliet as a ballet. I loved that as well. I am so glad I live in the city where going to the theatre on weekends can be a legitimate hobby and be extremely inexpensive (compared to going out to eat or going to a club).
On Friday night, I registered for dance school. One of the AFS American girls, Deirdre, is taking this class with me. That’s something to do, but it comes at a rather high price. I am currently very poor, as almost all of my money is gone. It’s a shame how little value the USD carries here! However, I am looking forward very much to this class. It’s a beginner course in all the ballroom dances – waltz, tango, foxtrot etc.
There was an AFS meeting last week. Being with these kids remains some of the funniest and most enjoyable times I’ve had in Austria. We all seem to be pretty close but we all understand each other so well. We just know. It should be easier to seem them now on weekends as my host family gave me a really old cell from (a Nokia from around 2002… still has a black and white screen). However I am only receiving calls, because I haven’t bought any minutes for it yet. That should be relatively inexpensive for my needs as cell phone service here is much, much, cheaper than landlines and also America.
The weather has been beautiful so my family often goes together to parks to enjoy the sun. Sometimes this means sitting around and reading which I like to do. However, they always strongly object to my lack of scarf. It is so European of them. They even insist that I wear a scarf to bed. Most of the time going out means taking very vigorous walks. We climbed a mountain yesterday, except not really. It was just a really, really, steep hill which led to this nice little village at the top where we stopped to read. I hadn’t expected this though, and was extremely exhausted by the walk. So steep!
And speaking of reading, I visited the city library’s main branch. It is a three story modern-art building with panoramic views of Vienna. And the resources are huge. There’s say, a section for art, but in this section there are sub-sections for art history, Austrian art, etc etc. There are many other language books too, and a good amount in every European language, and even Arabic and some Asian languages. Not just a few books either, but a few shelves. If I want to read in English, which there are the most of in foreign language, then I will have no problem. When we were here I found one of my favourite books translated into German. I understand it pretty well. Natively written German books, I am still at the second or third grade level.
That’s all for now, I have a few posts coming up on a few specific subjects so watch out for that (I’ve written them already, I just don’t like taking the time to type…)

Take care!

PS-- my first month here officially passed on Saturday. Time flies!

Friend Meetings, Weekend Explorations

This weekend was awesome for a number of reasons. I had something to do every day which I did not expect, though often times I would be on my way there, and still have no idea where I was going.

Friday there was an AFS Wien-Chapter meeting, at the Prater. This is an extremely expensive and famous amusement park in Vienna known especially for the giant Ferris wheel. I hate to admit that I freaked out on it, but I did. However it was well worth the scare as the view was awesome, and simply because I can now say I have been on the Prater Riesenrad! I am planning to steal photos from others. I also met my AFS liason during this trip who is a 21 year old college student named Sonja. This is cool, because normally it's an older person, but she can tell me real things and happenings about Vienna. (Not just history and facts)
Unfortunately I could not stay longer with my AFS friends. I had to leave about an hour after my arrival as we were having a dinner party. It was cool to see my family get their apartment all decked out, especially the dining room and stuff. However, after a day of concentrating in German, and also an entire week of Austrian school, I am exhausted. Around nine thirty when we sat to eat at the table, I was already zoning out extremely. At 11 my host mother told me it was not a cultural faux-pas or whatever this word is, to excuse yourself from the table. Honestly I had no idea what was going on and German begins to sound just like the water in a brook perhaps.

Saturday morning was the open house day at the Raimund Theater. Musicals are very popular here and there is a particular musical star called Uwe Kröeger who my host sister adores. I went to a little dance workshop in the afternoon. That morning, my host mother pretty much insisted, which was very cool of her, don't get me wrong, that I have my own AFS meeting because people would be happy that they were invited somewhere and probably wanted to do something similiar but didn't want to initiate it. I invited Cory and Deirdre from USA, Heida from Iceland and Jordyn from New Zealand to come over and we would do something. We met at seven and my host mother was very hospitatable and gave us all drinks and these pretzel things that were more like rolls. (Soft pretzels of course). We left the house around 9 and explored Vienna at night, which is gorgeous. This is how I finally fell in love with the city. It is all lit up and there is so much going on, it does not feel dangerous at all.
This night I felt sort of like I was a part of the city, that I almost had a home here. It was familiar to me, and it was sort of belonged to me as well. This is a very positive aspect of switiching cultures. On the other hand, the past week I was in a few situations where it felt horrible to be an American. When you meet new people and they ask you where you're from once they hear your beginners-German, you sort of lose credibility for being an American. You can win this back easily by honestly giving an effort. However the humiliation you can feel from this is enough to make you want to give up. I am in a transition stage from Beginners to Intermediate German and I can pick things up very easily.

Today in school I talked to more people, just had conversations about anything. To them it doesn't matter how good you speak, or what you're talking about. It pleased them to see you make an effort. As I have said, Austrians are very friendly, but it is hard for them to let you in fully. You must truely push your way in for acceptance.

Today also Cory showed up and wanted to take a walk. I learned sort of how to use the U-Bahn (subway). We went to a famous baroque church called Karlskirche, which is gorgeous. You can take these shady rickety stairs all the way up the dome and up this tower. The whole time you can see how high up you are which is so frightening! I needed to stop for a moment because I felt like I might panic (my breathing was acting this way). However I did it, and the view at the top of the dome is spectacular. What is also truely amazing is how painters managed to do those ceiling paintings on church dome roofs. I needed to get down ASAP but they had perhaps years of work up there to make the paintings.

Another week beginning, but I feel really okay about it.

Keep in touch!

--Julie

City Exploring

I did three things of note today--

1) took a city map and went for a walk all by myself

2) shopped for the first time on Mariahilferstraße

3) rode a motorcycle for the first time!!!!


Today was one of the first days without rain so my hostfather allowed me to take a walk for an hour. I got lost and stuff, exploring around the Volksgarten, where there are many roses, which are so beautiful. I also lost track of time, so I came home like 20 minutes earlier than I was supposed to. However it was a very quick walk and so it was very good exercise.
I live on the fourth floor of my apartment so even though the food is very rich and delicious here, I am perhaps slimmer. Not in a bad way, I promise, I'm looking very healthy.

The Mariahilferstraßse is a very famous street where there are many stores, some expensive, some supported by child labor and very cheap. I had to buy special shoes for my gym class (which sucks, because Wien is so expensive...). I also bought house shoes which are knockoff birkenstocks, but not the Jesus sandal kind, they're crisscrossy.

Also my host father took me for a ride around Wien by night on his motorcycle. Very fast. I am in love with it. I want one now. ehhe.

I should go now. Baba!

The Pope. Week Two Ends

It's been a while, but things are going well here. I said the other night at dinner to my host family, "Austria is now normal for me, and I am happy here." I felt as though I wasn't thanking them enough for what they do for me and wanted to let them know how I was feeling. AFS always said that was important at least.

So Friday the Pope visited Vienna. I left school early with a group that was mostly younger school kids and we waited for three hours in pouring rain. I saw a friend of mine from AFS USA, Cory.
There were a ton of people there and they were all really excited. I know it was sort of a big deal because it's the Pope, but the whole time I was sort of miserably wet and cold. To pass the time I imagined what the Pope is like when he's on his own. Do you think he like, stands in front of mirror and is like, "Dude, I'm the Pope. THE POPE" And when raises his hands over a crowd and they all clap is he thinking like "HELL yeah!"? I don't know.
Anyway, as soon the Pope got there I told Iris we should leave pretty soon or else she would pass out from total cold-and-wetness. She was shaking horribly. 5 minutes after I said this, the power went out.
Sunday we went to Stephansdom for his Mass, and it rained only a little, and was also like 3 hours. But it was better and I believe there were 33,000 people there.

What else? We went to Niederösterreich this weekened to an aunt's house and picked apples and pears. It seems that if you're not in a city here, you're in a farm. There is no gray zone.

School is getting better, especially when I speak German. There are two girls I am getting along with well. Gym class still sucks, and I still can't do sports, but what can you do?

I really am enjoying myself here though. These two weeks have been quick.

Now I have a little free time so I will go take a walk for a while.

Culture Shock

Second day is the hardest, was what my host mother said. It also happened to fall on my first day of school. I think this is an unfavorable condition, personally...
I went to school at 8 and the people are really very friendly. Except they have all known each other their entire lives (you stay in one class all day) and are not quick to let you in. This is what I was told by one girl in my class who came two years ago. She is Austrian born but raised in the United States. This is good for me, because I sort of have an ally, but horrible because people may think I can't speak german if she is the only one I talk to.
The first thing that went wrong is clearly the language barrier. My homeroom teacher was telling us very important things and I knew nothing. It was just too fast and perhaps a bit of Viennese dialect. Then there was this list showing which classes you were registered for, and I wasn't in anything! My homeroom teacher said vaguely she would work on this with me later.
I didn't realize when a teacher came in later that we were having a lesson. For one thing, all the students spoke among themselves, and she just kind of joked around sitting on a desktop. I was told this is how all the classes are. Kind of contradictory to what I was taught, big surprise, definitely. Anyway I discovered this was a psychology class and I then understood many of the themes she was discussing, that was very good.
School was then over and I chilled until about 5 when everyone came home. My hostmother began asking me important questions about what my homeroom teacher had told me, and I just couldn't give her the answer because I did not know. I could feel my face turning extremely red from embarrasement and then I also neeeded to cry urgently. The thing that most people know about german is that it always sounds very harsh, and even when they speak english it is also harsh sounding.
My host mother was trying to tell me that the next day I had to go to the AFS german class. However, I did not sign up for this because I was told it was very basic, and she was told it was levelled. And then she asked why are you crying, and I later realized she became gentler here and told me that I was having culture shock and that we would slow down. We took a walk as a family and they showed me the way to the Strassenbahn (streetcar) that I would take to my class, which I could sign up for there.

And today? It was very lovely. Much, much, better. I understood many things in school and had a history class, then a period where my homeroom teacher and I picked classes, and then art class. My german class was fun, and travelling Vienna independently on the strassenbahn was VERY fun. It helped dramatically, I spoke fluently to my host mother later.

This is all for now, but my classes are the following:
Math, English, History, Psychology, English, History, Sport, Physics, German, Chemistry, Geography, Religion, Art
AND I must take one elective
AND I have two extra german classes with 10 year old. SWEET!

love, julia

Orientation and Week One

Wednesday -- the most awkward of all the days since no one knew each other and couldn't figure out who was going to which country. The food at doubletree was really bad and I got a little sick. At the end of the night we formed groups by country, instead of random groups where they taught us safety procedures and rules rules rules. This was nice seeing people for the first time, although I didn't really like them at first glance. my roommate was from minnesota, also a semester student in austria. she thought I was cold, but I guess this is the new england in me. =P

Thursday -- was much better than wedsnesday and lots of waiting around to get to the airport. all of us couldn't wait to get out of new york city. there are about 20 us students going to austria and we all got along REALLY well. the exception to this was a boy from a cow farm on oregon who had two very pretty girls from southern california hanging off both of his arms. in austria they behaved very inappropriately and finally the rest of the group had the guts to tell them off and PLEASE refrain from the PDA because it was seriously offending the austrians, and ESPECIALLY since oregoncowboy had a girlfriend back home.
And so the flight. It was very long and most of it I fell asleep on the fold out table. I got a lot of reading done for history class. Oh yes, this was an unchaperoned flight, and so we had to figure out the way past passport control and to our next gate in frankfurt by ourselves.
Friday -- was when we arrived I suppose, it was afternoon. they had a room with food and chairs prepared for us at the world trade center where we waited for our bus that came at 8:30. there were lots of jokes we told that weren't funny but seemed that way because we were so tired. finally we got to orientation site at around 10, where there were about 130 kids from around the world and we really just wanted to go to sleep.
Saturday -- we broke off into country groups that prepared ourselves for austria according to our culture. it was a lot of fun and mostly I was just glad to be hanging out with them, bsecause all the americans got pretty close. there was a party this night and we taught everyone the cha cha slide. I went to bed pretty early because I wanted to take a shower. (with my deliciously smelling austrian toiletries)
Sunday -- my family arrived to get me at 9:15 in the morning. so far I have been to church, which is of course in a gothic cathedral. I met all sorts of girls who are friends with the stracke's daughter clarissa. they are going to help me around tomorrow at school. school is attatched sort of to the cathedral and it is 300 years old. we had a really good lunch of wild boar (?!?!?!! they have a hunter friend) and this squash soup that was absolutely delicious. I am eating much better here than in germany, I find their food is still rich but somehow more manageable, and therefore my table manners perhaps?!) we are going for a walk later and then I heard we may go to Rathausplatz which is a big center where there will an opera performance on a big screen tv there.I really have not had a chance to see Wien yet but I suppose I am ever closer because I live right here. It is very beautiful where I live and very close to this enormous theatre.

Friday -- was when we arrived I suppose, it was afternoon. they had a room with food and chairs prepared for us at the world trade center where we waited for our bus that came at 8:30. there were lots of jokes we told that weren't funny but seemed that way because we were so tired. finally we got to orientation site at around 10, where there were about 130 kids from around the world and we really just wanted to go to sleep.

Saturday -- we broke off into country groups that prepared ourselves for austria according to our culture. it was a lot of fun and mostly I was just glad to be hanging out with them, bsecause all the americans got pretty close. there was a party this night and we taught everyone the cha cha slide. I went to bed pretty early because I wanted to take a shower. (with my deliciously smelling austrian toiletries)

Sunday -- my family arrived to get me at 9:15 in the morning. so far I have been to church, which is of course in a gothic cathedral. I met all sorts of girls who are friends with the stracke's daughter clarissa. they are going to help me around tomorrow at school. school is attatched sort of to the cathedral and it is 300 years old. we had a really good lunch of wild boar (?!?!?!! they have a hunter friend) and this squash soup that was absolutely delicious. I am eating much better here than in germany, I find their food is still rich but somehow more manageable, and therefore my table manners perhaps?!). we later went to this giant recreation area a little out side of the city with a big forest and fruit trees and everything. for dinner was some potato with a little egg in it dish, and then we went to Rathausplatz to see a filmed performance of Figaro, which was so beautiful.


Which brings me to today, my first day in school. It was short, beginning with church which I went to with a girl called Clara who was the best friend of the girl I'm replacing here. The classroom stuff was really disorganized and no one really listened. A list went around showing which classes people would be taking with their other classes and there was none listed next to my name? The principal is on sick leave so when she comes back I'll find out apparently...
I guess the good news is that I won't have to pay for school books.
There was a student in my class born of Viennese parents, but grew up in Amercia and she helped me a little.
The homeroom teacher spoke to me in English, and I'm afraid they will think that I can't speak any german.
I think after we had Psychology class, but I don't know. At first I thought she was just doing another orientation thing, because everyone was talking and she just sat a desk in front of the class and kind of joked around. But then I understood her talking about the difference between the left and right side of the brain, and men and women and children, and something about dreams, and somethign about children and teddy bears. The girl who lived in America told me that classes are just like this, and that yes, it shocked her at first too.
I'm surprised mostly because what I understood from orientations was how important school is and how in order everything is and how strict.
School was over at 10.45 (half day)
I don't know what else happens today and HOPEFULLY I'll get classes??? That'd be helpful. I know they have to take the langauge they have been studying, and since I know no others, I may be able to get into a German class for younger students. (ha, like the ten year olds)

See you.