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
Mittwoch, 28. November 2007
Dienstag, 20. November 2007
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
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
Donnerstag, 15. November 2007
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.
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.
Sonntag, 11. November 2007
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.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002809&l=60a35&id=1232670085
Right then. Just go there.
Mittwoch, 7. November 2007
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 Niederös
terreich 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.
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 Niederös
terreich 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
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