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