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.
Freitag, 28. Dezember 2007
Samstag, 22. Dezember 2007
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
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
Montag, 10. Dezember 2007
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.
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.
Abonnieren
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