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.

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