Some stories from the week

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

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

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

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

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

Another week in Austria (Surprised?)

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

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

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

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

That's about it really. See you around.

Happenings (Life becomes normal)

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

Take care!

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

Friend Meetings, Weekend Explorations

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep in touch!

--Julie