Christmas!Hallo, leute! Frohe Wienachten! Christmas felt so weird. Normal Christmas to me is opening stockings, egg caserole in the morning for breakfast, opening presents, Mom cooking, then dinner. Here Christmas celebration start December 24. We started by decorating the tree with hand made ornaments from Petra and my host siblings. That took about an hour around lunch time. We went to church that evening before dinner, it was a children's service where local kids sang and performed a skit about the birth of Jesus. They had a huge manger scene that stretched for 2 or 3 meters. The church was decorated in gold. It lasted for about 2 hours and then we went back to my host family's class. Dinner that night was fondue. We fried pork, beef, and mushrooms. They were so good! Fried mushrooms taste so good! Then we opened presents and went to bed. I had waited to open the gifts my family sent me that were in wrapping paper- I had put the girl scout cookies in the freezer when I saw them because they last longer when frozen. On Christmas day, we ate lunch at a restaurant with my host mom's family and then went to our house to have cake, coffee, and tea. More presents were given out then. The day after Christmas we went to my host dad's family house in Leutasch and had a massive lunch and then we went on a hike up the mountain so we could sled down it. Then we had more cake. So much cake! Since then I have been sledding and have had two skiing lessons. Next Saturday, I might be going onto the normal slope instead of the learning areas. I haven't really been feeling homesick except I've started really missing the dogs. I don't really miss the fighting with my brother and being so busy with school. I miss mashed potatoes and gravy, Mexican food, and having a stand mixture and a slow cooker.
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Moving host families was something I had been kind of dreading. I love my first host family, there were two girls around my age and they were really fun. I was really nervous when my host parents were almost an hour late to picking me up. Once I moved in, I found that all my anxiousness was gone. We play card games and board games almost every night. I’ve found that my luck has continued over to Austria when it comes to card games. I had one week of school and then I had fall break. The weekend before fall break, we went down the mountain in Mutters on mountain carts which are sturdier tricycles. They have breaks like a mountain bike but no pedals. You push off the mountain with your feet and have to have enough momentum to keep going when you have a slight incline. It was so much fun! Fall break was kind of boring after that. I mostly slept in and enjoyed my time alone. One thing I did learn was that I love Preiselbeeren Marmalade- it’s cranberry jam. Another thing that happened during fall break was Halloween. Little kids go door to door singing “Susses oder Sauer?” which is their version of trick or treat. It was very cute. I live in a small town called Inzing which has a lovely cafe in the town center. I take the train to and from school, and it is a 20-minute ride. Snow has started falling here. The mountain tops are nearly all covered in snow and it’s getting cold here. In the morning it’s less than 0 degrees. All I know is that Christmas Markets and skiing are coming soon! Near Innsbruck, there is an adventure park. People can go rafting, ziplining, waterskiing, and more. It is called Area 47 and is massive. We went there to get a drink and ice cream after a long day of hiking and cranberry collecting. It is the biggest adventure park in Austria.
My school is AGI which has 800 students and is 5 stories tall, with a double basement and 6 different gym halls. Six! My school in the US only has 3 and we have 1200 students. Oktoberfest was so much fun! We saw some other places before heading over to the massive fairgrounds like a famous church and miniconcert. We had lunch in a famous beer hall, by we I mean my younger host sister and my host dad. We watched some Italian tourists get wasted since it was Italian Weekend when we went. Then we headed over to Oktoberfest. The first ride we went on was one the spins really fast and swings. I lost my glasses on the ride and they fell onto a building and broke! Then, we went on a rollercoaster that had 8 loops and was called the Olympus Ride or something. Friday was the first day which started around 4 o’clock. We took the tram to the hostel, by Westbahnhopf, which was a pretty decent hostel. We went out to dinner which was a Chinese buffet close to the theatre where we saw the Sound of Music. Seeing the Sound of Music live is much different than the movie. First of all, it was in German. Second of all, a lot of things seemed to be unexplained. Third of all, they had guards, like German soldiers, in the crowd during part of the musical which was pretty terrifying. All in all, though it was a beautiful theatre and an endearing performance by the actors and actresses. Saturday, we had our three-hour walking tour in the rain which was quite interesting for a multitude of reasons. First of all, the Hungarians were with us. Second of all, my group had Rudi for our leader. In addition to that, we saw these adorable sculptures. Then we had a Greek lunch and free time. I got some things for my family and came back to the room around 4. I took a long nap then had KFC for dinner. My roommates had gone out that for most of the afternoon and evening. They had felt really bad that I had been alone for the entire day. So they invited me to do something with them on Sunday when we had free time. Sunday, we had an easy morning where we got our vaccines. This was when I really noticed that some things were more than a bit off. I bought Samantha and I’s tickets to Vienna with the agreement that she would buy both of us a ticket on the way back. I knew that this weekend wouldn’t really involve her talking to me but still, it hurt when she sat next to me for lunch and didn’t talk to me once. I said hello and it was like talking to a brick wall. Then I had to get up from the table to get my vaccine and when I got back, she had given my seat away to someone else. Well, then we had to very quickly go to our theatre practice which dealt with a bit of improv and a bit of rehearsed performance. That lasted 2 hours then we had to learn to waltz in the famous Tanzshule Elmayer. The lesson lasted 2 hours and began with the simple box waltz but then we began to do the spinning waltz. Fun fact, the Viennese waltz was once called the devil’s dance because of how close the partners have to be to dance it properly. My partner was Alejandro from Spain. He’s a pretty awkward boy and I don’t think he liked me very much. Then we had free time once again. I was once again on my own since I had to use the toilet and my roommates left. This free time, I confused this poor woman who by the end, thought I spoke no English. It was pretty funny from my end since she thought I only spoke German. I took a three-hour nap and then went to a nice burger place where I had a delicious barbeque bacon burger and fries. My roommates had left the dance school really fast to go take the U-Bahn to the farthest stop and back. Monday, we went to the new Rathaus on a tour and there was a strange elevator that never stopped and had no doors but it moved fairly slow. Most people went on it but I might have chickened out since I didn’t have anyone to go with and when I asked someone to go with me they ignored me. Then we went back to the hostel to grab our suitcases. I was supposed to go with her back to Innsbruck, but she ditched me to go with Izzy. So, I hung out with my roommates and got a vegan lunch and then took the train back to Innsbruck with them. They lived farther out but, we got on the same train. I sat with this nice lady that was going to Zurich and they sat in a different cart since there were four of them and no free seats where I was. Vienna was fun for me but it was a bit lonely so I think the next couple of events I’ll sit out. The next weekend I went hiking in Italy, not to Italy as I thought. I had spaghetti in the mountains in the middle of an 8-hour hike. That is Mohammad. I got lost in sport class so I decided to have an impromptu photoshoot in sports clothes. Friday was the first day which started around 4 o’clock. We took the tram to the hostel, by Westbahnhopf, which was a pretty decent hostel. We went out to dinner which was a Chinese buffet close to the theatre where we saw the Sound of Music. Seeing the Sound of Music live is much different than the movie. First of all, it was in German. Second of all, a lot of things seemed to be unexplained. Third of all, they had guards, like German soldiers, in the crowd during part of the musical which was pretty terrifying. All in all, though it was a beautiful theatre and an endearing performance by the actors and actresses.
Saturday, we had our three-hour walking tour in the rain which was quite interesting for a multitude of reasons. First of all, the Hungarians were with us. Second of all, my group had Rudi for our leader. In addition to that, we saw these adorable sculptures. Then we had a Greek lunch and free time. I got some things for my family and came back to the room around 4. I took a long nap then had KFC for dinner. My roommates had gone out that for most of the afternoon and evening. They had felt really bad that I had been alone for the entire day. So they invited me to do something with them on Sunday when we had free time. Sunday, we had an easy morning where we got our vaccines. This was when I really noticed that some things were more than a bit off. I bought Samantha and I’s tickets to Vienna with the agreement that she would buy both of us a ticket on the way back. I knew that this weekend wouldn’t really involve her talking to me but still, it hurt when she sat next to me for lunch and didn’t talk to me once. I said hello and it was like talking to a brick wall. Then I had to get up from the table to get my vaccine and when I got back, she had given my seat away to someone else. Well, then we had to very quickly go to our theatre practice which dealt with a bit of improv and a bit of rehearsed performance. That lasted 2 hours then we had to learn to waltz in the famous Tanzshule Elmayer. The lesson lasted 2 hours and began with the simple box waltz but then we began to do the spinning waltz. Fun fact, the Viennese waltz was once called the devil’s dance because of how close the partners have to be in order to dance it properly. My partner was Alejandro from Spain. He’s a pretty awkward boy and I don’t think he liked me very much. Then we had free time once again. I was once again on my own since I had to use the toilet and my roommates left. This free time, I confused this poor woman who by the end, thought I spoke no English. It was pretty funny from my end since she thought I only spoke German. I took a three-hour nap and then went to a really nice burger place where I had a delicious barbeque bacon burger and fries. My roommates had left the dance school really fast to go take the U-bahn to the farthest stop and back. Monday, we went to the new Rathaus on a tour and there was a strange elevator that never stopped and had no doors but it moved fairly slow. Most people went on it but I might have chickened out, since I didn’t have anyone to go with and when I asked someone to go with me they ignored me. Then we went back to the hostel to grab our suitcases. I was supposed to go with her back to Innsbruck, but she ditched me to go with Izzy. So, I hung out with my roommates and got a vegan lunch and then took the train back to Innsbruck with them. They lived farther out but, we got on the same train. I sat with this nice lady that was going to Zurich and they sat in a different cart since there were four of them and no free seats where I was. As great as it was to see everyone in Bad Kleinkirchheim, it also was not the most fun thing we have ever done. We arrived in Villach, a small town with a train station that we were picked up at, around 14:00 and the people in charge were not going to be there until 16:00 or later. Then we went to the hotel, which was a beautiful hotel with a pool, balconies, and wonderful eating hall, and we were assigned rooms, right? But then Ernst, the most chill person ever, decided that we could pick our rooms. And it was chaos. We tried to make a system but then, one girl decided that she would not tell anyone that she was going to go to a room, that two of us were going to take, and then another was in two rooms. So it was a stressful situation for the two of us who didn’t have rooms. I got stuck in the room of a girl who thought she was the Queen Bee of the Inbounds- an angelic rulebreaker with money to spare. When I sighed after finding a room, she had the nerve to ask why I sounded stressed. And she got so defensive when I said, “well, that whole situation was stressful,” that I had to take a few moments to calm myself down so I didn’t yell at her for being the bitch who made it so stressful since she decided to take a room and not tell anyone. After that joyous experience, was a dinner that lasted 4 hours and left you still hungry. They served you appetizers for part of the night, but mostly you just filled up on pink lemonade or mint tea. They had these delicious little sliders that most people ate as soon as they came out of the kitchen. It was there that they announced why we were really there. Bad Kleinkirchheim Club was hosting since it was their 25th anniversary. Then we went back to the hotel at 23:00. We were so tired from school plus all the drama of the rooms that I went back to my room- where I had to sleep on a floating bunk while being afraid of going down ladders- and practically passed out. Breakfast was at 7 the next morning and boy, were we exhausted. Then we got on the bus at 8 and had an hour and a half drive on a windy road that made me motion sick. In addition to that, there is a plant in Carinthia called Canadian goldenrod that I am allergic too. Then, I had an asthma attack from hiking in high altitude after going up and down about a thousand meters. To make it all the better, I had gotten my period on Thursday, so I was bleeding in the mountains. There was a lady that walked with me back to the starting point where we were picked up by bus and taken to the town by the mountain lake where we waited for the others to finish the hike. She had had knee surgery in 2018 so her knee was hurting. Turns out she went on the Eurotour in 2019 and was there when the two people were sent home for drinking and voted for them to be sent home. Then she started talking about how two more boys were being sent home that Saturday before the Gala dinner, for drinking schnapps and whiskey. When we got back to the hotel we had 3 hours to get ready for what would be a long night to come. I took the first shower for around 25 minutes since it took me a while to figure out how the shower worked since the shower handles were weird. The gala started at 7 and dinner happened at 9… 30. At around 8:30, the waiter asked for our drinks and two girls ordered coffee and I ordered water. The waiter came back to tell the girls that coffee was an additional cost and had a bottle of still water in his hands, the bottle I had ordered because my throat hurt, and then walked to the table after ours and gave the bottle to them. I got kinda pissy and when he returned, I said “Can I get my still water?” and while I am not proud of the tone I held, I was struggling to breathe since my throat hurt a lot, but I did feel bad. The waiter ignored our table for the rest of the night because of it, I think. I did want to apologize but, he never returned to our table. The first course was raw salmon and tuna salad on a plate with some onions. The tuna was spicy but good and the raw fish was super slimy and chewy. Then pumpkin soup came and it had seeds in it that were burned and it didn’t taste nearly as good as my host mom’s pumpkin soup. Next, we had steak and potatoes with green beans, and it was okay, but nothing special. Dessert was the best thing they gave us. It was chocolate mousse and vanilla mousse with a hazel nut-filled pastry thingy on top and whipped cream.
After that gala finished at 10, we had to sit down with the ROTEX and the leaders since I might have said something about people telling us different versions of the story about Eurotour. So, they wanted to be “transparrant” with us as a way of making sure we got the warning. Three boys had been caught in a room with alcohol and got sent home. One boy they think was only drinking due to peer pressure and the others were the instigators. Later, we found out that one got sent back to Australia. And the other two probably won’t be allowed to go Vienna with us in October. After that, we took off our masks and beautiful clothes and went to sleep as fast as possible because we were exhausted. Breakfast was at 8 Sunday morning, and we had 30 minutes to eat before we had to go back to our rooms to pack. I had packed the night before because I couldn’t fall asleep since the other girls were taking showers and playing loud music until almost midnight. Then, the lady from the hike checked our rooms to see if we were really packed and to see if we hadn’t forgotten anything. My room was the first one done, out of all the girls and most of the boys. The train ride back to Innsbruck was very interesting since I might have done something not allowed. I went on a different train than I was supposed to, so I could stay with Samantha since we were being picked up by my host parents together. The ticket man came by and didn’t check our tickets, so I didn’t get caught, but I was super scared. But everything worked out, and I was able to write this so everything is fine. Heir ist mein normalische Tag.
In Austria, there is a language camp every year. For the past several years it has been held in Altmünster. This year, 2019, it was held in Puch bei Urstein, which is a college campus 20 minutes from Salzburg. In Salzburg, there are places like Europark (a beautiful mall), the old town, rows of shops, good ice cream places, and a castle. I will admit, we spoke more English than German most days since there were 23 Americans. But there were also a lot of Spanish speaking people too. To give you a break down of who all was there, there were 23 Americans, 3 Brazilians, 1 Columbian, 1 Mexican, 3 Spanish people, 1 French person, 1 Swiss person, 1 Italian person, 1 Japanese person, and a few others that I have forgotten or don't know for sure where they are from. There are definitely more people that I am forgetting but that was the general breakdown. We had 5 hours of German lessons every day, 3 hours on the first Saturday, and then we had 3 hours of meals. Aside from that, we were allowed to do pretty much anything. We went to the city, went shopping, ate junk food from spar (Mandell Karamel bars from Milka are the best- it’s like how a snickers bar should taste, and Neopolitan Manner bars are literally so good- pro tip, get the bars not the bag because the bag goes stale within a day or two), and some people went swimming in the river and in the lake. There is also a ropes course not too far away- like 30 minutes walking. They had scheduled an hour long walk to a restaurant for ice cream on the first Saturday there with the Rotex which was a lot of fun- the ice cream, not the ROTEX. There’s a Rotex called Martin who has a goal to send someone home every year- so do not confide in him. Sunday we went to Hallstatt which was a touristy town that is pretty much the icon of Austria. Of course, every group of kids has to do something stupid, whether it be getting drunk in the city, getting drunk in their room, or going for a hike at one in the morning. Please remember to apologize if caught, but don’t go around telling everyone if you could have gotten away with it. Especially, don’t tell the teachers! Also, the showers are small here and the water sprays everywhere in the bathroom, so keep your phone and glasses out of the bathroom and keep your clothes away from the shower- like on the radiator. You share a room with 1 other person so it’s not likely to be super cramped but, please keep your side clean and ask your roommate to clean their side if it makes you uncomfortable when they have their brand new guy friends walk into the room and their dirty clothes with underwear and bras on top, are hanging out for them to see. Before language camp, I met my host parents and my host counselor's family. I stayed with my host family for one night- the night after I landed in Munich. My host parents spent that night and that morning packing for Switzerland where they would spend two weeks hiking in the Alps. I stayed at my host counselor's house for 3 days before language camp. I met his two boys, 15 and 13 years old, and their English is really good. We went hiking in Seefeld, we went to the Innsbruck Zoo, we got a phone for me, we went to dinner with their family, and we had dinner together. I had been talking to my host sister for a month or two before I left for Austria but, I had no idea what any of them looked like before I was at the airport meeting my host dad. There's nothing more awkward then having to go home with a virtual stranger, but now this family feels almost more comfortable than my own. This is a place that I know I am going to grow a lot faster and be able to become the person I want to see looking back at me when I glance at a mirror. If they ever read this, then thank you for allowing me to stay in your home for several months.
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AuthorErin, youth exchange student Archives |