Two months

Wow. Well, I’m still alive for those of you who may have had your doubts. I’m doing perfectly fine with essentially no problems, but for some reason I was unable to write a blog post until today. I have now officially been in Austria for more than two months and truth be told it had been FANTASTIC. I am happy; I am healthy; I am learning German; but most of all, I am really, really exhausted. I know its not a valid excuse for not writing, and I’m deeply sorry, but in a lot of ways these two months have been spent trying to get a hold on things and finish getting settled. I like to compare being an exchange student to climbing a big mountain, because in a lot of ways they’re similar. I feel like I’ve spent my last two months setting my stride and getting acclimated. Now that I feel like I’ve got those things figured out, I feel like I’m ready to handle the day to day aspects of this life, and I promise, one of my priorities is getting back on track with this blog.

This time though, I think the three things just doesn’t cover what I want to say, so I figured I’d just write an update instead. So what do I have to say about the month where my blog sat in limbo? Well, for one I’ve never had a month more physically and intellectually straining. I know that seems silly, because back home I played basketball and managed a full plate of schoolwork, but this is a whole other story. I go biking, or on a hike, or unicycling, or Nordic walking, or to aerobics, or to the gym every day. I am also starting to pick up conversational German, so I’m always straining my brain to understand what others are saying. At the moment, it’s been difficult to actually do any of the schoolwork because I never understand 100% of the lessons, but I’m trying my hardest to do what I can and keep working. Mostly I have been working out of a learn German book my school provided for me, and I think its helping a lot. I am also working which my younger sisters who help me by reading books or making flashcards, and I’m also doing the Rosetta Stone program, which I think is amazing. I was told before I left Ocracoke (and I’ll sadly admit I don’t recall who it was who said it), that each language is like a different dance and to fully understand the tempo you have to have it surround you for a while and here, two months later I feel like I finally understand how to tango; now all I need is vocabulary.

Also this month, I spent a week in a town called Faak in southern Austria, just 10 miles from the Italians and Slovenian borders). Faak is a lakeside town and I traveled there with my school class for a sport week. We all had a choice of sport and I chose kayak, thinking that my experience from home would help me. As it turns out kayaking in a lake in the Alps in mid-October is quite different than summer kayaking on Ocracoke, which I learned the hard way, toppling into the 45-degree water more than once during the week. Regardless, I had a really great time and even got a taste of white water kayaking the last day, when we traveled to a nearby river for our lesson.

Directly after my sport week I traveled to Micheldorf, Austria where I met up with YFU (Youth For Understanding, my exchange program) for a weekend in a 1000-year-old castle with all of the other exchange students. It was amazing to see everyone again after we had had some time to settle in to our lives here. We slept an ungodly small amount over the weekend (I think I got about six or seven hours total) but had an amazing time. We also got a lot of advice from past exchange students who were our leaders over the weekend. On Saturday we shared songs and dances from our home countries and then stayed in the common room for hours playing Uno, listening to music, and making paper cranes. On Sunday it was sad to see everyone go, but we’re looking forward to our next castle seminar in January and we also started planning an unofficial meet up in Vienna, which I will attend within the next couple of weeks. YFU is a like a built-in family for all of us here, and I can’t wait to see them all again.

Just a small list about my life here:

1. I've started to play guitar!!! I am taking lessons from a twenty something in my town and I absolutely love it. I’m learning songs in both English and German too!

2. My favorite TV show here is called Bauer Sucht Frau (which translates to Farmer Seeks Woman) but it’s basically a dating show about farmers looking for a wife. We typically watch it as a family about once a week and I think it’s hysterical.

3. Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself loving a few foods that I came here disliking, like sauerkraut, cooked potatoes, and brown bread. After really trying it, I’ve grown to actually like them a lot.

4. Basketball is not a popular sport in Austria, which makes me and my Japanese YFU friend Chito, a little sad because we both played at home. I’ve heard that there are club teams around, but so far I haven’t been able to find a women’s teams to play on here.

5. I LOVE SCHNITZEL. I just don’t think I could ever say that enough. It is so delicious. I’m looking forward to making it for potlucks when I return.

So, I don’t think I could leave you hanging without a song of the week or month, basically because its my favorite part of this blog, but I’ve recently been a little disappointed by the Austrian pop charts because they are essentially the same as the US. The number 1 song here is Love The Way You Lie, which came from the US. I will say that there are songs that we don’t have at home, but typically they are all sung in English; musicians in Europe, rather logically, decided that they could appeal to a larger audience that way. So I wish I had a very Austrian song for you, but for right now I don’t, so I had to fall back on one of my pre-departure favorites. I’ve been listening to it a lot in the past few weeks, and with my trip to Vienna creeping up on me and looking back on how overwhelmed I’ve been in the past month, it seemed fitting enough. So the song, for this week and this month is Vienna by Billy Joel.

A few days ago, on my two-month anniversary I waltzed into school and beaming, told a classmate that I had officially been in Austria for two months. A few minutes later, she asked me if I could go back to before I decided to become an exchange student, and change my mind, would I. It took me a moment to realize that it was a serious question and when I finally did all I could do was laugh and tell her that yes, if I could go back I would change my mind, I would have learned German years before and started saving money, but I would never ever take back the fact that I came to Austria. Here in this supposed foreign country, I found a home I never knew I had. I wouldn’t trade the experiences I’ve had here for anything. It has honestly been the best two months of my life.

3 things 9/18

Well, if anyone doubted my poor communication skills before, these past two weeks should have wiped away any uncertainty. School started on the 13^th, and since then my life has just kind of been a whirlwind. I apologize because even though I love getting mail/emails/facebook posts/ect, I haven’t done a very great job of responding. On the first day of the welcome orientation in Vienna they told us that if we spend two ours a day on the computer, it would be equivalent to losing a month of our exchange (I did the math, its true). So in the recent weeks I’ve been choosing to do other things instead of being on the computer, but here I am a week and a day late to do the three things for Saturday, September 18^th.

1. The Song of the Week. The song of the week seemed like it was a good fit for the beginning of school, but we also sang it in music class on the first day. My music teacher is a famous pianist in Linz and when we went to class on the first day he handed out music books, sat down at the grand piano in the classroom and played the songs suggested by the students. I think I am going to LOVE music class. Just Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd.

2. Something That is Different From Home. I think it’s pretty obvious that the school system is different, but it is in a way that I love! I think it would be easiest for me to put the differences in list format so here I go:

1. For starters each class (mine is 5A, with kids mostly a little younger than me) has their own classroom and instead of the students moving from room to room in between classes, the teachers do the moving with a few exceptions like PE, art, and music. I really like this because it allows breaks to be real breaks instead of just walking immediately from one class to another.

2. Another thing is the schedules aren’t the same from day to day. We are on a one-week system with a certain number of each class each week.

3. Classes are only 50 minutes

4. We have typically six classes a day, so school gets out around 1:30.

5. There is no cafeteria and most people bring bagged food for in between classes and then eat lunch when they get home

6. We’re not allowed to wear shoes inside the building.

7. We have to stand up when a teacher enters the room and remain standing until he or she tells us we can sit down.

3. My Favorite Part of The Week. My favorite part of the week is still just as difficult to pick as the first week but I think even though everything about school was fantastic, it has to be this one moment with my family. It was on Sunday afternoon when I went to lunch to find a little heart shaped polished stone sitting at my place at the table. They explained that that all four of them had a heart like this one and when someone needs support or love they give all of their hearts to take with them. Since I am now a member of this family, I get a heart. I got to take the hearts on the first day of school and actually, I think helped.

3 Things 9/11

Yesterday was three weeks since I’ve been in Austria and in a makeshift celebration of that anniversary; I spent the day with wonderful people in a wonderful city and this week, all three things come from our afternoon:

The Song of the Week. I heard this song in a movie theater yesterday as I waited with my YFU friends Maja (Sweden) and Diego (Mexico) to get into our movie Beilight (in the U.S.A. Vampires Suck). The first notes played through the speaker system and I got goosebumps. To me, this song represents my exchange year but I can’t quite put into words how. Bittersweet Symphony by The Verge

I’m cheating; there are two songs this week because picking between the two was impossible. This song has a story. Yesterday as we walked through the city of Linz, we passed a little toyshop and someone brought up the first line of this song “You and I in a little toy shop”. After it was said, there was an unspoken understanding and we ran back to the shop and went inside. A few minutes later, we returned with what we had been looking for; balloons. Red Balloons. To go with the second song of the week …99 Red Balloons by Goldfinger (Partially in German)

Something That is Different From Home. Have I mentioned how much I love public transportation? It’s really incredible. The bus system runs 24 hours with very few delays and low rates for students. I’ll take public transportation everyday to and from school (the bus is actually double-decker and made by Mercedes. Go figure) In addition to the buses, there are trains that go all across Austria (and the rest of Europe for that matter) and once again, low rates for students! The public transportation is actually really helpful to us exchange students because it gives us an easy way to meet up with other kids who are staying in different parts of the country.

My Favorite Part of the Week. Yesterday I met with the other Oberösterreich (Upper Austria) exchange students for lunch. There were six of us in all: Maja (Sweden), Diego (Mexico), Katrijn (Belgium), Znook (Thailand), Morgane (Switzerland), and myself. We went to a little café outside a castle on the Danube. It was the first group contact we had had since our initial orientation in Vienna, so it gave us all the opportunity to talk about what are lives are like here and to discuss the next upcoming challenge, school. It’s a great thing to have a built in network of friends that you can trust and enjoy spending time with. I think we’ll do it again very soon!

The truth is: today was one of the best days of my entire life; its possible it tops the best day ever list. I know its Saturday and I promised a blog post, but I'm exhausted and I just can't put it all into words tonight. So until tomorrow; Auf Wiedersehen!

Three things 9/4

Wow. I’ve officially been in Austria two weeks. Time didn’t go any slower this week than it did in my first and the initial excitement hasn’t even begun to die down. Which brings me to my three things for the week:

1. The song for the week. This weeks song I’d never heard before I came to Austria, but now I feel like I’ve heard it as much as any overplayed Lady Gaga or Ke$ha song in the States. It has topped the Austrian pop charts since I’ve been here, and it’s starting to grow on me a bit. Here it is folks, what Austria is listening to: We No Speak Americano by Yolanda Be Cool

2. Something that’s different than home. I think the difference that has shocked me most is the fact that all of the students attending an upper-level school here (equivalent to our sixth grade and up) are being taught second (and sometimes even third) languages. But what surprises me most is that they really know them. My youngest host sister Nadi has only taken English for a year and the only error she has revealed to me in two weeks is that the TH words tripped her up a little. My other host sister Nina (who speaks English too) will take on French this year as well. Kids here are bilingual before they turn twelve while their brains can still pick it up like its nothing. It leaves me wondering why the U.S. hasn’t adapted a similar system.

3. My favorite Part of This Week. On Sunday afternoon, my host mom suggested that we go on a walk. Having already adjusted to the lifestyle of my family here, I laced up my hiking boots, knowing “walking” wasn’t just going to be a stroll through the town. We followed a walking path as it snaked its way to the top of the tallest hill in the area and finally stopped at a small restaurant named Gis. The four of us (my host mom, two sisters, and myself) ordered hot chocolates and warm apple strudel from a woman wearing traditional Austrian clothes (there was more than one person in lederhosen there) and sat outside and enjoyed the view and the fresh mountain air.

3 Things

Today marks the end of my first week in Austria. It honestly feels like I arrived yesterday, but I’ve already settled quite nicely into my life here. Which brings me to my point; I am a terrible communicator, especially when I have distractions, and since Austria is one big distraction for me, I think it’s important for me to make a schedule for this blog. I’m hoping (and keep in mind this is a very rough outline) that on Saturdays I will write my favorite thing from the week, something that is different from Ocracoke, and a song that goes with each week (the song mostly for my own record) and then write normal blog entries whenever I can. :) So, here are my first week’s three things:

1. The song for the week. The song this week is I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas because it was the first song I heard in Austria (as I was walking out from the Airport to meet Youth For Understanding) and also because I would only be exaggerating a little if I said I had heard it 1000 times this week. IT PLAYS EVERYWHERE!

2. Something that’s different than home. I really don’t want this to be a negative section at all, because that’s not how I feel about it. I think our differences from continent to continent and even from country to country are what makes us interesting, but this first thing is something I miss from home, and that thing is ice. You don’t realize how lucky you are to have it until it’s gone. Hot drinks in the hot summer are not very good.

3. My Favorite Part of this Week. It is extremely difficult to look at a week like this one and say, “oh, that was the best moment” out of hundreds of possible choices. This week it could have been any number of things, but I think what it all boils down to how laid-back my life is here. I think that is one difference between a vacation somewhere and an opportunity like this one. On a vacation to a place like Austria, you spend your time doing and seeing things, but living like this, I’ve had time to rest so I can enjoy the next activity. I have laid in the hammock for hours just reading, but I’ve also been biking and hiking through the hills with my family, learned some German, and tried things like unicycling and windsurfing. So really, the best part for me is knowing that I have plenty of time here and that I can stop to smell the Edelweiss.

The First Post From Österreich!

I thought it would be a good idea to write this entry in three parts: this first one on the plane, the second at my welcome orientation where I will be staying the first and second day I am in the country and the third after I have met and spent a little time with my host family.

8/20/2010

I am currently only a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, which to me is terrifying and amazing at the same time. Although I’ve tried to sleep as much as I possibly can on this ridiculously long flight, I’ve spent quite a bit of times watching American movies with German subtitles and reading the one book I brought with me. I shudder to think that I might finish it before the flights over, leaving me bookless in a place where the majority of the books are in German. Maybe I’ll find someone to swap with.

There is one little story that I feel like I have to tell because it was a moment I was so thankful for in today’s mess of goodbyes and travel. So, as I was going through security crying right after saying goodbye to my parents, the man operating the metal detector waited for me to walk through, then offered me a tissue and pointed me back in the direction of my parents so I could wave, then patted me on the shoulder and said “everything going to be fine”. His kindness went a really long way with me today. So since then, the travel has been fairly decent. I somehow managed to score a back row aisle seat with a vacant window seat next to me, so I’ve been sprawled out over both of them for most of the trip. Well, as far as I can tell, in just over two hours we will be landing in Frankfurt where I will meet my connecting flight to Vienna!

8/22/10

Well I’m done with orientation so here I am again! It went really well. All the Austrian volunteers are past YFU exchange students so they taught us with experience! All of the current students I’ve met have been pretty fantastic as well because even though we come from all over the world, we’re all in the same boat. After we arrived, we did a scavenger hunt around Vienna, which was very cool because it gave us some time to see the city. When we returned from that, we spent time going over basic information about culture, school, and general life in Austria! Later, we had dinner with the directors of YFU Austria and returned to a hostel where we stayed the night. For some of us it had been a very long day (I had been up for 39 hours). The next day we left the orientation place after lunch to go meet our host families; some families came to Vienna, but I met mine at the train station in Linz (the city that is about 10 minutes from our house) and my adventure really began.

8/24/10

So I have spent several days with my host family now and I really like them! My mother Roswitha is very kind and has obviously worked very hard to make me feel at home here, my father Klaus is so funny, and my sisters Nina and Nadi have been very nice to me. They already feel like sisters. So far here I have been focusing on saying the word yes! I have yet to refuse something. I feel like that’s why I’m here: to try new things and have new experiences, so I’ve said “Sure I’d love to do that” countless times. So far I have had 2 German lessons, 1 Guitar lesson, 1 unicycle lesson, 2 walks in the town, 1 jog with my host mom to the next town, 1 trip to the lake and so much more. It has been a pretty fantastic adventure so far. I will write more when my jet lag has completely settled but for now I am still very tired! That’s all I have to say for now! Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen!

Pre Departure Update

I figured it was about time I made my first post. On August 20th I will be leaving to spend an academic year staying with a family in Austria and now that I'm getting ready to go, I feel like its important to talk about everything that goes into planning an exchange year months before departure.

In May I had my orientation with the other teens traveling from the Carolinas in 2010. There were a handful of kids just traveling for the summer: one boy that was headed to Finland, and a several people that were going to Japan; Then there were three of us that were going for a year: a boy going to Russia, a girl who is going to Germany, and myself. Despite our differences in country selection and length of exchange, we shared the same types of worries and excitement: we were concerned about the language barriers, impatient to find out about our host families, and excited to get to our countries.

During the orientation we talked a lot about what our exchanges would be like and how to deal with different conflicts. It was pretty amazing for me because it helped me actually begin to realize this was all real and that I was actually going.

Meeting Lauren was pretty great too. She's the girl that will be just over the border in Germany. It was really comforting to know that there will be another Carolina girl dealing with the same conflicts and language barriers as me. We're friends on Facebook now, so I think it is very probable that we will communicate with each other through our exchange years.

Another cool thing that happened recently was getting Rosetta Stone. YFU offered it to year students for only $75, so I've been working my way through the lessons. Its amazing how much it works. I would strongly suggest it to anyone traveling to a foreign country.

Finally, a few weeks ago I received my host family assignment. I will be living in the small town of Lichtenberg, five miles outside the city of Linz. I have two younger host sisters ages 13 and 10 along with a host mom and dad. I will attend school in the city with my sister and ride a bus there in the mornings. I am very excited about them! I think they are a good fit for me and I can't wait to meet them.

This has already been such a great opportunity and I can't wait to see what else it holds for me.