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!