happy new year!!!

i'm currently sitting with my best friend sophie and were just hanging out gossiping and drinking tea for a while because unfortunately we will not be together this evening for Silvester. aka new years eve. and we would like to wish everyone a happy new year!
gutes neues jahr!!!
that was from sophie :) anyyyways
i thought as a tribute for the last day of 2009 that i would add this video to my blog. its really cool and i hope you all enjoy!

christmas and goodbyes.

christmas in austria is really different from home. first, its celebrated on the 24th. all the present opening and all that is during the evening. everyone goes to church on this day. there are two services you can go to. one at 3 (typically for children) and one at midnight. my family went at 3 because teresa was singing in the choir. plus no one really wants to go to church at midnight..
then after church we went home and we sat at the table and prayed for a while. then we went around the house and blessed all the rooms. my host dad carried this thing around that had a piece of coal that was burning in it and it gave off the weirdest smell. and then regina and i were holding these leaf like things that we dipped into water that johanna was carrying and we would shake them in every room. we did this in EVERY room. so that includes the garage. then the bell rang from the living room (where no one was allowed in until the bell rang) and we all went in. then we saw the tree for the first time with the presents underneath. then we sang a song and FINALLY sat down for dinner. i guess on this day your not supposed to eat anything until dinner. but we had a soup for lunch :)
but that didnt fill me up nearly enough. so at dinner i ate soo much! we had a ton of food. and everyone ate and ate and ate until everything was gone. i had a serious food baby after. i ate so much that my stomach hurt. when i said this my host mom made a little joke. riley you have had a stomach ache all day! first from not eating enough then from eating too much! that was so true. but the dinner was well worth the wait. so then after we cleaned everything up we sat down and opened our presents. i got some really nice things from my parents, two really cool shirts that johanna printed herself, some jewelry, and last but far from least a waffle maker and nutella. so i think its safe to say that this christmas was a good one :) i will definitely miss all the christmas cookies. they are really delicious.
Then on the 25th there was a christmas party for everyone in st.valentin. it was really fun! there was a good band and lots of dancing. This break has been so nice so far. lots of relaxing. although not as much relazing as my real family! who are currently lounging on the sunny beaches of hawaii. im so jealous. we were going to go to venice for a week but our plans got cancelled. so we stayed here :( oh well. my host mom said we could try to go again later. so i look forward to that! and the dates for my classes trip to ireland were set! i will be in dublin from the 8th of march until the 14th! im sooooo excited! its going to be so much fun.
lets see.. other news...
OH! sam is goooone :( she is now back in australia. i will miss her dearly but i know that we will be seeing each other in the future:)
well new years is soon! here they call it silvester. im looking forward to the new year. im betting it will be a good one :)
other than that im still just playing basketball.. i look forward to hearing about how the teams do back home. good luck south!!!


this is my class (minus clemens and rene) on sams last day. we will miss you!

Christmas time :)

Alright so looks like i have alot to catch you guys up on. sorry i got lazy :)
Christmas time here is amazing. There are Christkindlmarkts everywhere. They are so cool. They are big christmas markets where they sell punsch, food, and gifts of all kinds. There are rides and you can ride ponies and of course a ton of people. they are really cool. Ive gone to a few of them now and they are just great to go and hangout with friends.
Buying gifts is a problem though.. i have no idea what to get anyone! so you should email me and let me know what you want :) it would help a lot. But im still looking! In my class we have secret santas and i have noooo idea what to get for my person. its difficult! so i hope they like candy :)
The best news is that i have been able to play basketball. twice a week :) i love playing with all the guys. i definitely think it will make me better. and it will for sure keep me in shape. i work out 4 times a week. so i no longer have to worry about gaining a bunch of weight from all the delicious food ive been eating :) and this saturday the team has a christmas party!
So my plans for the weekend are going to my classes punsch stand and the g classes waffle stand for a while and then going to sophies house with sam for a movie night! then on saturday im making oreo shakes with my friend richi. he goes to a tourism school and one day they had the recipe for them and he remembered that i love them so were going to make them! then saturday night is the basketball teams christmas party. Sunday i will try and go to a christmas market to get candy.
Christmas music is starting to play everywhere. I like it very much :) Today i serenaded Judith with All I Want For Christmas Is You. Lunch time can be very funny.
So everything has been going really well here. I still fit in great with my host family and my friends are amazing. but dont get me wrong. i miss everyone at home very much! and i love hearing about whats going on with everyone! i guess my parents are in california right now for a marathon. or were? so i hope that went well!
OH and i cant forget the bath hall my host mom took johanna, teresa, and i too! it was sooo cool! There were pools inside and outside, saunas, steam rooms, hot tubs, and heated chairs. In the outdoor pool there was a massage place. they had about 10 places to lie down and water would shoot up and massage you. and then in the inside pool you could sit and have the same thing. It felt so good. So that was really nice.
Well happy holidays everybody!




and in that one you can see how the pool goes outside.



just ignore the two people in the front. if you look at what the people in the back are doing you can see the massage thing.



again ignore the people. those bubbles coming up are the sit down massage things.



and heres me and sam on a ride at the Chriskindlmarkt in Linz :)

basketball! and sickness:(

school last week was fine but everyone was really just looking forward to the ball we had on saturday.
on thursday i got to play basketball! that was really fun. one of the english teachers at the school told me about a team i could go practice with. i went and ended up being the only girl. there are girls that play but they are all like 14.. so they are letting me play with the guys which included a 15 year old all the way to like a 30 year old. it was really great. it felt good to play basketball again.
so then on saturday was our schools matura ball. and i think everyone in enns went. there were so many people. the ball was really funny. and i had a good time. clemens tried to teach me how to dance but i just couldnt haha. i think it was cha-cha-cha. but it was still fun. then after the ball i slept over at katja's house.
the only bad news was sunday night i got sick :( i had a fever and a terrible cough. i also had it again today so i didnt get to go to school :( i actually wanted to go. weird.. so i really hope tomorrow morning i feel better. i dont want to miss two days of school in a row. and i want to go to the basketball practice tomorrow! but by the looks of it thats not going to happen :(

flowers from strangers

alright im really sorry. my blogging has been slacking. but i will update you on everything!
on thursday after school sam and i went to get something to eat and then on my way back to the train station i saw ines and sophie and other people outside and so i decided to hangout with them until they had gym and then go home. it was funny :)
then on friday after school sam and i went to get some tea and then went home. that night we met up with everyone at the poststuberl. it was a very very funny night.
on saturday i went with my host family to vienna. it was really cool! first we walked down the main shopping street. which is a reeeaaallly long street. i tried on an awesome outfit at american apparel. if it hadnt have costed 53 euros i would have got it. i liked it. but not THAT much. then we found a playstation bus. it was so cool! you could play all the games there for free. it was awesome. then we went and had lunch with my host dads brother and his wife. it was at an asian styled restaurant and the food was so good! i ate so much i had a food baby after. attractive i know. then i went to linz to meet up with some other exchange students because flavio and manon leave soon!!! its so sad :( so we hungout around linz. and manon and i each got a rose. we were standing in line at the bankomat so she could get money and they guy infront of us was going to the ball that was in linz that night and he had a bouquet of roses and we were talking to him and he gave us one. it was very nice. so that was really fun.
today there was nothing really going on. but tomorrow i have music class! so i look forward to that :)
but since i didnt get to talk to my family tonight i will just say that i miss and love you! i hope everything is going well :)

basketball news :)

so today was pretty fun. i got to play basketball! we ended up having class with like the second class because our class got moved up. the first hour was dumb because we just ran around the gym. but then for the second hour they split the gym in half and so they put all the little kids on one side and they let the five of us take the other side. kati, allessa and judith played volleyball, sam did yoga, and i took on herr professor Kaiser in basketball. i lost. he owned me. but the plus side is my free throws are looking good. he told me that if i came to the conference room tomorrow during the big break that we could talk to another professor that knew more about the basketball teams here and that he could help me find a team to play with. so thats good :)
hmm other than that nothing else is really going on. i have a lot going on this weekend though so im really excited for that!
so ill let you know how tomorrow goes :)

music class

so monday. we finally had our extra music class again! it was nice:) we sang broken strings by james morrison. it was a good song but it was kinda sad.. i want to sing something more fun and upbeat to sing! the only bad news was thanks to tommy i had to sing the song using a mic. definitely not what i had in mind since that was the first time i had ever heard that song. oh well. music is still my favorite class. then monday night we went to do our aerobic class thing.. that was kinda fun. the music was fun to sing to. i made the best joke ever as well! sam was on the ground crying. thats how funny it was. but you had to have been there to get it so i wont bother trying to explain it :)
today first we had german with the second class. were reading the hobbit. i kiinda know whats going on but its still hard to understand. they read slower than my class does but still pretty fast. then we had music. we sang a bunch of random songs. including falco, abba, and toto. it was a funny class. school was pretty chill today.
and i finally got that package from my family! i absolutely love the candy corn they sent me :) that is definitely my favorite. and i of course love the singing cards. they always make me laugh.
well tomorrow i have gym. the good news is that instead of having it from 3-5 it was moved to 1-3. so i get to come home earlier. but i have no idea what were doing. please no nordic walking. im crossing my fingers

MANI

so i have to catch you guys up on what ive been up to since thursday..
so on thursday guess what i did.. NORDIC WALKING. its really not good. i hate it. it was so boring. the only good thing was that it was warm outside. so that was nice. i didnt have to wear a jacket until i had to ride my bike home.
friday school was pretty chill. but MANI told me that i have been spelling his name wrong this whole time:( its not nny its just ni. so i wont make that mistake anymore MANI. :) then that night i went to the schlosscafe and stayed there for a while. i hungout there with a bunch of people and we tried to make smores with the heart shaped marshmallows that ines had. but it didnt work too well. and then they wanted to go play pool so we went to the poststuberl or something like that.. except when we got there it was broken :( so we just sat around and talked for a while and then i went home.
on saturday i went to go see tommys bands gig. they were REALLY good! this gig was just a small one so they only played a few of there songs but i cant wait for one of their big ones! ill definitely be there.
so thats everything! OH! i finally got my computer hooked up to the internet at my hostfamilys house! or rather, regina found the password to hook it up. so thanks regina!! i like it :)
alright well now thats it. for the rest of today i plan on just relaxing. and i get to talk to my family tonight! so i look forward to that. and now that my computer is working we can use ichat and have a video chat. that should be nice.
okay thats all :)

today was defintely not boring

Today was by far the greatest day of school ever.
but starting with tuesday! today was so cool i cant remember. the end :)
on to today! so today all the little kids and their parents came to see if they wanted to send their kids to our school. so naturally we had to involve fire to make our school seem cooler. so sam and i went to german and then we spent the rest of the day in our chemistry class showing the same experiments over and over again. but it was fun! so the first one was where we had a redbull can that had the top cut off and a small hole in the bottom. we gilled it with some sort of gas and then lit top (which was the bottom of the can). after a while the can started to "sing" and then it popped and flew up and hit the ceiling. then there was a flask that had some stuff in it.. i didnt really understand this one but when you shook the flask the color of the liquid inside turned blue. then after it sat for a bit it went back to being clear. then there was one where we made a top levitate! it was with a magnet of course but it was still cool. then there were the fire experiments! the first one we put some cotton in our hand and then heated a glass rod. when the rod was hot enough you touch it on the cotton and it bursts into flames! then the other one we ate fire! that was my favorite. it was so cool. ill add the videos on here because it was awesome:)







and i have to add this video of our chem teacher because he is crazy insane at juggling. he did a bunch of other tricks too. it was so cool.



and the good news is gym was cancelled for today!!!!! the bad news is we have to do it tomorrow. and guess what were doing. NORDIC WALKING. shoot me. please.

mens volleyball, halloween parties, and shopping. oh my!

alright sorry i didnt update for a few days.. i was too lazy:)
so starting with friday then. that evening sam and i decided to go to a basketball game. but instead of it being a basketball game it ended up being a mens volleyball game. that can get pretty intense. it was so funny. me andsam had no idea what was going on but it was entertaining anyway. then we went to the turmcafe to meet up with friends from school. but we decided to go to a different place instead so we walked there and hungout there all night. it was very funny. then sams host parents picked us up on the way home from a psrty that they were at.
saturday morning i went to linz with sam and we went shopping:) it was fun and we did a good job of only getting what we came for. so that was good. then at 4 we went to the afs get together at the train station and hungout there for a while. then we came back to my house where we learned some country styled dances for music class and just hungout until everyone else going to the halloween party came. then we went to the party and i dont think we came home until like 4:30ishh. it was crazy. the music was really good and i did a lot dancing.
then on sunday it was very chill. regina and i were home alone because the rest of the family was in steyer. and then today we also did nothing. but then i had to go to my german lesson. so i was there for two hours and then came back. no im just hanging out thinking about how i do not want to go to school tomorrow:( oh well. i have music class!

boredom

today was painfully boring. really. it was not good. school seemed to last forever. so first period sam and i had german with the second class and they were reading the paper they wrote. and guess what it was about. someone murdering them when they were home alone! or them being home alone with a murderer in their house or something like that. it was weird. i still dont understand why they are having 12 year olds write about that. but whatever. since school ended just as the train was leaving i hungout with sam and tommy and manny and danny for a while. i was so tired when i got home. i took a two hour nap:) then i spent the rest of the evenging hanging out in the living room. im so happy tomorrow is friday. tomorrow is also my moms and tiffanies birthday! so happy early birthday! i love you!

pizza!

the first part of school was not exciting. the only interesting thing that happened was at the very end. but during the two hour break before gym sam, kati, judith, and i went to go get pizza! it was really good:) and we had a good time. then we had gym and gym was okay. first we used these stretchy rubber band things to do workouts with.. idk how to ecplain it. then we played volleyball. i am reallllyyyy bad at volleyball. ahh its not good. so i hope we dont have to play volleyball again. my arms were so red after class! but then i came home and i played the guitar for a little bit! i have the chords for a lot of really good songs. i like it very much:) i danced around with teresa for a while and then we played some sims. well i watched her play sims. but it really donest matter. now im just hanging out. i hope that tomorrow is more interesting!

best episode of greek ever:)

the first thing i have to say is that this weeks episode of greek was the best one they have ever made. just throwing that out there. moving on..
there was finally school again today but it was very boring. music was still fun but not as funny as it usually is. we sang gotta be somebody by nickleback. it was good. after school i went with melina and sam to go get something to eat at a cafe and we hung out there for a while and then sam decided she wanted to finally go to the top of the enns tower! then i went with lukas for a hot chocolate. so after school was very nice. at 5 i went to my german lesson and since we got done early i played some guitar and saw their horses. it was really fun. now i am at home writing a stupid paper for english where we have to take a fairy tale and make it politically corect. most boring thing i have ever had to do for school. but oh well. ill just get it over with.
tomorrow i have gym.. not too excited because i have no idea what were doing and if its trampolines again i wont be happy. i want to play some sort of game all class. that would be fun

Teresa hatte Geburtstag

Heute früh habe ich sooo gut geschlafen und dann hat mich meine Gast Schwester aufgeweckt und mir von dem süßen Welpen vom Nachbarn erzählt! Das war sooo gemein von ihr!!!
Nach dem Mittagessen feierten wir Teresas Geburtstag. Danach spielten wir Karten, es war sooo lustig! Regina und ich verarschten uns die ganze Zeit gegenseitig und es war sooo lustig!
Am Nachmittag ist noch Zilli gekommen, die bei der ich Deutschstunden habe, mit ihrer Familie zu Teresas Geburtstag.
Es war sehr lustig!
Ich habe mein Buch fertig gelesen und ich finde es viel besser als des Film! Ich habe mir den Film gleich angesehen um den Film und das Buch vergleichen zu können und das Buch ist viel besser!!
Eigentlich war der Tag sehr langweilig!
Morgen habe ich Deutsch mit Teresa :-( aber ich freue mich auf die zweite Stunde da ich Musik habe!
See you!

afs second arrival camp

alright so i have a lot to fill you guys in on. so on thursday i went to go get my visa and everything went well and my visa will be ready to be picked up next thursady.
on friday i went to linz so i could meet everyone going to the second arrival camp. when the train came around 2 everyone got on and we ended up going on three trains a bus and a taxi to get to the place we were staying. thats how far away from everything we were. we went to a town called weyer that was actually very nice. the first couple days were cloudy and a little rainy but the last day was very warm and there was sun and blue sky. so once we got there we got our rooms and we had dinner. then we went downstairs to a big room where we did some group activities and then we broke up into small groups. i was in the snake group:) and we just talked about random stuff like where were from and we looked at this picture with a bunch of little people climbing and what not on a tree and had to choose which one would be us. after we were done with groups was more fun. we hung out in a room downstairs where we learned various dances! first of course we had to learn the waltz and im proud to say that because of vera i can waltz super fast! i like it:) but we also learned how to salsa! that was cool. so those were the main two dances we did but there were a couple others. but we sat in that room for a loooong time. and then vale and i went and hung out with the italians for a while. we stayed up verrryyy late. but it was so much fun! then the next morning we had to wake up and go to breakfast at 8:( i was so tired. but i got over it after we went outside and did some energizers and games. but for most of the day we did orientation stuff. but we also got to play around and we played ping pong and we played in the gym they had at the hostel. that night everyone gave a presentation about where they are from and just did something special from their country. im uploading all the videos onto my facebook so you all can see them there:) i got everyones except for the one emily andi did about america. but none of you want to see us say the pledge of allegiance and sing the national anthem. not that interesting. but the rest will be posted!
so after all the presentations we just hungout in the gym all night. then afterwards vale and i went to go hangout with all the latin americans and flavio from italy. it was very funny but i was really tired so i ended up just oging to bed. luckily for me we had the time change and we gained an hour. so i felt much better when i woke up this morning. today we did some more energizers and small group activities. then we had lunch and hungout until we had to walk down to the train station. when we got to the train station we had to wait 30 minutes until the train came. but it was very funny and we made lots of videos:) then the train came and we took that one then switched to another and i got off at st. valentin. so thankfully we didnt have to move around as much. that was really nice. and now i am back at home and it feels very good to be here. then at dinner i got to talk to my mom and greg. that was nice. i miss them!
but now im just hanging out andtraing to get everything uploaded but it takes like an hour for one video.. so it might take a while.
im so happy because there is no school tomorrow!!! woohoo:) so another short week at school and then next saturday there is another afs meeting in linz and i really look forward to seeing everyone again!

long weekends:)

gym today was LAME. the trampolines were barely big enough for one person. but a lot better than nordic walking. so i am at least thankful for that. school was as it always is except in english we listened to the weirdest version of little red riding hood ever written. it was written "politically correct" and it just sounded so funny. but during the two hour break we had before gym sam, kati, judith and i went to mcdonalds:) mmm nothing like greasy food right before gym.
good news!! no school for me tomorrow:) oh im so happy about this. i am going to get my visa with my host dad. and then tomorrow night the people in my clas are going to have a get together that i might go to. so that should be a lot of fun. i look forward to that:) then on friday i have my second arrival camp. and on monday again there is no school:)although i think i already said all of that.. but im so happy about it that i dont really care. long weekends are by far my favorite

nightmares:(

well i have finished my book and i must say i was surprised. i think if anyone is interested in murder mysteries they should read it. it was really good.
so anyways. school today. first i had an hour of german with the second class where sam and i read about cavemen. and then second hour we had music again with everyone else. it was soooo funny! that is definitely my favorite class. so the two songs we sang were hold the line and dancing queen. hold the line was cool because the guys in my class are just plain awesome. i dont know how else to describe them. but im glad im in the same class as them. dancing queen was funny because all the guys were trying to sing the high part. i couldnt stop laughing. but the funniest thing that happend was when the teacher left and clemens just went crazy on the drums. it was good but he was drumming so fast and then all of a sudden he stopped and he just fell down. everyone was laughing and it was probably one of the funniest things i had ever seen. ohh i love that class. the rest of my classes were very boring and i had a test in history. yuck. oh well. all is good now:)
in my german lesson i read a story about a little boy named Franz that was short, looked like a girl and had a really high pitched voice when he got angry.. yes interesting i know.
im so happy because tomorrow is my last day of school for the week! thursday im going to get my visa taken care of because my host dad will be wherever it is that i need to get my visa done so im just going with him then. friday there is no school and theres no school monday either! so i get a 5 day weekend! id say thats pretty solid. i also have my orientation camp this weekend so i hope that is fun.
tomorrow i have gym and we are jumping on trampolines!!! or something like that and i am so excited! i love trampolines! but i did have a nightmare last night. it was really really scary. i dreamt that i went to gym and instead of trampolines our teacher made us NORDIC WALK around the gym!! i am absolutely terrified that that will actually happen. fingers crossed that we will in fact be jumping on trampolines!

sheeeepsheepsheep:)

well i think regina will hit me for making sheeeepsheepsheep:)the title of my blog. i wont say why because that would just be cruisin for a bruisin. so ill just leave it at that:)
school was not as fun as most mondays because there was no music class. but instead after school i went to go have a coffee with lukas. that was very nice:)
and i gave a presentation about alaska in my english class. that was fun too.
so tonight we had our workout class. that was funny. haha all i can say about it is sheep. and regina attacked me with the mats.. haha so funny. oh she will hit me again for talking about it. haha but its worth it:)
and i got a bunch of music from sam today! i like it all very much. so thanks! well i look forward to music class tomorrow. although i only get one hour because sam and i have to go to take german with the second class for the first hour:( and then tomorrow night i have my german lesson! so that means i have to finish the book my teacher lent me! goodbye:)

i love weekends:)

well saturday during the day was very chill. i mostly read and just hung around.
saturday night was so funny. so sam, her host sister and i went to the ennsdance but the music gave me a headache because it was just a constant bass that all sounded the same. like im pretty sure they played the same song the whole time we were there.. so after a while we left and sam and i met up with tommy and sophie at the turmcafe. i am so happy we did that instead of the dance. it was so much fun and it was really funny.
today was also a very relaxing day. i was so tired from last night and i just wanted to sleep all day. but i read some more and this book is really cool! i also put the finishing touches on my powerpoint about alaska for tomorrow. so im all set for school. the sad thing is there is no music class tomorrow:( but tommy said he would teach me how to play guitar so i look forward to that! and after school im getting a coffee or something with lukas so that should be nice as well:)
i got to talk to my parents tonight! i liked that a lot. and i chatted with andrew and josh a bit. i wish more people would get online! i love and miss everyone!

die nibelungen

yesterday was a very funny day. after school sam and i walked to her house and hungout there for a while where she happened to do something that she had been avoiding all week. i cant say what it is because she would be very upset with me. but just know it was hilarious. but we had some toast with nutella and she gave me some of her music! then at 3 we went back to enns to meet melina at a cafe and we ast there and talked for a couple hours before we went to our train. but while we were there we met grandma enns who talked to us for a bit and she was nice although i dont think she knows any english. but that doesnt matter. so after the cafe we stopped at a crafts store where i picked out some string so sam can make me a bracelet and then we walked to the train that took us to linz. once we got to linz we walked to the mcdonalds where we got some potato slices or whatever there called and sat down until we went to the theater at 7. when 7 came we walked to the theater and met up with our class. the play we saw was very interesting to say the least. i knew what was going on i just couldnt understand why so i made up my own story. heres what i got:

the first act started in a gymnastic place where this purple girl (she wasnt actually purple, just her outfit was) was hanging around in and then these 4 guys came in and started warming up. then the white guy(dressed in all white) came in and was like "hey, i have a mask that makes me invisable!" so then they all went to the underworld to challenge the crazy lesbian vampire lady to a gymnastic dual and the leader guy with the help of the white guy and his invisibility mask cheated and won the dual. so then the crazy lesbian vampire lady had to come back and marry the leader guy. while they were getting married, the purple girl and the white guy also got married. then while the purple girl was swinging around the white guy, with his mask on, helped the leader guy rape the crazy lesbian vampire lady. then the leader guy and crazy lady left and purple girl came back and then spent the night with white guy and when she woke up he was off working out.. and she found the crazy lesbian vampire lady´s underwear and she thought they were for her so she put them on and then white guy came back and was like ahhh dont wear those! and purple girl freaked out and was ike omg what are you doing with these?! and she ran away and then she was talking to crazy lady and was like my husband had these blahblahblah and then the crazy lady realized the leader guy actually wasnt stronger than her and she got all mad and ran away and then everybody got really pissed of at the purple girl for telling the crazy lady and then everyone left except the purple girl and the guy in all black. and they started talking and then all of a sudden she was like "nein nein nein.." and then they left and all the guys were in the forrest and then white guy came and was going crazy and then they were all thirsty so they all went to drink water out of a bucket but when white guy went to go drink they slammed his head in the bucket and killed him and blood went everywhere. then the guy in black picked him up and put him in bed with the purple girl then left. then she woke up and went crazy and eeryone came in and she went all maria on everybody and they carried him off. and that was the end of the first half

during intermission i talked to vale! she was there with her class too. it was so nice to see another afser and i will get to see her again next weekend at our secong arrival camp.

second half:
this half was about the russian mafia. a bunch of detectives came to bust the head of the russian mafia but he was like nooo have some russian vodka and they were like okay! and they partied all night and got super drunk. one guy killed a cucumber with a knife and other guys were singing and playing the guitar. one guy got laid by the russian mafia guys hooker wife. and then his girl with a gun was freaking out about something. and so then they all went to bed and when they woke up they all came out and were laughing and having a good time and what a wonderful world was plaing and then all of a sudden one of the detective guys was like just kidding! im part of the mafia too! and killed everyone except the main russian mafia guy . and that was the end..

so i looked up what the play was actually about and i translated what it said and so here it is:
It is the stuff of epics, medieval Europe, the Friedrich Hebbel, after a long period of oblivion in the 19th Century, rediscovered and processed into a great tragedy: the Nibelung. The dragon tamer Siegfried, supposedly invulnerable hero who is in possession of the legendary Nibelungen treasure, stops at Burgunderhof King Gunther for the hand of Princess Kriemhild. King Gunther granted him this but only if he in turn assists Siegfried in the solicitation of the invincible, virgin Brunhild, queen of Iceland. Siegfried enters into a pact with the Burgundians: By means of his magic hat, he conquers Brunhild for Kriemhild, Gunther and receives for his wife. But the fraud and flies on to the deed of the men follows the revenge of the women wounded to death calls Brunhild Siegfried's death. The burgundy Hagen Tronje, which Siegfried has always been a thorn in the side, treacherously murdered him from behind. Now turn Kriemhild swears revenge and, after her marriage to Etzel, king of the Huns, to lure the Burgundians to the court. At the end there is a war that hardly anyone will survive. Writer and director Volker Schmidt dealt with the tragedy of love and hate, pride and shame and envy and fraud, headed by ruthless revenge and death.
heres the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J8cAnzCsrY

so as you can see i was a little bit off. but no problem. i liked my version the best:)
so after the show sam, tommy, danny, florian and i walked to the train station where we met some other guy who was.. nice. and we went home. i got off with sam in ennsdorf and her host sister took me home. so yesterday was very eventful. i cant wait for tonight! im going to the ennsdance with sam and melina and i think isabelle as well. i promise to take lots of pictures!

im so excited! i just cant hide it:)

so today i went into two of the 3rd classes that my english teacher also teaches to show them pictures and talk about alaska. i actually had a good time. they were all really interested and asked a lot of questions so we ended up talking the whole hour. so that was fun. my other classes were boring.. except math. that was very entertaining. today sam and i sat by tommy and it was very funny. except when tommy through a paper ball at me and then threw one at manny and told him it was me and so manny threw one at me that hit me in the head.. but it was funny. i also have drawings on my arm compliments of tommy. but it definitely made math more interesting because otherwise we werent really doing anything.
after school i went straight to my german lessons. it was a very long lesson today but it was still good. and my teacher gave me a book to read because we still had an hour before we were going to the train station and the lesson was finished. the book is actually really good! its a murder mystery called Death in the Clouds. its about a woman who was killed on an airplane. its very cool.
but all i have to say right now is thank gooooood tomorrow is friday! im so happy for the weekend. i love weekends:) tomorrow my class is going to the theater and im going to the schlosscafe with sam and melina and isabelle. that should be fun:) and then the dance on saturday! oh im so excited. i just cant hide it:)

jump rope:)

today was really fun. well gym was anyway. my other classes were uninteresting. but in gym we played jump rope! haha it sounds lame.. but it was very funny and i learned some new tricks:) i am now able to do a front handspring and then start jumping after. its so cool! sam is crazy good at jump roping though. she made me look like a fool. after jumping for a while we played some two on two. not as exciting becasue there was only four of us.. but better than nothing! isabelle and i totally dominated. sorry sam:)
the weather today was not good! we had a little bit of snow and on and off showers allllll day. yuck. but im happy the weekend is almost here. i have made some good plans and i cant wait to just relax. ive spent all afternoon working on my alaska powerpoint for engligh class which is due monday and im almost done so thats good. tomorrow im going into two of my english teachers other classes to show some pictures and talk about alaska. that should be interesting.
but i might have to start german class with the 2nd class tomorrow! ughh how embarassing. i will be in my 11 year old host sisters class. im thrilled. the good news is that it will help me learn german faster. i learned some new phrases today! although im not really sure how to spell them. so once i figure that out ill let you know.
regina made a cake tonight!! it was really good:) but now since none of my friends have a birthday today i have to come up with a creative title for this blog. hmmmm.

happy birthday andrew!

we had mac and cheese for dinner!!! yuuum:) it was so good.
well school had a good start. as every tuesday does thanks to music. it was very cool today because tommy danny and clemens got to choose what song we sang and they picked hold the line by toto. and they playd it and they projected the lyrics on the wall so everyone could sing along and it was very funny. they are all so good!
the rest of my classes were not as exciting. althiough i did find out that starting next week every tuesday wednesday and friday sam and i will be going to learn german with the second class. woooo. that means ill have a class with my host sister teresa. ohh ill feel so cool:)
but the day ended early which was very nice and i hungout with manny and tommy for a while. that was fun. then i went to the trainstation and i as i was sitting and waiting for the train to come it started rainging! i had to go inside because it was crazy and i didnt like it.
but my german lessons were cancelled today because my teacher fell asleep and didnt hear the phone ringing.. haha but she said that she will pick me up on thursday to have my lesson.
alright well not much else happened today. but i think regina might make a cake:) so i look forward to having some of that.
aaaand i have to say happy birthday to andrew! have fun learning about the alaska marine highway!

happy birthday cam!

today was really gross:( it was super rainy and cold and i didnt like it.english today was better than usual! we had a student teacher from arkansas that was here last year come again. his name is kevin and he will be coming in every other monday to teach us. he seems really cool. which is good because that will make me actually look forward to that class! and then music today was fun. we sang the song cryin by aerosmith. it was a fun song to sing to and with clemens on the drums it was even more fun. other than that school was fairly dull and i looked forward to coming home.
tonight we went to the workout class again. i think i will have single, single, double. single, single, double stuck in my head for the rest of the night...
i cant wait for this week to be over. with all the rain i cant wait to just hangout and relax. on friday my german class is going to a play in linz and then on saturday is the enns dance and i have plans to hangout with friends so i am most definitely looking forward to all of this. and even though it is raining a good friend of mine reminded me of the benefits of it. so i guess that makes me feel a little bit better. otherwise its back to alaska weather with a chances of snow in the morning. accorading to regina. i hope shes wrong..

and i must wish camden a happy birthday today! i hope it was a good one:) and andrews birthday is tomorrow. so happy early birthday! i miss and love you both!

arts and crafts

alright so sarting with yesterday. it was a pretty boring day and i really didnt do too much but that night i met up with sam and tommy at the turmcafe where we hung out until 2 other people from the 8th class joined us and then lukas came later and we all hung out. it was a verrrryyy funny night. not quite as exciting as friday but i think even more entertaining. today was also uneventful. but i did make something cool! i cant upload a picture yet but when i do ill post it! it doesnt look too good because its only the first time i made one but i still like it. what you do is you take cotton and you pull it apart and make layers and then you can make a picture with different colors and then you pour hot water all over it and then pat it down and add soap and then you just rub it for like an hour. it took forever and my arms started to hurt. then you rinse it off and let it dry. mine is still drying but it should be good to go in the morning! for dinner tonight my host moms brother and his girlfriend came and we sat around and talked for a long time. they showed us their picture album of what they did this summer and it was really cool. they went to mexico and the us and they took so many pictures. they also had some funny stories. so that made me think that i should make a scrapbook or something of while im here. a blog just simply isnt enough!
well there is school again tomorrow:( i dont look forward to it because the weather isnt nice anymore and were not really doing anything interesting. but i do have music! which is the best news ive had all day. i hope everyone else had a good weekend!

dirndl

school yesterday was a little more exciting than usual. it certainly was funny. in physics we did a lab that was pretty cool. i was in a group with sam tommy manny and laurence. it was sooo funny. in the lab we had to use lenses and and stuff to make lights on the wall or somethingl ike that and the first one we did kiiinda failed. but then the next two were good! after me and sam helped them out a bit:)
after school sam melina isabelle and i went to the trainstation and went to linz to get oreo shakes and go shopping! first we got oreo shakes and they were fantastic. just as expected. and then we went to the H&M where i got a new jacket and a sweater. and then manuela met up with us and we went around to different stores and looked around. then we came across a dirndl store! sam and i both tried on dirndls and they looked so cute! i liked it very much! i wanted to buy it but i didnt have enough money.. so im saving up and i will get one:) sam and i didnt have cameras with us but we took pictures on our phones so as soon as i can get a picture i will post it!
then before we went back to enns we got chinese food. it was soooo good. i had not had chinese food in so long so it was a very nice treat. and then i have to tell you guys about the bathroom they had at the mall we were at. it was so cool! between the stalls and the sinks there was a glass wall the had bamboo in it and they were alternating with white and brown bamboo and then there was a green light under lighting it all up. and then the sinks werent like normal sinks. there wasnt a basin. it was jsut tilted a little bit and the water would just run off the side and the faucets were about 6 inches wide and the water came out like a fountain. it was so cool! defintely the coolest bathroom i had every been in.
once we got back to enns melina and manuela went one way back home and sam isabelle and i walked toward the center of enns. when we were almost at the center isabelle went to her house and sam and i went on to the turmcafe where we met up with tommy and sophie. and then danny joined us and then laurence and lukas and then more and more people came and it was a really fun night filled with singing and laughing. at midnight sams host dad picked us up and brought me home. it was very fun and i cant wait to go out again tonight!
the only bad thing about yesterday was the bad weather began. it rained a lot and this morning is very cloudy. i dont like it:( oh well today will be fun regardless of the weather!


heres the pictures!!

forrest:)

school today was off to a good start! first period we had bio but our teacher isnt here for whatever reason so we were just in the computer room doing nothing. and then sam and i had a free hour! so that was nice. the rest of the day was very boring and we really didnt do anything.
after school i hung out with manny for a little bit. it was nice but not for very long. when i went to the train station the exchange student from brazil that is in the 6th class was there too and we sat next to eachother on the train and talked for a little bit. but then i rode my bike home where i got something to eat and then spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book. and then i watched glee! i like that show very much!
i am really looking forward to tomorrow! after school sam, melina, isabelle and i are going to Linz! sam wants to get gifts for people back home and were going to get oreo shakes:) then after sam and i will be going to the turmcafe to meet lukas and im sure tommy and hangout. it will be a start to a very fun weekend:)

also for all of you that know forrest, he is about to leaving to go to brazil soon! i suggest all of you read his blog to keep updated. i know i will:)
www.forrestbraziltrip.blogspot.com

was hast du heute in der schule gemacht?

it was absolutely gorgeous out today. the temperature was about 80 degrees:) ohh i like it so much! and its still warm out even though its completely dark. its very nice.
well school today was boring as usual. sam downloaded a psych book so that we could understand what was going on but it just turned out to be incredibly boring. oh well. were still learning! in english class everyone is doing presentations about what they learned last year and since i wasnt here last year im just going to do a presentation about alaska. i was going to do it on a play they read but i read it and it was horrible. badly written and just very stereotypical of teenagers. so i said ill just take the opportunity to talk about alaska because i havent dont that yet. my english teacher asked me to come to two of her other classes next week to answer questions about alaska because her students read something about it. that should be interesting. but how nice am i to give up both of my free hours next thursday to come to her classes? reeeal nice.
today i spoke with sam in german for a bit! and also with tommy. i was just asking them was hast du in der schule gemacht? which means what did you do in school today? and we spoke about that. and then i went around asking whoever i saw was hast du in der schule gemacht. i didnt understand everything that they said but i did get most of it and they told me the word i didnt understand so it was very good. i think every day ill come up with a new phrase to say. i think its a good way to learn.
guess what we did in gym today... nordic walking! not good. and so we walked far and then we walked to our english teachers house so we could collect the walnuts and hazelnuts in her yard for her. the only good thing that came of that was we got to eat something. the walnuts were actually really good! other that that gym was boring. i do not like nordic walking! i wanted to play a game! today gym was moved up two hours so instead of being done at 5 we only went to 3. i liked that much better. although i did miss the two hour break where we can get something to eat. oh well next week were back to the usual schedule.
well i hope the weather continues to stay hot!

pleasee no nordic walking!

well i felt very good waking up this morning:) got a good 9 hours of sleep and was looking forward to another nice day. unfortunately mother nature didnt quite comply as i had hoped... but it was still warm out!
school had a very good start. 2 hours of music. we sang bridge over troubled water and bleeding love. bleeding love was hilarious. between the guys trying to sing the high soprano and tommy playing the drums i couldnt stop laughing. it was truely funny and very enjoyable. my other classes were boring but tomorrow we have gym. cross my fingers there will be no nordic walking. otherwise i look forward to that class.
so i had my second german class today. it went well and id really like to think my german is improving!
well now i am just sitting at the computer listening to the comforting crackle of the fire and the lovely norah jones. i miss everyone at home and i hope all is well.
also i wish forrest good luck in brazil! i hope you have as much fun as i am having:)

put the banana in your ear!

it was a gorgeous day today. the sky was clear and the sun was shining. it was hot:) during our break sam and i went outside because it would have been a crime to wait inside. school itself was again boring. and we had math TWICE today! i did not like that. but oh well. we had music today! and music is definitely my favorite class. all the guys in my class can play every instrument and its really cool! the song we had today was creep and they made it sound really good. i didnt care for the song much though. it wasnt very fun to sing to. i want to sing more upbeat songs! oh well. today was a long day. i had school until 5:( so now i am ready to go to sleep. maybe i will actually be able to wake up tomorrow morning. that would be nice.
i also must say the regina IS the banana king

lazy days

well today was just a boring old sunday. but there is a really cool sunset. although this picture doesnt do it any justice.
today was just a lazy day. no one was doing anything so we just lounged around and i read some and thought about how good this weekend was! i liked it very much and i hope there are many more like it. although im sure there will be:)
well there is school again tomorrow.. that means waking up early. yuuuck. but i think sam will be back!

friday and saturday

sorry i missed yesterday guys. i was waaayyy too tired to blog when i got home. but anyways..
school yesterday was not very excited. and sam was home sick! so i was alittle bit lost. but with some help from alex and judith i managed to get to where i needed to be. but we really didnt do much in any of our classes. for one we had a sub so we didnt do anything at all and tehn the other one the teacher wasnt even in the room so we just messed around. but i did get done with school at 12:15 and then i went home and hungout for a while. later last night i took the train to enns and first met danny and some of his friends in the park behind the castle to hangout. and i met his friend richi who was really nice! he talked to me a lot last night. but then some other people from the 7b class met up with us and we went to the turmcafe where we were joined by carmen and lukas and his friend mo. mo was really nice:) quiet but nice. but then i took the last train back home and fell asleep as soon as i hit the pillow.
today was really fun. i met with lukas and we went to linz for the day. first we walked to the fair that was there and we rode on this one ride.. i cant remember the name but basically we were spinning around and it was really fun. the ride in the middle with the things at each end was what it looked like.

it was really fun. and then we walked around for a while until we saw a coffee shop where they had oreo shakes! i really wanted to get one because at the mcdonalds here they dont have oreo mcflurrys. so i wanted to have the closest thing. and this shake turned out to be wayyy better. i liked it soo much. now everytime i go to linz i will have to get one. but we sat in that coffee place for soo long. when we went in it was still ight outside and it was also very warm. but when we left it was dark and cold! so we took the next train back to enns where we met tommy at the turmcafe and we spent some time with him. it was really funny. and tommy invited me to his band rehearsal on wednesday! so i really look forward to that:)
well now i am off to bed as it is late and i am tired. i hope that everyone at home is doing well!

names day

names day is quite the holiday here. today it was teresas name day and i almost thought it was her birthday. there was wine, cake, presents, flowers, and the beatles. sounds like a birthday to me. but no her birthday is on the 26th. which is just 4 days before my mothers! and tiffanies! happy really early birthday guys! i love you!
but yes so her names day was good i think. we had the cake that regina and i made last night and it was absolutely delicious! it was a chocolate cake with bananas on top and then a cream type thing on top of them and then chocolate on top of that. sooo good:)
school today was really boring. more than usually. really the only interesting thing that happened was in chemistry when we tasted some crystal or something that tasted like lemon. it was really good! but yeah not much else happened. i was done with school at 1:10 and then went home. i was really tired. but the good news is im getting over my cold!! im very happy about that. the bad news... i have two more mosquitoe bites. not so happy about that. oh well.. its not a big deal. im really excited for this weekend. it should be fun:)

picture day

there is no day i hate more than picture day. yuuuck. school pictures ALWAYS look bad. the only good news was that we took a big class photo and you didnt have to get individual photos. but im pretty sure in the picture i have a very confused looking smile on my face.. and there might have been a few with my eyes closed... so hopefully the guy picks the one with my eyes open! that would be nice.
school was alright today. the only fun class was gym. first we did some workout stations and then we played badminton. i liked that! id have to say a was a bit hyper during gym today.. but it was a lot of fun. practicing with chris this summer a little bit helped.
i got two packages from home today! im really happy about that. so now i finally have some more clothes to wear:) thanks mom and dad. just so everyone knows, afs said that you can only bring ONE 44 pound bag with you... because that is definitely enough for 10 months.. so thank you for the packages!!
well now im just realllly tired. and i dont think i will be doing anything else today. wednesday is my lazy day when i get home. maybe ill go read a book:)

14%

i did not want to get up this morning. like at all. all i wanted to do was go back to sleep for a few hours. but never the less i got up. school was kinda boring but the day started with two hours of music. the second hour was cool. we sang two songs. heal the world.. which i dont like.. and then human. it was cool that everyone in the class tried. and there are a few guys who plaed instruments so it actually sounded pretty legit. OH and we had our first physics test. sam and i did it together because normally she doesnt take the tests because its in german and i didnt have to take it at all but we tried! we got a 14%. arent you proud of me mom? but oh well. its the thought that counts. luckily school ended around 12:15 which was reallllyyyy nice.
first sam and i went to a cafe and we got something to eat and then we hungout for a little bit but then we were going to go home. so she went one way and i went the other way to the trainstation. as i was walking down the hill i saw tommy, danny, and lukas walking up the hill and they asked me to join them in the turmcafe. so i hung out with them for a little while and it was.. funny. and then we had to go because lukas had another class, danny had a haircut and im not really sure what tommy did... but thats not really important. so then i walked with lukas until the school and then came home.
at four my host moms sister came and picked me up for my first german lesson! i think it went really well and for dinner tonight we spoke mostly in german which is really good!
the bad news is that picture day is tomorow. yuuuck. i hate picture day. oh well. i just have to remember to smile big and keep my eyes open! :)

cold

well unfortunately i have a bit of a head cold but hopefully it goes away soon so i can go out and have fun this weekend!
school was pretty boring as usual but we had music today. that was interesting. but we didnt get done until like 4ish i think? im not sure but im sad that now monday are going to be long days. my english teacher told me that in the 3rd class she teaches their english book has a thing about alaska in it so she wants me to come into the class ynd answer questions and what not about alaska. yayyy.
after school i went to the trainstation and sat there for like 30 minutes and when the train came i got on. but it was sooo crowded! i had to stand. then we went to the first stop on the way back home, which is ennsdorf, and only a few people got off but not enough to be able to sit down. and then we started going again but then instead of going straight to st. valentin like usual, the train went left! and so i ended up in st. panteleon or something like that. so by complete accident i got to see another city. wooo. but the goos news was that my host mom h ad to pick johanna up from enns because her music class was canceled so she came and picked me up too. thank goodness for that
well tonight instead of going to both pilates and the other class regina and i only went to the second class. it was fun but the instructor decided to try and talk to me about something and i had absolutely no idea what she said. johanna had to tell her that i only spoke english. so im pretty sure the whole class knows that i cant speak german because the instructor uses a microphone. yayyy.
well im really tired now and so i think i will go to bed soon. but first i ahve to finish ready little girl lies. its for english and my class read it alst year but now i have to read it so i can do a presentaion about it.. i dont know. its really not very good at all. its clear that it was written by an adult who took the extremities of being a teenager a little bit too far. but oh well. im off to go eat some cake and get back all the calories i just burned:)

ball :)

this weekend was by far one of the best weekends i have ever had.
first of all the ball was hilarious.

we left the house at around 10 and then the ball didnt officially end until 3 but everyone hung around after. the ball itself was veryyyy entertaining. not only were the people i met really really funny but the music was really good and the dancing was fun. they had a live band that played sons such as its raining men and i want you to want me(which has been stuck in my head ever since). it was a very fun night and i was so tired this morning when i woke up.
today i went to enns and met lukas there to get something to drink and then hangout for a while. it was really nice. we went to a cafe and hungout there for a bit and then we went to the top of the tower in enns where you could see everything. it was a very beautifull view. lukas told me about some of the history and what not and it was really cool and really high up. then we walked to the castle and walked through the garden thing in the middle and out the other side where there was a park and we sat and talked there for a while. hes really nice and we had a good time.
well even though this weekend was awesome im kind of looking forward to school tomorrow. :)

new shoes!

last night was soooo much fun. a bunch of people from my class and other classes met up at a cafe in enns called turm and we hungout there for a few hours. i met people and of course saw some good looking people. i got to know the people i have class with a lot better and it was cool to just talk with everyone. i found out that some of the boys in my class have a band and they have a show in november that they invited me to. so im really excited for that!
the weirdest thing was that even though i was the last one at home to go to bed last night i was the first to wake up! i have no idea why. but i went downstairs and had a nicec breakfast with my host parents and then hung out until regina, johanna and i went to linz. Today we had an afs meeting but before that the three of us went shopping and i got new shoes! im very happy i got them because i needed new ones very badly. i got them from H&M which is an amzing store and they were only 12 euros. thats a pretty good price i think. so they should last me a while. but then after that johanna and i went to the afs meeting while regina kept shopping. im sorry but the afs meeting was so boring! it wasnt really even like a meeting. it was more of a sit and chat with the other students staying in the same area of austtria as you. that was boring for me because i was the only american there and everyone else was speaking spanish and italian. since i speak neither i just kinda sat with johanna and did nothing. i talked to valentina for a little bit but then i just talked to some host moms and what not. so you can imagine how happy johanna and i were when regina came and rescued us. i was very happy to be away and i dont plan on going to the next one of those mini meetings. ill wait for when everyone gets together so i can meet up with julia and belle again! i miss them dearly. but that will come soon enough. anyways. the only problem after that was our train was 20 minutes late. but we made it home and had dinner and now were just hanging out until other people come over for the pre-ball get together. and then we will go to the ball! im really excited for this. i think it will be a lot of fun. but speaking of balls i hope everyone back home had fun at homecoming! even with the wristbands....

naps and apple strudel

today was wonderfully short. it started with having our first class canceled. We were supposed to have german but since our teacher had gone with her class on a feild trip for the week, which was my sisters class so thank you teresa, we were spared. the other classes consisted mostly of taking notes but i got done at 12:15 and come home. I really have not done a thing since i have been home. i had some food with my host parents and then i went upstairs and listened to music until i fell asleep. it was a well needed nap and now im feeling very refreshed and ready to go out and have fun tonight! other than that theres just the matter of the apple strudel in the kitchen that is just calling my name...



alright i HAD to take a break and eat it. i have only one word to say about it: delicious.
moving on.. i really look forward to the rest of this weekend. its going to be a good one:)

kaiserschmarrn

i think for this post ill begin with the last thing i did today. dinner! we had kaiserschmarrn. soooo good:) according to wikipedia, kaiser is translated as emperor and schmarrn is translated directly us mishmash. so basically i had emperor mess tonight. its kind of like a pacake that has been shredded and then had powdered sugar thrown on top of it. but it was like 10times better than any pancake ive ever had. "Kaiserschmarrn is a light, caramelized pancake made from a sweet batter with flour, eggs, sugar, salt and milk, baked in butter." mmmm:)
well today was only a little more exciting day in school than most. in chem we got to do a lab! thanks to mrs.gardner i knew everything we were tlaking about. all the sufates and carbonates and nitrates came back. lucky for me i could remember. but the lab was fun and in the end we got to use a bunsen burner to light stuff on fire! it was a fun lab and definitely made that class go by a lot faster than it did the first day. but then the other classes were quite dull. in english everyone has to give presentations starting next week on things they learned last year just as a reminder. since i wasnt here last year and everyone had already picked what they were going to present, the teacher gave me the only thing left. so i have to read a play and then just make a powerpoint or something saying what it was about. im sorry but i dont see the point in doing all these presentations. if they learned all that stuff last year why do they hae to talk about it agian? oh well ill do it. bthe best part about today was we got out of classes earlier than usual and so sam and i hung out a little bit while she waited for her bus and then i took the train home. and i still managed to get home around 1. that was sooo nice. i just ate soething and then read for the rest of the afternoon. i finally finished the memory keepers daughter. which was a really good book. and andrew was completely wrong about how it ended... but thats okayy.
well i look forward to tomorrow and hanging out with friends from my class! this weekend will be a very good one:)

basketball!

today i got to play basketball!!! alright ill get back to that later
so school today was pretty boring. as usual. we had chem for the first time and i had no idea what they were talking about. noooot good. but i talked to my teacher after class and he said that if i ever had any questions that i could just ask him after class. so at least that will be good. psych today was killer as always. we had to take notes and i have absolutely no idea what nay of mine say. so im going to team up with the dictionary.com translater and figure out whats going on! so after a few classes we had a two hour break until gym, which is at three. during the break sam and i went to the billa to grab a nack and then came back to our classroom where we sat and ate with kati and judith. then it was time for gym! we started off playing weird versions of tag and some other.. interesting things. and then we played hockey. my team lost.. both times. my team was not very good at it. but then we got to play basketball. and my team absolutely KILLED the other team. it was so much fun. it brought me back to the good times at the ak club. well almost. no one really knew how to play. everyone was travelling left and right with a couple of double dribbles here and there. buuuut none the less it was still fun.
i look forward to my bed tonight. im sooo tired. going to bed early tonight is not a bad idea.
I talked to julia tonight! that was really nice. i havent actually talked to her since we left orientation. im so excited to see her again!
well my plans for friday are on, the afs meeting in Linz will be great and im excited for the ball this weekend. johanna was trying on dresses tonight to see what she should wear and so now i am also thinking about what i should wear. all the teenagers in st.valentin will be there!

hiking feild trip

today our class had a feild trip. a hiking feild trip. as boring as that seems it was actually really fun. we met at the train station in enns at 8am. i got there about half an hour early at the same time as manny. so we were the first people there. it was actually really nice to just sit and talk with him. hes really nice. and he dances! he didnt know what the word for the type of dancing was in english but he made a ballroom dancing type movement so thats what i assume it is. i think thats so cool! more guys should do ballroom dancing! he says its through the school which is really cool.
when we left the train station we went to Garsten and then we walked all the way up to the top of the mountain. it wasnt very hard because we were mostly walking up concrete paths and up meadows and what not. it wasnt until the end that we actually walked through forrest. when we got to the top there was this super tall wood tower thing that we all climbed up. there were SO many stairs. but it was well worth it. i dont have any of the pictures yet but i will get them soon! once we sat up in the tower for a little we went back down the the gasthaus and sam and i sat down at a table together. we were the first girls down and so we sat at the table next to the table filled with most of the boys in our class. but since we looked so lonely, manny, danny and tommy came and sat with us. we had an.. interesting lunch. it was very funny. and they were very gentlemen like. tommy brought us a drink from inside and ordered us some fries. then when the guy brought out the fries all the guys were like "ladies first". it was so cute:) then clemens, or pedro as he is sometimes called, joined us. it was fun andthey invited sam and i out on friday. so i think we might do that! also on saturday is the ball in st. valentin. that should be fun:) im looking forward to it.
a week from today i start my german lessons. my host moms sister is a german teacher and said that she will help me learn german once or twice a week. that will help a lot!
so tomorrow i have gym class. i have my fingers crossed that there will be no nordic walking!!

glee:)

right now i am sitting at the computer smelling a wonderfull chocolate cake that regina is making and feeling sooo tired. with hiking yesterday, speed walking to school this morning from the train, and then the pilates and dance areobic type classes we took tonight i am completely worn out. but good news! more hiking awaits me tomorrow. and maybe some more nordic walking in gym on wednesday. omgggg. come thursday i wont want to walk anywhere. well whats good about tomorrow is that i dont have any classes. even though i had a short day anyways. but i do get an extra hour of sleep!! i like that a lot.
well school was not bad today. i got a really bad headache though. i think its from hearing so much german all the time. lucky for me we had our last two classes in english. geography and then english class. geography was.. ughh i dont know how to describe it. the teacher put sam and i in the spotlight and had everyone test us on what we knew about austria.. totally embarrassing. but oh well. then english was good. we did some worksheets that were fairly simple and everyone knew the answers. i wish i knew german like they know english. that would be nice. but they have also been learning it for a few years now! and soon enough that will happen!
well i just got done watching glee and now i will go to bed with their version of dont stop believin stuck in my head. thanks to sam ive been singing it all day!
well ive been talking to belle and julia and it looks like we have made plans for the 13th of october! im so excited! i miss them very much and i cant wait to catch up in person. that also happens to be andrews birthday. so happy early birthday andrew!

schoberstein

today we hiked up schoberstein. it took a long time but it was still fun. the path was so slippery though! it had rained a couple days ago so everything was all muddy. but i took a lot of pictures! most of which are on my facebook. but the uploader isnt working very well so im not putting up all of them.
for some reason today almost everyone we passed walking down felt the need to say something to me. and of course i had no idea what they were saying. and one time there was a group of guys walking behind us and one of them was saying something to me but i had no idea! i thought he was talking to his friends. ugh soo embarrassing. although not nearly as embarrassing as johanna turning around and saying "sorry she only speaks english" in english. hahaha it was hilarious. anyway, this trip took up the whole day. so we came home and had dinner and thats it.not a super exciting day but it was fun!
oh! and i got to talk to my parents today! so that was nice.
well school tomorrow. ughh. but class hiking trip tuesday. not quite as rigorous as today. actually everyone started laughing when our teacher said hike. they all said it wasnt much of a hill at all. so it should be a fun day.
i love and miss you guys!

hunting mosquitoes

hey sorry i missed last night. ill explain why later.
but yesterday was a nice day. i got to sleep an extra hour because i didnt have a first class. and then i thought i would only have three classes but i ended up having four because math was added to the schedule. but it really wasnt bad because i know whats going on in math. so yesterday i had history, pysch, physics, and math. psych was kinda fun. we played two truths and a lie. of course i didnt understand everyone.. but sam helped me and told me what she heard. so that was good. but everyone believed my lie;) 1. i have moved 5 times in 3 different states. 2. i did ice skating for 4 years. 3. i won high jump at state for track. if you are reading this and are truely ma friend you would know which one the lie is. but they did not. they assumed alaska, ice skating? makes sense right?nahh. but thats okay.
after school sam and i went to a cafe where we had schinken käsetoast. basically grilled cheese with ham. it was delicious! and after we each got a sweet and i got a chocolate cake with cherries on top. it was soooo good. i have been eating soo much since ive gotten here. all the food is so good and ive been walking so much so im always hungry. i think soon ill be starting a pilates class or something. there are a bunch of workout classes that i can choose from and so im going to take one of those. but after tht i went home and just hung out until we went to go visit the cousins.it was a lot of fun. i met three of them (because evan was out of the house) the youngest one was laurence, then there was david and gerald. they were all cool and i guess were all getting together again soon. so that should be fun! well we didnt get home until 10 and i was really tired so i just went straight to bed. well after i killed the last mosquitoe!
jesusss they were eating me alive! i have 5 bites on my left hand, 7 on my left arm, 3 on my back, 6 on my right hand, 8 on my right arm, 4 on my left leg, 1 on my right leg, 1 on my left foot, 1 on my neck, and 6 on my face! thats 42 bug bites! ive been hunting those suckers for a week now and i think i got the last one last night. (knock on wood)
but they wont stop me from going out and having a good time tonight!

Linz

school today was mostly the same as usual just without so much confusion. first we had psych, which was alright, then sam and i had a break while they had latin class. Physics was next, i like that class because our homeroom teacher is our teacher and shes really nice. after we had the big pause! which is actually only 15 minutes but thats the time when you can get something to eat or whatever. during that time i went to the service room so i could get my school account for the computers set up. then we had english. but i guess our english teacher isnt here or something so our homeroom teacher just sat in the class and went over all the physics stuff again for the people in our class who missed the earlier calss because of another class they had. next was german. that class gave me a headache. there was so much to read and everyone reads soooo fast! i kept getting lost because i would try to read along but it just didnt work. and we got a book to read called: Jugend ohne Gott. which i wont be able to read because its in german!uhgg. but i guess my german teacher is also teresas homeroom teacher so i guess thats good? but last was math. and we didnt do too much because our teacher talked a lot today but near the end of class she started doing stuff and it looks like were going to be starting with some graphing stuff and finding volumes and such. so y=mx+b (which they use y=kx+d) and the quadratic equation are coming back! i actually dont mind that at all. so math should be good. the only thing is that the way they right math is so different! like when they are multiplying they dont use an x or even a dot. they use a period. at first i thought they were saying 14.8 and i could figure out where they got that number until sam told me that meant multiply. and then for decimals they use commas. thats going to take some getting used to. but oh well.
after school sam, melina and i went to linz!


MarcusPlatz was soo cool! it was a huge shopping mall with stores like H&M and the new yorker and other stores that i just cant remember the name of... but it was really cool. it was a long day and now im very tired. good news though! tomorrow i only have three hours of school! my first class is at 8:30 so ill get the rest of the day to do whatever i please:)

walking

i am soooo tired. today was such along day and i did a crazy amount of walking. so classes today. first i had physics, then biology, then geography, then psychology, a four hour break, then gym for two hours. classes in german: 4. classes in english: 1. forget basketball, geography is the one class i dont have to concentrate so hard on what everyone is saying. im starting to get headaches from all the german! the good news about physics though is that the teacher is also my homeroom teacher and she likes me so she will repeat some of the stuff she says in english. well classes actually go by pretty quickly so thats good.
but the walking is killing me! im going to be in crazy good shape when i come back. so first in the morning i rode my bike to the train station then took the train to enns. then i walked to the school from the train station. which is about a 10 minute walk if i walk fast. and then during the 4 hour break sam and i walked first to a bakery to get some food and then we walked allllll the way to ennsdorf which is the next town over, so sam could get shoes for gym, which took like 30 minutes and then we had to walk alllll the way back. and then for gym we went nordic walking. for TWO HOURS! not only was that incredibly boring but it was also a lot of walking. so school got over at 5 and then melina and i started to walk to the train station but i missed the train. so then we walked allll the way to her house. which wasnt really too far. but then her dad drove me back to the train station in st.valentin so i could get my bike. and then i had to bike uphill back home. so i am exhausted.
tomorrow should be a good day though. first of all school should be shorter. and then after school sam, melina and i are going to linz! melina is going to show us a really good bakery or cafe or something and then she is going to take us to where the sachertorte is really good! so im really excited for that! well im off to bed. im completely worn out from today. i love and miss you all!

second day of school

school today was still pretty good. but we actually had to change classrooms today and that got confusing! i wasnt really sure where i was going or what i was supposed to do. but somehow i managed. thank god. ughh speaking of god. i had to go to church after school with my class for like a celebration of the beginning of school or whatever. i dont know. i really didnt pay attention and i felt like i was about to fall asleep. i was absolutely exhausted. sally wasnt kidding when she told us we would be tired for like no reason.
anyway. back to school. today they handed out our books. and i havfe like 10. no joke. theres one kid who has like 12. 12 classes! thats crazy. at least the books are small. thats good. today the only classes i had were music and biology. they were alright but neither of those teachers speaks english.. not good. im going to have to learn german faster. i have no idea what classes i have tomorrow but i do know that i have basketball in the afternoon! thats really good news. apparently the teacher spen a year in america and loves american sports. so he speaks english and we share a common interest. he might just be my favorite teacher and i havent even met him yet.
so last night regina, johanna, johanna and i went to this really cool bar where the waitress spoke english! but anyways. i tried sturm. that is some gooood stuff. the waitress told me i must come back soon so when we go back again i can have some more:) (sorry dad)
i made a new friend today! her name is melina and she was born in new york so she speaks english! she told me a lot about the school and some other stuff and it helped a lot.
well im off to watch some tv with regina before bed. die simpsons auf deutsch! noo idea what theyre saying.. tschues!

first day of school

the first day of school is supposed to be super exciting because you get to see all your friends all the time again mixed in with a little dread because of that nasty homework. but today i was just nervous as hell. school was the last place i wanted to go. i didnt know anyone. i dont speak german. to top it all off it was raining. greeeaat. i got to school and teresa and her friend went off to their class and i went to mine. i walked into class 7a and sat down. i couldnt have been sitting down for longer than a minute when a girl came and sat down next to me and introduced herself. i started talking to some other girls and they invited me to sit with them in their row. so im sitting in the back row with three other girls and then infront of us are two more girls. then the rest of the class is boys! soo many boys. anways. one if the girls sitting infront of us is also an exchange student! her name is sam and she is from australia. she said that since we skip some of the classes, like language and religion, she will help me with my german during that time! so thats good.
school was only about two hours long today and after sam invited me to walk around enns with her. we went to a bakery and got something to eat and she showed me the castle and the library and then when we were walking down one street a boy from our class, named danny, invited us into the cafe he and some other boys from our class and a few girls from another class were sitting in. so we went in and sat with them. after that sam went home and they invited me to go to mcdonalds with them. i walked there with danny and manny and they were both very nice. and theyare both very good at speaking english! which is good for me. they told me that at first sam was the same way and couldnt speak any german but now she is very good at speaking it. so i look forward to the day i can have a good conversation with them! after mcdonalds we walked to the train station. the girls invited me to go to linz and see a film with them but i didnt go because it would be in german and i wouldnt understand and i felt like i was starting to overstay my welcome. so they helped to make sure i got on my train to st.valentin and i was on my way back home.
so overall my day was very good. i dont know what i was so nervous about! i wont say i look forward to going to school because school means work. but its really not bad:)

vienna

today was a good day. we had a 7am wake up call so wed could take the train to vienna. it took about an hour and a half to get there but the trains are very comfortable so it was okay. we went to vienna so that we could go to the museum and see an art exhibition. it was actually pretty cool. but regina, teresa and i got tired and left. we went out to a park so we could sit down and eat. then we walked to a starbucks and i got my grande double chocolate chip frappe. ahhh i love those. and there was a reeaaaalllyyyy cute guy working there that spoke english! so that was a bonus (happy mikayla?). anywayyys. then we met back up and took the train back home. the coolest thing was that you could put down your seat and the seat across from you to make a bed! it was so cool. i took a nap:)
when we got back home regina and i went to the neighbors because they have a basketball hoop! its not very good though because it has no net, its only half attached to the wall and its waaayyy too high. but i was happy to play some basketball again!
tomorrow there is school! im soooo nervous. the good news is that it is only for two hours. the weird news is i have to go to church with my class after... that should be interesting.
well im off to go call my mom! you can go look on my facebook for pictures from today:)

du hast einen vogel!

alright. so today was another relaxation day. i hung out with all my sisters and we played cards and made jokes. i learned a new phrase! Du hast einen vogel! haha it means your crazy. so i think its a very good thing to know how to say. we also helped our mom cut plums in half and take the pits out so we can dry them in the oven. they are very good!
i actually just got back from a bar with regina, johanna, klara, and klara´s sister. it was soooooo hot in there. but we each had a glass of wine and half a pizza and we shared an ice tea. believe it or not mom i had mushrooms for dinner and on my pizza. and i actually ate them! i know, a big step up.
so tomorrowwe go to vienna! there is an exhibition that johanna wants to see so we are all going. it should be really cool. and regina says that vienna has the best eis so im excited!
well i wish all my boys luck in their football game today! :)

Salzburg

sorry i missed yesterday guys. i was really tired and fell asleep early. although i wouldnt have had much to say. all i did was hangout and then teresa and i labeled things in my room with the german word on it so i could remember what they were.
today was much more exciting though!
today regina, johanna, and reginas friends klara and johanna, and i took the train to salzburg. it was fun:) first we went to mcdonalds, which they all call micky. it was very good and i bet it was healthier than our mcdonalds too. not as much grease. after that we went to a little cafe called the afro lounge. everything inside is pink! it was a cool cafe and the hot chocolate was very good.
i saw lots of cool stuff when we were walking around and i will be adding a few pictures to my facebook when i get the chance so if you would like to see them then take a look:)
well i hate to cut this short but its time for german lessons with teresa! so i will write more tomorrow. tschues!