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!

Zoo

I PET A ZEBRAAA! haha im sorry. but im really excited about that. we went to the zoo today in the next town over and it was siiick. way better than the zoo we have. you can feed almost all the animals and pet them. they are all so close! it was crazy. and there is also a playground for the kids which is HUGE. i wish i had brought my camera becuase it was awesome. next time we go i will be sure to remember to bring it. well that was pretty much all i did today. mmm more english-german lessons with teresa. watched some tv with everyone. das ist alles.

ohhh i forgot to tell you what we had for dinner last night. apple strudle. yeahh apparently that is a dinner food here. ive only had that for dessert. not that im complaning :)
after every meal we always have something sweet. i lovee it.
well i miss everyone at home very much!! if i can get a chance to call soon i will! i just dont know if my host family has long distance and their phone is also very quiet. so we will see what happens. gute nacht:)

Bad News

Today i went to go see the principle of my new school and i saw what class i will be in. Im going to be in class 7A. there were two other classes but the principle said 7A is the best for me because one of the other classes has English, Spanish, French, and Latin classes and the other is a slacker class where no one does anyything. Also in my class is another exchange student from Australia. that might help me because then she will know how i feel. but we will see how that goes. My school is in Enns so that means i have to take the train every morning. So i have to walk or ride a bike to the train station which is about 15 minutes away from my house and then when i get of the train its about 6 miles to the school. that means i will be getting a lot of exercise in! the funny thing about my school is that it is a couple different buildings and right next to the one that has my classroom in it there is a building that has a cafe, bar, and a hair salon. so during the pause i can grab a beer and a roll and then go get my haircut if i want. not that i will want to but if for whatever reason i wish to do so i can.
Alright. now for the bad news. there is no basketball team in st. valentin!!! my school might not have anything either. the principle said they may have a class for boys but maybe not for girls. ughhh. my host mom said that we can look in Linz though so we will see. I hope we find one! Today my host sister Johanna showed us a list of things that we can go do in st. valentin, athletics wise, and there was a salsa class! maybe i could take that haha. if that the case then Chris you better get ready to dance with me when i get back!! but no i dont know. we will see.
tonight my liaison came to visit us. she was very nice and said that there is a musical that is coming back here to Austria and if i wanted i could come stay with her for a weekend and she would take me to see it. i cant remember the name but it had something to do with vampires. so it must be good! haha i dont know... im sure it will be though.
Teresa and i have a system worked out. I will help her with her english and she will help me with my german. She has a book for her school and she has diferent activities like using they`re, there, and their. so she would figure out which one to use. then she would read the sentence in english and i would say the sentence in german. She is much better at english than i am at german.. oh well i think this will help a lot. haha ahhh.
well das ist alles for tonight. bed time! Gute Nacht:)

Host Family

The next day at breakfast guess what i tried. Dried fish. yuuuuuum. The boy from Iceland was eating it and said it was a traditional snack. It was strangely good. Although it made Julia throwup.. not so good. After breakfast we just had language groups and then the people who were taking a train to go meet their host familes left and the rest of us waited to get picked up. Waiting for my family was one of the most exciting things ever. I was kind of nervous but mostly very very excited. Everyone was waiting in front of the hostel and watching as familes would come. When i saw mine i was verryyy happy. My mom, dad, and youngest host sister, Teresa, came to pick me up. It was a short ride to St. Valentin and when we arrived in town I saw that it was very small. My new house is on a hill and there are only two other houses by it. The house is HUGE. it used to be a farm but now has been made into a house. The room i am sitting in now used to be the barn. Before the couches and piano were put in there were five cows. Here is something my mom will love... Our neighbors are still farmers and apparently have cows and pigs. yes mom, pigs. See how close i was to living on a pig farm? ONE house away! Anyway... my family doesnt ecen use their whole house. They rent out the other half to some other people. But between the two parts is a patio and garden. Its so pretty and we eat in the sunshine. The weather is so nice! it was really hot today. Part of the patio had a cover and on the cover are grapes. tons of them. my host mom said i could go and eat them whenever i wanted. Their backyard is also very big. In the yard there are plums growing, They also have a dog and two cats. One of the cats is a baby version of Chris and Robbie's cat. She is sooooo cute. They absolutely love the salmon treats i brought them. So as far as I know I am on their good side. Nora, the dog, is currently laying down beside me:)
Today we went to go get food from the store because i guess they didnt have any food at home. Regina, my oldest host sister, and I went in first while my host dad and Teresa went to another store. When we were checking out the man in front of us turned around and said that it was nice for him to hear some english. We talked for a while and he said that i was going to have to learn Austrian because the dialext here is so different from in Germany so it might as well be a different language. I guess acing AP German next year wont be as easy as i thought..
Later today Regina and I went to go have some ice cream with two of her friends. They were both very nice but they spoke in German the whole time so I didnt know what they were talking about! Every so often they would tell me what they were talking about and would talk to me for a bit. They said that soom I would be able to speak with them too but it might take a few months to become fluent. I have some good news though! I was invited to one of the girls birthday party thats soon. She said that there were going to be many people there so it will be a lot of fun :)

Tonight after dinner my host mother announced that it was Regina's name day. everyone had forgotten about it until then. so in honor of her name we each had a glass of wine. so happy name day Regina!

Well tomorrow I will meet the principle of my new school and my liaison. Wish me luck!

Arrival Camp

Once we reached Austria and walked out to the main area there was a group of AFS volunteers waiting for us. They put us on a bus that took us to where the hostel was abotu an hour away. I fell asleep on the bus so i missed the sight seeing part but I saw the pictures that Sebastian took so i think im okay. When our bus pulled up all the volunteers were waiting outside and as soon as they saw us they started cheering and doing the wave. When we got inside they told us what room we were staying in and i was in room 126. My roommates were: Manon from France, Valentina from Chile, Jaime from Hong Kong, Michaela from Italy, and Olivia from Finland. They were all really nice. I spent a lot of time with Olivia and the other girls from Finland and they taught me how to count to five and say thank you and your welcome in Finish! Im not sure about the spelling but one: okshi, two: kaksi, three: golome, four: nalea, five: vease, thank you: quitos, your welcome: olahova.
The second day of the camp was the most fun because instead of just being in our language groups, which meant all the people that were native english speakers, we were in a group with people that were going to the same area in Austria. Even though technically St.Valentin is in lower Austria, I was put in the upper Austria group because that is where i will be going to school. It was fun to meet people from other countries. I talked to some really cool people from Italy and one of the girls looked exactly like monica from friends! Anywas, everyone was very nice.
That night after dinner almost everyone went to a building nearby where there was a dance! First, the volunteers taught us how to waltz. It is fairly simple but when it came to turning i just completely forgot what i was doing. Oh well, in time I will be able to dance it perfectly. After we learned that they began to play a bunch of music that i assume is played in the clubs down in mexico and south america. It was sooo much fun. The dance ended a bit before 10 because that was when our curfew was supposed to be. But since it was our last night they allowed us to stay up until 11. Everyone went back to the hostel and when Julia and I got there we saw Christian, who is from Mexico, and we talked about wanting to play foosball but we need euros to get the ball. Brianna walked by and said that she had some. so we played Christian and Brianna against Julia and me. We lost by one:( we were doing so well in the beginning but then brianna had some crazy shots from the backfeild and Julia scored on US! but oh well we had fun anyway. So then Julia and I went up to my room and found Olivia but then we decided to go back downstairs to the cafeteria to get something to drink and sat down. While we were talking, Christian, a guy from Iceland, and a guy from Norway sat down with us. We had an... interesting conversation. It was mostly the guy from Iceland telling us how much it sucked. He said there was always raining and it would be slanted and hurt and the night life was lame. All the parties would start around 3am and there would be fights in the streets over who was from what city. So i guess what he was trying to say was dont go to Iceland. Something else he said though that you might be able to use is when there is an "awkward" silence, people just say "yah yah". So next time no one knows what to say just say that!

Getting to Austria

Flying to Austria was not as bad as I thought it would be. Our first flight to Zurich was almost 6 hours and i sat in seat 39A next to Belle. Somehow she managed to sleep through the entire flight while I only got in a couple hours. The plane was really cool though. On the seat in front of you there was your own little tv that had a nice selection of movies, tv shows, and games. I ended up watching Dragon Ball Z. Super cool I know. But the movies really wasnt that bad and now i can say i have seen it.. although i doubt anyone will ask.
Waiting for our next flight was an... interesting experience. We had flown there with the group going to Spain and we didnt know where our gate was yet so we just went to their gate and hung out with them. Julia and I were sitting downwhen a girl going to Spain came up to us just to say hi and it turned out she was from Homer! Im sorry to say that i cant remember her name but she did say her family was good friends wíth the Mahans so I thought that was pretty cool. As the three of us were talking a girl came up and said there was a bunch of people smoking. Sure enough a small portion of the Austrian and Spain group were in the smoking lounge just puffing away. It was weird to see so many of them were smokers. Or maybe they were just posers but all the same, it was weird. Then there were a few people from Spain who the first thing they did was buy a beer. Mom I am proud to say that I did not go and smoke and dad, i have not had any beer. Yet... :)

orientation in new york

well after a fun two days of orientation, please note the sarcasm, we are finally waiting to go to the airport. the group of other austria goers consists of julia, kalle, scout, ana, emily, belle, sebastian, amanda, brianna,and ariana who are all amazing human beings and especially julia. there are soo many people here. most are going to either spain or france. there were a few people going to russia and one girl going to south africa. the girl going to south africa is from homer so props to her! there is one other girl from alaska. erin! we played on the same soccer team four years ago.

well when we finally get to leave we will first be traveling to zurick and then flying to vienna from there. once we arrive in vienna we will have another orientation!! oh how we all love orientations. on the 6th we leave to go meet our host families . i am so excited to meet my family! i dont want to wait any longer.

right now to pass the time we are playing the classic game of ten fingers. i can never come up with questions for this game. for whatever reason i just cant come up with any ideas. the thing that is lame is that because we are so bored once you get out you get to add five more fingers. aren't we exciting!

well i miss everyone and i will right again once i get to austria!