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!