Tauplitz

I have officially climbed my first mountain! Last Friday I took the train to Bad Mitterndorf (a town in Upper Austria) and got to see all the exchange students again. We also got to meet our "Oldies." They are the exchange students here from Australia, New Zealand, and a few of the South Americans. They came in February and will be leaving in January to go back home. Once we reached Bad Mitterndorf, we took a bus to the tiny village of Tauplitz up in the mountains. That night we had free time to chill and get to know each other better. The place we stayed at was like a bed and breakfast, except it held all 65 of us! However we were obviously the only guests for the weekend because who would want to stay there at the same time as 65 exchange students? The rooms were all different. Some held two people, some four, ours held 8, and there was another room that held 16. The girls in my room were Libbi (USA), Mia (USA), Jackie (Canada), Josie (USA), Chantel (Canada), Ellyn (Canada), and Raquel (Brazil). It was up on the fourth floor, which was also the top floor, and we had the most amazing view. Our side of the house looked towards the mountains and we even had a little fire escape that we called our balcony. It was a great place to hang our wet clothes and towels :) When you opened the door of the room there was a small little walkway that went about 10 feet until you reached the wall. On either side there were low shelf/bench things. And on the other side of these were two full size mattresses lying on the floor on each side. At first we were kinda like, "What the hell?" "We're sleeping here?" But we definitely had the best deal because our room was amazingly warm at night and we had more space than we originally thought that we would. Saturday morning we woke up at 7:00 in order to eat breakfast and get ready for our intense hiking trip. We left the hotel/house place at 8:15 and made our way to the foot of the mountain. It took us about 3hours to reach the top of the mountain, but that included a lunch break in the middle. Apparently when you climb a mountain in Austria, everyone says "Berg Heil!" once you reach the top. Don't ask me what it means though. When we got to the top there was a book in a metal box that everyone signs with their name, where they live, what time they reached the top, and on which day. My official time was 11:29 am! Going back down was kind of dangerous due to all the loose rocks and uneven footing, but somehow we still managed to cut the time down by an hour! I think part of the reason was that the majority of the people in my group REALLY wanted some warm food and a couple of the people needed a restroom like crazy. When we made it back to the hotel, Jackie, Josie, and I awarded ourselves by splitting a pizza. Then topped it off with some ice cream! After we relaxed for a while Kieran (New Zealand), Jackie (Canada), Brynn (Canada), Ben (Canada), Nolan (USA), Sebastian (Australia), and I all walked to the small town to see what we could find. Not much. That night after dinner the Rotarians took us on a "night hike." Really though we just walked down to a local pub/restaurant that had a dance hall in the back. It was so much fun because on the way there we were all given torches to hold and it was really cool to turn back and see a long line of fire walking down the windy mountain road. The dance was fun and we all had a great time. Our curfew kind of disappeared that night so everyone was hanging out that night, so long as we didn't wake the family that owned the hotel. The next morning we got up early to have breakfast and pack. I couldn't sleep very well so at 6:00 I decided it was time to take a shower. It cost 1 euro to get hot water for 6 minutes and I didn't have any money so I was contemplating taking an ice cold shower. Luckily I decided to check for hot water first, just in case. I had the most amazing hot shower for a good 15 minutes. Just because it was too cold to get out... We left Tauplitz at one that afternoon to catch our trains back home.

School Schedule

I know that I need to update about my hiking trip this weekend, but this will take much less time and it's about time that yall know what classes I'm taking. I'll write about hiking when I finish my homework.

Monday

7:45 - 8:35 Math

8:40 - 9:30 Physics

9:45 - 10:35 Physics

10:40 - 11:30 German (regular)

11:45 - 12:35 English

12:40 - 1:30 Psychology and Philosophy

Tuesday

7:45 - 8:35 Geography

8:40 - 9:30 History

9:45 - 10:35 No class because it is Latin and I cannot speak Latin

10:40 - 11:30 German (for the American exchange students)

11:45 - 12:35 Biology

12:40 - 1:30 Chemistry

1:45 - 2:35 Protestant Religion

Wednesday

7:45 - 8:35 German (regular)

8:40 - 9:30 Catholic Religion

9:45 - 10:35 History

10:40 - 11:30 English

11:45 - 12:35 Math

12:40 - 1:30 Psychology and Philosophy

Thursday

7:45 - 8:35 Chemistry

8:40 - 9:30 Biology

9:45 - 10:35 Math

10:40 - 11:30 Again no class because of Latin

11:45 - 12:35 Sports

12:40 - 1:30 Sports

Friday

7:45 - 8:35 German (for the Americans)

8:40 - 9:30 English

9:45 - 10:35 Art

10:40 - 11:30 Art

11:45 - 12:35 German

12:40 - 1:30 Geography

Life up to this point...

Last Friday night one my classmates, Beni, invited me to go out with him, Rudi, and some other people from school that I hadn't met yet. We met in town at this placed called Alt Melk. Apparently people from school are here EVERY weekend and I also got to see two of the other American exchange students that are here from Minnesota, Simon and Dan. I met at least 7 or 8 people that night and I only rememeber half the names. But that is partly because there were two sets of the same name... it's so much easier when they are called the same thing. Except then they come up with nicknames that I never recognize because people introduce themselves with their real name. I just now realized that two guys in my class are called by their last name. I had a great time with everyone though. The people here are so friendly and hospitable. Rudi's dad came to pick him up around midnight so he offered to take me home as well.

Saturday was the day of the Matura Ball. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but it wasn't anything that I could have imagined. The only other experience I could think about was Prom and it is totally different from Prom. We arrived at 7:45 so that we could get a good spot in the Kolomanisaal in order to watch the Matura Dance which began at 8:30. When the students were finished dancing their was a band that played music all night long and people waltzed the entire time. Marlene Kienast found me and so we decided to walk around to see who we could find. We ran into Kathi and Chi Chi (two girls from my class) who joined our group and we spent the majority of the evening together. I had such a great time with them! They were all so much fun and really excited that I had never seen anything like that before. At Prom we have one big ballroom with a dancefloor where everyone is pretty much. Then there are some tables set up around and some light refreshments. Here they had the ballroom which was strictly for the waltz, tables set up along an entire hallway, at least 5 different bars and snack bars set up in the school, another room with more recent music (but still not hip-hop, or rap, or pop, or anything like we have at Prom). Then there was an outside beer bar in the courtyard as well as a HUGE room in the cellar set up where people could order food and drink. There were also much more people than at Prom. The entire community is invited so there were parents, teachers, younger siblings, students, everyone. And since the drinking age is 16 over here they were pretty much all drinking. It was really different to see the teachers serving their students drinks. By the end of the night so many people were drunk, it was really funny. But nobody thinks anything about it. It's accepted completely without even a second thought. The ball was scheduled to end at 3:00 am however when we left at 3:45 there were still quite a few people there and the music hadn't stopped.

On Sunday I am very ashamed to say that I slept until 3:00 in the afternoon and that is only because my host father woke me up. We went to Krems that afternoon to have dinner with Lukas, Kristina, and her parents. We ate at this thing called a Heurigen and had a drink called Sturm. It was really different, but I liked it a lot. That evening when we got back to the house, I had an email from my mom saying that I had received my acceptance letter to A&M! I was super excited and I was kinda sad that there wasn't anyone to celebrate with. My host parents and classmates were happy for me, but they don't completely understand the thrill like my friends and family back home would have. Sunday was also my first full month in Austria. I was sad to think that I had already been here for a month because it went by far too quickly. I only have 10 months left and for the majority of one of those I will be on Euro Tour. That means I only have 9 months left to spend with all my new friends here in Melk. It is really disappointing, but I am trying my hardest to do everything and anything that people suggest.

Monday we had a "Wandertag" or off-day from school. Every Monday after Matura Ball the school is closed so that they can clean up the buildings from the festivities which is really cool I think. All the classes make plans to do something together and our original plans had been to go walking through the city and then play beach volleyball and soccer by the Danube. However the weather was not good so we ended up staying in the school gyms and playing different games. It was still A LOT of fun and it was nice to get to spend that much time with the class outside of our lessons. At 12:30 we were allowed to go home. As I was walking out Beni and Rudi invited me to go hang out with them and "Schmatza" (Stefan, a student in our class) for the afternoon. It was a nice change from just going home and working on homework and I really had a great time with them. They tried to teach me things that I should know how to say in Austrian dialect and then asked me what things were like back home.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I went to Ulli's (my counselor) house for lunch. I was able to meet her kids Johanna who is 11 and Valentin who is 8. After lunch Ulli showed me her apothoke and asked me what differences there were compared to the ones in the USA. There are quite a few, but it's a completely different setting so it's hard to compare the two. Next we went into town for an eis (ice cream) and then some shopping! When we reached her flat again it was nearly 6:00 pm so Ulli and her husband invited me to stay for dinner as well, which I was happy to accept. I played with Valentin and Johanna for a while and we tried to have conversations, but they weren't very advanced. Johanna's English is better than my German, but still not very advanced and Valentin's English is about equal to my German. All afternoon we would point things out to each other and ask how to say them in each language. It was really funny! After dinner they took me back home so that I could work on my homework and then get some sleep. I'm already starting to miss precious hours :)

Some Pictures

Matura Dance for the 8th Klasse

Kolomanisaal

(The school ballroom)

no biggie...

School courtyard

Ceiling of the entryway to the Abbey

Snack Bar in the student lounge at school

Ceiling of the Student Lounge

Foosball tables and computers in the Student Lounge

Basically...

School is the definition of amazing! I adore every single person in my class and they are extremely helpful. It's really silly I know, but I was walking home the other day and one of my classmates yelled at me from across the street and told me have to a good afternoon. It made me happy! They are all like that though... everytime I see someone from class they stop to talk to me or smile and say HALLO. I feel kinda bad though because almost everyone in the 7th year knows who I am and they say hi to me, but I don't ever remember meeting half of them. Today I got to meet the other "Amies" (American exchange students from St. John's Prep in Minnesota). It was Harold, Dan, Andrew, and I never caught the fourth guy's name. They are really cool and I am going out tonight with them and some of my classmates. Tomorrow night is the Matura Ball which is basically like prom so I'm really excited to get dressed up. I still don't know for sure what my weekly schedule is because the first couple days this week were mixed up and I never understood when the teacher read it out loud to us. His name is Herr Profesor Pilecky by the way, and he's awesome! I know I promised to upload some pictures of my school, but I haven't really had time to take any yet. I took a couple today, but I want to upload them all at the same time, so give me another week.

It is so cool, because on Monday even though we are scheduled to have school Herr Profesor Pilecky planned an outing for our class (7D). We are skipping lessons all day and walking around the city. We are all bringing a sack lunch and then we're going to play beach volleyball and soccer somewhere near the Danube. Apparently it is common for teachers to plan these sort of days during the school year. My teacher also had the brilliant idea to take pictures of each of my classmates and print them onto a sheet with their names for me. It was very nice and I now know all of their names. Their are 28 students in the class, but we split into two groups for about half of our lessons. In my group there is only one other girl, Katarina, and she is super nice!

Last night while I was shopping for school supplies one of my future host sisters called to see if I had plans. She picked me up and took me into town to get some eis (ice cream) and then we walked through the city and down to the Danube. It was a really great evening.

Oh, another thing. It is already starting to get cooler here! I have to wear a light jacket and scarf when I walk to school in the morning. And at night I sleep with all the windows closed and socks on... it is so CRAZY! Everyone here thinks that it's awful how hot Texas is right now and can't believe that it doesn't get cold until late into the year. It's really kinda funny. I also keep forgetting that I am older than all the students in my class. The 18 year olds are usually in the 8th year class, but that is the year that they take all their insane tests so the Direktor and I felt the 7th year class would be best for me. Whenever someone learns that I am 18 their eyes get really big and they think it's the coolest thing ever... it makes me laugh. They also think it's really cool that I am finished with school back home and that I have been driving for two years. The other night I met the daughter of my host mom's friend, Rosina. She wanted to know if our school buses were really yellow... I guess I never really think about things like that, but everyone over here has an image of the USA from the movies that they have seen.

But basically, I love every second of school! I don't ever want it to end.

First Day of School!

Today was my first day of school and it went well. We only had class from 3:00 - 5:00 because all we did was meet our "homeroom teacher" and find out what our weekly class schedule will be. Unfortunately I didn't understand what he told us so I will have to copy it off the wall tomorrow morning before class starts. My "homeroom teacher" is very nice (I don't remember his name though) and my class seems to really like him as well. For the rest of the year class begins at 7:45 which means that I will leave my house at 7:15 so that I arrive slightly early each morning. I sit beside a girl named Vicky who is very nice and another guy whose name I have forgotten. However before school today I knew one guy named Rudy from some family friends. He is in my class and met me before it started. He introduced me to some of his friends and then to the rest of the students in the class. They are all very nice and were interested to learn that I wasn't a cowgirl... lol.

I will have more to report at the end of the week once I have gone through the entire schedule. I will also try to take pictures of my school because it really is incredibly breathtaking. I have never seen anything like it before and I am still in awe everytime I walk through the halls and different rooms.

Bregenz

Jackie and I arrived in Bregenz Friday afternoon around 3:00 and had to walk to our hotel which was downtown. Unfortunately we went the wrong direction so we walked an extra 45 minutes in the rain with our luggage. We found our hotel shortly after turning around and heading back past the train station the other way though, and then we were able to change into some dry clothes. That evening we took our dinner out to sit by the lake but the second we got there it began to rain. We thought that we would just brave the weather but then it became so windy it was blowing us off the bench as well as all our food. So we decided to run back to our hotel and chill in our amazingly warm room.

The next morning we woke up early to take the cable car up Pfänder, a mountain in Bregenz. The view was absolutely gorgeous and we were able to see Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Austria all at the same time. I guess kinda like the four corners in the USA but this is four countries!

Once we reached the top of Pfänder we walked around the paths for a while to admire the animals and the views. Unfortunately it was FREEZING cold up there so we went into the restaurant for a couple cups of heiss Schokolade (hot chocolate) and to eat our packed lunch. Afterwards we began our decent down the mountain into even colder air because the trees blocked out all the sun. I was soooo cold and I had on a long sleeve shirt with my jacket. Jackie however, who is from Canada, was wearing a short sleeved shirt and was perfectly fine. I think I'll stick to the hot weather, thank you. Anyways we hiked down slowly and made a two hour trip out of it. When we reached the city again we did some leisurely shopping before getting ahold of Zach, another exchange student that was living in Bregenz. That night we met him at the beach to watch the sunset (which was beautiful) and then we met up with some of his new friends after that.
Sunday morning we had to wake up at 6:45 in order to finish packing, eat breakfast, and make it to the train station on time. The whole way home we shared a compartment with this adorable little boy and his father. So I got to play cars with him when I wasn't sleeping... I loved it! He tried to tell me about his other trucks and cranes back at home. I could understand a little of what he was saying because he spoke very slowly and his father helped me on the rest. When I reached St. Pölten I had to catch the smaller train to Melk and then walk to my house because my host father had the car in Germany for the weekend visiting a friend. It was quite a good distance, especially with a heavy backpack and suitcase to carry along...

Pläne für das Wochenende!

I get to go to Bregenz this weekend!

There is another exchange student here from Canada that has invited to me to travel with her to Bregenz for the weekend. Bregenz is a city in Austria that lies directly next to Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Germany so it is a very lively and cultural location in Austria. We will travel by train early Friday morning and arrive that afternoon. Our hotel is in the pedestrian only zone in the heart of the city and is walking distance from the train station, lake, National Museum, and various other attractions. We will spend all day there on Saturday and return Sunday afternoon so that we can prepare for our first day of class on Monday.

I went to meet with the director of my school today and we determined that I should be in Klasse 7D which specializes in math and science. I was really hoping that I would be in the same class as Marlene, however her class, 7A, has many language courses including Greek and Latin which I know nothing of. Yet I will still know one student in my class. His name is Rudy and he is a friend of Simon's, my host brother that is doing an exchange in Illinois, USA this year. I met him for a few minutes about two weeks ago and he offered to help me out at school. My director gave me a quick tour of the school today and the only words to describe it are... HOLY CRAP!!! I think he recognized the amazement on my face because a couple times he mentioned that this must be different from our schools back in the USA. I will be sure to take my camera with me on Monday so that I may show to everyone just how incredible these buildings and rooms are. I felt like a VIP while I was walking around because the section of the monastery that is for the school is barricaded from the public by glass walls and doors. They can see that we are there and we can see them, but the public has noway to get into our area of the buildings. I also have to purchase some "house shoes" to wear while I'm in school. They have six large rooms at the entrance to the school where the students are required to change into their school shoes and may hang up their winter coats. All of the classrooms have wooden floors and apparently there was a problem when pebbles would get stuck in people's shoes and scratch up the floors. So now everyone is required to purchase a pair of school shoes that they leave at school all year long and wear during school hours.

I just got back from school shopping with meine Gastmutter (my host mom) in St. Pölten. It is a city about 15 minutes away from Melk and has a very nice shopping area. I got my school shoes, a rain coat because the weather in Bregenz this weekend is not supposed to be very good, a new scarf, a purse because has a hole in it, some new sunglasses because mine are broken, and two sweaters because it is already becoming fairly chilly when the sun goes down. There are many stores here that are ridiculously expensive but there are also very many that are possibly even cheaper than back at home in Texas.