Winter Wonderland

Sometimes the world just hits you in all its beautiful, glory and you're reminded of  how lucky you are to have the life you have. For some reason tiny frozen water particles have the same affect. I woke up today to a winter wonderland! Perfect blankets of snow covering the house tops and streets. The trees out-lined in it too. Wow, Christmas here is "einfach wonderschön!!!"

Some of the views from my house

Herz-Jesu Kirche

Of course I had to run out right away with out shoes

Krampuslauf

What says "frohe Weihnachten" (Merry Christmas!) like giant horned deamons??!! photo props to Crash Ketcham

So as legend has it, on December 5, Krampusnacht, all the Krampus come to carry all the bad children away. Last night was one of the Krampusnachts in Graz. Hundreds of these beastly creatures roam through the city in a huge parade to terrorize and abuse the children. 

Before going to the lauf we heard from our host parents that the Krampus are allowed to actually hit people with the birch sticks they carry with them! In the scary corn mazes in America the people are only allowed to run at you, but they can't touch you. Not only can they hit you, they will sneak up behind you and continuously hit you, chasing you as you run away, or they can pick you up and take you away. That pretty much pumped us up and terrified us to go to the lauf. 

We went to the main one in the center city, where, unfortunately, they had the streets, where the Krampus would be, fenced off. But it was still fantastic! Their masks are amazingly intricate and they have huge horns on top of them. And the Krampus wear chains and big metal bells to symbolize being chained to the devil. Even though they aren't technically allowed to hit us they would still run up to the fence and bang their sticks against it. A few would even reach out and face palm you or hi five the little kids. The parade was a loud, fiery mess, with about four-hundred krampus, a few big deamon-motorcycles, that were sometimes on fire, and lots of screaming. There where also fire spitters, and people would pour gas on the street then light it, it looked like cool snakes.

We asked this Krampus to take a photo with us, first he looked at us, then proceeded to climb onto the fence, I thought he was going to climb over it. After the photo he put his big clawed hand on my head, and ruffled my hair. 

I guess the Krampus of today have toned it down, the modern ones have even learned how to gangnam style and loved showing off to the crowd. It's was a crazy tradition, I usually associate Christmas with jolly costumed fat people and happiness, but not here apparently. Can't wait to go to the real one on the fifth where the krampus are allowed to run wild. Hope I don't get kidnapped. 

My Emotional Roller Coaster

People told me how hard going on exchange would be, and I did believe them, but you can’t possibly really prepare a person for the fantastic and depressing experiences they’ll have. They need to feel that for themselves. And That’s exactly what I’m doing right now.

So, from years of exchange-students-past, the masters of exchange have developed the mathematical equation to the "exchange student curve". Here's how the curve works. The curve starts pretty high, when everything is fan-freakin-tastict, when you arrive in the host country. Maybe a little bit of homesick from the initial culture shock and the enormous jet-lag, but everything around you is new and exciting and you're usually so busy you have no time to feel homesick. Check. Been there, done that. I moved in with my first family, who I love, without a glitch, I was picking up German really fast, meeting a ton of cool exchange students from around the world, making friends, and was just being absolutely astounded by the scenery and the fact that I was actually living in another country. It was an exciting time of trial and error, (like learning how to shop in an Austrian grocery store, and maybe getting stuck in one for a while cause I couldn't figure out how to exit but I hadn't bought anything), adaption to a different life, and realization of the perks of my sudden amount of freedom. All in all it was just so unbelievably wonderful to be in Austria, on exchange. And time flew by way too fast.

The next stage in the curve is said to occur three months, or so, after arrival, and it’s when your emotional track starts going downwards. Everything isn't so new and exciting any more, and your life is starting get into a routine. That’s when people start to feel the homesickness. That’s about where I am now. I’m actually quite impressed with the accuracy of prediction of this curve, but I guess there have been enough exchange students before me to get it down pretty well.

Actually my down-curve was more like an unexpected nose dive. It just came out of nowhere and hit me, for which, I guess I should consider myself lucky. Rather than a slow drop as I begin realizing the differences and how much I miss things back home, over a long period of time, my nose-dive went pretty much straight down and straight back up.

 I had a bit of and emotional breakdown, I was sick and was stressed about switching to my second family, but I didnt realize just how homesick I was until I had had my breakdown. But it was really a nose-dive down and and a nose-dive up. Already I’m feeling better and am in high hopes that my emotional curve is on the track back up.

I think homesickness is like that stage before a cold when you haven’t yet realized you’re coming down with something, so it isn't bad enough to keep you home from school, but you just feel sucky. It's hard to describe Homesickness, it's like feeling constantly unsatisfied, it's just uncomfortable, and it makes it almost worse when you cant understand why you're homesick because you're so freaking happy to be here. Having the emotional breakdown, is getting the cold. But you think about about it as the way to getting better. Because finally are you going to let yourself stay home and rest which is the only way you can get healthy again, and loose that sucky pre-cold lethargy. 

I hope you can understand my metaphor, at least a little, but after having my little cry and getting it all out, I already feel like things are getting better. Hopefully the rest of my exchange will go according to the masters predictions; which consist of a gradual growth as you become fluent in your country's language and make closer friends with the people you've met. Until the next drop, which ironically occurs when your back home, but now you want to be back on exchange. 

Wow we exchange students are never satisfied. 

The Next Step

Today is my last day with my first host family. I’m really going to miss them. It feels a bit like I’m leaving my family all over again, I got so close to them. It’s always sad to leave anything behind, but I’m also looking forward to moving on to my second family and the second step in my exchange. As I savor my last moments with my family I've been thinking back to all the wonderful times they've given me, and questioning "how do you thank people who took you in so willingly and helped you so through some of the best and toughest times of your life?" Well I started with dinner. I made them all dinner last night from an Oregon cook book I brought with me. The recipe was called Malfatti with pumpkin, and it was supposed to be this fancy ordeal, I bought a bottle of wine for them and everything. (The sentence “I’ll buy a bottle of wine,” still feels so weird for me to say.) Unfortunately, it didnt turn out as I imagined. Being the brilliant cook that I am, I sat down to read the instructions a bit before beginning cooking so I would be prepared and know what to do. "First step: Prepare malfatti the day before and refrigerate overnight." I’m sorry host family that you had to live through that. In the end they turned out okay, I guess. After dinner, my host sister, Lili and I went down stairs to watch a movie, Tron, and eat Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ben & Jerry’s ice cream out the carton. It was the sister bonding experience I’ve always dreamed of. After tron we still weren’t tired so we also saw Dispicable me, what an awesome film. After the films I realized I still had to pack up my whole room so I stuffed everything into my suitcase, it’s easier when you don’t have to worry about a weight limit. Going home is going to be a small problem. I’m all ready to go now, my feelings of sadness and excitement mixing to make just plain anxious. I know I’ll get along great in this next family; they’re all really nice people. It’s just hard sometimes having to start all over again, learn new bus systems and family habits right when you’ve finally settled into the first one.

But before I go I just want to say thank you so much, to my first family, for the past three months. Thank you for welcoming me into your beautiful house, for all the wonderful meals I had there, thank you for taking me to Slovenia and to the Zotter’s Schokoladen Theatre, thanks for the moral support when I really needed it and your countless lessons of German and Austrian history. Thank you so much for being my family, I’ve loved my time with you. I will never forget; waking up to the sound of construction workers, Ulf’s endless supply of good, and sometimes interesting, music and sarcastic jokes, probably making fun of me, no doubt, all of us sitting around the dinner table laughing about something I don’t completely understand, watching the Grosse Chance, lili ridding her horse, all your dysfunction whenever we all had to go somewhere, and how we were always late, and most of all, your endless patience with me as I struggled my way through learning German. I couldn’t have asked for a better family.

I know this isn’t goodbye, so I’ll just say “bis nächsten mal,” thank you for being a part of my exchange I will take with me for the rest of my life.

Liebe Grüße

Sam 

Just the Beginning

School, like everything else, is very different here. But I guess that's why I came here, right? Anyway my first day was really good. It was really short. class was less than an hour long. I met Lisa one of Anais' friends in front of the school, she is in my class and she introduced me to the other people in the class too. Everyone was really nice and seemed to know who I was before I knew them. Almost everyone in the class has a moped, I really want one now, it looks very European to ride one. 

The class sizes are much smaller than in the US, there were maybe only twenty people in the class. But all we did the first day was get our schedule then we leave. I didn't really understand anything I just copied everything the teacher wrote. I looks like I have about 10 classes, and they don't stay in the same order. Everyday of the week I have different classes at different times. And I thought the block schedule at Grant was hard to remember. My classes consist of french, physics, chemistry, German, English (the one class I will be good at) music, art and sports, and a bunch of other things but I don't know what they are. 

The schedule is just a general time table, there are classes like Latin on it that if you're not taking you just don't go to, and nobody told me what classes I'm supposed to show up for and which ones I'm not. So It should be interesting. 
After that everyone just goes home. But after school tomorrow I will go to the town with some of the girls from my class. Looking forward to it. 

Into the mines

On the Sunday I was at language camp, the 19^th, Rotary paid for us to take a trip to Hallstatt. We got packed lunches from the kitchen, and piled into two busses. The drive from Altmunster to Hallstatt was about an hour long. We were driven along the Traunsee so we had some beautiful views out of the bus. At hallstat we got to go into the oldest salt mines in the world. They were absolutely fascinating. One of my friends, Fabi, is a huge nerd was freaking out the whole time. “Your nerd is showing, “Kaley was always saying.

We got to ride a tram up mountain, then there was a short hike to the entrance. We received some lovely miners’ uniforms to wear into the mines; the color selection consisted of red, green, blue, and brown. I looked super G. Actually they looked like old pajamas, but we had a good time posing and taking photos in them.

Inside the mines was super cold; I think it got down to 8° Celsius. But we walked down this long tunnel for a while, I tasted the walls they were salty. The tunnel finally opened into this cavern an there where two slides. Not slides like you imagine at a park it was a narrow, smooth plank that you kinda straddle, not sit inside and go down. We could go down it in pairs so I went with kaley, she took a video of our decent into the mines. We were screaming the whole way.

Down in the mines we watched a couple videos about how the salt mines formed and how they mine it and refine it, or whatever you do with salt, I couldn’t really understand the videos since they were in German. But we got to go down another slide and I think I got some air the second time. We got to this larger cavern that looked like a big cave but really it was a lake that was so still it perfectly reflected the ceiling of the cave. Here we saw an awesome light show that was projected onto the wall of the cave with music. It was an artistic representation of the history of the mine and it really reminded me of Disney’s World of Color show.

That was pretty much the end of the tour. We headed back down the mountain I totally expected that we were going to take a tram down as well but no. We hiked down the mountain. To the Austrians a small walk means they’re going to hike a mountain so nobody ever bothers to tell us to wear suitable shoes. But once we made it down almost in one piece, kaley took an awesome fall, we had free time to explore Hallstatt.

It’s an adorable little town built at the base of the mountain. All the houses look like they go together and they’re white with wood roofs or red roofs and flower boxes in the windows. It’s definitely a tourist town. There were a TON of Asians walking around taking pictures, I fit right in! Apparently the Chinese liked the town so much they built a replica of it somewhere in China. I walked through the city, looking through all the shops and even jumped into the lake in my underwear with a friend. It was really hot and don’t worry we asked a local if we could swim there.

Finally at 4:00 we loaded back onto the busses and headed to our home in Altmunster. It was a wonderful day trip, I learned a lot got to see more of Austrian and had a lot of fun. So of course I was exhausted and slept during the bus ride back.

clock tower in Hallstatt

Ich bin auslander und spreche nicht gut Deutsch!

Language camp was a blast! My host family drove me from Graz to Altmunster in Upper Österrich on August 12^th. We left at ten in the morning. I was all packed, ready to go and super excited. We piled into the car, my host parents and host sister, and about ten minutes into our trip I freaked out realizing I had left my folder of documents for insurance and money to pay for the camp back on my desk at the house. So we doubled back and got the folder. After that little adventure I was finally on my way.

The drive to Altmunster took about two and a half hours, and we stopped on the way at my host Grandmother’s house for lunch, which was delicious. It was a beautiful, scenic route too. We drove through the mountains and along the Traunsee, a beautiful lake.

I arrived a little late to language camp which was held at a boarding school on the top of a hill called schlossschule. It directly translates to castle school, and there was a castle but unfortunately we didn’t get to stay in it. Instead we lived in dorm rooms across from the castle. Anyway I signed in and got to meet my two roommates, one of them was from Boston, Massachusetts and the other was from Ecuador. I loved them. We had some great times together.

Right after putting my things in my room I got to meet all the other exchange students who arrived in Austria in August, the part I had been looking forward to most. Everyone is really great. There are a freaking ton of students from the US. In fact I think out of a total of 70-ish students 48 of us are from the US. The other countries represented are Canada, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Taiwan. Honestly I’m a little disappointed by the amount of diversity. I understand that there wouldn’t be a lot of Europeans since those kinds probably want to go farther from home for their exchanges too. But what about more of the South American countries and the Middle East? And I feel like Asia is largely unrepresented. I was hoping there would be students from Japan, so I could practice my Japanese while on exchange. But oh well meeting everyone was super fun and everyone is really friendly.

So my schedule for the next two weeks went kinda like this. I woke up at 6:30 and got ready. There was a bathroom and a shower in each of the girl’s rooms, but unfortunately the boys only had two showers to share between all of them. Breakfast was at 7:30 and it always consisted of a big spread of bread, cheeses, cereal, and fruits to choose from. At 8:15 German classes began and went till 3:00 with a few breaks and lunch thrown in there somewhere. Once classes were over we had free time. We could roam the town of Altmunster or Gemunden, the next town over, go swimming, or just chill. I think the exchange students bought the stores clean of Milke chocolate (It’s incredible,) and HARIBO.

I went swimming a lot we had wonderful weather for the two weeks and hung out with a lot of different people. Of course the goal of all the girls was to meet some super-hot Austrian boys at the lake to practice our German with, but I think it happened too often. But on our first day at the lake I was sitting on the dock with some other people, talking in English, and a group of guys heard us and knew we were American, but I have a feeling the Austrians don’t even have to hear us to know were Americans, I think they can see it in the way we stand or smell it on us or something! But Anyway they started talking about us in German and snickering, I could catch a few English phrases like “party rock anthem” and stuff, but then they jumped over our heads cannon-balling into the lake splashing us. And that’s the extent of my contact with Austrian boys so far!

We had to be back at the school at 6:00 for dinner but then had free time again until 9:00 when we had to be back again and could have snack time. For a few of the nights at the snack one of the Latin American girls brought an iPod doc. And we would dance to Latin American music. That was always really fun. All the Latin Americans are really good dancers and us Americans looked just as good too! (NOT) From that I have concluded that us Americans just can’t dance. Even the Latin boys could move their hips in ways I definitely can’t.

At night there were usually beautiful storms with thunder and lightning, and my roommates and I discovered the wonders of Austrian windows. Their windows are more like doors and it’s so cool they open like three different ways, and not just that but the window sills at the dorms are really wide, how could we resist such an invitation to open the windows, sit on the sills and dangle our legs out into the storm. We had some really good bonding times there.  Sometimes my friend Kaley would even end up falling asleep in our room. Four of us sleeping together on the three pushed-together beds.

Language camp wasn’t just fun and games. I learned a lot of German from my teachers. I started in the beginners class then asked to be moved up to beginners-plus class because I had already learned most of the content in my PCC class. We called ourselves the intermediate-minus class. I definitely still have a lot of germane to learn but having I really appreciate this course the Rotary organizes for us. I think we not only benefit from the language classes but it helps us adapt to being in another country by getting to know other students who are experiencing the same things I am.

All in all the two weeks went by really fast. When my host parents picked me up on the 26^th, I didn’t want to leave my new friends, but at the same time thez didn’t go fast enough, I was excited to get back to my host family to practice my German, finally have some quality home cooked Austrian food, and most of all for school to start so I can start making Austrian friends. Now my exchange really begins! 

Represent!! Inbounds and Rotex

Day 1 of exchange

My first night was sehr gut! All of my host family and the head of the youth exchange committee met me at the airport in Graz. I was a bit stunned for it all but it was very exciting. My flight wasn’t too bad, except maybe the one from Seattle to Frankfurt. The seats were very narrow and close together, but there was a small movie screen in fort of each seat and I was very surprised by their movie selection, I watched The Avengers and an episode of Modern Family.

My family drove me home pointing out various building and things in the city of Graz. One that I really remember is the swimming pool called the Auster. It’s a very interesting, blue building that kind of looks like an oyster. We arrived at their house, they have a very big house, and I was given a tour and stuff. My favorite part is the view from their balcony overlooking the city. We all sat down to eat a torte my host mother had made witch was very good and talked. I’m so lucky that my family speaks a lot English with me and are very willing to teach things in German too. They say that when I get back from  German camp they will speak more German with me. I really looking forward to going in four days, I hope I learn a lot there. 

PDX airport Tuesday, August 7th

     I got to the airport at 7:00 in the morning meaning the few friends I had over the night before and I had to get up at 6:00. And did I mention we were up till 4:15 the night before? Beating Super Mario on the Wii, playing M.A.S.H. and of course counting down the minutes. Anyway we got up at 6:00 and started getting ready. The house was kind of like a bus station, the friends I had asked to come to see me off at the airport arrived around 6:45 and I was running around making sure I had absolutely everything.

     Finally we were off, except Kamron, who was late! But lucky for him Harley was nice and waited for him. Our little entourage arrived at PDX just passed 7:00. Then was the real test, to see if my suitcase which had been packed and unpacked and repacked about fifty times would fit the weight limit of 50 pounds. I put it on the scale and it came in at 49.6 pounds. Big sigh of relief. I went through the line and got my three boarding passes, my friends and I probably took up a good five feet of the line. We also bet Barbara my youth exchange officer in line and next all twelve of us headed off to find some breakfast.

     My last meal in America consisted of a berry smoothie and a blueberry muffin. I had time to take some crazy photos and skip around the airport (literally) until I needed to get into the line at security. That was the hard part. I hugged each of my friends and mom and grandma and I didn’t want to let go.  I told myself I wasn’t going to but soon my eyes stung with tears. I finally pulled away and got in the security line, but it didn’t move right away so I just stood there, everyone else just a few feet away looking back at me and already that was too far.

     I filed through the line zig-zagging my way towards the security, at each end of each zig-zag stood half of my friends and family to keep my company. I wanted one last goodbye before I crossed through the metal detectors but they ushered me through so fast I didn’t have a chance. The security people opened my bassoon and looked at my reed pliers but decided they were fine. (They were taken from me later in Frankfurt.) I turned one last time to see everyone all waving and calling my name before I had to make myself walk away holding back the tears of sadness and excitement. I was so far from them all but not close enough to my next destination. 

Is It That Time Already!!??

Only four days to go until my mom drops me off at PDX Airport, waves goodbye and says, "well see ya!. Have a good time and behave yourself." Followed by hours of leg cramps, turbulence interrupted sleep and terrible jet lag. I'll wobble off the plane and find myself transported to another dimension, parallel to the world I know.

Maybe that's a little dramatic. I'm sure there will be many drawn-out, heart-felt farewells, possibly a few tears at PDX airport. And I sleep like a rock so the flight won't be too bad. All in all the first step, or lift-off, as a Rotary exchange student is bound to be an unforgettable, terrifyingly, exciting, EPIC moment of my life.

I just got my flight itinerary and I leave August 7^th (less than four days from now! That’s crazy!!) at 9:50 a.m. from PDX airport. From there I’ll go to Seattle. Really exciting huh? After all the goodbyeing at PDX I’ll hop on a plane and get off an hour later in the familiar city of Seattle. But oh well, the next plane ride lands in a little more exciting place. From Seattle I go to Frankfurt. And finally the last stretch of my flight is from Frankfurt to Graz!

All together I’m in planes or at airports for a total of about 16 hours. That’s exhausting just thinking about it. But at least I got a few movies on my laptop, some books I’ve been resisting to start, and all my German books to do some cram-studying. Yay! There’s also going to be other exchange students who are going to Austria or different places so I’m looking forward to making some plane buddies.

This has been such a busy week. Trying to do everything before I go. I’ve been seeing a lot of friends, camping, I stayed in a super fancy apartment in downtown and shopped, and I’m going water skiing tomorrow so I have yet to pack. And I can only check one fifty pound bag so it’s going to be hard sorting through my clothes deciding what I can and can’t live without for a year. I’ll let you know how that went in my next entry which will be from my new home, Austria!

Sam

Hello-Hallo

Wilkommen to my blog!

Here's a brief introduction to me and the stories you'll be reading from me throughout the year.

I live in Portland, Oregon, the City of Roses, one of the best cities on earth, I think.

I was ready to continue my high school education at Grant High School, in September 2013, with all my friends, but along the way plans changed and my life is about to take an extreme turn, instead I will be spending junior year in Graz, Austria as a Rotary exchange student!

The thought of leaving everything I know behind; my family, the greatest group of friends known to mankind, and this wonderful city is absolutely freighting. But at the same time it’s like Christmas, when you spot the biggest present under the tree but can’t open it, so you just look at it and think about what might be inside.

I applied to be an exchange student through my Local Rotary Club of Downtown Portland, at the beginning of my Sophomore year, I was accepted, and it seems like the next day I was being told "You're going to Austria!” I remember not even knowing how to feel. What do I know about Austria? It's where the von Trapps lived. Thats pretty awesome. It's like the classical center of the world! This is good. And there will be tasty food there, OK let's go!  And my excitement continues to grow exponentially as I learn more and more about my soon-to-be home.

There are a lot of people who have been involved with my exchange so far and I thank each and every one of them for their support and love that give me the confidence to take this great leap. My mom especially, who has been there for me forever, helping me grow and always supporting me in everything I do and also just being someone I can be silly around. Thanks mom you’re the best!

I have my amazing Rotary club who sponsored me and the wonderful Youth Exchange Committee members of district 5100 to thank for their worldly advice in helping me help myself make this the best year I can.

Honestly the list goes on and on, but I guess I should stop talking, so I'll leave with this: "Life changing." That seems to be the unanimous description for what I'm about to do and I can't wait to experience it. Soon I will be settling down into life in Austria. New family, new friends, new language. This is going to be the most challenging thing I’ve done with my life so far and I’m ready to take it on!

 You haven't heard the last of me,

Sam