NEWBIES!!!

I love my newbie! And I love being an oldie. On one hand being an oldie makes me a little sad because it's just one more piece of proof that this incredible year is already half over. But on the other hand it's so exciting teaching her all the things that I learned when I first arrived too. Everything is brand new to her. She still gets to learn about the straßenbahn system, how to order and pay for coffee at Tribbeka, what kabab is, the wonderful, addictivenss of Milka chocolate, and everything else. And remembering  how exciting that whole experience was just makes me smile nostalgically.
From her I can also see how much I've progressed in my own exchange. Like how much German I've learned, the number of friends I've made and wonderful people I've met, and how just much Graz has become my home. 
I'm so excited for my newbie; all the fun times we'll have together and things she still gets to experience. I'm a little bit jelly. But I hope to be one of the best oldies ever, which I know I will, cause I had one of the best, and when when the time comes, Courtney will be too. And so the circle of exchange goes on! 

A day with the Von Trapps

Wow, so I titled this post back in September when I took a train to Salzburg to visit my friend Kaley, but..... I guess I got distracted and never actually wrote anything. I know, I'm sorry, I'm a terrible exchange student, but better late than never, right?

So, I got on a super early train to Salzburg from Graz. It was my first trip in der Zug in Austria! I was really excited and a bit nervous, I've heard tons of stories of exchange students ending up on the wrong side of the country in the train, but the train system is actually fairly simple and extremely convenient. I love the train system here, you can easily catch a train any day to anywhere in the country pretty much. By some crazy-random-happen-stance I met Laura at the station on her way to Linz. We ended up taking the same train for part of the way, and bonded over a bag of pretzels and Nutella. Looking out the window, seeing the Austrian country side fly by was so cool, another one of those "wow, I can't believe I'm really here," moments. 

I finally arrived in Salzburg about midday and was greeted by the lovely Kaley. We stopped quickly at her house to drop off my bag, before headed into the city, and I received the grand tour. 

Salzburg is probably best known for being the setting of The Sound of Music. I think I should have taken my bassoon and played, but anyways we wondered through the streets of the Alt Stadt, I heard tons of different musicians playing all different kinds of instruments and styles of music trying to earn some money. Some were fantastic and really interesting. Others not.... She showed me this beautiful, really old grave yard build at the base of a mountain. When you walked through, it was like being transported to another world, it was so peaceful and quiet, despite being in the center of the tourist frenzy. On the other side of the graveyard we arrived at this tiny little bakery, there was a water wheel outside, but I don't know if it was just for decoration or if it functioned as some sort of integrator for the bakery, if not now it most likely did at some time. We got there at the perfect time of day! We ordered, I think they were called Kaisersemmels, they were fluffy bread rolls with raisins inside, and they were still deliciously warm! It practically melted in my mouth. I requested that we went back the next morning for my breakfast. From there we explored this amazing farmers market. The strong scents of meats cheese, sweet pretzels and fruit filled the air around me. I wanted to eat everything, it all smelled and looked so good. I also got to look inside the Dome, a huge church. The ceiling was all white and rose high into the sky, and was of course domed at the top. Even though it was all white, you could still see the immense detail of the plaster that covered every inch of the walls and ceiling. It amazes me how people designed all these incredible churches and cathedrals, you can feel the power of what they symbolized to the people when you see the amount of work and invention in them.

I reluctantly left the wonderful lively atmosphere of the farmers market, and Kaley and I moved on to go check out Mozart's house. Being the huge music nerd I am, I was so psyched about being in the same area where Mozart was born and everything, it was so cool.  Of course it is a huge tourist attraction now, with a grocery store under it and everything. But one thing I really wanted was Mozart Kugelen from Mozart's house. Mozart kugelen are very popular Austrian sweets. I don't think they really have anything to do with Mozart, but the wrapper has his face on it, so of course it’s a tourist-must. 

We also did a bit of shopping along this tourist street, where I bought a cool little hanging thing for my blazer. I used to think Graz had a lot of beggars, but we have nothing compared to Salzburg. And finally we walked through the Mirabel gardens, which were beautiful. I'm lucky I got to see Salzburg in summer. We found this little hidden stage and played around for a bit. Finally after a long exhausting day we headed back to Kaley's house. On the way I saw this ad for Sound of Music tours, one day I really want to get one of those. 

Finally we arrived at Kaley's, I met her parents and we chilled for a while. Her brother invited us out to watch the sun set with him and his hipster friend in top of a mountain, so after dinner we headed out to meet them. That was probably my favorite moment in Salzburg, we sat for a few hours in a field, on top of this hill that over looked the entire city, and in the distance you could see the mountains that surrounded the city, and a perfect view of the sun as it went down. Her brother and his friends had a number of instruments with them and so as the sun sank into the mountains we got to see the sky change oranges and pinks to dark reds and purples, and listen to the sounds of guitar, and soft drums and a flute. It was a really special experience. 

Finally it was dark, and we headed down the mountain. We split up from her brother and headed to a cafe where we met some other rotary exchangers. We sat with them for a while, then decided it was time to go home. When I got back to Kaley's I fell asleep almost instantly. I had such a fantastic day with a fantastic friend. 

The next morning I caught a train back to Graz. My Salzburg adventure was over. Thank you so much Kaley for the amazing tour of your city, and letting me crash for the night. Now you have to come check out Graz sometime! 

Skifahren

Finally After weeks of jealously hearing about my moms skiing adventures back in Portland, I finally got the opportunity to ski on Austrian mountains in Austrian snow!!
It was absolutely wonderful!!

My host family drove us to Kapfenberg, a small town, about and hour and a half outside of Graz. When you get to the ski area there, you have to actually take a lift to get to the lifts. So the first one we took, was about a ten-fifteen minute ride, and it brought us up and over the steep side mountain to this little hilly area where you could then take a variety of different lifts in different directions to other ski areas. The Austrian lifts really confused me, I rode it the wrong way the first time. That was embarrassing. The ride up was so beautiful you could look out behind you while in the chair lift and see endless mountains forever, it was simply breath taking!

Being a cross country skier, downhill kind of terrifies me, but I had a fantastic time. We spent the entire day up there skiing, taking a short break in the middle to eat some packed sandwiches. Only then did the wonderful sun grace us with its presence for a little while. There is really nothing like packed lunches after a day of skiing or hiking. Even simple sandwiches always seems to taste better sitting out in nature after a day of hard work.

After lunch we hit the slopes again. Unfortunately the sun went away then too. It was replaced by this enormous pitch black cloud that loomed over the summit of the mountain. It was so scary and mysterious looking, but very picturesque too.

I was pretty proud of my self, I only had a few really bad falls. But I think I was the only person who fell the whole day. The Austrians are such good skiers even the five year old children whizzing down slops while I'm very carefully, very slowly, trying to navigate my way down. They're insane.

After our day was over we had to ski down the mountain on this road to get back to where the cars were parked. It was a really nice, peaceful trail that you didnt even have to pole going down. We just stood in place and let gravity do it's work. I think it's was at least half an hour going down. But the whole way we still had the incredible view of the surrounding mountains spreading out endlessly in every direction. On the way down, we stopped at this traditional little gasthof and had soup. It was really cool, we just skied right up, left our gear outside, and went in. It was a very stereotypical Austrian gasthof; wood walls and ceilings, a big stone fire place in the center, and the people who served us wore dirndls! The soup felt amazing after a day in the cold.


Finally our skiing day was over. we loaded up in the car, my feet and arms already aching. I'm going to be sore for days for sure. But I had such a fantastic time, I cant wait to go again next weekend! Skiing in Austria is unbelievable, no wonder they always win skiing sports in the olympics!

As tired as I was, my day wasn't over yet. My newbie, from New Zealand, arrived in Graz too that night and Laura and I really wanted to greet her in the airport. So as soon as I got home and changed I met up with Laura and together we took a train to the airport. We made her a fantastic welcome poster and everything. We were both really exciting to meet our newbie but at the same time the idea of being oldies is so sad, since it means were halfway done!
Anyway waited for her in the airport for about an hour and a half since her plane was running late. We even met her host family, and they told us she was delayed another hour and a half. I also found out then that she will be going to my school! Her host parents asked if we wanted to go back to their house and wait with them till her plane actually arrived. So we went to their house and had cake and chatted for a hour then headed back to the airport. Unfortunately as soon as we all arrived at the airport for the second time, her host parents got a message from her that her plane from Vienna wasn't able to leave again, so she was driving down in a bus and wouldn't be in Graz till like two in the morning. It was already twelve, on a school night, so we reluctantly gave up, deciding to meet her another time. So her host brother drove us back into the city which was super nice of him!
All in all it was an adventurous day! Oh and it was exactly my middle day in Austria from the day I arrived to the last day of school! Wow how the time has passed by, the amazing people I've met, and the unforgettable memories I've made.

Alles Gut Zum Geburtstag!

Originally I thought I was going to be a bit bummed by my sweet-sixteenth birthday since it would be in a foreign land, with a different family and everything but actually my birthday in Austria was fantastic!! Definitely at the top of my list of best birthdays.
So despite it being a Saturday morning I woke up really early, around 7-ish, which I think kind of threw my family off, cause they asked me why I was up so early and if I wanted to go back to bed.    But that gave me time to take a shower and get dressed and stuff. 

I was kinda afraid to go upstairs and stuff since I didnt want to ruin any surprise they were planning. When I was finally called to the table, I arrived to a ginormous layout of breads, jams, cheeses, yogurt and my favorite granola, and in the center of it all a gorgeous, home-baked cake.The kind with the creme and fruit on the top then coated with the shiny glaze. They seemed to think it was pretty funny that I found cake with breakfast to be crazy, but it was delicious. And on top of all that, They had presents for me too! I got a scarf and a pair of gloves from my mom and a certificate saying they would take me next weekend to Zotters, this chocolate factory! Two CD mixes from my dad of Austrian pop music and a collection of every Strauss composition. And from my host sister a really cute thermos mug I can't wait to bring tea to school in. Everything was so sweet and had so much thought in it! 

After breakfast, they had the whole day planned out for me. They took me across the boarder to Slovenia, where we met up with my host-grandparents. I forget often how easy it is here to cross from country to country! I received yet another cake, a Linzer Torte, yuummm. 

We went to a really fancy restaurant for lunch where my grandparents knew the chef and apparently he is the best cooks in Slovenia or something, which I can believe. I had this wonderful fish and got to taste some really good Slovenian wine. We sat and talked for a long time, I didn't really understand that was going on, but it was really lovely. After lunch the waiter brought us all shots of schnapps, even for my younger host sister! Wow, it burned my throat so bad, My host dad ended up drinking the rest. 

By this point I was pretty much in a food coma but they had yet more for us to do! We continued on our way into the wine country of Slovenia. It was so beautiful. The weather was perfect warm and sunny with a slight breeze, and from the road we drove on you could look down into the rolling valleys of green, and see endless rows of grapes and little farm houses with their red roofs. We arrived at this point at the top of a hill where we sat at rickety wooden picnic tables, in the distance you could hear the jolly sounds of an accordion  and at the table next to us was a group of loud men in Lederhosen drinking beer, it was such a perfect moment. One of those "wow, I'm in Austria,"  moments. But technically I guess I was in Slovenia. We sat there again for a long time eating marroni, (roasted chestnuts,) drinking storm, a sweet wine that's only available for a short time in the fall, and just enjoying the sun and lovely view.

In the late afternoon, we finally drove back along this highway where you could look to the left and see Slovenia and when you turned to the right there was Austria, which was pretty cool. I was so tired from all the food, I slept most of the way back, but that was pretty much the end to my my Austrian birthday. I am so thankful to my family for such a beautiful day and all the wonderful gifts. 

Alles gute zu mich!