Do you know what is awesome about Austria? They have these huge rocks you can just crawl under, and not come out for months at a time. Sorry about that by the way. I'm not going to bother to try to recap everything that has happened over the past few months, and I'm actually just writing to let you all know that I'm off on Eurotour tomorrow, and I'll write all about it when I'm back.
Ellyn
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sunday, December 13, 2009
It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! We are finally getting some of the white stuff around here. I have never been so happy to see those little white flakes before in my life! Yesterday morning was the when it made its first appearance. First I tried to take a picture of it, but there wasn’t enough that we could actually see it, so then I just did a happy dance. Course, by the time I finished it had already stopped again, but who cares? Today it is once again snowing, and for a little bit longer and everything! You can actually see some evidence of it on the ground and everything. It’s all very exciting.
Anyway, on to stuff you lot actually want to hear about!
So, two weeks ago, to the date actually, I moved out of my first host family. I’m not sure if I told you all but there was a small problem with my second host family, so I will be living with my Rotary counsellor until January 30th. So that was how I found myself loading all of my bags, (after repacking them three times I might add, trying to fit in all of the things I had forgotten.) into the back of my counsellors big white car, and driving off to yet another new life. The town where I currently live is called Baumgarten. This town is kind of cool because it is actually a very little village. Now, one day this very little village decided that they wanted to be bigger, so they joined forces with three other tinee, tiny villages, to create a kind of coalition small town. Therefore, Baumgarten, Zofing, Freundorf, and Jedenau are the super town team.
My new host family is Giti and Bernhard Seyr. ( I’m pretty sure I spelt Giti wrong though.) They are both (supposedly) retired and have 4 kids all grown up and moved out. The neighbours here are also extended family. Andrea, Giti’s little sister, lives right across the street with her husband and 3 boys. One boy is almost 16, one is 18, and one is 21. Since Andrea works full time, Giti feeds everyone so I see quite a lot of them. Also, they have a beautiful piano that they let me play on.
So, on the first night I was there, we went to something called an Horigen (I also spelt that wrong,) It is a special restaurant here in Austria. It is run by farmers who make wine as well as other things. These are places, only open for a few weeks every year where they sell their own wine and, in the case of the one I went to, pork. It is actually a very interesting place. I drank a special grape juice, called Traumsaft, that is really good, and ate something called a manga-burger. It was a bun with a piece of meat from a specially bred pig, and horseradish. There were probably some other things too, but I can’t really remember what. All I know, is that it tasted pretty good and really burned the eyes and nose.
For the rest of the week, I went to school every day, same old same old. On the Monday morning I went to the Rotary meeting. That is always interesting, although as the only girl there I always feel kind of like I’m invading on a boys club. They also made me make a speech, and I was blushing bright red the entire time.
The week went by in a mostly quiet manner. On Friday evening I learnt something rather interesting though. Even though my host father is supposed to retired, he is actually working as a politician on our local village counsel, and it is election year. Therefore, we have to make an appearance at all of the town functions, making sure that people like his party. That is quite interesting, and I do get to meet a lot of local people.
The second weekend I was at the Seyrs was actually a holiday here in Austria. One thing that we don’t have around Christmas is St. Nicholas. He’s pretty much the Austrian version of Santa Claus. Every year, on December 6th St. Nicholas comes and gives all the good children presents. What is really exciting is that St. Nicholas has a side kick: Krampus. The Krampus is actually a little devil, that deals with the notty children. The story is that St. Nicholas comes and reads everything you did wrong or right out of a huge book, and then decides whether you were good enough for your presents. Here in the village, apparently they have a neighbour dressed up as Nicholas come to the door with a script written by the parents. Another neighbour is the Krampus, but you don’t let him in your house. He walks around the house, trying to get in and clanking his chains as he goes. It is too bad that there are no little kids here because I didn’t actually get to see is, only hear it second hand. On St. Nicholas my host family was actually in Vienna. We spent most of the day there and went to three separate Kriskindlemarkts. It was a lot of fun, and it was really funny when at one stall a native American man cornered me and started to explain all of the native art he was selling. It was kind of ironic that I go all the way over the ocean and then people are trying to sell me spirit stones!
We also had both Monday and Tuesday off of school due to the 8th being a holiday as it is the day they celebrate the virgin conception of Jesus. Monday was a quiet day, just stayed around at home, but on Tuesday my host father decided that I needed to see more countries so we went on a day trip to Slovakia. We went to the city of Bratislava. Way back when, back when there was a monarchy, Austria was actually called the Austro-Hungarian empire and included most of present day Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The rulers where both Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary. The church where they were crowned Kings of Hungary is actually located in Bratislava, so it was pretty cool to see that. One thing about Austria is that all of the historical sites have been expertly preserved and restored. They look as if they could have been built yesterday. When we got to Bratislava, you could see right away that that wasn’t the case there. Things that were old, looked old, and although some things had been restored, it had been done rather cheaply and was already falling apart again. Dr. Seyr kept saying how it was such a waste, but I found it really interesting. In all of the restored places, it is hard to believe how old things are, but there it was practically screaming at you. You could see how the passage of hundreds of years, and thousands of people had worn the rock, weathered it down. I really like that, when you can feel the history seeping out of the walls. Maybe that’s why one of my favourite places in the whole wide world is an old castle ruin. Either way, I thought Bratislava was pretty cool. The only downside was that it was raining the entire time, so we didn’t get to see very much. On the way back, we drove through Hungary, but I don’t think that really counts since it was dark and we only stopped at the grocery store!
Anyway, on Wednesday it was back to school for me. On Thursday evening I did get to have a little bit of fun though! Since Dr. Seyr used to be involved with the provincial government he was invited to an art exhibition at the parliament building. It was actually the art from a special school for artistically talented children. That was fun. I got to get all dressed up, and then listen to a bunch of speeches. I also got to meet some cool people. I met the Mayor of Krems, a large city in the area, a bunch of people Dr. Seyr used to work with, and the deputy premier of lower Austria. It was nice, but by the end I was starting to feel a bit like a show horse! Look, I’ve got a foreign girl. Ah well. After the exhibition we decided to have a look around while we were there anyway. The only problem was, when we got to the meeting chamber a session was just ending. We figured maybe we could catch the last minute or so, and that was why I ended up charging full tilt up three flights of stairs in my nice dress, and nice shoes just in time to catch a glimpse of everyone walking out the door. We also most likely semi-illegally went into the now empty chamber and got a few pictures of the now empty chamber.
Since then life has been relatively uneventful. Although it would appear that Christmas is my high season, because if I can ever find the time to write it all down you”ll get a hell of a tale in two weeks!
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,
Ellyn
Anyway, on to stuff you lot actually want to hear about!
So, two weeks ago, to the date actually, I moved out of my first host family. I’m not sure if I told you all but there was a small problem with my second host family, so I will be living with my Rotary counsellor until January 30th. So that was how I found myself loading all of my bags, (after repacking them three times I might add, trying to fit in all of the things I had forgotten.) into the back of my counsellors big white car, and driving off to yet another new life. The town where I currently live is called Baumgarten. This town is kind of cool because it is actually a very little village. Now, one day this very little village decided that they wanted to be bigger, so they joined forces with three other tinee, tiny villages, to create a kind of coalition small town. Therefore, Baumgarten, Zofing, Freundorf, and Jedenau are the super town team.
My new host family is Giti and Bernhard Seyr. ( I’m pretty sure I spelt Giti wrong though.) They are both (supposedly) retired and have 4 kids all grown up and moved out. The neighbours here are also extended family. Andrea, Giti’s little sister, lives right across the street with her husband and 3 boys. One boy is almost 16, one is 18, and one is 21. Since Andrea works full time, Giti feeds everyone so I see quite a lot of them. Also, they have a beautiful piano that they let me play on.
So, on the first night I was there, we went to something called an Horigen (I also spelt that wrong,) It is a special restaurant here in Austria. It is run by farmers who make wine as well as other things. These are places, only open for a few weeks every year where they sell their own wine and, in the case of the one I went to, pork. It is actually a very interesting place. I drank a special grape juice, called Traumsaft, that is really good, and ate something called a manga-burger. It was a bun with a piece of meat from a specially bred pig, and horseradish. There were probably some other things too, but I can’t really remember what. All I know, is that it tasted pretty good and really burned the eyes and nose.
For the rest of the week, I went to school every day, same old same old. On the Monday morning I went to the Rotary meeting. That is always interesting, although as the only girl there I always feel kind of like I’m invading on a boys club. They also made me make a speech, and I was blushing bright red the entire time.
The week went by in a mostly quiet manner. On Friday evening I learnt something rather interesting though. Even though my host father is supposed to retired, he is actually working as a politician on our local village counsel, and it is election year. Therefore, we have to make an appearance at all of the town functions, making sure that people like his party. That is quite interesting, and I do get to meet a lot of local people.
The second weekend I was at the Seyrs was actually a holiday here in Austria. One thing that we don’t have around Christmas is St. Nicholas. He’s pretty much the Austrian version of Santa Claus. Every year, on December 6th St. Nicholas comes and gives all the good children presents. What is really exciting is that St. Nicholas has a side kick: Krampus. The Krampus is actually a little devil, that deals with the notty children. The story is that St. Nicholas comes and reads everything you did wrong or right out of a huge book, and then decides whether you were good enough for your presents. Here in the village, apparently they have a neighbour dressed up as Nicholas come to the door with a script written by the parents. Another neighbour is the Krampus, but you don’t let him in your house. He walks around the house, trying to get in and clanking his chains as he goes. It is too bad that there are no little kids here because I didn’t actually get to see is, only hear it second hand. On St. Nicholas my host family was actually in Vienna. We spent most of the day there and went to three separate Kriskindlemarkts. It was a lot of fun, and it was really funny when at one stall a native American man cornered me and started to explain all of the native art he was selling. It was kind of ironic that I go all the way over the ocean and then people are trying to sell me spirit stones!
We also had both Monday and Tuesday off of school due to the 8th being a holiday as it is the day they celebrate the virgin conception of Jesus. Monday was a quiet day, just stayed around at home, but on Tuesday my host father decided that I needed to see more countries so we went on a day trip to Slovakia. We went to the city of Bratislava. Way back when, back when there was a monarchy, Austria was actually called the Austro-Hungarian empire and included most of present day Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The rulers where both Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary. The church where they were crowned Kings of Hungary is actually located in Bratislava, so it was pretty cool to see that. One thing about Austria is that all of the historical sites have been expertly preserved and restored. They look as if they could have been built yesterday. When we got to Bratislava, you could see right away that that wasn’t the case there. Things that were old, looked old, and although some things had been restored, it had been done rather cheaply and was already falling apart again. Dr. Seyr kept saying how it was such a waste, but I found it really interesting. In all of the restored places, it is hard to believe how old things are, but there it was practically screaming at you. You could see how the passage of hundreds of years, and thousands of people had worn the rock, weathered it down. I really like that, when you can feel the history seeping out of the walls. Maybe that’s why one of my favourite places in the whole wide world is an old castle ruin. Either way, I thought Bratislava was pretty cool. The only downside was that it was raining the entire time, so we didn’t get to see very much. On the way back, we drove through Hungary, but I don’t think that really counts since it was dark and we only stopped at the grocery store!
Anyway, on Wednesday it was back to school for me. On Thursday evening I did get to have a little bit of fun though! Since Dr. Seyr used to be involved with the provincial government he was invited to an art exhibition at the parliament building. It was actually the art from a special school for artistically talented children. That was fun. I got to get all dressed up, and then listen to a bunch of speeches. I also got to meet some cool people. I met the Mayor of Krems, a large city in the area, a bunch of people Dr. Seyr used to work with, and the deputy premier of lower Austria. It was nice, but by the end I was starting to feel a bit like a show horse! Look, I’ve got a foreign girl. Ah well. After the exhibition we decided to have a look around while we were there anyway. The only problem was, when we got to the meeting chamber a session was just ending. We figured maybe we could catch the last minute or so, and that was why I ended up charging full tilt up three flights of stairs in my nice dress, and nice shoes just in time to catch a glimpse of everyone walking out the door. We also most likely semi-illegally went into the now empty chamber and got a few pictures of the now empty chamber.
Since then life has been relatively uneventful. Although it would appear that Christmas is my high season, because if I can ever find the time to write it all down you”ll get a hell of a tale in two weeks!
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,
Ellyn
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A 15 Above Winter Wonderland
This is an update I wrote a while ago, but never got around to posting, sorry but here it is.
Hey cookies, sorry I took so long to update. I have been taking a bit of a communication sabbatical while I got over a rough bit of homesickness, but now that it’s eased up a little bit, I’m backing and working to answer my bazillion backlogged e-mails, so hopefully you’ll be getting those too.
Well, in one week it’ll be December, and I wasn’t wearing my coat outside today. It has been sunny and warm for about a week now, which is a little bit strange compared to the snow I’ve grown so accustomed too. With the coming of winter, also comes the beginning of an awesome tradition here on Austria, the Christmas markets. These open anytime from mid November to December and are night markets selling ornaments, gifts, and special seasonal drinks and foods. I was able to go to one in Vienna only last week with my host sister and her Grandparents. It was so amazing. There were lights (and people) everywhere! It was all so Christmassy that I was bouncing off the walls! If you don’t know this about me, I LOVE Christmas, and get really excited in this season! I got a little snow globe (cause I REALLY want some snow!!!!) and some lieberkuchen (their version of gingerbread) and, of course, and little bag of freshly roasted maroni (chestnuts!). Then it was time to check out what makes the markets so famous, the punch. Now, every second stand was selling warm drinks: hot wine, and punch. Punch is some bizarre mixture of fruit juice and rum, but before you panic, Tim and Wayne and Sally, I was a good girl had a cup of good, wholesome, kinderpunch (the little kids version, ergo, not rum.) And it was good. I did try one sip of the actual punch from my host sister, and it was actually a little bit too strong for me. But it was fun anyway.
On that same weekend I also went to the Sissy museum in Vienna. That was fun, but we went in the wrong door and ended up spending an hour and a half looking at the imperial silverware collection first, which was pretty boring. I learnt a lot in the Sissy part of the museum though. Turns out the romanticized “Sissy,” we all know and love actually has very little to do with the actual person! The actual Elisabeth was actually severely depressed and payed little regard to her two older children and husband. I actually feel very sorry for the Emperor Franz Joseph (Sissy’s husband), he was a good guy, but his life kinda sucked. What I find really interesting though, is that, even here, so many people continue to remember a made up person rather than a real one, and nobody is ever going to convince them otherwise.
Other than that I haven’t really done anything of real interest. School, life, not really that exciting. I am finally in some real classes full time, but I’m still not really doing very much in them. I am also starting to work as a “language assistant,” in a few of my English groups. Our school also got an actual language assistant, who comes in every Friday. His name is Nick, he comes from Florida, and overall he seems like a nice enough guy, but I think everyone thinks that we’re gonna get in a fight or something, cause they pulled me out of all English classes on Friday, weird, but whatever.
I change host families this Sunday, which I am really nervous about. Due to some complications my second host family can’t take me till February, so I have to go and live with my counsellor for two months, which should be interesting.
I hope everything is going well over there, and I’ll write again soon.
Jealous of your snow
Ellyn
Hey cookies, sorry I took so long to update. I have been taking a bit of a communication sabbatical while I got over a rough bit of homesickness, but now that it’s eased up a little bit, I’m backing and working to answer my bazillion backlogged e-mails, so hopefully you’ll be getting those too.
Well, in one week it’ll be December, and I wasn’t wearing my coat outside today. It has been sunny and warm for about a week now, which is a little bit strange compared to the snow I’ve grown so accustomed too. With the coming of winter, also comes the beginning of an awesome tradition here on Austria, the Christmas markets. These open anytime from mid November to December and are night markets selling ornaments, gifts, and special seasonal drinks and foods. I was able to go to one in Vienna only last week with my host sister and her Grandparents. It was so amazing. There were lights (and people) everywhere! It was all so Christmassy that I was bouncing off the walls! If you don’t know this about me, I LOVE Christmas, and get really excited in this season! I got a little snow globe (cause I REALLY want some snow!!!!) and some lieberkuchen (their version of gingerbread) and, of course, and little bag of freshly roasted maroni (chestnuts!). Then it was time to check out what makes the markets so famous, the punch. Now, every second stand was selling warm drinks: hot wine, and punch. Punch is some bizarre mixture of fruit juice and rum, but before you panic, Tim and Wayne and Sally, I was a good girl had a cup of good, wholesome, kinderpunch (the little kids version, ergo, not rum.) And it was good. I did try one sip of the actual punch from my host sister, and it was actually a little bit too strong for me. But it was fun anyway.
On that same weekend I also went to the Sissy museum in Vienna. That was fun, but we went in the wrong door and ended up spending an hour and a half looking at the imperial silverware collection first, which was pretty boring. I learnt a lot in the Sissy part of the museum though. Turns out the romanticized “Sissy,” we all know and love actually has very little to do with the actual person! The actual Elisabeth was actually severely depressed and payed little regard to her two older children and husband. I actually feel very sorry for the Emperor Franz Joseph (Sissy’s husband), he was a good guy, but his life kinda sucked. What I find really interesting though, is that, even here, so many people continue to remember a made up person rather than a real one, and nobody is ever going to convince them otherwise.
Other than that I haven’t really done anything of real interest. School, life, not really that exciting. I am finally in some real classes full time, but I’m still not really doing very much in them. I am also starting to work as a “language assistant,” in a few of my English groups. Our school also got an actual language assistant, who comes in every Friday. His name is Nick, he comes from Florida, and overall he seems like a nice enough guy, but I think everyone thinks that we’re gonna get in a fight or something, cause they pulled me out of all English classes on Friday, weird, but whatever.
I change host families this Sunday, which I am really nervous about. Due to some complications my second host family can’t take me till February, so I have to go and live with my counsellor for two months, which should be interesting.
I hope everything is going well over there, and I’ll write again soon.
Jealous of your snow
Ellyn
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Actual Pictures
These pictures are in the opposite order from the list I posted earlier. By the by, have I mentioned I have rotten luck with computers? I hope you like it anyway, Love you all
Ellyn
Ellyn
Pictures of Vienna
This is the view of the amusement park that I went to.
This is the view of Vienna from the top of the Ferris Wheel
This is little Stephanie, one of my host half sisters
The world famous Strauss statue
The Stephensdom
The inside of St. Peters kirche (church)
This church was built to commemorate the time when Emperor Franz Joseph survived an assassination attempt
This is a statue of the Empress Elizabeth, wife of Franz Joseph, better known as Sissy
This is the Austrian Parliament building. It was built to look like the original Greek Parthenon, both in style and structure
When the Austrian Parliament was bombed during WWII they took out the main meeting room, and it was rebuilt to look like this.
Originally, both meeting rooms looked like this, but now this one (which survived the war) is only used for special meetings
Inside the Stephensdom
The Emperess Maria Theresa, mother of Franz Joseph.
All the Canadians in front of Schonbrunn, the summer palace.
I hope you like all of the pictures, and I might put a few more up some other time.
Ellyn
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Whacking my head, sore feet, and pink bunnies: a weekend in Vienna
Hey everybody!!! Happy belated Thanksgiving! You'll be happy to know that I made two pumpkins pies (one for my family, and one for my class in school) from actual pumpkins last week! It took me forever, and I have discovered that peeling pumpkins is a lot of work. It tasted really good though, and my teacher even asked me for the recipe. How's life in the cold, white north? Here's some news to make you feel better, it snowed in Vienna last Thursday, and it's so cold I can see my breathe every morning. This is freakish weather for around here, it is definitely starting to look like I brought the winter along with me.
We had another Rotary trip this weekend, we went to Vienna. It all started on last Friday when, right afterschool I caught the train to Vienna, and the metro, and the bus to the stop closest to the youth hostel I needed. That's where things got kinda interesting. Me, being the genius child that I am, managed to walk about a half an hour in the wrong direction, then having to call our rotary supervisor, Walter, and telling him that I was lost. I did eventually find it however, and got all settled in. The first evening we went to the Volksoper. That's not the famous opera house, that one is the Statoper. (yes Corrine, I know I spelt that wrong). The Statoper was were the really rich nobility went, while the Volksoper was more for the middle class. It is also quite a bit smaller, but still really impressive. We saw the musical "Guys and Dolls." It was translated into German, but I could still understand enough to follow the story line though. It wasn't exactly a deep, epic storyline, but I was too excited to care! There was a life orchestra accompanying the actors, and it was all just so amazing to believe. I still want to try to see something in the Statoper though, just to be able to say I could. After that we went for Chinese food, and I discovered that Austrian Chinese food is WAY better than Canadian Chinese food, and if you didn't know Chinese food was already one of my favourites! The only downside is they don't give out fortune cookies here. That is more than made up for however by this amazing thing that is essentially a deep fried hunk of banana. It may not sound very appetizing but trust me on this, it's divine. By the time we were all done, it was pretty much time to head back to the hostel.
Saturday we were up bright and early. In the morning we walked to the Austrian Parliament and got to go on a tour. That was really neat because the building was built as a memorial to the original democracy, and therefore has the same set up as Athens! It was also kind of interesting because in every room we got a runover of the damage that was created when it was bombed during the second world war. The guide said something that I think was actually really interesting, he said, "The bombs destroyed our parliament building, but if they hadn't, we wouldn't have had any use for it anyway." I'd never really looked at it that way, but it's interesting to think about. After that we had lunch at a Greek restaurant, and then continued walking around the inner city, and made a quick stop off in Schlonburg, the summer palace. After that dinner that evening we were given free time till our midnight curfew, leaving us with 5 and a half hours to fill. Me and a few other girls decided to walk back to the inner city (the historical part, and the shopping center) and look around a little. Of course since all the shops were closed, we were just walking, but it was still amazing. We saw a few street museums, and all the famous places lit up for the night. At around 9:30 we were tired and our feet were starting to hurt, so we stopped in one of Vienna's bazillion cafes for a snack and a warm drink. It was no nice and cozy in there! After that things really got interesting though. We were just walking down the street when Svenja starting squealing and jumping up and down clapping her hands. I was about to ask her what was going in when I heard more squealing behind me. I spun around to see what it was, and there were five guys squealing, jumping and clapping just like Svenja. What was really interesting however was that they were all wearing bright pink rabbit costumes. If you've ever seen the Friends episode with the Halloween costumes you can picture them! Once the squealing/jumping/clapping subsided we took a few pictures taken with them and managed to piece together that they were actually at a bachelor party. After they left we spent about five minutes laughing hysterically at the bizarre situation that we had managed to find ourselves in, then carried along our way. At around 10:45 Bailey rather abruptly decided that we should pursue a career as street musicians. She made us all line up in front of a big statue, stole my hat to collect money, and we sang do-re-mi from the sound of music. We didn't get any money, only a lot of wierd looks, but that's probably because we were all laughing so hard we could barely get the words out. We gave up after one song, decided to take our musical talent on the road. That worked out a little bit better and we even managed to get a little applause out of it! Then we were all tired and went back to the hostel for some much needed sleep, and to give our poor aching feet a break.
Today (it's still Sunday as I'm writing this) we went on a bus tour around Vienna. That wasn't actually very much fun. We got off every now and then to look at everything, but it was all much too fast to really appreciate. It also didn't help that the bus really didn't like me. I hit my head 5 times, banged my knee, tripped in the aisle, fell into my seat, and almost fell down the stairs (it was a double decker bus!). That was the end of the rotary planned weekend, but since some of my friends had to wait for their trains, and Daniella and I had planned everything thinking I would be getting home a little later, we decided on one last stop. We went to Demel, one of the oldest "Konditories," (Cake and Sweet shop's) in Vienna. It is world renowned, and used to prepared all of the cakes for the royal family way back in the day. We all got a piece of cake (or Apfelstruedel in my case, no icing for me!) and it was really good.
That pretty much sums up the whole weekend. No wait, I almost forgot. In Vienna there are two places that are called pi-pi points. What they are, are themed toilets. No, I am not kidding. There's the Opera Toilet, and the Toilet of Modern Art. I have now officially used the toilet in both. I only have one thing to say: It's so not worth the money to get in. Barring outhouses, I think those were the two nastiest bathrooms I've ever been in. They were both really dirty, and smelly. The opera bathrooms only cool feature was that there was opera music playing, and the Modern Art one only had coolly shaped mirrors. Not worth the 60 cents you pay to get in there, that's 10 cents more than the regular toilet!
Oh, I also learnt something really interesting that I've been wondering about for a while, why Austria has two flags. Since the big bird with the sickle and hammer is the emblem of the government, only government officials are allowed to fly it. It's actually illegal for a regular citizen to fly one! The people are only allowed to use the plain striped one.
Well, I hope life is going good for everyone there, and I'll try to get you pictures really soon,
Ellyn
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Life as I know it!
Yes, yes, I know. I'm a terrible person and you're all very angry with me for not updating sooner. Well, now that that's out of the way, do you all want to hear about my awesome weekend in Vienna? Yah? Then quite grumbling and keep reading!
As I think I've already told you, the Oma and Opa from my host family live in Vienna, and last weekend (every second weekend in fact) Jasmin and I got to stay there. We walked down to the train station from the HAK (my school) and then caught the snail train to Vienna. I call it the snail train because it stops at every station, therefore it takes about three times as long as the express, which goes straight to Vienna. Oma and Opa (I'm gonna call them that because it is WAY shorter than "My host families grandparents") live in a tiny apartment right across the street from Jasmin's Father. (They are his parents, not Daniella's) The first evening was pretty quite; Jasmin did homework and I watched the second Lion King movie in German (which was awesome by the way!). The next day however, things got a little more interesting, we were descended on by the whole motley crew: Jasmin's dad Kristien, his wife Katerina, and their two daughter Isabel (7) and Stephanie (2). We went to the Prater Wien, which is a huge amusement park. It was loads of fun, and I even went on a few rollercoasters. I also made Jasmin come on the biggest Ferris wheel I have ever seen in my life, so I could get a few pictures of the view of Vienna! It was awesome (I haven't loaded it onto my computer yet, but sometime this week I'll do an update with just pictures for you guys). On the Sunday morning we went to Vienna's inner-city and I got to be really touristy and take loads of pictures. We saw the opera house, the town office, and the Austrian parliament building, the outside only though. We were able to actually go into Stephensdome Cathedral and St. Peters Kirche (church). The Stephensdome was huge, but we were also there during Sunday Mass, so you couldn't go wondering. That was also really amazing though, there was a choir singing and it was so beautiful I started crying, luckily no one noticed though! St. Peters was smaller, but I actually think it was cooler. All the walls, and even the ceiling were covered with paintings. It was also slightly less gaudy then Stephensdome.
Then, it was Monday and back to school for another week, but a little different. I started a German course at the Deutsch Academy in Vienna this week, so every day I would go to school for two hours, then go and hop a train (express, not snail!) to Vienna. I then spend about twenty minutes on the Subway, and get off at the Opera station, and go for three hours of class across from one of Vienna's most famous sights. Then I get back on the Subway, back on the train, wait a while, then get on a bus to Tulbing. All in all, I'm going from 7:15 am, till 5 pm, and that's just the work I have to do outside. When I get home I do my homework, and still always make a point to help my host mom with supper. By the time that's done, I am so knackered that it's time for an early bed for me though. It's all worth it though, my German is definitely improving!
This weekend was a quite one. Yesterday Daniella's cousin and her little boy came to visit, and today is Daniella's birthday, but I don't think we're doing anything to crazy today.
To Jamie, happy B-Day, even if it is a little late! I'll get those pictures up as soon as I can, but I hope this will keep you happy for a little while at least!
Ellyn
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