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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey everybody, I really suck at this updating every day thing huh? Anywho, where were we, oh yah! The third day of school!

Right, so October 9^th was the first day I had to take the bus, and a little fore warning, me and public transport in Tulln have a few issues. Now, I have my pick of two buses to go to school every day. The one is five minutes earlier then the other so we figured it was a good idea to take that one because then if we missed it, we would have a backup plan. Now, when the bus doors opened, there were so many kids that we could barely get in. In the end, the only way I fit was because the door was the type that swung out, then presses straight in to close. So that was how I ended up riding one stop, spread eagled against a bus door thinking "Oh my God, my life is turning into a Saturday morning bugs bunny cartoon!" I was still thinking this when the doors opened again and I fell out on my butt on the bus stop. After that I carried on, and after some slight confusion actually managed to get off at my school's stop! Since Wednesday was also the first day I had to be in school for the full day, it was a pretty long day, 9 hours in fact. Now, before you start freaking out and laughing that I have to be at school from 8-5 everyday, let me explain something to you. Everyday has a different length. With my current schedule, I have one day where I have 9 hours, and one day when I have 4. Most days, almost every class is done at 2. Now, on this particular Wednesday, my last class was computers. Now, I'm not sure if I've told you this before, but my schools layout is about as confusing as Hogwarts. It has a total of five levels, (I think, that's how confusing this place is, I can't even tell!). None of the hallways run the whole length of the school, Not all the hallways actually line up as level, and the rooms aren't actually numbered chronologically, they are numbered randomly since the numbers are actually the class that is in them. All in all, it's a pretty easy place to get lost in. Now, I had already figured out where class 2bk is, but the computer lab was a whole other story. Two steps out the door, I was hopelessly lost and spent the next ten minutes trying to find the exit. Now, since we hadn't figured out the bus schedule yet, I had to call my host mom, who was going to look it up during the course of the day. This was also my first day with my new cell phone. Now, for anyone who isn't clear on my technological capacity, it sucks, as does my complete lack of luck around any mechanical object. So that was how I managed to accidently turn the stupid thing off. After that I quickly discovered that you needed a pin number to open the bloody thing again, which I, of course, didn't know. So I went off looking for another phone I could use, which should have been easy, except for the fact that Daniella's number was, you guessed it, also programmed into my phone, blocked by the bloody pin. Now as I've said, mostly everyone had already cleared out by this point, which is how I found myself attempting to explain to a janitor, in incredibly mangled German, that I not only needed a phone, I also needed a phone number. Eventually he took me to the office, and the principle got me to explain in English. There still somehow managed to be a miss communication however, and he thought I was trying to call my family in Canada. He called my rotary counsellor to get that number, but then the vice-principle stepped in and cleared everything up. After that, it was a simple matter of looking up Krumpholz in their records, and calling her up, but as you may have guessed, I had long since missed my bus and she had to come in and get me.

The rest of the week went pretty well, with me only missing the bus once and getting off at the wrong stop once. Apparently, the bus doesn't stop at every stop and you have to hit a button that beeps, asking the driver to please let you off. ( If you're over there, being all "I could have told you that," You should have, because I don't understand these things!) Luckily someone else had to get off at the next stop, which was luckily still in Tulbing, or else I would have been on that bus for a long time! Saturday was fun. Kristiens kids (recap, Daniella's boyfriend, and his two kids are named Jasmin and Dominic, trust me the double Jasmin thing really gets confusing!) were up for the weekend (they come every second weekend) so we planned a day trip. We went hiking. That was fun. There was a decent path, and not too much uphill. Along the way, there was this "exotic" bird mini zoo that we went in to. ( I say "Exotic," because it was mostly owls and falcons that aren't that exciting for me, but there were still some cool ones for me too.) The place was one of the most depressing things I've ever seen in my life. The cages were small and dirty, and all of the birds looked absolutely miserable. Zoos always make me a little sad, animals in cages and all of that, but this was different, I was practically crying the entire time. It didn't help that Jasmin (Kristien's, not Daniella's) was being really mean to them. She was trying to scare them, rattling cages, and she even poked on with a stick. That was when I told her to cut it out, but she didn't listen to me. After that, we headed back to the house, and me and Daniella made supper. Oh, just a side note, I've become the official kitchen helper. It started because I was bored but now I'm really starting to enjoy it. Peeling potatoes is oddly peaceful. We made this really delicious meal called Kaisermann, that I have vowed to learn before I leave, along with a few other dishes. In Austria, some of the traditional foods are more like dessert, but they eat it as a meal, and I'm hoping to bring that tradition back, that and Wienerschnitzle. (Yes Corinne, I realize that was probably spelled wrong.) These things are delicious, but probably pretty helpful to all the weight I've been putting on lately!

Sunday however, was amazing! We spent all morning making apple plum jelly, and an apple plum cake. (There's a plum tree and an apple tree in the backyard, and the fruits were ripe and super good, so there's been a lot of apple plum stuff going on lately.) In the afternoon Kristien and Co. Came over and we played this game called activity. It's like charades, Pictionary, and whatever the game is where you have to describe the word, without using it, all thrown into one crazy board game of madness. After that is when it got really interesting though. I went to coffee with my third host family, that was what we needed the cake for by the way. They were really nice, and live in Katzelsdorf, which is maybe ten minutes walk from where I live now. It's a young family with the mom, Daniella, the dad, Stephan, and three kids. Two little girls 8 and 6, named Clara and Stephie, and a 2 year old boy who's name I can't remember. They also have a huge chocolate lab, two birds and two pet rats whose names I also can't remember. I think that that household is gonna be loads of fun, never a dull moment there!

We are now moving back into the realms of school. Now after the first week, they pulled me out of all of the hard classes, like physics, and put me into the lowest level of German (still too hard for me) and as an assistant in English classes. This is quite fun because I'm able to meet so many different people. Now everywhere I go, at least one person stops to say hi to me. They try to speak to me in English, and I try to speak to them in German, it's a great system. The week passed with no real mishaps, except the time I got on the wrong bus and ended up sitting at some random stop for an hour till the next bus came.

Now, on Friday I went to Vienna with my host mom, got on a train and went to a little town called Bad Mittendorf. At the same time, everyother exchange student in Austria was also doing the same thing. We all met up, and they took us to this hiking lodge called Linzerhouse. When we got there we were assigned rooms. I was sharing one with Chantel, Libby, Mia, Josie, Jackie, Shelby, and Racquel. And guess what, there were no beds! That's right, there were two large mattresses, a walkway in the middle, no shelves or closet space, one mirror, and the closest toilet was one floor down. We also didn't have any shower's in the whole thing. It was really exciting because we got to see each other again, but we also got to meet all of the oldies! (for anyone not in the loop, oldies are the people who come in January from Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South America). They were all really nice, and all of the Aussies were totally insane! They all also have really funny nicknames, like mum, and spider. On Saturday we hiked up a mountain, and this one guy, Kiwi, (his actual name is Kiren and he's from New Zealand) did the whole thing in Lederhosen! The hike was kinda fun. I was in the last group to finish, and we were hiking from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The entire climb was pretty scary. To any Lord of the Ring's fans, you know Emin Mull? Well, the mountain looked like that except straight up and no Gollum. There were also these crevasses everywhere. Some were little, some were big enough to put your foot in, and some were massive. Also, a lot of the rocks were loose, so you were sliding everywhere. Quite frankly, it was terrifying. I fell four time, and managed to twist both of my ankle. Also, my hands swelled up like Aunt Marges in the third Harry Potter, which was not a cool experience, let me tell you. Still it was fun. All of the exchange students kept randomly bursting into song, which was both amusing, and made them really easy to locate. The evening was a lot more interesting though. It started when we all came down at 8 o'clock, and were presented with a torch. Now, I'm not kidding, a torch as in a stick with fire on top, grab your torch and pitchforks! They ran out right at the end, so I gave mine to Kiwi who hadn't gotten one and looked like someone had just run over his puppy. We then walked for about 45 minutes, a group of teenagers carrying sticks with fire on the end. It is one of the funniest things I have ever done in my life, and no one got set on fire (really a miracle in and of itself, what were they thinking, giving us fire to play with!) and eventually we reached our destination. We were supposed to have a dance, but we were all so tired from the walk, that that was pretty much a flop. The next day, we had to get up by 8 am for breakfast, and then had nothing to do till our train at 2. Me, Mia, Libby, Josie, and Chantel eventually got so bored that we decided to force our stiff limbs into taking us for a walk. I'm sorry guys, we didn't run up a hill singing the hills are alive, we sang All Star and Skater Boi instead! The only other person we came across was this old farmer, that gave us a really wierd look, and a bunch of cows. It was awesome. Then I took the train back home with all the other Viennese students.

Now, once again we're back in school. About half way through Monday, I got paged down to the office and met with my counsellor, Dr. Bernhard Seyr. I had met him once before, and he had come to tell me that they had booked my presentation for... that evening. Since I had planned to translate my presentation that week, this was a wee bit of a problem. When I tried to explain this to him he was all, "Well of course you're going to do it in English, we don't want it in German." Well that made my life easier. And so, I found myself in my first Austrian Rotary meeting. Turns out, my club has an interesting rule, no girls allowed. There are no female members, and the whole club has to agree on a specific "Woman's Meeting," for them to be guests. This was a little bit shocking, though not quite as shocking as when they brought me my food, a fish... that still had its head, with caviar. That was so bizarre! The whole head thing was really creepy. I don't want to make eye contact with something while I'm eating it! After I was done I couldn't quit looking at it! (you're not actually supposed to eat the head). By the way, in case you're wondering, caviar doesn't taste disgusting, it tastes like nothing. My presentation itself went really well, and everyone said it was very good and interesting. They aren't exactly a party crowd though and I felt like I was talking to a bunch of robots. I know it's rude, but they didn't even nod along! All in all, it was a success.

Nothing else really interesting happened all week, uptill Friday. On Friday I once again found myself in Vienna. This time it was to take an exam. Now, my school decided that I should learn more German. They found me a course in Vienna. It's three hours a day, five days a week, for 4 weeks. I still will have to go to actual school for part of the day though. Anyway, they needed to figure out what level I would be in, thus the exam. That took all morning, but I was able to spend a few hours in Vienna's largest library. I also got a library card that works in every library in Vienna (except the national one), because you see, it was pretty cheap. The price was..FREE! Cool huh?

Yesterday me and Daniella and Jasmin went to the world's largest amethyst mine. It was fun, but I couldn't understand much, which made it a little boring. They also had this cool thing, where they had a patch of ground, gave you a pick, a shovel, and a bucket, and let you look for a few yourself. I actually managed to find a few! The funniest thing is that when you are leaving, they give you a handful of really nice ones, so it looked like you actually found something! But that's okay, I don't mind, they're really pretty!

Wow, I actually caught up! That is crazy! Well, we're making more cake today (apple, we ran out of plumsL) and doing yard work. I'll try and talk to you again soon!

 

Ellyn

P.S. I realize I kinda left you guessing with those pictures last time, so here it is,

First picture

Left to right front row:

Aiyana (again with the spelling) from somewhere in the states, Jackie from Canada, Martha from somewhere in the states, Shelby from Texas, Chantel from Canada, and Libby from Oregan. Peering over the back looking scary is Sebastien and I think he's from Argentina, but I'm not absolutely sure. They are all decked out in Maple Leafs because they did a French Canadian song for the talent show

The next picture is Svenja, then it's my dorm room, then the school, and finally the view from the school.

P.P.S. By the way, good job to Jamie Liegh, she guessed it! Tschus means see you later! Have an imaginary cookie! By the way Corinne, it must be spelt differently in Swiss German cause I looked it up!

(once again) Ellyn

Gotta love High School

Hey sorry! I'm not ussually able to use the internet stick for very long, so I ussually spend the whole time reading e-mails. Now, I could skim over the last few weeks, but that really wouldn't be fair as there were some pretty crazy happenings, or I could write everything that has happened. Neither option seems very good, so here's what I'll do, I'm going to update a little everyday (if I can) and I'll eventually catch up, now on with the story!

We are travelling through the mists of time, back to September 7th, my first day of school! I got up at 6 am, like I am recquired to do on every school day (I now have a whole new level of pity for all you bus kids that have been doing this for years!). Got dressed, had breakfast... you get the picture. Luckily, I didn't have to take the bus on my first day (we'll get to that bit later!) because Daniela had the day off and was going to drive me and Jasmin. Unluckily, my host mom has a slightly white rabbit personality, and is constantly running late. This means that I made it to school with minutes to spare. Looking back, that was probaly actually a good thing since I think the stress of waiting might have made my head explode! Upon entering the school, I was immediatly placed under the protection of a Professor Helfer (we call all of our teachers "Professor," and have to stand everytime one enters the room! Thank god we don't have a cafeteria!). He's my german and homeroom teacher. All of the desks in HAK Tulln (my new school) are double, but luckily after about thirty seconds of hyperventalating, Prof H told me where to sit. That is how I ended up sitting beside Calvin. He took it upon himself to become my official spokesperson, explaining to all the teachers that I was a foriegner and couldn't understand what they were saying. (I was actually pretty proud of myself for understanding what he was saying, but whatever.) It also turns out that since his mother comes from England, his english is very good. This has caused him to become the official translator whenever I actually need to understand something. Since he apparently knows everyone (I'm quickly learning that he actually does!) he also said if I had any problems, I had to let him know. He is also in orchestra and is trying to help me join. All in all, he's a pretty handy person to have around. The other person that I started talking to was a girl named Agnes. She is very nice, but quite and studios. (Yes Mr Letkeman, I know I spelt that wrong, and probably your name too!) She doesn't appear to have any close friends, but I like her a lot. The first two days only ran till 12 noon, so they were both very short. Sorry guys, but I'm gonna hafta cut if off there, I'll try to talk to you tomorrow.

Ellyn

Guys, this is the fifth time I spent an hour writing an update, only to have a computer malfuction and have it delete itself, so don't worry, I didn't die, and I'll try again tomorrow.

Ellyn

I survived a German Language Course!

Hey everybody, as you already know I've spent the last two weeks in Altmunster at a German course, and lived to tell the tale! Anywho, Altmunster was so beautiful, it is right on the Traunsee (big lake) an since the weather was so nice, we went swimming almost every day. So, our course itself took place in a school. The really cool part is that right in front of the school was this castle. It was actually a boarding house, and you can rent it out for groups to live there! Cool right? I'm sure the choir people who got to stay there thought so to! (Got ya!) We stayed in the actual school dorms. Every room had four people in it. I was really super lucky and ended up in the room that was voted the nicest, and everyone else complained that they didn't have. (We had a kitchen! working fridge, microwave, the whole shebang) With three girls that I got along with really well. There was Josie, who came from Colorado, Franmy who came from Venezuala and didn't speak a word of English or German (that was some fun miming, let me tell you!) and Svenja, who came from France, but was born in Germany so she is already fluent in German, French, English and Italien. She is a genius child! (Although, at nineteen years of age, making her the oldest student in the world program, I don't suppose she is actually a child.

The entire crew of about 45 students had a grand total of 6 Canadians. There was me, Anna from P.E.I., Ben from B.C. (he was also the only guy!), Chantel from northern Ontario, and Jackie, Robyn and Brynn, who all came from southern Ontario. Jackie also lives in Vienna which is pretty cool.

At camp, we had to get up everymorning in time to be at breakfast by 7:15. At 8:00 sharp classes started. They didn't tell us this till the last night, but apparently we had the best group ever for being on time, and vaguely alert every morning. We then had 6 hours of classes, with a one hour lunch break at noon. The group was split up into four classes. One advanced class under Martina, one intermediate class under Doris (Doris is also in charge of the students on all of our trips, good thing she is really cool!) and two beginners classes under Vicki and Daniel (I was in Daniel's class!) Then, at three o'clock sharp we were unleashed on the unsuspecting town of Altmunster. We were given freedom till six, when we had to be for supper and then again until ten, when we were back in the building. We had to be in bed at 10:30, and since everyone got up around six, most people were.

We had two Rotary organized outings. The first one was going on a boat around the lake, but since it was raining, that was a bit of a flop. The other one was to this place called Hallstat. It's this itty-bitty town sandwiched between the mountain and the lake. It is the home to the oldest salt mine in Europe, which started in the bronze age and is still open for business today. We got to go for a tour in there. To protect are clothes, we were all given coveralls that made us look like a bunch of convicts. It was really neat, but a little freaky for someone who is scared of the dark, and not overy fond of big spaces. Any way, the coolest part was this story about the Man of Salt. Apparently some ancient miner, back when the mine was up and coming, was buried when a section collapsed. Three thousand years later (still a while back though) Miners uncovered the body, and it was blessed and buried by a kindly Monk. The thing is, no one has ever been able to find the body. People have looked, but Hallstat isn't all the big, so you wouldn't think that there would be many hiding places. The most common theory is that he ended up in the bone house. Since, like I've already said, Hallstat is tiny, the graveyard was sized accordingly with no room for expansion. This system worked for a little while, but they soon had filled up the whole plot, and people were still dying! So, since then, once you are decomposed, and only your bones are left they dig you out to make room for the next unfortunate. The next problem was, that they couldn't just get rid of the bodies, cause people still wanted to visit them, thus the invention of the bone house. All of the peoples skulls are decorated by local artists (that would be a kinda creepy job.) With their name, and a little design. This skulls are laid out on display,( none of this glass cases either, they were just out there) and the bones are piled underneath the table. We were allowed to go into the bone house, after some very strict orders to not joke around, so I got to see it first hand. The common consences was that the whole thing was just creepy, but I found it fascinating. (and I don't mean in a creepy "Death is so cool way either") The place was strangely peaceful, you could almost feel the spirits of the people there. I felt oddly humbled, seeing everyone who had come before us. The only thing I could compare it to was standing in a war cemetery in Belgium, and seeing rows of crosses that say nothing except "A soldier of the great war, known onto God." I don't know why these things stick with you but being in that bone house, is something I will never forget.

As you have probably also figured out, language camp is now over, but I'm still not back in Tulbing. I'm spending the week with my host Grandmother and host sister, in the mountains. It is so picturesc (I know I spelt that wrong but who cares) that it's hard to believe it's actually real. To make things more interesting, no one here speaks any English. I was really worried when I first heard that, but I am able to communicate in German better than I thought. We aren't having in depth discussions about the meaning of life or any thing, but we can hold a basic conversation. Today I went for this beautiful walk and picked mushrooms! Any way, I'll let you go back to your lives now, it is almost supper time here.

Tschus!

Ellyn

P.S. To everyone who was wondering cough Mikki cough the keyboards here are different. They have a few extra letters and the z and y have switched places.

P.P.S. An imaginary cookie to anyone who can figure out what Tschus means. Sorry Corinne, you don't count!

I Almost Fell Out of a Canoe in Austria

Hello people! So the last few days have been interesting. Like I was telling you last time I went to Vienna on Thursday. I didn't do any sight seeing though, but we had coffee with my half host sisters, (does that make any sense?). Isabel, the older one is 7 and Stephanie is 2, I think. There I learnt that the best kids games are the same in Austria (you chase them, they run away), and Jelly Beans are a new candy fad.

On Friday we dropped Julia off at the airport, and Daniela and I both cried. I'm not sure why I cried, I didn't even cry when I left, but whatever. She has made it to Huston OK, and is getting settled in.

Today was more interesting. We went canoeing with Kristien (I think I might have called him Christoff in the last post, so I'm sorry) and his two kids Dominic, and Jasmin. Me and Daniela were in one boat, Kristien and company in the other. Once I explained how to steer the canoe to Daniela we were going pretty good, that is until we passed the other boat. They then started this marvelously funny (please note the heavy sarcasm there) game of pushing our canoe off course into the banks of the river! I could have killed them. We almost capsized twice, hit the bank three times, though we never actually got stuck (but they did, hee-hee!) and hit one tree. Amazingly, since in Europe they've aparently never heard of life jackets, we all made it back safe and sound, and not even wet.

Later on we made apfelstruesel (I don't know if that is how you actually spell that). It's kind of like apple struedel. Anyway, it was really good and I didn't even burn down the house!

So, tomorrow I am off to Altmunster for language camp. Since I'm not taking my computer with me (sorry folks) I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

Talk to you in a bit (maybe in German, evil cackle)

Ellyn

Greetings from across the Pond!

Hey to all you people out there in Cyber-space. Greeting from across the pond. Sorry I haven't written sooner, but I was settling in here, don't come after me with a pick-axe (yes I am talking to you Jamie-Liegh! Katie!). Any way, on with our story.

The flight out of Grande Prairie was actually kinda fun. I was sitting next to a lady who recognized my blazer and we got talking. She told me that two of her friends had gone on exchange, but I don't remember where. After we laughed at the steward for a while, ( I know, it was mean, but he was really funny. You could tell he was new because he read everything he said off of a little sheet of paper.) That flight was also very loud, because the propeller was right outside my window, but I couldn't put in ear plugs because it would have been rude to my seat buddy. Anyway, I got to Edmonton, and went on to Calgary, that was pretty much same old, same old. Finally, I was on the British Airways plane and on my way over seas. I learned something neat then, apparently they've abandoned the old safety video, and just acted all the safety features out. It was a big let down when they didn't actually inflate the lifevests though, it would have been funny. On this flight I was sitting beside a very nice German lady, who told me all about the knee surgery she had a few days before. Then I promptly fell asleep. Nine hours, and on major crick in the neck later, I found myself in London England standing in an aiport bigger than Fairview with a hairdo that would make Einstien jealous, I guess that's what you get for sleeping on the plane! I made it to my terminal just fine, but then the fun started, I got lost 4 times, and all I did was find my gate, then go get something to drink, and go back to my gate! I also put my blaser to good use because Heathrow Airport is very drafty, who knew?

Finally I made it to Vienna. It was very cloudy, so I couldn't get an aireal view, which kinda sucked. Anyway I got off the plane, went through the fastest customs line I have ever seen, and waited for my suitcase. And waited, and waited, and then waited some more. Finally, like a light at the end of the tunnel, my first suitcase came coasting around the corner. After I managed to haul it off the belt, a feat I am quite proud of by the way, I started all over again. Eventually, after no more suitcases were coming by, I started to panic. That was, until I saw some people gesturing me from the other side of the conveyer belt. When I got over there I saw an amazing site, my suitcase! The only problem was, somehow it had fallen into the space between the two sides of the conveyer belt, and I had no way to get it. Eventually, some random airport official grabbed it for me, what a nice guy! Once he had left, and I had figured out a way to haul both my suitcases, without tripping and/or killing myself ( I didn't have any Euro coins, so I couldn't get one of those cart things.) I came to a rather aggrivatinng conclusion, I was lost, again. After pulling around my suitcases for a while, and walking around in circles (the airport in Vienna isn't actually very big!) I finally saw a sign. It said exit, with green tags only. I looked at the tag on my suitcase and what do you know, no green tag! Figures huh? After another loop around I decided to live on the wild side and I went through the green tag exit anyway, and guess what, nothing happened. There were no alarms, no security guards coming at me, I just waltzed on through. Finally I located my family, they had this awesome big cardboard sign which I managed to miss completely but they spotted the blazer, and the next thing you know I am on my way to my new home. Well, after stopping for lifes essentials, that's right, we stopped to grab something to eat at McDonalds. Although, you wouldn't recognize it as McDonalds, I've been in nice resteraunts that weren't as nice as that place.

Finally we made it to Tulbing, were I first saw our little house. And when I say little, I mean little it has one room with a shower, on little closet toilet, two bedrooms, a kitchen only slightly larger that the bathroom back home, and a joint room for Daniela's bedroom, and the dining room. It is small, but it is very cosy.

So, this is were I have spent the last few days. I went to the bank, the government building, the grocery store, and the bookstore. Tulbing, and Tulln (which is a neighbouring city, well, I call it a city, they says it's a small town, but it's the size of GP for Pete's sake!) are like story book towns. All of the neat, brightly coloured houses on small winding side streets. I also met my host mom's boyfriend Kristoff (I just made up that spelling, no idea if it's right). He doesn't understand a word of English, and speaks a dialect of German, so neither of us understand a word of what the other one is saying! Tomorrow I am going to Vienna to meet my host father (well, not really because Daniela and him are divorced) and my host grandparents.

Talk to you all again soon,

Ellyn