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