Birthdays, mr hughes and fame!

Tuesday 2nd Feb to Thursday 4th Feb

This week seems to be a week of birthdays.

The Grandmother in the family had hers on tuesday, and we went to hers for dinner. At this dinner, I met one half of the extended family, there are so many! In this side of the family, I have three Aunts, three Uncles, two Grandparents, four children (young cousins) and the brother and sister of the Grandmother, who has two 20 year old children. I meet the other side of the family on friday, and apparently there are more of them. I cant remember any names, and most of the time I dont understand them, but I fit in really well.

Yve, at school turned eighteen yesterday, and so last night (wednesday) we went out for dinner. Yve didnt come to the dinner though, she went to the casino with her family instead... it was strange. We ate at this really quaint (yes, I said it, quaint) greek restaurant, it was cold and raining outside, but inside it was warm and cosy, like eating hot toast for breakfast on the coldest day in history. The food was good, I had vegetarian pasta (the first vegetarian main meal I've eaten since I got here) and pita bread with strange tasting tzatziki. Im not sure if i liked it or not.

Well, some holiday must happen here nine months ago, because today is another persons birthday, and tomorrow is yet anothers. Oh and on monday, there is another. I dont have enough Australian lollies to give them all!

I have also decided, in the past few days, that Mr Hughes really stuffed me up in schooling. I was going along really well in school, I did year 10 algebra in year 9, and was really good at maths... and then came Mr Hughes, the worst, funniest (for all the wrong reasons), teacher I have ever met. After him, I never really did anything in maths at all. Now I am realising what a problem that is!

This class does insane maths. Technically, because it is all numbers, I should understand maths. But to me, it is like my latin classes, translating through three languages to finally understand. I am choosing my permanent timetable now, and I think I will avoid maths all together.

They do 16 subjects here. Yes, you read correctly, sixteen. Each person takes sixteen different classes each week, and there are six lessons in a day. I can never, never keep track of which class I'm in, I just kind of go with the flow, stand when I have to stand, smile when I have to smile, and leave when I have to leave.

So far Ive done three english tests, aced them all (not surprisingly), and 'accidently' let the classmates cheat off of me. Otherwise, school is a bit of a headache.

I think I will just take German (in my age group and a younger one), Art, Music, English (in my class and two others, so I can help the students) Psychology and philosophy, PE, History, Religion and design. Only 10 subjects, thats all...

Ive got to say, going home is a blessing.

Oh, look at this!
http://www.gymbraunau.at/
One week in and I've already made it onto the website! How embarrasing, all the students come and say hello to the strange Australian girl becasue they have seen me on the website.

If I didnt mention it earlier, on sunday I saw Avatar in another language. Trust me, its just as good in German as it is in English, but the voice overs could do with a little work. I struggled not to laugh whenever one of the serious characters spoke, he sounded like a chipmunk. I dont know how everyone could have taken him seriously, but they did!

I have nothing else to report now, so for today, ciao.