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.

we are not allowed to wear shoes in school.

7Ci

1st Feb 2010. Snee snee snee (said with a lisp, means snow snow snow)
Eight days in and Ive almost used all of the 12 pocket packs of tissues Dad felt the need to give me. And I'm glad he did. This isnt because I miss you all so so much, which I do, but its because with the beautiful snow comes the freezing cold. And when it doesnt snow, its even colder.
Last wednesday, it was -13 degrees. Today its a 'warm -5 degrees, with a slight wind' as my host mum puts it.
This sudden change in temperature has given me the worst cold ever. Second week in, and I'm already sniffing and carrying on like a baby. It kind of dampens the wonder of the amazing snow, which is coming down outside right now. If this snow was rain, as it would be in Aus, it would not be just spitting, not raining normally, but it would be pouring. Every now and again there is a little sunlight that breaks through and puts a stop to the crazy amounts of snow, and we all sigh with relief. Then the snow starts up again, and a collective groan comes from around the classroom.

Have I told you about the classroom yet?
On the outside, it looks like a normal class room, cream hallway walls with a grey door. The only hint that it is unusual is in the sign on the door. 7Ci. 7C is my class, and the i is a joke they added later. In Austria, i means you generally have some sort of learning difficulty. Apparently I am the one with this difficulty, and my problem is not speaking german.

Anyway.... as you walk through the door of this class room, you question whether you are in the right place. Surely eighteen 17 year old students could not share this room that is only fit for a kindergarten.
The walls are pink, with a green and blue stripe down the middle. On the walls are A4 'colouring in' pictures of Hello Kitty in various situations, in the snow, flying a plane, dancing etc. On the filing cabinet at the back is stuck a scene from finding nemo. On top of this cabinet, there is a stolen 'Nando's rooster' and a collection of other things accidently taken from restaurants. Next to the black-board at the front, there are baby blue ducks hanging from the wall. In one corner, under the window, there is an Ikea couch, and in the other corner, there is a matching Ikea arm chair. The desks are covered in colour. The only hints of 17 year old kids are the twilight pictures on one desk, and the full sized picture of a good looking ski-er on the back wall.
But that is their class room, and they love it.
I have added my little peice, cheap koalas hanging from the ceiling and sitting on each desk.

All of this makes it the best class for me to be in, I dont have to do anything, and I never feel too out of place. The teachers have so many other things to keep an eye on that they don't always have to stare at the strange little Australian girl sitting in the back corner.

Tomorrow I will start German classes with a younger class, and then, maybe, the teacher will feel the need to stare at the strange, little, 18 year old Australian sitting in the back corner of a class full of 10 year olds.

Lets all drop a few letters

Because I am a little disorganised, and a lot lazy, we will start my little adventure to Austria on day eight.
But first, I will fill you in on the details of my last crazy, exciting, strange and a little sad, week.

Date unknown. Adelaide, Australia
This story really starts two years ago, when my sister travelled to Italy for a short exchange. I was so jealous of her that I decided then and there to do the same, but to a more exotic place, such as South Africa, Mexico or even Spain. After a few set backs and re-considerations, I ended up in tiny, tiny Austria, where everything is less than an hour away.

23rd Jan, 2010. The Airport
Is it bad that I forgot to be sad when I left everyone? Sure I was a little scared, and very tired after a sleepless night, but in the excitement of packing and leaving, being sad wasnt really on my mind. It still isn't.

On the plane
Four movies watched on the way to Bangkok. A long, boring pointless amount of time spent on my butt, staring at the tiniest of screens. No movies watched from Bangkok to Frankfurt...there was no TV. 11 hours of staring at the back of another persons chair just inches from my face, as they lay back for their comfort, and to my absolute annoyance. But what can you say to the fat snoring man in front of you?
Isle seats are great. Stretch out your legs every now and again, get hit in the head, the elbow, the knee, the eye everytime they push that oversized trolley of tasteless food down the undersized isle.
But really, it wasnt that bad.

Frankfurt
Sitting inside in the warm comfortable airport was such a relief. The ability to move whenever we want is one we forget, until we have an 11 hour plane ride.
The horror of getting on the next flight was easily forgotten, becasue outside of the plane window was snow. Beautiful, beautiful snow. Now remember, before this, I had never seen snow.

24th Jan 2010 Meeting the family
I was so so so excited to meet the family, that I forgot all of my fears. The hour long car ride home wasnt bad at all, with jokes shared between me and my host dad, and lots of conversation between my host mum and sister (in english of course)
To my surprise, we didnt go straight home, instead we went to germany, for pizza with austrian salami in a real italian restaurant. The closeness of everything still amazes me

25th Jan to 29th Jan. School
Not much to say here, I dont understand anything, have a great class with very happy people and do six lessons a day, four of which I have never done in Australia...

29th of Jan. Clubbing in Germany and Austria
Now this was a real culture shock. The club we went to was a little insane. It was ditry and dingy, with sticky tables around the edges, and people smoking everywhere (something I have to become used to here), three bars, and jam packed with people. In the middle was a tiny dance floor, with four full sized electric light palm trees on the corners, and two pole dancing poles on seperate blocks on the edges. This was where we spent most of the night.
One challenge in the diary completed, just for you to know.

30th Jan 2010. Snowboarding
This actually isnt too hard. The only difficulty i had with snow boarding was learning to stop. Most of the time was spent on my butt. It sure got cold. Once, I tried (not on purpose) to make a human snowball of myself. I dont really remember doing it at all (so i think i might have knocked myself out) but apparently, or so the story goes, I went head over heels, twice in a row. Now, I have quite a large bump on my chin, and a lot of bruises on my back, elbow and chin. Gah, stupid snow.

Nothing happens on sundays here.

I think this post is long enough, so maybe I will do todays events seperately.

I love Austria though. The snow, the cute pink, yellow and green towns, and the ever smiling people.

How about you all drop a few letters and go from Australia to Austria sometime?