So I have been in Austria for about 5 days now. On Friday I flew from Montreal to Frankfurt on a seven hour plane ride. On the flight I meant two exchange students. One I meant at a meeting before, and a new guy from Quebec. The plane ride was a long trip with no sleep for me, but I made it safe and sound. For me, my second plane ride was to Graz where the other two's were to Vienna. It was a hassle to beth through the airport, but I got on my second flight. My second flight was only about an hour long, so with the excitement and the nervous, there wasn't no sleep for me on that plane either. After landing, I meant my wonderful host family and Arearep and sat in a restaurant for breakfast.
After arriving at my new home, I was shown the house and my room, then sat down to have lunch with my host family. After lunch I headed upstairs for a quick nap caused by my jet leg, but my quick nap ended up being a long 7 hour nap. After being awoken by one of my host sister, I was told it was supper. I had supper with my host dad's parents. After having supper, I headed back upstairs to unpack my bags. After having unpacked my bags, and finally contacting my family to say I'm alive, I headed to bed, but it took me a long time to finally fall asleep, but when I did, I slept for 9 more hours, which lead me to get up at 11:30 the next morning.
On Sunday, I grabbed some breakfast, got ready, and my host sisters decided to take me on a walk to show me around their family trout farm. We first saw some rabbits, then their three horses, and then finally saw some fish. After being outside for about 2 hours, it was lunch. I must say the Austrians really love their bread! After awhile, my two host sister and I went on a walk down the road and saw some cows being milked at the neighbours. After heading back to the house, we meant up with my host mom. She was on a walk to with their dog, and while on the walk, she picked some mushrooms. We all jumped into the car to pick up the mushrooms, but before we could, her parents stopped by. I said hi to them, and then they left. After picking up the marsh rooms, we decided to go to my host mom's parents house which only a couple of minutes away. We got there and ended up having supper there. After returning home, I skyped my dad and family back home, and the girls were put to bed. My host mom came home later that night after going to pick up her nephew from the train station. He was in Vienna at a wedding, but was living here for the summer, because of work.
I woke up on Monday around 6:45 and went downstairs to make some pancakes. I meant many of the workers here that worked on the farm. After getting ready, I played on my laptop, and practice some german. Around 10, my host mom took me and my two host sisters to Kalwang to go to the community office to say I was a citizen there for a year. While there, I had to signed a form. I then went to the bank and opened a new bank account, and then headed to the groceir store to pick up some things. After returning, I got to drive their sag way! It was difficult at first but I got the hang of it. I then had lunch with the family and the workers. I talked to a lot of them and learned more about their nephew. My host sisters and I went on a walk again to give the milk carton to the neighbours to be refilled. On the way back it took awhile, because we had to almost drag their dog back home. He is very old and is very lazy and he doesn't like to walk. When we got home, my youngest host sister showed me around their garden and showed me where she plays hide and go seek.
On Tuesday, I got up and got ready for my orientation meeting with my area rep and the two other exchange students in my area. When I arrived, I had lunch and we talked about what was going down in the future. We then all jammed into a small car and made our way to Leoben where we were showed our school, where the hockey rink was, the university, and the main square. We then dropped off Liam, the exchange student from Australia, and then drove Luca home, the exchange student from Brazil. I then headed back to my area rep's house where we waited for Eva to arrive.
Wednesday, I woke up and helped clean the house a bit with the helpers and picked beans and radishes from the garden. After lunch I headed to Liam's house where I ate some pizza and got a tour of his house. After Liam's host mom drove us to Bruck an der Mur. There we stopped to pick up a new sim card for me and then stopped to grapped something to eat. The sim card wasn't working, so we had to head back to the shop a couple of times. After all of that, Liam's host mom drove us to Leoben where we were dropped off. Liam toured me around the town and showed me the train station, the main square, Sonija's new job which we stopped by to buy a drink. We then stopped by a big church which was beautiful!! After that we went to a shop called Muller where I bought some school supplies. After we just walked around and then waited for my train to come. I was a bit scared at first because it was my first time on a train here, but it past in no time.
A bunch of photos from my two flights!!
