So it has occurred to me I haven’t written in a few months and I basically just decided to hold out until month six. But this is a week early? Yes, I know. I’m going to be in Italy next week when I would be celebrating my six months here.
It has been a pretty amazing six months here and I honestly don’t think anything could have gone better to be perfectly honest.
Since I last wrote, a LOT has happened, so I won’t go into insane details.
On May 20th, myself and a few other exchange students went to a ball in Vienna. I cannot fully remember who the ball was for but it was at Rathaus which is this beautiful building in Vienna. We hung around at someone’s house while two of us tried to get last minute tickets until we found out we could buy them at the door, then we were off.
When we got there, myself and the other person who needed to buy tickets were almost not let in. I was in what I wore that day which was what I had planned to wear since I thought we were just going out but no, plans changed. So I was in a basic black dress and my Converse. Adrian didn’t have a tie. It was good times. We eventually made it in and had a blast.
The following week my family went to Schloss Schӧnbrunn – the old palace that eventually leads to the Zoo – for the Vienna Philharmonic Summer Concert. It was insane! It was free so naturally thousands of people turned up. We were two hours early but at the front of the standing people so that was good. When the music eventually started, it was amazing. The crowd was utterly silent, like not even small children were crying. It was just beautiful, like it was honestly some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. The night finished with fireworks then we fought our way out and back to the car.
We had a really weird series of days off that week and the week before or after. We didn’t have school on Thursday or Friday so I went to Vienna and spent it with exchange students. On the 27th, I was lucky enough to be able to meet a few of the kids from Denmark. What was even luckier was that included Emma! She ditched her friends and we hung out for the day. We got some lunch and went to Stadt Park to just sit and catch up before walking around Vienna for a while.
We ended up going to the Natural History Museum and just had a ball walking around looking at everything. We found the giant greenstone, we made fun of evolution and people who used to look like monkeys, we touched a legit dinosaur bone, it was great! As we were about to leave, we bumped into some others from Denmark and they told us about seeing a New Zealand bird so we went to the animal section and walked around hunting for New Zealand animals. It was a really, really good day. I walked Emma and her friends back to the U-Bahn and helped them get on the right trains before going home.
The following day I went into Vienna again and went shopping with some other exchange students. I found a really cool nerd shop and somehow restrained from buying anything. We ended up on the river sunbathing with other exchange students but I had to leave before volleyball or anything else happened.
I changed families the next day! The two families went to a really cool old castle that reminded me of Game of Thrones then to look at some bears. It was a really good day out. The castle was super pretty and had a really creepy dungeon that did the stereotypical thing where it drips water from the ceiling. The bears were cute but looked a little sad, but I expect they were happier than where they had been previously – they were all rescues from circus’ and whatnot.
I finished packing when we got home and moved to my new family in Spitz, which is a pretty cute village actually. It’s also only half an hour away from my school so that’s fantastic.
In this family, I have a host brother and a host sister, both older than me. There is also a pool, which is beautiful! The family is lovely. They are always out doing things which is really fun, even though I do not often go. My host brother and I have gotten pretty comfortable with each other and just give each other crap all the time. I don’t really see my host sister as she is studying in Vienna. It’s actually really nice there.
I have really cool neighbours. They are a refugee family so I am forced to speak German whenever they come visit. They have three kids, two girls and a boy (yes, this is going somewhere). Their youngest is only young and just loves our swimming pool so she comes around whenever it is warm and asks if she can swim and if I can go with her. It’s really cool to be able to practice German with her - she’s so accepting of my bad German and so helpful when I speak.
A few days into staying with this family, I had a Rotary event where I was told to dress formal so I got to break out the blazer with all of the new pins. We ended up having this ‘meeting’ at the Stift Melk, as we were celebrating 10 years of Rotary Club Melk being a thing. It was really cool. It was the first time I had been to there so I really enjoyed just looking around and seeing that there was.
I decided a couple of days into the second family that I would go for a run just to see what there was – I was also lowkey not in the mood to meet new people so I went for a run instead – and I really liked it so started running almost everyday. I got to see the village better than I would have in a car and I got to see it on my own terms, which was really nice. I went up to the Red Door – an old city gate or something where there was fighting or something I really don’t know – and have run around the vineyards and to the next little village. It’s actually really nice to run there.
District Conference! June 16 – 18
This was literally one of the saddest trips I have ever had to take.
I had to be in the Kitzbühel trainstation by 12, so I was in St Pӧlten before 7 to get my train. The Vienna kids who didn’t go somewhere else closer to Kitzbühel that night where on the same train so I sat with them and chilled on Netflix since Railjets have Wifi which is honestly one of the greatest things to ever happen.
At each stop, someone would run off the train and shout to other students getting on. It ended up being me a lot and I wasn’t wearing shoes so I kept getting funny looks. Everyone ended up in our section of the train, aside from two who missed the train all together. We accidentally took over a quiet carriage and probably annoyed a fair amount of people.
We made it the rest of the way without any problems and met up with everyone in the trainstation in Kitzbühel a little before 11.20. And, seeing as it was 11.20 and the bus didn’t arrive for another 40 minutes, we walked into the centre of town in search of a Spar or other supermarket to get snacks and some lunch, which we didn’t actually need.
The bus left early. We arrived back with six or seven minutes and the bus had just left. So we ended up getting taxis, as there were at least ten of us who messed up. We arrived at the hostel we were staying at with no further issues and had lunch waiting for us. Rooms were given out and we were given free time.
By ‘we’ I mean all those who were not going to be dancing the next day. Everyone had their journals and/or their flags and were passing them around to be signed by the Oldies. I’m pretty sure we killed the paint on a table tennis table from signing the flags in various markers. We also threw around a volleyball and some others played soccer for a while before we were called downstairs so the dancers could have a break.
When we went down to the basement, we were told of what would happen the next day and who would be doing what. We had many singers and a few South American dancers. We ran through this several times over the next two days and I got ‘this is gospel’ stuck in everyone’s heads with no regrets.
This process repeated again over the rest of the day. When we finished, we went back upstairs and the dancers went back down for a while before we all went downstairs to see how long the whole thing would take. It was pretty great just hanging out with everyone, except there were literally like 100 flies that would just not go away, no matter how hard we tried. We ended up taking every opportunity to kill them possible.
The Friday was pretty similar. We spent the morning running through the dances and the singing. After lunch, we had an award ceremony where the Oldies were given certificates for having completed the year, and we gave out awards to each other. Things like ‘biggest mum’, ‘most likely to be homeless’, ‘most flags’.
Once that was over, a woman and her daughter come in and teach us two songs we would be singing that night. We knew both songs from language camp, as they had also come to teach us then, so it was a lot of us just messing around and realising we were singing the words wrong the whole time.
We were given an hour to get ready for the conference so we all went and started trying to figure out what to wear and if what we had was fancy enough. We were also all fighting for bathroom space, as my room had eight girls and one mirror, so that made things exciting.
When we were all ready we headed down to the car park and started taking photos in our blazers and nice clothing before the bus arrived. It was really cool. The dirndls I saw were all insanely beautiful and some of the blazers were honestly just amazing.
We arrived at the place where the conference was being held a little after three and waited for honestly like two hours before the Rotary World President and his wife arrived. We had been standing for most of that time so by the time we were up on stage, my feet were absolutely dying and I wanted nothing more than to take my shoes off and sit down, but I couldn’t, because we were on stage.
We sang our songs, I didn’t embarrass myself as much as I thought I would, people danced, it was lovely, aside from the heat and standing in high heels for over an hour. Everyone who performed did a wonderful job and I’m so proud of you! You guys all killed it!
Once we were finally done, we were allowed to wait outside on the steps. I instantly took off my shoes and rejoiced in getting feeling back in my feet. We waited for a little then walked towards the gondola’s that would take us up the mountain to our final dinner together. As a side note, I didn’t put my shoes on until we were halfway up the mountain.
We took a lot of photos and walked down a rather intense hill to the mountain hut-thing for food. I feel really bad for the staff there. We were really rowdy and cannot have been pleasant to serve. We had schnitzel and a cake-thing then were basically left to our own. After a few impromptu speeches, people started playing guitars and singing songs we all knew.
We left the restaurant a while later and waiting at the top of the gondola for further instructions. We ended up getting photos with the Rotary World President and the Governor – and even then there was a delay at the top and bottom of the gondola – so it was pretty late by the time we actually got back in the bus and to the hostel.
No one set a curfew, we were just told to be quiet and respectful of the other guests, but other than that we could stay up as late as we wanted. I don’t really know what people did. People were in the basement getting flags and books signed, or were playing sing-star, or were talking to some of the guests down there. Others went to rooms or to bed or whatever.
Saturday was one of the most emotional days I’ve ever experienced. It was all pretty somber as we all knew how soon people were leaving – one was leaving the next day, another the following Thursday.
We stood outside signing books and flags and giving out pins or business cards, hugging and crying, until the bus came to take us to the station. We did the same thing at the train station while we waited for our trains to arrive.
It was really hard to say goodbye. I don’t think I had ever cried more if I’m honest. I grew so close to so many of the Oldies and having to say goodbye honestly just killed me a little. I think the only thing that kept some people from just sitting down and not getting on trains was people shouting “No pussy shit in this family”. If any of you Oldies are reading this, know I love you all so much and will miss you more than I can begin to explain. Thank you for making my exchange as beautiful as it was.
I have never seen so many people crying at once, it was honestly a mess. By the time we got on our train, a lot of the tears seemed to have dried out, until the doors beeped and closed. When we started moving, people just kind of stood in the middle of the train for a few minutes quietly. Hannah slid down the door and was on the floor for a while. We eventually found some seats and took over a small area of the train.
We had more goodbyes when we changed trains so there were more tears. The remaining took over three or four rooms on the next train and sat talking or sleeping or whatever to pass the time. We got pretty rowdy at times and really gave the person checking tickets a run for their money as there were so many of us all over the place.
It was a pretty nice trip back. I was with both oldies and newbies and we sat talking or writing in journals which was pretty nice. I had to get off in St Pӧlten so had to say my final goodbyes then, which was really hard, because I knew it would be the last time I saw people unless I went to the airport to see them off, which I never seem to be able to do since buses and trains from where I live never quite seem to line up with flight times.
Once home, I slept for a few hours and was woken up so we could go across the river to see fireworks. I don’t remember what the festival was called, but it was amazing (I think it was Sonnenwende). There were candles all along the hill behind the house that were lit, as were there candles among the other vineyards on the hills. The fireworks were awesome! They just never seemed to stop! The absolutely best part was the “firefall” as my host mum put it. The castle had fireworks and candles, like the vineyards, but it also had this really cool thing where there were literally two waterfalls of fire coming out of the topmost tower and a lower tower. It was insane!
So all of those little lights are candles
The weather finally started to get warm the following week, but aside from the insane heat, nothing too exciting happened. I bought my Dirndl on the Tuesday after my final singing lesson. My class went to Vienna to see a concert thing on the Thursday and I stayed behind to see some exchange students for the last time.
On the Saturday (the 25th) I went to a Christening for my first families sisters son… We were in the Stift Melk for the christening in the morning then went a pizza and pasta place for lunch, before going to the families house for cake, coffee, and a swim. It was a very small ceremony with only family there, and very different from the like, maybe two, I’ve experienced. It was lovely though. I was in the dress I wore for the ball in winter and was dying. It was also 33+ which really didn’t help. After lunch, we went and got changed and got swim wear before heading to the families house.
When I finally got to Spitz, I had been home for maybe five minutes before I just ran out to the pool and submerged myself. It had cooled down a little but it was still too hot to deal with.
I ended up going to my friends house that night. She invited me out to see the “floating lights” which were lanterns going down the river, as she lives right across the road from the river. It was actually really relaxing to look at.
On Sunday was a big dancing festival for Spitz. I had to be at a certain garden thing no later than 10.30, and I had to be in my Dirndl. There was a lot of folk dancing and music. It was pretty cool. And everyone, well except like tourists, were in Dirndls or Lederhosens, which was even cooler. We were there for a few hours before I left to go finish packing for my next move.
Packing took a while, even though I’m only with this family until the end of July. When I was finally finished, the new family had arrived and were waiting. I got down to the car and was greeted by my two host sisters and two kittens.
On the way home, we debated kitten names, and for a while when we arrived. We decided on Khaleesi and Yoshi. Honestly, the kittens are so cute! I’m going to have a hard time saying goodbye to them when I leave.
We were sitting in the kitchen playing cards when my host mum came home. Khaleesi was on the wifi modem and Yoshi was playing with my toes under the table. I was told very quietly to not mention Yoshi as the girls had told their mum they were only getting one. When she left the room, Magdelena scooped up Yoshi and was ready to give him to her mum when she came back. She then told her to put “her” back on the modem… Naturally she screamed when she was Khaleesi curled up asleep. It was honestly one of the funniest things I had seen in a while.
They’re getting really big. Yoshi is huge but Khaleesi hasn’t grown all that much. They’re also getting really feisty so when I have German lessons with either of my sisters, my hand is usually being chewed on.
(This is my tiny little village, Nesselstauden)
I had my last week of school too! We finished on the 1st after a week of doing nothing. We watched a few movies – a documentary and West Side Story – we had sports day, we did like nothing. In English we played Kahoot for a few hours and everyone started out with normal names – Mikayla, Domi, whatever – then as the games went on they got weirder – meme lord, I’m hungry, stuff about 21 Pilots – it was hilarious.
I went to my friends house on the Friday and we hung out with a few kids from school. It was a really nice way to finish the school year, just chilling out in a wine cellar eating pizza.
The following day was a bit of a mess. I didn’t realise buses didn’t run on Saturdays so had to ring my host mum and have her pick me up after her ringing me saying she was in town then going home – sooooooorrrrrrrrrry! When we got home, we had some food then drove to almost Germany for a music festival. It was Woodstock Der Blausmusik so it was a lot of folk music but sort of revamped so it was more modern. It was a really fantastic day out! I got covered in mud and probably beer but what else can you expect from a music festival where people are in Dirndls and Lederhosen dancing to folk music. It was hilarious.
Since then, I haven’t really done much. I’ve gone into Krems a few times to say goodbye to my Oldies since I will be in Italy when they fly out – honestly that sucked, saying goodbye is hard – and my family went to the pools the other days for a while where I didn’t actually get too burnt, for a change.
It has been a pretty lowkey first week of holidays, I’ve mostly just been catching up on sleeping, reading, and having German lessons with my host sisters. It’s been nice.
To the oldies who are leaving and I won’t see again: good luck with everything! Thank you for making my exchange so great!
To the newbies starting to fly in: I hope you all have a good first couple of weeks. I hope to meet you in August. Good luck!
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