#exchangestudentlife

Love it when I get my monthly allowance from rotary! $cha-ching$ I feel so rich at the begginings of months, then I'm always poor for the last week. Where does all my money go?? 

I think I'll go get my daily kabab and pastry now. 
Bye!

A little thing about host parents

I know they're doing it cause they really, earnestly care about you but, one thing about host parents is they always want to make sure you're not homesick, so they ask you, " hast du noch Heimweh?" And it's like well not until you just mentioned it. And it doesn't stop there, when your like "no not really," they go on. "But I can imagine it's very hard to away from your mom and your dog, and talking to all your friends is different than here,"and  "it's a very long time to be away from all that," and on and on. 

And it's not just host parents, people here always ask me, about what I miss back home. It's nice that you care so much about me, I really appreciate it but it's actually not helpful if you bring up missing home more than I do. 

Danke
Liebe Grüße 
Sam 

Mac and Cheese

Ate mac and cheese today, as in the delicious Kraft in a box brand. Wow, it was fantastic! Probably the best Kraft mac and cheese I've ever had. But maybe that's because it was freakin THREE EUROS. They don't have mac and cheese in a box in Austria, but we discovered a small import store in Graz that carries mac and cheese, Lucky Charms, root beer and a few other American necessities, but of course everything is incredibly expensive. I mean what does a box of Kraft cost in America? Like sixty cents, especially somewhere like Cost Co. But totes worth it! Unfortunately  I know I will be visiting that store again, when I'm craving a little good ol' merican food. 

Dear blog,

I should probably come up for a better name for you than that. Anyway I’m so sorry I haven’t written in you in so long. Please don’t take it personally, it’s a good sign. It means that I’m having so much fun here, doing so much, that I simply don’t have any time to write in you. It could also be a slight combination of that I’m just really lazy. Maybe.

But I promise to write in you more, from now on. There’s really so much I want to tell you. So many interesting things have happened in the last month. I will do my best to keep our relationship on better terms for the rest of my exchange. I hope you can forgive me for my negligence.

Liebe Grüße

Sam 

Whoever said math is the same universally was wrong.

For those of you who know me pretty well, you probably know I'm pretty good at math, not to brag or anything. But math is one of my favorite classes. It has always just made sense to me, and I was actually looking forward to going into calculus next year with all my nerd friends. 

Well in Austria, unfortunately, students don't get to choose their classes. Here, everyone of the same year takes the same math classes, science classes, social studies, ect. So I pretty much knew I wouldn't be able to take a calculus class here, but that was probably for the best, since I would be dealing with it in German. It would be fun know all the content and show off to the other students. 

Well that was wrong! 

I'm doing the equivalent of like middle school math here. It's really simple stuff. We've done equivalents, simple exponents, and graphing parabolas, all things I've already learned. But for some reason it's so hard.  

The Austrians learn the most confusing way to do things. And they never use calculators. In my class in America pretty much every student always carries around their big, chunky TI-84 calculator, ready to punch in any equation at a moments notice. Its not that they can do the equations in their head here, they just never use numbers high enough or equations complicated enough to always require such a device. It's like this status I saw on Facebook, "whoever said math is the same universally was wrong." Dead wrong. I just find it really strange here what they have to learn and they way they learn to solve things. But math is probably my most understood class here. 

Chores

So I was told when I lived with my host family, I should expect to do chores, just like I do in my home in America. But.... they never make me do anything. No, they never let me do anything. I'll be sitting in the living room reading or someting and they start bringing thigs out to put on the table and I say, " Kann ich hilfen?" but the answer is always no. But in German. Or when I come home and they're all in the process of cleaning the house and I ask "what can I do?" They just say "nichts." 

I know I would love it so much, not having to do any chores, if I were back home, but when I'm not doing anything to help here, its just kind of awkward. Like the other day, I walked into my room and my host dad was vacuuming my floor. If they're not going to tell me when my room needs to be cleaned it would be nice if they said when they were going to, cause maybe I have stuff like my underwear lying out. Luckily I didn't. 

Honestly I love my host family. They're great and super helpful and I do feel like a part of their family but at the same time I still feel like a guest. I just wish they would make me do something around the house. 

YESSSS!!!!

You know your exchange has truly begun when you realize: "I have friends!!!" in your host country. 
Today was so amazing two of my friends from class brought me a cake for my birthday and then after school we all went to Janina's house and hung out. I felt like I was a normal person again instead of the exchange student. This is why you go on exchange; to make friends in another country.  

Here comes the rain. Da.Da.Da.Daaaa.

And so the cold begins. After a month of surprisingly lovely, hot, Austrian days, my image of a cold, overcast  snow land is finally on its way.We'll just see if I'm ready.

Freedom

So I've decided. When I get back to the States I'm not driving the car anymore. No, cars are for silly Americans. Imma gonna get me a moped, yall. Cause they be cool. And know what? I'll drive you somewhere on my moped sometime, if you're my friend. Cause everyone should get a ride on a moped sometime in their adolescent life.

So here all the kids have mopeds. You can get your license at 15 I think. I got to ride on the back of one when I went to town with some girls from my class. It was awesome. It just feels like freedom. Pure freedom.  So yea, that's my plan.

Fußball

I started playing soccer today! It was so much fun and it felt great to play again. I miss my team, the Irate Platipi, of course, but I think this team will be a lot of fun too. 

Erste Tag

Tomorrow morning is my first day of Austrian school. I don't have any schedule, or idea of where to go, or who anyone will be. Can't wait! I'm truly so excited and so nervous. I really want to finally meet Austrian kids. And the big question is what on earth am I going to wear?!!

WHAT!?!?!

What Rotary said is true. You gain wait on exchange. I foolishly ignored my exchange officers thinking "I eat whatever I want in the US, whenever I want, I’ll be fine." BUT NO! And I have no freaking idea how that logic works out. The Austrians eat such better food than I do in the States, they don’t snack, or drive anywhere, they bike, walk or take public transportation, and I live on a freaking mountain that I climb up and down every day. But somehow my body disagrees; maybe it knows the winter is going to be really cold so it’s putting on the extra warmth now. Whatever the reason I hope as soon as I start soccer and maybe dancing it will realize that, by all explanation I should be losing weight here. 

#exchangestudentproblems

Ugh I finished my book, I brought from the US, on the train ride to Salzburg. It was REALLY good and had a major cliff-hanger at the end. There are two other books in the series that I need to read but now I have to wait a year till I can know what happens next.

Miscommunication

So the other day I was riding the bus with Laura and we overheard this group of old ladies talking about their knowledge of English, in German of course. I can't remember what they were saying but it was dead wrong. Now I know exactly how hilarious and ridiculous we exchange students must sound in our host countries. And I really can't blame people for laughing at me. I would laugh at me if I knew what I were saying. 

Them dang bugs be everywhere!

Here in Austria, the concept of window screens has been completely neglected. There are some ups and downs to this, and one of the downs is that ALL the bugs get in the house. Living on a mountain doesn't help control their number either, I'm sure. 

Whenever I go to bed I can always hear buzzing around the room or see something crawling on the wall. I've gotten really good at catching them! Honestly I don't think I'd mind them so much, but the mosquitoes have been eating my legs like crazy. And for some reason my whole ankle gets swollen. It's starting to go down now but its still bigger than normal. I hope the bug season ends soon. 

Dreamland

I haven't started dreaming in German yet but my dream from last night was interesting. For some reason I was back home. I don't remember everything, but all I do remember is that I wasn't home to say "Hi" to my friends or family. All I wanted to do there was pick up my digital camera and some clothes I'm missing! I was really disappointed this morning when I realized I actually never did get my camera.