Annaberg... a little late...

My second week here in Austria was spent in the Alps. I posted some skiing videos but I never really posted any other pictures or videos. Here is a quick over view of the Alps.

• Lots of snow...lots and lots and LOTS OF SNOW! 

(that is a car...yes a car)

• Exhausting. Skiing everyday, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, walking....etc

(exhausting but fun)

• The houses were like a fairytale

• Crazy. They have this thing called the "Waterslide" and its where (usually guys) skiiers and snowboarders ski in shorts and t-shirts, or shirtless into a pool of water. Its hard to explain, I have a video.

(Sophia, her cousin Leah and I, observing these crazy people)

A Video of these Crazy People

• Getting Discovered/becoming famous ;) So while in Annaberg I had the opportunity to be a part of a commercial. It was filmed at the ski hill with some famous boxer who will be starring on Austria's "Dancing with the Stars. Basically all we did was take a few photos, and a take of us "learning to ski", here is the photo:

(the guy in the green snow pants is the famous boxer)

• Beautiful and Magical, especially at night with all the streetlights....I would go for walks listening to music and the snow would be falling softly, and you could see the lights on in the houses, sometimes you could catch a glimpse of people laughing and eating dinner. But outside the world feels so infinite. I have this thing for streetlights. At night when it has just rained and there are reflections everywhere, or when it is snowing if you stand right underneath the street lamp and look up into the snow it feels like you are in a tunnel of stars. So cool.

Español...auf Deutsch?

So I began Spanish today...and let me tell you learning another language, in another language is probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. If I hadn't already had some Spanish I probably would have been lost. But not as lost as I am during Italian class.... this is my classes second year of Italian so I really don't stand a chance. Most of the time I sit there and try to figure out when my teacher is speaking German and when in fact she is speaking Italian with a German accent. Because we are literally just beginning Spanish its doable. The bonus is, after we complete this course we are flying to Barcelona for 10 days! This prize makes the struggle worth it although having three languages bouncing around in your head can cause you to really mess up when you are talking. For example today we were were working with partners and asking each other some simple questions we had just learned. My partner asked me 

                                   "Cuantos años tienes?"

To which I responded with

                                    "Ich bin sixteen años"

..... now I've heard of Spanglish and Germanglish but have you ever spoken in Spangermglish? Didn't think so.

Spanish......

... to English...

... to German....and then vice versa. This is my thought process

Dear Bread, Chocolate and the Contents of the Kitchen.

Here in Austria they eat a lot of bread. Let me be very clear here, A LOT OF BREAD! They eat so much they have had to make up new names to make it seem as though they are eating a variety of foods, and not just the same thing every morning for breakfast and dinner. You have, black bread, dark bread, white bread, wheat bread, toast, Semmeln, rolls, baguettes etc. For breakfast its "toast" but no this does not mean putting any piece of bread into the toaster. Toast is pre-sliced bread that you buy in a package, like the normal loaves at American stores except they are perfectly square. Also here there is no such thing as the butt of the bread. They kindly remove that for you before packaging the toast. For dinner the bread is served cold and is "actual" bread. A whole loaf that you have to cut yourself, and is usually dark or wheat bread. I've been wondering why Austrians eat so much bread and I realized today while searching for an after school snack that the reason is, they have no choice. Here in Austria, they have the widest, most delicious, selection of marmalades, cheese spreads, butters and honeys that you really can't help but crave the taste of one of these delicious toppings. But here is the problem. Bread is the only thing, THE ONLY THING, that can act as a vehicle for these tasty spreads. You don't necessarily want to eat the bread, but you have no choice! You walk into the kitchen, and there on the counter is some scrumptious peach marmalade and next to it is that dreaded loaf of... bread. So lets say you are like me and say "no i will not eat another piece of bread, I can't". If you attempt this way out you will end up staring in the fridge wondering if peach marmalade would go nicely with sliced ham, or perhaps pickles taste even better when dipped in strawberry-rhubarb preserve. If you are strong enough you'll take a carrot out of the fridge and pretend you are bugs-bunny, or if you cave the "toast" will find its way into the toaster before you can say "to many carbs!"
Austrians must really like to practice their self-control. And let me tell you, they have gotten really good at it. In our kitchen we have literally a smorgasbord of sweets. Everything from Reeses to Toblerone. And nobody eats them! Ever! In my house most of that stuff would be gone in.... an hour. Lets face it I don't get my height from genes alone. Add my brothers into the mix and I give you a maximum of twenty minutes. There is a tub full of the small foil wrapped Reeses peanut butter cups sitting on the counter, last night I ate one. It tasted like it was at least a year old. You know how chocolate candies get that funny stale taste after awhile? Tell me, how can you let a whole tub of Reeses get old especially if its your favorite candy? My host mom and sister love Reeses, I witnessed it in the Alps. But at home a whole tub of them can sit on the counter along with a half eaten package of Toblerone, mozart balls and bars of chocolate. The kitchen and I are developing a love/hate relationship.

Shrekpoint - First stop Stephansdom!

This begins with my drama teacher. He is pretty awesome guy who kind of unintentionally started collecting Pez dispensers. He loves the candy Pez and so students of his started giving him all different kinds of Pez dispensers and now he has about a bajillion of them in his classroom at school. Every student of his that travels abroad, gets to chose a Pez dispenser and bring it with them. On one condition. They must take pictures of the dispenser/with the dispenser at all the famous sites that they visit while they are away. So the Pez dispenser I chose is Shrek. And Shrek's first stop was 

STEPHANSDOM

Its a pretty tall Cathedral so I didn't manage to get the whole building in the picture. Also Shrek had a bit of an injury in my pocket and will be undergoing glue surgery soon to fix his left ear.... no worries! He will be just fine!

Until the next Shrekpoint! (get it, like Chekpoint?)

Late Valentines Day

So I was trying to make a video for Valentines day, and it didn't work and I got really frustrated/angry with my computer so thats why instead i'm posting this picture two days late.

This is my best friend and I.

The one thing about exchanges that is not that great is you do miss your friends, a lot. But it gets better when you start to make friends here, however that can take awhile....Good news is i've made a friend! Yay!

His name is Akhil and he is very nice and I'm pretty sure a little bit gay. Anyway we walked around Stephansplatz on Saturday. It was fun. We went to Starbucks (which is very popular here) and then split some fancy, tasty, delicious, to die for, Macaroons. YUM! We also took Shreks first picture (see the next post to know more about this mysterious shrek reference). All in all it was a good time! 

50 Shades of Hotdog (I went there)

Some of you may know that I was in France two years ago for a couple weeks in the summer. There I ran into my first foreign hotdog, and today I stumbled upon another one. Lets take a look at the types of hotdogs, starting closest to home and working our way out.

Usually in my Freezer:

usually paired with....

Chicago:

New York:

Paris:

 It was in the Tuileries Gardens that I stumbled upon these monsters of hot dogs, unfortunately I had just ate a sandwich and was too full to try it.

However this kind sir kindly modeled for me, and although I didn't eat it, I was able to take a nice touristy picture!

Vienna:

Sorry about the blurry photo, I was walking, eating, and taking a photo. 

So this is the Vienna hotdog. As you may or may not be able to tell, the "bun" is a baguette that is hollow. They squirt the ketchup and mustard inside first, then put in the hotdog, and then top it off with the top of the baguette like a lid. This is a very convenient type of bun because when you are walking and eating you don't get ketchup and mustard all over your hands.

However our friend gravity causes a little problem. All of the ketchup and mustard tends to slide to the bottom, leaving you with condiment soup and no hotdog for the last inch or so of bun. This might sound unappetizing but when you are an American teenager living in Vienna starving after a long long day of school, you eat it all.

Bipa, Billa and Libro!

Shopping here is hard. Unlike in America there is no such thing as the "one-stop-shop", there is a specific store for pretty much everything. It makes it difficult for me to know where to go because none of the stores are the same as back home. For example, to get shampoo I would usually go to Walgreens, here the store is called "Bipa" and it is all makeup and hair products, nothing else.

For a girl, walking in this store is a like a dream come true.... as for guys, they must have to go undercover to buy shampoo. 

An American fridge could eat a Austrian fridge and go back for seconds. So instead of doing their grocery shopping once a week, or every two weeks, they go grocery shopping pretty much every day. Luckily my apartment is literally right above a "Billa" which is pretty much a miniature version of the Pick-n-Save. 

So every night or every other night I run down to the Billa with Sophia and buy "dinner" which here is pretty much bread and cheese. Lunch is where the parties at, so you better be hungry then, or you will be starving later!

The final store that I have been to is "Libro," if you know any Spanish you might have guessed what this place is for. Its where you can buy books, office supplies and some music and movies. I had to run there after school today for some school supplies. Fun fact, binders here only have two rings, and on occasion four. Never three.

They also hide their notebook paper. So if you are ever in Europe looking for notebook paper, don't look in the paper section. Look by the "hefts" which are folders. Who would have thought!

Sweet Tooth!

Look at that! Its an Austrian Milkyway...who would have thought! It doesn't just look different either, it tastes totally different as well...

Artwork

I had a lot of free time during break in the Alps....a lot... sometimes I was really bored, or hungry, or both. There was no internet, and I didn't have any homework. You know I never thought I would actually wish for homework. But when you have nothing to do you can't think of anything to do, and when you have too much to do you only think of more things to do. Funny how that works. So anyway, I discovered some old drawing materials in a drawer upstairs, so when I wasn't skiing, I was drawing!

Note

The tour of my apartment in Vienna video should now be able to be viewed! Sorry about the mix up!

Skiing! in the Alps!

So I went skiing…for the first time in six years. And of course since I haven't gone in six years the best place to start would be the Alps, right? At first it was weird being on skis again but then it sort of came back and I felt pretty comfortable. I made it to the top of the mountain on the first day (the top of a MOUNTAIN!) You actually feel the pressure change when you are on the chairlift, my ears popped…

Going down the mountain is the exhilarating part. When the wind is so strong you really can't fall because it just pushes you back up, or when it is snowing so hard it stings your face, or maybe when its just so damn cold you can't even feel your face, what ever the weather you feel like the king of the world when you are flying down the hill. Ya, its pretty awesome :)  

English Class

So today I had my first English class. It was very entertaining. I wonder who writes these textbooks... You would think a fluent speaker but i'm not so sure.... The grammar maybe right...but the sentence structures that they use are so uncommon in everyday speach that it sounds wrong! It might be because they learn British English. Well whatever the case may be, it is hilarious to read and listen too. Problem was I couldn't laugh for fear of offending the teacher! Finally feeling like I'm not the idiot, over and out
Signe