Day 1

Hallo Österreich! I got here!

The plane ride was boring, of course, I was kept alive by Dr. Who and Cabin Pressure. (for those of you who don't know these things look them up. it's fantastic.

I landed in Madrid a half an hour early which was great because the airport was HUGE and I only had about an hour to get to my gate. Thankfully this flight was only a couple of hours long, so I didn't have too long to wallow away in my anticipation and nervousness. Which I actually didn't have much of.

To all the outbounds, the rotary jacket, i found, is magical! As soon as I put it on I had this feeling that I was in charge and that I was going to march up to this exchange completely calm and cool like a business woman. I recommend wearing the rotary jacket to any nervous outbound.

I was awaited at the front of the airport by Dette, my host sister and Margot, my host mummy, a fantastic cake and an Austrian flag! WAHOO!! Perchtoldsdorf is a cute little town right next to Vienna with lots of cute things that I need to explore. I think i'll wait a day, though. My family was really good about not letting me go to sleep so I could combat jetlag with full force! At 8:30pm I'm calling it quits, though.

We drove home and I brought my stuff upstairs, took a shower, realized just how starving I was, and went out to lunch at this beautiful lokal run by local farmers. We then went to the Haupstraße (main street) and checked out the music school, which we found was closed for summer so I can't really say anything about it.

The Baiers have lived in Perchtoldsdorf for a long time and practically know everyone! Meaning practically everyone in Perchtoldsdorf knows me! It makes it a little less awkward to try out my awkward Deutsch to everyone! (which is way less awkward than I thought it would be, by the way.)

You have to forgive my grammatical mistakes, I am running on verrryy little sleeeeppppp....

So, after all that, we went home and started decorating another cake for my host bro, Ben who is turning 15 tomorrow! It's a football field with goals and everything! I made a shark and a flower out of the extra marzipan. I've learned a lot of new words today, which I actually forget now, so I guess I didn't really learn them. I tried to save them in my ipod, though so maybe tomorrow I can get them into my memory.

I need to learn how to roll my Rs; when something little is even smaller, instead of adding "lein" to the end, you roll your R. or something, I haven't really caught on to it. But it's only the first day so I'm not worried.

Dinner was fabtastic, really yummy, and we all just sat around and talked! I tried to listen, and not speak too much english, but they're really good at including me in the conversation and getting me to use german, but not pushing it too much. My host mom is a teacher, and is very patient, and also knows how to encourage german in an encouraging, teacher-like way. Me gusta.

Tomorrow Dette and I are going out to meet her friends :) I am prepared to say Ja! a lot.

P.S. don't get used to this length of entry because it's the first day, ya know....

The Green Gate which I remembered to go through. 

-Cleo