Third Day

Hello to all my loyal blog followers, which I think the number is 4. I want to give a special shout out to my sister's friend at work. Keep on reading, remember life's a garden dig it.

So today I spent the day with Gunter and the children. For breakfast I had toast with homemade marmalade and honey. The honey was from bees that Gerlinde keeps at her mother's house. I saw the bee house when I went over there. It was pretty cool. After breakfast we went to grandma's house to pick up some fresh milk (and eggs from her chickens or is it hens?). Then we went to the bus stop near Gunter's house to see how the bus works. Unfortunately the bus never showed up. We waited there for 20 minutes. After that we went back home for lunch. Gunter made scrambled eggs (from grandmas farm) with bacon and cheese. It was good. After lunch Gunter and the children were to go to the fire brigade (fire station) to take a look at the fire trucks. They dropped me off in old town Freistadt. I walked around a little bit. Old town is very nice. I found myself at the tourist information center. Believe it or not no customers were in there but me. Although the phone did ring but it might have been a wrong number. The lady was nice and spoke English well.

After walking around Freistadt for an hour Gunter picked me up and we headed back home. Gerlinde came up from work around 645. For dinner she made grilled cheese with bacon. I also had my first beer (not ever, but pretty close). Freistadt has their own brewery and their beer is called Freistadter. It was pretty good. I took a picture of it. After dinner Gerlinde and I sat down and had our 1st "formal" English lesson. We went over what she learned in class last night. Some of which included vocabulary. Now some of the words she had to learn I guarantee none of you know what they mean. Antipode anyone? (myself and Kevin Barton are probably the only ones that know what it means since it is Geography related). What about a louse? I had NO idea what that meant. Anyway besides vocabulary she had to read to me a paragraph about why learning English is important and explain it to me. She did a very good job.

Alrighty gang catch you manana or shall I say Morgen (thats german for tomorrow)

P.S. Louse is the singular form of Lice. And antipode means In geography, the antipode (from Greek αντίποδες,^[1] from anti- "opposed" and pous "foot"; pronounced /ænˈtɪpəˌdiːz/) of any place on Earth is the point on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it.

How many of you knew that, be honest.

Day 2

After breakfast this morning, Gerlinde, Michael, Richard and I drove to Gerlinde's sister's house (or should I say farm again?). She has over 20 cows and they sell the milk to schools and to neighbors. While I was there a neighbor came over to purchase a gallon of milk. Gerlinde's sister lives with her husband, mother in law, father in law, and 4 children (2 of whom I met). They were all very nice to me. For lunch we had soup with cake in it (that's what they called it). It was good and tasted like matza ball soup, but didn't tell them that. Our main course was a vegetarian dish. It looked like a flattened crabcake. Regardless, it was good.

After lunch Gerlinde, the kids and I went to a town a couple villages over and toured this really old Austrian house which they made into a museum. After that we went to Linz for the remainder of the afternoon. At Linz we went to the Grottenbahn. The Grottenbahn is at the top of a really high hill in the city. On top of the hill you had amazing panoramic views of Linz. The Grottenbahn was more for Richard and Michael. I'm not really sure how to describe it. It has something to do with fairy tales, ie Hansel and Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin (You know what goes good with Yoohoo, a little Rum).

After Linz we had to get back to Freistadt because Gerlinde has her English class on Tuesday night (oh jeez, I hope she did well). I got back to the house around 6:30. I had a sandwich for dinner (pepperoni, cheese and mustard), showered and now updating this. Tomorrow Gerlinde works and Gunter watches the children.

1 down, 60 to go

Well getting to my final destination couldn't be easier. The fight was on time and smooth, Gunter was right there at the airport with my name written on a sign, and the 3 hour drive from the airport to Grunbach was nice.

So much for the flight being 80% full and me having an empty seat next to me. I think there wasn't an empty seat in the house. I sat next to an American guy, probably in his 50's. We didn't say two words to each other the whole 8 hour plane ride. That's fine with me. The flight went by really fast even though I didn't get any sleep. I did watch Xmen Origins and Angels and Demons. Food was good and practically no turbulence.

Immigration and customs took no time at all. After I got through customs I had to find Gunter. There were a lot of people with signs but it took me 15 seconds to find him. Then we had a 3 hour drive home. Conversation moved along and he understood mostly everything I said.

Their house is really nice but not yet finished. See picture from above. For lunch we had pumpkin soup, a potato and hamburger and for dinner we had hot dogs. The shower has good pressure and gets hot. So no complaints there.

This afternoon Gerinde, Michael and Richard drove me around town. They showed me where the train station was, where the bus station was and we even stopped for ice cream in old town Freistadt. I even caught my first Pez sighting, although it was just for candy and no dispensers.

The whole family has been very nice to me. Michael loved the Ravens jersey I got him and put it on as soon as he got it. He also talks to me in German like I have a clue what he is saying. We also went to visit Gerlinde's mom and sisters house (or should I say farm). They have 14 cows, numerous chickens, a rabbit, and bees. They also have lots of fruit trees. I had a couple plums and some raspberries.

I'm sure I'm missing more from today but it's seem like its been going on forever. Now it is time for me to get some sleep.

T - Minus 6 Days

Well it's come down to my last full week before I leave for Austria. I have already gotten out my suitcase and bookbag. Still not sure how many suitcases I should bring. I mean I'm going for two months and Gunter said the weather could be anywhere from 77 degrees to 23 degrees. My winter jacket alone will take up a huge amount of space (and so will my 60 pez dispensers I am taking, keep reading). The past couple weeks I have been busy getting stuff down for work and buying things I need for the trip. I bought and installed my Slingbox so I will be able to watch American TV while over there. Though I don't intend to watch much TV I gotta watch the Ravens play. I also bought a netbook, electricity converter and adapter, and some small gifts for my host family.

I have also been busy doing research on what I want to see/do while I am over there. As it turns out there is going to be the 7th Annual Pez convention in Linz (about 45 min away) in late October. Some of the activities in this 4 day convention include: tour of the new Pez factory in Hungary, Pez bingo, Pez charity auctions, Pez repair seminar and Pez room hopping. It sounds like an awesome good time. I emailed one of the organizers of the convention to see if he was interested in any of my American Pez and he was. I think I am bringing over 60+ dispensers for him to buy or for us to trade.

As for cities I want to visit, Cesky Krumlov and Cesky Budejovice in the Czech Republic seem pretty cool and I hope to make it there. As for cities you might have heard of I want to visit Salzburg, Prague and Vienna.

As of now my flight is about 75% full. I still have the seat next to me empty and I hope it stays that way. The website says that Angels and Demons and X-Men Origins will be playing on the plane. I hope they are right. That should keep me busy for about 4 hours. Gunter emailed me and said he will be waiting with a sign with my name on it. That ought to be interesting.

Well in one week from now I will be writing from my first day in Grunbach. I'll try to write once more before I leave.

The Austria 411

As many of you already know I am going to Austria for two months to volunteer (and by volunteer I mean to live with an Austrian family and help them with their English skills). I thought that by keeping this blog it would be the best way for my friends and family and whoever else is interested to follow me through my two month stay abroad.

I am going through Geovisions - Conversation Corps. Everyone from that organization has been absolutely great, especially Marybeth, who helped me get my package together and worked with their partner in Austria to find me a family. It's my responsibility to help my host family with Conversational English for 15 hours a week . That's it. Many Austrian families want to learn English or become better at speaking English through conversation. They are willing to provide me with a private room and 3 home-cooked, healthy meals each day (I haven't had this ever in my life, just kidding mom. I know I was a very picky eater growing up but now I am excited to try Wiener Schnitzel and Apple Strudel). The hours I am not spending teaching I plan to see/visit as many different cities/towns in Austria and surrounding countries as I can.

Now onto my host family. I will be living with Gunter and Gerlinde and their two sons, Michael (3 years old) and Richard (6 months old). As it turns out Gunter and Gerlinde (mostly Gerlinde) are the ones that I will be tutoring. Gunter is a software developer and Gerlinde is a nurse. I have exchanged many emails with Gunter. He seems very nice and says that the family is excited to meet me. The family lives in Grunbach (pop. 1,851, coat of arms above for all who is interested). Grunbach is located in the state of Upper Austria (if you see the picture above I am the little blue dot). It is about 15 miles from the Czech Republic border. Grunbach is about a 10 minute drive to Freistadt (pop. 7,437). From what I have read Freistadt seems like a pretty happening town. I hear there is even McDonalds there. The closest big city to Grunbach is Linz (pop. 188,968). Linz is about an hour drive from Grunbach and is the third most populated city in Austria.

I booked my flight this past week. I fly out of Dulles on Austrian Airlines will return the end of November. I will keep you all posted on any new developments between now and when I leave. Please feel free to leave any comments.