Today was a very busy day. After breakfast Gerlinde and I had another "formal" English lesson. We worked on her homework, read articles in English and worked on vocabulary. I am starting to learn some German words. Uberfallen means invade (I am sure that will come in handy one day).
After our tutoring session Gerlinde dropped me off at her friend Maria's house so we could go to the botanical gardens. Maria's husband Kanji (he is from Japan) came with us. Before we went to the gardens we stopped at a mini mall so Maria could get coffee. Kanji and I stopped by the supermarket so we could get drinks and I could look for Pez. Guess what - I bought 3 new ones there (two winnie the pooh detective series and bambi). From the mini mall we drove to the botanical gardens. There really wasn't much to see but it was a beautiful day and it was nice to be outside. I took a picture of a snack we had there, a traditional German/Austrian meal. On our way back home we stopped at another mall but this one was bigger. They had a Toys R Us there so you know what that means, another pez hunt. This time I bought 4 new ones!!!!! (the monsters vs aliens set and 1 Thomas the Tank). I am going to need another suitcase to bring home all this Pez. After the mall we were driving past Linz and Maria asked if I wanted to stop real quick at the carnival in Linz (this carnival is held twice a year and is exactly like an American carnival. there were rides, food and games), I of course said yes. Since we didn't have a lot of time she suggested the I just ride the ferris wheel. Maria was not able to find parking so she just dropped off Kanji and I. So there I was on a ferris wheel in Austria with a Japanese man (I never thought I'd say that sentence in one million years). The carnival was right next to the Danube (see pic above).
When I got back from Marias and Kanjis I needed to get ready because I was to go out with Ingrid, Konrad and Alex again. This time to a big party (not like one person's party, the whole town was throwing it) at an old farm house in Mitterbach. Ingrid picked me up and we met Konrad at one of his friends house. They were there to pregame. One of his friends works at Freistadter beer and had a mini keg. All their friends were really nice but didn't speak much English (that is until they get a little drunk). Most Austrian people are a little too shy to speak English so alcohol helps solve that problem. After the pregame we picked up Alex and headed to the party at Mitterbach. There were a ton of people there, most of which were pretty young. The drinking age in Austria is 16, can you believe that? They had a cover band there that played so decent music (Black Eyed Peas, Green Day, Pink, etc). After hanging out at the bar Konrad and I walked around for a little bit. Some people must have heard us speaking and caught wind that I was from America, that is where my local celebrity status comes in. All of a sudden a group of 5 people started talking to me, in English. They said that have met many people from England but never an American. They asked me many questions, such as how do I like Austria, where am I from, what am I doing here? This group of people probably hung out with me for about an hour and even bought me a drink. In the meantime 5 other people must have heard me talking in English and came up to me and started talking. They were really interested in me and what I had to say. Everything there was extremely nice and I had a lot of fun.
rockstar!!!
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