Hey everyone, I am sad to say that this is going to be my final post. I want to thanke everyone for following me on my 2 month journey.
On Saturday we left the house around 4:45 in the morning and got to the airport around 7:30. I checked my bags and got my boarding pass. After that it was time to say goodbye to Guenter and Michael then through to security. My flight was scheduled to leave at 10:50 and we pulled away from the gate exactly on time. The flight was pretty much full. I ended up sitting in the exit row which I never released how nice it was. There was no one sitting infront of my so I could stretch me legs out as much as I wanted to. The only drawback was my seat wasn't able to recline. The movies on the way back were the worst choices ever. The 9.5 hour flight back home was complete torture. I just sat there, listened to music and stared at the flight map. The flight was very smooth and we probably only had 10 minutes of turbulence the whole entire flight. I had a little cold so landing was a little rough on my ears. My left ear was clogged the whole afternoon and night but when I woke up on Sunday it was back to normal.Once back at Dulles I made it through immigration, collected my luggage, and went through customs very quickly (thank goodness). My parents were waiting at the cellphone lot so I called them and 2 minutes later they picked me up outside of arrivals. It was very nice to see them.I was so tired when I got back and went to bed at 7:30. I am still waking up early since I've been back but hope that will change soon.
The past two months I spent in Austria were one of the best experiences I have ever had. And although I had an amazing time I was ready to come home to the best country in the world.
Once again thank you to all for reading, and don't forget - Life's a garden, dig it.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Last Day
Hey guys, I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I can't believe I am sitting here writing my 2nd to last blog (I will write my final blog back in the USA giving my final thoughts). It just seems like yesterday I was sitting here writing my first blog entry. The past 60 days have gone by sooooooo fast.
My final week was pretty quiet. On Tuesday I went to Linz for the day to buy some gifts. On Wednesday morning I paid my last visit to a school. I was there for a couple hours then I met Guenter, Gerlinde, Michael and Richard for lunch. I wanted to take them out as a thank you for being such amazing hosts. We went to Venezia, an italian restaurant that has HUGE portions. Gerlinde and Guenter each got a pizza and I went with the Weinerschnitzel. I felt like I can eat pizza anywhere in America but Weinerschnitzel is pretty hard to come by.
On Thursday I helped Gerlinde get ready for the big Thanksgiving dinner she was to prepare. She was having over her friend Maria, her husband Kanchi (remember, that Japanese guy I went on the Ferris wheel with in Linz, man I never thought I'd say that sentence once let alone twice!!!!!), and Gerlinde's mother. Gerlinde went all out for this Thanksgiving celebration She took out the table cloth, lit candles al over the house and I never saw the house so clean. Since Gerlinde never made turkey before she decided to make chicken instead. It was just as good. She also made, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots, corn, and cranberry sauce. For dessert her friend made Apple Cake and we ate it was ice cream. After dinner she said this is a holiday for giving thanks and then she gave me a bag with some presents and said that she was for thankful for having me be her "son" for the past two months. It was very sweet and thoughtful of her. In the bag were some sweets, a cookbook (Austrian meals, but in English. I told her I am going to learn to cook when I get home and I mean it) and a picture collage she made (pictures of me and the family) which looks so perfect.
Today (Friday) I am just spending some time with the family and going to pack this afternoon. I hate packing, and I feel like I am definitely leaving with more stuff than I came with. I ended up with 35 new pez. Super excited about that. We have to wake up at 4:30 tomorrow morning and leave by 5am. It's about a 3 hour drive to Vienna so that should put me there by 8. My flight leaves at 10:45 Austrian time and arrives back in DC at 3:00pm EST. Michael is going to drive with Guenter and I to the airport because he has never been before and is excited to see the big planes.
Well I am signing off now from Austria. Stay tuned in a couple days for a final blog entry from America!!!!
My final week was pretty quiet. On Tuesday I went to Linz for the day to buy some gifts. On Wednesday morning I paid my last visit to a school. I was there for a couple hours then I met Guenter, Gerlinde, Michael and Richard for lunch. I wanted to take them out as a thank you for being such amazing hosts. We went to Venezia, an italian restaurant that has HUGE portions. Gerlinde and Guenter each got a pizza and I went with the Weinerschnitzel. I felt like I can eat pizza anywhere in America but Weinerschnitzel is pretty hard to come by.
On Thursday I helped Gerlinde get ready for the big Thanksgiving dinner she was to prepare. She was having over her friend Maria, her husband Kanchi (remember, that Japanese guy I went on the Ferris wheel with in Linz, man I never thought I'd say that sentence once let alone twice!!!!!), and Gerlinde's mother. Gerlinde went all out for this Thanksgiving celebration She took out the table cloth, lit candles al over the house and I never saw the house so clean. Since Gerlinde never made turkey before she decided to make chicken instead. It was just as good. She also made, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots, corn, and cranberry sauce. For dessert her friend made Apple Cake and we ate it was ice cream. After dinner she said this is a holiday for giving thanks and then she gave me a bag with some presents and said that she was for thankful for having me be her "son" for the past two months. It was very sweet and thoughtful of her. In the bag were some sweets, a cookbook (Austrian meals, but in English. I told her I am going to learn to cook when I get home and I mean it) and a picture collage she made (pictures of me and the family) which looks so perfect.
Today (Friday) I am just spending some time with the family and going to pack this afternoon. I hate packing, and I feel like I am definitely leaving with more stuff than I came with. I ended up with 35 new pez. Super excited about that. We have to wake up at 4:30 tomorrow morning and leave by 5am. It's about a 3 hour drive to Vienna so that should put me there by 8. My flight leaves at 10:45 Austrian time and arrives back in DC at 3:00pm EST. Michael is going to drive with Guenter and I to the airport because he has never been before and is excited to see the big planes.
Well I am signing off now from Austria. Stay tuned in a couple days for a final blog entry from America!!!!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Surprise Blog Entry
So I know I wrote you this morning talking about Budapest and how I didn't have much going on this week but Gerlinde, the boys, and I went on a little road trip today.
I was reading online a couple weeks ago about the funniest names of towns all around the world and TWO of them were in Austria. One of them is called Fucking. No joke there is a Fucking, Austria. Unfortunately Fucking is about three hours away. The other one in Austria was only 45 minutes away so Gerlinde said we could drive there today. So see below where we went today.
I was reading online a couple weeks ago about the funniest names of towns all around the world and TWO of them were in Austria. One of them is called Fucking. No joke there is a Fucking, Austria. Unfortunately Fucking is about three hours away. The other one in Austria was only 45 minutes away so Gerlinde said we could drive there today. So see below where we went today.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Back From Budapest, Final Week
Hey guys, well I got back from Budapest yesterday (Sunday night). The internet wasn't working last night so I didn't get to see another heartbreaking Ravens loss.
So after my last post from Budapest I went and walked around the Pest side of Budapest. Buda is on one side of the Danube and Pest the other. The Pest side is the flatter more commercial side and Buda is the hilly, greener side. On Friday I visited St Stephens Church, the largest in Hungary. I went to Heroes Square and visited their Christmas Market. The Christmas Market was really cool because they had all the Christmas lights on and it made the city look even more pretty. The weather was very misty/foggy so you didn't get a lot of good views but at least it wasn't raining (I'm looking at you Prague). Also on Friday I needed to get some money out of the ATM since they use Forints and not the Euro. It was pretty confusing since $1 = 180 Forints. So I had to get out 25,000 Forints.
Saturday is when I toured the Buda side of Budapest. The Buda side is where the castle sits and from this side you have an excellent view of the Hungary Parliament building.
My hotel was very nice and was one block off of Andrazzy Street and right next to the Opera House. Andrazzy Street is modeled after the Champs D'Elysses in Paris. It is a very straight street running from Heroes Square all the way down to near the Danube. It is a very pretty with trees outlining it and many posh stores.
Coming back yesterday (Sunday) all my modes of transportation were on time to the minute. I took the 11:10 train from Budapest to Vienna. I arrived in Vienna at 2:08 and took the 2:20 train to Linz. I arrived in Linz at 3:50 and took the 4:42 bus back to Freistadt.
So here I am on Monday for my last 5 days in Austria. I can't believe how fast this trip has gone and that I will be home on Saturday. I don't have much planned for this week except one day I will go to Linz to do some shopping and on Thursday night Gerlinde will be making Thanksgiving dinner for me, but with chicken not turkey.
Thank you all who have stuck with me and continue to read this thing. I will see all of you very soon.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Hello There Budapest
Hey guys, I made it to Budafest safe and sound and right on time. The journey to get here was long but uneventful. I first had to catch the bus from Lichtaneu to Freistadt at 6:07.I got to Freistadt at 6:20. I then had to take the bus from Freistadt to Linz. I got to Linz at around 7:30. I then had to take the train to Vienna at 8:10. We didn't leave until 8:20 which made me a little nervous because I only had 10 minutes to change trains. The ticket checker guy told me that the train to Budapest would be waiting for us, so that made me happy. I then took the 10 train to Budapest and arrived at 1 in the afternoon. I sat with 2 nice people from England. We chatted for the first hour then I listened to some music. I set up a transfer with the hotel for a taxi to pick me up. There was a guy there holding a sign with my name on it. The drive was about 5 minutes. The weather here is nice but a little foggy. The hotel is also pretty decent. I am about to go site see now so I will update later.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Final 10 Days
Hello everybody, I can't believe I only have ten more days left in Austria. This "trip" has absolutely flown by. The past 5 days the weather has been perfect. Very clear blue skies and daytime temps in the 50's.
I left off my last blog talking about going to school on Friday afternoon to help out with the Cambridge Certificate students. That went well and afterward I had a nice dinner by myself at a nice restaurant on the square in Freistadt. Outside the door they were advertising a gnocchi special and for those of you who don't know gnocchi is my favorite pasta. So I had to give it a go. When I sat down and the waitress came over she said they were out of the gnocchi special, my luck. She translated the menu for me, and did quite a good job at it too. I decided to go with the Cordon Bleu with Pomme Frites (french fries). Cordon Bleu obviously means with ham and cheese. So in Austria when you see Cordon Bleu on a menu it means a Weinerschnitzel has ham and cheese inside it. It was soooo good. After dinner I went to McDonalds to hang out (and to eat a piece of Tiramasu from McCafe) until I met some friends later that night. We went out to Latino and Acanto. We had some trouble getting a taxi to take us home but I made it home eventually.
During the day on Saturday was pretty quiet and Saturday night I went out with Gerlinde and some of her classmates to Linz. They wanted more experience talking with a native speaker. We first went to a bar called Cubus. It is on the top floor of the Ars Electronica Center (sorta like a science center). This building is right on the Danube so we had some really nice views. After a drink we went to eat at a place called the Yellow Crocodile (that is what it is called in English). It was very good there as well. I ordered the tortellini. After dinner we went home.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday wasn't that exciting. I don't think I did anything blog worthy.
Today (Wednesday) Ingrid came over for lunch at around 11:00. She was working on the farm in the morning and I asked if she needed help after lunch and she eagerly accepted. So Michael and I went back with her to help her on the farm. My first task was to feed the cows. I had a pitchfork and I had to bring the hay to the cows. It was pretty easy, I think I did a decent job. After that task Ingrid and I had to load a trailer with rocks that were laying in the front of the house and move them to the back of the house. They were mostly pretty small rocks but they had some big ones as well. This took a long time cause there so many rocks. After we loaded and unloaded rocks my next task was to bring firewood from the barn into the house so she could warm the house. After that we trimmed a tree. Before Ingrid took us back home she cut a small patch of grass, with a reaper. Maybe I should start to do that when I get home on my small lawn. I think it would be pretty funny.
Tomorrow I am off to visit a new school because they heard I have some awesome English speaking abilities. I am not sure how many classes I am visiting tomorrow, it might just be one. And then tomorrow night I need to pack my bags for Budapest!!!!
Yup I decided to spend my last weekend in Budapest and I am going all by myself. I am leaving Friday morning and returning Sunday afternoon. I will take the bus from Freistadt to Linz then the train from Linz to Vienna then the train from Vienna to Budapest. Even though I had a good experience staying at a hostel in Prague I decided to go with a regular hotel. It's supposed to be a good one, it was ranked 4th (out of 5, just kidding out of 325) from Tripadvisor.
I left off my last blog talking about going to school on Friday afternoon to help out with the Cambridge Certificate students. That went well and afterward I had a nice dinner by myself at a nice restaurant on the square in Freistadt. Outside the door they were advertising a gnocchi special and for those of you who don't know gnocchi is my favorite pasta. So I had to give it a go. When I sat down and the waitress came over she said they were out of the gnocchi special, my luck. She translated the menu for me, and did quite a good job at it too. I decided to go with the Cordon Bleu with Pomme Frites (french fries). Cordon Bleu obviously means with ham and cheese. So in Austria when you see Cordon Bleu on a menu it means a Weinerschnitzel has ham and cheese inside it. It was soooo good. After dinner I went to McDonalds to hang out (and to eat a piece of Tiramasu from McCafe) until I met some friends later that night. We went out to Latino and Acanto. We had some trouble getting a taxi to take us home but I made it home eventually.
During the day on Saturday was pretty quiet and Saturday night I went out with Gerlinde and some of her classmates to Linz. They wanted more experience talking with a native speaker. We first went to a bar called Cubus. It is on the top floor of the Ars Electronica Center (sorta like a science center). This building is right on the Danube so we had some really nice views. After a drink we went to eat at a place called the Yellow Crocodile (that is what it is called in English). It was very good there as well. I ordered the tortellini. After dinner we went home.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday wasn't that exciting. I don't think I did anything blog worthy.
Today (Wednesday) Ingrid came over for lunch at around 11:00. She was working on the farm in the morning and I asked if she needed help after lunch and she eagerly accepted. So Michael and I went back with her to help her on the farm. My first task was to feed the cows. I had a pitchfork and I had to bring the hay to the cows. It was pretty easy, I think I did a decent job. After that task Ingrid and I had to load a trailer with rocks that were laying in the front of the house and move them to the back of the house. They were mostly pretty small rocks but they had some big ones as well. This took a long time cause there so many rocks. After we loaded and unloaded rocks my next task was to bring firewood from the barn into the house so she could warm the house. After that we trimmed a tree. Before Ingrid took us back home she cut a small patch of grass, with a reaper. Maybe I should start to do that when I get home on my small lawn. I think it would be pretty funny.
Tomorrow I am off to visit a new school because they heard I have some awesome English speaking abilities. I am not sure how many classes I am visiting tomorrow, it might just be one. And then tomorrow night I need to pack my bags for Budapest!!!!
Yup I decided to spend my last weekend in Budapest and I am going all by myself. I am leaving Friday morning and returning Sunday afternoon. I will take the bus from Freistadt to Linz then the train from Linz to Vienna then the train from Vienna to Budapest. Even though I had a good experience staying at a hostel in Prague I decided to go with a regular hotel. It's supposed to be a good one, it was ranked 4th (out of 5, just kidding out of 325) from Tripadvisor.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Time For An Update
Hey guys, sorry this is my first update all week. Not much has been going on in Upper Austria.
Monday - Wednesday was pretty quiet. On Tuesday Gerlinde and I made potato soup. We sorta have a running joke about all the pumpkin soup I have been eating so when I heard she knows how to make potato soup I asked if she could make it. Before she started to make it, their potato soup is different than ours. Theirs is just broth and potatoes. So I found a recipe online for the "American" baked potato soup. You know, like the kind you can find at TGI Fridays or Red Robin. So Gerlinde had all the ingredients except for the bacon, sour cream and cheddar cheese. We went to the grocery store and picked them up. Although the soup was ok it definitely didn't taste like TGI Fridays and not in a good way.
On Thursday it was back to the school I went to visit 3 new classes I haven't been and it was the same routine, a question and answer session. I got a new question yesterday from two of the classes. They want to know if all Americans are overweight. I guess that is a stereotype most countries have about Americans. Last night Gerlinde got a phone call from Ingrid asking me if I wanted to go out to Lusthouse last night. So after pretty much staying in the house Monday - Wednesday I eagerly accepted her proposal. At 9, Ingrid, her cousin, and her friend Alex picked me up and we headed to Lusthouse. Lusthouse is a bar/club. Thursday night they mostly played "oldies" Austrian music. I had a nice time but didn't get home until 3:30.
Today (Friday) I am going back to the school this afternoon to assist with the students who are getting their Cambridge Certificate. This is what the teacher had to say about it "basically fce (first cambridge certificate, if you're intersted www.cambridgeesol.org - general english - fce)is for our advanced pupils and they will take an external standardized exam in june".
This weekend I don't have much planned but hope to do something since this is my 2nd to last weekend in Austria and there is a chance next weekend I might be going to Budapest. I will keep you posted.
Hope everyone is doing well in America and I hope to see you all when I get back in 15 days.
Monday - Wednesday was pretty quiet. On Tuesday Gerlinde and I made potato soup. We sorta have a running joke about all the pumpkin soup I have been eating so when I heard she knows how to make potato soup I asked if she could make it. Before she started to make it, their potato soup is different than ours. Theirs is just broth and potatoes. So I found a recipe online for the "American" baked potato soup. You know, like the kind you can find at TGI Fridays or Red Robin. So Gerlinde had all the ingredients except for the bacon, sour cream and cheddar cheese. We went to the grocery store and picked them up. Although the soup was ok it definitely didn't taste like TGI Fridays and not in a good way.
On Thursday it was back to the school I went to visit 3 new classes I haven't been and it was the same routine, a question and answer session. I got a new question yesterday from two of the classes. They want to know if all Americans are overweight. I guess that is a stereotype most countries have about Americans. Last night Gerlinde got a phone call from Ingrid asking me if I wanted to go out to Lusthouse last night. So after pretty much staying in the house Monday - Wednesday I eagerly accepted her proposal. At 9, Ingrid, her cousin, and her friend Alex picked me up and we headed to Lusthouse. Lusthouse is a bar/club. Thursday night they mostly played "oldies" Austrian music. I had a nice time but didn't get home until 3:30.
Today (Friday) I am going back to the school this afternoon to assist with the students who are getting their Cambridge Certificate. This is what the teacher had to say about it "basically fce (first cambridge certificate, if you're intersted www.cambridgeesol.org - general english - fce)is for our advanced pupils and they will take an external standardized exam in june".
This weekend I don't have much planned but hope to do something since this is my 2nd to last weekend in Austria and there is a chance next weekend I might be going to Budapest. I will keep you posted.
Hope everyone is doing well in America and I hope to see you all when I get back in 15 days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)