These last
several weeks have been fantastic.
Christmas
was interesting. It was a happy time of year along with some frustration and
homesickness. On Christmas Eve the Knauseders had family over throughout the
day and in the evening we had meat fondue which was my first time eating that.
At this point I began feeling some homesickness and irritation simply because
it didn’t feel like Christmas time until that very morning. Plus the fact that
this was the last day with my host family made for a conflicted pool of
emotions on this supposed to be happy day. The difference of traditions also
bugged me a bit, but after dinner we sang and opened presents and I felt much
better then. My host family really appreciated the gifts I got them and I was
thrilled with the ones they had for me. I got 3 CD’s, a warm up suit from my
family in Germany, a really cool hoodie, some gloves for running, and a few
other small things. The highlight was though when I got a surprise package from
Lindsay Dawson, and inside were some of the best things anyone has ever gotten
for me! It was a lot of homemade items and photos that Lindsay put together,
and were small inside jokes only us would understand. It was very thoughtful,
and it meant a lot to me. Afterwards I went to church for the first time in 5
months and skyped my parents and sister back in Little Rock. By far the most
interesting Christmas yet!
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| Austrian Christmas Tree |
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| My host family and I |
The next
day I left fairly early in the morning to go to my Rotary YEO in Murau. There
my host dad and sister dropped me off for 4 days. He lives in this enormous
castle that has been passed down though his family for centuries. I would spend
those days there learning how to ski. That day I relaxed and got moved in and
in the evening we drove to a movie theater and saw the Hobbit in 3D! I really
liked it and it was a treat to go see it on Christmas Day! The next day around
11 my YEO dropped me off at the Lachtal ski resort for my first private lesson.
I had to borrow my skis and poles and at noon, I met my teacher, and we got
started right away. He had me get comfortable on my skis without the poles, and
then I bought a lift card for 2 hours and headed to the kiddie part of the resort.
We showed me how to brake and keep control when going down the slopes. It was
really exhausting having to push all the snow aside just to keep a slow pace.
My teacher said I learned in 20 minutes what usually takes people 3 days! I was
proud to have some natural talent for this stuff! We then moved on to the
regular slopes, and I got more practice going slow. Before I knew it, my first
lesson was already over. The next day we got started right away by going all
the way to the top at 2250m. I began falling a lot more here, but I started
getting practice with curving from side to side. At this point it began getting
fun being able to have more maneuverability and speed while maintaining the
control. At the end of this lesson my teacher said I could officially ski!
Pretty proud of that! My 3rd day of private lessons was also the
last day in Murau and skiing at the Lachtal ski resort. This last day my teacher
and I explored more of the slopes and I tried adding more speed and even tried
going down the black slopes (which didn’t work out well at all!). My very last
run of the day I skied down the whole slope on my own without a single stumble
or fall! It was a great way to conclude an awesome series of lessons.
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| Lachtal |
Later that
day I came back to Knittelfeld to spend 5 days with my 3rd host
family and get to know them a bit. The first full day with them I took a break
from skiing and drove to Linz with my host dad to check out a Porsche museum
and run a few errands in that part of the country. The day after that I got to
ski again with my host sister and her friend in a small resort, Gaal, only 15
minutes away from Knittelfeld. They were impressed with my progress, and I
liked showing them what all I learned. On the 31st of December I
went skiing one last time at Lachtal with my host parents. I didn’t fall the
entire day and that was so good to see how much I have progressed since just
several days beforehand.
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| Porsche Museum |
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| Gaal |
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| The Mountains around the Gaal |
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| Wind farm at Lachtal |
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| I did some ice skating too that day! |
For New
Year’s Eve, I took a train down to Graz in the early evening to stay with Crash
Ketcham for the evening. We went to a dinner party, and I finally got to meet
some of his school friends he talks about so much! The fireworks were going off
periodically throughout the night and the real show started at midnight from
the Schlossberg in Graz. At this point I had already met up with 3 other
exchange students- Laura, Sam, and Keegan. We watched the fireworks together
and then they wanted to go to some clubs. I passed and tried to find Crash.
After a lot more walking through the city and crowds of drunk people we decided
to call it a night and headed to his apartment. I slept very well, and the next
morning Crash and I went on an awesome hike and got a fantastic view of the
city in the morning. His host mother was kind too, and I look forward to
visiting again soon.
On the 2nd
of January I moved in with my 2nd host family for the year- Edith,
Mirjam, and Laura Haider! I felt right at home and am very excited to have a
big sister for the first time!
Then today
I went to swim practice for the first time in almost a month. Lucky I went
today because we had a guest on Knittelfeld, Flori Lang. He is a world record
holder in backstroke and swims for Switzerland but trains in Graz. He coached
us, and we even got to train a bit with them! Not every day that someone can
say they got to train with an athlete at that level!
I went
skiing today again in the Gaal with new skis I got from my host sister. They were
longer than the skis I was used to using and so I fell a lot. On my second run
of the day I lost control and had a really bad wipeout and hit my head badly. I
started getting insane thoughts and felt like a crazy person. Edith made me
stop while she got the car to go back home. I knew it was a concussion and
later we drove to a hospital to make sure it wasn’t anything serious. I already
felt better but the blood tests and X-rays confirmed everything was alright.
Not fun though. I’ll take better care next time!
In all this
was the best Christmas break ever, full of awesome and interesting experiences!
I look forward most to finishing the first semester of school and of course, a
lot more skiing!
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