I haven’t blogged in a really long time. Sorry about
that. A lot has been going on since Christmas break; I have been really busy
doing a lot of great things.
I’ll start with swimming. On the 12th of January I
had the swim meet in Mürzzuschlag. I believe I wrote about that in my previous
post, describing the point system. The next weekend I had another brief meet in
Kapfenberg that consisted of just 50’s. This was a lot of fun because the races
moved along really fast and 50’s aren’t too exhausting. I placed 4th
overall. This was also the final meet of the “Winter Cup.” All of these meets
were intertwined, and the points all added up at this meet. With all the
combined points, I placed 2nd in the oldest age division! Even won
€50 as prize money! Two weeks after the winter cup were the Steierische
championships. Steiermark is the “state” of Austria I live in, so this was the equivalent
of the State swim meet. In all, I swam 11 races: 400 IM, 200 IM, 100 IM, 50
Fly, 100 Fly, 50 Breast, 100 Breast, 200 Breast, 50 Free, 100 Free, and 200
Free. What I didn’t realize is that there weren’t a whole lot of people competing
in this, so the meet moved quickly. In the morning sessions I had as little as
15 minutes between races. Luckily we had a 3 hour break between the morning and
afternoon sessions, so I got to eat a lot, listen to music, walk outdoors, and
sleep. The facility in Graz was fantastic. By far the best pool I have ever
raced in. On Saturday afternoon Crash and Laura came to watch; glad they could
come out. As for the racing, I swam mostly best times and had 3 especially
great swims. I placed 3rd in the 200 Breast and 200 IM and 2nd
in the 400 IM. The 200 Breast was even cooler because I was on the medal podium
with an athlete who competed in the 2012 London Olympics! I had a great series
of meets this past month. I’m proud of that.
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| Credits to Crash! Lookin good down there Simon |
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| 3rd in the 200 Breast with an Olympian!!! |
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| Nice facility, huh? |
School is up next. School in January was really rough. I am not too sure myself what made it so much more strenuous than the previous months, but I constantly felt stressed out. We had our exams that would determine our grades for the semester, and I think that is what got to me. I was freaking out about math and French tests, and I had a presentation in geography I was worried about too. Turns out, it was a lot of worrying for nothing. I got a 2 in chemistry (1-5 is the same scale as A-F), a 4 in French (I passed!!!), 1 in English (not too big of a surprise), and a 2 in math! I had a mental breakdown the weekend before my math exam because I was almost sure I was going to fail. I just didn’t understand the material and was doing everything I could to find help. When I got the test, it was only 4 questions, and I felt a lot better about it. In instances like these, I am trying to learn to be more relaxed. I freaked out about these tests and did completely fine; I hope the 2nd semester will go a bit smoother.
On January 2nd I moved to my 2nd
host family, the Haiders. It took a little adjusting. I live downstairs with my
host grandparents while my host mother and sisters are upstairs (where the
kitchen and living room are). I had a little trouble sleeping the first 3
weeks; it would sometimes take me almost 2 hours to fall asleep. That is all
worked out now, so no worries. My two host sisters, Laura (15), and Mirjam (18)
are really great; both are outgoing and entertaining. Mirjam was in New York
last year on exchange, so she knows exactly what I’m going through this year! My
host mother, Edith, is one of the most caring, understanding, and enthusiastic people
I have ever met! I feel so comfortable around her, and we get along more than
well! This host family is really close to the central part of town, so walking
to school only takes 4 minutes now, and to swim practice it only takes 10.
Really liking it here, but I can’t believe my time with them is already ½ done!
Final miscellaneous things:
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I got new juggling clubs! My 5 neon
green PX3’s are amazing. I feel like Lauge Benjaminsen. Kinda.
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My Beats broke. Broke my heart too
because I took really good care of them, and they didn’t even last 8 months.
Got some Skullcandy earbuds though for ¼ the price and they are just as good.
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I went curling with my Rotary club last
Tuesday. I had a lot of fun. Best part: we ate brats afterwards.
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On Friday I got to skip school and go to
Schladming for the Skiing World Championships!! It is a two week event, and on
that particular day I got to watch the women’s super combination (I think that
is the correct translation). First part was the downhill followed by the slalom
in the afternoon. The times were added together and then the winners announced.
A woman from Germany won gold and a woman from Austria snagged 3rd. I
had a great time (with front row standing room- how can I complain?) and can’t
believe I got to see some of the best skiing in the world in person!
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| 2013 Ski- WM in Schladming |
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| YAY FOR NATIONALISM |
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| Gotta rep the US all the time! |
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Yesterday I hung out in Graz with Crash
for most of the day. I told him about my great week, and then we did some
window shopping, walking around, and ate lunch at a cool Italian place. I came
along to his ballet class too. When that was over, we met Laura and Sam at
McDonalds (how American of us) and got caught up with what was new with them. That
night I met my Rotary counselor and spend the night with his family.
·
Today I stayed with his family for a
small Faschingsfest. They had some friends over for Krapfen and company. The family
is from Italy and their oldest son, Francesco, is also 16, and we talked a ton
about airplanes and physics. He is building his own airplane right now from
scratch that will fly purely off of solar energy and can still be controlled
from the ground via radio control. Awesome stuff.
I think that covers most everything. January was my
2nd most difficult month so far, but it pulled through well enough!
So far, February is off to a fantastic start! Thanks for reading; I hope I can
post more frequently in the future. Cheers!
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