The Austrian Experience: Laziness ensues

Hello! Just realised how long it has been since my last update, and realised I had better breathe a bit of life back into my neglected blog. So be fairly warned, this promises to be fairly hefty given how busy I've been since the last post… The best kind of busy though! When I last wrote, I was just about to start my new au pair position, being shared between 3 families from the church I've been going to. Sounds as crazy now as it did when I first wrote it, but while I'm updating I'll take the time to explain a little!

Firstly, and I guess most importantly, I am really happy where I am now. Makes the unhappiness of the start of the year now feel like a distant dream. I have been very richly blessed with the way things have worked out and with the new people who are now in my life. So to begin, I have moved cities, which has turned out to be really cool. Dornbirn is much more central, and the family I'm living with live in the centre of the city, so the train station is just a 10 minute walk from my house. There is also a uni here in Dornbirn, which has led me to meet some of the exchange students - including (finally) some more fellow Australians! Other than Maddie I hadn't met anyone else. And I have to say that while I generally don't really feel homesick for Australia, it really is great to hear some Aussie accents again.

Now the most important part: my new families! Basically how it works, is that my time is divided between the three, and I have a weekly plan so I know exactly where I should be when. For simplicity's sake, I tend to say my first, second and third family - ordered by the order I see them in the week, and coincidentally also by how much time I spend with each one. So...

My first family is the one that I live with, Sandra and David, and they have two little kids - Annalene who is 2 and Samuel who is now around 7 months. Both kids are very very cute, which can really make it hard to refuse them sometimes! But I really enjoy spending time with them, going to the playground or for walks, reading books, doing puzzles, and lately singing a lot of kids songs - almost all in English! That has been another cool thing in the past couple of weeks, teaching Annalene a handful of English words through both a couple of kids books I bought and also some of the songs we sing. Just basic things like 1-5 and random words like dog and tree… But its really exciting when she's able to remember them! Also on the topic of language, combined with going to youth group and church, talking to Annalene and Sandra has been helping me learn/understand dialect a little better. I'm sure I must have mentioned in previous posts, but in Vorarlberg they don't speak standard German, but a dialect (or really several) that is in a lot of ways quite close to Swiss German. Which as a language nerd I of course love, but definitely also makes Vorarlberg a tough place to learn German! Anyway, thats been kind of cool too. And I get on really well with both Sandra and David, and have so far really enjoyed chatting and getting to know them and feel like a member of their family. Sandra is pretty chill about most things, which makes for a much more relaxed atmosphere.

My second family, Barbara and Mark, have three kids - Pia who is 7, Nils who is 9, and Noah who is 12. (And now that I'm writing these ages I'm not actually positive they're right! But roughly at least…). All three are lovely kids, and I have to admit sometimes its a welcome change to get to go hang out with slightly older kids sometimes! We can do more stuff like go to the indoor pool, to the local library, and play ball games and such outside. They also have an awesome treehouse, which I finally toured for the first time today. I really enjoy my time there - having lunch with the family, helping get the homework done, then just hanging out doing fun stuff. Sometimes too if the kids have other things on or friends over to play with, I help Barbara out either in the house or more often in the garden. Something I have never before particularly enjoyed, but have now found a new love for (I provide photographic evidence below!). Barbara and Mark are both some of the loveliest people I've met. They have a tough situation at the moment, as a couple of months ago Mark was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease, and as a result is becoming less and less able to carry on life as normal. Something which is obviously incredibly hard for the entire family, and honestly can be quite saddening for myself also. However I am so happy I am able to be there to help in whatever small way I can. And honestly I sometimes think they encourage me more than I ever could them, with the way they really draw close to God and rely on his strength in this hard time. I also really admire the way they live life - no stress, just relaxing and enjoying each day to the fullest. Those of you who are Christian, please pray for a miracle for Mark.

And lastly, my third family, Margarethe and Markus, have four kids - Hannah and Samuela are twins and 8 years old, Ruben who is 4, and Jonathan who is 2. (Again, embarrassingly, I'm not 100% sure on the ages!). Yet another lovely family - all four kids are cute and so full of energy, it definitely makes for a change of pace from the rest of the week! Despite generally feeling fairly exhausted when I come home, I thoroughly enjoy my time there too. Margarethe is so so hospitable, always having a lovely breakfast for me when I come in the morning and also keeping me supplied with coffee through the day. I generally get to spend one-on-one time with Joni before the other three come home, and then after lunch we get to try out some English as well as just generally play. That has also been really cool - trying out some language learning games like memory, and making little tags with the English words for things around the house, which the girls then get to run around and stick up everywhere. Also reading some books in English, which was at first a challenge because I would read it in English and then have to quickly try and translate it into German so they could still follow along with the story. Recently we have conveniently had books that are in both English and German to read though! But on this note, any suggestions for fun ways to teach the kids a bit of English are most welcome! Playing is also fun - they have a big empty field behind their house, which stretches out around a couple of houses across the way and provides plenty of space to run. They also have many assorted types of wheels, which make going for walks with the two smaller kids a lot more fast paced!

So anyway, that's a short description of my new families and how I spend most of my time these days. Overall I am really enjoying it, and as I said before just so thankful. I am also definitely going to come out of this brushed up on my kids nursery rhymes, kids songs and games - hopefully also with a few new ones in German! When I'm not with my families, I tend to spend most of my time with friends - I still go to couch surfing meet ups often on Wednesday, and then just generally meeting up with people to go for a drink, a walk, a train ride or whatever.

Recently, with Nina I went to see my first German movie at the cinema - a movie called Vaterfreude, which I managed to both mostly understand and thoroughly enjoy! We also went on a wee hike in the Bregenzerwald last weekend - the round trip at around 4 hours was about double the length of the actual hike, but the beautiful scenery made it just as enjoyable. I also went on a hike with Nina, Katie and a few other friends a couple of weeks ago now. That was a proper hike - you know the ones that remind you just how unfit you've become. Also mostly through snow, which was another new experience for me, but one I mostly enjoyed! Made for some absolutely beautiful views too. There has also been some more cultural events - namely Fasching and Funken. I've put pictures below, but very briefly summarised Fasching involves parades with lollies and the odd nip of schnapps being dispensed to the crowd, chanting and everyone dressing up in crazy and/or cool costumes, and Funken is when they build a really tall pile of wood with the old, dead Christmas trees inside and a figure of a witch on the top, and send off winter with a bonfire and a bang (thanks to the fireworks generally placed inside the witch).

Hiking on the Staufen, through the snow!

Finally made it to Bregenzerwald!

My first Funken in Hard

Funken Oberdorf - the witches have skis!

Watching the Kinderfunken burn...

Outside of that, I've really just gotten another taste for trying to explore more of Vorarlberg. Despite having already reached the halfway mark of my time here, there remains so much that I haven't yet gone out of my way to explore! I am re-resolved to make the most of my maximo ticket to see as much of Vorarlberg as possible.

On (another) sad note, I've had my first au pair friend casualty already. Making friends with au pairs or other foreigners you always know that inevitably you'll both leave and end up living in separate countries (or in my case generally separate continents!) again in the near future, and that it will be harder to be in the same country together again. But this happened way earlier than expected, which has made it extra sad - my lovely friend Aby from Mexico has ended up back home 7 or 8 months earlier than expected. We also didn't get to say a proper goodbye, which really sucks! But I guess it now means Mexico is now high on my list of places to make it to ASAP…

Anyway that will have to do for now, as it is now way way past a responsible bedtime for me! But next time I will try and do something a little more thoughtful/interesting - have been meaning to write a little bit about how I've found it adjusting to living in another country and continuing to learn another language, for those of you who might find it interesting.

In summary though, I am once again loving life and continuing to enjoy living each day learning more about myself, the people in my life, and about the beautiful place I am living in right now!