Summer is here!

So, after rereading my last post about ‘breathing a little life back into this blog’ I have to acknowledge I definitely did not do that.  More than 2 months is probably a little long for that! But I guess I know I’ve really made a life here and am comfortable when I’m out of the blogging mode.  But finally, for those of you I don’t speak to as often as I should, another update :) And given the amount of time that has passed, I’m sure you’re in for a long one again!

So.  Where to begin??

Well first, summer is definitely here!  Different to what I’m used to, but also already at warmer temperatures than I was expecting so early, which has been weirdly nice.  I think the fact that I haven’t had an entire summer in so long probably helps, as usually anything above 30 degrees makes me wish for winter again.  But yeah, it has been really nice. And here around Dornbirn there are so many nice places to go swimming - plenty of spots along the river, a beautiful outdoor water park/pool with volleyball courts etc as well.  And of course just a quick hop over to Bregenz and you’re at the Bodensee/Lake Constance.  One thing I love about the river here too is that the water is not muddy brown like at home, and I don’t have that vague fear of swimming past a snake!

Another lovely thing has been all the gardening my first host family has been doing. It’s been amazing to see how much its changed and how rapidly everything has grown.  I think the climate here, with the amount of rain there is, really is perfect for a lovely lush garden too.  Nature in general is just, as always, still so beautiful to me :)

But back tracking a little, let me remember some of the ‘events’ I’ve had since my last post...  I guess firstly would be my birthday.  In the morning I had a birthday brunch with my three host families and just a few close friends, which was really nice!  I really failed with the whole taking pictures, and only have a couple, but it was a really nice time.  It was also so so cute to see Annalene and Pia (from families one and two respectively) playing so well together, although Pia is 7 and Annalene just two.  Pia ended up staying all afternoon as well because she didn’t want to go home.  And one of the few photos I did get was of the two of them with Annalene’s little table set up for lunch.  Very cute.

I’ve been settling in (obviously) with my host families even more since the last post too.  They are all so lovely, and its been great getting to know them all a bit more.  Especially doing stuff together with the family - lunch with Sandra’s family, an afternoon trip to Lindau.  And also events like Nils’ birthday party, and their cousin’s first communion and party afterwards.  It does have its downsides too though - namely that the more comfortable the kids get with you, the more they start to really test the boundaries and just not really listen.  Thats something I’ve really had to work on improving - discipline.  Anyone who knows me would know that is not a strong point of mine, so it is definitely still a work in progress...  

Another thing I’ve been trying to keep in mind is not to overcommit myself.  Something I am also very prone to doing.  And now with 3 families, as well as a good group of friends, its easy to do.  Especially as I do tend to feel like I’m always on the go, between travelling between families, and then trying to make the most of my free time to meet up with people and get out and do some stuff.  I have also had to try and get to the point where I can acknowledge that while I do tend to waste some of my free time just staying at home in my room on the computer or sleeping or whatever, it is still kind of necessary for my sanity.  

It does get harder to justify though when I’m around my second host family.  I already wrote in my last post about the dad, Mark, who has ALS.  That has been another really hard thing, seeing him gradually get weaker and less able to do things.  And seeing how much stress and frustration and sadness it is naturally causing him and the family.  I constantly wish I could be doing more to help.  But it is also still encouraging to see how they really lean on God’s strength through it all, despite how discouraging the situation.  Again, for all of my Christian friends, please keep praying for Mark if you happen to think of it!  

But now back to the backtracking... In April I also got to meet up with old friends from home - Emily and Belinda Lawrence.  And also Laura Mansell, who has been over here as an au pair too, but who I had not met up with at all.  That was lovely.  There’s definitely something uniquely exciting about meeting up with people from home over here.  I think they really enjoyed their travels through Europe too, which was nice to see.  A fresh excitement :) We met up first in Lucerne, and then they also travelled to come visit me for a few hours in Bregenz.  That was nice - they had a ‘Tag der Schifffahrt’ or day of the ferries (?) and so they were doing special short cruises out onto the Bodensee for 1 euro.  That was really cool - I even ended up going twice. Once with Em and Mrs Lawrence, and then again with some of the youth group after they had headed back to Switzerland.  

Then I think the next “big event” was the week long trip to Italy with Nina.  That was really cool.  Much better than my last experience Italy, which I think is mostly due to the fact that we spent the first couple of days staying with Eleonora, a friend who is also an au pair here and comes from Italy.  She comes from a small town right on the border with Südtirol, which I think is one of the most beautiful places I have seen.  Right up north in Italy, its an area that used to be part of Austria but is now part of Italy.  You can still see the influence though, especially with the signs that are in both German and Italian.  Also great for us, because when we had to ask anyone questions it usually worked to ask in German. But yeah.  Seriously amazing.  And it was so lovely to meet her family and some of her friends.  Everyone was so welcoming and hospitable, despite the language barriers.  Something that was also very interesting - true to what I noticed on my first trip to Italy, there are really not so many people in Italy who speak English! A slight problem when I know no Italian!!  But we got by, with a lot of gesturing, some English with Eleonora’s friends, and a lot of speaking in German to Eleonora, who would then translate :P I also pestered her and her friends to teach a few phrases before Nina and I headed off on our own - something that was probably very annoying for them, but did help with the rest of the week!  

I’ve put a couple of photos here below (had trouble choosing!), but I can’t exaggerate how beautiful it was where Eleonora lives.  We basically spent the time there driving around seeing the scenery, hanging out in her friend Alex’s bar, and sleeping.  That was also something that was unusual but cool for me - going to the bar and just hanging out there for the entire afternoon.  Cos its a small town, it was such a friendly atmosphere, and just really relaxing.    And Alex was such a generous host too.  Of course we also went out for pizza, which was probably the best pizza I have ever had :)  The other cool thing was going out with Eleonora’s friend Damiano to see his family’s apple trees.  The whole area was just covered in flowering apple trees when we were there, which was so beautiful, and it was cool to go see some up close too.  Apparently the area is known for growing apples, and after going there I can see why.  

All the green is apple trees!

Anyway after leaving Eleonora’s, we headed to Verona for the night.  Home of Romeo and Juliet.  That was all a bit of a joke though (no surprises considering they were fictional!).  Verona was a lovely city, but the Juliet museum etc were all a bit of a lame tourist spin.  We both bought a Verona card, which gave us entry into most of the churches and museums in the city, and I’m glad we went in with that and didn’t pay extra to go into the Juliet museum.  It was basically just a chance to actually stand on the famous balcony, and then rooms full of pictures of different types of love and a couple of props from various Romeo and Juliet movies.  Definitely glad we went to Verona though, it was well worth the visit.  Saw the Roman arena, some beautiful churches and piazzas and so on.  The accommodation was also an interesting experience too - we had made a mistake with the booking and booked the wrong date, which wasn’t a problem in the end as they had a free room, but was a little complicated to sort out as the guy who ran the place didn’t speak a word of English!  That did really stretch what little Italian I had managed to learn the previous few days.  

After Verona we headed to Dolo, a small town near Venice.  Nina managed to get a good deal on a last minute accommodation site, so we had a really nice hotel room for a couple of days, which was really great.  While it was a little bit of a hike to get to Venice and Padua (the two close-by cities) I’m still glad we decided to stay there.  It meant it was a bit more peaceful, and we also had a really relaxing day of borrowing bikes from the hotel and taking a nice ride through the countryside.  Venice was much as I remembered - beautiful, in a falling apart kind of way - and also even more crowded than I remembered.  Something I am definitely not a huge fan of.  Padua was also cool to see, even though we didn’t manage to see everything we wanted to.  

Oh also, this trip was the first time I’ve ever tried car sharing.  And it actually worked out really well.  The people we travelled with were really cool, and after chatting a bit it wasn’t at all uncomfortable to just sit in silence.  Which I was glad of, considering how early we had gotten up!  It was also definitely the most cost effective way to travel!  Overall just a really nice week away, that has also made me resolved to go back to Südtirol as soon as possible!  

Anyway, the only other actual trip I’ve done was to the Spring Beer Festival in Stuttgart.  That was just for the day, but it was really cool.  Another place I would definitely like to go back to and see a little more.  I headed over with a couple of au pair friends and also a group of the exchange students here in Dornbirn.  The festival was sort of like a big show with all rides and stuff, but also a little bit of Christmas markets, in terms of all the food stalls and such.  And of course there were big beer tents too, although we didn’t manage to get inside one!  Apparently you have to book ahead for that :/  Still managed to get a maß of beer though, and Gabby and I also decided to go the whole hog and get a super early schnitzel dinner as well.  It was actually really cool getting to know Gabby a little better too - she is a fellow Australian au pair, but working in Lichtenstein, and only relatively recently come over.  

Oh and I almost forgot the last and most recent trip, which was to Vienna!  I went to a big youth conference there with the youth group I sometimes go to here in Dornbirn.  It was pretty cool - it was held in a school and everyone slept in the school classrooms.  A couple of big meet-ups, a seminar on Sunday arvo and also a concert on the Sunday night.  They also had a really cool ice-breaker game at the start, which was a big city-wide photo scavenger hunt.  Everyone was divided into around 30 teams of 6-7 people, and then we were given lists and two and a half hours to complete as much as possible.  All getting around on the trains etc.  I also had an interesting experience playing Ultimate Frisbee on the Saturday arvo - it was I think around 33 degrees during the weekend, which definitely was getting a bit warm to be running around in the sun all afternoon.  But it was really fun, and another good way to meet some other people.  Including one guy who kept wanting me to speak English because he said it sounded so funny.  Hoping he meant English in general and not just the way I speak it! :P  

Ultimate Frisbee on a hot Viennese afternoon

Anyway, beyond that I’ve just been doing normal hanging out stuff.  Had a movie night awhile back at my second host family’s place, and also did a sleep over with the kids, their cousins, and their cousins’ au pair - who conveniently happens to be my Italian friend Eleonora!  She also happens to live right around the corner from me, which has been nice.  Although she is finishing at the end of this month :(  I also finally managed to climb up the Karren with Eleonora, which is the mountain right nearby that has a cable car running up it.  It’s super steep for a lot of the way, which is I guess why the first time I went I didn’t go all the way.  It is also very depressing to go on walking trails like that and find yourself constantly being overtaken by people who are a lot older and yet seemingly a lot fitter!  I also made it to the Rappenlochschlucht with Katie - another nice small hiking trail with a little waterfall and lake and so on.  

View from the Karren 

Biggest brezel I've ever seen!

Rappenlochschlucht

A few grill parties and birthday parties have also been had, often with the exchange students.  Last week was the farewell party, cos they’re all finished headed off in around two weeks, which is quite sad :( We haven’t hung out a whole heap, but I met some really lovely people in this group of exchange students, so it’ll be sad to see them go.  I also have managed to participate in some family birthday celebrations on Skype, which was quite novel.  James’ 18th party was great - it was really nice to get passed around and briefly see all of the rellies and also some family friends from home too.  And also to be able to see the speeches too.  Although while I haven’t been homesick per se, the more often I’ve skyped for events and talked to the family and also friends, the more I really wish I could be there with them and not missing so much stuff.  Basically while I love it over here, nothing can replace the awesome family and friends back home, and its them I’m starting to really miss a lot.  Would be perfect if everyone just came over here for a nice long visit.  But I really am so thankful for technology like Skype, Whatsapp and Viber, that keeps me not so far away!  

And now I think I have definitely written way more than enough, so I’ll leave it there.  Hopefully next time I don’t leave so long between posts!  Anyway hope everyone’s going well, and feel free to shoot me a message if you ever have a spare minute - always nice to hear everyones news from back home!