So this time I’m not even going to bother apologising for the amount of time that has passed since the last post. Suffice to say, I’ve been busy! There’s been a bit of stress, particularly before Jungscharlager (the kids camp I went on, which I’ll get to in a minute), but generally I’ve been trying to live life to the fullest and really enjoy my time here. Anyway, due to my tendency to ramble, I’ll try to list the stuff I’ve been up to and hopefully keep it a bit more short and sweet! Hopefully the photos make up for words...
- The World Cup. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really a crazy football/soccer fan or anything, but there’s always something extra exciting about the world cup. Such a good time coming together with friends or just with randoms from the community to watch a game. Managed to get in a few games, although unfortunately not the final as I was already without TV in Jungscharlager. But I was following the live scores, and celebrating along with other fans when Germany finally won!
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| Watching Germany crush Brazil... |
- Visiting a traditional farmhouse up in the mountains in Bregenzerwald, where they make the famous and delicious Bergkäse. That was really cool - went with Nina and a couple of exchange students. We took then bus, then went on a nice easy hike up to the farmhouse to see the cheese being made then back again. I think the photos speak for themselves. Also the ridiculously cute kitten was definitely a highlight!
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| Still not used to the scenery |
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| Cutest and friendliest kitten! |
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| The cheese-making area |
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| Delicious delicious samples! |
- Lichtenstein. Finally managed to visit, largely motivated by the fact that I could go visit my Aussie friend Gabby who is working as an au pair there. It was really cool - so tiny, but with some nice views, a castle, a beautiful lake and a delicious late lunch to finish off our relaxed day. (Yes food is still a very important part of my ‘travels’! Haha.)
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| Outside a castle! |
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| Delicious Swiss picnic :) |
- More friends gone - namely my Italian au pair friend Eleonora, who Nina and I visited when we were in Italy in April. Sadly she was done a bit earlier than us, but is coming back to Austria to start a new job just before my contract is up, so we should be able to catch up again before I head off! Also all the exchange students are now back in their respective homelands.
- Jungscharlager aka the kids camp I went on for an entire week. And this is not like church camp or youth group camps I grew up going to. This was an entire week - Saturday to Saturday - sleeping in a tent with another leader and 6 ten-year-old girls. There was also a fair bit of prep that went into it too (as you could imagine), which combined with how busy I was as well as a lack of sleep and ever increasing awareness of my lack of time left, did give me quite a bit of stress leading up to the camp. It was also terrible weather at the start of the camp - rain, on and off all day. Led to quite a nice swampy campsite, especially after 70 kids arrived and started walking all over the place too. Suffice to say, my new gumboots were my best friends. But despite this, I’m pretty glad I went. It was definitely a unique experience, and a chance to get to know some of the people from church who were fellow leaders a little bit better, as well as a bunch of kids. The theme for the camp was also great - Vorarlberg (the state of Austria where I’m living) 100 years ago. We all had cool costumes, and around the campfire got to learn some traditional songs and so on. Nice and Austrian :P It was also almost an entire week without English - except for one phone call in the middle of the week. Something to be proud of I guess. When I first got to Austria there’s no way I could have done it.
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| Me and Pia in our costumes |
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| One of the old fashioned games |
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| Hiking day! |
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| Set up for the final dinner |
- Paul and Em coming to visit. Definitely the highlight of last month - can’t describe how exciting it was to have people from home come to stay, and be able to show them this beautiful place I’m living and also introduce them to some of my friends here. It was only two and a half days, but we managed to pack in a full program that included hiking, swimming, bike riding (thanks to lovely church friends who lent Paul and Em bikes) and of course sampling some delicious Austrian cuisine! It had also been quite awhile since we’d seen each other last, so it was awesome to catch up with them again. I think it also allayed a little bit of homesickness I had been subconsciously feeling, with the decision to stay longer here in Europe and most likely not be back in Australia until March next year. I had to leave Jungscharlager early on the last day to come back and meet them, but luckily my excitement was so high it managed to carry me through their entire visit without noticing how exhausted I already was from the week long camp. The day they left I definitely crashed though!
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| Briefly reunited! |
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| View from the Karren where we had dinner |
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| Little trip to Sulzberg with Rebecca's new car! |
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| Lunersee - with crazy wind and rain... |
- General hanging out. That’s the smaller things in life that are the one’s that make it. I’ve really felt that I’ve not been home much in the past month or so now, because when I’ve had free time I’ve really been trying to go out and see people or do stuff. A little bit of swimming, a couple of goes at playing beach volleyball, going for small hikes and bike rides, going out with friends for a drink or something to eat, heading out to watch the sunset... Just stuff like that. Something that has definitely aided our ability to hang out has been our friend Katie moving into a student sharehouse - I’ve already spent so much time hanging around there I think her housemates probably think I half live there too! Also getting a bike has been another great thing thats happened in the last couple of weeks - will be forever grateful to my Aussie exchange friend Carmen who agreed to leave it with me when she headed back home. I’ve also managed a little bit of time with my host families too - although I’ve had the feeling of late that I’m always leaving! But I did cheese fondue with my first host family the other day - something which I definitely think is best eaten with schnapps, at least for foreigners, so that they actually have a chance at digesting it! I also went out to lunch and then for a walk along the lake with my second host family yesterday. That was also some really lovely time together. Today I also did a bread-baking ‘course’ with my friend Nadina’s mum - they are the ones that are like my unofficial other Austrian family. It was pretty cool - learning how to make some different types of bread, and form them and so on. Again, pics below.
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| Hohe Kugel - at the top with our friendly guide |
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| Gabby with the even friendlier cows |
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| Obligatory hiking selfie! |
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| Looking totally sporty and Austrian :P |
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| Pimped out Martini |
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| The grill area |
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| Grilling at the Ranch |
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| Awesome but strange silver Magnums |
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| Swimming in the ice cold river |
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| Bread I baked with Doris |
Anyway, as everything gets longer it’s probably a good time to stop. Just a quick update on where my head is at the moment in regards to future plans. Everything is very up in the air at the moment, and also involves heading to the UK for a quick visa reset/holiday before eventually heading to Germany to get a working holiday visa and find something hopefully interesting to keep me occupied and give me a better idea of which career direction I really want to head in. As much as I increasingly miss Australia and more particularly all the lovely people who are there, my heart is definitely here in Europe at the moment. I’m excited to see where I end up in the next couple of months, and what experiences I will have in the coming six months. It will however be hard to go so much longer without a visit back home - especially Christmas! I thought about coming back to visit then, rather than putting it off. But everything is so expensive around Christmas time, and also if I come in March I can then be there for mum and dad’s combined 50th shindig (which they are now obliged to have!), as well as hopefully my own birthday. So yeah, that’s roughly what I’m planning for the coming months - now I just need to get down to the job hunting, visa applying, apartment hunting and everything that will come along with that! Also just my small trip to the UK is causing all sorts of planning issues! All a little stressful, but mostly I don’t notice, so hopefully the stress stays subconscious!
