Getting Settled

I'm sorry for the delay in writing, really I am, but I never have been good at blogging. Well. I've been here almost a month now, shortly after getting here I was whisked away to two weeks of Paradise at the camp where we studied German. I say it was paradise, because the weather stayed nice and we were right by the most perfectly cold lake that you could imagine, I swam in it often and even now I miss it. I have about 300 pictures but, unfortuneately none to put up because they are all stuck on my camera till I can figure out how to move them to the computer, my german is pretty good, but not perfect. Any way while at the camp we took a little field trip to Hallstatt, that was fun, in Hallstatt, there is a mine that has been there for 3000 years or more. and it's still being mined today, but this mine isn't for coal or gold or anything, it's actually a salt mine. Hallstatt literally means place of salt. We that was an adventure, we slid down real miners slides that the miners actually used, of course they don't anymore, and we also learned a little about the man in the salt. he was found 200 years ago or so. Preserved in the salt, the brought him out and buried him and now no one knows where he is, but they figure that he was in the salt for a few thousand years. Another interesting site in Hallstatt is the Bonehouse. It's a building and thre walls on the inside are lined with the long bones (leg mostly) of people and then on top are skulls, and on the skulls are paintings some of which are quite beautiful. The skull had leaves on it if it was male and flowers if it was female. The bonehouse was really an important part of Hallstatt, because the graveyard is really small and the graves were family graves so, someone would die they'd bury him and about 10 years later they'd dig him up and put his bones in the bonehouse. Then the grave is free for someone else. One more cool bit of trivia about Hallstatt, because of the way it's situated in the mountains, in winter it gets no sunlight at all, crazy huh? In Hallstatt I bought a pin to put on the hat that my brother gave me, and then when I went to put in on the hat.. I discovered my hat was gone! I was frantic, because the hat meant alot to me, and we finally deduced that I left it at the volleyball courts by the lake an entire DAY before. Thinking in American terms (sorry) I was sure that it would have been taken. On arriving I was reminded that Austria is not America, and found my hat exactly where I left it hanging on a post. Did I mention it was raining, my hat was SOAKED. I brought it home and let it dry off and promised the teachers it would stay in my room till we went home. Next we got the pleasure of attending the opening of a science center at a local school, this center has been in quite a few other places already but it was still an honor for us, because the First Lady of Austria was there. When the two weeks were over, we all said our sad goodbyes and prepared to come home. Remember my hat? it had another adventure on that last day, not quite as serious as the last one. Long story short, I left it in the dining room, and after a mixup where the lunch lady had thought I was looking for the little brown dog that was invading her kitchen, she showed me my hat sitting on a table right under my nose. Obviously that hat will be sitting safely on a shelf for the rest of my trip, it's had plenty of adventures already. right after I got back to my host families house it seemed like I was leaving again, my host sister Lilly, was here and she decided to go backpacking around thailand so we had to take her to the airport in Munich, since my host father had a meeting there the next day we just decided to stay the night. they took me to the olympic park, and I got to go up in the olympic tower (spire?) then they showed me the englisher gardens, and it dawned on me, this is all stuff I've learned about in German class. The next day Audrey and I explored the town while Georg went to his meeting. We went to the Marienplatz (another one from german calls) and saw the end of the Glockenspiel. I also saw the Frauenkirche that was beautiful. and then Audrey set me loose to go shopping, I really loved looking around but only bought a few english books (didn't know when I'd see them again) and some earrings. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go back again soon. Since I got back from Camp the weather has been pretty nasty, it HAILED today, I couldn't believe my eyes at first, but that's what it was. Then I walked down to town with Jonathan when he and his host mom came to visit, and when we were walking back I'm sure it began to snow just for a second, Jonathan doesn't think so though, he has no imagination. Jonathan by the way is another exchange student who lives near Ried but in another town called Haag. In all there are actually 5 exchange students in and around Ried two oldies and 3 newbies, the oldies are from January and us newbies are like I said, about a month old. The oldies are Flor and Pablo, Flor I met briefly before she ran off to meet her parents (the real ones) in Paris, and Pablo I haven't met yet because he is in Germany. We are the newbies, Jonathan, Valentin, and me. Valentin is from Argentina, and so far he has managed to completely avoid meeting up with Jonathan and I, we saw each other at camp, but, he's too busy right now to see us in Ried. He's a perfectly nice guy though and I look forward to spending my year with him. In Ried right now is a festival, it's actually quite big, not as big as the Missouri State fair, but Rivalling the Nebraska State fair. and it's basically the same as fairs back home except, more dirndels and lederhosen, less free stuff, and topless mermaids on childrens rides. Oh and more beer, ALOT more beer, I myself have stayed away from it (Almduddler is a good substitute) but, there is alot around anyway. At the fair I couldn't resist, I bought a donut Prezel, it was really good, oh the prezels here are the best so soft and huge and delicious. My host mother buys them frozen at Hofer (it's an Austrian store that's owned by Aldi, the signs are even the same) and we even had them with breakfast! I've promised my host family that I will cook for them soon, I think American pancakes is a good start with scrambled eggs, but I don't know if I can find syrup, they have plenty of good jam though so we can figure something out. I haven't been able to make contact with my Rotary club here yet unfortunately, I was supposed to go tonight but it seems some key members wanted to go to the festival instead so it's put off for two more weeks. Next monday school starts! I'm both looking forward to it and also kinda nervous. I don't know what to expect, but I'll do my best. I'll try to make my updating more regular than it has been. Bis später, tschüs!