One door closes, so another door can open

This morning I decided that I would write my very last blog post, only to realise that today marks exactly one year since I wrote my very first blog post.  Call it coincidence; fate; well planned; whatever you want, but I know that today is the right day to call it an end.  It has been 52 days since I left Austria, even it only feels like last week.  I cannot describe the feeling that I had when I walked through immigration at Sydney airport and was confronted with all of the Australian accents and that big blue sign that said "G'day welcome home".  I got to Brisbane, and hey, what do you know, Mum was late!  Most people would say that would have ruined their whole reunion, but for me, it was actually a perfect welcome back; it really felt like home.

My first night home, I saw parts of my family and my best friend when we went out to dinner.  In a way it felt like I had never left, and that things hadn't changed at all, especially when Matt managed to hit his own thumb with a pool ball.  Then again, someone would mention something that everyone knew straight away what they were talking about, and I was the only one left in the dark.  I guess the tables were turned as well.  I would say something that my friends and I would always joke about and everyone would just stare at me until I realised they had no idea what I was on about.  That was the fun of returning home after so long though.  Plus you never ran out of things to talk about.  The first week home in my delusional state of jet lag, I managed to bump into a couple of people and this bright spark apologised to them in German!  The first time it happened the lady gave me a really strange look and as I walked away, I thought "what's your problem cranky bitch, I said sorry!"; then realised that, yes I may have said sorry, but not in a language that she could understand.  To this day, I catch myself randomly thinking in another language and wonder what on earth is going through my head sometimes.  You can take the girl out of Austria, but you can't take Austria out of the girl.

Since arriving back in Australia, I have actually done a fair bit of travelling.  I'm now living in Darwin and really enjoying it.  I've really thrown myself into photography, trying to document every minute of my gap year and also trying to answer the really annoying question of "what is the scenery like in Australia" that my Austrian friends and family so often asked me.  It's a really tough question to answer because we really do have everything here.

I've been trying to think of the best way to say goodbye to my blog, and I decided that I was going to put a whole pile of photos into a video that kind of recap the incredible journey that I have been on this year.  So here it is...

"I guess it's going to have to hurt, I guess I'm going to have to cry, and let go of some things I've loved to get to the other side.  I guess it's going to break me down, like falling when you try to fly, sad but sometimes moving on with the rest of your life starts with goodbye" ~ Carrie Underwood.

Until we meet again

Adios Amigos

Tyarna xx

Following A Feeling

I never knew that emotions could run up so high and down so low in a two week period.  I made the decision about a month ago to go back to Australia early, rather than my scheduled time of December.  I knew a lot  of people wouldn't approve; I knew they would say, 'I knew she couldn't last a whole year'; I knew people would judge me; but you know what?  They need to know that I don't care what they think.  There has been something that has been bugging me for some time now; a gut feeling I guess you would call it.  I finally decided to act on that.  My decision was not an easy one to make; in no way or form was it simple.  In the end though, I am just following a feeling.

There was one particular person that I could not bring myself to tell about my decision, and in the end, I chickened out and got my area rep to do it for me.  How do you walk up to your amazing host family and tell them you are leaving them four months early?  I was sitting in my room when I heard the phone ring and my host mum answer.  I knew exactly what that particular phone call was about but I had no idea what the reaction from it was going to be.  I was nervous; from previous experience I half expected anger, or even worse, disappointment.  However, when Nicole appeared in my doorway and told me that they understand about the decision I had made, I let go of the breath that I didn't realise I had been holding.  Of course, she asked me why and tried to talk me out of it, and in truth I'm glad she did, because it truly showed me how much she cared; well, cares.  Nicole is the kind of person that once she cares about you, she never stops; and I wouldn't have it any other way.  I assured her though that I was making the right decision for me at this time.  As sad as it will be, I am going to say goodbye to Austria on the 9th August.

I have been making the most of my last two weeks though.  I think that I have spent two days at home; I always seem to be doing something.  Monday was spent with Sarina and we made plans for this week; so excited!  On Tuesday Jarrad, Elliott, Sarina and I went to the aquarium, followed by lunch at the Australian pub and then some photo boothing at Museums Quartier before going to the movies.  Wednesday was another day of being out and about in Vienna with Elliott and Jarrad.  We were going to go swimming at Donauinsel, but of course because it was the day we picked, the weather decided to be not so great for swimming.  By now my host family knows that I only get in the water if it is really super hot.  Wednesday marked the day that I had to say goodbye to Jarrad until we will meet up again in Australia.  That was difficult.  That annoying little kid is one of my best friends now.  It seems though that the day was a day of goodbyes, as my area rep came over that night for dinner and to say goodbye before I left.  It was such a lovely evening with my host family and Marion.

Thursday 1st August 2013 is a day that I will never forget.  It was most definitely the hardest, and in some ways, worst day, of my exchange.  Why, you're asking.  Well, it was the day that I said goodbye to my host mum and host sisters.  They were going on holidays and would not return before I left.  It was so difficult.  I am actually so glad that I was home alone for a little bit after they drove away; that way I could let my tears flow freely without anyone seeing me.  It is not goodbye though, rather see you later.

I have three full days left before I go home, and I plan on spending as much time as I can with my friends.  There will be more blog updates from when I am back in Australia; recounting the amazing times I've had and my most frequently asked questions that I am soon to encounter.  These past seven months have been incredible and I still find it hard to believe that I have spent them living on the other side of the world!

Meine Gastfamilie ~ danke für alles.  Der Zeit mit dir war sehr schön.  Ich habe viel spaß mit dir gehabt.  Du bist eine toll Gastfamilie.  Ich werde dich vermissen.  Ich komme wieder zu Österreich und besuchen.  Sie können nach Australien zu kommen und besuchen.  Du bist immer Willkommen.  Du bist meine zweite Familie; meine Österreichischen Familie.  Ich habe dich lieb <3  Thank you also for your patience with my very bad German!  Ich habe viel gelernt!!  Du auch, Nicole!  Ihre Englisch ist viel besser.  Danke danke danke Harald, Nicole, Leonie und Livia.

As strange as you'll find.. 

Sassy <3

Love this photo and this kid <3

Jarrad =)

Best host mum and best area rep

Ich habe dich lieb

Amazing host sisters <3

Meine Gastfamilie ~ Leonie, Harald, Livia and Nicole

There are copy rights on these photos as I did not take all of them! Thank you Marion and Harald for sharing your photos with me.

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx

Summer in Paradise ~ Part 3

The day after I got back from Finland, it was time to head to St Blasen for our family holiday.  The next week was to be spent on a farm surrounded by cows, rabbits, cats, goats, a pig and, most importantly, horses!

Day 1 ~ We left around 10.30 to drive to the farm.  Once we arrived, we took everything up to our room and then sat down for an afternoon of games.  I kicked arse in our first game of Scrabble and then came second to Nicole in the next game.  She got 60 points for one word which I am still debating whether it was an actual word.

Day 2 ~ Talk about a lazy Sunday.  I spent a great majority of the day reading my book; 'The Secret Keeper' by Kate Morton.  The book is a really well written mystery that is in-depth literature.  I haven't had to concentrate that much on English since I finished school 8 months ago.

Day 3 ~ The morning brought around the first riding lessons for the week.  The first horse I rode was a lovely black mare called Romy.  I have never had proper English lessons before and within half an hour I had already learnt so much.  With this learning, came a lot of pain in my legs though.  Oh the things you go through for horses!  The afternoon saw another riding lesson and I rode a massive gelding called Konstantin.  He is easily the biggest horse that I have ever been on; my forehead was at his shoulder height.  If I thought my legs hurt after the morning lesson, then I don't even want to know what I was feeling after the second one!!  Konstantin soon became my favourite horse.

The Big Boy <3

Day 4 ~ I rode Konstantin again for my morning lesson.  The lessons were a lot of hard work and every muscle in my body was aching, I'm sure of it, but I really enjoyed them.  For the afternoon, we went to a nearby lake where we could go swimming.  The water was too cold for me to actually get in, but I got to soak up some sun.  Not that it did much; I have never been this white in all of my life!  Once we were back at the farm, I went and watched the afternoon riding lessons.  There is just something so peaceful watching a horse and rider work together.

Day 5 ~ The morning and early afternoon were spent doing nothing.  I went and watched the afternoon lessons again and Nicole showed me the little kittens that were born a few hours earlier.  That night we went on a tractor ride that was followed by a walk to a restaurant where we had dinner.  On the way back to the tractor, we had fire torches and it reminded me of our orientation weekend.

The older kittens

The newbies =)

Day 6 ~ I got up in time to watch Nicole have her riding lesson before the rest of us took the horses into the woods were they could splash around in the lake for a little bit.  Kim's horse was having a great time and he managed to completely soak my jeans and boots.  The horse that I was on was flicking the water around with his nose.  My horse also decided that he wanted to take the path that was closest to the tree and my knee collided with the it.  I now have a lovely bruise there.  Once we were back from the ride, I watched the end of the morning lessons before we went and got ice-cream.  They were absolutely massive and we only ordered small ones.  That night we were sitting outside and someone was playing guitar and people were singing along.  The night was really nice, even if it did cool down a little bit too much.

Day 7 ~ I spent the morning watching them play beach volleyball before we decided to go back to the lake.  It took a little bit of convincing to get me to go in, as the water was really cold, but it got hot enough that I really needed to cool off.  Once the initial shock of the cold was gone, the water was really enjoyable and refreshing.  As it was our last night, we went out for dinner and I tried another Austrian meal that was a specialty of the area we were in.  I will definitely miss the Austrian food.  Back at the farm, Celine, Kim and Mona decided they wanted cherries, so they were climbing the cherry tree and we used our phones as torches.  While I was holding the lights, Kim kept throwing cherries at me and, I must admit, she was a good shot for not being able to see me.  I copped a few cherries to the head.

"I'm hunting raaabbits"

Day 8 ~ The morning was spent packing everything up ready for the drive back home.  The weather in Vienna shocked me a little bit; it was so hot!  It's still hot right now.  I know that we shouldn't believe all of the typical stereotypes of a country, they lead you to a false understanding of what the country is like!

It is nice to be back at home, and I am really looking forward to catching up with my friends this week as I have not seen them in a month!  I cannot believe how quickly time is going!!  Thank you to my wonderful host family for a lovely week; it was definitely in my top five moments on exchange.

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx

Summer in Paradise ~ Part 2

My final week and a half in Finland was, you could say, uneventful; but that is what made it perfect.  It almost felt like Cherine and I were back in Australia; except this time, we had her siblings, her parents, and her friends instead of mine.  There was also the fact that there wasn't a constant threat of running into an animal that could kill you.  We did have an animal encounter though; a hedgehog!!  Cherine and I were out with some friends and this little guy just came walking right past us.  He was so cute! I'd never seen a hedgehog before and it was actually smaller than what I thought they would be.

Hedgehog!!!!

That same night when Nora picked us up, it was an, what word should I use, umm, interesting drive back home.  I won't go into detail.  I think it's better if it stays between the three of us.

We finished off season 9 of Grey's Anatomy - I've decided that it is definitely on my list of favourite seasons!  I never thought there could be so many cliffhangers in the last episode!  Cherine and I were actually yelling at the computer; that's how intense it was.  Bring on season 10!!

One day we went and visited Cherine's grandmother and afterwards they showed me the house where her mum grew up.  There were some really nice horses there.  That afternoon was spent reading our books in the hammock.  Not that much reading was being done as I managed to make a squirrel friend. He kept bouncing around in the trees and at one point I was a little afraid that he was going to jump on my face, that's how close he came.  We were also casually lying on the bathroom floor one afternoon as it was nice and cool.  Cherine also dyed my hair for me as I had some pretty rank looking colours happening in there; now thankfully, it is all the same colour again.  As it should be after it took an hour and a half just to put the colour in.  She was slow, but she did do a good job.

Dark hair <3

Squirrel!!!

On my last day in Finland, Cherine and I planned a movie night and I made up an awesome invitation to invite Nora as well.  Ben & Jerry's ice-cream was bought to be consumed during 'My Sister's Keeper' as every girls needs ice-cream while they cry.  After the movie, Nora disappeared, so that just left Cherine and I watching '10 Things I Hate About You'.  By 1am the movie was finished, and we decided it was time to go for a walk; one that resulted in a deep conversation about absolutely everything.  We have a kind of relationship that allows us to talk together like that; I can't do that with a lot of people.  When we realised it was 3.30am, it was agreed that we should probably go to bed as we had to get up in four hours.

"bring your own spoon" - she brings a fork -.-

Ben & Jerry's

We cray cray in a good way =P

<3

Those four hours came around awfully quickly and it was time to head back to Helsinki.  Cherine's parents were going to Israel on the same day and their flight left two hours or so before mine did.  On the way to the airport, we picked up Amira from work as she was going to have the car while their parents were gone.  As there was still a couple of hours before I had to be at the airport after we dropped off their parents, Cherine, Amira and I decided to go shopping for a little bit.  Granted we didn't shop for very long, but we did sit down to have dinner.  I won't lie, the waiter we had was pretty cute.  I felt pretty special when he spoke to Amira and Cherine in Finnish and then me in English.  He was also nice and asked about my exchange and said that he hoped to see me back in Finland one day.  All I could think was 'bloody oath you will'.  The part that came next was my least favourite part of the whole trip; it was time to drive back to the airport, and we all know what happens at airports; goodbye's are said.  I said goodbye to Amira outside and Cherine came in to check-in with me.  To start with, we got the wrong terminal and had to walk all the way to the opposite end of the airport; aren't we little smart people?  Once we found the right area, I checked-in, then had to bring myself to turn around and say goodbye.  I'll say it now; I cried.  It felt like I would be back in a couple of weeks time though, and to be honest, the realisation still hasn't hit me now that it will be probably over a year until I see her again.  I will go back though.

Faress; Irja; Amira; Sami; Amin; Nora; Cherine; I cannot thank you enough.

My time in Finland came to an end, but it was back to Austria where another holiday was starting straight away.  This will come in the next blog!

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx

Summer in Paradise ~ Part 1

I honestly do not even know where to begin.  But I need to start somewhere, so let's start with Saturday 29th June 2013...

I woke up really early to get to the airport on time because it was finally the day I got to fly to FINLAND!!  I could not believe that the day had actually arrived that I got to see the evil sister again after six months.  I was literally bouncing in my seat by the time we landed in Helsinki and it seemed to take the luggage forever before it came around on that little conveyor belt.  I walked through those arrival gates straight into the waiting arms of Cherine and I swear we didn't let go for ages.  When we finally did, we picked up conversation like we hadn't seen each other for two minutes, not six months.  When you have that kind of relationship with someone, the feeling of it is unexplainable.  Together, we headed off to start my Finland adventure by navigating our way to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  Eventually we headed back to her sister's place where we would spend the night before going to her place the next day.  Chilling at Amira's, I showed Cherine all of my pictures from the year so far and we just talked about the second half of her exchange and how my exchange was going because we both understand perfectly what the other is on about; the good times, the bad, the friends, and the memories.

Together at last <3

I think she likes Apples

The next morning it was around 11am before we got up and had breakfast with Amira.  We were just talking about random things when the topic of deadly animals in Australia came up.  For anyone who doesn't know, that is one hell of a big topic because there are soooo many animals at home that can kill you.  The sub-category of snakes came up (not my favourite conversation to have at all) and we were talking about the venom of brown snakes.

Cherine: there is enough venom in one snake bite to kill fifty people

Amira: *looking very confused* but if the snake only bites one person, how can fifty people die?

Cherine: *slowly shaking her head* the amount of venom that is in one snake bite, is enough to kill fifty people.  That doesn't mean that fifty people will die from one person being bitten.  It isn't like a chain reaction where the closest 49 people will also drop dead

Amira: ohhhh

Meanwhile, I am killing myself laughing at the idea of one person being bitten by a snake and the closest 49 unfortunate people will also die.  They say I'm blonde ;)  We explored a small amount of Helsinki for the afternoon before catching the train to Seinäjoki!

This next thing creeped me out the first couple of nights, but now I think it is just really cool, but during summer, it doesn't ever get fully dark.  It was midnight and we were walking around able to see perfectly clearly.  It is so cool!

Midnight!

The next couple of days were just relaxing.  I was mind blown by the fact that the TV was in English.  "What do you mean you were surprised the TV was in English, Tyarna? You're a native English speaker, you should be use to it!".  That's what you're all thinking, I know.  Buuut, in Austria, everything is in German; so after six months, it was actually a little bit of a shock.  Grey's Anatomy Season 9 was calling us.  As both of us had not seen the end of the season, we decided that it was a good idea to watch all of it together.  Good choice, good choice.  

I may or may not have got Cherine addicted to Candy Crush.  Whoops.

We went out and met some of her friends one night and there were also some Rotary exchange students from America who are close to finishing their exchange in Finland.

Thursday I saw my first squirrel!!

Friday brought around Ruisrock Music Festival!!  Nora, Cherine and I headed off to start our long weekend camping and partying in Turku.  We set up the tent when we got there and just chilled out for a little bit in the afternoon before it turned to classic music festival during the night!  The bands on Friday that we saw were Hurts and Knife Party.  Saturday was basically a repeat of Friday, only with a little bit more partying.  The bands for the night included Dizzee Rascal and a Finnish band called PMMP.  On Sunday when we got up, we packed everything up and put it in the car before catching the first bus to the festival so that we could wait all day to see Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in the first row.  During the day, we saw a lot of Finnish bands that were playing on the same stage and Cheek was actually really good.  And the main singer was hot.  Cherine and I were standing for about 9 hours straight before we saw an absolutely amazing performance!!  It was definitely worth the wait.  There was so much energy in the performance and it was so, so great!!  One of Nora's favourite bands is Biffy Clyro, so she stood in the first row all day waiting for their performance, which happened to be the last performance of the festival.  Cherine and I went straight there after Macklemore finished and I was lucky enough to catch one of the drumsticks after the show ended.  When we eventually met up with Nora at our meeting point, I gave it to her and she was in shock I think from actually holding the bands drumstick and knowing that it was now hers.  

The three of us arrived in Helsinki at about 3am where we were spending the night at Amira's.  When we pulled up, we decided it was probably a good idea to call Amira, as entering a police officers home at 3am while they are asleep is probably not the best idea.

Cherine: we should call Amira now and tell her we're coming in, cause I'm in no mood to be punched by a cop tonight

Me: that's why we send you in first 

It was so nice to sleep on something other than the hard ground and when it came time to shower in the morning, it was the best feeling ever to get rid of all of the dust.

The afternoon came around when it was time to go to my 'surprise'.  Earlier in the week, Cherine had almost ruined it and mentioned a boat; so she decided to tell me that it was a boat tour around Helsinki and the tiny islands there.  Boat tour my arse guys.  Turns out, it was actually a cruise to Sweden!  We walked in to the check in area and I was a little bit suspicious because there were signs for travel agents and check in's and things about Stockholm everywhere; then all of a sudden, Cherine was like, "how cool would it be if we went to Sweden?"  I was in total disbelief and was actually wondering if it was all a prank.  But, it wasn't.  We got on the cruise ship and I was just bubbling with excitement.  After taking our stuff to our cabin, it was time to explore the rest of the ship!

At one floor, Cherine and I found a random trolley just sitting around, so we decided that I would sit in it, and she would push me around and spin me around it.  Of course we're mature 18 year olds.  We were walking along the main deck at one point, and Nora went to walk past one of the workers and he stepped in front of her, so she went to the other side and he stepped in front of her again.  They kept doing this for a little bit and he just would not let her pass; it was so funny to watch.

Trolley!!

Nora and her friend

<3

Looking at the ceiling

Casually sitting in the window

After dinner that night, we dressed up a little bit and went to one of the bars on the ship where they did a night show and had a couple of drinks and relaxed.  Before we went to the bar, Cherine and I went up to the sun deck to take some pictures; only we didn't realise how incredibly windy it was.  Suffice to say, it was really interesting trying to see with my hair flying around like crazy and to walk while holding down my dress.  I think all we did was laugh the whole time; that is without choking on our hair.

In the end, we gave up

The next morning, we arrived in Stockholm, Sweden!  After breakfast, we went back up to the sun deck to take some pictures as we came into the city.

Photo bombing bird

Once we arrived in Stockholm, we actually did take a boat tour this time and it was really nice to see parts of the city from the water.  It was then time to go shopping!!  I now understand why Cherine kept telling Nora during the week to save her money for "when we go shopping in Helsinki", because we were actually going shopping in Stockholm.  I finally found a nice jacket that I have been looking for for ages.  During the day and also on the cruise, Nora took some great photos for me.  I love it when other people take photos on my camera.  After spending the day in Stockholm, we got back onto the cruise ship and just relaxed for a while after the long day.

Big cruise ship, small tour boat

Love these people <3

Definitely sisters...

That night on the boat, we went back to the same bar for a few more drinks and some more relaxing and watching the night show.  By the time we got up the next morning, we were only an hour out of Helsinki, so we had breakfast and collected all of our stuff.  The trip was so amazing and it was definitely the best surprise ever!  Thank you everyone; it will be a trip that I will never, ever forget <3

Today marks only one week left in Finland, and right now that is something that I do not want to think about at all.  I am having way too much fun and when I say goodbye this time, I don't know when I'll be able to say hello again.  I don't want to think about the fact that I may not see this incredible family again for a year or even longer.

Let's finish up with some more photos of the incredible trip I have had so far =D

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos

Tyarna x