Vienna Weekend

The first weekend in May saw the STS Vienna Weekend take place; in Vienna obviously.  Majo and I decided to go together and she told me that we had to be there by 12, I told her, no, we have to be there by 1.  In the end, we went with her time and what do you know, we were the first ones there.  No one ever listens to Tyarna.  Basically we just chilled on the really comfy lounges until the others started arriving.  Soon Katrin and both mine and Majo's area reps arrived, followed by the rest of the students.  We were assigned our rooms before heading off to Schönbrunn castle.

Schloss Schönbrunn is one of the many major attractions that Vienna has to offer.  It dates well back into the 16th century and was home to the Emperor and Empress.  It is really interesting to go through and find out about the everyday life of the people who lived there.  The gardens around the Palace are also so amazing to walk through.

After Schönbrunn, we all went to an Austria restaurant for dinner before going to Siebenhirten for a traditional yodelling course.  It was a very interesting and fun filled night and it was nice to be exposed to more traditional Austrian culture.  Once we got back to the hostel, a big group of us decided to chill out on this massive couch slash bed thingy and just talk.  The area reps came around at midnight and told us to go to bed, so Eve and I went up to our room; there was just one problem, we couldn't get our key to work.  We tried for about ten minutes until one of the area reps, who was staying across the hall, came in.  At first she just laughed at us and then she tried to help as well.  She couldn't get in either though.  In the end, we ended up knocking and getting someone from the inside to let us in.

Giant Bed

Saturday morning saw us head into the centre of Vienna for a sightseeing tour and to look in St. Stephans Cathedral.  After the tour, Jarrad, Eve and I did a little bit of shopping before having pizza for lunch at an Italian restaurant.  It was really good pizza.

He's got the look

 After lunch, the group headed to Prater where we all went off in our own groups to enjoy the afternoon.  Eve, Jarrad, Elliott, Sarah and I all headed to this massive, how do I explain it? Um, it was basically a merry-go-round in the sky.  You had two people per seat thingy and I got stuck with Jarrad.  Anyway the views over Vienna were really, really nice.  While we were still on the ground though, Jarrad decided to make the seat 'swing' and the whole ride we were still swaying around like crazy while everyone else was just going around normally.  Basically he screwed us up for the whole ride; even when we got back down and were waiting to get off, our seat was still swinging around like mad.

Sunnies selfies with Jarrad

How's that for a view?

Saturday night saw our group head off to the theatre to see 'Elisabeth'.  It was a really nice musical, even though it was in German.  There were English subtitles on a screen, but they didn't really make that much sense and they were actually quite difficult to follow.  After the musical, we had a little bit of free time, so Jarrad and I went for a walk to get ice-cream before heading back to the hostel to chill out on the big bed thing again.

On Sunday, the group split up to either go to the Technical museum, or the House of Music.  I chose the House of Music and our group only had five people plus the awesome area reps who came with us. It was a lot of fun doing things around the museum and I only wish that we had of had more time.

Cool carpet

GLOW!!!!

All too soon the weekend came to an end and once again it was time to say goodbye to everyone.  The next time we will all meet is at Farewell Party in June; I am looking forward to going back to the Bad Ischl area for that.

I would also like to say Happy late Birthday to my cousin Balun and my Aunty Nic, hope you had a great day guys!!

Annnnnd, I would like to wish all of my exchange student friends who are currently in Australia a safe trip home next week and hope that you all enjoyed your time in the Land Down Under!

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx

Things & People - Two Different Things

People have been asking me about the things that I miss in or from Australia, so I thought that I would do a small post about those =D

The things that I miss are really quite small and insignificant when you think about them, but maybe that's only because we have them all the time in Australia, so we don't think about it.  In one of my first couple of blog posts as well, I said that I would tell everyone the things I missed once I was actually on exchange, so here goes =)

Aussie Slang -
I never realised until I left home how much Aussie slang I actually used.  I guess because everyone always used it and understood what you were saying, that you don't really think twice about it.  Over here though, I sometimes have to stop myself from using some words because people just stare at you blankly; and trust me, the hardest thing is trying to explain the meaning to phrases like "fair dinkum"or something along those lines.  There is nothing like hearing a true Aussie say G'day to you!

Target -
Yep, I miss a department store.  I never realised how much easier it was to run into Target to pick something up, whether it be a new shirt, pair of slippers, a DVD; and they were always fairly accessible, which is always a plus.

Tim Tams -
These biscuits in the forms of chocolatey goodness.  Yummmmm

Dolly Magazine -
Yep.  Very teenager-y, but I miss it.

Australian Money -
I don't even know why, but there is something about our Aussie currency that I miss.  Can't explain it.

The Beach -
I didn't really spend that much time at the beach, but the thought of knowing it was only two hours away was pretty cool and if I wanted to go for just a day, it was no problem.

My Job -
My job was really fun and I worked with some pretty awesome people as well!

Hair Straightener -
It was ditched from my suitcase on the morning I left home because "there just isn't enough room" - Mum, there is always enough room for a hair straightener.

MY Ballet Flats -
It has almost been four months and I am still not over the fact that my pair of black, pure leather, very expensive ballet flats did not get to come with me.  "They're just a pair of shoes Tyarna, buy a new pair".  Easier said than done.  Do you know how long it takes to wear in a new pair of flats?  The pain you have to go through before you can actually wear them for a significant amount of time?  I have a problem with shoes.  Cherine, please, no comment.

Shorts - 

I left soooooo many pairs of shorts at home and it has only been in the past week that it has been warm enough for shorts to be an acceptable item of clothing here.  I look forward to seeing all of my shorts again when I get home at the end of December.

Well there we go everyone, those are the things that I currently miss from home.  None of these are enough to stop me from enjoying my time here though!!  The way I see it, these are just things that I can look forward to getting home too.

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx

Brilliant Times & A Farewell

Wow, so today was my 18th birthday and I could not have thought of better people to spend it with.  I want to start with saying a big, big thank you to my host family for everything!!

The celebrations started yesterday when Jarrad, Patrick and I went to lunch together at this amazing Italian restaurant in Vienna.  The food was great and the company was pretty damn good as well.

The first time I woke up on my birthday was 12.33am when Majo decided to call me.  Granted, I ignored her calls, as I was in no way able to function at that hour of the morning.  This did not put her off though as the next calls started coming through at 5.50am, followed by 7.17am, 9.19am and 9.20am when I finally gave in and answered and got "TY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!" shouted at me.  Thank you, Majo =D

My call list from Majo

When I got downstairs I got the biggest hug from my host mum which was so great.  My little host sisters then came in and said "Happy Birthday" and "Alles gute zum Geburtstag" and I got to drink my morning tea from the special 'birthday cup'; a cup in the family that you only get to use on your birthday.

Even though she is on the other side of the world, I got a message from my Mum that made me cry; tears of happiness of course.  It said, "I've been thinking of you all day and we even had birthday cake and sang 'happy birthday' to you".  I miss her so much, but hey, how many Australian's can say they spent their 18th birthday in Austria with the best host family ever?  It's pretty damn cool.  I wouldn't go back and change anything.

Around lunch time, Majo and various other members of my extended host family came around and we sat down and had a big lunch.  After, there were some interesting and slightly embarrassing (for Majo) conversations between me, Majo and my host parents before they brought out the cake and the birthday presents.

This next part almost had me in tears for the second time today when my host parents told me that they had spoken to my Mum and got the recipe for my favourite cake from her, had it translated, and made it for me as my birthday cake.  I cannot describe how that made me feel as I was so happy that they had gone to so much effort for me!!  Sneaky parents going behind my back from two different sides of the world!

Through friends and family, both in Austria and from home, I got so many more presents than I ever thought I would and they are all so great.  So thank you everyone!!!

Es dauerte 18 Jahre um so gut auszusehen!

I cannot express how thankful I am to everyone!  It has definitely been one of the best birthday's ever.

Going back to Thursday now, we said goodbye to one of our own when she flew back to Australia after three months in this wonderful country.  Jarrad, Patrick and I made the decision to surprise Chelci at the airport for one last time before she went home.  Spending those last few hours with her was so good; with Jarrad playing any sad song he could think of, and Patrick constantly reminding Chelci that he wouldn't miss her at all ~ he's such a liar.  That last hug before she walked through security was one of the hardest that I have done since I left home.  It's hard saying goodbye to a best friend; however, we'll see you next year Chelci!!!

Surprise!!

Best Friends <3

These past few days have been so great and so sad all at the same time, but there are so many great things coming up in the next few months!

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx

"There's a dead body in my cola"

I honestly do not even know where to start with this.  How do you record absolutely everything that made your week just so amazing?  The truth is, you really can't.  But I'll try to go from the beginning.  Prepare for an insight to the March 2013 STS Intensive German Course...

My train left from Wels at 5:45pm on Monday 25th March.  I met Elliott and Jarrad on the train and after our first stop, Patrick met up with us.  We had a little bit of fun on the train.  The first part was the only group of seats together were in the "quiet" area which we didn't realise when we sat down.  Whoops.  When it was announced that our stop would be the next one, Jarrad decided to go to the toilet and when he came back, we decided to tell him that we had missed our stop; even though the train had never stopped.  The look on his face was priceless.  We then spent the last ten minutes of the trip making fun of the signs that had been translated to English and had either spelling or grammar mistakes.  We then got off in Bad Ischl and met up with Chelci, Hannah and Katrin before heading to Strobl to Katrin's house; where we would be spending the week.

"After actuating..."

Arriving in Strobl, we met Philine and had a beautiful dinner of spaghetti bolognese and salad.  It was a really great salad Philine!!  Elliott and I were the ones who did the "salad challenge" where we finished all of the salad, and this then became a ritual for the rest of the week.  We just decided to hang out for a bit then and catch up.  Going back into talking in fast English was an instant reaction that we all had just from being around each other.  Chelci and I went to bed around 11:30 but, as all girls do when they have a slumber party, stayed up talking until 1:00am.

Tuesday morning was kicked off with breakfast at 8:00am.  It became an unspoken rule that there would be a pyjama party every morning at breakfast.  Following was our first German lesson with our amazing teacher Philine!  I struggled a lot on that first morning, but by the end of the week I really saw an improvement.  It was really good incorporating games into the learning as well, rather than just reading from a book or talking about grammar and verbs non-stop; the games really helped to break that up and to put what we had learnt into practice.

Danach haben wir Mittagessen Pizza gegessen.  Es war sehr gut!  We then had Pizza for lunch and it was very good!  Let's hope that I didn't make a mistake in that sentence!!!  Soon after lunch we set off to our Mozartkugel cooking lesson.  It was interesting to see how the little chocolates were made and we made a production line where we got to make them ourselves.  Afterwards we got certificates; or "Diplomas".

That's right, you all thought my name was Tyarna, well, you're wrong! I'm Tyama!!!!

Once we were back at Katrin's house, we sat around for a little bit before Elliott, Jarrad and I decided to go for a walk.  Our 'walk' turned into a climb when we literally climbed up the mountain at the back of the house!  It wasn't our original plan to climb to the top of the mountain, but we followed a little stream for a little bit and found a waterfall that we wanted to see from the top.  We couldn't find a path, so we started climbing.  It was so hard because of how steep it was and because of all the snow, it took us a couple hours, but we finally emerged towards the top at a roadway that wasn't being used because of all the fallen trees across it.  Let's just say that was a much easier walk than what we had just spent the past two hours doing!!  We had to use our hands to help us climb up and also grab on to trees and sticks and roots so that we didn't slip back down the mountain a hell of a lot quicker than what we were going up. The views from the top were well worth the climb though.  On the way down, we decided to follow the path instead of going down the way we came up!  When we came out, we were nowhere near the house and had to find our way back.  Jarrad assured us he knew exactly where we were going, however I still don't believe him; it was the biggest fluke.

Mountain Climbing =D

When we got back, Elliott, Hannah, Katrin and I played two games of Rummy-O.  Katrin won the first game and I won the second! Woooo!!  Thank you Nanna for teaching me how to play all those years ago!  Elliott and I then landed the job of cooking the meat on the barbecue for dinner.  That was something different.  First we had to heat up our cooking rocks before we could start cooking the actual meat.  It was really quite fun.  And that meat was pretty bloody good if I must say so myself!  The others inside also did a good job of preparing their dishes for the meal.  Chelci and Patrick made a nice salad and Jarrad cooked some really good corn.  All in all, it was a great dinner.  As with the past two nights, after dinner we just sat around and talked.  Elliott also started teaching me the cup song from Pitch Perfect and by the end of the week I had mastered it to the point of us doing it together in Maccas on Friday night.

"My horse is raw"

"Nein"

Wednesday morning we had another four hours of German lessons.  We covered so much throughout the week that it is hard to pin point what we did every lesson.  We followed our lessons with lunch and then headed into Salzburg to explore around there for a while.  Salzburg is a very historical town and was where Mozart grew up!  We walked across this bridge that had heaps and heaps of padlocks on it.  It looked really cool actually.

Salzburg

After having dinner back at Katrin's, it was time we went and experienced our first German movie at the cinemas!!  We saw "Die Croods" in 3D, which was an experience in itself.  From listening quite closely and also watching the actions of the characters, it was quite easy to pick up the story line and what was going on.  Some parts were quite funny and it would be interesting to see the movie in English to fully determine whether it was good or bad.  I didn't mind it though.  Back at the house we went about our usual nightly ritual of talking and practicing the cup song before going to bed.

“There’s a dead body in my cola”

As usual, Thursday morning saw another four hours of German.  I do remember that in this lesson I learnt something that I should have known already about the Austrian lifestyle!  We were focusing on food and ordering at cafes and restaurants when the topic of tipping came up.  As we don’t tip in Australia, none of us had given it any thought, until we found out that in Austria they tip!!  We all felt so bad because we had gone two months without tipping anyone!  We did a role-playing game of customers and a waiter in a café.  Let’s just leave it at it was interesting.  There was a lot of laughing involved and I personally don’t think that the prices were acceptable and would not go back to eat there again.

Lunch once again followed our lessons and we had Austrian sausages.  In the afternoon we went to a small museum that showed Austrian history and also focused on Austria during the Nazi period.  Our guide took us to a tunnel that was built by the prisoners during the war.  It was all very interesting.  To actually see the places where these things occurred is really quite creepy, but makes it all seem that much more real.  That night we had another great dinner before spending the evening at the Thermal Bath in Bad Ischl.  Afterwards we continued with the nightly ritual.  By this point, I was getting quite good at the cup song.

Friday marked our last full day together.  We had more German lessons followed by Kaiserschmarrn for lunch; which was delicious as per usual.  We then headed off to Salzburg where we started our “Sound of Music” tour.  Our tour guide really made the tour a great experience!  He was so funny and even told us a New Zealand joke that we hadn’t heard before!! That is rare.  If anyone wishes to go on the “Sound of Music” tour, I recommend that you watch the movie first.  I’m sure it would make a hell of a lot more sense if you actually knew what happened in the movie.  Once we were finished the tour, we had to clean up our stuff back at the house and start packing up a few things.  It was really sad knowing that the next day would be the last time that the group would all be together.

Jarrad, Patrick and Chelci

Group selfies

The Sound of Music

That night we got to “go away” in Bad Ischl (that is the literal translation from our program for the week).  Some of us decided to have Kebap for dinner and the other half of us had Maccas.  It was raining by the time we got into town and being holidays, there weren’t many people around.  We spent a couple hours just walking around town, which was quite nice and the rest of the time we spent at Maccas.  Elliott and I did the cup song in time with each other and had all of these people look at us, it worked really well though.  Candy recorded it at one point and it was going really well until Elliott decided to throw his cup at me!  I had a Twix McFlurry, which is something that I haven’t had before so it was pretty good.

After doing the cup song

Breakfast was at 7:00am on Saturday!  It was the earliest we had been up all week and we had been out the night before as well, let’s just say that people had trouble concentrating in class that morning.  Once classes were finished we had lunch and then we got our certificates for completing the week.  We were graded on the week and I was so happy with my grade!  I got a 2 which is brilliant because I had convinced myself that I was going to get a 5, 4 if I was really lucky!  I still have a very, very long way to go with my German but the past week helped so much that now I think I may actually be able to achieve it.

Certificate =D

This moment though, marked the end of the week.  It was sad packing our things into the car and driving to the train station.  We said goodbye to the ones who weren’t going on the same train and departed our own ways.

Throughout the week, Elliott and I took many, many selfies and he also did handstands everywhere we went.  It was just what we did!

Elliott and his handstands everywhere =)

Selfies!!!

I would like to say a big thank you to Katrin for letting us stay in your house for the week and also to Philine for being our German teacher!  The week would also not have been the same without the wonderful people that I shared it with.  I’ll see you lot at Vienna weekend!!  Good luck with everything back home Chelci and I hope you have a safe flight.  You better keep in contact with me!  I’ll miss you a lot!

We will finish up with a few more photos from the week =D

Selfies in the street mirror =D

Footprints in the snow =)

Elliott and the Egg

STS!!!

We returned to the same phone booth - this time we won

This amazing group <3

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx

First Package =D

This is just a really quick post to say that I got my first package from home!!  It contained FOUR packets of Tim Tams, a HUGE tin of Milo, some moisturiser, a face washer and some new make-up.  My beautiful mother even included the letter that my sister gave me when she moved families before I left home.  I was so disappointed to find that it didn't end up coming with me, then it appeared in this package!!

<3

Thank you so much Mummy!! Miss you heaps and heaps.

Also, happy 18th birthday to my best friend of fourteen years for yesterday.  I hope you had a great day Lauren!  Miss you heaps pretty lady!  Happy birthday also to my little cousin Tully!

To all my friends who started uni yesterday, good luck to you all and I hope you have a great time and make many memories while you study!!

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx

Orientation Weekend!!!!!!!

Where do I start talking about such an amazing weekend?!  Well I guess that I should start from the beginning.  So here it goes...

Friday was the start of our orientation weekend for all of the new STS exchange students.  My host family drove me to Bad Ischl in the morning as they themselves were going to spend the day skiing.  I got there at around 10am, but other people would not start arriving until lunch time; so I took a walk into town to have a look around.  Bad Ischl is a small but gorgeous old town.  I took pictures around town and went to the oldest cafe in the world.  I had a hot chocolate at the cafe, and I am very proud to say that I ordered it in German.  Granted it was a very simple conversation to have and was quite short; BUT, it was still in German and five weeks ago, I could not have ordered for myself.  Progress is slow, but it is improving.  After the cafe, I came across some markets set up in the street.  They were all food stores and, naturally, I headed over to the bakery van.  I picked something that I had not yet tried (yes, I have tried a LOT of bakery things since I have been here).  Admittedly, this ordering was done with sign language, and not German.  This was mainly because I had no idea what I was buying.  Honestly, I still don't know what I bought.  I kept walking around for a bit longer and came across this beautiful creek that was flowing through the town.  The water was crystal clear and looked very pretty with all of the snow around it.  I was quite cold after this and decided to go back to the youth hostel and read my book for a bit.

Oldest cafe in the world

Pretty river <3

About half an hour later, Katrin arrived with the first of the other students; Candy (Taiwan), Sarah (USA) and Catherine (Canada).  We were given our room keys and then a couple of others turned up.  Being the first to arrive in my room, I got first choice of beds.  Score!  The room was also room 21, my favourite and lucky number!!  We then went for a walk to the train station to pick up the rest of the students arriving.  Meeting everyone at the station was great and getting into conversations straight away with the people you already knew; and also meeting the ones that you didn't.  When we got back to the hostel, we helped everyone else sort out their rooms.  My room consisted of myself (obviously), Chelci (Australian!!!), Hannah (Australian!!) and Eve (New Zealand but we have now claimed as Australian!!).  

Lunch time.  Which was pretty good because I was kinda starving.  We became the Australia table, which really did nothing for our reputation.  Without realising it, Australians have been given the reputation of mischief makers, chatters, and things along those lines.  Let's just leave it at, we lived up to that reputation.  Our lunch table was full on into a very fast paced, slang conversation; something that we had not had since we broke up from each other at the airport five weeks before.  It was so incredibly nice to have a conversation where we didn't have to think about what words we used and the pronunciation of them, as well all understood everything.  We found out the schedule for the rest of weekend.  I guess we really should have known that this was going to be in German, and we scouted out someone to help us decipher it.

The first activity was a tour of the King's Summer Palace.  It was interesting I guess, but I couldn't really concentrate on it because of the amount of animal horns and heads that were mounted on all the walls.  It was really quite creepy.  

Let me just say; 

Australians; 

Reputation.  

That is all.

Back at the hostel, we had our actual orientation meeting for the new students.  Honestly it was like the meetings that we had before we left home.  This time though we got to ask questions that apply to us while we are actually here.  Getting things clarified was pretty good.  Oh, and we got free pens!! I love free pens.

After dinner, we were meant to go ice skating, but the place was closed, so we did a night walking tour around the town.  We had these stick thingys that you lit on fire and used them as torches.  The walk was so gorgeous, even though it was so cold!!

Free time!  A group of us decided to play Spoons.  Although we had to play with tongues because we didn't have any spoons.  If you have not played this game before, then you have not lived.  It is amazing.  But be warned, it can actually get quite violent.  Anyway, that was all going well.  I won, by the way.  Emilie and I decided to head to bed, so we went upstairs.  I planned to have a shower and hit the sack.  There was one problem though; my room door was locked; I didn't have the key; and my roommates were out at Maccas.  That blew that plan.  I then just went and chilled in the other girls room until the rest of them got back.  That was actually really good as I got to talk to them and joke around a bit.

I got to bed at about 11.30.  We planned to get up at 7am in time to be at breakfast at 7.30; that didn't happen.  We misjudged how much time it would take three girls to get ready and do their make-up.  Saturday was the designated skiing day, so after breakfast we got on a bus and headed up the mountain!  The drive up was going ok until the bus just stopped halfway up the mountain for twenty minutes and we had no idea why.  When we finally got up to the mountain, everyone split up into the activities we were doing for the day.

The day consisted of a snow ball fight, lots of hot chocolate and sliding down the massive snow pile.  Chelci and I found that the furtherest cafe slash restaurant thing had the best hot chocolate.  We also tried the strudel that they had there.

Me & Gemma =)

Chelci!!

Chelci & Jarrad

Selfies!

The children wrestling

Chelci & Sam

Catching snowflakes!! Wish this was a better picture though

When we got back from the ski trip, I had a long talk with Katrin which really helped me to sort everything out and think everything over; which was really good!!  I'm glad that we had that chat.

After dinner that night, we went to a thermal bath.  That was so awesome!! We spent the majority of the night in the whirl pool which was outside.  The water was so lovely and the jets to make the actual whirl pool part were really cool.  We were swimming outside while it was snowing!! That is actually the coolest feeling ever.  It was great.

There was more free time afterwards so five of us went to Maccas to chill out for a bit.  We had some weird conversations to say the least.  Heading back to the hostel, we found a stereotypical London red phone box and we just had to take pictures in it!!  We squished five people in as best we could.  Basically, we kinda got stuck.  That's our story and we're sticking to it.

That night we had a bit of fun with a few practical jokes; namely locking a group of people in a room for half an hour.  There was also some great conversations had and a lot of laughing.  

Hehehehehe

The weekend was really great and I am totally looking forward to the German course at the end of March and the Vienna weekend at the beginning of May!!  It was so amazing to meet so many people from so many different countries all over the world!! Hope we all get to catch up again before everyone goes home.

Until Next Post.

Adios Amigos.

Tyarna xx