Los geht's!

Week One

I've been in Austria for a week now, and can safely say that the Year Abroad Part Two has been off to a flying start! Compared to my first week in Paris where I felt as though I was 'tiptoeing' around the city, the culture and the people, I really have been launched headfirst into Austria and everything associated with it. (This week has been pretty jam packed so I'll split it into two blog posts to avoid writing an essay.)

Unfortunately, the process of actually getting here didn't exactly go smoothly. I spent the best part of last Sunday packing, re-packing, weighing, re-weighing (repeat) to try and squeeze everything I considered an 'essential' for the next 5 months into a suitcase weighting 20kg. After much to and fro-ing I had a suitcase weighing 20.2kg and gave myself a pat on the back. However, upon arrival at Stanstead at a very antisocial hour the next morning it became apparent that our scales didn't quite match up and I came in a kilo overweight at 21kg. I quickly transfered a kilo from my suitcase to my hand luggage and thought that would be the end of it... After a tearful goodbye to the boyfriend, there was some hold up ahead of me at security so after legging it to my gate I got there with 3 minutes to spare. Luckily there was still a queue so I wasn't too late. However, at the desk I was asked to check the size of my hand luggage and as much as I forced it it wouldn't fit into their 'hand luggage checker' (which it definitely had done before adding the extra kilo!). There was a very mean man at the gate, a £50 excess baggage charge and some tears, but I made it onto the flight. I sat down, began sorting out my things and realised that in the confusion they'd given me back an Austrian passport instead of my own. More tears and a passport swap with a very confused Austrian lady at the front of the plane later and the flight was finally ready to take off!

When I arrived at Salzburg airport I was fully prepared to stay in my bad mood and blame Austria for the £50 I felt that I'd just unecessarily spent. However, as soon as I got off the plane I fell in love with the place. The airport was tiny and surrounded by mountains, the air was fresh and the sign was in German (which has always been by far my favourite language to study). My host family were there to meet me at the other side, and had even brought the dog along. We drove back to their house and I still couldn't get over the stunning views. Their house is about 10 minutes outside the centre of Salzburg, the view from my room is absolutely incredible and the house is right on a lake so even the walk to the bus stop is breathtaking.

Having woken up at 3am I was ready to crash, but as it was a Der Salzburger Rupertikirtag (http://www.rupertikirtag.at/) (a town celebration and holiday) they were having none of it. I quickly re-packed my hand luggage for the British Council Training Course as I was taking the train there straight after looking around the town and off we went. My host dad and brother were both in Lederhosen which I wasn't sure about but then decided it was cute and nice that they were getting into the spirit of things. Once we got to the town, however, this was seemingly normal and I can say hand on heart that I've never seen so many dirndles and lederhosen all in one place. There were lots of stalls in the town centre selling traditional Austrian fare such as food and clothes among other things, and some classic fairground rides as well. First impressions of the town were great. It's surrounded by mountains and has a river running through the middle which is actually blue, so makes a big change from the brown Thames. There are plenty of old buildings and although it's not the biggest town, it seems right up my street. We were only able to stay for a couple for hours as my train for the training course left at 2 so we all went to the station.

My host dad had sorted out the tickets, printed out a timetable and even carried my little suitcase onto the train with me. I wasn't sure how I felt about being assosicated with a man in lederhosen so soon after my arrival in Austria, but decided to embrace it! They waved me off at the station and I was very ready to sleep but also looking forward to meeting all of the other assistants at the course. I figured that if they're half as nice as my host family then I'm in for an amazing 5 months here!

(Also a quick note about how I came to stay with a family: Accomodation in Salzburg is notoriously hard to find. When you add into the mix the fact that you're trying to sort this out from Paris, only staying for 5 months (when the minimum contract is usually a year), and trying to avoid living with international students to make sure you speak German this becomes practically impossible! I saw an advert on one of the housing websites from this family so got in touch, they seemed really nice and keen to have me so I basically went for it! The deal is that the room is free as long as I speak English with the children. I was a bit worried about this meaning that I wouldn't get to speak German but for now they're mainly talking back in German and whenever I'm with the parents, family friends or relatives we all speak German so so far I'm feeling pretty immersed and not worried at all. I'm living with them basically as a bigger sister, so we all eat together in the evenings and if they go off at the weekend I'm always invited. Similarly though they do know that I'm not their daughter so am free to come and go as I please if I don't fancy tagging along to what they're doing. It was such a relief to get it all sorted and so far it's working out really well. The biggest bonus for me is living with people again as the studio apartment is Paris did get pretty lonely (despite it's great location), so I'm loving the general chit chat and having someone to watch TV with!)