Halftime: The period indicating completion of half the time allowed for an activity: e.g. Football, Basketball or Exams.
It is not merely due to my nationality as an American that has the word "Halftime" popping into my head this time of year. Yes coming from NFL-Land I do indeed get excited for the SuperBowl and follow the team standings in the charts religiously. Well, okay perhaps the last bit is an exaggeration. However just like other Americans, the words "quarterback" "touchdown" "cheerleader" "SuperBowl Commercials" & "Halftime" do truly float around in my head this time of year similarly to how "Sugar Plum Fairies" dance in the heads of sleepy children on Christmas Eve. Yet, I am not so much a die-hard fanatic, and so my life is currently focused on other activities as well, particularly my exchange in Austria. Halftime is for me not only the most exciting point in the SuperBowl, but also where I am currently at in my exchange year. And yes, try as I might, I can't avoid the reality of how fast time flies. Thankfully, I have a relative 6 more months to enjoy my new-found life here!
Exchange is a grand year packed full of transitions. From new families, new friends, to the odd, curiosity enticing tastes & sounds in the host country; all this culminating into a brand new life. For me Austria is a new scene to dive into and explore. The Mühlviertel region I've come to know with it's green pastured hills -qualifying as mountains in the eyes of an Iowan- it's "Little Red Riding Hood" forests and it's intriguing yet rather difficult to decipher dialect are steadily (or more so rapidly) becoming the place I would begin to call 'Home Number Two.' Yup número dos. There is enough corn & a pleasant attitude similar to the familiar Midwestern friendliness, for me to make myself pretty darn comfortable here. I find the system of greeting folk with a handshake or a kiss on the cheek to have an positive, familiarizing effect on folk. At the beginning of my "Year of Transitions" I found myself thrown into a land of rich culture unknown to me and the situation the new language. Perhaps the clearest, most notable change in one's life as an exchange student is suddenly not understanding the people around you. At first this is highly confusing & it makes knowing what's going on a much harder task. For students who learn a foreign language in the classroom they are likely to find when immersed in the land where the learned language is natively spoken, that it sounds like a completely different one than that which they had studied. In fact French to a beginner might sound strikingly like Greek or Chinese at first (this can be exciting :) ). For me, I can say that what I heard here in my first weeks sounded nothing like German to me, nothing like what I had heard in the Berlin Airport on my way here anyways. After language camp and the period of time required for me to utilize & comprehend those newly picked-up lingual skills, I realized the folks here actually do use at least 5 of the same words found in the German language. Now considering all of my business transitioning into the new life here, it pleases me to say I am at the point where I do have a decent clue as to what is going on. It is now quite clear in my head what is High German, (the standard form) & what is Mühlviertler Dialect. The relationship between the two is now clearer in my mind making the local language perhaps not fully comprehensible, yet for me manageable. What was at first Not German to me is now a familiar sounding variation of it. I find my conversational German to be at a satisfying level for now, and the dialect, well I get the gist of that, & that is what's important at the moment.
From the start of my time here I could see clearly how well this environment readily fit me. The culture and language is endearing to me in a manner has me hooked. Being open to the new social setting meant learning when is too much and when I have to push myself to become more outgoing. Getting to know the new social setting abroad was incredibly different compared to my dearest mother's exchange in Sweden, or even my cousin Amber's only 10 years ago in northern Germany, as I did not have to wait until I arrived. With the technology found in Facebook, I could see a glimpse of who I would be meeting here, and through Google Earth and Images what the country looked like. Yes given it was a mere glimpse, however a striking change from a few years ago. Entering the school on my first day in "Gymnasium" was nevertheless the start of my time in a completely new learning environment. The setup is that usually 2 classes, one following a language line and one on a more technological line of study exist per grade. These students then stay in the same classroom with the teacher coming to them for the majority of the lessons. This creates a totally new social setting compared to home where we change classes and see new people every period. I believe a somewhat healthier harmony exists here among the classmates in the school as the same group of 17 students spend the majority of their time together throughout the day. I am pleased to be allowed to join in & become a part of this. At home, I quickly found that Gutau, my first host village, had nearly everything for me, minus the vital train connections. A seemingly perfect, clean and tidy little place with a broad range of kind inhabitants I was incredibly lucky to get to know. The experiences around my Gutauer friends and at the music Kapelle are something I hope to keep up with even though I have now moved on:
Weitersfelden: As of January 15th became my new and current Austrian home-base. That includes the house, an incredibly old building with a bakery on the first level belonging to my second host family Honeder. My newest host parents Helga and Reinhard run Honeder Naturbackstube (Bakery) which is a Linz and Mühlviertel regional and tasty business. I have 3 host siblings, Franz the oldest is currently completing his military service in Linz, Johannes is in a boarding school during the week in another city called Wels, and Sophie Honeder is in northern Minnesota for her exchange with Rotary. Our exchange goes between the two of us as Rotary Freistadt sent her to the USA, and subsequently chose me as they needed to then take a student from the same country. The village itself is located a bit farther east along the roads from Freistadt, at a higher elevation with an even better snow guarantee. Mühlviertel is perfect hiking country, and the Weitersfelden area of that is the paradise. The village has such quintessentially peaceful Mühlviertel scenery and even John Deere at the supply store, so I already am comfortable and happily settled in! So far my time here has been spent exploring the village and surrounding hills by foot, and as a few days ago the snow finally came, I of course had to do that all over again. The higher elevation here in Weitersfelden means we receive and keep more snow for a longer time, and it's appearance completely refaced the world over here! I find myself in the position of expanding on the new life I have created here, and a welcome, tasty, pastry-filled chapter this will be indeed! Life is calling right now, so I must call it quits in order to go pick up the phone ;) I will leave y'all with a handful of snowy photos freshly captured from what is technically the first snowfall of 'Winter':
Exchange is a grand year packed full of transitions. From new families, new friends, to the odd, curiosity enticing tastes & sounds in the host country; all this culminating into a brand new life. For me Austria is a new scene to dive into and explore. The Mühlviertel region I've come to know with it's green pastured hills -qualifying as mountains in the eyes of an Iowan- it's "Little Red Riding Hood" forests and it's intriguing yet rather difficult to decipher dialect are steadily (or more so rapidly) becoming the place I would begin to call 'Home Number Two.' Yup número dos. There is enough corn & a pleasant attitude similar to the familiar Midwestern friendliness, for me to make myself pretty darn comfortable here. I find the system of greeting folk with a handshake or a kiss on the cheek to have an positive, familiarizing effect on folk. At the beginning of my "Year of Transitions" I found myself thrown into a land of rich culture unknown to me and the situation the new language. Perhaps the clearest, most notable change in one's life as an exchange student is suddenly not understanding the people around you. At first this is highly confusing & it makes knowing what's going on a much harder task. For students who learn a foreign language in the classroom they are likely to find when immersed in the land where the learned language is natively spoken, that it sounds like a completely different one than that which they had studied. In fact French to a beginner might sound strikingly like Greek or Chinese at first (this can be exciting :) ). For me, I can say that what I heard here in my first weeks sounded nothing like German to me, nothing like what I had heard in the Berlin Airport on my way here anyways. After language camp and the period of time required for me to utilize & comprehend those newly picked-up lingual skills, I realized the folks here actually do use at least 5 of the same words found in the German language. Now considering all of my business transitioning into the new life here, it pleases me to say I am at the point where I do have a decent clue as to what is going on. It is now quite clear in my head what is High German, (the standard form) & what is Mühlviertler Dialect. The relationship between the two is now clearer in my mind making the local language perhaps not fully comprehensible, yet for me manageable. What was at first Not German to me is now a familiar sounding variation of it. I find my conversational German to be at a satisfying level for now, and the dialect, well I get the gist of that, & that is what's important at the moment.
From the start of my time here I could see clearly how well this environment readily fit me. The culture and language is endearing to me in a manner has me hooked. Being open to the new social setting meant learning when is too much and when I have to push myself to become more outgoing. Getting to know the new social setting abroad was incredibly different compared to my dearest mother's exchange in Sweden, or even my cousin Amber's only 10 years ago in northern Germany, as I did not have to wait until I arrived. With the technology found in Facebook, I could see a glimpse of who I would be meeting here, and through Google Earth and Images what the country looked like. Yes given it was a mere glimpse, however a striking change from a few years ago. Entering the school on my first day in "Gymnasium" was nevertheless the start of my time in a completely new learning environment. The setup is that usually 2 classes, one following a language line and one on a more technological line of study exist per grade. These students then stay in the same classroom with the teacher coming to them for the majority of the lessons. This creates a totally new social setting compared to home where we change classes and see new people every period. I believe a somewhat healthier harmony exists here among the classmates in the school as the same group of 17 students spend the majority of their time together throughout the day. I am pleased to be allowed to join in & become a part of this. At home, I quickly found that Gutau, my first host village, had nearly everything for me, minus the vital train connections. A seemingly perfect, clean and tidy little place with a broad range of kind inhabitants I was incredibly lucky to get to know. The experiences around my Gutauer friends and at the music Kapelle are something I hope to keep up with even though I have now moved on:
Weitersfelden: As of January 15th became my new and current Austrian home-base. That includes the house, an incredibly old building with a bakery on the first level belonging to my second host family Honeder. My newest host parents Helga and Reinhard run Honeder Naturbackstube (Bakery) which is a Linz and Mühlviertel regional and tasty business. I have 3 host siblings, Franz the oldest is currently completing his military service in Linz, Johannes is in a boarding school during the week in another city called Wels, and Sophie Honeder is in northern Minnesota for her exchange with Rotary. Our exchange goes between the two of us as Rotary Freistadt sent her to the USA, and subsequently chose me as they needed to then take a student from the same country. The village itself is located a bit farther east along the roads from Freistadt, at a higher elevation with an even better snow guarantee. Mühlviertel is perfect hiking country, and the Weitersfelden area of that is the paradise. The village has such quintessentially peaceful Mühlviertel scenery and even John Deere at the supply store, so I already am comfortable and happily settled in! So far my time here has been spent exploring the village and surrounding hills by foot, and as a few days ago the snow finally came, I of course had to do that all over again. The higher elevation here in Weitersfelden means we receive and keep more snow for a longer time, and it's appearance completely refaced the world over here! I find myself in the position of expanding on the new life I have created here, and a welcome, tasty, pastry-filled chapter this will be indeed! Life is calling right now, so I must call it quits in order to go pick up the phone ;) I will leave y'all with a handful of snowy photos freshly captured from what is technically the first snowfall of 'Winter':
"Come Again": My goodbye sign from Gutau. It was truly amazing, & not easy to leave. Herzlichen vielen Dank allen Freunden in Gutau. Die Zeit bei euch war super, unvergesslich und besser als ich es mir vorher vorstellen konnte! Pfiati seawas :)
Welcome sign to Weitersfelden!
View of the snowy village from a distance:
Wintry Overlook:
The "Little Red Riding Hood" forest in white:
The town centerpiece:
Servus aus Weitersfelden!
