omg its been a while.. sorry world-life has been pretty hectic around here.. there's been so much happening and its harder to get online than it was at the start of the year..
so here goes:
Around the beginning of February, 2 of my grandparents died...11 days apart. First Papa, then Nana... it was really hard for me, being so far away and not able to say goodbye or be there for everyone (or have people to be there for me). I had a rough time for a while, and it was really difficult to accept. I left for a year, not knowing they were sick...I didn't say goodbye like I would have if I had known that something could've been going on with them. I wish someone had told me. The funeral took place a couple weeks ago, and I wasn't able to be there for that either. It's been a challenging few months.
I have been doing a lot the past little while.I have danced in the rain in Stadtpark, been to Slovenia, and loads more fun stuff. I have been to the theater a number of times with my first host mom, seeing shows from Harold & Maude to Cymbelin. I have been to Linz to visit a couple friends of mine, and to Italy with my first host family. I changed host families, and met missionaries from my church, here in Vienna! It was really exciting and now I have another new community of friends (: I went to Schönbrunn again, and had a tour of the church from my second host family. I went downstairs to the old church which is still under the newer one...It was kind of creepy down there, and I wonder how anyone could have felt close to God down there..... Easter went by with fasting and lots of new and different cultural experiences. They go to church at 4 am on Easter Sunday!!! (or at least the host family in which I was at Eastertime)..
Dance is still going well, the first class ended about a month ago and the second started about 3 weeks ago, meaning new people, and no longer changing partners. That is both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, you can never be the one left out without a partner and you always have someone to explain to you what the teachers are talking about in simpler German, but on the other hand, if you are the last one to get to all the interesting or nice guys, then you are stuck with the one who isn't in the mood to explain to you what they're talking about, or is impatient and doesn't seem to want to understand that you can't ´follow what the rest of the class is doing without help. The ball for my dance school took place last month, and I went with a friend from school, who happened to win tickets from school ball which was a couple of months ago. It was awesome, and the dance school ball (the Dancer Against Cancer [DAC], an annual charity ball to raise money for cancer research) was held at the Hofburg (a famous building in Vienna), which was SOOOOOOOOOOO gorgeous inside that I can't even describe it. I have never been anywhere more beautiful or felt so prestige in my life, and I doubt I ever will again.
My blazer is almost full, but that won't be a problem when Eurotour starts in a couple weeks. I can't believe its almost here (it means the end of a lot of the others' exchanges, and the beginning of the saddest process of my life).. I will never see a lot of the other exchange students again, and I know I won't be able to say goodbye to all of them, and that hurts so badly (already!) :(
I am thinking about going to Germany next year and doing a sort of exchange there too, with a friend of mine who was at my school in America last year. I'm not sure, and it would be without an organization, but I would go from about November until summer I think. All I need is a visa, insurance, a little pocket money, and a plane ticket. It would be good for my German and then I have another excuse not to be in America next year xD (sorry Americans, but its a lot nicer on this side of the ocean :P )
I might go visit a friend of mine from Croatia soon, who was in Maine last year with Rotary, but I don't know yet if things will work out. I will celebrate my 19th birthday in a couple weeks, and I really don't feel this old.. I still feel like a 16 or 17 year old.. I wonder when that will start to change... I can do pretty much whatever I want here, but it hasn't seemed to set in.. I still feel like an underaged teenager who must rely on host parents for everything. It's kind of a weird feeling.
I'm running out of things to say, so I think I'll go for now, and I will be late on the next post too, because by then I will be out of Austria on a bus full of exchange students excited to TOUR EUROPE!!! You will hear about my adventures after (:
Nochmal, bitte entschuldigen Sie die Verspätung. Liebe Grüße! <3

Fünfte Monat (Month #5), time for yet another post (:
This month has come and gone and brought with it snow, family gatherings, a handful of holidays, and tons more. The months seem to be getting shorter, and December is proof. It feels like last week that I was worrying about Thanksgiving and finding a way to Skype with the fam back home, and now its already 2011 and time is running out... I still don't know what to do when this year is over.
At the beginning of the month, there is a holiday for St. Nikolaus, who is kinda like Santa but not exactly, who brings presents for the children and tells them what is good and bad about them, and also a holiday for the Krampus, which is like a big, hairy devil, and people dress up as Krampuses and beat people with sticks..its like at the beginning of Decemeber is good vs. evil and everyone celebrates. We got together as a family and my father pretended to be St. Nikolo and gave us all presents and chocolate. Then in the middle of the month was another family gathering where we drove out of Vienna and went to my aunt's house and all ate together, the whole family, and just hung out. Then my grandparents came to stay with us for the holidays, and after a couple days my other grandmother came too, so I had to give up my room and now I'm staying with my sister, Jojo, until my grandmother leaves again, but not for long, because then I will be leaving too.
I went to a musical with my mom, called "Ich War Noch Niemals In New York", and it was really, really cool. I am looking forward to going to at least one more before I return to the states.
I will be working to earn money for the EuroTour at the end of the year, and so I will be tutoring children in English, and I worked in a Punschstand near Stephansdom (the wicked famous church in the citycenter), so I earn a lot of money towards the trip, and my Rotary club will pay the rest (: They have been really nice and really generous towards me (other than making me change families :[ ..) haha but I am really happy with how things turned out and that I am in the club I'm in and the other exchange students around me. Close but not too close..we only see each other when we both want to, which doesn't happen as often as it could (: But I am really excited for the EuroTour, because its 17 days long and we'll go to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Monoco, and Italy. I'm wicked psyched :D
Yesterday I went to my first movie (in a cinema) and saw the Tourist (in German) and understood everything.. I was so proud of myself ^^ My German is coming along really well. We had a German test in the middle of the month, and I was so worried, but then when we actually had it it wasn't as hard as they said it was, and I got the third best score: 31/40 Grammar, 5/5 Writing. We were only supposed to get about 20 of the 40 Grammar points, and the two who did better than I did have had experience with German and can speak fluently already.
There are a couple others from my group who already dream in German, which means that the language is in your head and you can think in the language without a problem. I am still waiting, but I think I'm close because when I try to think in English half of the words are German and I get really confused, often saying things I would say in German but not in English. Even with the other exchange students, when we all talk to each other I find myself answering questions in German just because I happen to be thinking it, and everyone always looks at me like 'What the heck? You speak English too'. A little bit embarrassing sometimes, but whatever, I'm here to learn German.
Soon a new exchange student will be here, Jamie, from Australia, and he will be coming to my family first. So I get bumped and he gets my room, my bed, my bathroom, and my family. He might even get my cell phone...who knows.