Update from Katie... Sept 26

Hello Kamloops North Rotary and Aurora Rotary,

 

Well there is so much to say.  However,  I am going to keep this email quite brief!

 

Since my last email I have been hiking at Tauplitz, sight seeing in Vienna and going to my lovely school.

 

School is going well.  My class is amazingly sweet to me.  I only speak German throughout the day, however the classes I still find difficult to understand which makes them quite boring, especially when I am in a Latin class with students who have already been learning it for two years.   Yet I am still trying to find ways to adapt their classes to my lack of German.   For example in my German class they are reading Goethe,  which is equivalent in German to old English Shakespeare.  The Austrian students have a hard time understanding it.  The students have to do a project on it so I approached the teacher and instead of reading Goethe I am reading a children's' short novel and doing a project on it. 

I am still getting used to school.  Most days I am out of school at 2 pm, which is really nice because that means I get to go home for a delicious warm meal.  However, on Wednesdays I have school until 1 pm and then I have to go back to the school at 5 10pm until 6 50 for my PE blocks!  That isn't necessarily my favourite day. 

 

 

Living in Vienna is quite a contrast to Kamloops.  There are over a hundred museums and art galleries to see.  The public transportation is amazing here.  I am not very dependent on my family for transportation because everywhere I go I just take a street car or the underground subway system.  I am starting to go to the various museums here.  Yesterday, I ventured to the Hundertwasser House.  Hundertwasser is an Austrian famous for his impressionist works. It was quite interesting.  

 

I have met with my Rotary counsellor and youth exchange director.  They are both very nice.  Coincidentally my counsellor is also my neighbour.  He has already invited me to go to a soccer game with him and his kids.  He has a son that is my age so it should be fun.  

 

Two weekends ago I travelled to Tauplitz... which is approximately 5 hours by train.  Tauplitz is a beautiful mountain area in Styer ( an Austrian Province).  All of the Austrian inbounds gathered and we went hiking. However, do to too much snow we couldn't go on the path we intended on.  Thus, the South Americans got to experience the joy of sledding and snow ball fights. I helped two Argentinians build their first snowman ever! It was quite an enjoyable weekend.  A true Austrian experience.

 

My family continues to be lovely.  They are very helpful with making sure that I am enjoying myself.  Well I better get ready for my PE blocks. 

 

I will try to email you more often, it is just this first month has been quite hectic!

 

I hope everything by Rotary in Kamloops is going well. 

 

cheers,

 

Katie Dittrich

 

ps as I read over the email... I realize my English is quite broken.... my appologies but I am honestly not speaking in English at all anymore.