Autumn Holiday

Hello!

Tomorrow (November 2nd) it will have been two months since I got to Austria!  
I definitely speak and understand more German than I did when I first got here.  I've been able to have lots of little conversations with my host brothers.  Each night I try to do some online German exercises just to refresh what I know and to learn new vocabulary.  

I am currently in the middle of a 10 day autumn holiday from school.  It has been nice and relaxing, but I do miss school, mainly my classmates.  The weather has been pretty cold and windy, which keeps us inside most all the day.  

This past Friday was my host dad's birthday, so we all went to Bratislava, Slovakia for the day!  It's just to the east of Austria and is so pretty.  We went on a little tour on a bus/trolley type vehicle and got to see a good chunk of the city and learn some history along the way.

Bratislava really isn't that far from where we are, I think our total travel time was maybe 1 hour 45 minutes.  Even though it isn't that far, it's amazing how different people look and sound from here.

Here are some pictures I took in Bratislava:

Bratislava Castle

Bratislava Castle

Grassalkovich Palace

The picture at the very top of this post was also taken in Bratislava.

Like I said before, it has been cold out so we haven't done all that much this past week other than Bratislava.  I did go to Vienna for one afternoon but it was too windy and cold to walk around outside, but I did find this sign in one of the trains in Vienna:

It basically says that in Maryland, it's illegal to take a lion to the movies.  You would think that it would be a general assumption that you can't take a lion to the movies but nope.  It is a law specifically in Maryland.  I just thought it was funny.


Also, I decided to try playing handball!  I actually started last week but forgot to write about it.  My host mother helped me find a team, and I've gone to two practices so far!  If you don't know what handball is, I would just look it up. (;  I'm not entirely sure how to explain it.  
I've really enjoyed it so far, and the players are all so nice.  They are a team of girls from the ages of 16 to about 28.  I have played for fun at school and such but it's pretty obvious that I've never played for real before and I do spend a good amount of time standing to the side watching, but it's still a lot of fun!  I'm glad I am getting the chance to try it.

Since Halloween has come and gone, I keep thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas which has stirred back up some homesickness, since I've always spent holidays with my family.   Though, I am looking forward to celebrating Christmas differently than what I am used to and sharing some of the ways I've celebrated. 
 My host mother offered that we could celebrate Thanksgiving and I said I could try to cook some typical Thanksgiving food.  I've been thinking about how to make some little candy turkeys that one of my Grandmas makes every year for Thanksgiving (:


Speaking of holidays and Halloween being over, it's taking a lot of self-control for me to not start listening to Christmas music...


That is all I got for this week!


Thanks for reading!