Differences between Austria and USA

Much of the local food is fried here, just about everything you can think of. They eat a lot of Rye bread. I'm eating more white bread here, then what I eat back in the US. There have been a few comments made about how Americans only eat white bread. No one carries a water bottle around, I get many looks and questions about mine.
Ice cream comes in many different flavors, I'm use to different treats or toppings, and no one explains to me what the different flavors are. All juice gets water added either tap or mineral, does differ from family to family. Lots of Muslie, granola, some with a lot of sugar some with less. This is considered good healthy breakfast.
There are doors to every room and they are kept closed most of the time. Most places have no carpeting. Sometimes there are some rugs, but mostly there is tile and wood for the flooring.
I have seen a few doors and windows with screens, but not a lot. Beer has a lower alcohol content, then what we have in America. Cars almost everyone has a standard or stick shift. There is lots of singing. People just hanging out and sing.There are many English songs on the radio. British English and American English are very different. They learn British English here. Many people here chew Orbitz gum, I enjoy chewing gum :) and it can come in aspirin-like bottles. There is no yellow mustard, only brown or spicy mustard. I love all of the mustard here and it's everywhere, this is the way life should be.
Grocery stores: you need to bring your own basket to put your groceries in, or if you need a bag you have to buy one. You have to bag your own groceries. I think this needs a little improving, the cashier moves everything very quickly to a small area and then you have to pay and then pack your stuff, all before the next person gets their grocers. A bigger area I think would help. Oh, and the cashier sits in a chair and instead of a drawer popping out it has a cover that pops up. I like that better.

Ice Cave & Water

I couldn't take pic's inside the cave. Here is a picture of the entrance to the cave.
On Sunday, July 20th, it was a day full of "water". We got up early and drove to Werfen, Austria. We took a serious of incline walking, lift, stairs and a long distance up through many clouds (creating a very interesting movie-esk type feeling). We, as a family, went to the worlds largest ice cave Eisriesenwelt. It was amazing! Most of the time I kept saying, "this is so cool!" There were about 6-10 of us who wanted the tour in English, so we had a small sub-group at the front, we got a short explanation and then the guide would say the same information and more in German for the rest of the tour group. I'm very happy it was in English, I was able to learn so much from the tour guide. There were 1400 stairs inside that we took through the first km of the cave. I was amazed at how much white light can do to ice, there were so many amazing colors. Wind and water can create so many beautiful items, I love nature!
After the great tour of the ice cave we went and got some food, which was good because I was very hungry. I'm not sure where we were, but afterwards we paid a man in a hut and took more stairs and saw a river that had carved out so many great spaces. I do not remember the river's name but when I find out, I'll try to update this. The water in the rivers in upper Austria are very different looking, much lighter in color with blues and greens, very cool to look at. Plus with the rain here there were many beautiful tiny waterfalls all over the place, it also made everything muddy for walking in.
Clouds, Ice, River, Rain, all water in different forms and all have a great impact and makes for beautiful sites

1st Hike in the Alps

I am in Flachau Austria, a big tourest ski area. I got here Sunday evening and its been raning most of the time. I was asked last night if I would enjoy going for an hour or 2 walk with Kati(mom) and some of her friends. I said yes, 1 i wanted to spend time outside and 2 i would never pass up an oportunity even if they speak very little english.
Today got up and it wasnt ranning but still cloudy, cool and wet out. But we gatherd, 4 of us total, and drove up to a ski lift. It was very nice, a little chilly and low clouds so hard to see the view. But what i did see was beautiful, many pics were taken. But I noticed we keep going further in and the time was passing by. Finaly I was told we are walking to a "house in the alps" I call it a cabin. The one friend Anita owned it. This beautiful cabin recently update, all the woodwork was done by her husband and son, it looked great. The house was tiny but wonderful and the view was amazing. There were many clouds so I did not get the full affect but I could tell there were many mountains hidden off in the distance.
I enjoyed that i was the good Boulderite with my water bottle filled with water, they had a flask with homemade blueberry schnaps, and for lunch I had a new kind of lemon beer. I loved it, took my pic with the bottle. Its been fun and nice to see the differencese, they have huge hiking boots that put my runing shoes to shame, oh well they dont weight my luggage down.

Friday Kellie Photo

I have been told by many people when ever you travel to another country you always gain wait. I have been thinking about this a lot. I for the most part don't gain much weight. But how will I tell, and how much will I gain, and is it all bad? Just some of the thoughts I've been having. I have decided to take at least 1 pic of myself every Friday to see if I am changing much in my looks. The problem is I so far don't have anyway to look at them here, so this will be more of a retrospect when I return home.
Something that is different for me, in Colorado I had very little salt in my diet, here everything has a lot of salt. I've been eating many salty items while here. This means retaining water, but I am also sweating a lot more here, especially my face, and when I sleep at night. Another thing is I am eating tons of dessert, everyday. Some of the desserts, I think are a little healthier, and others have tons of calories. Most of their cakes are very similar from house to house, so consistency there. I am eating traditional Austrian food. I would call their cakes different from what I would call a cake in America.

JL Party

The Rural Youth invited me to a garden party last night (Friday). It took some traveling but I got to the event with some help from the people who invited me. For the most part, this organization in similar to 4-H and this particular club throws a big garden party every year. Margrit is the president and she is the one who invited me. I´m so happy I came. It was great seeing things get organized and put together. Later seeing how everyone interacted with each other. I was informed this was a typical party and its what most of them do. The party consisted of 3 bars and a food table. I was very impressed with how all of the youth worked together to get this event put on, and how they worked different shifts and still had a lot of fun. Drinking age here is 16, that is the first difference about being here. It is weird having younger kids hanging around drinking and smoking. My favorite part was having 12 year olds serve the alcohol.
Lisa was the girl I got to know the best and she was great. I was very impressed with her bartending skills. She would translate the orders and I would help her make the drinks. YES I have driven and served drinks in Austria, this is so cool. Two of the bars had liquor and they have these cool holders for dispensing the liquor. It attaches the bottle upside-down to the counter and fills a 2ml amount of liquor and you push the button and it dumps the same amount into the cup every time. I thought it was cool and impressive but apparently they are everywhere. I took a picture. With the event being for all ages and out on a farm its safer to drink and sleep over. I went to bed early, sometime in the am. The sun was coming up and I help set up and didn't want to help pick up trash so I went to bed and got 5 hours of sleep. I think I got the most sleep. I feel like I´ve written a lot but haven´t communicated too much about the party. It was great fun and I´m happy I went.

New Family Ubles

I am lucky and happy to have a new family to live with. The first family did not want me back, I had to get someone to drive me to their house get all of my stuff and leave as soon as possible but had one last rant of everything I had done wrong. This meant I needed a place to stay for the night. I stayed with Margrit who was wonderful. I had a great time, help decorate for a celebration that was for the next day, went to the music festival in St.Pöelton and meet a lot of great girls. I´m so happy for that opportunity. The Ubels (which I might be spelling wrong) clearly were not planning for me but they were very nice to let me stay. They have hosted many different IFYE´s, two of them from Colorado who I know :) The family is very busy with many different projects. 1) They recently purchased a second house to fix up and use as flats to rent out. This house had been abandoned for 3 years and was in worse shape then they expected. The man who lived there left everything, bed sheets on the bed, half drunken bottles of wine laying around. There was barley, hay and other crops still in the barn. Apparently 2 cows had been left to die, the list goes on. BUT it has the best view in the world, it's on top of the hill and you can see farms, the Alps, Germany, and other countries that I'm not sure which ones they are.2) Side note, lots of Austrians swim in the summer, either it"s going to a pool, lake or having something in your back yard. The Ubels are joining in and are building a pond to swim in. This just started yesterday (Monday). They tore up a beautiful garden, I wish I had gotten a picture of it before hand, and most of the yard. Part of the problem is deciding where to put the pond. Its been interesting to see the ground being dug up, you get to see where homes and building use to be. All the foundations are a few inches underground now. I´m very interested in seeing how it all turns out, but I will be gone and hope to see pictures of the finished pool. 3) They have a cute new dog named Doulche (probably spelled wrong). It is a very small dog, long body and short legs. The family just loves it to death. It's fun to see how it acts and how everyone reacts to her.

The 4th in Austria

I celebrated the 4th of July in Austria and it was great. My first host family did not want me back at all. That meant driving to get my stuff and leave as quickly as possible. It also meant I needed a place to stay for the night. I went with Margrit and stayed with her family. This was wonderful, I got to spend time in St.Pöelton and they were starting their music festival. There was great people watching, and I got to hear some bands play. In the Evening I got to help Margrit and her friends set up for a celebration for someone becoming a priest--big party. After that we went back into St.Pöelton for drinks, music, hanging out, and seeing friends that you typically only get to see about once a year at this festival. So far there has been a lot of English music being played over here, but last night was the first time that they were all rewritten to be sung in German. It made it hard for me to sing along. We walked around and visited 2 stages for music. I learned a new dance to go with a song. Fireworks were set off, so my 4th of July was complete. I tried some new food called Langos. It was some big fried thing with garlic, it was a bit much for me, I think about a 1/3 would have been better and shared with others. I am very thankful that I got to meet new people and see new things that I think I would have normally would have missed staying with a host family.

Host Family

My first host family to put it simply: did not like me. I am at a conference in Austria and will return for one more night stay and then move onto a new family. So I will stay with 5 different families instead of 4. That will give me more memories and more experiences, and more places to see.

Austria Differences

Windows and doors have no screens, and they have 3 positions 1 locked 2 door open along the hinge, and 3 open only at the top and lean inside, very cool Compost and recycle, they really divide things up differently here. I have found out it is different from area to area. Compost everything except bones. They recycle all paper, including napkins. Plastic, all kinds no limit.
Dishwashers are smaller here, but have 3 trays, big for pots pans and dishes, small one for cups and glasses, and a tiny one on top for silverware. Very nice. Refrigerator is kept at a warmer temperature. Toilet and sink are in different rooms, toilet paper is rectangle and not square shaped. Still getting use to the different temperature readings: Celsius and not Fahrenheit. Keyboard, biggest problem is y is down by x and z is between t and u.

They wear separate shoes for everything, inside, outside, working in mud/dirt, hiking/biking, going to town or to work. I´m use to wearing shoes for attire and leaving them on where ever I go. My first bed isvery small, no bed sheets and 1 comforter folded in half, I might be using it wrong, but I have just 1 more night and then a new house so I´ll see how it is there.