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 Martha
Hinrichs
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2010-11 Outbound to
Austria
Hometown:
Clearwater, Florida
School:
Palm Harbor University High School
Sponsor:
Bellair Rotary Club, District 6950, Florida
Host:
Waidhofen-Amstetten Rotary Club, District 1910, Austria
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Bio
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September 3 "I tried to take
a nap on the hammock on the balcony today, but the unfamiliar sounds of the
neighborhood wouldn’t let me." |
| November 23 "What
I’m finding more interesting than learning Austrian culture itself is
discovering how the people here view themselves and the world around them. I
guess you could say that’s what culture actually is." |
| January 9 " On the weekends when
I’m out with friends I’m greeted by so many people I totally feel like a
celebrity, plus the way you greet people is kissing cheeks which just seems
so classy!" |
Martha's Bio
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 Servus (Hi)! My name is Martha and I am incredibly excited to
travel to Austria!
I’m 17 now but I will be 18 for most of my exchange, which
will be after I’ve graduated from Palm Harbor University High School.
Whenever I tell my friends about RYE they think I’m crazy for choosing to go
through another year of high school. Although I currently suffer from
senioritis, I can’t wait to learn German and meet kids my age without the
stress of grades, exams, or college applications.
I have three brothers, two who are adopted and didn’t
speak English when they first came to the U.S. Right now I’m helping my
youngest brother Joseph learn English, so if there’s such a thing as karma I
should have a patient host family to help me learn German. My parents are
great and are almost as excited as I am for my exchange (they claim it’s not
just because there will be an ocean between us for a year). My family has
hosted several foreign students and adults over the years, and this has
definitely resulted in my fascination with languages and cultures.
I consider myself proficient in French – especially in
writing – due to my excellent French teacher and four years of IB. I like
regular teenage things like shopping, texting, and going to the movies, but
I also love to read non-fiction books on psychology, theoretical physics,
and philosophy. One thing I already like about Austria is that tons of
famous scientists are Austrian (Gödel, Wittgenstein, Schrödinger, and Freud,
to name a few!)
The IB program has also given me an international
perspective that I hope will help me understand and adapt to life in
Austria. I have friends from all different backgrounds, and I love meeting
their families, trying their traditional foods, and hearing them speak
another language. If I had to predict what my greatest difficulty will be in
Austria, I suspect I will go through junk food withdrawal. (That may turn
out to be a good thing.)
I still have to get through the rest of senior year, but
hopefully the days will fly. I am so thankful to Rotary for all they have
done to make this possible! |
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The weather is sooo nice here! My host family
thinks it’s terribly hot, but I’m enjoying reading outside with jeans
and socks on without worrying about sweat or mosquitoes. I tried to
take a nap on the hammock on the balcony today, but the unfamiliar
sounds of the neighborhood wouldn’t let me. In Florida I’m used to the
sound of cars driving by and sometimes crickets chirping. Although
Amstetten is actually a nice-sized town, cars only drive by every 10 or
15 minutes. What I hear instead here are the horses down the street
whinnying (that’s the sound horses make, right?), and occasionally a
MOOOOO or a BAAAAA from who knows where! It’s really strange to me
because we’re not in a rural area or anything, but I love it! Also,
there are always birds chirping and tons of flowers in every garden.
Another sound is barking; my host family has a
golden retriever named Cara! She’s very well behaved and doesn’t bark
often—only when a stranger walks by, which is quite rare because
everyone here seems to know each other! So far I’ve been on two walks
with Cara and my host parents. It only takes about 15 minutes to walk
to my school at the edge of Zentrum (downtown), but when school starts
my host father will drop Magdalena and I off nearby on his way to work.
Before school starts I have a two-week
language camp that begins this Sunday. So far my family’s been speaking
mostly English to me, but after language camp we decided they will speak
mostly German. The first few days have been a lot harder than I thought
they would be with homesickness and all, but it’s usually just in the
mornings when I wake up and I’m by myself and I just want to be in my
own bed. But once I get up and start talking to my host family again, I
forget that I am across an ocean from my past life. I definitely don’t
feel at home yet, but there’s this strange reality to everything. I
think it’s because I’ve been envisioning this time for so long, and now
when I look around I’m really here, and it’s not like I expected it
would be – not better or worse – it’s just more real.
Friday 3 September
I got back last Sunday from Sprachkurs (Language Camp) and in the end I
have to say it was a blast! The first few days were exciting meeting 63
other exchange students and exchanging pins and cards, then by the
middle of the week 63 teenagers living in one building started to seem
like the premise for a reality TV show, but by the end of the second
week all 63 of us became best friends who can’t wait to reunite at the
hiking weekend this month.
Now that I’m back the days are much more empty, mostly going on the
computer, reading, or watching TV with my host sister Magdalena. The
shows we watch on TV are: King of Queens, What’s up, Dad? (My Wife and
Kids), Eine schrecklich nette Familie (Married… with Children), and if
it’s a good day, the Simpsons or Die wilden Siebziger (That 70’s Show).
I can’t think of too many updates other than
that, so I’m just going to list a few interesting observations and
experiences I’ve had so far:
· McDonalds
o You can buy eggrolls
o A McFlurry with M&Ms means peanut M&Ms, which is my new favorite!
· Restaurants
o You will never, ever, ever get the check until you finally realize
after almost an hour that you have to ask for it
o Your waiter does not keep coming to your table because he thinks you
and your exchange student friends are cute – he’s waiting for you to ask
for the check!
o You pretty much always have to pay with cash
· Around the house
o Your host mom will gladly do all household chores, including daily
loads of laundry!
o You must always knock on doors, in the home or at school or in the
city hall, even if they’re open. –Ingrid Zeller
o It’s good manners to always eat with two hands (harder than it
sounds!)
o It’s normal to use your hands to eat a hotdog with ketchup and no
bun, but you should use a fork and knife to eat fish sticks and
mozzarella sticks.
o Lunch is the main meal of the day – no joke – don’t expect more than
a roll, cheese, and maybe a slice of ham for dinner. If you’re lucky,
maybe leftovers from lunch!
· Random
o There is no speed limit. I’m not sure if that’s really true, but
it’s how people drive.
o There is one traffic light in my town (that I’ve seen so far) and it
turns yellow before it turns from red back to green
o MTV actually plays music videos for the majority of the day
o Ice cubes do not exist anywhere inside the borders of Austria.
o Austrian soccer is terrible. (not my opinion, everyone tells me
this)
o Austrian beer is the best. (again, not a personal observation)
o You will hear the above two statements any and every time those
subjects are brought up.
o Everyone here speaks English, and if they say they can’t it means
they’re more or less fluent.
o Translating idioms is always an easy laugh
o 99% of Austrians speak some form of dialect, and even if you think
you can understand German you will still have no idea what’s going on,
especially with a group of teenagers.
o It’s FREEZING here! And it’s technically still summer?!?!
That ended up being longer than I planned, and
I didn’t even put down everything I thought of! I start school this
Monday and my birthday is Wednesday, so hopefully this week will provide
a lot to write about for my next entry!
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The
last two months have been surreal. Well, living them felt quite real but
looking back so much has happened I can’t believe it! For a brief overview,
I’ve started school, celebrated my 18th birthday, been on two hiking trips,
visited Vienna twice, been to an Austrian “prom,” and learned a LOT of
German.
Being an exchange student is really not a shabby title to hold. First of
all, you are sort of a celebrity at school. Even at my school where the kids
were really shy at first, after the first few awkward days I started to meet
like 3 new people every day and it hasn’t stopped! It also doesn’t hurt that
everyone loves a chance to practice their English, but I’ve started to ask
them to speak German with me unless I really don’t get something. After
three months I understand at least the topic of every conversation, and I’m
even starting to get the jokes the guys in my class are constantly cracking.
I also watched the new Harry Potter movie in German and I was so surprised
at how much I understood!
The second super part about being an exchange student that I think goes for
any country is the bond shared by all the inbounds. We’ve had two meetings
since language camp, one hiking trip and one weekend in Vienna, and I always
almost want to cry when the weekend is over. It’s difficult to describe in
words the level of excitement when we’re all together. It’s also cool having
friends from all over the world and comparing food, movies, school, etc.
How I feel on a day-to-day basis is pretty much at home. In school I can
kind of somewhat understand the lessons, and sometimes I even get called on!
Even though I can’t usually give a proper answer, it’s ok because I am able
to laugh at myself and no one expects me to be perfect. With my host family
I feel mostly comfortable. Their daughter is on exchange in California so
they are able to relate to what I’m going through. So far, more than the
“cycles” of homesickness we learned about, it seems to me that some days it
just randomly hits you. One thing I personally deal with all the time is
realizing that I’m never going back to my high school in America. All my
friends are at different universities, and even when I go back nothing is
ever going to be the same again. I guess I would have had to deal with that
anyway, but it’s still what makes me sad the most often. However, I’m really
looking forward to the holiday season here – and snow!! It hasn’t hit me yet
that I’m missing Thanksgiving since it completely doesn’t exist here, which
actually makes it easier to forget about.
I’ve had a cold more or less the entire time I’ve been here, but I’m used to
it by now and always have tissues on hand. It hasn’t snowed in my city yet
but tomorrow’s forecast says there’s a chance and I can’t wait! My family
loves skiing and they are always telling me how much I will love it.
As for profound insight, I can’t exactly say I’ve uncovered any secrets
about the world or even myself really, at least not yet. So many things are
simultaneously different and the same. What I’m finding more interesting
than learning Austrian culture itself is discovering how the people here
view themselves and the world around them. I guess you could say that’s what
culture actually is. Also, in the past few years there’s been a lot of
Americanization here that has created a real love-hate view of the U.S. It’s
often hard not to take personally, but I try to remind others and myself
that I’m not America, just an American. I can only be held responsible for
my own actions and I try everyday to be a positive presence.
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Tomorrow
I will have lived in Austria for five months.
Since I wrote my last journal so much has changed. First and foremost I’ve
seen my first snowfall! With snow everything changes. When I first came to
Austria in the summer, everything was so picturesque with flower boxes under
all the windows and just so stereotypical of what you think Austria would
look like. It was beautiful, but it was pretty much what I expected.
However, after the first snowfall I can honestly say with all my heart that
Austria is more beautiful that I ever could have imagined! I’m sure I sound
so Floridian, but seeing fields covered with fresh, clean white snow and the
rooftops looking like something…. I don’t know how to describe it, just
something I’ve only ever seen in movies! But in person it’s SO MUCH BETTER
than in any movie. For the first two weeks I couldn’t resist
touching/stepping in/sitting down in any snow I passed by. And riding the
train to anywhere, I can’t ever look away from the window because the towns
we pass by are just so beautiful and perfect looking!All my friends here
tell me I’ll get over it, and I haven’t quite yet, but I will admit that
after a few days without any fresh snowfall the roads get kinda gross
looking and a lot of it melts. Anyways I’m sure that’s enough about snow.
Now, on to my everyday life. I enjoy getting dressed every morning, then
adding an extra sweater, scarf, boots, coat, gloves and hat on top of
everything I was already wearing. And then I get to school, take all of
these things off and put them in my locker, and then put on my slippers and
walk to my classroom. We have a different schedule everyday. Mondays are the
worst because (besides from Monday just being a terrible day) we have
classes like History, German and Religion which are just lectures that I
can’t completely understand. Sometimes I do some of my own German stuff or
daydream, but sometimes I actually try to listen and write down random words
that I hear but don’t understand. My favorite day is Thursday, especially at
the end of the day when we have music for two hours! I feel like I’m on the
TV show Glee when the whole class starts to sing – and everyone actually
sings! Somehow I can’t picture myself in a US high school class
participating in weekly sing-along’s, but here it’s so much fun! Also we
sometimes play Dance Dance Revolution.
I stay with my same class in the same room for almost every subject, even
for lunch. Every class has a different personality, and mine is definitely a
crazy one! During the breaks the guys all wrestle, peg chalk at each other,
build chair forts, turn on loud music and have dance parties, open the
windows and yell at people walking by, or any number of other things, while
the girls sit by the heater watching disapprovingly but also sometimes we
have to laugh. We go on a lot more field trips than I’m used to, and it
seems like we hardly ever have two full weeks of school in a row, either due
to a field trip or some holiday. One surprisingly interesting field trip was
EU day, where we went to a presentation about the EU. What it actually
turned out to be for the most part was listening to students and recent
graduates talk about being au pairs, foreign civil service workers, or just
cultural exchange students. It was interesting for me because a few had been
to the US and experienced the reverse of what I’m going through. It sounds
kind of silly, but hearing all the advantages of living abroad and the
enthusiasm of all these kids just gave me a sort of boost, like I got really
excited about my exchange all over again, even though I was already here!
Towards the end one of my classmates leaned over and told me I should go up
there and give a presentation. He was kidding of course, but at the same
time it got me excited to promote RYE when I get back!
My experience with Rotary in Austria has been great so far. I’ve met some
other exchange students with different programs, but it seems to me that our
group of inbounds has the most support, from both the clubs and
multi-district level and from each other. I’m the only exchange student in
my town, Amstetten. At first I was really jealous of the 10 or so exchange
students in Vienna who all get to see each other every weekend, if not every
day, and not to mention the public transportation system of the U-bahn which
makes it really easy to get around Vienna without a car or taxi. After 5
months though, I’ve realized I love exactly where I am right now and
wouldn’t ask to be anywhere else. It only takes an hour by train for me to
get to Vienna and hang out with some other inbounds, but I don’t end up
doing this too often. In my town I’m really special; people want to meet me,
want to hear about Florida and what I think about Austria and Amstetten, if
someone hears me speaking English (or German for that matter) in a
restaurant or on the street they will introduce themselves and ask me where
I’m from and why I’m here. Most of the waiters and bartenders know me by now
and no longer stare at me quizzically when I try to imitate the local
dialect and miserably fail. On the weekends when I’m out with friends I’m
greeted by so many people I totally feel like a celebrity, plus the way you
greet people is kissing cheeks which just seems so classy! Everyone is so
welcoming here; I already know I will miss this feeling so much back home.
Weihnachten (Christmas) was another day (or weekend rather) that truly
made me feel welcome here in Austria and in my host family. We celebrated on
the 24th. Singing Stille Nacht (Silent Night) around the Christmas tree
(adorned with real candles of course) and receiving presents from the family
just like I was one of their own children was an experience I will never
forget. There were also plenty of parties that weekend – my favorite was
going out with a few of my host cousins on the 25th. I heard so many stories
that night of their childhood and all the mischief they would get into at
their grandma’s house, and they also told me funny stories about my host
siblings. For some reason this night I really felt like a member of the
family.
So far I’ve been skiing once with some classmates, two of whom are certified
ski instructors and so I got free private lessons! Skiing is way harder than
it looks – I fell down so so so many times and every time it felt like I had
broken one or both legs. Nevertheless I had a blast and I think skiing might
just become my new favorite sport! It’s also what we watch most often on TV
this time of year. My new role model is Lindsey Vonn; all the Austrians love
her, she trains in Austria a lot of the time and does her interviews in
German… but not just regular German, she can speak Austrian German! Austrian
dialect is different in almost any city you go to. In Vienna it’s pretty
close to Hochdeutsch (Standard German), and in my area they speak something
called Mundart (~from the mouth) or Mostviertelisch (I live in the
Mostviertel region of Lower Austria). Even though I can now read novels in
German without too much difficulty, I’m still challenged to understand
everyday conversations. I’m making progress though, and it’s really fun when
my friends introduce me to someone new and then follow with, “watch out, she
can understand dialect!”
I have two hopes for the new year: for my language learning to speed up
and for time to slow down!
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making traditional Austrian cookies |
my
Perchten boyfriend, isn't he handsome? |
Melk, a smaller town nearby, during Advent |
my
classroom during English on the last day of school before break, we
had a party and sang American Christmas carols |
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skiing! I'm the awkward looking one wearing all borrowed ski clothes
and equipment |
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