I only got back from Schladming on the 20th and i couldnt get to a computer over there so as you can probably tell these entries are backdated and im trying to remember all that happened (and carefully choosing what not to put up on the wensite!!!), so it may seem a little jumbled and confused, but ill try and put as much about the trip as i can up.
I left on the 13th at about 2:00 in the afternoon. I was sitting on the train for about an hour and a half before i realised that some people i knew had got on the previous stop and i went to go check it out. Funnily enough about 20 exchange students had hopped on, some of them i knew, most of them not, and we all sat down together and started chatting. I was mainly chatting with three american girls and a canadian. It was really interesting talking to them, they have been here since August, and obviously had a lot more experience in their host families than me, and it was good to talk through some problems and queries with them. It was quite interesting because they seemed to all have had the same minor problems and worries as me at almost exactly the same point in time. But we chatted for about an hour. Regardless, it was really nice to meet these new people.
We arrived some time after four, and a bus was there to pick us up. We went on the bus and it was good to see the old faces from the language camp again. This trip was the first time, however, that the whole group (the August guys and us) had been together, and it was good to meet everyone, and put faces to the people id been getting random emails from!!!
When we got to the hostel, we were allocated rooms. I was with Justin, my mate from New Zealand, which we were both happy about. We went up to the room.......Now im not a complainer, but Justin and i are not the smallest of people, and when we stepped into the shoebox sized room, with barely enough space for 2 hobbits, and put our bags down we realised it was impossible for both of us to get into 2 of the 4 bunks at the same time. The situation worsened when Michael and Matt, from Oz and NZ arrived soon after. We were a little squashed. Nonetheless, we thought: 'lets get on with it' and we set up a place for clothes on the balcony, as there was no space in the room, and we picked bunks. We went round to the other rooms and soon realised we must have done something wrong on language camp, our room was hardly big enough for one person, with 4 guys in it, and the other had double beds, bathrooms, closets, you name it. However, not to be complainers, we agreed it would be a good time to, as we put it: 'really get to know eachother', at this stage, i dont think that could be avoided!
Paz