Before i went i thought school would be ok, it would be a good way of meeting people, increasing my vocabulary and learning the language, but it is honestly so much better than that!
The school im attending is called Kirchengasse (ive put in a link here) which is about a 10 minute walk down the hill from my house. It is a gymnasium high school (the equivilent of Australian selective high schools), and is completely different to shcool back home. First of all, you are not allowed to wear shoes in the school, you must take them off and leave them in the basement or carry them in your bag. Some people go around in what they call "house shoes" but most just wear socks. The second major difference is that students are all in one class, meaning one group of about 18 unstreamed students does all their subjects together, all in one classroom, except for the sciences which are done in the labs downstairs. The classes are 50 minutes long with a 5 or 10 minute alternating break in between, there is no lunch or recess and usually students go home at about 2:15. It is a long day, but seems to work.
I am in 7C (the equivilent of year 11) and have 17 other people in my class. There is an even mixture of boys and girls, which is a big step from the days of Riverview, where girls only made up a small percentage of the population... But everyone in the class is very nice. Surprisingly, they are not that keen to practice their english, not because they are lazy but both the fact that i asked them to try and speak German to me, and the fact that all of their English is amazingly good, they even take history in german, which amazed me!
I have bought some German textbooks, and am learning slowly to conjugate and build my vocabulary. The grammer is very difficult, much more so than the vocabulary, but it is very similar to both French and English and i have begun creating patterns between the languages to find the best way to learn, although im sure that the language course in only a week and a half now will establish all that for me.
I spoke to Konrad today (again over lunch!) about a bank account and what to do about my Rotary club, as i told him i was very keen to establish a good relationship with them. I was told that Rotary in Austria is not too keen/interested in the contact with the exchange students, not in a malicious way, but are happy to sit back and let us enjoy the year, but they are paying heaps and putting me up and arranging everything for me, so i think it is very important that i establish a solid relationship from the beginning.
Just for reference, my plans for the next couple of weeks mainly involve me being away, first on the language course from the 2nd of February to the 17th or so and then skiiing in the Arlberg which is one of the top resorts in the world!!!!
I can't wait,
Paz
