I saw people skiing!

yep, I haven't gone yet myself, but I saw other people skiing (out a train window of course...

Last weekend, the Rotary in Austria hosted a meeting for all the exchange students, and since Croatia is part of their district, we came too. We took a train from Zagreb to Salzburg (7 lovely hours, but the train was nice, and I got to see the Alps, and people skiing, as I mentioned. One of the ski resorts was right on the rail line and a family got on the train still wearing ski boots!)

Austria is really pretty, the mountains and snow reminded me of home. There are a lot more newer buildings than in Croatia, and Austrians definitely seem more mild-mannered. They appear to drive much slower in town, and I'm told the buses even run on time.

It was also cool seeing all the exchange students. In Zagreb, all but one of us are from the US, but though there are still more Americans, Austria has a bunch from Australia, some from New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico, and a few from other countries like Venezuela, Belgium, the Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, and probably a few others. There were over 70 exchange students in all, plus a group from South Africa who were on a short-term exchange to Austria for their summer.

tortelli, piazzas and tango

I went to Italy a little more than a week ago, and although I just got back from Austria, I think I should write about Italy first.

I have been hearing stories about Italy all my life, and I didn't expect it to really live up to the stories, since many of them were from quite a while ago, but upon arrival, I found the Italy right out of my favorite tales, at least in essence. I loved everything-the animated expressions on the Italians' faces as they gave us directions; the crazy driving (it all works as long as no one slows down); the cobbled streets, old buildings, beautiful piazzas and majestic cathedrals; the tasty food (I thought tortelli di zucca, pumpkin ravioli, was particularly interesting). I also loved the language, especially the rhythm of it. I am slightly frustrated with the fact that I could understand Italian almost as well as Croatian, and I've been here for almost four months. This is presumably due to my French, which is quite similar, but possibly also that Italians lend themselves to being understood. Italy seemed like one of those places that just clicked for me and I definitely want to go back.

I went for a Tango fest, and was accompanied by my Rotary counselor, who was so nice to come because I wouldn't have been allowed to go alone, and one of the exchange students from Brazil who just came along for the ride. I've got to say that I felt like I was crashing the party-there were tons of people at the festival and pretty much every one was a great dancer. I took several workshops-in Italian, which I actually though was pretty interesting. I could understand some, my partners translated some, and of course, I learned a lot just by watching. I also went to the milonga each night. The milongas were held in some sort of giant athletics building, with a rubbery floor that was a bit hard to dance on, red plastic tables and chairs around the outside, and colored stage lights. It was very different, and I though it had a fun atmosphere. My favorite night was Sunday. Lots of people had taken off, so there was more space on the floor but still plenty of people to dance with.

Dan Zahvalnosti

That's Thanksgiving in Croatian! Not that they celebrate it--I'm sure you all know it's an American holiday. But we Rotary students decided to celebrate, so we organized a dinner and crammed all our host families, our Croatian teacher and one of the Rotary councilors (25 people) into the Tuškan family's living room...well, some of us were eating in the entryway, and I had to climb over a small desk to get out... It was lots of fun, though. We had a cool mix of Croatian and American dishes--pumpkin strudel, anyone? Of course, we weren't terribly well organized in terms of who was making what and how much, so we ended up with enough food to feed about 4 times as many people...
Kelsey and I were making decorations during school, and our hand turkeys caused quite an uproar. Our classmates really couldn't understand why we would trace our hand and call it a turkey, and honestly, I don't really blame them. Sure, they could use a bit more imagination, but where did we come up with that idea anyway? And yet, every kid in the US does it.