Sonntag 30 Juni

After a late night FaceTime visit with the parents, my plan to rise and shine at 8:30 for a leisurely walk to church was foiled. I blearily made out 9:00 on my ipod and threw some clothes in speed mode. I skipped the hair and went for the natural look. Breakfast, however, was laid out for me once again. Muesli, “tropical” juice, brot, käse, und Aufschnitt (lunch meat) mit Erdbeere und Himbeermarmalade had to be consumed first. With all of the walking involved in my current arrangement (ohne ein Fahrrad), skipping this opportunity was not an option.

I somehow managed to meet Katie by 9:40 as planned (that 1.2 miles to the school does go faster when you don’t take wrong turns…), and we wandered around for 20 minutes until we found the Kirche which was probably only a couple of blocks away to start with. I like to think of it as exploring, not being lost. We followed a nun into St. Gallus Katholische Kirche, skipped the holy water, failed to bow to the cross, and chose a spot on the uncomfortable pews. The acoustics and the choir (one song was in English) were fabulous, the interior was gaudy and glorious, and the sermon may have been as well, but I couldn’t pick out much more than “Jesu Christi.”

The service ended promptly an hour after it began, which left me two hours before class to wander back to my house, enjoying the first sunshine of my visit to Bregenz. We crammed as many polite German phrases and adjective endings into our heads for three hours back at the school before being released back into the sunshine. Another quick trip to my house and back, and we headed to the beach. This turned out to be a narrow strip of rocks and driftwood between the water and the biking/walking path that surrounds the lake. Not quite a Pure Michigan beach experience, but we settled in to soak up the sun, freeze in the water for a few minutes (it has been an unusually cold and rainy spring here), and observe Austrian family culture around us (children’s swimsuits seem to be superfluous… just think how much money that would save).

We returned to Harborfest (as it sounds: a festival on the harbor, with various vendors and live music), and I picked the one thing I couldn’t identify on the menu: Zack Zack. It turned out to be a thin slab of pork with some kind of spiced mayonnaise spread and lettuce on a Kaiser roll. Not bad, Gromit, not bad at all.

It was too beautiful out to go inside yet, so I did a little more exploring on my way home and discovered a tidy vegetable farm just behind my house as well as a massive church and boarding school that my host sister had told me is the “Hogwarts of Bregenz.” From the walls surrounding the complex and the violin/piano duet emanating from the windows, that sounds like an accurate description.

Estimated mileage walked today: 9

First Day in Bregenz

A little update on my first 24 hours here... All of my three flights went smoothly; since we had to go through security again and walk a fair distance on our layovers at each Canadian airport, the longest wait time was in Zurich waiting for the train. Those three hours felt like a long haul after being awake for the better part of 20 hours. I probably slept around three hours on the plane, but the two guys next to me continued their extended, animated conversation throughout the 7 hours, making it a little tricky to settle in. I would (of course) tell you what was so captivating for so long, but they kept switching between English, French, and German, so they foiled even my eavesdropping skills.

Cheyenne, the 19 year old daughter of my host family, and one of her friends picked me up from the train station in her black VW beetle. She showed me the house; my room was previously the play room, so it is adorned with shelves of Lego creations and kids movies. After chatting with Cheyenne for quite a while (and she made me a much needed coffee), the rest of her family got home. The Mom took English in high school but is very cautious about digging it out and using it, so I will get to practice my German with her. The younger two kids were especially excited to meet me and practice the bits of English that they know. They grabbed their English workbooks, and we flipped through them, exchanging words. Latitsia, the little girl, asked if she could see my American money, so I did and gave her a quarter to keep. She ran and got me a 10 cent piece... pretty cute.

Cheyenne drove me downtown (10 minute drive/30 minute walk) for my first authentic Austrian lunch (Wiener Schnitzel und Pommes!) at the oldest restaurant in Bregenz (I think). Downtown has lots of restaurants and shops; it is a big tourist attraction, especially in summer, for "a lot of Asians" (Cheyenne's words, not mine), Germans, and others. It is right on the lakefront (Lake of Constance) and beautiful. You can see Germany across the water - about five miles along the shore, and Switzerland is just around the corner. We walked along the lake front; it was nice get a tour from a local! Cheyenne has lived in the area all her life. I learned that she is actually the one who wanted an exchange student to live with them. She loves everything American, including the language, and would love to do an exchange program herself. When the opportunity came up to host an exchange student, she jumped on it and talked to her mom about it, and here I am! She has been telling me about their education system and all of the final exams she just had to take for graduation (she just graduated two weeks ago). Sounds a little more rigorous than the U.S.... I feel blessed to have such a welcoming host family (I just went upstairs for breakfast and found quite an array of rolls, Muesli (yogurt & granola), cheese, and meats out for me). Unfortunately, Cheyenne left this morning for a week at the beach in Turkey with her class, but hopefully her mom and I can fend for ourselves with my German and her English:)

After my tour I took a short nap (I didn't want to let myself sleep too much in the interest of jet lag) then decided to go exploring and possibly meet up with some of the MSU group (facebook is our only form of communication). The sun had come out (still quite chilly: lower 60's) and it was a beautiful evening to stretch my plane-cramped legs. I found my way to the water fairly easily (I only ended up a little too far down the beach), and wandered around for a while, but didn't find any of my group so decided to head back home. It wasn't so straightforward on the way up the hill as down, so I ended up turning around and ran right into my group back on the lakefront! "Harborfest" is going on this weekend, which consists of a bunch of food tents, live music, a couple carnival rides, and some vendors, so we got food (Weisse Bratwurst mit Brot und Senf) and watched the sunset down by the lake. One of the guys lives up in the direction that I do, so we walked back together to find our home stays. We ended up walking a bit farther than necessary and having a nice chat with a helpful guy in a gas station for directions, but it was a refreshing walk, and we both made it home in one piece. Now I have a map with my house marked on it and my route figured out:) The fact that only about 25% of the roads have street names posted makes things a little tricky. Combined with the city laid out on the side of a hill... walking in a straight trajectory isn't as easy as it sounds.