Wish you were here...or wish I were there...but not at the same time...that would defeat the object...

Right now, I am sitting at my kitchen table drinking coffee, eating Lebkuchen and feeling sorry for myself. I woke up late this morning and fell off my bike on the way to school; Austria decided that today would be a jolly good day for a torrential downpour; the first really rainy day since I have been here. I got soaked, and now have a lump on my left knee and a bruise on my right thigh. When I did arrive at school, I realised I was not only late for my first lesson but unprepared for my second (I should have prepared a text but forgot). The teachers were very nice about it, though. In the first lesson they were talking about food, so I just joined in. I hadn't met the second class yet, so I did my introduction and then moved on to talk with them about environmental issues. They were a fun class; lots of them answered my questions and I think nearly all of them were at least listening because the discussion occasionally sparked off into mini debates (mostly in German, but I think that responding to the topic is a good sign anyway). It worked fairly well despite my being disorganised, but I don't think I should do it again too soon!

New resolutions:

• Be an early riser.
• Be punctual.
• Be organised.
• Be tidy

The last resolution is because Ulli came to give me a travel guide to Vienna the other evening and the flat was a tip. It was quite embarrassing. I have cleaned it now, though. Heinz and Ulli are still being great. The travel guide is for November when Nao and Tom are visiting.

On Saturday we went to Heinz's brother's house for lunch because Heinz and Ulli had bought some wild mushrooms at the Buschenschank (see Dear England post), but there were too many for the three of us. Ulli, the brother's wife Uschi and I prepared the mushrooms by coating them in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. Afterwards they were fried. Normally I am not a fan of mushrooms, but I tried a little bit of these and they were not bad! I didn't have a whole piece because we had, in true Austrian style, already had soup and salad, so I was already quite full. We also had pizza, but that's not so traditional. If you like mushrooms, I would definitely recommend these. They are called Parasolpilze or Parasol mushrooms and they smell nutty.

After dinner there were lots of cakes and Grießschmarrn, which tasted quite a bit like rice pudding but is made more like a pancake. Like Kaiserschmarrn, it's comes in a pile of pieces. It is popular with children and Naschkatze (literally a "nibble-cat"; it means somebody with a sweet-tooth or who is always munching on something sweet). Are you a Naschkatze? I definitely am. At the moment I am nasching on my Lebkuchen. When we had finished eating dessert, the children took me upstairs under false pretences. They claimed to want to show me the piano, but instead I found myself sat on somebody's bed, trapped in a fort of cushions and being jumped on! What have I learnt this week? DON'T TRUST AUSTRIAN CHILDREN.

On Saturday evening my Dirndl had its first outing. We English-speaking language assistants met up in a nearby town to celebrate Veronica's birthday by dressing in Trachten (Lederhosen for the boys, Dirndls for the girls) and playing drinking games (don't worry, I only drank one Radler in the end; it's like a Shandy - beer and lemonade). The others then went to a bar for Currywurst and Champagne and slept over, but I left early because...


On Sunday morning a friend of Heinz and Ulli's daughter met me and we cycled to church together. The service was nice, and the children sang a couple of songs because it was Harvest, but the sermon was really, really long and difficult to understand. Afterwards there was a meal, I played table football (badly) with some of the teenagers and then the youth group did an auction, which was hilarious. The boys introduced each item as "made of real wood" or "genuine glass" or "a collector's piece", the adults bid ridiculously high just to support them and the men competed to buy the handbags. I wasn't confident enough to bid for anything, but now I kind of wish I had tried for the barometer... I will definitely go back there, because I have made some friends (the girl who took me back for lunch at the other church was there; apparently it's her regular church and she was only at the other one to support her boyfriend while he was preaching for the first time!) and the church is much closer to home, so hopefully I won't get lost! I'm going to their Bible study on Thursday.

In spite of having a bit of a rough day today, I am really starting to like life in Austria. It is difficult not to be counting down the days until Christmas (69) and until I can go back to England and see my family (66), but once I get a bit more used to my routine, I can see myself having a great year. I just have to practise seeing this as a permanent situation, which is hard when I just keep thinking, "when I go back to Exeter..." and "in fourth year..." and "when I see so-and-so again...". I also keep wanting to place people from home in situations here, like "Dad would love this coffee" and "Mum would love the walk by the lake and these Autumn colours" and "Naomi and Ellie would definitely know what I'm talking about, but no-one else gets it!" and most recently "Tom would get on so well with the boys from the youth group". I have heard that it can be frustrating when you get back from a year abroad and people don'e understand what you mean or what it was like or how you have changed through it, too. I'm rambling. Stop rambling, Bryony.

Almost forgot: Nutella consumption
Nutella levels: Full jar! After my disastrous morning, I decided to get some comfort food; Lebkuchen and Nutella.
Total Nutella consumed: 800g; one jar


In conclusion, this morning was a bit of a fail, generally I am getting on well and I am still getting used to life here. It is great to know that God is with me no matter how far away from home I am, and really cool to know that people all over the world are praying for me, as I am for them.


Lastly, I need to say hello to my lovely little sister. She flew to India yesterday with her BMS team. Here is a link to their blog, which Ellie is in charge of writing:
http://www.actionteamblogs.org/category/india-kolkata/
Ellie, if you are reading this, I hope you had a great flight and are enjoying India so far. I am so proud of you and I'm praying for you and your team.

Loads of love and Heimweh*,
Bryony
xxx

*Literally "Home-hurt" - it means homesickness, but I think it describes it better; like that ache you get when you miss home.