11 Weeks of Adventure to go

The 7th of October bought with it the start of or Rotary event – Wien Wochenende. The exchange students currently in Austria met along with the Hungarian students at a youth hostel in the city centre to spend a weekend exploring some of the sites Vienna has to offer. The weekend was cold and a little bit of rain – but that is expected in Autumn when winter’s on it’s way, and in no way did it manage to distract us from enjoying the weekend given to us by Rotary.  The night before, I stayed with my host sister, Sophie, in her apartment, and spent the next morning having a peek at the University before meeting up with the Vorarlberger students to drop off bags and have a wander around the city. We made our way to the Kunsthistorisch (Art History) Museum – free entry to those under 19! We spent majority of the afternoon here before heading back to meet with everyone else.

Friday night we visited the opera and saw La Traviata. This is a tragic story of the forbidden love between high-class Parisienne prostitute and a young man. This was the first opera I have ever seen, and it was definitely a beautiful experience. We were then taken out to dinner and later returned to the hostel where we exchanged pins and caught up with everyone.
We visited Parliament, Stephandom, Schönbrunn and many gardens on Saturday, and taken to a delicious lunch with Rotary. A tour in German through the Parliament house was special, as all the galleries were open and we got to explore. Schönbrunn and it’s gardens never fail to impress, and as Autumn draws nearer, the colours and atmosphere on this visit were gorgeous.  Seeing sights like these makes me realise how lucky I am to live in Austria and so close to this amazing city.
After a quick chat on Sunday morning about how everything is going with our time here, and a bit of time organising a few details for the next trip, we were free to leave and either make our ways home or hang out a bit longer in the city.

 

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Among other little adventures, I also got invited to attend a meeting with Rotary in Vienna along with many other students in my district – Inbounds, Outbounds, Rebounds, Rotex, Roteract and Rotary were all in attendance, and it was good to be able to meet and chat with lots of new people who are experiencing (or have experienced) the same as me. I’ve have also made a daytrip to Linz (only 1.90Euro on the train!) with Tom, Sam and J-Max (Aussie). We spent the day sight-seeing and taking photos before setting up our hammocks and then heading back home.

I finally got to present my year and a bit about New Zealand to my Rotary club here in Austria – in German! This included a big thank-you and an exchange of club flags with the standing president.   This went really well, and I am quite proud of myself for confidently standing up and presenting to my families, friends, and club. I will be making another presentation next week in a school here in Hollabrunn to help encourage more people to get involved in the RYE programme.  And I’m actually a little bit excited?!  Finally, I’d just like to say a last big thank-you to everyone who has made my exchange possible. I have had the most amazing time so far, and still have another 11 weeks to make the most of.

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We have our Prague-Dresden-Berlin trip coming up next week, so I’ll be updating soon.

Vielen vielen Dank, und Tschüss!

Georgina