Hey everyone.

Sorry my blog has been so quiet lately – I still am a students, although it may not seem like it sometimes haha. And the past couple weeks I have had to stay Steyr-bound to finish school projects, study, etc. There is less than a month of class, remember!

But it hasn’t been that bad because most of the other incomings are the same, and so we all have been kicking around. Plus, with summer starting in full force, it hasn’t been as boring here – stuff has been going on!

So I thought I would give a little update since it’s been almost 2 weeks since my last post!!

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The week after Mauthausen was mostly just school stuff – I just got kinda busy, and frankly I’m a little tired.I also was pretty emotionally strung out due to some events that had happened to my family back home. And so that week was more of a siesta for me – my sleeping patterns were all wonky – I was actually kind of mimicking Canadian timezones, which really screwed me up. I stayed at home for the majority of the week, only going out once or twice for supplies.

And I think I really needed that week. Sometimes in the hustle of traveling and exploring the world and all that other stuff, you forget that you’re still a person. I have often found myself not eating or sleeping properly because I’m trying to cram as much fun and adventure into my life as I possibly can. I definitely don’t want to waste my time here, but sometimes I worry too much about all the places I still “need” to see and as a result I don’t pay attention to myself and the things I need. And so that week was very much needed – I’ve been too “go go go!” and especially with my semester winding down, my Austrian clock is ticking away, and I’ve been feeling stressed about returning.

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The next week was back to classes as usual. On tuesday ESN organized a Night Watchmen Tour for us. The Night Watchment were men (and eventually women) who would act as a kind of police force in the town back in the 17th century. They would make sure the taverns closed at the right time, arrest people if they were breaking the law, patrolling the streets, stuff like that. They also were in charge of announcing the time all night from the top of the church tower. As part of the tour we were able to go up to the top of the church tower.

It was 228 stairs!!! Tight spiral stairs that were hard to get up AND down. You could almost get dizzy going around and around. I don’t like stairs – I have done ALOT of stairs since living in Europe, but I still don’t like them one bit. It’s a good thing I don’t live in Porschestraße because I would either never go to class, or stay at school all day instead of travelling back multiple times a day.

The view was pretty impressive – Steyr looks much bigger than I thought! I guess that makes sense since the majority of the time I spend in the same areas, and haven’t gone all the way down to either end.

(Also sometimes I get bored and experiment with bright lipstick – sue me)

Our tour wasn’t that thorough – most everything is the same as the Steyr city tour, which most of us did back in February. But you can’t go up the church tower without the tour, so that was pretty cool.

Our tour guide was also really nice!

She dressed up in the traditional wear of the Night Watchmen.

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The rest of the week I have kept myself busy with a personal project for my exchange. It’s a video made up of fellow incomings talking about their exchange. It’s a way for me to remember my friends and people I’ve met.

I only have about 9 students filmed so far, but I have at least 10 more who agreed to help me, so I think it will be really wonderful!!

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And today (friday) it was a big event at FH. It was Boatmania!!

Every year students can enter a team in Boatmania, which is an event for the whole city. You get a certain amount of materials, and you have to build a unique boat to hold your team (at least 5 people) and float down the Steyr river. Everyone votes on which one they think is the best, and they get some kind of prize. It’s a big outdoor event, with lots of food and beer, and people sit along the river to watch. Tthey also have local live bands and DJs come and play for the afternoon, and then there is a big wrapup party at a local bar in the evening.

In past years they have had some pretty crazy boats!!!

 

This year there weren’t any quite as extreme as those ones ^^.

BUT it was still really fun to watch them!

We stood on the main bridge to watch, and the boats would float around the corner towards us, and just on the other side of our bridge was where they docked and got off.

 

The first group was called “Welcome to the Jungle”. This team included 2 incomings, so we were excited to see their boat. After they docked, the whole group ran up onto the bridge and jumped off it into the river. It was pretty awesome haha.

 

The next group was called “Osterreich vs. Deutschland” and they were playing fußball on the boat and wearing jerseys. When Germany scored they opened a bottle of something? that sprayed everywhere, like you would do with Champagne if you were celebrating. They also had flares, which was pretty intense.

 

 

The next group had a “Minions” theme, complete with the goggles, bananas (because we all know Minions love bananas?) and Gru.

 

 

The next boat was a castle, with the words “Duel um die Hüpf Hofburg”.

“Duel um die Hofburg” translates to The Battle (or duel) of the Hofburg. Hofburg Palace is the imperial palace in Wien. Changing the word from Hofburg to Hüpfburg changes it to say “Duel of the Inflatable” if you literally translate it. It’s essentially “Battle of the boat”. Its a funny play on words, which lots of people – including myself – found pretty clever! They also had lots of flares, which is always sweet.

 

 

The next boat was called “Spritzwein Dampfer”, which I THINK translates to something like “Spritzer Steamship”. A spritzer is a type of drink you order, which has a mix of Wine and Mineral Water or some kind of pop (like Sprite).

Don’t quote me on that translation though – I’m definitely not fluent!!

They also had some people walking across the bridge giving out free drinks with their team name and logo on the cups – I’m sure they were Spritzers haha.

 

 

The final boat was the “Vikings”. They shouted and banged their shields the whole time, and also had lots of flares that they lit in unison to epic music. As they neared the end they tried to use their flames to light the flag on fire to be epic, but it didn’t really work haha. It was still pretty cool.

 

They had a poll you could do to vote for the winner, but I didn’t vote. I also wasn’t around when they announced the winner, so I have no idea. But maybe YOU should pick the winner? Leave a comment what your favorite boat was!

 

Today was super hot – summer is really kicking in here. We went to the store to pick up some drinks (alcohol for everyone else, juice for me haha) and some kebaps and hung around listening to the music. I split off from the other group and went home – I don’t like being around alcohol, and everyone was pretty much guaranteed to be a little crazy tonight. So I took my kebap home and ate in front of my open windows so I could listen to the music at FH.

So that was Boatmania. Not as epic as it was made out to be, and took WAY too long in my opinion, but the boats were cool, and its always nice to get outside and hang out with your friends. 🙂

 

Next week: Salzburg! It’s about time I go there already!

Also next weekend I’m going to try to convince my friends to go on the museum train with me – yes dad, I’ll go on the museum train!!

 

In one month from today I’ll be heading to Wien for a couple days before I fly home!!

I’ll be sad to unregister and lose my temporary citizenship 😦

But I’ve got a family (especially a mother) anxious for me to hurry up and get home already. And I’ll get there.. eventually 😉

Hope you enjoyed this small little update! It’ll probably end up being another week before I write again – I pretty much just do school work and hang out with my friends right now. I’ll try to do something interesting soon!!

 

emma.k