It was planned for a long time and finally it became real, a Princeton Reunion at the 175. Oktoberfest!!

„It would be really cool if \“the best Siemens interns ever\“ and \“the best au pairs ever \“ could meet again in Munich and experience some German culture together! So lets get out our Dirndl and Lederhosn (if you have some), order a Maß beer (or two..) and throw our first Princeton party in Germany!“

This was written on the event I created on Facebook 3 weeks ago. And after some phone calls, lots of messages on facebook we finally arranged to meet on the 24th Sept, at 14.30 at the train station in Munich. So I tried on my mum´s Dirndl, pimped it a bit (made it a bit more Oktoberfest-like with more in-sight *g*) and took the train to Salzburg, where I met Laura and together we went to Munich with the Bayern-Ticket (29 euro together for 24 hrs). Soon we were surrounded by Lederhosen, Dirndl, beer and Pretzel, it was awesome! At the station we meet the „Hillsborough party crew“ – now just „Regensburger“: Basti, Michi and Tobi. Suddenly I heard „SILVIAAAAAAAAAA“ and Conny came running towards me and non-stop crashing into me ^^. We didn´t see each other for 6 weeks and finally!!!

AT this point i have to mention that she called me some days ago after she also arrived in austria and i was totally surprised as my mum handed me the phone saying „conny is on the phone“ – i think we didn´t have a chance to talk properly for 6 weeks now! Soo much happened in between, i was at the west coast she was at the west coast, all the princeton stories that happened during these times. But i think the first minutes we just laughed the whole time, without any reason or joke – we were just both so happy to talk to each other again, to be on the phone like in america talking like every day at 8 in the morning. Then we were on the phone for at least 2 hours, the only short stop was caused by my home-phone´s lack of battery ( it was too much for it ^^) . First i didn´t know if we should talk english or german now, but as we both missed english we just talked english and it was wonderful! It is also hard to undestand the vorarlbergian dialect … I really missed talking to someone that really understands what i am talking about, i mean about princeton stories, american life, life back in austria – difficulties! I couldn´t wait to see conny at the oktoberfest and finally we met!!

BUt back to the oktoberfest: conny and i both had some wodka with us, so that we don´t get thirsty on the way to the tents conny mixed some (evil) drinks already for everybody.

Connys drinks are like „vodka and a lil´ bit of apple-juice ^^. yeah the way was already soo much fun:

Yeah endlich da!!!

Michi is trying out the „PissORT“ (pissoir????) (translation: PISSORT is „place to piss“)

Tobi had a bike accident some days before and looked with the blue eye really like a drunk dangerous homeless ^^:

Conny and I got some nice decoration from some English people. On the left is Siv, who also joined the group, also Daniel and Ralf joined later… and some others we didn´t know joined the group too ^^

Conny and me, crazy as always together:

Although Conny is shown with a beer at the last picture, she totally hates beer and looks like that after she took a sip ^^ :

Actually we had to reserve a table weeks before but nobody thought of that. And we were a group of 10 people… but we found a solution. Conny and I first walked around the tables and asked people if there are some seats free – of course they only saw the two of us and offered us two girls seats, and then the whole group showed up and squeezed in too ^^. Once conny and i walked back from the bathroom together and some people offered us to sit with them and we didn´t come back to our group for an hour ^^. They were all a bit older but a lot of fun !! There we made this video:

This vid was made at the last table we could stay at, it was already quite late and people were standing, singing, clapping – Conny was already totally wasted ^^

Once Conny and I were hugging Michi so powerfully (we missed him for an hour!!) that our weight made him fall back and as he held us tight we were falling with him to the floor ^^ – actually we both landed on poor conny, but michi and i couldn´t stop laughing until finally we realized that conny was totally suffering under us ^^ .

At 11 the oktoberfest ends and at 12 the last train leaves for regensburg, where the guys are studying and living and where we would stay over. Somehow on the way to the train station i lost the whole entire group!! I had no idea where the station was and we had to hurry not to miss the last train! Some people i met on the way said they would take me there, but instead we ended up on a bridge looking at the train station (half a kilometre away), basti was calling in the meantime that the train leaves in 1 minutes, so i ran and ran and ran and surprisingly made it!! I was sooo happy to see the others again.. omg! In Regensburg we all had a little after-party and at about 5 we finally slept – until 11. It was a typical guys´ flat, with a nice picture on the bathroom door that conny and i really loooved:

Next day the guys gave us a guided tour through Regensburg, most impressive was the oldest Würstlstand in the world (about 1000 years old!). But actually i was so tired that i didn´t stay with conny until saturday as actually planned but went home with laura with the bayern-ticket in the evening. In the train from Salzburg to Wels i met a fun group of Oktoberfest-visitors and they provided me with beer and lots of Pretzels which was really nice of them !!

Here some great last pics of the group… i will miss them so much again, we are just a great group! and we already all have a date for the next oktoberfest !!

It all started Tuesday when i was relaxing, watching a lil´ Tv and suddenly i saw a preview for the next day saying that on Kabel1 they would show Cruel Intentions and after that Wild Things. The first one is my absolute favorite movie – i luv it i luv it i luv it – but of course i can´t watch a movie like that alone! So i sent mails (in america i would have made a facebok-event… ) to my best girlfriends and invited them for plum-, peach-, strawberry- and chocolate-Knödel – made by me of course and for a movie night after our stomachs are full. I was so happy that everybody could come: Uschi, Lisa, Babsi and Karo .. all former class mates and some of them members of the „last-row-club“. Some members are missing but we always sat in the last row… too many stories to explain now but we were a great team at school .

Unfortunately i forgot to take pics but the Knödel should have looked kinda like that

I was happy the Knödel turned out pretty well, and everybody seemed to like them (at least they ate them and didn´t complain) ! We talked about old times, present times- laughed a lot, it was a great evening! Also when watching the movies we got pretty emotional and big discussions arose if Sebastian from CI is an asshole or not and if he should have died or Reese Witherspoon .. of course the discussions turned into general talks about how a guy should be and so on . Lisa slept over and we had an traditional American „conny and silvia“ midnight snack !

Next day I had to go to Vienna to apply at the university, but i had to go there twice in a day because first tine i forgot my passport which is very essential for the process. Damn! Well at least i could sleep over at my brother Wolfgang´s flat in Vienna, which was also fun.

Because my cousin Christoph came back to austria almost at the same time as me one of my mum´s sisters (in total she has 4!!) invited us to have good Austrian high fat Schweinsbraten „Bratl“ (say „Brodl“). It was so funny Christoph is also studying computer science and almost got an internship in princeton at the same time when i was there, but understandably he preferred to accept an internship in Dubai where he spent the last half year.

my brother Reinhard (we look so alike…i know), me and cousin Christoph

The Schweinsbraten was really delicious, can´t wait to show it to Mariana or other foreigners that will hopefully stop by in Austria once. With it we had Krautsalat and Semmelknödel, potatoes, dark bread and drank beer of course.

The table looked like that:

The event was joined by my mum´s 4 sisters Hanni, Resi, Christl and Loisi and 2 uncles, my grandpa, and s 3 your people. Aunt Loisi who lives in london came to visit this week, we were all happy! It lasted ´til about 12 – good that it was just a dinner, normally our big birthday celebrations are bigger and last the whole night – but my relatives are all really funny (especially the uncles!)  so they are really enjoyable! This side of the family is more from the countryside and they know how to have fun better than people in the city i think .

Another mountain that needed to be climbed up was called Traunstein. Since I went up the Sonnstein with 2 very good friends on my birthday and I saw Traunstein the whole time in front of me across the lake Traunsee, i wanted to go up there. But due to America I couldn´t make it last year anymore so I swore to myself I would do it this year, and finally i could do it! What´s more the mountain is also known for it´s death rate and it is always in the newspapers once in a while… which makes it even more interesting !!

Here a picture i took a year ago and another one of my little birthday party on the top of Sonnstein. We brought a bottle of sparking wine and Martin surprised me on the top with a cake that he brought all the way up to the top in his backpack. It was really one of my best birthdays (just my birthday parties in princeton and in New york could top that ) !!

Well so at the beginning of September I finally wanted to do it. 2 friends of mine wanted to come with me, unfortunately Lisa got sick shortly before and didn´t want to risk it.. so it was me and Babsi. I got my mum´s car to drive there, prepared myself with google maps directions and the hike could begin. There are 3 ways to get up: Hernler Steig, Naturfreundesteig and Mairalmsteig. We wanted to do the Naturfreundesteig, it´s the most popular and most beautiful. The translation is Nature-lovers-trail. BUT we unorganized idiots missed the beginning of the trail and accidentally went up on the Mairalmsteig, which is also nice but not what we wanted! And we thought we were right the whole way until we reached the top and saw a sign for the Naturfreundesteig, showing a total different trail. I was soooo pissed!! I mean i was really happy that we made it to the top but now i have to do it again next year, going on the right trail!

But anyway hiking was lots of fun, it was perfect weather, the view was awesome and the people soo funny! People on the mountain are so talkative and funny, if you meet someone on the way you always make jokes with him. Somehow the people that you meet on Austrian mountains all have a special lovely character, a really typical austrian character but not like the people have it in the cities. It´s just unique, you have to experience it yourself …

on the top I also wrote messages to all my friends which is a typical tradition of mine , then we had chocolate (which is also a tradition *gg*) and good bread with ham and cheese and finally typical Austrian MANNER -waffles… oooh i love them!!! you can see them on the picture combined with the moutains *g*. When hiking down we met a nice guy on the way who showed us the beginning to the real Naturfreundesteig in the end… autsch!! But I remember that at exactly this time we got distracted by a group of bikers passing us, who were joking with us …

Before going up the mountain we werea bit scared by signs saying: „memorial stone Traunstein deaths“ , „danger: falling rocks / danger of life“ ^^

But we were rewarded by a great view… and Manner-waffles!!

Meine Freundin Karo und ich haben da schon jedes Jahr eine Tradition: in der Früh mit dem Zug nach Lambach und dann zu Fuß an er Traun entlang nach Wels zurückzugehen. Dauert mit Essens- und Badestops ca. 4 Stunden und birgt so manche Überraschungen. Letztes Jahr begegneten wir einer (toten) Schlange mitten am Weg, sprangen beide vor Schreck 2 Meter hoch und rannten mindestens 10 Meter zurück umd das Vieh aus der Ferne mit Steinen zu bewerfen – dabei wars eh schon tot. Und dann simma noch einem voi komischen Mann mit Rucksack begegnet der Schlangen sogar gefangen und eingepackt hat. Aber dieses Jahr ging alles glatt, außer dass Karo irgendwie alles aus unergründlichen Gründen weh getan hat und sie den ganzen Weg gelitten hat. Ich hätt da eine Theorie aber die is ned ganz jugendfrei *ggg*…

I was so lucky that the date of the Donauinselfest, which is normally in June or around this time, was changed this year to the first weekend in September because of the European championship in soccer. So at the first weekend after i came home i could attend Europe´s biggest free open air music festival hosted by Austra´s capital city (and my future home town in a month) Vienna. On 6.5 kilometres in the middle part of the 21 km long island in the River Danube called „Donauinsel“, there are about 20stages, many of which are sponsored by radio stations and newspapers. You can find any kind of music on these stages, from alternative to pop to classic to comedians to childrens´ entertainment.. .. 3 million people go there every year so I just had to go there too!!! First time by the way, what a shame I know.

Actually I wanted to meet my friend from America, Jasmin, who returned a bit before me back to Graz. She would have loved to attend the festival with me and we would have had an AWESOME time (like in the limousin through manhattan hehe) but unfortunately she didn´t have the money for the train, because she first has to find a job and live on 70 euros for the next month. After earning enough money she wants to go to Australia as soon as possible by the way.. I wish i could join here!! And i will, in some years ..

In Vienna I could stay over in my brother´s flat, as he went home to his girlfriend over the weekend anyway. Oh yeah and my other brother Reinhard joined me by the way the first day in Vienna because he had business to do on Saturday. So we went there on Friday in the afternoon and met my highschool friend Lisa and two friends of hers in her dormitory room, had coffee and then went to the festival. Most of the time we spent at the FM4 stage, it´s mostly alternative music but good stuff and we luuuuved it! We were waiting especially for the band „Bauchklang“ at 10, they make the greatest beats without instruments. Pretty cool!

Actually I wanted to check out the city on Saturday afternoon, but because it got pretty late on Friday i slept and just relaxed and wrote some mails and messages, until it was time to go to Lisa again and the whole evening was repeated. But the last band on Sat sucked, I even forgot their name. This evening we met with 2 guys Lisa knew from the Frequency festival and listened to the music. They were really alternative, with one Lisa got pretty close heheh, and the other one was always walking around looking for weed to buy. And when he found some he gave the dealer normal paper instead of money and ran away ..gosh i don´t wanna know what would have happened if the guy found him!! Tonight we went home after the last song (and after lisa said a looong good bye to her guy) .

And Sunday I didn´t go into the city either, shame on me. I spent the day like the other two, waiting for the evening show: Deichkind!! The show was SO awesome, we managed to get pretty close to the stage and there the people were just crazy, jumping around and on each other, carrying people above their hands, shouting the lyrics, it was sooooo much fun!! Deichkind´s performance was GREAT!! Totally different to the Pearl Jam concert I have been in the USA, where people just stood totally still, slightly shaking their heads.

This video describes it really well!!! I love it.

But it was very disappointing that the festival immediately ended after the last concert and the people were going home. We walked a bit over the island, met very strange people, bought ice cream (in the middle of the night) and missed the last last train (at two). So we walked about an hour to get away from the island to the next Nightline-bus (we had no idea where the station was..), got to lisa´s dormitory room at 4.30, i got up an hour afterwards to catch a train to wels to be back at 10.45 for church.. just crazy!! Well don´t think i am that religious but my old school had its traditional begin-of-the-school-year-mass and i wanted to see the teachers and former mates of mine again. But with 1 hour of sleep it was hard to survive mass, seriously. But it was great seeing everybody again!

That was my first austrian weekend, my first culture shock with all that drunk and stoned people and so much alcohol in public, what an experience!!

Right after i came home i got to see the most beautiful part about Austria: Mountains! Mum asked me if i wanna go up the Dachstein Südwand on Sunday, 31st. aaand me, pending a year now in flat New Jersey, was totally in for that! Sure! Along with us came my mum´s cousin´s son (my grand grand cousin??), my grandpa, my brother Reinhard and one of my mum´s friends Herta. She is like a 5th sister next to my mum´s 4 sisters .

(Herta is somewhere in the sun relaxing i think…)

Hehe the good thing is that there is a cable car bringing you up to the glacier and then you can hike up on a trail in the snow to a nice lovely hut and enjoy the view. And the view is really gorgous all along the way and its so much fun to shoot snowballs at each other while hiking!! Unfortunately the two boys united and i got a lot of snow, also in my neck and clothes – but it was a warm day anyway.

I wore my Princeton University sweater on purpose to have a pic with it on an Austrian mountain and here we go.. it makes me look like a tourist but at this day i felt like one anyway :

I think especially the last one looks like how everybody imagines Austria… cows, mountain, green meadows..

afterwards we went to an Austrian hut close by and I had good Käsespätzle! Yum Yum Yum! It was a great day!!

And heeere we go, another blog entry!! But something changed, this time i am writing from my Austrian computer (okay.. same laptop, but new austrian screen!!) .. jep i am back in good old Australia (oops i meant Austria …).

And I am writing in English because I miss this language sooooo much, everybody is speaking German here.. or lets say a strange dialect of german what i like calling Austrian (yes it is a language!!) . But i was so used to this beautiful American English and the people sounded so friendly and polite and suddenly everything sounds so rude and hard. You sneeze and nobody says bless you, everybody tries to avoid eye contact with strangers and speaking in an elevator is forbidden.. you prefer starring around and feeling uncomfortable than starting a small talk conversation. In America people couldn´t stand silence and preferred talking… and you better said „sorry“ a thousand times (even when unnecessary) than forgetting it one time when it would have been necessary. Some people might call it fake but they don´t know how comfortable you feel in a society where everybody treats you like a friend, with respect and politeness.
BUT i must say there are places in austria where it is like in america… on a mountain ! We have kind of a rule that above 1000 meters you are „friends“ with everyone, so people joke around and talk with each other without feeling uncomfortable! I realized this similarity when i went on the Dachstein a week ago and i felt soooo good !

Okay but enough from that, just wanted to explain why I write in english – it´s just a beautiful language!! And sometimes you can just express things easier in english than in german.. don´t know why.

I don´t wanna write every detail of my life in this blog of course, and also not all personal things that bother me – but I think it´s good to keep track of what you experience and in some years when you look back you can think of all the great memories again, like i do now when i read my entries from america. Actually I still miss princeton a lot.. of some former au pairs i heard that it can take a year til your „home“sickness is better.. hopefully it´s not that long with me. But i must say that i spend a lot of my free-time thinking back, looking at pictures and writing with friends in princeton and with those who already returned. My mood really changes from moment to moment, sometimes i am really just totally pissed by everything and everyone here and i just wanna go back or somewhere else again. I still can´t say that i am happy to be back, but i mean you just have to accept the fact and live with it and try to make the best out of it. And i did some trips and fun events and i will record them here in the next time.

And i wanna mention that doesn´t mean i am not thankful for my great friends and family here. But sometimes i feel bad because they are all welcoming me with open arms and i kind of reject them, but it´s just not that easy.

I just miss calling mariana, jasmin or conny, talking about the latest news, events, feelings, what bothers us and they perfectly understand because we experienced everything together. We all kind of were the same outgoing, travel-loving, far-far-farthest-away from home-type, but here a lot of my close friends consider Austria as the only home, they have their family, boyfriend, even already think of marrying them, blabla and are totally happy with the stable situation they have here.. it´s funny, it´s exactly the stable situation i don´t like about here. But i am really looking forward to vienna, new city (biiig city ), people, studies, „adventures“, problems !

Okay okay so far concerning my thoughts, i don´t know why i wrote that down – too much time? .. no but i think by writing something down you think about it again and start thinking about it differently and stuff. you know

oke so far so good, the next entries won´t be that thoughtful but more describing the trips i did here so far. See youuu

So in einer STunde gehts ab auf die Westküste… Tim holt mich ab und fährt mich zum Bahnhof und dann bin ich dahin für 3 wochen, freu mich shcon Reinhard zu treffen! Ich bin froh dass er mitgekommen ist!! Hoffentlich klappt alles.

Also diese Woche: Montag Starbucks mit Jasmin, aber bald hemi weil zu müde (wegen wochenende), dienstag Pokerabend (beim Heimfahren zum Heulen angefangen), Mittwoch: Shopping, STarbucks, Konstantin und Lars und Michael getroffen, zum See gegangen, Driften mit Konstantin geübt, Handbremse bei meinem AUto gefunden *g*, abgehangen, von 3 Polizeiautos umringt mit großem Tam Tam. Donnerstag: Abschieds und Marianas Geburtstagspicnic, wir ham Football gespielt, es war soooo toll!!!, danach noch zu Andreas, Freitag NY mit Jasmin und Pakcen packen packen… eine stunde geschlafen und bald ganz weg… bin nervös

So jetzt schreib ich doch noch einen Eintrag…

erstmal kurz: Freitag BYOST Party Attilio´s House, Samstag New York, Sonntag Hiking mit den Italienern und Gewitter und Markus Geburtstagsgrillerei und und uuuuuund – ich sag nur italienische Politik, Mafia, Peter Pan und Cookies und Milk

naja aber jetzt wieder zur Jammerei.. AAAAH ich krieg noch die krise, ich fühl mich EXACTLY wie ein jahr zuvor! Die letze Woche war einfach grauenhaft damals, einerseits muss man packen und alles organisieren, dabei will man noch gar nicht weg und sträubt sich eigentlich gegen jeden Handlung die dazu fühert (packen, organisieren *g*). Und dann fragt dich jeder wann du gehst und dann tut es jedem voll leid und gleichzeitig wird von Parties oder Aktivitäten geredet wo du zum ersten Mal gar nicht mehr mitreden kannst weil du nicht mehr da sein wirst. Und jeder Moment ist so wertvoll und die Tage vergehen einfach zu schnell und du kannst dem Datum aber nicht ausweichen. Und das schlimme is dass ich weiß, dass dieses Gefühlschaos nur jetzt ist und ich das alles hier „vergessen“ werde, bzw. österreich dann wieder mein daheim sein wird, so wie es damals Princeton wurde. Und egal was man macht, ständig kommt irgendeine Erinnerung hoch und es komtm dir vor als wärs erst gestern und das Jahr hatte die Dauer eines Tages und du bist eigentlich erst grad angekommen.

Okay sorry für den Eintrag, ich red einfach zu viel – aber das sind halt einfach ein paar total zusammen gemischte Gedanken die mir grad durch den kopf gehen. Und manchmal hab ich psychosomatisches Bauchweh weil mir einfach zu viel durch den kopf geht – wie vor einem Jahr. Und dauernd denk ich mir „ich will nciht ich will nicht ich will nicht“  – aber es is nun mal so und aus. Und das stört mich dass es nun mal so is. Aber von höher gesehen is es gut so

okay eigentlich total sinnloser blogeintrag, es wär wahrscheinlch total interessanter gewesen ich hätt mehr von meinem Tag erzählt, aber wie gsagt man kann das alles nicht mehr erzähln. Mal schaun ob ich meine familie daheim erreiche, freue mich auch schon reinhard am sonntag zu sehen – is alles so unwirklich..