A Day of Firsts

      I had a lot of firsts yesterday, the most important being that it was my first day of school in Vienna. I didn't write about it yesterday because I was so exhausted. It was a very long day. I had to get up at six in the morning in order to shower and be ready to meet the bus at seven nineteen. Of course, it had to be late, and it also had to be raining. After about fifteen minutes on the bus, we took the subway for ten minutes, and then walked for five minutes to the school. It had to still be raining. Once in the nice warm, dry school, I met my Austrian class for the first time. Let me just say this, there are a lot of them. Well, the class isn't really that big, only sixteen with us exchange students, but compared to what I'm used to, it's huge. Of course there are more boys than girls, but only few. I'll go more into their characters once I actually get to know them better. However there is one little first that I just have to share. It was my first conversation with one of the boys, in which he asked me if there were cows and sheep in North Carolina. When I said yes, he wanted to know if there were also cowboys. That made my day.
      Anyways, back to the important stuff. I soon learned that I was about to take a blast to the past, in which I was transported back to my days of waldorf middle school, with a class teacher and everything. We stood up and recited the morning verse, and I have to say that I now appreciate Frau Boesch making us learn that in class, for I felt like a very proud waldorfian reciting along with them. Next came announcements, students not having late main lesson books, the normal stuff. Then came something different; we made comics. However, we had to write them in german, so I was really no help to my group in any way. I basically sat there, listened, smiled and nodded when spoken too, and tried to understand what was going on around me. That took the whole main lesson period. We then had a brief snack break, and went on to language classes.
      You know those times when your friends are talking about a book you haven't read, or a movie you haven't seen? When you catch some words, but really it's just like another language. Now image that they are trying to explain that book or movie to your other friends using another example that you also don't know anything about, but they all do. That is what Spanish class is like. The other students who are in the class with me are there because they know nothing about Russian, which the others are taking, and maybe have had a little experience with Spanish. That means that most of the class is in German, with the translations of all new vocabulary in German as well, which doesn't really help me. It is mixing two languages that I have always tried to keep separate in my mind. I can do it, and the teacher speaks English also, so after class I can ask about the homework, but it is a lot of work, and very exhausting. It was almost a relief to go back into their German lesson, like our English. They had read a book over break (which of course I did not read), and were discussing it, so I got to zone out. Yes, I tried to pay attention, and I did catch onto some of what they were saying, but it was always so fast, and in a much more complicated level of speech than I have learned yet. The teacher then read from Anne Frank, which I could not understand. In my defense, everyone else barely understood it as well.
      Lunch was next, and then art. In it, we are making these sort of relief drawings on very thick paper like material. After drawing on your picture, you carve out the the relief using a small chisel. I spent the two hours drawing on my design, and it was such a release to just let all language run away from me and immerse myself in the silence of the page. I gave no thought or effort to understand the people around me, unless they were speaking to me. I simply drew, and forgot that I was in a completely foreign world. It was amazing.
      After art, we went to handwork for the last two hours of the day. There, we put together looms so we could begin weaving. I had to actually pay attention to the world again, and it was then that I realized how exhausted I was. People warned me that I would be tired, and I knew it would come. Constantly striving to translate every word I hear is extremely draining. By the time we made it back to the subway station, I was ready to fall asleep then and there. But I couldn't, especially when I was surrounded by curious members of the ninth grade class all asking questions at once. I know I should have known what they were saying, but they were all new voices, speaking very quickly, and my brain had shut down by then, refusing to put forth any more effort. I had to look to Sophie for help, which she willingly gave. Saved by her again. I have a feeling that it going to happen very often in the next few months. We went home, did our homework, and then hid in our rooms and did absolutely nothing productive. It was wonderful.
      Well, I apologize to anyone who didn't really want a full recounting of my day, but perhaps after reading this you can get a feel for exactly how tired I was, and am, for today was just as long. Oh yes, and tomorrow is going to be an hour longer, with us having a two hour long PE class that we have to leave campus for, so it lasts until five. Yippee!! And now I have exhausted my last bit of energy left today, so I will say goodnight. Gute Nacht!