vienna: in which hannah rode the scariest carnival ride of her life

(so, I'm finally getting around to writing about austria... about a month afterwards... but let's ignore that small fact, shall we?)

The very first day we arrived in Vienna, we went to the Prater. This is an amusement park, famous for its 212 foot Riesenrad (Ferris Wheel). But I'm not going to talk about that wheel right now... because I rode something a little more terrifying.

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Its name was EXTASY and it was one of those bright rides with loud music, the kind that you can't help but look at as you pass by. (see the blurry picture to the side.)

As we walked closer, I realized that the seats were spinning. In fact, they were spinning very fast.
They were also sideways.

Well, I tried to see what the other riders looked like (I tend to judge rides based on the expressions of the people in them) but there appeared to be only 4 other kids on the entire ride and they were spinning so fast it was hard to tell what they looked like. They were holding very tightly to their seats, and just as I turned away to talk to my host mom, they started screaming.

In retrospect, it would have been good if I had turned around to see that part of the ride. I did not.

And so when my host parents asked me if I would go, I remembered the exchange student creed "say yes" and did so. I told myself I could handle this easily... tilting wasn't so bad. This was an adventure!
Walking towards the entrance, my host mom pointed out a sign that read "ACHTUNG -- NICHT FÜR SCHWACHE NERVEN" [Attention -- Not For Weak Nerves]. I laughed and took it as a joke.
(Note to self -- Germans don't joke.)

My little sister Delia and I walked through the entrance and into the ride. One of those metal locks -- the kind that goes over your whole body and that they put on loop the loop roller coasters -- came down. Now I was locked in. And it was too late to leave.

The seats began to spin -- and boy, were they fast! They whirled around each other and tilted until we were sideways. And I mean really, lying down sideways-spinning, the kind that makes your stomach forget its rightful place in your body and makes your heart threaten to come out your mouth. It was terrifying and fun and exciting, and all the time we whirled at 90 miles an hour with music blaring like sirens.
Finally the ride slowed down and we were right side up again and my host sister looked at each other and laughed and prepared to get out.

We were interrupted by a happy voice in German cheerily announcing something into the ride. Rather unfortunately, the shock and spinning had driven all German vocabulary from my brain, so I had no idea what was going on.

And then the whole world turned upside down.

It was rather unexpected, but after rudely turning on its head, it proceeded to spin. And spin. And spin. I didn't think it was possible, but we were spinning even faster than before--and all of a sudden someone started pumping blue smoke into the ride--

the rest was a blur of me screaming and Delia screaming and smoke and flashing lights and whirling minds and loud music and I'm pretty sure this machine was a torture device in its former life...

and it was terrifying.

But it was AWESOME.

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and then of course I went on a scarier ride about 3 weeks later...
...but that's a story for another time. ;)

days > 70 -- appreciating

advice for future exchange students #13:

when you're on exchange, you have the chance 

to do things you've only dreamed about.

do them!!

(Note: guess what, I actually procrastinated enough to catch up with my 80-day report... sorry, these past weeks have been crazily busy, plus I didn't have much internet access in Austria. Anyway. That means that these updates are coming one after the other, and that my blog posts won't necessarily be in chronological order. Whoops.)

In the past month, I have been enjoying life to the fullest. Switzerland is amazing, Austria was amazing, and I've gotten to do things I never, ever thought I'd have the chance to do.

Exchange is awesome like that. 

things that happened in the last 10ish days (before the 17th):

• Austria. Vienna. Need I say more? (Actually, I will say more, just because I can.)
• Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook know that my host family and I went to a musical in Vienna... it was called Elisabeth, and it was absolutely beautiful.
• I thought I had grown out of princesses and kings and crowns and beautiful castles, but apparently I haven't. The real thing is even better than the fairy tales. (In other words, my host family took me to Schönbrunn and the Hofburg palace. I think I want to be a princess when I grow up. :P)
• Traveled to the Prater [big amusement park in Vienna], took a ride on the Riesenrad [really big ferris wheel in Vienna], and went on the scariest carnival ride of my life [story to come soon].
• Ate my first official Wienerschnitzel! It's a flat breaded piece of calf-meat that takes up the whole plate and is eaten with lemon and salad. Sort of like a giant flat chicken nugget, actually. But that's okay, I like chicken nuggets.
• Saw the white horses of Lipizza.
• Developed a possible obsession with Empress Sissi. (If you don't know who that is, look it up.) History is way more interesting when you've actually seen the places, walked on the same ground, touched the walls of castles... all that to say that if you think you don't like history, go to Vienna and change your mind. :)
• Went back to school. Mehhhh. (but actually not really, I'm sort of glad that I can see my friends again.)
• Oh yes. I bought a CD from Elisabeth and I'm currently in the process of learning all the songs. You have no idea how good this is for my German. Anyone else feel like taking me to a German musical? it's educational!!

(to be continued, because I'm putting up the next post in an hour or so)

hannah

days < 60 -- accepting

piece of advice for future exchange students #12:

try, as soon as possible, to adjust to the life here and accept it as different.

just because it's different doesn't mean that it is bad,

just because it's different doesn't mean that it is good,

the only thing that it means is that it is...

different.

This past week has been pretty up and down for me. I've discovered a lot of things (places, people, and stories) and some of them have honestly been great.

Others... not so much. It's hard to deal with the fact that life here is not what I've been used to, and while the transition so far has been fairly easy, I'm beginning to miss things from home.

Don't get me wrong, Switzerland is still amazing. And I love it here, and I'm not coming back before the end of my exchange year. It's just that this past month has been a bit of a rollercoaster, what with loving Portland and Switzerland simultaneously and trying to figure out how that works. So... yes...

anyway.

things I've done in the past 10 or so days:

• more traveling! Hooray for the GA!*
• I've now been to all of ten cantons: Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Aargau, Solothurn, Zurich, Bern, Luzern, Appenzell IR, Appenzell AR, and Sankt Gallen. 16 to go :)
• Today I am packing for our trip to Vienna tomorrow. Normally packing is a struggle for me, but seeing as I don't have very much clothing here, it's very fast and extremely easy. "Hmmm, so I need to bring two sweaters. Oh look, I only HAVE two sweaters..."
• Oh yes. Did I mention that we're going to VIENNA tomorrow?
• VIENNA!!!!!!!!!!!
• AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I'm, you know, just a little bit excited. ;)
• I have discovered that the buses only run every hour on Saturday to my village after 6:56. Which means that if the train comes at 6:57, I am not getting home until 8:30.
• I have also discovered that cheese and bread are the cheapest things you can buy in Switzerland. Since I love Swiss cheese and Swiss bread almost as much as I love chocolate, this makes me very happy.
• Especially considering my next discovery: a hamburger at McDonalds can easily set you back 13 to 15 francs. And that's one of the cheapest places you can eat, according to one of my Swiss friends.
• My friend Anni invited me to Solothurn with her host family. I wasn't exactly sure what we were doing (she said "bring hiking boots and a jacket") but I was happy to be doing something so I went. It was awesome... a midair challenge course through the forest climbing up to scary heights and swinging through branches at scary heights and sliding down from scary heights. Something a bit like Tree to Tree in Eugene, OR, except more exciting and probably more dangerous. Oh well.
• As of last night, my family is speaking Swiss German to me. (I asked them to do it... I really, really, really want to learn Swiss German.) I understand a good bit, but I'm horrible at speaking. Hopefully this will change.

tschuess for now,

Hannah

*If you aren't a Swiss Rotary Exchange student and you don't know what the GA is... it's basically a train, tram, bus, and boat pass that allows you to use all of the public transportation in Switzerland--for free. 

It is more precious than gold.