Squad and Sprachkurs

On the 16th of August I left for a two week language camp- "Sprachcamp" or "Sprachkurs" at Altmunster in Upper Austria. It was close to a very beautiful lake called Traunsee, and was walking distance from another town called Gmunden. Our schedule looked like this:

Monday - Friday: 

7:30- breakfast

8:30- class began

10:00- break

10:15- more class

11:30- lunch

1:00- class again

2:30- freizeit (free time)

5:45- dinner, freizeit

8:00- study hour

10:00- lights out

I was placed in one of the beginner classes with Miss Lady, as she was affectionately called. In the first week, we were plagued with learning nothing but the conjugation of "sein" and repeating "Ich komme aus den USA" until it was ringing in our ears. We also sung songs about being foreigners and not speaking gut Deutsch, which may have been worse. Miss Lady left us Friday and was replaced with Miss Ma'am. In the second week we were able to catch up and learn some more useful verbs and vocab. 

I made some really great friends, and I'm super excited to spend the year with them. "Squad" consists of some of my favorite people in the universe and I love them with all of my heart, regardless of the triggering comments that are constantly made. We woke up to see the sunrise almost every day at 5:30, and it was always worth it. Freddy saw a dolphin, we all saw a double rainbow, we fought about bats and birds, and our presence was always graced promptly at 6:00 am by Old Naked Man taking a morning swim. Squad also did some secret rock-wall climbing and we had daily excursions into Gmunden and Altmunster. We all got body decorations in the form of ironically trashy temporary tattoos, and argued about the differing pronunciations of "penalized" and "pecan". The bad jokes and puns were never ending, along with the imitations of a "pig eating an eclair in a cartoon". There were plenty of naps and forced hugs and Valentino's pizza and extremely explicit story telling hours. We also ate a lot of ice cream, Connor's pasta, and embarked on many pilgrimages to Spar. Bless their souls. But not Claudia's, because she is Sarah Palin.

Squad photo on the last day

one of many sunrise photos - surprisingly, they all look the same

a class picture with Miss Ma'am, courtesy of Gabi's Snapchat story

Chez Connor

an example of a compulsory 'Huggle"

literally do not ever let eight Americans loose in a Spar

Freddy saw a dolphin in the lake and we will never let him forget that no one believes him

we always rose to the occasion

my darling roomies, minus Kylee

The first Saturday we were there we took a walk up a hill overlooking Altmunster. (Fun fact: "walk" in Austria is code for "any hike that is not directly uphill 90% of the time.) The view was worth it, and we spent some time rolling down the hills which resulted in horribly scratched-up legs, and a tarnished flag- thanks, Claudia ;) Sunday we went to Hallstatt. We were warned it would be incredibly tourist-y, and it was. We visited the famous salt mine- Salz Welten, and went down some slides, made way too many salt jokes, and were str8 thuggin in our jumpsuits.

Hallstatt, in all its kitsch-y glory

we were all dying to visit the Binehaus

And now I'm back in Volkermarkt! School starts on the 14th, so until then, I will be hanging out, and extensively learning some Deutsch. We might be taking a trip before holidays end, but no confirmed plans yet. I think that's all about Sprachkurs :) Servus!