As part of the Erasmus+ programme, I got the opportunity to go to Austria for a month. At the end of February, in the early morning hours, I took the train from Prague to Linz, where my host family was waiting for me. It was a bit of a journey into the unknown because I didn't know what my future family looked like. After I had successfully found them at the train station, we continued about 30 minutes by car to the small town of Wels. I settled in and was immediately introduced to the whole extended family.
We cycled to school, whether it was hot or cold, for approximately 20 minutes. At school, we usually had 5 classes a day, which lasted 50 minutes, with 5 minute breaks in between. We went to my grandmother's for lunch every day, because school canteens are not very popular in Austria. However, this gave me the opportunity to taste a lot of Austrian specialties. In the afternoon, each member of my family had a different program. In the evening we all got together, exchanged experiences from the day and had dinner together. Then my host sister and I ended each day with an Austrian movie or series.
We asked...
01
What were the biggest challenges you overcame during your stay?
The biggest challenge of my whole stay was definitely the language at the beginning. It was mainly the Austrian dialect, which I still don't understand very well. Luckily, my family tried to speak written German (Hochdeutsch), which was also challenging for them, but we always managed to get along somehow. Another big challenge for me was the separation from my family and friends.
02
What were your first impressions upon arrival to your family and school?
My first impressions of the family were very positive. From the messages we exchanged before we first saw each other, they seemed nice and that they had a lot of similar interests as me. But what surprised me about their home, for example, was that they didn't have a TV or wifi. At school, for example, it was interesting that they don't use notebooks but take all their notes on computers or tablets.
03
What experiences and highlights from your stay are worth mentioning?
I must admit that the whole stay was one big unforgettable experience. But among the biggest "highlights" of my stay I would definitely rank the weekends. And that's because I had a great family that took me on a lot of interesting trips. For example, the whole month of March we enjoyed skiing in the Austrian Alps, we visited Salzburg or Vienna, which I had the opportunity to get to know from a different perspective.