Our first week back in Salzburg

After our arrival at Salzburg airport on saturday, we all had the rest of the weekend to spend time with our families and to catch up on some sleep. However, on monday it was time for all of us to go back to “our school” – the Akademisches Gymnasium. Getting up at 6 am was hard, especially because nearly everyone was still jetlagged. Nonetheless, as soon as someone arrived at school and had made his or her way to our classroom, you could notice the persons grumpy/ sleepy face turning into a happy face when seeing each classmate. Especially the 2 boys who stayed in Salzburg where heavily greeted by everyone. Most of our breaks between the lessons on Monday were spend just rambling about our experiences of the past 3 weeks, and telling our other friends from school and teachers about the great time we had. We all agreed, that being back in Salzburg in our normal surroundings feels weird, especially when you think about the fact that while we were gone, everything in Salzburg still took its normal course and that we left before Halloween decoration was even thought about, then were gone for three weeks – which felt like just blinking once for all of us – and got back when the whole city is slowly getting into the Christmas mood. The rest of the week was spent with trying to adapt to the time difference, catching up on school work and getting ready for the upcoming exams.

Once again I/ we (the 7a class) would like to say a massive thank you to all the teachers, parents and everyone else who made this trip possible – we truly had the best time and learned a lot about the US culture, school system, history, geography, …. ; improved our language skills and made lots of new friends.

To the host families and siblings: THANK YOU for having us, making us feel at home and welcoming us with such open hearts. Thank you for everything, we all miss you a lot, and are super excited to host you and show you our hometown Salzburg in April!

Picture: the 7a class and their hosts.

Field trip to the coast

blog entry 10/24/18

Today we all gathered at 7:30 H then go on and leave for our “sailing-trip”. The bus ride was really fun so the announced travel time of 2 hours went by quickly. We first stopped at cap “” to enjoy the view and take beautiful pictures. Some of us were a little too brave and went up to the water too close so the the inevitable happened. Hundreds of taken pictures later we got back on the bus and drove to Portsmouth and got on a traditional sailing boat. We learned how to locate yourself on the water and were thought how pollution affects the local area. 

Afterwards we were allowed to explore Portsmouth. We had great lunch and then went on to go home to Peterborough.

First day in Austria

After an unproblematic flight from New York to Salzburg, everyone was happy to be back. Everyone was very excited to see their families after 3 weeks again and tell them about our experiences. Since most of us were exhausted from the long flight, we went straight to sleep. The adaption to the Austrian time was not very easy for me, which is why i have slept for 13 hours. It was an indescribable journey that will be remembered for a very long time!

Home again

Today was the second day we all spent in Salzburg again since 3 weeks. Although we all really enjoyed our time in America, it felt good to be home again. After sleeping for 14 hours, I had a delicious Austrian breakfast and enough time for telling my family about our great adventure abroad and showing them the many pictures I made. I also found out that most things in Austria are still the same, but after our trip I learned appreciating the many small conveniences we have, like the fantastic tap water or our comfortable beds.  Fortunately, there were no bigger issues and we all came back well, I truly enjoy thinking back about our challenges, experiences and great moments we had together!

The end is near

Our last day in the USA started with mixed feelings. Although it had been a wonderful time and everybody missed their hosts, we were still looking forward to being back home again.
But first, a tight schedule still awaited us. After having packed, some of us enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Andrew‘s with pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, smoothies and much more.
At 8:30 we met in front of the Hotel Pennsylvania again to take the subway to Central Park together. Unfortunately some were late, so we had to start 20 minutes behind schedule. However, as soon as we got to Columbus Square and began exploring Central Park, all the anger was blown away by the beauty of the park that brings nature to this gigantic city. We saw squirrels, birds and lots of dogs with their owners, as well as the ‚Lake‘, Strawberry Fields - the John Lennon memorial where we listened to a guitar player - joggers and cyclists. After approximately two hours we had to leave, because the next highlight awaited us: the MoMA, Museum of Modern Art. Once in it, we had the opportunity to stroll through the museum ourselves for two hours. Some went to one of the three cafés to grab a bite, others tried to enjoy as much of the art exhibited on six floors as they possibly could in that short amount of time before they bought lots of souvenirs in the store.
At 2 p.m. we left to pick up our suitcases at the hotel from which we took a bus to Newark Airport. Thankfully, everything went according to plan at the airport, because we only had one hour to get through Check-In and Security Check before we had to get on the plane.
This time, despite heavy rain that had started in the afternoon, the plane took of according to schedule and flew us back home.

Below: Picture 1: The ‚Lake‘, our group in the foreground, skyline in the back
            Picture 2: ‚Imagine‘ mosaic, Strawberry Fields
            Picture 3: A curious and friendly squirrel watches us at Central Park
            Picture 4: ‚A Starry Night‘, Vincent van Gogh, MoMA

Saturday, 10/11/2018: Back in Salzburg

The very last day of our trip to the US started on the plane from Newark, New Jersey to Vienna. We had boarded the aircraft at 5pm the day before and gotten through quite a turbulent start, causing a delay in our dinner, which we all enjoyed nonetheless.
When the flight finally became steadier, everyone calmed down and got ready for a night on the plane: some of us watched a movie, some tried to find a comfortable position and go to sleep - not an easy task in a small aircraft full of people! But time flew by quickly and after having tea and a muffin for breakfast, we soon landed in Vienna.
Since it felt like we'd gotten up at 1am after only a few hours of sleep, most of us were very tired and worn out by the eventful last days of our journey.
Thankfully, our connecting flight to Salzburg was on time and after a short stop at the airport in Vienna, this last part of our big trip went by without any complications.
When we finally arrived in Salzburg at around 11am, or 5am in America, everyone was greeted by happy family members who were dying to hear all about our experiences.
Whether the rest of the day was spent sleeping or trying to outwit the impending jet lag, I'm sure we all had to tell our parents about our amazing host families and the big cities, and everyone was really grateful to have us back.

I'd like to say thank you again to our teachers, who made this journey possible, tried their best to ensure that everyone was comfortable with their surroundings and kept calm and ready to cheer us up even in the few critical situations.
Also, a big thank you to our host families who did their absolute best to show us their world and make us feel welcome in their home for two weeks. We're excited to do the same for our host siblings in April and hopefully meet all the amazing people we've gotten to know again someday!

Last day in Boston

6.11.2018

 Despite of wet but well handled catastrophe last night, we decided that this should not effect our time in Boston and continued our program as planned. After a quick breakfast and boat ride to the city-centre, we took the subway and made our way to Harvard University. We toured the campus with our guide and got an insight on how it is like to study there. Our next stop was at the Harvard Art Museum, where we got the opportunity to visit the museum on our own and admire their collection and art from all around the world. Before we went to the Prudential tower, we walked around town near the University campus. Unfortunately it was not possible for us to visit the skyscraper's observatory because of a private event, so we decided to stay in Prudential mall for a bit (also due to the heavy rain). Later on we found ourselves back at Quincy Market for dinner. Our eventful day ended at the obelisk, which is located at the end of the freedom trail. We made our way back to the hotel soaked and tired, but very happy and fulfilled with a lot of new experiences. Everybody can't wait to tour the next big city tomorrow: the big apple!

-Emilia