Weekend with Laura

Hi! I am here again! This Saturday I went with Laura to eat cocido madrileño.

       

We went to a restaurant called La Taberna de la Daniela, a very famous restaurant in Madrid.

This typical food has three parts, the soup, the vegetables and the meat.

                             

                                   It was yummy and the thing I liked most was the soup.

         

As dessert we ate milhojas, which is made of hojaldre (or puff pastry in English), cream and custard.

Is one of the most delicious desserts I've ever eaten!

   

In the afternoon Laura and me went to a mall with Patricia....

     

.... and we bought a lot of things, like make-up and clothes.

We have an amazing afternoon!

 On Sunday we didn't do anything special but we sleep until late and we play some table games and cards. 

It has been a really funny weekend!

But on Monday morning I had headache and had to remain in bed.

At the end of the day I really wanted to return to school to see everyone.

Scaffy.

A Day with Raquel

Hello! I´d like to tell you that on November 22 I could spend a day with Raquel. We did a lot of things, and I had a great time.

We got home when we finished classes, at lunchtime. She didn’t want to tell me what we were going to do, because it was a surprise. 

                     

When I came into the kitchen, it smelled really good. Soon I realized that her grandmother had made the famous “paella” she promised! It looked awesome, and it had every ingredient you can imagine: prawns, pepper, mussels, squid, green peas… and a lot of yellow rice! The “paella” was really nice, and I even had seconds. I also noticed that Spanish people love bread with their meals, and I liked it too. For dessert, she gave me a coke “chupa chups”, like a lollipop, and I loved it too.

After having lunch and resting for a while, she had another surprise for me.

           

                                         

Suddenly she appeared with a very colorful suit, with two castanets and a white rose. She explained to me that it was a typical Spanish flamenco dress. I loved wearing it and learning how to dance the “sevillanas”. It was so funny and we had a great time!

Furry Friends

Last night Mar took me home and we had a great time together doing lots of things. 

                              

She made a picnic in her room and the other animals were invited.  We ate typical Spanish food like "serrano ham" and "manchego cheese".  I loved them and I told her that I will be glad to take some with me when I leave Spain. 

                        

 I made new friends like Theodor, her squirrel.  

                          

And a very special friend called Sheepy.   We really liked each other.  I met Mar's family and they liked me a lot.  They kept saying I was so cute!

Bye for now!

My Weekend with Olivia

On Friday afternoon after English class at school, Olivia headed towards me with a huge smile across her face and told me that I was going to spend that weekend with her. I was really excited! After saying goodbye to Zuzanna and the other students, my new friend and I returned walking to her house.

There I met Olivia’s younger brother, Jacob. He was even more excited than me! He hugged me and started talking really quickly. The three of us spent the whole afternoon and part of the evening talking and, before dinner, Olivia and I read a few chapters of her favourite book, Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (in English of course!)

On Saturday I helped Olivia with her homework and afterwards we both rested because we were really tired. Then, in the late afternoon, we went sightseeing! 

We saw famous monuments like the “Puerta de Alcalá”, Colón’s Square.... 

.....and, next to the City Hall, the Cibeles’ Fountain (Where Real Madrid, the Spanish football team, celebrates its victories!)  We took a lot of pictures but I could only upload some of them because there were too many! That night we didn’t read because we were exhausted!

On Sunday we had pancakes with syrup and cream for breakfast (yummy!) and I read a little more of the book while Olivia finished her homework. 

                                           

That afternoon was fantastic! We had “churros” with hot chocolate, a typical Spanish dish that’s eaten when it’s very cold. It was delicious! As you can see in the photo I uploaded, behind me and the “churros” there’s a Cibeles Fountain replica just of my size!

I had great fun this weekend!

The SCAFenger Hunt

I had so much fun at school today!  The kids in my class are just great!  They're so friendly and always so happy.  After just one week I feel as if I've known them forever.  

                         

Guess what we did in English class!  We did an Internet SCAFenger Hunt!  (I had always thought it was a scavenger hunt, but I guess I was wrong.).  It was all about Ireland, so for me it was really easy.  When Zuzanna wasn't looking I helped my friends with the answers! 

                     

While everybody was working I opened up the chocolates, biscuits and cake that I had brought from Linz and passed them around to all my friends.  They said they were delicious and they said thank you about a hundred times.  What a great idea it was to bring something for them!  I'm so glad my friends at the Petrinum helped me choose what to bring.  

                    

Then Beatriz, another English teacher, came into the computer room and was so surprised to see the party we were having.  She tried some Linzer Torte and loved it.  The reason why I've got such a big smile in the photo with Beatriz is because she told me that she was going to take me to her Kindergarten class and introduce me to Cheeky Monkey!  A furry friend!  I can't wait!

This weekend I'm going to Olivia's house.  I'll tell you all about it on Monday!

Bye,

Scaffy 

Siestas are great!

Last night I was at Kiko's house.  

I was so tired when we got home after school that Kiko suggested that I try one of my first Spanish traditions; the SIESTA J

When I woke up I felt better and I found Kiko doing some homework. 

                                           I wanted to help him but I'm not very good at mathematics.

After that I wanted to learn how to cook Spanish food and when we were arriving to the kitchen I saw Kiko's  ps3… I asked him if I could play call of duty because everyone in class was talking about it. 

                                                                          And to his surprise I won!  

                                  

                             Then we played a little bit with his skateboard and we had the dinner.  

I had a nice day and I hope he had it too. 

Scaffy

At Home with Sylvia

                       

Last night  I was with Sylvia.  The first thing we did was to go to her house to eat Spanish omelette with ham.  Later I watched her playing volleyball with Patricia.  After doing some homework and studying we had dinner and watched the football match of Spain against Panama.  I had a great day!!!!! 

The Strike

You wouldn't believe what happened today!  There was a General Strike in all of Spain!  When I arrived at school this morning the kids told me that probably no teachers would come to work today! Yippee!

So, there I was, just relaxing and looking forward to a great day when all of a sudden the door opened and Rafa, the Spanish teacher, came in.  He stopped, looked at me angrily and started talking. I don't understand Spanish yet but from the tone of his voice I knew exactly what he was saying.  He was saying, "Sit properly and open your book!"  Oh, oh.  I didn't get off to a good start with Rafa, did I?  I'll have to work hard in his class and learn Spanish quickly so that I can make a better impression on him.

Guess what!  In Spain the kids call their teachers by their first name!   Isn't that funny?  They don't even know their teachers' surnames.  So my teachers are Rafa, Marisa, Toñi (isn't that "ñ" a cool letter?!), Marta and Zuzanna.  I haven't met the others yet.

Can you believe that this afternoon my new friends were fighting over who was going to take me home tonight?!  I felt a little bad that they were arguing, but I also felt good because they made me feel important.  Tonight I'm staying at Sylvia's and tomorrow at Kiko's.

Great!  I can hear Sylvia calling me for dinner.  I'm really hungry.  Over here in Spain they eat dinner at 9:00 at night and sometimes even later.  This is going to be hard for me to get used to!

I'll write more tomorrow.
Scaffy

At Carmen's house

Yesterday, Tuesday the 13th I went to Carmen’s house. She had to go volleyball training with Mar so I went with her. I made lot of new friend of her team, they were really nice. We were there for two hours, I saw Mar and Carmen working very hard. When they finished Mar’s mom came to collect us. When we arrived, Carmen had to study so I helped her.

Later, Carmen let me try to ride her unicycle.  Unfortunately, my legs are too short and all I could do was just hang there.  Carmen has long legs, so she took me for a ride on it!

We had dinner (we had salad and some pumpkin puree) It tasted really nice. I was very hungry so I had a little bit more. After having dinner I played with Bea (Carmen’s sister) Luis (Carmen’s brother) and Carmen. I had lot of fun. We watched T.V. but I was very tired and I fell asleep. Carmen took me to my bed and she went to sleep. This was my day with CarmenJ

¡Hola amigos!

I'm here!  I can't believe I'm finally here!  

Let me tell you about my horrible, wonderful experience:

I had a very bumpy trip.  Travelling in a box is definitely not as comfortable as travelling on a plane with Ms. Payreder!  Finally, late in the afternoon on Thursday the postman brought me to Colegio Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo and I was really looking forward to seeing Zuzanna again and meeting all of her students.  

But, guess what!  Friday was a holiday in Madrid and everybody had gone home for the long weekend. I wanted to cry!  And do you know what?  On Saturday I did cry.  And on Sunday.  I felt so lonely.  I hadn't felt so lonely since those long months that I had spent hanging in the Tourist Information Centre in Limerick, waiting for someone to buy me.  I kept thinking about the wonderful time that I had had at the Petrinum in Linz and the great friends that I had made there: Marlena, Ines, Katharina, Christoph, Franzi, Markus....and the whole gang!!!!  I wanted to go back to the Petrinum so much...

Monday finally came and I could hear people talking, children shouting, bells ringing and doors opening and closing.  Suddenly, someone picked up the box and held it very, very tightly.  And I heard a happy voice say, "Hello Scaffy!  Welcome to Colegio Nuestra Señora del Buen Consejo!"  It was Zuzanna!  

I could feel her walking quickly.  She was walking so quickly that I kept hitting my head on the sides of the box!  Then I heard a lot of children's voices.  Zuzanna put the box down and I heard her call out, "Scaffy's here!!!!!"  Suddenly everything was quiet.  I could feel somebody opening the box. Or was it 2 people?  Or was it 3?  The moment had arrived.  I was so nervous.  I was going to meet the Spanish students!  What if they didn't like me?

                                             

Suddenly the box opened! I looked up and saw 31 happy, excited, smiling faces!  And I heard so much laughing and screaming that I started to laugh, too!

                       

Somebody lifted me out of my box and then everybody wanted to touch me and hold me!  And everyone wanted to get in the photo!

                       

The students even wanted me to sit at the teacher's desk!  I felt so special!  

And they all LOVED the chocolates, the biscuits and the cake.  Zuzanna is going to bring a knife to school tomorrow and cut everything up into small pieces so that everyone can taste them! 

                                 

But you know, I think they liked the card from the students at the Petrinum even more than the sweets!  Zuzanna read out the text and then EVERYBODY wanted to look at the card and all the colourful signatures!

                         

When school finished, some students went home because it was late and they had other activities to go to but other students still stayed to play with me!  Here's a picture of me with four of my new friends.  From left to right: Sylvia, Raquel, Carmen and Olivia.    

Raquel has invited me to go to her grandmother's house one day to have "paella".  Mmmm!  And Olivia said that she would take me to the big Three Kings parade on January 6th! Maybe Sylvia and Carmen will come, too.  It all sounds so exciting!  

The students are so friendly here!   I'm really looking forward to going back to school tomorrow.  But right now I'm exhausted and I can't wait to sleep in a bed after so many nights of sleeping in a box. So, good night everybody and hasta mañana!

On the way to Madrid!

You can't imagine how nervous and excited I am - in a few days I will already be in Madrid, my next stop on my journey!
I have never travelled by post before, but I am sure I will be fine. Helene found a nice box for me and is just packing me inside. It's a bit tight, but as I am not allowed to travel on my own on a plane, this is the only way to get to Spain.
See you soon!!!

Leaving Austria :(

Leaving Austria

Austria is the best place I’ve ever been to! The cities are great. You can see modern architecture, but also a very old style and everything is full of culture.

Almost everywhere you have a great, awesome view all over the mountains! I can just say that, Austria is THE place to be! To everybody who has never been there: Visit it!

So, now I have to leave it. I was very sad and it wasn’t easy for me. All those people, who I got to know during the last months, have been very friendly to me. IN the next few weeks, I will certainly miss them. I had lots of fun and have really seen much. (In my other blog entries you could read about the what I’ve done In my time in Austria.)My time here has been one of the most interesting times of my life and I want to come back sometime for sure!

So now I can only say goodbye to my Austrian friends. I hope we’ll meet again in the near future. Thanks for accepting and integrating me in your class. Thanks for giving this brilliant time to me.

With love,

Scaffy

Austria's landscape

In Austria there are many mountains. In winter you can go skiing or snowboarding and in summer they are good for hiking. If you come to Austria you have to visit the Stephansdom in Vienna, the highest church in Austria. In Vienna there is also a Madame Tussaud’s and a giant wheel in the prater. The famous river Danube flows through Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Vienna. It’s so famous because the composer Johann Strauß wrote the Danube Waltz. You also have to visit Salzburg because Mozart was born there. The well-known film “Sound of Music” is set in Salzburg. Salzburg is really nice to visit.

At Marlena's place

Today I was at Marlena's place. She lives in a big house with a big garden in a small village called “Oberneukirchen“. We slept until 11 o'clock. For lunch we had chicken and pumpkin risotto, which was very good. She has got two dogs and they are very cute. The older one, called „Phibie“, played with me but the younger one, called „Esenja“, was scared of me. Maybe because she's only 13 weeks old and I'm a sheep which is bigger than her! Phibie is one year and a month old. After playing we went into the forest, which is next to the house and took a long walk with the dogs. We also went into a restaurant and ate an ice-cream. In the evening we watched TV before we went to bed. It was fun to play with the dogs and exciting to see how Marlena lives. All in all it was a nice Sunday!

At the funfair

Today I was at a funfair with Linda, Ines, Katharina, Lea, Sabrina, Julia and Marlena. In Linz they call it “Urfahranermarkt“. It was so crazy! We took a lot of thrill rides and some of them looked very scary, but they absolutely weren´t. On the contrary, it was so funny that we went over and over again. I liked “The Xtreme“ best. You can see it on the picture. It looks like a star.

People go to the “Urfahanermarkt“ to eat and drink, have fun or buy candy floss. The best food tasted were the fruits with chocolate coating. I just couldn´t stop eating them and drinking Slushy...it´s a coloured iced drink...
Always on the first night, when the funfair is opened, there is a long and very beautiful firework. Many people are right on the river and watch it.

The girl on the right hand side of the picture is called Linda. The one middle is called Julia and on the left hand side there is Ines. Too bad that I´m not looking into the camera.
It was really funny with the girls and I hope that I can visit them again soon.

Yours,

Scaffy!

A Day with Franzi :) ;)

It's Friday and I'm really happy, because my friend Franziska, called Franzi, took me with her. So I'm in Gallneukirchen. That's a small city near Linz. And that's where Franzi lives. She's really nice and she has got a dog. Her dog is called Mogli and he's a Tibet Terrier. Franzi made a picture of me and him, but he wanted to eat me, so I was very scared to sit next to him, but it wasn't too bad.

At half past five Franzi met the altar boys and girls. They are all very, very nice and friendly. I had a lot of fun and made some new friends. We played in the garden and Claudia, a very nice girl, looked after me, because I can't run very fast. I hurt my knee so I couldn't run very fast, but I had a lot of fun with Claudia and that day was perfect.

In the picture you can see me with all my friends from the altar boys and girls. On the left side is Eve, next to her is Annika, in front of Annika is Magdalena, next to Magdalena is Franzi, who is holding me :) Behind Franzi is Anja and next to Anja is Julia. Then, there are Johannes and Barbara. Next to Barbara is Lukas and at the right side in the picture is Tobias. They are all very nice and I was sad when I had to say goodbye :(

A shopping day

Today I was shopping with Magdalena and her cousin Bernadette. They always go to the “Pluscity” shopping center in Pasching, so we went there, too. It took us about twenty minutes from Linz to get there.
On this special day a new shop called “Bershka” had its opening so there where so many people that we had trouble to stay together. We went from shop to shop and bought a lot of nice clothes.
At the end we had fun trying on some very unusal and horrible dresses and made photos of each other to remember that day years after.
Shopping makes hungry. So we decided to have some Chinese food. When we were eating, suddenly the lights went off. At this moment everybody was so quiet, that we could hear the traffic from outside. It was a gloomy atmosphere and a little child didn’t make it any better when it started to cry loudly next to us.
Seconds later the lights went on again. People were looking around with a shocked glance in their faces, but after a short time normality returned and everybody went on with what, they had been doing before.

Hi it’s me again!

Today I visited Katharina. I used the tram to get to her home.

It was a rainy day, so we dressed in coats and shoes and went for a walk with her dog Aika.

The dog is so cute! We walked about half an hour and met a lot of other of dog. Most already knew Aika. As we were back home, her mother had already prepared some cocoa for us. It was gorgeous! Then we played with the Playstation. We played a car game. We played all afternoon, because it was so funny! I won three times! And then we went out to Katharina’s trampoline! It was so funny!

It was a really nice day(despite the weather)See you Scaffy

Meeting the headmaster

You won't believe it, but today I met Mr. Asanger, the headmaster of the Petrinum! We went to see him during the big break after the maths lession for a photo, which is very nice.

Mag. Franz Asanger has been the headmaster of the Petrinum since 1st September 2000. That's a long time, isn't it? The Petrinum is a private school in Linz and was officially dedicated on 2nd July 1895, so it's 127 years old! During the first World War the school was used as a military hospital. It's unbelievable, but in the second World War Adolf Hitler planned to turn the school into a technical college!

First the Petrinum was only for boys, but since 1993 also girls can go to school there. It was also a boarding school, but in 1999 the boarding school closed. In 2005 Pope Benedikt XVI slept in the Petrinum during his visit to Austria! Since 2009 there's a new observatory. Now it's one of the biggest schools in Linz and it has also got an indoor swimming pool!

I think the Petrinum is a very nice school with an interesting history and Mr. Asanger is a good headmaster.

All in all it was a very interesting day!

A Monday at school!

The first lesson on Monday is our German lesson. Our teacher is very good but I am from Ireland and I can't speak German very well:). Then we have an English lesson with Mrs. Payreder. That is my favourite lesson on Monday!

My friends are very funny and I like this class.

The third lesson is maths. I forgot my maths-homework. That's not very nice because I will get a bad mark in maths if I often forget my homework:(.

After that is the big break and this is the best part of the day. I sometimes play computergames in the break (but don't tell to Miss Payreder!). But I also play with my friends and I sometimes do homework in the break because I often forget it!

After the big break is a chemistry lesson. I hate chemistry but I like our funny teacher! He always makes jokes and he can teach us very well. The fifth lesson is religion.

The last lesson is Latin. It's not very good that we have Latin in the last lesson but our teacher is flexible and we do some work in the book. That's not very difficult!

And then I go home.

That's even better than English and better than the big break:)

That's a Monday at the Petrinum.

At the Porsche exhibition in Linz

Today we were at the Porsche exhibition in Linz. It was very exciting to find out about the story behind such a famous car brand. These old cars all looked very funny and completely different to the present-day ones! Sabrina took many photos of me and the beautiful cars, but unfortunately we can only show you two .... : (

Now I am sitting at home with Sabrina and must say that it was a very beautiful, exciting and fun first weekend!

My second weekend with a student in Austria

Today I and Sabrina, a student from Austria, went to Windischgarsten, a small village in Austria. I was very excited because it was my first weekend in Austria. After an hour drive by car, we finally arrived. It was wonderful.

After lunch we went to a horse riding center, not far from Windischgarsten. I was even allowed to climb a huge horse that luckily was quite peaceful and serene. ;)

 

When I had solid ground under my feet again, and Sabrina had the riding test also brought well behind, we drove back to Sabrina's house. Then we went back to Linz by car. Now I am really looking forward to tomorrow and am excited about what else I will experience this weekend.

Austrian food

Today I want to tell you something about Austrian food. There is for example the Wiener Schnitzel. It’s breaded veal with chips or rice and on top of the schnitzel normal there is a slice of lemon.
Another example to Austrian food is the Gulasch. It’s a kind of stew and the is also some paprika and meat in it. Another popular meal I want to tell you about are the “Salzburger Nockerl”. It’s a sweet dessert which you make in the stove. As the name says it comes from the province Salzburg. Another really good dessert is the Sachertorte. It’s a chocolate cake with a film of apricot jam and chocolate glazing. The last dish I want to tell you about is the Holzfällersteak. It’s made from pork. usually it comes with chips or rice. I have already tried all these dishes and most are really good. My favourite dish are the “Salzburger-Nockerl” because the are so fluffy.

A school trip to Steyr

On the 19^th of September, it was a very rainy day, I was in the „World of Work“ in Steyr with the students of the 4c. A man called Phillip showed us around and told us a lot of interesting things. Then the students had to make little groups. I learned about different types of jobs around the world and I really think it was very interesting. 

I am on the picture with Bernhard, Patrick, Paul and Markus. They had to answer the questions on the handout and then they had to build a little vacuum cleaner called Polsterboy. I also helped them with the Polsterboy and after then minutes, we finished the work. Phillip told us that the people in the factories built a Polsterboy in 61 seconds. And they have to do that eight hours every day! I think it was very funny. After this, the groups had to present what they had found out. I think all the groups did a very good job. After two hours the day in the „World of Work“ was over. On this day I learned a lot.

A day with Chris

On Friday, Christoph invited me to his home. After school we went to the bus stop and waited there. When the bus arrived we got on it. I had no ID card for the bus, but the busdriver was very nice and I didn't have to pay. When we were at home we ate our lunch. The lasagne was very good. After lunch I helped Chris with his homework. It was fun to do it. The rest of the day we played football and went for a walk into the forest. He showed me places, where he liked to be when he was some years younger. In the evening we watched a film. It was called “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire“. Chris saw the film before but he said it was interesting to watch it again with me.

On Saturday the weather wasn't very nice. But Chris and me, we put on rubber boots and took an umbrella to go outside. It was very funny. In the evening we watched a film again and stayed up very late.

On Sunday Chris had to study for school. I helped Chris and checked his English and Latin vocabulary. I also was good at maths and helped him to learn it, too. But on this day, it wasn't cold and rainy like on Saturday. We got out into Chris' garden and had fun on the trampoline and playing ping pong.

I think the weekend was very funny even though the weather wasn't very nice on Saturday.

I wished I could visit Chris for one more weekend again.

Getting to know 4c

Hi, it’s Scaffy again.

Today is my first time in class 4c. Their teacher, Miss. Payreder, took me along with her. At five to eight I got to know all the very nice pupils of the class. They were very surprised when they saw me the first time. They knew that I was tiny and that I was an Irish exchange student, but they were still so surprised when they saw me. On this day they had one Maths lesson and three English lessons. The day was very funny and they all like me very much. I’m so looking forward to the next two months in Austria. It’s a very cool country. The weather was good today. In their class it’s always very hot because the sun shines into the class all the time. In fact it was a very nice day with very nice people.

First impressions of the Petrinum

Hi all,

In the holidays I’ve already seen some photos of the Petrinum. I think it’s a very cool school. I’ve read that there is an observatory. It’s at the northern side of the Petrinum in a small tower.

Some people say the Petrinum looks like a prison. I don’t think so. I think it’s a beautiful school with great rooms. For sports the Petrinum is also very good. There’s one big football ground and two smaller ones, there’s also a tennis ground and a fistball ground. A claycourt, a running track, two beach volleyball places and a swimming pool, too. In the school there is also a library. It’s big and there are also some books which are interesting for me. The Petrinum was a boarding school and now it’s a normal school. The Petrinum is a very old school, it was built in 1897 but then it was only for boys. Now there are boys and girls at school, I think it’s better this way!

School is starting soon!

Monday is my first day at the Petrinum in Linz! I am so excited and can't wait getting to know Helene's pupils!