June 23rd
I had my "big" going away party today. I went to McDonalds first (in my Lederhosen) and met up with Christina and Maggie. We were supposed to meet up with Nicky, Mattias, Wendelin, Marie-Sophie and Paul at the Dornbirn Bahnhof (everyone else was busy) but only the first 2 listed showed up. Us 5 took the bus to Bödele, but apparently on Sunday that's as far as it would go because we were told to get out. It was raining so we took cover under the Fetz restaurant. Our stop was a ways down the road so my host families had to come pick us up and take us to the restaurant. Once there it turned out to be a fun party. We had Käsespätzle and cake, talked, and just had a festive time. All of my host parents were there, as well as Morti and Jakob (all of my other host siblings were busy). It was funny because my table (the kids) was speaking English, and the adult table was speaking German. I couldn't completely hear what they were saying, because my English-brain was on, but I heard my name here and there and I could tell they were comparing their experiences with me as their exchange student. At the end they gave me a gift (an Austrian cook book!) and Martina read an excerpt from a Mark Twain book illustrating the difficulties of the German language. Since the buses stop running at 6:30, when we were done with dinner my host families each took a couple kids down to the Dornbirn Bahnhof. Family Heinzle and I took Maggie just down the road to Schwarzenberg before taking a short ride through the Bregenzerwald home. It was an Austrian evening, I had my Lederhosen, shirt, and specialty socks all hand-made in Schwarzach, my Capo Bregenzerwald hat (complete with flowers from Family Heinzle's house in Balderschwang), my Bregenzerwald wooden shoes, and Vorarlberger Käsespätzle in my stomach. What more could I ask for?