#YFU Austria

[wienerneustadt]

Wiener Neustadt: Austauschschüler David sucht Gastfamilie

Foto: freepik

David aus Moldau wird das BRG Gröhrmühlgasse besuchenDie gemeinnützige SchülerInnenaustausch-Organisation YFU Austria freut sich auf Bewerbungen. YFU Austria hat die Möglichkeit trotz der COVID-19 Situation ein paar ausgewählten internationalen SchülerInnen den Traum von einem Austauschjahr in Österreich zu ermöglichen. “Unser David würde Mitte September für ein Schuljahr nach Österreich kommen und in Wiener Neustadt im BRG Gröhrmühlgasse zur Schule gehen. … weiterlesen auf „Wiener Neustadt: Austauschschüler David sucht Gastfamilie“

source https://www.wn24.at/bildung/wiener-neustadt-austauschschueler-gastfamilie-30764.html

[sophiaaandenijssel]

Donderdag, April 20

Hey there guys!  I’m sorry I didn’t write last week, but I had a lot of tests and projects that were really taking up my time.  The good news is, they’re all done now!  (and I got a good grade on my history test, which I needed for next year!) I’ve been up to SO MUCH these past three weeks, and it’s only getting more busy!  Next week is a biology trip to France, two weeks later is my class trip to the south of the Netherlands, and then a bit after that is our trip with YFU to Prague.  I’m super excited for all of them :D

Let’s see… The weekend after my last post, we had a volleyball game.  That in and of itself isn’t special, because we have them every weekend, but afterwards me and one of the other girls on my team stayed behind to ‘zaalwacht’.  Basically we told teams where they were supposed to go, and helped with scoring.  It was also a really nice time to get to talk to Emma more!  We had a great time watching everyone play, and also a great time chatting!

The next day, I went to Scheveningen with Ingrid, an old friend of my mom’s.  It was really cool to see her, and get to share our experiences with living in the home country of the other person (so, for me, the Netherlands, and for her, the US).  We had only ever met once before, and I was much younger so I don’t remember it well, but we still managed to have a really great conversation (and day!).  And, I got to see the ocean!  It’s finally warming up here, and Scheveningen is really a beautiful, beautiful place.

The weekend after that was… VidCon EU!  For those of you who don’t know what it is, VidCon is a conference for people who make and watch online video (so mostly YouTube!).  You can meet your favorite creators as well as connect with other people who have the same interests as you.  I’ve been once before, to VidCon US, because it’s held in my home state.  But this year was the first year VidCon was held in Europe, too, and I was so excited to go.  

My favorite thing about VidCon is how everyone there has something in common, so you can easily strike up conversation with literally anybody.  My starting group was: me, Veronika (exchange student with YFU from Austria, remember her from a couple blog posts ago?), Zoe (Veronika’s friend from Austria), and Noemi (one of Zoe’s friends that lives in Germany).  

(Zoe, me, Noemi, Veronika) 

Saturday, we got to meet Hannah Hart, one of my favorite YouTubers.  We also talked to two lovely girls in the line, one from Germany and the other from Portugal, the first of many really, really interesting and good conversations with complete strangers.  A little later on in the day, we met two other girls, Inger and Ida, both Dutch.  We ended up hanging out with them the rest of the day.

Sunday started (for me) bright and early.  The only plus side to waking up so early was getting to watch the sun rise from the train, but boy, what a plus:

A little later in the day, we got to meet Hank Green!

Hank’s YouTube channel was the reason Veronika and I started talking, and the reason Noemi and Zoe met each other, so he played a pretty big role in forming our little group.  I’ve also been watching his channel since I was ten or eleven, so understandably I was very excited to meet him!  We met some other Americans in his line, who we ended up hanging out with the rest of the day, along with two other German girls.  See what I mean now, about talking to people?

Later in the day, me and one of the aforementioned German girls, Magda, got to meet Dodie!  It was really nice to get to meet her and say thank you for everything she does.

That night was the Nerdfighter meetup (people who watch Hank and John Green)!  It was so cool to get to meet so many other people who watch their videos as well.  

(You can see a lot of people we met in this picture! Let’s see… top row, left: Noemi, to the left of me is Magda.  Second row on the left is Inger, Ida, and Sarah, the other German girl we met.  You can see we’re doing the same sign as in the first picture....don’t worry, it’s not a gang sign :D just the symbol of their channel)

VidCon EU made for an interesting, amazing, international (and so much more) weekend, and I’m so glad I went.

Thursday of last week was ‘CKV Dag’ with my class - a day where we go into Rotterdam and learn about art!  The theme this time was photography, and my group’s theme specifically was “Living Together”.  I think you can guess what that was from our pictures:

We had to make a picture with ourselves in it, twice!  It was really fun learning how to do, and also taking all the pictures in the first place.

Then we got an hour break for lunch!  We sat on the grass near the Market Hall and goofed around :D

After that, we split into pairs to take pictures of architecture in Rotterdam with different parameters (so one was from a high point of view, one was with dark and light contrast, etc).  I was with my friend Christina:

Here’s one of ours, with color contrast.

It was a really, really fun day, and I actually learned quite a lot about photography!

That weekend, I went to quidditch in Rotterdam!  For those of you who haven’t read Harry Potter, quidditch is a game they play on broomsticks.  About ten years ago, a group of college kids in the US thought “Hey, what if we could play quidditch, but without magic?”.  Since then, it’s spread all over the world!  I’ve been curious about what it was like for a while, and I’m really glad I got to go to an open practice of Rotterdam’s team!  The people on the team were all super nice, and I had a really fun time.

Do you guys remember Sianne, from Switzerland?  She came and stayed over with us during the fall vacation.  She was only here for a semester, so she left in December, but she came back for her Easter break!  So me and Emma (Latvia) got to see her (and her cousin) again!  It was so nice to catch up and hear about how things are going for her back home.  We had a really lovely evening.

And, I think that’s it!  This seems like a bit of a long post, so I’m sorry about that ahaha!  Two weeks from now should be… after my trip to France!  So look forward to that :D  I hope you all had a lovely Easter!

[jirakit]

What a great day! 😁 Seeing a pretty girl waving hands and calling my name at the bus station literally made me so happy to meet my long lost little sister who joined an exchange student program to Austria 🇦🇹 in academic year of 2011-2012 from #YFU family again. After I haven't seen you for 6 years long, we talked a lot like we haven't changed the way we talk and enjoy our moments. I did congratulated you after studying Deutsch so hard as your major subject and you finally made it girl! 🎉 Love you as always ❤ #yfu14 #YFUThailand #GaratIsHappy (at ถนน พุทธมลฑล สาย4 นครปฐม) https://www.instagram.com/p/BplxLzPnzSuZsGn28WwYxw0uuse6vPqJOPqqpY0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1tfmw39ljy1cv

[katarinastokes-blog]

IV

Seminarist ja sõprusest// YFU seminar and new friends

Iga aasta septembri viimasel nädalavahetusel kogunevad vahetusõpilased igast maailma otsast väikses Austria külakeses ning toovad endaga kaasa palju müra ja kära. Sel aastal oli mul au olla üks neist.

Every year on the last weekend of September exchange students from all over the world gather in a small Austrian village. This year I was lucky enough to be one of them.

Kõik algas reede hommikul, kui mina ja Vicky (Tšehhi võp, peretuttav, semu) rõõmsalt rongi peale tuigerdasime. Viini rahvas oli juba rongis niiet vaikuses sõitmisest oli asi kaugel. Vagunite vahel käies oli pea iga paari istme tagant uus sõber ees. Lisaks sotsialiseerumisle sai aega veeta nina vastu aknaklaasi mägesid vaadates. Just nii, sõprade seltsis ning kauni looduse vahel, saigi otsa kolm tundi rongisõitu.

Everything started on Friday, when Vicky(another exchange student from The Czech Republic) and I boarded the train heading to Bad Gastein. The exchange students from Vienna were already aboard so the ride over was everything but quiet. There was a new friend waiting for you just a few seats over wherever you went. And if you were tired of socialising you could spend your time watching the mountains pass by. So our time passed and after 3h of making new friends and trying to soak up as much of the view as possible our train finally arrived at Bad Gastein.

Kohale jõudes tegime energizereid(Eestis oli palju ägedam), kõndisime hostelisse, saime toad, mängisime tutvumismänge, blablablablabla. Ma kahtlen, et kedagi see korralduslik osa väga huvitab niiet ma sellest väga ei räägi. Kui huvi on, siis on kuskil internetis umbes 100+ vahetusõpilas-blogi, mis on minu omast tunduvalt informatiivsemad. Kokkuvõtvalt võin öelda, et toit oli okei, põrand veidi külm ja töötoad olid suht “meh”, sest olime Eestis juba kõigest rääkinud. Rääkides Eestist oli üks hästi vahva üllatus meile Eestist järele tulnud. Nimelt oli meie kodugruppi juht Elisabeth üks seminari korraldaja ja üks töötubadest oligi nagu kodugrupp. Lihtsalt istusime eestlastega diivanitel ja rääkisime juttu.

Upon arrival we did some energisers(which were much cooler in Estonia), walked to the hostel, got our rooms, played some ice breaking games, blablablablablabla. I highly doubt any of you really care about the organisational stuff so I won’t be focusing on that for long.  But if you’re really interested in that stuff then there are about 100+ exchange student blogs that are much more informative than mine.  In summary, the food was fine, the floors were a bit cold and the workshops a bit “meh”, because we had already talked about everything in Estonia. Talking about Estonia, a fun surprise a had followed us here from back home. Our Yfu group leader Elisabeth back home was one of the seminar organisers here and one of our workshops was just like our homegroup. All of us Estonians just chatting and enjoying hearing our native language again.

Sellised jutuajamised nii eestlaste kui ka teistega tegidki terve nädalavahetuse nii meeleolukaks. Varem elasime kõik üksi seda vahetusõpilase elu, mõni õnnelik teadis mõnda teist vahetusõpilast. Nüüd, aga istume kõik koos samas paadis ning kõigil on vahvam olla. Jagame muljeid, teeme nalja ja loome tugevaid sõprussuhteid. Sellel on muidugi ka omad halvad küljed, kui su head sõbrad elavad Austraalias, Lõuna-Aafrikas või mõnes muus maailma otsas. Samas paneb teadmine, et seda ühist aega on vähe, väärtustama neid hetki, mis meile antud on. Eks tegelikult peaksime kõik oma sõpru ja nendega koos veedetud aega rohkem väärtustama, sest varem või hiljem saavad ka pikaajalised sõprussuhted otsa.

Those chats with my fellow Estonians and everyone else were what made the weekend so memorable. Before, all of us were living the exchange student life on our own but now we know that we we’re all in the same boat. And might I add that it’s a very fun boat to be in. There is always someone new to talk to, have fun and become friends with. Although it does have it’s setbacks when some of your best friends live on the other side of the world. You become hyper-aware of the fact that you won’t be able to see each other that often in the future. On the up side it makes you value the limited time you have together so much more.  I guess there is a lesson to be learned about valuing friendships and the people in our lives because inevitably we’ll all run out of our time.

Tschüss!!  

[brieftriumphbird-blog]

Where should an Australian Exchange student go Student Exchange FAQs - YFU Australia

Some YFU exchange students earn some pocket money mowing lawns, or baby-sitting for family and friends of their host family but such activities should not interfere with your host family’s plans or your school work. What is Student Exchange? Will the country I choose be guaranteed? Unlike some other student exchange organisations, YFU guarantees your country of choice provided you meet the criteria for placement in that country and we still have places available for that country. Can I choose a particular area in my country of choice? You can nominate preferences for areas in which you would like to be placed and preferences for the type of placement (large city, urban or rural area or small town) at interview but we cannot guarantee that we can give you your preferences. YFU’s priority in placing you is matching you with a family with similar interests. For students applying to the UK, you may be able to choose your region. Contact us for more details. Will my family have to host an exchange student? No, your family does not have to host an exchange student while you are away. Of course we welcome families hosting a student either while you are away, before you go or after you return. If you are a semester or year student and your family hosts a student before you go or while you are away we will give you a hosting discount of 10% of the program fee for you to go on exchange if you host a student for 3, 5 or 10 months. Are there any language requirements to go on exchange? In most countries there is not a language requirement with introductory language sessions conducted during the arrival orientations. France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland (French and German speaking), Belgium (French speaking) and Canada (French speaking) all require 2 years of study of French/German to go on exchange for 3 to 10 months . The two month program to France requires a minimum of 6 months previous study of French. You can still go to Germany, Austria or Switzerland if you have not studied German as there are 4 week intensive language camps at the beginning of your exchange at an additional cost of $1000 for those who do not have two years study of the language.... View more ...