News from Julia Steger, Texas

Howdy y’all!

I just want to tell you about what is going on over here and what my everyday life looks like. First of all, I live with a host family in the city of Lakeway . Lakeway is about half an hour away from Texas’ capital, Austin. Before I got here, I had no clue how big Texas , also called the Lone Star State , really was. To drive through it, from east to West, takes you longer than a day. Texas takes up 7.4 % of the total area and has more than 22,000,000 inhabitants. Everybody is proud of Texas and there are even some people at school wearing cowboy boots and hats. ;-)     I got here in August and spent the first four months at a host family with two eighteen year old brothers. When I got back here after Christmas, I got the chance to live with a new family. Now I have a 15-year-old host sister who is a cheerleader at our high school. There are 1,600 students at Lake Travis High School and a normal school day here is a lot different than in . The first thing you do at school in the morning is get up, face both the American and the Texas flag, and say the pledge of allegiance. After that, there is a minute of silence. The school day finally starts at 9am and the schedule is the same everyday. Everybody takes only three or four classes, which last 90 minutes each. There is a 10 minute break after every class and a 45 minute lunch break. Regular school ends at three, but there are lots of different activities offered to do in your free time. Of course, there are all kinds of sport teams and different clubs. There is a big theatre department, which just performed a musical two weeks ago, and a school band. Well, the school band here is quite different from our 8-people “Schulensemble” in Zell am See. All in all (and that is with me) there are 168 members in Lake Travis High School band! I think you can imagine how shocked I was when I got to see the whole band for the first time. ;-) There is one thing that you have to know: A school band over here doesn’t only play at concerts.

The American way of life is really interesting to see and it was extremely exciting to get to know all the different American customs. I got to experience the Presidential Elections, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Super Bowl … .

Also, both my host families tried to show me as much of as possible. My first host family even took me on a trip to Chicago ! And two friends I made went to Disney World with me as well as Katharina Grosse-Ophoff, another exchange student from Zell am See. It is amazing how warm-hearted and open-minded people over here are. I`ve made so many new friends and it feels really weird to know that only one year ago I had no idea of so many things that are now a part of my everyday life. It is crazy how much my life has changed and how much I like it!

Julia Steger