Good morning everybody,
Yous are finally receiving the latest news and yous will be up-to-date again, after reading this. I hope yous enjoy it and are well.
On the Mondays it was Saint Stephen´s day, so actually it was still one of the Christmas holy days. In Ireland they have this tradition called “the hunt”. Basically, the hunt is a club and on this particular day they go hunting for a fox. There are the hunting leaders and the volk leaders and everyone that is part of the hunt rides on a horse. The hunting leaders are in charge of about 30 dogs (they belong to the club) and the foxes are searching for the fox. The Volk on the horses just rides with them for representation and fun. The group rides through the countryside for the whole day and my host family took me to one “stay” of them, where I could see the process. That was nice and I had a really good time! Afterwards we went for a drink in the hotel and met some friends of my host family´s there. They had little twins, who were just adorable.
The Tuesday was recovery day I the house, especially for my host dad. The whole family was tired and I was the only one awake until around 12, I´d say. I got some stuff done there and went for a walk again. I really go out for a walk quite regularly, it´s calming and the landscape is extremely gorgeous.
Then on the Wednesday, everyone was fit again, but I went on my own that day. I went up to Dublin by bus to see Lena. Lena came over for a few days from Austria and I have been looking forward to her visit for ages. To finally see her made me so happy. We spend the whole day up in Dublin just talking and catching up. We also went into some shops and when I returned to the house I had 3 more shirts, which is unusual for me. Still, they are all very nice and I like them. Lena is a brilliant shopping advisor too, you know. But she is so many things more and I´m just very thankful that she came over and we got to spend the time together. God Bless her. I met her mom too when we went out for diner and the lovely Moni is super nice too. The two of them came down to Carnaross on the next day. I showed them around Kells at first with my school, the cross and we just strolled around the town. Then we went up to the tower. There is a nice, short way that was made to go up from the other side and it is indeed well done. The view up at the tower is stunning and everyone who is in Kells should go up and see it. It´s worth while and if you are lucky enough like I am, you have some wonderful people with you that make it all even better. To complete the full Countryside experience, I brought them to Carnaross Downtown. It was amazing to show someone where I spend my whole time and where I really life. I think you get a whole new perspective than just over pictures and a description. We had a good night and they even paid a short visit to the house. That was awesome. Lena and Moni, thank you very much for coming over to Ireland, I had an awesome time and you two made my holidays :)
After those two days with Lena, my host family brought me up to Dublin on the Friday too. There we went to the archaeologists museum, which was super interesting. They have all kinds of ancient tools and lifesaving equipment from the early days. What really impressed me was that they have thousands of years old bodies. Not skeletons, no. Because the bodies were resting in deeper layers of the earth (bog to be specific) they were conserved and you can literally see the whole body with skin and hair and everything. At first it was kinda creepy but you got used to it and it became interesting. The museum is huge and when we finally got out, we were exhausted. Still, we stayed in Dublin for a bit longer, wandering down the main streets and visiting the Molly Malone statue.
Before I could even Blink it was the 31st of December, which means New Years Eve. I can never believe that. The year passed by so quickly and I honestly had the best year of my life. I´m so happy with the way things turned out and how things are going. The year has been amazing and gave me so, so much. A big thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone, who has been in my life this year and made it so special. Yous are amazing!
But while Christmas over here was a 10 out of 10, New Year´s was kinda of a disappointment. In the end it was all fine, but in the built up, it sometimes seemed to me as if I wouldn´t get to celebrate New years over here at all. It was only the family at our house and the vibe wasn´t festive or anything. It seemed like a usual night. Then I got told that fireworks are illegal and people stick to that. I later on figured out that it´s only in the countryside. The cities blow up some stuff too and you can see a lot of fireworks, but not in the countryside. I never imagined me missing fireworks, but I realized how much I like new year´s eve in Austria and how important the fireworks are. Well anyways, it became very clear to me that I´d celebrate New Year´s with my family on the phone in Austria. So, I called them shortly before the new year, with the last Radler they brought over and celebrated with them on the phone. That was nice. They showed me the fireworks, so at least I got to see them over the phone. That made up a bit for the fact that I didn´t get to see any real ones. After that New Year´s celebration and half an hour before the one in Ireland, my host family started to get into the celebration mood a bit more and prepared some stuff. We all sat in the living room, watching the new Year´s show on the TV and then counted down with them 3 minutes into the new year. Well, we celebrated anyway and, in the end, New Year´s wasn´t all to bad. I slid into the New year safely and had a wonderful night with my host sisters. The four of us stayed down, while the rest went to bed. Mamma Mia was on the Telly, which meant off the couch for every song. But it was a laugh and we had a hilarious time. At around four o´clock I decided to go to bed though and left them behind. With a big smile on my face, I fell asleep. I slept brilliantly. So good that I only woke up at 1 pm and even then, I just got up to call my family on the train to Vienna. Fortunately, my host sister also only woke up around that time so it didn´t really matter. As soon as we were ready, the whole lot of us drove to the lake again. This time nearly the whole family, except my host mother and my host brother, wanted to go in for the swim. What´s said that´s done. All of us went in and I swam for a good bit this time. My host father even streamed it live on Facebook and the people that were watching couldn´t believe their eyes. Passers-by, who were only having their New Years walk at the lake, couldn’t believe it too. But that didn´t matter to me. I had a great time and enjoyed my perfect start into the year. The rest of the day was picture perfect too, at least for me, and I´m just happy. Life is good at the moment and I cherish every little moment of it. The day got topped of when I finally watched “the sound of music”. I´ve never gotten around to see it, but it is a brilliant movie. I don´t get what it has to do with the Austria of today though. Well, it still was a great movie.
And with that I wish you all a very happy New year and hope yous are all well. I only wish you the best as always and hope to hear form yous soon Emma<3
PS: the gallery is updated :)
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