Austria is a country next to Germany and formed like a drum stick. The capital city is Vienna, known for its classical music, from Mozart, Beethoven.  

The school system is Austria is very different. Our gymnasium takes eight years. You normally attend it from 10-18. As an exchange student you will probably attend the 6.or the 7.class what means you are one of the oldies. That has many pros. You can be for example a peer for the younger students, and take part on the yearly ball for the students in the upper classes. 

Our warm meal during the day is lunch. Maybe you will go with your friends to a good cheap pizza place near school during your lunch break. Or if school is over at one a clock you go home and cook together with your family something. In the evening many people do not eat together, because it is normally just a bread in between. Many activities, and clubs take place at this time, so you sometimes just sit together with your family late in the evening drinking some tea.

A sport you have to try if you come to Austria is snowboarding, and skiing. There are skiing regions all over Austria, which makes Austrians the best skiers in the world. A fact Austrians are proud of. Other very common sports are soccer and tennis. If you want to practice a music instrument so there are many really cheap and good possibilities.

Austrian humor is hard to describe. After some time you and your friends will have some kind of “insiders”. That could be a word, always you hear it you have to laugh out, because you connect it with a funny experience you may have had. We also grimace a lot.

Many people like to see themselves as spontaneous. So on a boring evening you just text you friends and meet them at a café were you always met and chat a little bit. Or if you and a friend have free time after school you just visit each other and have lunch together. On Friday evenings many people go out to some clubs, or bars. The majority of this Friday you will meet in the same eatery, where you always go, maybe have a table where you always sit, always drink the same, but always have a lot of fun.