IFYE You're Home

It has been a little over a week since I have returned home from my time in Austria with the IFYE program. I am happy to be home. Being home has both its return of lifestyle patterns and new changes to adjust to. And just like a physical place being the same and different at the same time, I am also finding these things in myself. In my time this week adjusting back to everything, I have had the opportunity to meet with some friends and spend time with close family. Our reunions over a meal or coffee are things that we have done in the past, but this time they felt a little different. I would often hear "Your trip looked amazing!" or get asked "How was it?", but found it difficult to reply to these. I would say "yeah it was fun" or a short "It was good". Talking with other IFYE's (others on the same program as me), while abroad or even after returning home about our experiences was so easy because we both knew we would be understood. Talking to someone that's new to the IFYE concept was a little more challenging. I wanted to get right to the point of my stories but also knew that I would need to explain some background. So that is my intention in writing this.

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Austria states I've visited through IFYE

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"Your trip looked amazing!"

Thank you! Yeah it was fun. During the three months I stayed with four different families in Austria. My time with each family ranged from one week to four weeks depending on how long the family would be able to host me. I visited a total of five states in Austria: Vienna, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Styria, and Salzburg. My first family was near Vienna, which is also the capital city. They did not farm for a living but lived on a hobby farm with horses, pigs, and dogs. Their tie to agriculture was that the father managed a company that deep freezes and packages organic vegetables. They had two elementary school-aged kids who were finishing up their school year during the first week I was there. My second family lived in a small village in Lower Austria. They farmed dairy cows and also their own crop lands. They had three kids all in their twenties. Even though most of the kids were out of the house and/or studying at university, I got to spend a good amount of time with them. I also got to visit Salzburg (the city located in the state of Salzburg) with the host siblings of my second family. My third family and forth family lived also in small villages but in Upper Austria. My third and forth host families were related to each other so one family lived on and operated the dairy farm while the other lived nearby. Both parents of both families also kept other jobs besides the farm, typically in the larger city. Both families had three kids all ranging from preschool age to high school age. I got to travel to the state of Styria while staying with my forth host family. With all four families I got to experience something new. Things I spent time doing that were the most memorable were site seeing with my host family, helping out with milking or feeding the cows, learning how to cook new recipes, conversations over coffee or wine, going to festivals, participating in events that are traditional or routine for my host family to go to, and staying home to tend to the garden or other farm animals.

"How was is?"

It was good! No really it was good! I enjoyed my time even though before leaving I didn't think Austria would change me that much. I was surprised at how much I learned about the country and also surprised at how much of the language I picked up. Not really surprised at how much I loved the food. I knew going in that food in Europe is superior to American, but I was surprised at how much I learned about food waste and reducing food waste. My first couple weeks seemed to fly by, even if I wasn't always busy with my host family. I think that is part to adjusting to a new place. The pace that each host family lived also varied. My host family with kids more my age had longer busier days and the host families with younger kids often had busy days but early nights. I did really enjoy my time with all the host siblings that were years younger than me, but the best would be my time with the host siblings closer to my age. They felt more like friends than siblings. My last couple weeks were also slower paced as all the families were preparing for a new school year. During my entire time, we had two opportunities to spend with Landjugend (young farmers) organization. The first was a three day orientation about two weeks into our stay. The second was attending a national ploughing competition for a weekend. Both of these events were also trip highlights since we were able to spend time with people who understood the IFYE program and also got to meet others around of age with similar interests. The only thing that I wished I could of had more of was time with people my age. I felt like I lost a lot of my independence when staying in families with younger kids, because often it felt like I was an adopted kid meant to blend in with the rest. If I were to go back to Austria (which I do plan to do someday), I would want to visit Salzburg again and also visit other states that I didn't get a chance to, especially Tirol.

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