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Thank you Jakob for sharing your story and pictures with us.

 

A short story about me.

I was born and raised in Vienna. Some of my early childhood I spent on the Canary island La Gomera. My first childhood memories are all from there. This is where my sister was born.

 

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My two half-brothers from my father’s first marriage are in their late twenties. We never lived together but I like them a lot. One of them is married and has two children. 

I went to an alternative elementary school which is grades 1-4 in Austria. It focused on creativity and autonomous learning. The classes only had 10 students each and the whole school only had 40 altogether. I had a lot of fun there and I think I learned a lot of things that you wouldn´t learn at a “normal” elementary.

After that I went to AHS-Rahlgasse. It’s a public school which emphasizes environment, gender equality and social awareness. I picked the language branch. In addition to English I learn Latin and French. Founded in 1892 Rahlgasse was the first girls secondary education facility in Austria giving girls access to university. My uncle was one of the first boys there. And the girl boy ratio is still around 60/40 decades later. We are about 840 students ages 10 to 19.

I grew up in the city. I think in some ways, the difference between city and small town might be greater than the difference between Austria  and Canada. Sometimes I miss the anonymity of the city, where it´s a big coincidence if you run into a friend on the subway, but I really enjoy small town life.

When I was seven years old, I started playing the recorder. I really liked my teacher, that´s why I stuck with it for five years. Then I finally started playing guitar. I haven´t touched my recorder since. I go to a public music school once a week.

I was never a great sports person, but I always loved skiing. However my father always wanted me to do some sport regularly. So I started doing taekwondo. It didn´t really suit me so I started playing squash instead. Squash I really enjoy. It is a lot of fun to hit the ball as hard as I can and I also really like playing against myself.

I like going hiking with my family. I like watching nature and landscapes. White water kayaking is another one of my favourite sports.

My parents are both architects. They have their own little office, it is in the same house as our home. At the moment they are working on a small office building.

They love to travel and so do I. They always take my sister and me to interesting and beautiful places. When I was little, I always wanted to skip the culture part of the trip and just go to the beach, but I´ve grown to enjoy sightseeing and visiting cities.

I want to visit as many places as possible during my exchange.

 

Jakob Allmer