On my way home from school...

I took a little hour long Spaziergang today. Although it was pretty overcast this afternoon, I decided to walk home from Marienberg through a new way and found a part of the city that is really cute and charming. There was even a pretty cool church with a small memorial to people from WWI and WWII next to it. 

It was nice. 

Sometimes you just need a nice relaxing walk by yourself in a nice little Austrian town.

Continuing on in the "What?" series

I have a problem with Facebook ads that are "supposedly" catered to me, that in all actuality have nothing to do with my life. 


Most recent example:

Seriously? Offended much.

Innsbruck

The amazing group of people that is TV (Tirol/Vorarlberg) went on a little trip this past weekend. We all gathered in Innsbruck for a reunion and a celebration of making through our first two weeks of teaching. Most came by bus or train and one came by bike (just a gentle little 7 hour bike ride over the mountains…no big).

After a bit of sightseeing (and declaring that Innsbruck’s big attraction, the Golden Roof, is fairly overrated), my British friend Manny and I met up with another lovely Brit named Alicia for an Augustiner.

Sorry Innsbruck...I'm underwhelmed with this

After that we went and met up with everyone at our friend Lauren’s place. It’s basically a Jugendherberge (hostel) with a Studentenheim (dorm) on the side. Coincidentally, several other mutual friends of TV also live there.  So, it was a good spot…minus the fact that poor Lauren got chewed out the next morning by the ladies at the front desk for having a lot of overnight guests…whoops!

photo jacked from my friend Gemima (not pictured)

We had a very fun (and much needed) night with English-speaking friends.

Men of Vorarlberg with Al Pacino's pizza sign I thought was inexplicably funny

I liked Innsbruck a lot. It’s a real city yet still feels small. Innsbruck also has the added bonus of incredible 360° views. Almost everywhere in that place has a view of snow covered mountains. It’s a dream. 

And now...lot's of pictures

really? I highly doubt my paper cup that had warm coke in it could be considered a treasure.

And lastly, for comedic value, a sticker I found to be amusing...

and no, I have no idea what they meant by that

My Schools

 Beware...this is a long post.

I just finished my second week teaching here in Austria. I really am very happy. There is such satisfaction in doing the thing you are meant to do. I feel so at home in front of a class. As many of you know, I am not always the most self-assured and confidant person I would like to be. For some reason though, teaching is one thing I feel I do well. Not the best by any means…I am still learning. Yet, I am still convinced there is a certain amount of teaching that cannot be learned. Having the right presence to make a classroom full of hormone filled teenagers care about whatever it is you are trying to get across to them is something that many new teachers struggle with. For me, that is the easiest and most fun part. Teaching really is 3 parts theatre and 1 part preparation. My schools are also super grateful to have an actual trained teacher as their new language assistant! Apparently, they haven’t had that kind of luck in the past. Due to that, I have basically had to earn the trust of each teacher I work with (a grand total of 17 teachers all together!) individually. Usually after my first lesson they realize that I will be fine and that they don’t need to babysit. I had one teacher tell me before she had seen me teach that SHE would be preparing my lessons for me and I would basically read from a script so that the lessons weren’t terrible. After I got over the shock of this, I kindly informed her that I am extremely uncomfortable with that and assured her I would be much more successful if I prepared my own lessons. She didn’t seem to want to budge though. However, after she witnessed my pretty basic introduction lesson…she changed her tune.

Riedenburg

So, working with 17 different teachers definitely has its disadvantages. I don’t really know very many of their names with their faces yet. Some of the particularly friendly and helpful ones, I know. Others…not so much. On top of having 17 teachers I work with, in a months time I work with 35 different groups of students. 35 different classes. Some of which I will see once every two weeks, but others I will only see once a month at best. That part will likely be tough on me. I really like developing relationships with students and getting to know them. That likely won’t be realistic here.

Marienberg...taken before sunrise. Sorry for the darkness!

It does, however, lend itself to something pretty great. I can basically use the same lessons with about 25 out of my 35 classes. Less prep time is nice!

Speaking of really nice…

Let me tell you about my sweeeeeeet schedule. Get ready to be SUPER jealous. Just sayin’.

Marienberg

So I work at two different schools. I am at one for one week and go the other the next week. It’s pretty nice that way, to be honest. I am glad I don’t have to go between schools every day. Lets me have a little bit of a routine.

First off, I only work 13 hours a week. I know, right? So, right off the bat, life is great.

THEN, at my first school I don’t have to work on Fridays. At my second school, I don’t work on Mondays or Fridays. How amazing is that?!?! I alternate between 3-and 4-day weekends. Austria is seriously going to spoil me rotten.

So, let me tell you about my schools.

My Stammschule, or my main school, is Sacre Coeur Riedenburg Gymnasium. Gymnasium is the highest of the “high school” equivalent type schools. Not only that, but this is a pretty sweet private school. The girls wear uniforms and are super well-behaved and hard working. A teacher’s dream. My first week there was a blur of meeting what seemed like a thousand different people and switching between my mother tongue and German every ten minutes. I like some of my teachers there more than others, as is natural. One huge advantage of this school is the facilities. Anything I need as far as teaching materials is right there at my fingertips. Printing and making copies is easy as pie and everyone is super supportive of me. There are also a lot of younger female teachers at Riedenburg; I fit right in.

Riedenburg

My secondary school, HLW Marienberg is located in a really pretty part of town that I am fairly certain is the high rent district. It is situated right at the base of our mountain here in Bregenz as well.  So, the view from the windows of some of my classrooms there is pretty stellar. No complaints here!

sign pointing to the different parts of Marienberg: the school and the monastery

The teachers at this school are a bit older than most of the ones at Riedenburg. They are all super nice to me though. Sometimes I feel like they don’t know what to do with me. I get the impression I am extremely different from the assistants they have had in the past. They keep saying that my German is so great, my accent is beautiful, my demeanor is so professional for my age, and my ideas for teaching are exciting. I am going to have to try hard not to get a big head working there with all of those compliments flying around.

The path leading away from Riedenburg

more of the path

My students so far are overall pretty great. Some groups are more excited to have an American in their class than others. With some classes, they could really take me or leave me. With others, they want to know every detail of my life and everything about America and ask a boatload of adorable questions. Here is a good sampling of some of my favorite student questions in the past two weeks:

1.     How old are you?

2.     Do you see celebrities every day in your hometown?

3.     Do you like Justin Bieber?

4.     What is your dream?

5.     What clubs do you go to in Bregenz?

6.     Do you speak German?

7.     What is the most striking difference between America and Austria? (I was impressed with this question)

8.     Is Georgia in political attitude more republican or democrat?

9.     Do you know any cheerleaders?

10. Why are you here?

11. Do you like Austrian food?

12. Do you know your boyfriend looks like Prince Harry?

You get the idea.

moped parking...there is more on the other side

So yeah, life is good. Teaching makes me happy. Hanging out in the teacher’s lounge at my schools is my idea of a great time (plus the German practice is awesome!).  And the food from the tourism portion on the schools is delicious…makes my week a dream. 

Ich fühle mich wohl.

Oktoberfest

Sooooooo, yeah. Was für ein Erlebnis!

My roommate, Mackenzie, and I got our butts out of bed really early last Saturday and made a pilgrimage to Munich for die Wiesn’. Something I love about this place in the world is that is perfectly normal on a chilly Fall morning to be standing at a train station in Lindau at 6 a.m.-ish waiting to catch a train wearing Dirndl or Lederhosen. We were not the only ones. In fact, about an hour into the ride to Munich, those not in Trachten were definitely in the minority. Also in the minority were those not drinking already. That’s right…before 8 a.m. Everyone was so happy and excited, despite the overcrowded noisy train. One guy was even leading our car in some songs. Hilarious.

 

So we eventually got to Munich. After a quick struggle to find somewhere to pee without a 30 minute wait, we were on our way to the fest grounds.

For the first 10 minutes I was so exited and enchanted by the sights of all of the Lebkuchen hearts, giant beer tents, and spinning fair rides.

Then, stress set in.

I have never been anywhere…ANYWHERE…with so many people. That includes Disney World on New Year’s after a parade.

We did manage to get into a tent, but our luck stopped there. We wandered around and around and around again looking for anywhere to sit. See, the thing is, you can’t order a beer without having a seat. And at 10 a.m. everything was already full. What sucks is when everyone else around you is having fun, singing, and drinking yummy beer, and you are being told “Nein” repeatedly by everyone you ask “Ist hier noch frei?” 

Granted, it was the last weekend of Oktoberfest. On top of that, it happened to be a holiday weekend for the Germans. So, I do believe that added to the insanity. But all tents being full to capacity by 10:45 with no more entrance is nuts.

After a respectable amount of perseverance, Mackenzie and I had had enough and were resolved to go drink elsewhere. So we left.

Fortunately, Mackenzie studied in Munich once upon a time. Therefore, she knew there was a great Biergarten around the corner that serves Augustiner Bräu (my fav, as some of you know).

Life was soooo much better there. Wow! Space. Food. Fresh air. Trees. Peace. And most importantly...BEER!

We had been sitting down maybe 4 minutes before some older Swiss guys sat down at our table, offered to buy us beer, and began chatting us up. So, we were getting the beer drinking, eating wurst, and speaking German with strangers Oktoberfest experience….just not on the official grounds. Oh well.

We did head back to the Wiesn’ later but basically we were just wandering around. Mackenzie and I knew we wouldn’t have any better luck as a larger group. So we left again and headed back to the Augustiner Keller.

After another beer, we did a mini city tour and then were on our way home in the late afternoon.

I will do Oktoberfest again. I need to redeem it. Next time, I won’t go on 1. a Saturday 2. A holiday weekend 3. Any day that the tents would be full before the place has been open for an hour.

How classic are these rides???

Na ja, so ist das Leben.

Orientation ... let's make party!

So starting on the 26^th of September, we had orientation in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

It’s a resort town that is fairly far from where I live, relatively speaking. For those visual learners out there…here is a map.

For all of the seminars and teacher-y things, they divided us into groups that were based on our geographical regions. Since Vorarlberg is pretty small, they combined us with Tirol. Making a super group called TV. We are rockstars. TV is made up of some of the coolest people from all over the U.S. and Britain. Oh yeah, the British Council also sends TA’s here, too. So needless to say, I learned a lot of British English in a couple of days.

 view from my bedroom in the place we stayed

Orientation was basically all about teaching us how to be teachers, which I thought was kinda funny. Mainly because…I thought I already did that?!?! And it took 4.5 years not 4.5 days. Oh well, it’s still nice to get an idea of what is expected over here as opposed to back home.

Orientation was also a big intro to Austrian life. In other words, we went on a hike. Herbert, the totally awesome little grandpa-like Austrian in charge of orientation, told us it was going to be very cold on said hike. Ha! It was the exact opposite. This was a problem for me because I took Herbert seriously. Being a Georgia peach, if someone says it’s going to be cold and they are not from the South, I take that to mean I need layers and layers of warm clothing. So I dressed in long pants, warm socks, long sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt, a cardigan, and a scarf. Who was I kidding?

I must also tell you what they fed us before this hike.

Schnitzel and fried chicken!

Overwhelmed with excitement at the offering of fried food goodness, I enjoyed multiple servings of both…most likely grossing out the people at my lunch table. Honestly, I ate an obscene amount of schnitzel, chicken, and potatoes. 

Then immediately afterwards....hiked up a mountain. In hot weather. Dressed for frigid temperatures that never came. Let’s just say it didn’t take long for the meat sweats to kick in. Gross, I know. Thank God a fellow Vorarlberg girl named Amanda was going at my pace. I made it though and even did the optional climb to the very top (after a long rest and fresh alpine water).

Here are some pictures from that lovely hike…. notice my silly layers around my waist.

It was really beautiful!

Anyways, I made some super sweet friends that are in different places all across this beautiful country. Hopefully, that means I’ll have tour guides and free lodging in a variety of cities. 

I’ll leave you with the great words that Herbert spoke to us over the P.A. system the last morning to wake us all up after celebrating the end of orientation the night before:

Read in an elderly Austrian accent

“Good Morning! I know life is hard sometimes. Arise from your beds and come downstairs and eat something from our breakfast. It should renew your spirits.”

P.s. I may or may not have been shanghaied into teaching everyone at orientation the electric slide. 

Hospitality

So, sorry for the delay in posts. I have been ohne computer for a while. Hopefully that won't happen again.


I arrived in Austria 3 1/2 weeks ago now. I have been overwhelmed with how nice people are here. However, I have also learned you should put limits on people's hospitality.


Especially that of these folks:

That's Tony and Elisabeth, my landlords. If one is not careful and extremely adamant, they will kill you with Vorarlberg hospitality. Perhaps they'll take you on a hike, buy you dinner at a Gasthaus, and then proceed to buy you every type of Austrian alcohol that exists and refuse to take no for an answer. It's dangerous. 

They may also call friends after normal Austrian working hours to try to fix your computer.

Tony might just drive you around to get all of the administrative tasks done in an afternoon and help you figure out the new city you live in.

He might also make things really simple for you based solely on the fact that he knows literally EVERYONE in this town. I guess that's what you get for being a teacher/principal for 40 years!

Also (and this is where I draw the line on hospitality), Elisabeth might just clean your whole apartment while you are out of town and wash and iron your dirty laundry. 

So, there you go. An introduction to my very sweet and chatty landlords.