Holy really long tunnel, Batman!

The next day my family was here, we took a little excursion to my neck of the woods. 


Bregenz, Austria


In order to get there we had to drive through the Pfänder tunnel. Now, I had heard of this tunnel having lived here a while. In fact, I had been through it's sister tunnel the City tunnel just a week prior. What I didn't know, was just how loooooooooooooong of a tunnel it is! I mean, you guys, it was super long. I am not exaggerating for effect. I don't really get claustrophobic or freaked out easily, but after about 5 or 6 minutes  in that thing the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel" has a new and very literal meaning.


So after that, we rushed to my good school first to see some teachers so they could ooh and aah over my adorable niece and nephew. I got to show my family the school I love working in so much, which was really nice.


Since, originally I thought I was going to have to work, we all thought it best to stay in Bregenz for a night. Regardless of the work thing though, it was nice and a bit more relaxing...maybe because I got to sleep in my own bed. 


Essentially, we spent the early part of the afternoon getting everyone settled in and situated where they were staying for the night. Wendy and Justin stayed with me in my apartment while Dad and Leslie stayed in a hotel. 


Then up the Pfänderbahn we went! There is this gondola type deal that takes you to the top of Bregenz's "mountain" which is, truthfully, not that big. However, once at the top you have beautiful views of the whole Bregenzer Wald (the part of the Alps in my area), some German Alps, and some Swiss Alps too! There are lots of hiking trails up there too, but we did not partake in any of that.


We played on the playground, took pictures, and visited the animals in the Wildpark.

After playing on the mountain, we came down and walked back through town and down by the water. We had a beer and a snack at this cute little place by the water where we saw two really big dogs and made jokes about strangers kissing. Afterwards, we walked by the Seebühne, or floating stage, which is an important sight in Bregenz. 

 We found yet another awesome playground that I had been dying to take Kaiden to. Mainly because of this train.

You see, Kaiden has this rockin' train set at home that was given to him by friends of Wendy and Justin after their son had outgrown it. Everyone in the family has a train in this train set. I think Wendy's is a blue train. I know my dad's is a brown train (UPS, duh!). The thing is Kaiden has it all straight. He knows which train belongs to which person and there is NO FOOLING him. Well, my train has always been the black train. I saw this train a long time ago in Bregenz and smiled because it reminded me of my wonderful nephew. So getting a picture with him next to "Addie's train" was a highlight for me.

I really enjoyed showing them around my town. 

We had dinner that night on top of a mountain. I don't want to talk about it, but the view at sunset was nice.

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.

Grüß Gott, Bregenz!

I'm here! Where exactly?

I arrived in my new city a week ago tomorrow. What has surprised me is how much I want to compare and contrast everything with Regensburg. Basically, Bregenz doesn't have as much obvious charm as Regensburg. I am perfectly alright with that though. They are very different places in two different countries. My comparison is unfair. 

That being said, Regensburg doesn't always win in the war for my heart. In fact, my apartment alone makes Bregenz feel more like home than Regensburg ever did. Plus, Regensburg wasn't right next to a giant lake nor was it near the Alps. Also, the people here are unreal. Seriously. I am convinced some of the nicest, sweetest, and most hospitable people on Earth live in the province of Vorarlberg. They almost put us southerners to shame...but more on that later.

Today was a great day in my book. I spent the vast majority of it on the bus. Having not exactly figured out the best way to get to school yet, I sat down last night with a variety of Fahrpläne and made the decision to do some trial runs today.  You know, to figure out the fastest route. And that's exactly what I did! *Side note: If the Amazing Race came here and needed to get to my main school, I would be the perfect person to ask.* Now, to most people a day spent on the bus/waiting for a bus may not seem fun. However, I LOVE it. It's great for people watching and getting oriented to a new city. Plus, I got to see some pretty views.

See...

Anyways, I eventually arrived at my first school after two trial runs and took pictures of the signs. 

Coming soon...or at some point, anyway..... to my blog: A video tour of my apartment. Get excited.