Tis the Season: Thanksgiving x 2 and Christmas Markets

I. 

The Holiday season in Salzburg has begun.

Let's go back in time to about two weeks ago, which was easily the busiest (and most fun) week I've had in recent memory. During this week I...

• Saw a slew of Wooster friends, including a surprise visitor, in addition to my regular Salzburg crew.
• Stayed out every night until the buses no longer ran, and subsequently spent way too much money on taxis.*
• ....and then got up most mornings at 5:30 a.m. for school.
• I think I averaged about four hours of sleep a night. Somehow I managed to not fall asleep in the Konferenzzimmer. As far as teaching goes, it was a perfectly fine week, but nothing terribly exciting. For this week I was at the HAK doing a lot of workbook exercises with the students. Yawn. Usually I come up with my own lessons, but the students have an exam or something coming up which meant the teachers were all freaking out a bit about being behind. On the plus side, I did not have to prepare any of my own lessons, which fit in nicely with my nights out. 
• Went to Vienna for a long weekend. A Fulbright event was the perfect excuse to go, along with a four day weekend as it coincided with a HBLA week.
• After a crazy week with no sleep, I was pretty wiped out right before going to Vienna. I could maybe have used a ruhetag in between at this point.
• Quickly forgot about being exhausted because...VIENNA. 

*I feel obligated to note that this is most definitely not the norm for me in Salzburg! Because, you know, I have an actual job and responsibilities that I need to be awake for and I'm not made of money.

Vienna is the most beautiful city ever. You are just going to have to take my word for it because I have almost no pictures to share. Between making plans to see Vienna-based Wooster and Oakton friends, I pretty much booked myself for the entire weekend before I could even crack open the museum guide (or a camera). This, however, was fine with me. I'm obviously coming back, and Vienna is one of those cities where I could walk for days, never set foot inside a building, and still be in awe. 

The weekend in Vienna included a guided tour of Theater an der Wein, the best schnitzel I have ever had (it was also the size of my face), brunch, brunch again, coffee(s) and cake(s), a Christmas market, seeing many friends, and stomping around my old grounds in Ober St. Veit. Oh, did I mention I used to live in Vienna? It was sometime in the early 90's and I totes remember every second of it.

In terms of sites, I did make it to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Belvedere, which had a great exhibition in time for Klimt's 150 year Jubiläum. And then there was a lot of walking around and riding the U.
 

So in sum, I was reluctant to leave Vienna but very much looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet back home in Salzburg.

I admit this last week was not exactly my favorite one at school. Between coming off my Vienna high and upcoming Thanksgiving, I was not in the most school-minded mood. Not to mention my schedule was completely revamped for the week (seems to happen every week anyways). I don't really mind the schedule changes as my school is good about giving me advance notice and it meant I had shorter days. Except for one incident where one of my teachers had not bothered/forgotten to tell me she wouldn't be in that day, which then required another five teachers to figure out what was going on/where I should be, the week rolled along pretty smoothly. This week's lesson, no surprise, was Thanksgiving.

Going back to the whole student-impressions-of-America theme...I showed my students some YouTube clips of Black Friday shoppers at Walmart. Their jaws nearly dropped to the floor. This was nothing compared to my teacher's reactions. More than one cornered me after class as if hoping that I could explain to them how rational homo sapiens can fight like neanderthals over half price iPads at Best Buy.

II.

As most of you know, I am not of the Christmas-celebrating variety. More of the latkes-and-applesauce variety. But don't for a second think that I wasn't as excited for Christmas in Salzburg as any kid who grew up awaiting the old fat man coming down the chimney.

The Christmas markets, or Christkindlmarkt, in Salzburg opened on November 22, which just happened to be Thanksgiving day back in the ol' U.S. Even if we couldn't celebrate T-day on the actual day, we still had good reason to be in a festive mood.

Opening day of the Christmas markets is full of people, cannons, and lederhosen. Yep, even in freezing weather there were plenty of dirndls and lederhosen clad celebrants. All of us grabbed a mug of glühwein and made our way around the stalls. Well, I had to stop and eat a massive thing of Kaiserschmarrn first, because glühwein on an empty stomach is just a terrible (and dangerous) idea.


There was a lot of chocolate, many people, excellent food, and a huge assortment of kitschy ornaments. Including blingy reindeer figurines (damn I forgot to get a picture of those).

We didn't stay super long as it was cold, slightly rainy, and my feet got all wet. Good thing the Christmas markets are open for the next month. Bad for my bank account...

And then....it was off to Vorarlberg for Thanksgiving I with the parentals, some more family, and friends. 

...and then I rushed back to Salzburg for Thanksgiving II. We've been planning for this only since about, say, our first week here? With a roster of some twenty people, Thanksgiving in Salzburg was an exercise in logistics and organization. Thank gd for Facebook groups. And Googledocs.

First things first, Turkey. Truthahn is not a big thing in Austria...the first placed I called about procuring a bird, an organic farm near Salzburg as recommended to us by our program director, did not have any turkeys for us. Too bad, as I was so looking forward to a biobird.

So in the end I ordered two turkeys from Merkur, a nice grocery store here in Salzburg. Now, I know a thing or two about cooking, but nothing about prepping or roasting a turkey.

So I was more than a little nervous that we would end up with birds that didn't fit in any of our ovens, or that something else turkey-related would go completely haywire.

In the end,  we more than pulled it off and Thanksgiving in Salzburg was a great success. Some twenty of us gathered and spent the day cooking, eating, collapsing into a food coma, going back for seconds, playing games, including some hilarious drinking games, and just hanging out. I am so very lucky to have such great fellow TA friends and others here.

La Piece de Resistance

Extremely pathetic iphone pic showing about 15% of us.

In Which I Relive Homecoming and All Night Grad in One Night, Except this Time all the 16-18 Year Olds are Drinking and Smoking

I.

On Friday night, I was transported back into the halls of Oakton High School as students in both ball gowns and slightly more risque get-ups hung lazed in the halls and pulsed to the music. I half expected Hutch to come barreling around the corner in his golf cart.

The fantasy quickly evaporated as I passed through one cloud of smoke and glassy-eyed student after the next. Having spent so much time in Austria over the years, I've been completely desensitized to the idea of 16 year old's legally smoking and drinking on school grounds. But still I had to laugh, I just could not for the life of me imagine this happening at Oakton.

Matura ball is often described as the Austrian version of prom (Matura is the qualifying exams students take for university, just like British A-levels). I soon realized that "prom" is hardly a good way to describe what was about to go down.

When I initially made plans with the other foreign language TAs at the HBLA to attend Matura ball, none of us had actually planned to stay that long. We'd pop in, say hello to our teachers and students, and catch the last train back to Salzburg.

That was until we realized that prom when you are 22 years old is a completely different ball game when there is beer, tons of food, a sort of restaurant set up on school grounds, performances, and student's parents all at Matura ball. Now prom starts to play second fiddle...

No.....It didn't take long for us to realize that Matura ball when you are 22 is actually a ton of fun.

Not to mention seeing the Direktor, the Sekretariat, your teachers, and students jamming it up on the dance floor is pretty hilarious. Before we knew it the last train to Salzburg had left and we were in no way ready to leave. 

So in sum, the best way to describe Maturaball would be homecoming and all night grad wrapped up into one. The entire school had been transformed to the point were I barely recognized it or knew my way around. Throughout the night, I ran into and chatted with my students. At this point I don't recognize many of them (see below), so it was pretty funny when a group of them would come up to me all "hiiiiiii oh you are here!" and of course I would be all "hiiiiiiiii" back while simultaneously feeling like the worst TA ever for not recognizing all of them. My personal favorite of all the hellos came from one of my few male students at the school: "HIIIII HOW ARE YOU (HIGH FIVE) I AM FUCKED."

Blurry iphone pics will have to suffice:

Watching some of my students perform an opening dance from the balcony.

The parents seated to the side. 

More dance performances

While the students do this....

The parents and teachers do this....

Midnight skits and performances

II.

Sooo in time for my one month anniversary in Austrian schools, I decided I'd report on what's been going on. Here are some highlights:

• The students all stand up when the teacher or I enter the room. At first I was a bit taken aback, now it makes me feel pretty legit.
• The students can be really chatty in class. This drives me (and all the other TAs) absolutely up the wall. Many of the teachers don't seem to be terribly bothered that a quarter to half the class is whispering and chatting while s/he (or me) is teaching the lesson. I didn't feel like I had the authority to shush the class when the teacher was present, but after conferring with my fellow TAs I've started to do so. 
• We aren't technically supposed to teach without a teacher present, according to our Fulbright contracts. In practice this happens from time to time. (I actually had a whole class to myself on my first day. Rippin' the band-aid right off). I actually prefer it, I like having total control over the class and the lessons. Also, it lets me lay down the law with the whole talking-in-class thing. The students are always a bit taken aback when I tell/ask them not to talk while I am talking, but they generally comply (except for one or two girls who give me the death stare for the rest of class.)  
• There are a lot of things that fly here that would never never be allowed in the U.S. (see above). The computer in one of my classrooms has a desktop picture of the students in a rather, um, provocative pose, the teachers just laughed when they saw it. 
• Austrian students don't switch classes- the teachers do. Each class stays together in its own room, the teachers are the ones who switch. The students and teachers stay together with their class throughout the years. 
• Austrian school buildings, unlike American ones, don't look like schools from the outside. The buildings just kind of blend in with the rest of the scenery. The buildings are quite modern and in good condition. The technology in the classrooms is also pretty up to par with what I had in my high school classrooms.
• There are no school buses in Austria. Kids just take regular public transportation (for free) to get to school. 
• Teenage boys. 'Nuff said. 
• Student fashion is very different from the U.S. With the girls, bright colored skinny jeans with athletic European sneakers is the norm. No ugg boots and not too much pink. Boys dress completely differently. No sports-like or athletic attire whatsoever, the boys tend to dress in what we would consider to be metro. Scarves, elaborate gelled hairstyles, earrings, and tight clothes are the norm among the boys.
• So far, I'm really enjoying teaching my lessons, I think the students enjoy them as well. It's mixed- most classes totally get it, some look at me like I'm speaking Chinese and I just get crickets. The level of English depends on the schools. Students at the HAK and the BORG  speak English fairly well, the HBLA is definitely at a lower level. Nevertheless, the HBLA are a nice group of girls who think I am cool, hopefully that lasts. 
• I have probably over 200 students who see me within my two week rotation, which doesn't really allow for getting to know the students well. I feel a bit bad since some of them will say hello to me outside of class, but as of right now there's only a handful from each class that I recognize. Forget about names. 
• The students (and many teachers) somehow have this impression that America is a violent place. I can't really blame them for thinking so, much of what they glean from the U.S. comes from TV and movies. They have a hard time comprehending the idea that there are 'bad neighborhoods' in almost every city. Also, the first thing they think of Americans is that everyone carries a gun.
• All in all, the students' impressions of America are pretty hilarious if a bit inaccurate: Mean Girls meets CSI Miami meets Cops meets American Pie.
• I really enjoy working with the teachers. Many of them have been super welcoming, a few have even had me over to their houses. In sum, I really do feel my presence is appreciated and that they enjoy having me in class.
• Teachers don't seem to work 40 hours a week, many have one or two days off every week.
• So far I've taught lessons on the U.S. elections (kill me), travel, celebrities, and U.S. geography. 
• It's been really interesting to see my students' and teachers' perspectives on the election. To be honest, the students really have a hard time with understanding conservatism in America. The idea that many Americans do not want universal health care is totally foreign to them, as is the idea that many people want religion to play a significant role in government and public life. They also have a hard time understanding why Americans feel so strongly about and can easily obtain guns.

Lastly, I've been asking my students what their impressions of America/Americans are. Here are some.

• "Guns. Everyone in Texas has a gun."
• "Lots of fat people."
• "Lots of crime and violence."
• "Big cities."
• "Wars."
• "Celebrities and Hollywood."
• "McDonalds." 
• "Bad food."
• "George Bush." *

*seriously, kids?

Beautiful Views with a Sinister Past

I.

(If you just want to see pictures scroll down!)

I am quite possibly the least competitive person who has ever lived.......except for trivia and Mench Ärger Dich Nicht.

I lurv trivia and can usually hold my own pretty well in history, politics, and (embarrassingly enough) celebrities. Anything involving sports, science, or song lyrics is usually a flop. So when the chance to play trivia in German came up, I pounced. Alice, Alice, Tim, Rachel, Erika, Libby, and I headed out to trivia night as hosted by the International Students Association. In addition to aiming for the grand prize (movie passes and a giant thing of Mannerschnitten), us TAs split into two teams and decided that the losing team would cook the others dinner. It was on....

The first category, history, we aced. Unfortunately, so did the other TAs, known as Team Hallowien. Next up was geography, also one of my better areas. This time was a total fail, however. We were pretty embarrassed to even announce our score. I guess I should go crack open the atlas from time to time...

Next up was science and tech. We didn't exactly have high hopes for this round. Remember that this was all in German. Amazingly, we did quite well, enough to override our awful geography score and to pull up even with Team Hallowien. The Battle of the TAs was getting more and more intense...

The next rounds were sports and culture and literature and art, were we pulled in a respectable score. So did Team Hallowien.

In the end, Team Hallowien beat us by one question. Sigh. If only I had know that Hercule Poirot was Belgian, and not French...or that James Bond's parents were killed in ski accident, not a car crash. 

Later in the week, my team and I lived up to our promise and cooked dinner for all the TAs plus a few visitors. Some 14 of us squeezed into Rachel and Libby's apartment for the evening. Dinner was a success and we feel more than ready to tackle Thanksgiving for all of us later this month!

II.

Weekdays are for work, weekends are for day trips.  All of us TAs have been taking advantage of the still mostly pleasant weather to check out sights in and around Salzburg. One Sunday Rachel, Libby, Tim and I walked up to Hohensalzburg Fortress. I'd been twice before, so I made myself do the audio guide in German this time. The fortress presides over the whole city and is also one of its most-visited and well-known sites. For centuries the ruling archbishops of Salzburg ruled over the city and its salt mines, hence the name Salzburg. The Fortress has seen Salzburg through wars, rulers, an occupation, and other countless events.

I just realized this crappy iphone pic is the only picture I have of the fortress. Oy!

View of Salzburg on the walk up.

View at the very top.

One side of the fortress

Another weekend, a big group of us went to Werfen, Germany to visit the Eagle's Nest. The Eagle's Nest was a mountain top retreat that was gifted to Hitler by the Nazi party. It  managed to escape destruction and attracts many visitors who come for one of the best panoramic views in Germany. The view is pretty incredible, the pictures do not do it justice! After a somewhat harrowing bus ride to the top (don't look down), we had lunch but unfortunately did not get down the mountain in time to visit the museum, which was too bad but now gives me an excuse to return.

The Eagle's Nest

Earlier today, we visited Chiemsee, Germany (Salzburg is just minutes from the border by train). The Chiemsee is a pretty lake at the bottom of the mountains about an hour from Salzburg. In the middle of the lake sits an island where crazy King Ludwig built one of his smaller but still magnificent palaces (The same King who built Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired Disney World).  Fancy having your own private island. After a boat ride to the island we walked around the palace gardens and had a coffee at the palace cafe. The weather has been freezing lately but today was sunny and warm (ish).

The beautiful and slightly haunting Chiemsee

A very friendly deer friend

Next week we've talked about visiting the salt mines. Pictures to come!

Swanky Starstruck Schmoozing

On Friday evening Erika, Rachel and I ventured into town to attend a talk and round-table discussion on the U.S. presidential election. The event was moderated by Eugen Freund, a well-known Austrian news reporter and good friend of the parentals. So we arrived at the scene of the event to discover that:

1). We were a tad under-dressed.
2). Free booze.
3.) Free food.

His Excellency the American Ambassador explained the electoral college and discussed some of the issues of this election to a mixed American and Austrian audience. There were also several Austrian speakers as part of the roundtable discussion. We expected this to be in German, it was actually in English. Fine with me!

After the talk came to an end, it was back to the atrium for more food and drink: mini quiches, schnitzels, sandwiches, and mimosas.

Eugen introduced the three of us to the American Ambassador. I have to admit I was a bit starstruck for a second, as it occurred to me right at that moment that this was most likely the most "famous" person I had ever met. If you want to become the American Ambassador to Austria, you have to have been a major campaign donor. Who knew?

The three of us felt pretty swanky schmoozing around for the rest of the evening. There were a lot of Americans in attendance, one of whom, an opera singer, we made friends with and will hopefully hang out with soon. There were also some fancy photographers walking around who took pictures of our little group. So for all I know my face is plastered on some online Austrian society page. I should google.

Eugen Freund and I

After that it was off to Augustiner Bräu to celebrate Cecilia's birthday with everyone. Such a great evening.

On Saturday, I headed over to Rachel's and Libby's in the morning. Rachel and I made plans to go for a hike, watch some Downton Abbey, and cook dinner. The planned hike turned into a leisurely walk into the Altstadt for coffee and cake. We picked up some ingredients on the way home to make carbonara, and then went back to Rachel's where Erika, Libby, and Liz joined us for dinner.

This weekend was also Salzburg Jazz and the City, a series of performances around town. Erika had some friends from the Kopinghaus (sp?) who were going to check out some of the concerts going on. We met up with them and headed over to a small theater near Mirabellplatz. I was expecting some sort of loud standing room concert with too much noise and average music. Instead we walked into a small dark theater with seats and a piano on the stage. Perfect.

This particular performance consisted of a pianist with vocals accompanied by a trumpet. I'm sure there is a much musically correct way to describe that. **Just looked up the artists, they are Jens Thomas and Verneri Pohjola.

The music and vocals was such a great sound, rock covers with a slow, soulful jazz melody. At one point the pianist had one hand beating a drum and the other playing the piano.

I'd placed my empty glass under my seat, which I promptly knocked over with my foot. Kling klang kling klang. My glass was empty, so no there was no damage done there. The pianist started to sing "and then another glass...falls down." The audience burst out laughing and I slid into my seat as far down as I could go.


Today was a day trip to Mondsee with Rachel and Libby, and tomorrow (and Tuesday) I have off. My life here is pretty darn swell, it must be said.

Kids These Days: My First Week in Austrian Schools

 I.

By far the funniest part of my first week in Austrian schools was when the students would realize that I do speak German and that I could understand what they gossiping and whispering about. As part of my little introductory presentation, I mentioned I got my degree in German. The students all nodded along like uh huh ok but somehow didn't make the connection that getting my degree in German = I speak and understand German! So when I'd repeat in English what they were saying out loud they were all WhawhaWHAT OMG guys watch out she understands us!

I had been hoping to go see my schools before I started on my first day just to avoid any surprises in terms of transportation. Unfortunately I ended up being pretty busy my first week here so that never quite happened.

I've been assigned to teach in three schools. The first school is the Höhere Bundeslehranstalt für wirtschaftliche Berufe (henceforth the HBLA), located in Neumarkt am Wallersee, about a 40 minute commute from Salzburg. The second school, the Bundeshandelsakademie (HAK) is also located in Neumarkt.  My third school, the Bundes-Oberstufenrealgymnasium (BORG), is in the tiny town of Strasswalchen, a bit further out than Neumarkt. For my first day, I was to report to the HBLA and the HAK, which are conveniently located right across the street from one another.

The HBLA

The HAK

So far, in order to get to school in the mornings, I walk/bike/take the bus to the train station, take the train to Neumarkt or Strasswalchen, then catch another bus, then walk for about 10 minutes. There is a bus that goes directly there, but it is more expensive so far I've only done that a few times (**Update: I finally bit the bullet and bought a monatskarte, so bus it is). So it's not exactly the most straightforward route to get there. Also, getting up at 5:30 to be at school at 7:45 in time for first period blows.

I got to Neumarkt way early on my first day, just in case. I poked around town for a bit and then had a coffee right as the stammtisch crowd filtered in. Many people would say "Morgen" as I passed them. I definitely felt like I was getting looks from passerbys like, Hey, who are you and what are you doing in this small town?

I was a little worried because even though I'd made appointments with my Betreuungslehrerin (the teachers I report to at each school), I wasn't really sure where to find them within the schools. I walked into the HBLA and asked the first person I encountered where I might find my contact teacher. She was all, Oh hi language assistant nice to meet you come with me. So that was a relief, that someone knew to watch out for me.

This lady turned out to be the Sekretariat, which was even better, since I needed to submit a whole bunch of forms to her.  I stared filling out some paperwork, when all of as sudden I heard what was by far the loudest school bell of my entire life. I like to pretend that nobody saw me spaz out a bit when I heard it.

I met some teachers, the headmaster, and was shown around the Konferenzimmer, where I have a mailbox and all the teachers hang out in between classes. Teachers in Austria don't have their own classrooms, the students stay put and the teachers travel around the schools to them. So all the teachers work/hang out/gossip/drink coffee together in the Konferenzimmer. My Betreungslehrerin at the HBLA is super nice, as were all the teachers I was introduced to. I need to come up with blog nicknames for my teachers so you can all tell them apart.

So after the HBLA I headed across to the HAK to meet my second Betreungslehrerin. This time I went straight to the Sekretariat office, where they also knew to expect me, which was nice.  I really like my Betreuungslehrerin a lot there as well. She has a pretty snarky sense of humor to her. She takes 10 cents from the students every time they speak German in her class. I was given a key and a microchip thing to the conference room. Not gonna lie, that definitely made me feel pretty legit. I met some more teachers, was shown around a bit, same routine as before.

After the HAK, my HBLA teacher picked me up and drove us to her house, where we had cake and coffee with my Betreungslehrerin at the BORG. Having fun keeping up with all these acronyms yet? During our conversation we discovered that my BORG teacher's daughter lives in the same village in the Austrian boonies as my parents. My world really can't get any smaller at this point.

 II.

My first day of actual lessons was Wednesday at the HBLA. I put together a little powerpoint with pictures of my life and had the students ask me questions based on what they saw. Here's a sampling of what I got that day:

             "Do you have a boyfriend?"

             "Does McDonalds in America have delivery service?"

             "Do you smoke pot with your friends in America?"

             "What are you doing in Salzburg?"

             "Can you say something in German? Please please please?"

             "If you have to go to the bathroom, will the taxi driver in America pull off of the highway?"

I felt totally fine and not nervous in front of the students.  I was actually surprised at how un-nervous I felt. They were curious, if not a bit shy, and had an, um, interesting variety of questions.

The faculty lounge, however, is a different story. I feel like such a poser hanging out in there, even though that's where I'm supposed to be in between classes. Everyone has been really nice and helpful, but I guess it will take a little while for me to feel like my presence there is in fact not contaminating the water cooler.

My schedule is quite confusing. I pretty much have it down where and when I need to be at a certain school, but no clue as to which teacher I am with at any given time. So for the time being I have little choice but to follow my teachers around like a little dog. Woof.

Getting up at the ass crack of dawn manys morning to be at school by 7:30 or 8 sucks, but it was a good week otherwise.

III.

I'll have to dedicate another whole post on the Austrian school system.  Suffice to say it's nothing like the U.S. system.

In the U.S., we have basically one option for school from the ages 14-18: High School.  In Austria, you have many.

The HBLA is a school that focuses on tourism, cooking, and accounting in addition to your basic academic subjects. The school does offer the Matura, the qualifying exam Austrian students take to get into university,  just like British A-levels. There's also a shortened three year program know as the Fachschule (the teachers refer to them as the hopeless cases. I can't say I disagree after having taught one lesson to them). The school is almost entirely girls. When I asked the students what they wanted to do, almost all of them said something along the lines of working in a bank, office, or tourism. A handful in each class wanted to go on to university.

When you leave the HBLA, you'll leave with skills that can land you a decent job and salary for an 18 year old. That in a nutshell is the biggest difference between the U.S. and Austrian systems. In Austria, there's a heavy focus on apprenticeships and real-life work experience. It's possible to leave school at 16, start an apprenticeship (such as in IT, construction, or as a hair dresser), move up the rungs to a nicer job within the field, and make a decent living as an adult. On the other hand, if you drop out of high school at the age of 16 in the U.S., your are setting yourself up for a pretty difficult life.

The BORG is probably the closest thing to an American high school. The focus is on core academic subjects instead of practical skills, almost all students do the Matura and then go on to uni. On the totem pole of Austrian education, it's at the top. This is pretty apparent in class, out of all my schools, the BORG students have the highest level of English.

The HAK has a business and economics focus to it. I've only taught there for one day, but it was my best day yet. It seems to be a well-run school, the teachers were all very nice and the students very engaged. 

So in sum, the Austrian system has very regimented programs and a pretty wide variety of potential paths. That idea is that it prepares you whether you want to become a car mechanic or go for a PhD in Biochemistry. In the U.S., the hope is that every high school student will go on to college, with little to no focus on practical skills. Certainly an interesting contrast, with some serious pros and cons for each side.

The Hills Are Alive (But Only When They're Actually Open)

I.

My landlady and her husband speak in heavy Salzburger dialect. Which means that I understand about 65% of what she says, and that our conversations usually go something like this:

Landlady: "Have the roommates shown you how to use the washing machine yet?"
Me: "Nope, I don't start work until Monday."

Landlady's husband: "If you prefer, you can pay the rent in cash instead of with Dauerauftrag."
Me: "Yeah, I thought it was a beautiful day yesterday as well."

Her and her husband always have a way of looking highly amused every time I ring the doorbell to talk to them about something.

I admit that I have not taken a single picture of Salzburg so far...I know...now that everyone has arrived and orientation is behind us, all of us TAs here are just starting to explore and go on outings. Last night we met at a brewery, and today were are going to an opera. So I should have many more pictures to come soon!

In order for anything to get done in Austria, the stars must align and the gods must look favorably upon us. Which is why almost two weeks into my tenure here and I am still not registered with the local authorities.  Not that they care. Austria, being positioned between Italy and Germany, approaches rules in a sort of some-rules-are-made-to-be-broken way. So in order to register, the following needs to happen: I have to be in town, my landlady needs to be in town, and the Meldeamt needs to be open. In the entire time that I have been here, all of these things have only happened once, which was the afternoon I got here.

I don't really know how anything gets done in Austria, though you could easily add Germany and much of W. Europe to the mix. Banks, magistrates, and basically every institution necessary to establishing one's residency and LIFE are seemingly never open. Forget about getting anything of importance or of any official capacity done on the weekend or in the afternoon. I was able to get the brunt of it all figured out before I left for Saalbach, but I still have loose ends to tie up. And having left on Monday morning for orientation and gotten back on Friday afternoon, that's two weekends in a row, which means every place I need has been closed. So in sum...while it's not a difficult process, it is a long one!

My landlady is going to California next month to visit her son. She said she is excited to go to the store late on a weekend night to buy groceries. When I asked her on Friday if the Meldeamt was open that afternoon so that I could finally submit my registration papers, she laughed like it was the funniest thing she had heard all year: "Are you kidding me? On a Friday in Austria?"

Don't even get me started about the continuing nightmare that is setting up internet in my apartment. 


II.

I arrived in Salzburg on September 18th and immediately got to work completing the bureaucracy I described above. I was one of the first TAs to arrive in Salzburg, so I was really glad when Rachel arrived later in the week and I finally had some social interaction and someone to run boring errands with. The parentals came for the week (FREE FOOD AND EVERYTHING PAID FOR) and brought me my bike, which I've been using a lot to get around.

On Monday a big group of us British and American TAs here in Slzburg traveled to Saalbach Hinterglemm together for a week long orientation. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It was about as idyllic of a setting as it gets.

This last picture was taken when we went hiking one afternoon. Our orientation leaders, all either Austrian or having lived here for decades, described it as a "walk." The leaders, anywhere from 10-40 years our senior, practically ran straight up the mountain. The rest of us Americans and Brits, used to somewhat flatter landscapes, finally made it up the mountain in several ragged bands huffing and puffing the whole way.

This whole Salzburg experience  really proves what a small world we (or I?) live in...in addition to some Wooster friends who live in Salzburg or nearby, I met so many people at orientation with random connections to either Wooster or who know people there. Home away from Home!

The Tramp Decamps in Austria

I remember visiting Salzburg several times when I was about 13 or 14. At the time I thought it was pretty much the most boring place on planet earth.

Me: "This city is wayyyyy too small. Can't we just go on a Sound of Music tour and skip everything else?  Or at least can we go back to the hotel now pleeeaaassee!"

My mom: "Oh just watch out I bet you will live here one day!" 

Me: "Over my dead body. And I want a Magnum cone."

Fast forward almost ten years and I can say I am happy and excited to be back! Especially now that my bratty teenage self has been replaced by my responsible English-teacher self.

The moral of this story is that mothers are always right. 

I've been in Austria for about a week visiting the parentals in Mäder, Vorarlberg. I hadn't planned on updating the blog until I was officially moved in to my new diggs in Salzburg, but there's been plenty going on around here. Instead of recapping the past week, let's take a quiz.

View from Viktorsberg in Vorarlberg

Q. Which of the following events have taken place since I left for Austria?

a) During my eight-odd hour flight to Zurich, I did not wear any pants for about a good third of the flight. 
b) I had a cyst removed from my neck shortly after arriving.
c) I made last-minuted preparations for my move to Salzburg.
d) All of the above.

A. If you picked "d," you win.

a). I'm not a fan of flying (is anyone?) but I was particularly dreading this trip as it would involve lugging some massive suitcases containing my entire life halfway around the world. By the time I had weaseled my way out of several hundred dollars worth of overweight bag fees, cleared security, and arrived at my gate, I was ready to pass out. My seat partner ended up being a nice lady traveling back to India. I returned to my seat to find that I had, along with my seat partner, been served a specially ordered Indian vegetarian meal. We were both like, Huh? Do we look related? This was certainly fine with me, the meal consisted of some sort of vegetable curry that was really quite good and significantly better than the dog food the rest of the cabin got!

And then I dropped the can of club soda I was holding onto my lap. After about five moments of sitting in soaking wet pants, I had a Lady MacGyver Moment of Inspiration. I made sure I was completely covered with the airline-provided blanket from the waist down and wriggled right out of those jeans. My seat partner is to be commended for pretending this was totally normal behavior and not raising the alarm about the exhibitionist sitting next to her.

b). The Cyst. I'd felt a pretty significant lump on the side of my neck just the day before my flight. As some of you know, my neck has been the scene of some serious crises over the years. So of course I freaked out, which had me on the way to the doctors office shortly after I arrived in Mäder. Can I just say that it really helps to have doctor friends and family in situations like these. An ultrasound confirmed that there was indeed something there, so we made plans for some more scans and tests in preparation for surgery next week to remove what I was completely sure was a positive lymph node.

I had been hoping for a somewhat less dramatic first week in Austria...Only the next day, during the biopsy, to find that what everyone (me and the doctors) thought was a lymph node was only a cyst that had filled with blood. In other words, totally harmless. Crisis averted.


c). Unlocked my phone, conferred with my landlady, applied for my Vorteilskarte....not much to report here.

d). You won.

See you next week in Salzburg, at least I hope so! Although given my track record for this week it would not be entirely unrealistic for something else to go completely haywire and for all we know my next update could be from Helsinki.