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!