The sky produced white again today. I do remember wanting snow back in January, but I take that all back now. I am proud of me though I did go for a run. I really really didn't want to go, but I run in a big circle on Sunday. Oh and I learned that the purple flowers are called Leberblume: Liver Flowers. In spite of the their name they are quite pretty. Also the Snow Drops were out in force before it snowed on them again Monday. Spring really is trying. I have faith it will make it.
Suz
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Much has Happened
It is the middle of March. Time for an update. The problem is that so much has happened in the last month that I am going to again to resort to list form. Otherwise this will be an update of epic proportion that no one really want to read anyways.
Lets see start:
Weekend of Feb 7-8th went to see Peter's final presentation of his car. He designed small electric cargo van for city contractors. It is quite interesting. I caught a ride with his parents. Because they were leaving so early in the morning I spent the night at his parents house without him. I also got to meet the grandparents who had just stopped by from Prague, and the cousin, and brothers etc. It was fun though.
Long weekend Feb 13-15th Peter and I went to Prague. His grandparents have an apartment there. Was great to be a tourist with your own apartment. We went to see a play at the national theater. It cost 50 Czech crown (koruna) which converts to less then $2.50. We sat way up high, and had binoculars and were all fancy. The National Theater is beautiful inside. The play was in Czech. I don't understand Czech. Peter speaks some. The play had enough action, and not a lot of really long dialogs, so with Peter's translations I could understand mostly what was going on. It was definitely worth the $2.50. It was a good imte
Feb 15-Feb 23 My mommy visited me. I went straight from Prague to Munich. I picked her up from the airport. The first two days we touristed, and visited in Murnau, and Munich. We ate, and then ate some more. Next stop was Salzburg. Unbeknown to us this would be our last day of sun/decent weather. We spent most of our time either eating, or going up to place where you could look out across the City. Salzburg has a burg (castle) it is very cool. Thursday night through Monday afternoon we explored Salzkammergut (the area of the Austria Alps where I live). We had miserable weather. It snowed...A LOT. My mommy saw no mountains. It was sad. I kept telling here behind those clouds are amazing mountains. She didn't believe me. Though she did get to experience some Fasching. This is the Austrian version of Marty Gra. She got to see the Fetzenumzug. It's celebrated in Ebensee, and is the opposite of Venice Carnival. Instead of elaborately beautiful costumes, they wear fetzen (rags), and have grotesque carved masks. Here is a picture: http://www.ebensee.at/foto/Fetzen1.jpg I did not take it. Haven't had the time to organize me pictures. Someday I'll put up my pictures. Despite snow it was a good time.
Feb 27th Sissi Party. Sissi was the Kaiserin of Astria from 1854-1898. She did not have a happy life. But there were films made of her life in the 1950s. Think Gone with the Wind without the Civil War. Pretty dresses, a love story, and a happy end. Chick Flick extream. Sissi met Franz Josef the Kaiser of Austria in Bad Ischl. Therefore I decided to have a Sissi Party. It had two types of cake, noodle kugel, Feuerzangenbowle. We did only watch the first of the three movies, and then Barfuss. An another chick flick, but a good one. It was a good time all around.
Feb 28th-March 1st I was a surprise guest at Rita's birthday party. She didn't invite me, because she knew I was having a Sissi party. When I walked in she was opening a present. So I stood next to her. Then I had to start laughing. She looked up confused because she couldn't figure out who was laughing. When she saw me her expression was great. The rest of her birthday was nice: Good food, and good company, aka a good time.
March 8th-13th I got to go on Ski Week with my school. All schools in Austria go skiing for a week. In the HAK (one of my schools) it is the 15/16 year olds that go skiing. I got invited along. I had not been skiing for about 2 years. SHAME ON ME. Yes I live in the Alps. Yes I should have done gone skiing more this winter, but me had no time. Plus ski boot hurt my feet. It was fun, but I was super tired by the end of the week. It was good to meet up with my students outside of school. I now have a much better at understanding the local dialect. Also on the last night we went out to the disco with about 15 of the students. Where I officially did not see them drinking any alcohol. It was definitely an interesting experience, and something that could never happen in the US. It was a good time.
March 13-15 I am home in Bad Ischl this weekend trying to get caught up on all the things I haven't done in weeks. Like updating my blog, writing letters, cleaning my bathroom, reading my book. (side note did you know: "Percentage by which the average incidence of fires and traffic accidents on Fridays the 13th differ from that of other Fridays: -4%" Harper's Index) On Friday I got back around 12:30 in the afternoon. I came home, ate some lunch, and then about 4 PM I decided that I wanted to read in bed for a bit. I am reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. It is a great book... After about 2hrs of reading I closed my eyes and woke up the next morning. Saturday was quite productive. Today it is raining cats and dogs. I'm staying home and continuing to be productive. Or at least that is my goal. I'm almost completely preped for Monday, and my blog is almost done and it is only noon thirty. So proud. Hopefully the rest of the day will be so productive.
Upcoming events: March 29th Freiburg half marathon. Yup not quite in the shape I should be, but I hope to survive, and not be the last person across the finish line. Yesterday I went on the slowest run ever. My head hurt to run. Might take today off due to pouring rain.
April 3-13th Nita and Chloe are visiting me!!!!
There I tried to keep it short. It is hard when I've been so busy. Does make one appreciate having a weekend at home.
Hope you all are doing well.
Lets see start:
Weekend of Feb 7-8th went to see Peter's final presentation of his car. He designed small electric cargo van for city contractors. It is quite interesting. I caught a ride with his parents. Because they were leaving so early in the morning I spent the night at his parents house without him. I also got to meet the grandparents who had just stopped by from Prague, and the cousin, and brothers etc. It was fun though.
Long weekend Feb 13-15th Peter and I went to Prague. His grandparents have an apartment there. Was great to be a tourist with your own apartment. We went to see a play at the national theater. It cost 50 Czech crown (koruna) which converts to less then $2.50. We sat way up high, and had binoculars and were all fancy. The National Theater is beautiful inside. The play was in Czech. I don't understand Czech. Peter speaks some. The play had enough action, and not a lot of really long dialogs, so with Peter's translations I could understand mostly what was going on. It was definitely worth the $2.50. It was a good imte
Feb 15-Feb 23 My mommy visited me. I went straight from Prague to Munich. I picked her up from the airport. The first two days we touristed, and visited in Murnau, and Munich. We ate, and then ate some more. Next stop was Salzburg. Unbeknown to us this would be our last day of sun/decent weather. We spent most of our time either eating, or going up to place where you could look out across the City. Salzburg has a burg (castle) it is very cool. Thursday night through Monday afternoon we explored Salzkammergut (the area of the Austria Alps where I live). We had miserable weather. It snowed...A LOT. My mommy saw no mountains. It was sad. I kept telling here behind those clouds are amazing mountains. She didn't believe me. Though she did get to experience some Fasching. This is the Austrian version of Marty Gra. She got to see the Fetzenumzug. It's celebrated in Ebensee, and is the opposite of Venice Carnival. Instead of elaborately beautiful costumes, they wear fetzen (rags), and have grotesque carved masks. Here is a picture: http://www.ebensee.at/foto/Fetzen1.jpg I did not take it. Haven't had the time to organize me pictures. Someday I'll put up my pictures. Despite snow it was a good time.
Feb 27th Sissi Party. Sissi was the Kaiserin of Astria from 1854-1898. She did not have a happy life. But there were films made of her life in the 1950s. Think Gone with the Wind without the Civil War. Pretty dresses, a love story, and a happy end. Chick Flick extream. Sissi met Franz Josef the Kaiser of Austria in Bad Ischl. Therefore I decided to have a Sissi Party. It had two types of cake, noodle kugel, Feuerzangenbowle. We did only watch the first of the three movies, and then Barfuss. An another chick flick, but a good one. It was a good time all around.
Feb 28th-March 1st I was a surprise guest at Rita's birthday party. She didn't invite me, because she knew I was having a Sissi party. When I walked in she was opening a present. So I stood next to her. Then I had to start laughing. She looked up confused because she couldn't figure out who was laughing. When she saw me her expression was great. The rest of her birthday was nice: Good food, and good company, aka a good time.
March 8th-13th I got to go on Ski Week with my school. All schools in Austria go skiing for a week. In the HAK (one of my schools) it is the 15/16 year olds that go skiing. I got invited along. I had not been skiing for about 2 years. SHAME ON ME. Yes I live in the Alps. Yes I should have done gone skiing more this winter, but me had no time. Plus ski boot hurt my feet. It was fun, but I was super tired by the end of the week. It was good to meet up with my students outside of school. I now have a much better at understanding the local dialect. Also on the last night we went out to the disco with about 15 of the students. Where I officially did not see them drinking any alcohol. It was definitely an interesting experience, and something that could never happen in the US. It was a good time.
March 13-15 I am home in Bad Ischl this weekend trying to get caught up on all the things I haven't done in weeks. Like updating my blog, writing letters, cleaning my bathroom, reading my book. (side note did you know: "Percentage by which the average incidence of fires and traffic accidents on Fridays the 13th differ from that of other Fridays: -4%" Harper's Index) On Friday I got back around 12:30 in the afternoon. I came home, ate some lunch, and then about 4 PM I decided that I wanted to read in bed for a bit. I am reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. It is a great book... After about 2hrs of reading I closed my eyes and woke up the next morning. Saturday was quite productive. Today it is raining cats and dogs. I'm staying home and continuing to be productive. Or at least that is my goal. I'm almost completely preped for Monday, and my blog is almost done and it is only noon thirty. So proud. Hopefully the rest of the day will be so productive.
Upcoming events: March 29th Freiburg half marathon. Yup not quite in the shape I should be, but I hope to survive, and not be the last person across the finish line. Yesterday I went on the slowest run ever. My head hurt to run. Might take today off due to pouring rain.
April 3-13th Nita and Chloe are visiting me!!!!
There I tried to keep it short. It is hard when I've been so busy. Does make one appreciate having a weekend at home.
Hope you all are doing well.
Went for a run
So I did end up going for a run. I really do like running in the rain. I just don't like the idea of running in the rain. But I noticed two things on my run today. First small purple flowers on the side of the road. They look like snow drops, but were the color of purple crocuses. Second I was amazed at how many Austrians were simply out for a walk in the rain. It's not a nice day outside, but they were out and about.
Friday, February 6, 2009
A month in a list
Time for an update. The world of Suz is ticking along. There has been a virus going around facebook. I like to call it the facebook 25 virus. For the nonfacebook readers it works like this. Someone wrote 25 random facts about themselves, and then tagged (sent) it to 25 of their friends. These friends are supposed to write 25 random facts, and tag 25 new people. So everyday I check facebook, and find out random facts about friends/acquaintances. For me the byproduct is I've started to think in a continuous random list of 25. It's bad. So this entry is going to be a list of maybe 25 things that happened to me in the last month.
1. The 5th of January was Glöcklerlaufin Salzkammergut. This is a celebration to bring in the New Year. The fire departments, and boy scouts dress in white and wear large hats made of paper lit with candles. The kids have smaller hats. Here is some pictures from the Bad Ischl scouts: http://www.pfadischl.at/content/view/65/42/. It were pretty. It is called the Glöcklerlauf: Glocke: is bell. Glockle is a person who wears a bell. And lauf means run. Not only do they wear hats, but they also have massive cow bells on their backs which are constantly ringing. So it sounds like a huge herd of cattle have invaded the city. The festivities started at 5PM. I thought they started at 6, and so missed seeing the Three Kings ride through the streets, and sing, because I was in the middle of a run. The different groups parade through the streets. They run in figure eights, and then when the leader gives a signal they stop and kneel down to welcome in the new year. This lasted until 7ish, when the Glockler groups then disperse in different directions. This is also a fund raiser there was someone collecting money in town, and then the different groups knock on doors of those people who live outside of the center of town, and ask for money.
2. Suz keeps forgetting to bring her camera with her. So no new pictures in Picasa. Sorry.
3. School started again. It was difficult for me to get back into the rhythm of schooling. The first week that was only 3 days long was really really long. But this past week went really well. I feel like I'm getting the swing of things. Just in time for another vacation in 2 weeks. Yippy.
4. My mommy is coming to visit me. They are building a house, and apparently houses have to be build when the weather is above freezing. Aka spring and summer. Also my parents don't think a house can be built by itself, and supervision is needed. The moral of this story is they couldn't visit me later in the spring like originally planed, so my mother is coming in a little over a week to see winter Bad Ischl. I hope the weather is good for her visit. I don't know how much snow there will be. Yesterday was in the 50s, but a week before it snowed. We have very moody weather here. It can't make up it's mind.
5. I spent the first two weekend in Bad Ischl. My desk is (ok was) organized.
6. I sent in my application for being a Teaching Assistant again next year. After some last minute complication it hopefully is currently sitting in Vienna waiting for a YES we would love to give Suzanne a second year as a teaching assistant.
7. I cleaned my apartment completely for the first time. The dust bunnies in my bedroom were not pleased. I think I won the battle, the war is still undecided. (I do clean the bathroom/kitchen/living room about every 2 weeks).
8. I found that rice made with half coconut milk and half water and then adding fresh mango to it is amazing.
9. Cream of wheat made with half milk half coconut milk is also amazing. I have a weakness for both coconut milk and cream of wheat.
10. I have a new assignment notebook. Exciting, except for the part I put it in my bag with my cup that wasn't closed write. Now it's a tea-y assignmentbook.
11. I visited Freiburg again, and this time kept my nose out of the tea. I went for a dance/ball. I got all dressed up, and Regina did my hair. I looked all fancy. It was a good time. The real reason I spent 8.5 hrs of my life in the train was not to dance, but to see Regina's play. Alban Stolz Haus which is the dorm I lived puts on a play every semester. The actors a mix of experienced, and people who have never been on stage before. Regina is amazing. She was the maid in "eingebildeten Kranken" von Molière. It was great, and worth the 8+hr ride.
12. I've gotten old. Two days of going to bed after 3AM knocked me out.
13. I went snow shoeing. Florent, the French Teaching Assistant and I explored the Postalm. The trials that we fallowed were “well marked.” We never did get lost, we just weren't always sure that we really were going in the direction we wanted to.
14. I got a cold. It is lame. At the same time my back decided to inform me that it didn't like me. Lame squared. I have no heat pad, but my radiator worked great.
15. My lap top was sick. It inhaled too much stuff, and it's fan got clogged. I had to take it to the shop. They fixed the fan, and charged me only 20€ instead of 60€. Unfortunately they didn't hook up the battery and speakers right. So I had to go back again and get that fixed. Now it seems happy. A laptop without a battery kind of defeated the purpose.
16. This weekend I'm going to see Peter's final project. He designed the exterior of a small electric van for city construction workers. I've heard a lot about it, and it should be interesting. It is white.
17. I have started baking bread.
18. I learned why walking sticks are useful. If one were to say go hiking up a mountain say in the middle of the winter. Going up is fine, but coming down is really really slippery. Also probably not the best way to get rid of a head/chest cold. Pretty view from the top though. Also on the way down accidentally broke into the Kaiserville. The path went through a gap in the fence. It was a lot harder to find a way to break back out. I ended up climbing over the fence. Also learned you can let bread rise for 2.5 hrs instead of just 1 and it still tastes good.
19. Nineteen is a prime number.
20. I have made the executive decision that this will be a list of 20 not 25.
1. The 5th of January was Glöcklerlaufin Salzkammergut. This is a celebration to bring in the New Year. The fire departments, and boy scouts dress in white and wear large hats made of paper lit with candles. The kids have smaller hats. Here is some pictures from the Bad Ischl scouts: http://www.pfadischl.at/content/view/65/42/. It were pretty. It is called the Glöcklerlauf: Glocke: is bell. Glockle is a person who wears a bell. And lauf means run. Not only do they wear hats, but they also have massive cow bells on their backs which are constantly ringing. So it sounds like a huge herd of cattle have invaded the city. The festivities started at 5PM. I thought they started at 6, and so missed seeing the Three Kings ride through the streets, and sing, because I was in the middle of a run. The different groups parade through the streets. They run in figure eights, and then when the leader gives a signal they stop and kneel down to welcome in the new year. This lasted until 7ish, when the Glockler groups then disperse in different directions. This is also a fund raiser there was someone collecting money in town, and then the different groups knock on doors of those people who live outside of the center of town, and ask for money.
2. Suz keeps forgetting to bring her camera with her. So no new pictures in Picasa. Sorry.
3. School started again. It was difficult for me to get back into the rhythm of schooling. The first week that was only 3 days long was really really long. But this past week went really well. I feel like I'm getting the swing of things. Just in time for another vacation in 2 weeks. Yippy.
4. My mommy is coming to visit me. They are building a house, and apparently houses have to be build when the weather is above freezing. Aka spring and summer. Also my parents don't think a house can be built by itself, and supervision is needed. The moral of this story is they couldn't visit me later in the spring like originally planed, so my mother is coming in a little over a week to see winter Bad Ischl. I hope the weather is good for her visit. I don't know how much snow there will be. Yesterday was in the 50s, but a week before it snowed. We have very moody weather here. It can't make up it's mind.
5. I spent the first two weekend in Bad Ischl. My desk is (ok was) organized.
6. I sent in my application for being a Teaching Assistant again next year. After some last minute complication it hopefully is currently sitting in Vienna waiting for a YES we would love to give Suzanne a second year as a teaching assistant.
7. I cleaned my apartment completely for the first time. The dust bunnies in my bedroom were not pleased. I think I won the battle, the war is still undecided. (I do clean the bathroom/kitchen/living room about every 2 weeks).
8. I found that rice made with half coconut milk and half water and then adding fresh mango to it is amazing.
9. Cream of wheat made with half milk half coconut milk is also amazing. I have a weakness for both coconut milk and cream of wheat.
10. I have a new assignment notebook. Exciting, except for the part I put it in my bag with my cup that wasn't closed write. Now it's a tea-y assignmentbook.
11. I visited Freiburg again, and this time kept my nose out of the tea. I went for a dance/ball. I got all dressed up, and Regina did my hair. I looked all fancy. It was a good time. The real reason I spent 8.5 hrs of my life in the train was not to dance, but to see Regina's play. Alban Stolz Haus which is the dorm I lived puts on a play every semester. The actors a mix of experienced, and people who have never been on stage before. Regina is amazing. She was the maid in "eingebildeten Kranken" von Molière. It was great, and worth the 8+hr ride.
12. I've gotten old. Two days of going to bed after 3AM knocked me out.
13. I went snow shoeing. Florent, the French Teaching Assistant and I explored the Postalm. The trials that we fallowed were “well marked.” We never did get lost, we just weren't always sure that we really were going in the direction we wanted to.
14. I got a cold. It is lame. At the same time my back decided to inform me that it didn't like me. Lame squared. I have no heat pad, but my radiator worked great.
15. My lap top was sick. It inhaled too much stuff, and it's fan got clogged. I had to take it to the shop. They fixed the fan, and charged me only 20€ instead of 60€. Unfortunately they didn't hook up the battery and speakers right. So I had to go back again and get that fixed. Now it seems happy. A laptop without a battery kind of defeated the purpose.
16. This weekend I'm going to see Peter's final project. He designed the exterior of a small electric van for city construction workers. I've heard a lot about it, and it should be interesting. It is white.
17. I have started baking bread.
18. I learned why walking sticks are useful. If one were to say go hiking up a mountain say in the middle of the winter. Going up is fine, but coming down is really really slippery. Also probably not the best way to get rid of a head/chest cold. Pretty view from the top though. Also on the way down accidentally broke into the Kaiserville. The path went through a gap in the fence. It was a lot harder to find a way to break back out. I ended up climbing over the fence. Also learned you can let bread rise for 2.5 hrs instead of just 1 and it still tastes good.
19. Nineteen is a prime number.
20. I have made the executive decision that this will be a list of 20 not 25.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Update from a bus
Short version: I traveled, ate, burnt my nose, and overall had a good vacation.
Longer version:
I am on my way back to Bad Ischl after a two week trip visiting friends in Germany and celebrating Christmas and New Years. The two weeks before Christmas were filled with visiting Christmas Markets, drinking Gluhwein (mulled red wine) and Punch (sugared tea with rum), getting all my Christmas presents finished, baking Christmas cookies, eating way way too many christmas cookies...experiencing the usual before Christmas stress. I had school Monday the 22nd and Tuesday the 23rd before Christmas, but asked for them off. (I love my job that isn't really a job).
So my holiday started on Thursday the 18th of December. I had two classes and then headed back to my apartment, grabbed my as usual overly large back pack, and jumped on the bus-train-trian-Straßenbahn to Stock 12 in Freiburg, Germany. What is absolutely amazing about the following adventures around Germany and Austria is in the last 2 weeks I have taken 8 trians, 2 buses, and 2 Straßenbahns and have had a total of 5 minutes of delay, and no missed connections. I need some wood to knock on, cause under usual circumstances that is just not possible for the Deutsche Bahn/ÖBB. Stock 12 was the floor I lived on in the student dorms 2 years ago. We had a good time. I learned that there are such things as Advent Songs (sung during advent), and Christmas Songs (sung at or after Christmas). Many of the people who lived there when I did have since moved out, but the newbies seem to be good people too. The other exciting event that happened in Freiburg is I burnt my nose. I was trying out a new sort of tea and wanted to smell it after I had just poured boiling water over it. Yup I stuck my nose in boiling water, and ended up getting a blister on the end of my nose. It hurt, but I couldn't stop laughing, cause honestly who burns their nose in tea?
Next stop Munich to visit Peter. We went to a poetry slam. Which I was able to understand almost everything. So proud. It was more standup/poetry slam. Some people were good, and some not so, but there was a good balance.
Next stop Murnau to see the Glück family. As usual my kids keep getting bigger. We watch videos from when I was their nanny five years ago. Super cute, and luckily staring mostly the kids, and not Suz.
The Christmas stop was in the Rauth a 400 year old farm house in the middle of the alps in Tirol. I celebrated it with my German family. I am so lucky to have 3 families. My family in the US, my nanny family the Glücks, and the Büttners, the family I lived with the year I nannied. I was so glad to celebrate Christmas with the Büttners. I did have some moments of homesickness, but I got to talk to my Mommy and Daddy shortly which helped. I spent a week in the Rauth. I ate too much. Won at cards, (ok I lost too, but that isn't important). Unfortunately the snow was on the icy side, so instead of skiing I snow shoed up the ski slopes, and back down. Did get a few funny looks for that one, but that never stopped me. Read my book. And am almost finished with my application for doing a second year as a Teaching Assistant in Bad Ischl. (I hate writing applications, but Rita and Rupi helped me make it sound all smart.)
Final stop was Ebersburg to celebrate New Years with Peter. We had a good one inclusive Cheese Fondue, a night bike ride, and a small fire.
Now I am back in Bad Ischl with 2 weeks of dirty laundry. Oh so much fun, but I am excited to no longer be living out of a back pack aka living out of the pile of stuff that exploded from my back pack everytime I stopped somewhere.
That is the snooze from this side of the ocean. School starts up next week on Wednesday. I liked having vacation, unfortunately my bank account did not. Oh the real world.
I wish all of my blog readers (this sum I am assuming is greater then or equal to zero) a good 2009. Or as they say in German ein guter Rutsch ins neues Jahr: A good slide into the New Year.
Longer version:
I am on my way back to Bad Ischl after a two week trip visiting friends in Germany and celebrating Christmas and New Years. The two weeks before Christmas were filled with visiting Christmas Markets, drinking Gluhwein (mulled red wine) and Punch (sugared tea with rum), getting all my Christmas presents finished, baking Christmas cookies, eating way way too many christmas cookies...experiencing the usual before Christmas stress. I had school Monday the 22nd and Tuesday the 23rd before Christmas, but asked for them off. (I love my job that isn't really a job).
So my holiday started on Thursday the 18th of December. I had two classes and then headed back to my apartment, grabbed my as usual overly large back pack, and jumped on the bus-train-trian-Straßenbahn to Stock 12 in Freiburg, Germany. What is absolutely amazing about the following adventures around Germany and Austria is in the last 2 weeks I have taken 8 trians, 2 buses, and 2 Straßenbahns and have had a total of 5 minutes of delay, and no missed connections. I need some wood to knock on, cause under usual circumstances that is just not possible for the Deutsche Bahn/ÖBB. Stock 12 was the floor I lived on in the student dorms 2 years ago. We had a good time. I learned that there are such things as Advent Songs (sung during advent), and Christmas Songs (sung at or after Christmas). Many of the people who lived there when I did have since moved out, but the newbies seem to be good people too. The other exciting event that happened in Freiburg is I burnt my nose. I was trying out a new sort of tea and wanted to smell it after I had just poured boiling water over it. Yup I stuck my nose in boiling water, and ended up getting a blister on the end of my nose. It hurt, but I couldn't stop laughing, cause honestly who burns their nose in tea?
Next stop Munich to visit Peter. We went to a poetry slam. Which I was able to understand almost everything. So proud. It was more standup/poetry slam. Some people were good, and some not so, but there was a good balance.
Next stop Murnau to see the Glück family. As usual my kids keep getting bigger. We watch videos from when I was their nanny five years ago. Super cute, and luckily staring mostly the kids, and not Suz.
The Christmas stop was in the Rauth a 400 year old farm house in the middle of the alps in Tirol. I celebrated it with my German family. I am so lucky to have 3 families. My family in the US, my nanny family the Glücks, and the Büttners, the family I lived with the year I nannied. I was so glad to celebrate Christmas with the Büttners. I did have some moments of homesickness, but I got to talk to my Mommy and Daddy shortly which helped. I spent a week in the Rauth. I ate too much. Won at cards, (ok I lost too, but that isn't important). Unfortunately the snow was on the icy side, so instead of skiing I snow shoed up the ski slopes, and back down. Did get a few funny looks for that one, but that never stopped me. Read my book. And am almost finished with my application for doing a second year as a Teaching Assistant in Bad Ischl. (I hate writing applications, but Rita and Rupi helped me make it sound all smart.)
Final stop was Ebersburg to celebrate New Years with Peter. We had a good one inclusive Cheese Fondue, a night bike ride, and a small fire.
Now I am back in Bad Ischl with 2 weeks of dirty laundry. Oh so much fun, but I am excited to no longer be living out of a back pack aka living out of the pile of stuff that exploded from my back pack everytime I stopped somewhere.
That is the snooze from this side of the ocean. School starts up next week on Wednesday. I liked having vacation, unfortunately my bank account did not. Oh the real world.
I wish all of my blog readers (this sum I am assuming is greater then or equal to zero) a good 2009. Or as they say in German ein guter Rutsch ins neues Jahr: A good slide into the New Year.
Friday, December 12, 2008
I have been a bad Blogger
Somehow almost a month has disappeared since the last time I updated. I keep meaning to post, but then somehow I get distracted. So today I am not allowed to go to bed, before I finish updating. Then I can cross one more thing off the overly long list of things to complete before Christmas. Side note, how did Christmas go from being a long ways off to under 2 weeks away?
In the life of Suz things have been going pretty good. School has being going well. I am currently reusing many of my lessons, which means that overall I don't have that much preping to do. My current topics are Swearing, Ugliness, Bike and Build, Civil Rights, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Ugliness has been a really interesting topic to do. I have the students define beauty and ugly for me, and each class has approached the topic differently. One class had no trouble defining an ugly person, but a lot of difficulty defining ugly clothing, while another younger class said "we can't define an ugly person because that would be mean." I decided to do this topic because of the New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/fashion/30ugly.html?pagewanted=all. I had to shorten it alot to use it in class. The problem with the NY Times is although there are often very interesting article its level of English is too hard for my students. I must also admit that I have been kind of bad with copy right laws. I do change my articles so that my students will be able to understand them with out properly documenting it. Ooops. Please don't arrest me.
I have spent the past week being pensive, because if I want to do a second year in Austria as a teaching assistant, I need to complete my application by January 10th. That is not far away. I am not ready to make such decisions. I have decided to apply for a second year, and then see if I get accepted. The other decision that I need to make is whether or not I want to stay in Bad Ischl or try and move to a city where I could study. I started to look into what I would need to do to teach Math in Austria, and I would practically have to start studying all over again aka another 3-4 years on the university in Austria vs. 1-2 years in the USA. So pretty much I have spent a lot of time thinking about the future, and haven't come to any decisions yet. I mean I might win the lottery, and never have to work again...Ok I would actually have to buy a lottery ticket, but even so this probablity is not equal to zero since I could find the winning lottery ticket on the street. One must keep all options open.
I have also spent a lot of time reflecting on the last 2 months. I feel like in I have made progress. One thing I am much better at is working with text in the classroom. I am getting better at realizing that the blank stares from a class means that what I just said made no sense. I am working on getting better at rephrasing questions in simpler terms. I need to work on having more discussion questions prepared for classes that don't speak. I have some classes, that you introduce a topic, and 50 minutes later you have to figure out how to bring the discussion to an end. Other classes you ask them one question after next and get only yes/no responses. These classes are much harder to teach. I also need to work on making sure that everyone in a class joins in a discussion, not just 3 or 4 people. This week in some ways has been really good for me because it has made me reassess my goals for this year. It has made me think about what I could do better, and what I do well. The problem is for my application I have to write the reasons that I want to be a TA again next year. It is hard to find reasons that aren't cliches. I want to stay cause it is fun, and I don't know what else to do with my life next year. I HATE writing applications, but I am starting to get somewhere on it.
Other then school life has been going pretty good. I have been keeping myself occupied with running, reading book/news paper, meeting up with Heather and Florent the other TAs in Bad Ischl, visiting Weihnachts marken (christmas markets), baking bread, eating cake, traveling... Two weeks ago I went to Vienna to celebrate Thanksgiving with Alison, Francis and other Grinnellians who are in Austria, Germany, and France as TAs. I know Alison, and Francis from my year in Freiburg. It was great to see them, and we made an amazing Turkey day meal. I ate WAY too much. My tummy hated me. Last weekend I went to visit Peter in Pforzheim, Germany. This weekend I am staying in Bad Ischl, kind of. Tomorrow I am headed with another TA to Salzburg to visit their Christmas Market. We shall look at kitschig(tacky) Christmas things, and enjoy Glühwein (hot mulled wine). It should be a good day. My first land lady has also taken me under her wing. We have English lessons. Which means she invites me out to eat lunch, or takes me to amazing places in Salzkammergut (the region of Austria I am in), and as payment we speak English. I think I get the better end of this deal. I just have to speak my native language. So overall I have been able to keep myself pretty busy. After Christmas I am hoping to start skiing, either cross country or down hill. The mountains opened up 2 weeks ago, but here in the valley we've only gotten a rain snow mixture. I have hope for snow when I return after Christmas.
My Christmas vacation starts next Thursday. I have 2 classes in the Morning, then jump on a train for 8.5hrs to Freiburg. I am super excited. Then I head to Pforzheim to see Peter. Then I am going back to Munich/Murau/Triol to celebrate Christmas with my German host Family. I am again super excited. The only problem is I've only bought 3 Christmas gifts so far. Hmm...
Ok I think it is time for me to head to bed, but I get to check off one more thing on my list of things to do. I love doing that the only problem is usually I don't get around to making the to do list. This time I have 3 different ones going. Oops, probably not the best organization idea. But three is greater the one, so three list have be better then one. Happy holidays if there is anyone out there that is still reading my blog.
In the life of Suz things have been going pretty good. School has being going well. I am currently reusing many of my lessons, which means that overall I don't have that much preping to do. My current topics are Swearing, Ugliness, Bike and Build, Civil Rights, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Ugliness has been a really interesting topic to do. I have the students define beauty and ugly for me, and each class has approached the topic differently. One class had no trouble defining an ugly person, but a lot of difficulty defining ugly clothing, while another younger class said "we can't define an ugly person because that would be mean." I decided to do this topic because of the New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/fashion/30ugly.html?pagewanted=all. I had to shorten it alot to use it in class. The problem with the NY Times is although there are often very interesting article its level of English is too hard for my students. I must also admit that I have been kind of bad with copy right laws. I do change my articles so that my students will be able to understand them with out properly documenting it. Ooops. Please don't arrest me.
I have spent the past week being pensive, because if I want to do a second year in Austria as a teaching assistant, I need to complete my application by January 10th. That is not far away. I am not ready to make such decisions. I have decided to apply for a second year, and then see if I get accepted. The other decision that I need to make is whether or not I want to stay in Bad Ischl or try and move to a city where I could study. I started to look into what I would need to do to teach Math in Austria, and I would practically have to start studying all over again aka another 3-4 years on the university in Austria vs. 1-2 years in the USA. So pretty much I have spent a lot of time thinking about the future, and haven't come to any decisions yet. I mean I might win the lottery, and never have to work again...Ok I would actually have to buy a lottery ticket, but even so this probablity is not equal to zero since I could find the winning lottery ticket on the street. One must keep all options open.
I have also spent a lot of time reflecting on the last 2 months. I feel like in I have made progress. One thing I am much better at is working with text in the classroom. I am getting better at realizing that the blank stares from a class means that what I just said made no sense. I am working on getting better at rephrasing questions in simpler terms. I need to work on having more discussion questions prepared for classes that don't speak. I have some classes, that you introduce a topic, and 50 minutes later you have to figure out how to bring the discussion to an end. Other classes you ask them one question after next and get only yes/no responses. These classes are much harder to teach. I also need to work on making sure that everyone in a class joins in a discussion, not just 3 or 4 people. This week in some ways has been really good for me because it has made me reassess my goals for this year. It has made me think about what I could do better, and what I do well. The problem is for my application I have to write the reasons that I want to be a TA again next year. It is hard to find reasons that aren't cliches. I want to stay cause it is fun, and I don't know what else to do with my life next year. I HATE writing applications, but I am starting to get somewhere on it.
Other then school life has been going pretty good. I have been keeping myself occupied with running, reading book/news paper, meeting up with Heather and Florent the other TAs in Bad Ischl, visiting Weihnachts marken (christmas markets), baking bread, eating cake, traveling... Two weeks ago I went to Vienna to celebrate Thanksgiving with Alison, Francis and other Grinnellians who are in Austria, Germany, and France as TAs. I know Alison, and Francis from my year in Freiburg. It was great to see them, and we made an amazing Turkey day meal. I ate WAY too much. My tummy hated me. Last weekend I went to visit Peter in Pforzheim, Germany. This weekend I am staying in Bad Ischl, kind of. Tomorrow I am headed with another TA to Salzburg to visit their Christmas Market. We shall look at kitschig(tacky) Christmas things, and enjoy Glühwein (hot mulled wine). It should be a good day. My first land lady has also taken me under her wing. We have English lessons. Which means she invites me out to eat lunch, or takes me to amazing places in Salzkammergut (the region of Austria I am in), and as payment we speak English. I think I get the better end of this deal. I just have to speak my native language. So overall I have been able to keep myself pretty busy. After Christmas I am hoping to start skiing, either cross country or down hill. The mountains opened up 2 weeks ago, but here in the valley we've only gotten a rain snow mixture. I have hope for snow when I return after Christmas.
My Christmas vacation starts next Thursday. I have 2 classes in the Morning, then jump on a train for 8.5hrs to Freiburg. I am super excited. Then I head to Pforzheim to see Peter. Then I am going back to Munich/Murau/Triol to celebrate Christmas with my German host Family. I am again super excited. The only problem is I've only bought 3 Christmas gifts so far. Hmm...
Ok I think it is time for me to head to bed, but I get to check off one more thing on my list of things to do. I love doing that the only problem is usually I don't get around to making the to do list. This time I have 3 different ones going. Oops, probably not the best organization idea. But three is greater the one, so three list have be better then one. Happy holidays if there is anyone out there that is still reading my blog.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
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