Christmas means Krampus.

In many ways, Christmas in Austria means much the same as it does in England; Christmas trees, Christmas carols, a time for family and friends, mulled wine (or Gluhwein as it's called here), roasted chestnuts (or Heisse Maronis) and general festivities. In other ways, however, it definitely does not. By this, I am of course referring to the Krampus.

From the first of December onwards, men (and women) all over Austria will dress up as these beast-like creatures, and terrorise the citizens, especially the children. They are usually brown or black, and wear a terrifying, but intricate, mask, have horns sometimes up to three feet long, and walk with cow bells attached to them, so you can always hear when they're coming. Oh, and they also carry a whip, with which they hit people so hard that 9 times out of 10, it will bruise.

A Krampus carrying two sticks!

The Krampus is the antithesis of Saint Nikolaus. Instead of rewarding the good children with gifts, as St Nikolaus does, the Krampus is said to capture particularly naughty children in his sack and carry them away to his lair in the mountains. The feast of St. Nikolaus is celebrated on the 6th December here, and he is often accompanied by Krampusse. The night before, however, the Krampusse often take to the streets by themselves, in a so-called Krampuslauf (Krampus run).

Unfortunately, I missed the Salzburg Krampuslauf on the 5th December, as I had to teach in the evening school. I met up with the others afterwards, however, and what horror stories they had to tell! Almost all of them had been hit at least once by the Krampus, and one of the group had even been carried off over the shoulder by one of them. Here are a couple of photos the other TAs took that evening:

The next evening, I was lucky enough (is lucky the right word?!) to go to a Krampuslauf in a small village outside of Salzburg, Sankt Johann. My host family told me that the Salzburger Krampuslauf is a lot more touristy than the ones in the smaller villages. In Salzburg, they are only allowed to have whips made out of cow/horse hairs for example, whereas in the smaller villages the whips (or ruten) are made out of birch sticks - and so naturally tut a lot more weh! They also said that the Krampusse from the villages are usually more vicious, as the events are a lot more alcohol fueled than the inner city ones. Sure enough, the Krampusse in Sankt Johann were separated from the crowd by barriers, whereas in Salzburg they'd been free to wander around the crowd, both police and ambulance were on stand-by, and it looked like the sticks hurt a lot more than the animal hairs. Each Krampus has a number attached to them, so that if they are badly behaved, they can be easily identified and banned from any future Krampuslauf. We saw numbers right up into the high 600's, and so I would guess that there were about 700 Krampusse that evening. 

Leaning over the barrier to attack the crowd

Close-up of a mask

One group of Krampus make an entrance

The scare/thrill you get when a Krampus comes near you is hard to explain, but I would liken it to that of the adrenaline you get on a rollercoaster. It's something you're apprehensive about at first (when you fist see the Krampus), fun in the middle (when the Krampus comes near), then you get a huge sense of relief once it's over (once the Krampus as left and you are unscathed). 

At various points in the Krampuslauf, people (usually teenage boys), would jump over the barriers and away from safety, the Krampus would then swarm around them, and they usually ended up getting beaten to a pulp. I just don't understand why someone would do that?! Here's a blurry picture of it happening, I think I was in too much shock to keep the camera steady :

As we were all stood a safe distance from the barriers, none of the group got hurt. As soon as the barriers were taken down however, we made a bit of a run for it. At a lot of these events, things have really kicked off towards the end of the evening, when things are a bit less controlled, and the alcohol has started to take its effect. We'd left the main area and were on our way to the train station, and saw a small Krampus group across the road. My stomach instantly dropped - there were no barriers now, we definitely weren't safe. As we were a group of 8 or 9 girls, we naturally attracted their attention and they immediately ran over. I spotted a Saint Nikolaus walking at the front of our group, so joined him and luckily the Krampusse left me alone. Unfortunately, the others weren't so lucky, and most were hit at least 3 times each. There were a lot of stinging legs on that train journey home!

Good Old Saint Nick!

There was another Krampuslauf on the weekend my family were here. This time it was a lot closer to the city centre, so the Krampus were not so vicious and in my (now hardened) opinion, not as scary. My family, as with many others, simply could not get over the idea that people were allowed to dress up as the monsters and run around hitting, (and in some villages even hospitalising) the locals. My brother, in particular, was terrified of the Krampus. When one came near him, (and do bear in mind this was the evening before his 18th birthday), he could only hide behind my mum and even pushed her towards the Krampus, instead of himself!

Hopefully that's made this, quite frankly, crazy Austrian tradition a little clearer. In case it hasn't, however, this article explains it all very well, and was written by a friend of mine in England who spent an Erasmus year here in Salzburg last year. All that's left to say on the matter of the Krampus, is that I would much rather take coal for being a naughty child anyday!

We caught a Krampus on their break - photo op!

My One Hour Working Week.

I met with Linda, the teacher from the evening school, again on Monday. As we'd gone to quite a traditional cafe last time, we decided to mix it up a bit and went to a more modern, Italian one instead. We had a nice long lunch, and some great conversation too (all in German - winner!). She spent a year studying in England, so we were swapping stories from university and having a great laugh. She found all of my stories from sharing a room particularly amusing, especially as in Austria it's not that common to live in halls at university, let alone in a shared room. In the afternoon, I went for another run and ran for a minute longer than last time. Not a great improvement I know, but an improvement nonetheless!

In the conversation class on Tuesday, we were talking about Christmas traditions in Austria and around the world. There are 3 Brits in the class, and it was surprisingly hard to explain what a Christmas cracker is, and when/why we have them. Most people couldn't get their heads around the idea that we had it with Christmas Dinner, but that it wasn't food, and found it even more bizarre that we wear silly paper hats while having our meal. I just take it for granted that that is what happens, so it was funny to see it as a new and strange tradition through everyone else's eyes.

Afterwards, I went into town to meet with a different Tandem Partner. She's from Austria originally, but lived in New York for 18 years and as she didn't mind whether we spoke German or English, we spoke German for the whole two hours which was great. She seemed really friendly and a lot more open-minded than most Austrian people I've come across so far, so it was much more successful than my last Tandem meet-up, and I'd happily meet up again. In the evening, I headed over to the 'Languages Exchange' couch surfer meeting again, with Alice and Cecilia. This time it took us a little longer to get talking to a native speaker, but we did in the end, which was great. At the end of the day, I'd spoken about 6 hours of German, and felt great about that. When I was working in France, I'd speak, or at least hear, 7 or 8 hours of French a day. In comparison to that, I am still speaking very little German here, but I have to create my own opportunities much more than in Paris. It's still something that is in the back of my mind, so I'm just trying to be as pro-active as I can, and days like this show that that must be paying off.

A group of us went to Cafe Tomaselli on Wednesday. It's one of the most famous cafes in Salzburg, and supposedly was a favourite hangout of Mozart and his wife! All of the waiters are in black tie, and the cafe has a fairly formal feel to it, but there's a good balance, and it's not so formal that you can't relax. They also do great cakes - I had a raspberry meringue type one, and it was delicious! Afterwards, we walked to the centre of the Altstadt to catch the Krampuslauf. This is an 'unusual' Austrian tradition, so I will dedicate a separate post to it, as it really does deserve one of it's own! Unfortunately, I had to teach at the evening school and so had to leave before the Krampusse came. It also turned out that I had a nightmare journey ahead of me. There was a student demonstration on the Staatsbrucke (the bridge which connects the two parts of the city), and so no buses could get from one side to the other. I was, of course, on the other side of town from where I needed to be, and the journey took about an hour and a half in total. This meant that I missed the first lesson, but luckily the teacher was very understanding. After the second lesson, I headed back into town and met the others for dinner at Stieglkeller, a traditional Austrian restaurant and a favourite of ours - we even have a table that we sit at everytime now! I was gutted to have missed the Krampuslauf, but all was not lost as the Krampusse (along with St. Nickolaus) paid a visit to the restaurant, and we must have been good this year, as our table was even given some sweets!

Thursday, the 6th December, was Sankt Nikolaus day here in Austria. The children usually put hang their shoes outside the night before, and in the morning, if they've been good (and their shoes were clean), Saint Nicholas will have brought them a present overnight. I didn't technically hang my shoes outside, but Saint Nicholas came for me anyway! He bought me a very nice new pair of gloves, along with some nuts and chocolates. That morning, I went with a few classes to the English theatre. They were playing 'A Picture of Dorian Gray'. The show was only an hour long, and the dialogue quite simple so that all of the Austrian students could follow it. It was very entertaining, and a much nicer way to spend the morning than teaching. In the afternoon, I went to the conversation class, and afterwards went to the train station to catch a train to Bishofshofen, an alpine village about 50 minutes outside of Salzburg, as we were all meeting for Emilia's (the TA who is based there) birthday meal. After the meal, a group of us went to Sankt Johann (another nearby village) for the Krampuslauf there. I won't write about it here, so watch this space for the Krampuslauf post, that will explain all about this strange strange tradition...

I'm not sure if you can work it out from this post or not, but I have had a huge amount of free time, and only taught for an hour in total in the past week! 'Week B' is normally the quieter week so I'm used to that, but this actually ran over back into 'Week A'. Three lessons on Wednesday morning were cancelled, I missed one on Wednesday evening due to the demonstration, went to the English theatre on Thursday instead of teaching, Thursday evening lessons were cancelled, and all lessons on Friday were cancelled as we had a seminar for the TAs. Most of my lessons were cancelled quite last minute, so I couldn't arrange to go travelling anywhere and have just been chilling in Salzburg. Having this much free time, as glorious as it is, did affect me a bit and I ended up feeling much more home sick than I have since arriving here in Austria. 

Luckily, this weekend my parents and brother had planned a visit to Salzburg, so they ended up arriving bang on cue...

Fitness, Freezing, and Football!

My day got off to an unusual start on Friday, as this was when I decided to take myself off for a run. Now don't get me wrong, I do like doing sports, but I've always done them as part of a team, and never as a solo venture really. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything here that still has space to sign up to, so on Friday I bit the bullet and went for a run. It only lasted about half an hour, and I just went around the lake outside my house, which I'm sure doesn't sound too monumental. As this is the only time in my life I can remember voluntarily going for a run, however, it will certainly stick with me as an experience here.

The rest of Friday was much less alarming. Another American TA was visiting Salzburg, so we went out to an Italian with him that evening. All I'll say about him is that he's definitely quite a character, and that I'm more than happy sticking to the American TAs we've got here for the foreseeable future! After the meal, we tried to go to the Augustinerbraeu for a drink, but unfortunately there was no more space. As Christmas comes closer, the tourists are really flocking in. As we're such a large group, this is a problem that we've encountered a couple of times, and we've definitely learnt our lesson now about reserving in advance (although for the weekends, the better places are already booked up right into the New Year). We opted for a different bar as well, which luckily had some space. As the restaurant didn't serve pudding, I was very excited to share an Apfelstrudel with Erika. I'd been told that the strudels here with good, and it definitely didn't disappoint. If anyone reading this ever gets to try a strudel here, I would definitely recommend that you ask for it with Vanillasosse. It's like custard, but oh so much better. After a while the bar started to get very smoky, so we called it a night and headed home.

On Saturday morning, the 1st December, I woke up to find that the Christkind (or christ-child - the traditional Christmas gift-bringer in Austria) had been and left me an Advent Calendar. I went downstairs to thank my host mum, but she just shook her said saying, "No no, it was the Christkind.". I then asked her to say thank you to the Christkind for me, and she said that she would. Afterwards, I headed into town, to meet the student from the evening school who was interested in a German-English exchange. We did an hour of English first, and then an hour of German. I'd not spent a prolonged amount of time with the guy before, so I didn't really know what to expect. It was alright, but he seemed pretty socially awkward, for lack of a better word to explain it. He was very open, perhaps too open, and something just wasn't quite right. From a language point of view - great, but otherwise I'm not so sure... 

Afterwards, I went to a carol service with the other TAs. It was held at the Nonnberg Abbey, which is famous for being 'Maria's Abbey' in the Sound of Music. The concert was short but sweet, lasting only about 45 minutes. There songs were in a mixture of languages and sung by the students at one of the TAs schools. They did a very good job and it was a nice way to spend the hour. We then headed to the Schloss Hellbrunn, a nearby castle, to visit the Christmas markets there. It was all very pretty, but as the weather was rapidly dropping, and so we only managed to stay for about an hour (and a cheeky Gluhwein of course!), before we all headed back as we were absolutely freezing. As we couldn't get in for dinner anywhere after (should have reserved - again!), the group dispersed and I went for cocktails with 3 others to finish off the evening/find somewhere warm to defrost! 

On Sunday, I'd learnt my lesson and made sure to wrap up warm before venturing outside! A group of us had tickets to the FC Red Bull Salzburg vs FK Austria Wien football match. We were sitting second row from the front, and so had prime seats for all the action. Unfortunately, despite a couple of near misses, the game ended 0-0, and so there wasn't that much action to be seen. This was actually the first football match that I've been to, and it was so interesting to take it all in. I particularly liked that the fans had an actual conductor, so they knew what to be chanting and when. There were a few firecrackers thrown onto the pitch, but they were quickly removed and apart from that the crowds were pretty well-behaved. Nevertheless, there was a great atmosphere and it was a nice (if a little chilly) way to spend a Sunday.

A definite highlight of the match was when the ball came into the crowd, and I CAUGHT IT! I had to throw it straight back so no keepsakes unfortunately, but I did take a picture of the ball once I'd thrown it back to the little guy waiting for it!

That evening I stayed in with the host family, and we ordered a Chinese. Again, there was just something about the way that Austrians do a Chinese that wasn't quite right. I stayed up chatting with the parents afterwards. I knew that the mum is a surgeon, but what I didn't know, was that she's a brain surgeon (!). She told me a few stories from her hospital, which was absolutely fascinating. One operation, for example, lasted from 9am until 4:30 am the next day (ie. went right through the night). I think I'll stick to my 13 hours a week being a Teaching Assistant for the moment thanks!

Eine weitere Woche ist verstrichen.

Now for the second post from last week with what I actually did.

Monday was a fairly normal teaching day. It was the last time that I taught the evening class on Monday evening, as from now on they are preparing to take their exams. The exams are offered twice a year, and as this group are taking theirs this semester, I am no longer needed. After the class, a student asked for my e-mail address and if I was interested in being a 'Tandem partner' (we'd speak half an hour German, then half an hour English etc). As he was no longer technically my student, I agreed and we arranged to meet that weekend.

On Tuesday evening, I headed to a Mexican restaurant after the conversation class. We'd been once before, and it definitely didn't disappoint this time. I must admit that I'm not a huge fan of Austrian food; it's a bit too 'stodgy' for my liking, and I find the flavours quite bland. At the Mexican, I shared some nachos to start, and then had fajitas, which came in about 4 separate dishes and managed to take up the majority of the table. It was very good food though, and we were all very excited to enjoy some actual flavours and spices for a change.

After the meal, I headed straight to a 'Language-exchange meeting' with two other TAs Alice and Cecila. It is a meeting organised by Couchsurfers, but you don't actually have to be a couchsurfer to come along. It's just meant for people who like travelling, so that they can share their experiences, and, as in the name, it's a place for you to practice different languages as well. As we'd been expecting, there were quite a few who had gone just to practice their English. We were quite lucky, as we managed to get chatting to an Austrian, and so the three of us were happily speaking away in German all evening. He had done quite a bit of couchsurfing, so had some cool stories from that to listen to, but seemed equally interested in us telling him a bit about what we're doing here, and our impressions of Austria.

On Wednesday, I went to the lecture on trans cultural communication in the morning. The lecturer spent about 12 years in the Far East, and interjects the lecture with lots of interesting anecdotes. A lot of the slides are also accompanied by pictures of him with the locals in various places, which adds a nice personal touch to the lecture.That evening, I was teaching a lesson on stereotypes. We were talking about British stereotypes, and one of the older guys in the class made some very negative, almost offensive, suggestions. I'm not sure if this was his genuine opinion, or if he was saying it to provoke his fellow classmates, which he does occasionally in his position as eldest in the class. Either way, it was pretty awkward and I dealt with it by just not writing his suggestions up on the board (but in a subtle way...). Luckily, the next lesson was a lot more relaxed. It was a lesson on British humour, and we basically spent the whole lesson watching videos on Youtube.

On Thursday, I went to another uni lecture, the convo class, and evening school but there's not much else to report from that. As my last post was fairly long, I'll leave it there for this week and document my weekend in the next one.

In other news, in addition to my runs (I have now gone on two runs, so yes, they are plural), on the 1st December I started the '100 Day Burpee Challenge'. It's pretty simple - on the 1st day, you do 1 burpee, 2nd day 2 burpees and so until the 100th day, when you bust out 100 burpees. It's going okay at the moment, and hopefully this will continue over the Christmas period...

Wer bin ich?

This week marks the end of my second month in Austria, meaning that I've been abroad for just over five months in total. As I was out for a run at the end of this week, three things dawned on me. A) I now consider 8:30 am a lie in, B) I couldn't remember the last time I had a nap, and, perhaps most shocking of all, C) I was (voluntarily) out for a run. I was forced to ask myself the question, "Wer bin ich?" (Who am I?).

I'm going to split this week into two posts; this post for a little more reflection, and another post for what actually happened this week.

As a direct result of the Year Abroad so far, I feel that I have become more independent, more culturally aware and matured a great deal.

As I now have to get up in time for work, rather than for sporadically timed university lectures, my body-clock has definitely changed. I can no longer sleep in past 8:30am (and if I manage to stay asleep that long, I would even call it a lie in!). As this earlier start means that I am also going to bed earlier, it looks as though I will staying in this 'good sleeping pattern' for the foreseeable future. I can't remember the last time that I saw 2am, let alone seeing in 2am just in time for settling down at the table with my fellow hyenas, as the hilarity unfolds late into the night once summative season is upon us, as was my life last year. Part of me does miss that way of life, which you'll only ever really experience as a university student. However, I also feel as though I have never seen so many mornings in a row, and it turns out that morning aren't all that bad!

Another reason for feeling more mature here, besides my very grown-up sleeping pattern, is that this insight into the 'real world' has given me a whole new wave of motivation for when I return to university next year. I'm excited to pick my modules, to attend my lectures, to type up my lecture notes, to organise my work well ahead of the deadlines, and generally to be the best student that I can be. Granted, that sounds a bit geeky, but after working in the office in Paris with lovely colleagues and interesting and varied tasks, I am striving to give myself the best chance at a graduate job (and hopefully one that I would enjoy as much as my job this summer). I want to graduate from Durham in 2014, knowing that I tried my best in everything I did there.

By this point, I have 'upped ship' and moved twice. Both times to a completely new country, with a different culture, and had to settle in, adjust, and make new friendship circles. It shouldn't be underestimated how much of a task this is, and I can say that I am genuinely proud of myself, as I reckon I'm doing pretty well so far. Back in England, I have a good family life, and was very happy at university, and so was rarely forced outside of my comfort zone. The fact that I have done this successfully, makes me think that I'm a lot more independent than I may have given myself credit before, and that's good to know.

In other news, the cultural differences here in Austria are still coming thick and fast. I am noticing more and more how relaxed things are here, in comparison to England.

One example of this is at school. As well as there being no school uniforms and the children walking round school in what are essentially slippers, the whole teacher-student relationship seems to be a lot more 'locker' (relaxed). In England, if a student hasn't done their homework, the class will generally be stopped while this child is told off, and the appropriate disciplinary action is taken. Here in Austria, however, the teacher simply nods, and notes down a 'minus' next to their name. No shouting, no screaming, no threats of detention. Just a small mark next to their name and they move on with the class. Some teachers even ask the class to raise their hand if they haven't done their homework, and mark down the names of those that haven't. In England, it definitely wouldn't fly if half of the class had failed to complete the homework, but here the teacher doesn't even seem to bat an eyelid. The same goes for talking in class. In England, the rule is that no-one speaks when the teacher is speaking. If you speak, and continue to speak after being asked not to, you would invariably be told off/sent outside the room/given a detention/you get the idea. Here, however, the teachers carry on regardless and seem to have the attitude that the students will listen if they want to, and not if they don't. I sometimes find this awkward in class, as my natural instinct is to tell the students to be quiet. I'm slowly getting used to just letting them get on with it. As most of my lessons are playing games to get the students talking, the majority end up listening anyway as it's more fun for them than a normal lesson! I actually think that this more relaxed attitude has a lot of advantages. Although some of the younger classes aren't as well behaved as their equivalent in England, the older classes are probably more so. The good thing is that it comes from the students themselves, rather than the teachers. The students don't seem to be as 'mollycoddled', and when a teacher here has the respect of their students, it's because they've earned it, rather than demanded it, which in my eyes can only be a good thing.

The second example of the Austrian's more relaxed attitude is unfortunately not something I'm such a fan of. They have a very half-hearted smoking ban here, which means that legally, bigger restaurants/pubs have to have a non-smoking area, and that smaller places can decide whether they allow smokers or not. Unfortunately, the majority of smaller places have opted to continue to allow smoking, which means that non-smoker or not, you cannot escape the smoke in these places. For the bigger places, although they do have separate areas for non-smokers, they are usually separated by a swinging door, which means that the rooms ends up smoky anyway, or you have to walk through the smokers area to access the non-smokers area. So, either way, you and your clothes end up smelling of smoke and the end of the night, which as I'm sure you can tell, I find less than pleasant. I'm already looking forward to the next time I'm in England and can go out for a nice meal or coffee with a friend, without smoke being omnipresent, as it is here.

I'll end with one more observation, and finish on a more positive note. Something that they are very good at doing here in Austria, is splitting the bill for you at the end of the meal. It is so much easier to pay directly for what you've had, rather than working out how much you owe, and then trying to find the right coins (especially as euro coins all look the same!), and then working out who owes what in terms of a tip etc. It makes a nice change to skip out the stressful end to the meal as we attempt to pay, and instead to be able to walk out of the restaurant nice and relaxed after enjoying a meal with friends.

That's it in terms of reflections for now, and I'll leave you with a few pictures of the beautiful city of Salzburg, which I am lucky enough to be able to call my home (at least until February!).

Steve in Salzburg.

The weekend of Friday 23rd to Monday 26th November was one I'd been looking forward to a while, as it meant that Steve was coming to Salzburg!

There were no cheap, direct flights so he had to fly Manchester to Munich, which meant a bit of a nightmare 14 hour journey. He arrived in Salzburg around 3pm, we went home and he spent the afternoon sleeping off the journey. Since being in Austria, I've somewhat lost the ability to nap (I will elaborate on this is a future post), so I spent the afternoon pottering quietly and trying not to wake him up. He eventually rose and we went downstairs to have dinner with the family. There was a definite language barrier at the table, as as the parents were away in South Africa, the grandmother was there looking after the children. She doesn't really speak a word of English, and the children are still talking to me in German so there was no way they were going to start talking to this stranger in English. There was a lot of translating on my side, a few hand gestures, but also a bit of awkward silence until the children gave up and started their own conversation.

Afterwards we took the bus into town and Steve (a massive Christmas fan) admired the Christmas lights of Salzburg. We headed to Augustinerbraeu to meet a few other TAs. This is by far my favourite brewery in Salzburg. The rooms are huge and always full, so there's such a great atmosphere. I love that so many people are in Tracht (traditional dress), and I still find the process of filling up your own beer mug very exciting. As an added bonus we managed to get a table in a non-smoking room this time, which made a huge difference. We stayed drinking beer, chatting and laughing until closing time, 1am. Everyone was very welcoming to Steve and we all got along really well. We made a mad dash to try and catch the last bus home but had left it too late, so ended up getting a taxi home.

On Saturday we had a lazy morning and headed into the Altstadt just after lunchtime. We picked up some food and then started walking up the Moenschberg together. I'd now call this a 'mini mountain', so a safe bet for anyone who isn't into the Austrian way of 'hiking'. We stopped just under half way up so sit down on a bench, eat our food and generally enjoy the magnificent view over Salzburg. We were lucky with the weather as the day before had been quite cold and foggy, but today the skies were clear, it was even quite sunny (!) and we could see right over the city. After a few stops to take the view in along the way, we reached the Festung (fortress) about an hour and a half later. We went in and it was pretty interesting to look around. In the tour they explained how the name 'Salzburg' comes from 'Salz', meaning salt, and 'Berg', meaning mountain, and about the importance of salt in the city's history. Thinking about it now, this seems pretty obvious, but it was a good fact to come away with. We also made it up the viewing tower which had a spectacular view over the city in all of its Christmas glory.

We took the funicular back down and made a bee-line for the Christmas markets. We had a look around for about half an hour before stopping for a Bratwurst and Gluehwein. Steve then proceeded to eat a pretzel bigger than his face, while I opted for some chocolate covered strawberries. Wandering around the markets hand in hand felt so Christmassy and perfect. I love looking around at what each of the different stalls has to offer, and there is a high chance for anyone receiving a Christmas present from me this year that at least one part of it will be purchased here! After having a good nose around, we decided to look for a cafe to have a sit down. Unfortunately, as it was Saturday evening, everywhere was packed already so we ended up heading home instead.

I had asked Steve to bring over some Yorkshire Puddings, so that we could contribute something to the Thanksgiving celebration planned for Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, they hadn't lasted his 14 hour journey so well, and when he went to take them out of his bag when he arrived, he pulled out a box of liquidy mush that looked very sorry for itself. We put it straight into the freezer, to try and salvage at least some of the puddings. On Sunday morning, we went back to the freezer to see what had become of them. It didn't look great, but we decided to soldier on in our attempt to give the Americans 'a taste of England'. We did what we could, but unfortunately the end result left a lot to be desired...

It was around this point that things started to go downhill...

We headed over to Rachel Fry's flat, where 'Thanksgiving' was being hosted, and were greeted by a wonderful spread of food as thankfully everyone else's cooking endeavors had gone better than ours. I piled my plate high with turkey, mash potato, carrots in a boubon jus (delicious), olive salad, and anything else you could dream of having at a really good roast dinner! We spent the afternoon playing games, which included old classics such as 'Mafia' and 'Wink Murder', and new favourites such as 'Chicken Goggles' and 'The Hat Game'. In the third round of 'The Hat Game', you say one word and your team try to guess which word is on your piece of paper. As a testament to the catastrophe of our cooking attempt, one word said was 'failure', and the team immediately guessed 'Yorkshire Puddings', which was shamefully the correct answer. I can only apologise to everyone again, especially the Americans who were looking forward to trying them!

Although Thanksgiving doesn't mean nearly as much to us Brits as to the Americans, it was a great afternoon and it really did make me appreciate the wonderful group of TAs that are here in Salzburg. To top off the weekend, Steve borrowed Tim's Lederhosen just before we left, and we got this picture together, which is potentially my most favourite one of us ever taken!

My most favourite picture ever!

The girls in dirndls.

The weekend went far too quickly and on Monday morning it was already time to drop Steve off at the station and go back to work. However, it won't be too long until we see each other again at Christmas, and in the meantime I've got some great memories from his weekend here to be going on with.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I know that I've previously mentioned how despite the slightly awkward teaching times, I prefer the evening school to the secondary school. One of the reasons for this is that I get on particularly well with one of the teachers there. She's quite young and spent four years in Ireland. With half of my family being Irish, I've spent a fair amount of time in Ireland, so we initially bonded over that and have got on really well ever since. We'd been trying to find time to go for a coffee for the past week, and finally managed to on Monday. There was some confusion about the meeting place, as she wanted to meet at the Leopoldskroner Weiher (pond/lake), which I didn't realise was the Teich (another word for pond/lake) that is right in front of my house! However we managed to uncross our wires, met up and went for a stroll around the lake. (For those of you that have seen The Sound of Music and know the big white house (Schloss Leopoldskron), I live on that lake, which is stunning on a daily basis.

Afterwards, we wandered into the Altstadt and went for a coffee at Cafe Furst. As Mozart himself came from Salzburg, another famous export here is the 'Mozartkugel' - a chocolate ball made with marzipan. Linda (the teacher) explained that there is actually some controversy surrounding the Mozartkugel. Cafe Furst actually made the 'original' Mozartkugel, which comes in a silver wrapper, whereas the more commonly found ones wrapped in gold are just mass-made imitations. Scandal in Salzburg...

The real deal.

Don't be fooled by these guys!

After sitting and chatting for about three hours, we headed back and went our separate ways. It was a very enjoyable way to spend the afternoon; the conversation flowed, the scenery was beautiful (as per), the cake delicious, and, as a bonus, it was all in German!

In a blog post a couple of weeks ago, I'd written that I was still craving a Chinese after the fiasco of the Chinese takeaway in Durham. Some of the other TAs had seen the post, and were thinking along the same lines, so Emily invited us over that evening for a Chinese takeaway and some drinks. Unfortunately, they didn't have either duck pancakes or seaweed on the menu. The food I went for was yummy, but it just wasn't quite right so I think I'll have to wait until Christmas to have the Chinese food I'm used to and craving (which undoubtedly isn't like real Chinese food at all!). As Michael McIntyre had gone down so well with all of the Americans that we'd shown him to so far, we decided to watch his new DVD. Sure enough, everyone was cracking up and I think we converted a few more of the Americans.

On Wednesday, I went to the lecture on trans-cultural communication again. I found it really interesting, and was glad I made the extra effort to sign up to the university classes. Someone in the conversation class on Tuesday had mentioned a 'Stammtisch' that would be taking place on Wednesday evening. Alice, a TA, and I decided to go along and check it out. There was a table full of people that we thought it might be, but instead of approaching them straight away, we had a little wander around the bar just to make sure that it couldn't be anyone else. This was when we saw one man, the man who had mentioned the Stammtisch, sitting alone at a table. We had seen him, and he had seen us, so we had to go and sit down, no matter how awkward the situation could potentially be. He was actually really chatty, so we didn't need to worry at all. Although he was also English, the three of us were all chatting away in German. We stayed for about 45 minutes, which went really quickly, and then went to Emily's house as she had cooked mac and cheese for dinner. We had a nice evening there and I would definitely go to another 'Stammtisch' event in the future, although hopefully one with slightly more people!

On Thursday I headed straight for the Altstadt after the conversation class, as it was the opening of the Christkindlmarkt! The entire platz where it is held had been transformed into a Winter Wonderland. The small little huts sell every and any Christmas ware that you could possibly think of, the square was lit up by hundreds of Christmas lights, and the smell of Gluhwein, roasted chesnuts and freshly baked pretzels was in the air. It was a magical scene. We arrived just in time to see the parade of men in their lederhosen and green hats marching and yodelling along to a brass band. We heard the speeches and watched as the huge Christmas tree was illuminated at the words, "Lichter an". The end of the opening ceremony was marked by a huge cannon and several gun shots, which echoed through the city of Salzburg. It was a special evening for everyone, but especially for the Americans, as this was also the evening of 'Thanksgiving'. I will admit to getting excited about Christmas every year. This year, however, through the build-up of the snow on the mountains, the authentic Christmas markets and the magic of Salzburg at Christmas, I will be exceptionally so!

The parade

Christkindlmarkt

Mmmmmm....

Disclaimer: Photos taken from other TAs as mine doesn't photograph well at night. Hopefully this gives you an idea of the evening, although a photo can't nearly capture how magical it was to be there!

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Although a 7am start the next day meant only 4 hours sleep, that didn't matter, because I was very excited to be heading away for the weekend! As a lot of the American TA's had an event in Vienna this weekend, it was the perfect opportunity for us Brits to go away as well, and so 5 of us made the journey to Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. The journey took about 5 hours and so was a nice opportunity for me to catch up on some sleep. Having not really been to Eastern Europe before, I will admit that I really didn't know what to expect as we crossed the border. In all honesty, I was expecting lots of grey buildings and the city to be quite 'run-down', in keeping with the idea of the 'former Eastern/communist bloc'. I was, therefore, pleasantly surprised to find that the city was really quite beautiful, and didn't look all that different from some of the Western European countries I've visited. There were some parts of the city that looked run-down, but they also had a certain charm to them and so, on the whole, it wasn't at all what I was expecting.

We arrived at lunch-time and went straight to the Tourist Information Office. They gave us a couple of maps of the city and circled the places they recommended that we visit. We then went straight to the hotel, dropped our stuff off, and went out in search of a cafe as we were all pretty hungry by this point. Unfortunately, I don't think that we were in the right part of town for cafes as it was quite hard to find one. By the time we'd found one and sat down, they'd sold out of most of their sandwiches so we basically took whatever was left. Nevertheless, the sandwiches definitely filled a hole and the lunch was very cheap as well, (€3 for a sandwich and drink!) so I'm definitely not complaining.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the city, checking off the circles on our map as we came to them. The city is a nice size and we managed to do just about everything that we'd planned too before it got dark. We saw Ljubljana's famous bridges, some churches, the university, the library, the theatre, the list goes on... The highlight for me was one of the last things we did. We were wandering round Tivoli park, and came across a National Geographic Open-Air Exhibition. The photos were absolutely stunning, and the majority of them had been taken in Slovenia. That evening we had decided to try the local cuisine, and so headed out to a traditional Slovenian restaurant. I went for the 'Country Feast', which was a lot of meat and incredibly filling! Afterwards we headed out to a cocktail bar, called Pr'Skeletal. The bar was down a dark side alley and skeleton themed, so as we entered we passed lots of glass cases with ominous looking skeletons inside. They had an absolutely huge selection of 183 cocktails, and as it was Buy One Get One Free, we managed to try quite a few of these! The bar was quite busy so there was a great atmosphere, and I really enjoyed the evening.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel before heading out to the Flea Markets. These were mainly selling antiques/collectibles so I didn't find much, but it was still interesting to look around. Afterwards we walked up to the Grad (castle), and had a look around there. From the top of the viewing tower we had a great view of the whole city, and could recognise most of the stuff we'd seen the day before. We also watched a 'Virtual Tour' video which explained that Ljubljana's mascot, the dragon, is the same one that St. George supposedly slayed! We had a very nice lunch in the castle grounds, before going back to the hotel to pick up our stuff and then back to the train station.

Our train was delayed by almost an hour, which meant that we missed our connection in Villach. However, all was not lost! We went for a wander around Villach, and much to our delight found that their Christmas lights were on and their Christmas markets in full flow! It looked magical and was the ideal end to the weekend.

Ljubljana is a lovely city. Although it's quite small, it's packed full of charm and is really quite beautiful - especially in Autumn. Something I noticed there was that as a linguist, I felt quite uncomfortable not being able to speak their language at all. It felt quite rude, and so I incredibly grateful that they could all speak some English. I've taken some great memories from the trip, and am looking forward to (hopefully) exploring Europe further in the coming months.

Mückenstiche und ein Ball.

On Monday morning I had the usual 6am start, (will I ever get used to this?!). I'd had a dream about a mosquito, that I could hear it in my sleep and had tried to bat it away, but when I woke up I felt that something wasn't quite right with my eye. I went to the bathroom to check the situation and my stomach dropped a little as I looked in the mirror. My left eye was about half the size that it normally was. It turns out that it definitely wasn't a dream and I'd been attacked by a mosquito overnight. My first thought was that the left-hand side of my face had been paralysed (a horrible over-reaction I know, but we must remember how early in the morning this is!), but after checking that I could move my mouth and cheek on that side of my face I knew it was fine. Luckily my host mum was up at that time as well, and happens to be a surgeon, so I showed her what had happened and explained with some rusty 6am German about the mosquito dream. As most of the other bites were also clustered around my eye, she said that it was just a reaction and that it should go down in 2-3 days. As it had shrunk so much, it was quite an effort to keep the eye open and it started to give me a headache. However, I couldn't justify calling in sick to school because of a few mosquito bites so continued getting ready and made my way there. I'm so glad I did, as the first thing someone said to me when they saw me in the staff room was, "What has happened to your face?!". Unfortunately Monday is my heaviest teaching day - teaching the full day at the Gymnasium, and then two lessons in the evening as well, so a lot more pupils saw me in my shrivelled state than I would have wished.  I was pretty self-conscious about it, and tried to keep my right side facing the class as much as I could.

My face must have looked just as bad as I thought it did, as on Tuesday one of the teachers had bought in an anti-mosquito stick especially for me to borrow. It looks a bit like an electric lighter for a candle or hob, and the end heats up. You put the end on the mosquito bite for 10-15 seconds, it stings a tiny bit, and after that the mosquito bite doesn't itch any more - what a great invention! Apparently mosquito bites become ineffective once they come into contact with heat, which is how this device works (my host mum explained it after). I tend to get a lot of mosquito bites so will definitely be looking to purchase this myself. As effective as it was though, we did get a few funny looks as he held this stick to my face in the staff room!

On Wednesday, in keeping with last week's spirit of being proactive, I attended my first university lecture here in Salzburg. As I enjoyed working in the Marketing and Communication department for Zurich in Paris so much, I decided to take a couple of classes in 'Kommunikationswissenschaft' (Communication Science). The class I've signed up to on Wednesdays is 'Transkulturelle Kommunikationswissenschaft' and is broadly about how the marketing and communication techniques should differ, depending on the culture they're aiming to target. As a languages student the element of cultural differences is particularly interesting and I really enjoyed the lecture. I'd say that I understood about 70% of it, which I think is pretty good going considering the amount of technical vocabulary that was used. I was, however, taken a little by surprise at the end when they all knocked on the desks, rather than clapping. I know that that's a German thing to do, but it's something that I've been told about, rather than experiencing myself, so I got to experience a little culture difference thrown in there at the end as well!

On Thursday, I went to the second class that I'd signed up to, which was 'Einfuhrung in der Kommunikationswissenschaft' (Introduction to Communication Sciene). The ideas and concepts talked about were simpler, as it was an overall introduction to the subject, so I'd say that this time I understood about 90% of the lecture. I went to my conversation class at the library afterwards, so was definitely feeling better about having more exposure to and improving my German. Thursday was also the long awaited PAY DAY! As we'd been in Salzburg for the best part of two months without being paid, this was naturally a welcomed event. To celebrate, we all went to the Steiglkeller (a beer hall come restaurant) for dinner and drinks. I had to teach at the evening school first, so made my way there afterwards. Unfortunately, I still haven't completely got my bearings in this city (slight understatement...), but I bumped into two other TA's on the way there which prevented me from getting too lost. I enjoyed some traditional Austrian food, finished off with an apple strudel and, of course, some Himbeere Radler. It was a good evening, and I think it's safe to say that everyone was very happy to have finally been paid.

On Friday I went to my secondary schools' 'Maturaball', with two of the other TAs Alice and Cecilia. This is the equivalent of our leaving ball, except it's much bigger, more traditional and family members are invited. I'd been chatting to some students about it in the week and they explained how there's a committee of 8 students who are in charge of the overall running of the evening, but that everyone in their year gets involved in some way or another. They had been practicing for the opening dance and 'Midnight Surprise' for the past two months, and had even got a professional dance teacher in. Every student had to find at least four sponsors for the event, but instead of the money going to charity, the students get to keep it, and use it to fund a holiday after their exams! We arrived in perfect time to see the opening dance, which was a mixture of traditional dances such as the Cha-cha-cha, and the foxtrot. Once they'd finished, the dance floor opened up and there were grandmothers in dirdnls, dancing along side the sixth form students. The amazing thing was that everyone seemed to know how to dance properly, and some older couples were really whizzing round the dance floor  We explored the venue a bit, and found a chill-out section where the live bands were playing, the disco, and also took part in a win-every-time tombola. The theme for the evening was 'Around the World in a Night', so there were themed bars scattered around the venue as well. The 'Austrian' bar was, of course, serving beer, the 'French' bar serving champagne, and the 'Las Vegas' bar serving cocktails to give you an idea of just a few. The 'Midnight Surprise' was a dance inkeeping with the theme, so there were cowboys/girls, Native Americans, as well as 5 boys all wearing white who turned out to be the Backstreet Boys. Straight afterwards the teachers, all dressed as aliens, came on and had also prepared a dance. It was all really well done and very entertaining. Afterwards we went back upstairs to the disco and danced away until 1am when the coach came and we went home.

Opening Dance

I find this picture hilarious - our heads are so big but our bodies so small! I'm not sure how this happened...

Teachers 'Alien Dance'

Once we got home and had finished chatting etc it was nearly 3am, so we decided to call it a night as we were getting up early the next day for our trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia...

Was fuer ein Schwein!

Week Six

I must be getting better at this whole 'Year Abroad' thing, as coming back to Austria was much easier than when I had to go back to Paris after a weekend at home. The thing that really struck me while I was at home is that my German hasn't really significantly improved yet, despite already having been in Austria for over a month. There are a number of factors contributing to this, but it's been in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks now and was really starting to stress me out. I resolved to be proactive in trying to rectify this, and so as soon as I was home on Sunday evening I made an appointment at the University for the next morning to sign up for some classes.

On Monday morning I made my way to the University and filled in all of the paperwork, which was actually pretty simple as I only want to attend a few lectures, rather than do a full Bachelor or Masters course. I went to the bank to pay my tuition fees for the semester (€17.50 - take note England!!). They told me that the money would take 3-4 days to clear, and after that I was free to sign up for whichever classes I like. I headed home, feeling pretty proud of myself for my first proactive step, when I got a text from one of the other TAs saying, "Are you still coming?". My first thought was, naturally, "Coming to what?". It turns out that in the excitement of going home I'd completely forgotten about the Welcome Event for the Salzburg TAs that we'd been told about a week or so before. I got ready super quickly, ran to my bus stop and made it there right before it was about to start, so wasn't even late! Unfortunately there wasn't really much that was worth rushing for in the end. We were given a talk by the former president of Salzburg which lasted about an hour, had a very quick tour of the 'Amt der Salzburger Landesregierung' (ie. were shown one other room), were given a chocolate biscuit and then went on our way! Afterwards we all went to the Stieglkeller for a drink, which to be fair they did pay for. I, of course, got my new favourite - the Himbeere Radler. A few people went out for dinner, but I had to teach at the evening school so unfortunately couldn't join them.

On Tuesday I went the the conversation course at the library and then to an Italian restaurant with friends in the evening. Ever since I've come to Salzburg I just can't stop craving pizza. I don't know where it's come from or when/if it'll go away but I'm just always in the mood for pizza here! Wednesday was a day for the usual teaching routine. In the spirit of being proactive I also got in touch with The English Centre here, after a friend mentioned going to an English book club, but said that they did one in German as well. I got in touch on Tuesday, and the next meeting was this Thursday, so after renting the book from the library most of my free time before the meeting was spent reading the book to get as far through it as possible. An almost impossible challenge I know, but I gave it my best shot!

On Thursday both of my classes at the evening school had said that they didn't need me this week so after the usual conversation course, I was able to head over to The English Centre, ready for the German book club. In the window, I saw a table laid out with bottles of wine and lots of nibbles and immediately thought of a 'Desperate Housewives' style poker night, but with books. I wasn't far out. I was by far the youngest, the wine was flowing and in general it was a lot more general discussion, than specifically book-related discussion. It was a lot of fun, and in the end didn't matter too much that I hadn't made it to the end of the book. We were there for about 3 and a half hours in total, and as the book was about a truffle pig, there were endless pig puns made throughout the evening. From a languages point of view it was great as well, as most of the women there were native speakers and everyone was so nice that I also felt confident enough to contribute a few things throughout the evening. As promising an avenue as it was, due to the Christmas break etc they only have one more meeting while I'm still here in Salzburg and, unfortunately, I will probably have to teach that evening. Nevertheless, it was a good experience and from a languages point of view 'Every Little Helps'.

On Friday evening a big group of the TAs went to Katie's house for some drinks. We played Mafia, Who Am I, as well as the 'Hat' game that Katie taught us, which is a mixture of Taboo, Charades and something else - but very very fun! It actually makes a really nice change to be playing games just because they're fun, while drinking a little alongside, rather than playing them as 'drinking games' with the sole purpose of getting drunk. However, saying that makes me feel like I'm getting old and boring already, and so I hope that I'll live to see at least one more game of Ring of Fire... All in all it was a hilarious evening, so thanks again to Katie for having us all around if you're reading this.

Before wine...

After wine...

The weather was so lovely on Saturday, that we all went for a walk (the English version of a walk!). We walked through the Hofhaymer Allee, and all of the red and orange leaves on the trees were beautiful. We also saw 'The House' from The Sound of Music, which some people got very excited about. I haven't got round to watching the film yet, so it didn't mean as much to me, but it's something that's on the to-do list.

In the evening I went to the 'Landestheater' with my host dad and Ornella, an Italian girl who also lived with the family. The daughter was in the premier of 'Momo', which is a play written by the same author as 'Never Ending Story', and contains similar themes about time etc. It was pretty confusing in parts, so I'm glad I looked up the synopsis quickly before going to see the play. Although it was all in German, it's a play designed for children, so I was able to follow most of the dialogue, if not all of the subtle themes and meanings. Afterwards we went to the 'After-party' as we were 'with' someone in the show. There were a few speeches, a buffet and it was all pretty sociable. We then headed to a nearby restaurant where we ate dinner with two other families. It was a traditional Austrian restaurant, and the mother ordered something for me which was basically a lot of meat, some sauerkraut and a dumpling. It was a lot of food so I couldn't finish it all, but it was made a nice change to pizza, which I really need to stop eating so much of!

On the whole, I ended the week feeling slightly happier about the language situation, and have definitely made the effort to move it in the right direction. Hopefully after another couple of hours of Google searches and trying out a couple of new things I'll be away and improving, and can stop stressing about it. I took Sunday as a rest/pyjama day so not much to report for the end of the week I'm afraid.