Week Five
It's taken a full month, but on Monday I finally made it to the Meldeamt and am now officially registered as a citizen of Salzburg. You're technically meant to do it within the first three days of living here, but luckily the woman didn't ask too many questions so I seem to have gotten away with it!
That night 8 of us (in 2 teams of 4) went to a Quiz Night at the university. Although the room was full with other teams, the only real competition was between our 2 groups. It was decided that whichever team lost would cook the winner's dinner later that week. Our team had a strong start in the History round, a surprisingly strong performance in Science and Technology that none of us were expecting but unfortunately a pretty poor score in the Geography round let us down and we ended up losing by one question. So near, yet so far...
The rest of the week was again mainly been getting more used to the routine, seeing a few of the other TA's, doing the conversation course etc so instead of boring you with those details I thought I'd share some of the things I've noticed during my first month here.
Firstly, although I hate to say it, the stereotypes do seem to be true. Most Austrians are excellent hikers, could probably ski before they could walk, love a good beer or three, are not the biggest fans of the Germans and can be pretty direct when they talk. However, I know now what to expect when an Austrian suggests a 'hike' and am learning to take some conversations with a pinch of salt which helps to bridge the culture gap.
A second thing I've noticed is that they definitely don't scrimp on the heating here. I know that the country gets pretty cold, but it's so warm that the students can wander around school in vest tops and as soon as you get on a bus or a train you have to take off about three layers to avoid completely overheating. I feel that when it comes to the heating, finding a happy medium would more than suffice!
Similarly besides the heating on the public transport I've noticed that on the whole people are very good at giving up their seats for the elderly which is always nice to see.
Thirdly, there seems to be a very conflicting sense of 'national identity' and national pride going on here. Friday the 26th October was the Nationaler Feiertag (national holiday), which commemorates Austria officially becoming 'Austria' as we know it today, with the end of the Occupation. Although there is clearly some sense of national pride, with so many of my students repeatedly telling me how much better Austria is than Germany, there really wasn't much of it to be seen here. There were a few token flags hanging around the city centre but on the whole the day passed pretty inconspicuously. A lot of it has to do with the negative connotations of nationalism and I find the whole mentality surrounding it incredibly interesting.
I'll leave it at three this time as I feel that some of my other blog posts have gotten a bit long. Thanks for sticking with it and reading them to the end for those that have, for those that couldn't I'm going to try and monitor the length of them in the future!
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Ein schönes Wochenende!
On Friday it was time for another hike. This seems to have become almost a weekly thing since coming here so maybe I'm becoming more Austrian than I thought! One of my favourite things about Salzburg is that although it's a city, it doesn't take more than 15 minutes until you're in the mountains. In England I'd say that we have big hills rather than mountains, and they tend to be at least an hour and a half away from any big city. It's such a novelty to take a 10 minute bus ride and be at the bottom of a beautiful mountain all ready to hike up! We had (again) been told that it would be an 'easy' hike, and were (again) following a man in lederhosen. This is the last time I fall for this. After 2 and a half hours of pretty constant uphill, many pleas for 'photo breaks' and very much regretting that I'd forgotten to bring a water bottle with me, we reached the peak. However, despite the moans, it was very enjoyable and I just love the sense of acheivement once you reach the top and can enjoy the spectacular views. We enjoyed a drink and Breze at the cafe, before taking the bus back down.
I went home and just had time for a quick shower before heading out again to Cecilia's house for a 'Cheese and Wine evening'. She'd been given a cheese pot for her birthday and so we tried out different ways of cooking camembert - with pesto, with sundried tomatoes etc. This, accompanied by the wine, was all very enjoyable. Afterwards we went out to a Belgian bar and got to try their famous fruit beers. I tried the strawberry and cherry flavours and they genuinely just tasted like liquid bubblegum, or something else very sweet. I will admit to having a massive sweet tooth so this went down a treat, and was very drinkable. Various people in the group were getting a lot of attention from the Austrian locals. One guy just would not leave Cecilia alone and so the bar man gave her a free drink as he felt so sorry for her!
A group of us had arranged a day trip to Germany for the Eagle's Nest for Saturday so all met at the station. Those of us who had been out the night before were feeling a bit delicate, which wasn't helped by the 3 bus rides we had to take there in pretty hot buses down many winding roads. We all survived, however, and were there by lunchtime. We had a very relaxed lunch in the sun at the top of the mountain which was lovely. We then went for a wander around the surroundings of the house, took many photos and were generally in awe of the stunning views. As the others have put it - although they may have been one of the most brutal regimes, the Nazis definitely know how to pick a holiday spot! After we'd taken it all in, we got the bus back down and had a wander round the nearby village of Berchtesgaden. It's also very pretty, but of course has nothing on Salzburg! That night we had a 'Pizza and Film night' and watched Johnny English 2. All I need to say about that is that I found it absolutely hilarious, and that should more than cover it!
On the Sunday morning I went to a Flohmarkt (flea market)at Sternbräu with my host family. Unfortunately as it was the last day of the weekend, most of the good stuff had already gone. It was my first time at a flea market though, so still interesting to look around and see all the random stuff they had on offer. The saying "One man's junk is another man's treasure" definitely seemed true here! We were home by lunchtime though, so I got to catch up with people on Skype which was lovely and had a nice chilled end to the weekend.
I went home and just had time for a quick shower before heading out again to Cecilia's house for a 'Cheese and Wine evening'. She'd been given a cheese pot for her birthday and so we tried out different ways of cooking camembert - with pesto, with sundried tomatoes etc. This, accompanied by the wine, was all very enjoyable. Afterwards we went out to a Belgian bar and got to try their famous fruit beers. I tried the strawberry and cherry flavours and they genuinely just tasted like liquid bubblegum, or something else very sweet. I will admit to having a massive sweet tooth so this went down a treat, and was very drinkable. Various people in the group were getting a lot of attention from the Austrian locals. One guy just would not leave Cecilia alone and so the bar man gave her a free drink as he felt so sorry for her!
A group of us had arranged a day trip to Germany for the Eagle's Nest for Saturday so all met at the station. Those of us who had been out the night before were feeling a bit delicate, which wasn't helped by the 3 bus rides we had to take there in pretty hot buses down many winding roads. We all survived, however, and were there by lunchtime. We had a very relaxed lunch in the sun at the top of the mountain which was lovely. We then went for a wander around the surroundings of the house, took many photos and were generally in awe of the stunning views. As the others have put it - although they may have been one of the most brutal regimes, the Nazis definitely know how to pick a holiday spot! After we'd taken it all in, we got the bus back down and had a wander round the nearby village of Berchtesgaden. It's also very pretty, but of course has nothing on Salzburg! That night we had a 'Pizza and Film night' and watched Johnny English 2. All I need to say about that is that I found it absolutely hilarious, and that should more than cover it!
On the Sunday morning I went to a Flohmarkt (flea market)at Sternbräu with my host family. Unfortunately as it was the last day of the weekend, most of the good stuff had already gone. It was my first time at a flea market though, so still interesting to look around and see all the random stuff they had on offer. The saying "One man's junk is another man's treasure" definitely seemed true here! We were home by lunchtime though, so I got to catch up with people on Skype which was lovely and had a nice chilled end to the weekend.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
I could get used to this.
Week Four
After working out my final timetable last week, this was the first time proper 'run through' of my new routine. It's hard to explain simply, but it essentially works out as one 'heavier' week of teaching every day Wednesday through to Tuesday, and one 'lighter week', of only teaching 4 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday.
This week is the 'lighter week', so at the start I felt pretty exhausted after my first experience of the 'heavier' week, but once I recovered got to enjoy the plenty of Freizeit I had again (more so this week, as I know it only lasts a week before it's all go again!).
For Monday I had prepared lessons on the US elections, different types of housing in England, and British icons and manners. I think that the lesson planning will get easier once I know the individual classes a bit better, their level of English, whether they prefer working in smaller groups or as a whole class etc. I get the impression that with all of that it's definitely going to be a learning curve, but overall I was pretty happy with how the classes went. On Monday evening I was in the evening school. I told them that I was 20 years old, and someone asked when I'd be 21. I looked around the room, and they all looked pretty old, so I could guess where this conversation was headed. I told them I'd be 21 next summer and sure enough they took great pleasure in informing me that I, the teacher, was indeed the youngest in the room. This is pretty intimidating, but I've decided to try and make it work to my advantage. I'm thinking that if I talk to them almost as my peers, there will hopefully be a pretty relaxed environment which will open up the conversation. Getting them to talk is, after all, my job so I'll see how it goes.
Tuesday I only had two lessons which were stereotypes and health. As health is such a broad topic I narrowed it down to eating, and then school dinners to try and make the lesson more typically British. Again, I was pretty pleased with both lessons and already feel like I'm learning so much. Before I came here, everyone warned me about how fast I speak and that I need to articulate and project my voice more. I've been trying hard to do that, as the few times that I have started to speed up when speaking English, the students faces have gone completely blank, so that was definitely good advice. Hopefully after 4 and a half months of this I'll come away with excellent presentation skills if nothing else!
On Tuesday I also managed to make it to the German conversation class at the library (after trying and getting a bit lost last week). Although it's not too advanced as they have to cater for all levels, having one hour of total exposure to German is really helpful. The participants come from all over, although mainly Eastern Europe, and so the common language is German which means no explanations or anybody slipping into English. I got to note down a few good bits of vocab and some grammar points so it was definitely worthwhile. I've resolved to go twice a week, every week, and as an incentive after 20 times of going they give you a free book - win win.
From Tuesday onwards, the 'lighter' week truly began, as I only had 4 hours of teaching left until next Tuesday. Wednesday started with my first real experience of the 'Kaffee und Kuchen' tradition they have here. It was, in a word, amazing. We went to the Salzburg branch of the Cafe Sacher, which the Sachertorte (a veryveryvery good chocolate cake) is named after. I had a chocolate cake that was very light, and very chocolatey, and very moreish and just generally couldn't be faulted. I'm very willing to embrace this past-time as far as my waistline will allow. I then headed back to take part in the family's 'music afternoon'. I'd been a bit sceptical, but in reality it was only 15 minutes and I played the piano while two others played the recorder. It was very relaxed and a lot more about enjoying it, than how good you were, so I didn't feel any pressure and would happily join in again.
On Wednesday night I headed out with another TA to see what Salzburg's Student Night had to offer. We had a very Denglish pre-drinking session with her housemates and then headed out to O'Malley's, one of the Irish pubs here, where we spent the evening. The night didn't have a particularly student-y feel to it, and there weren't actually that many people out so don't worry Mum - I won't be going too wild here!
Thursday I did a little bit of recovery, made it to the German conversation class for a second time this week (100% attendance, model student!) and then had 2 hours at the evening school. The evening school is really so enjoyable that it doesn't even feel like work sometimes. Although I don't want to be a teacher, it made me think of the quote, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life". I really hope that I find a job like that. A group of the assistants had all met for dinner to celebrate Tim's birthday, (again one of the TA's), and I met up with them after work to go for a couple of drinks. We went to The Afro-Cafe, which is very cool. It's one of those places that tries to be cool, but also is cool, without having to try too hard. There was a similar place in Chatelet, Paris but unfortunately I never got the chance to go there. The evening was absolutely hilarious. As we've been here a bit longer now, I feel that we're all getting to know each a bit better and so everyone has started being themselves more. It's such a good group of assistants, and I feel really lucky that it's such a sociable group as well, as I know that some other regions have lost contact with a lot of their TAs.
All in all it was a good week. There was pretty good weather, good times with friends and I'm settling into my job as a teacher here too hence the title of this post - I could get used to this!
After working out my final timetable last week, this was the first time proper 'run through' of my new routine. It's hard to explain simply, but it essentially works out as one 'heavier' week of teaching every day Wednesday through to Tuesday, and one 'lighter week', of only teaching 4 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday.
This week is the 'lighter week', so at the start I felt pretty exhausted after my first experience of the 'heavier' week, but once I recovered got to enjoy the plenty of Freizeit I had again (more so this week, as I know it only lasts a week before it's all go again!).
For Monday I had prepared lessons on the US elections, different types of housing in England, and British icons and manners. I think that the lesson planning will get easier once I know the individual classes a bit better, their level of English, whether they prefer working in smaller groups or as a whole class etc. I get the impression that with all of that it's definitely going to be a learning curve, but overall I was pretty happy with how the classes went. On Monday evening I was in the evening school. I told them that I was 20 years old, and someone asked when I'd be 21. I looked around the room, and they all looked pretty old, so I could guess where this conversation was headed. I told them I'd be 21 next summer and sure enough they took great pleasure in informing me that I, the teacher, was indeed the youngest in the room. This is pretty intimidating, but I've decided to try and make it work to my advantage. I'm thinking that if I talk to them almost as my peers, there will hopefully be a pretty relaxed environment which will open up the conversation. Getting them to talk is, after all, my job so I'll see how it goes.
Tuesday I only had two lessons which were stereotypes and health. As health is such a broad topic I narrowed it down to eating, and then school dinners to try and make the lesson more typically British. Again, I was pretty pleased with both lessons and already feel like I'm learning so much. Before I came here, everyone warned me about how fast I speak and that I need to articulate and project my voice more. I've been trying hard to do that, as the few times that I have started to speed up when speaking English, the students faces have gone completely blank, so that was definitely good advice. Hopefully after 4 and a half months of this I'll come away with excellent presentation skills if nothing else!
On Tuesday I also managed to make it to the German conversation class at the library (after trying and getting a bit lost last week). Although it's not too advanced as they have to cater for all levels, having one hour of total exposure to German is really helpful. The participants come from all over, although mainly Eastern Europe, and so the common language is German which means no explanations or anybody slipping into English. I got to note down a few good bits of vocab and some grammar points so it was definitely worthwhile. I've resolved to go twice a week, every week, and as an incentive after 20 times of going they give you a free book - win win.
From Tuesday onwards, the 'lighter' week truly began, as I only had 4 hours of teaching left until next Tuesday. Wednesday started with my first real experience of the 'Kaffee und Kuchen' tradition they have here. It was, in a word, amazing. We went to the Salzburg branch of the Cafe Sacher, which the Sachertorte (a veryveryvery good chocolate cake) is named after. I had a chocolate cake that was very light, and very chocolatey, and very moreish and just generally couldn't be faulted. I'm very willing to embrace this past-time as far as my waistline will allow. I then headed back to take part in the family's 'music afternoon'. I'd been a bit sceptical, but in reality it was only 15 minutes and I played the piano while two others played the recorder. It was very relaxed and a lot more about enjoying it, than how good you were, so I didn't feel any pressure and would happily join in again.
On Wednesday night I headed out with another TA to see what Salzburg's Student Night had to offer. We had a very Denglish pre-drinking session with her housemates and then headed out to O'Malley's, one of the Irish pubs here, where we spent the evening. The night didn't have a particularly student-y feel to it, and there weren't actually that many people out so don't worry Mum - I won't be going too wild here!
Thursday I did a little bit of recovery, made it to the German conversation class for a second time this week (100% attendance, model student!) and then had 2 hours at the evening school. The evening school is really so enjoyable that it doesn't even feel like work sometimes. Although I don't want to be a teacher, it made me think of the quote, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life". I really hope that I find a job like that. A group of the assistants had all met for dinner to celebrate Tim's birthday, (again one of the TA's), and I met up with them after work to go for a couple of drinks. We went to The Afro-Cafe, which is very cool. It's one of those places that tries to be cool, but also is cool, without having to try too hard. There was a similar place in Chatelet, Paris but unfortunately I never got the chance to go there. The evening was absolutely hilarious. As we've been here a bit longer now, I feel that we're all getting to know each a bit better and so everyone has started being themselves more. It's such a good group of assistants, and I feel really lucky that it's such a sociable group as well, as I know that some other regions have lost contact with a lot of their TAs.
All in all it was a good week. There was pretty good weather, good times with friends and I'm settling into my job as a teacher here too hence the title of this post - I could get used to this!
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Brewery, Bowling, Brewery.
One thing the Austrians (and Germans, I´m not one to discriminate) do incredibly well is a brewery. On Friday evening we all went to the Augustinerbräu to celebrate Cecilia's, (one of the TA's) birthday. It's a pretty huge yellow building just off of the river, and was originally founded by monks. The atmosphere is incredible and the place itself is full of character. The beer is served in their signature tankards and you can pick between a half or full litre. Although you can get table service, it's much more fun to go up yourself, rinse the tankard out in a water fountain and then have them fill it up from a keg. There's also lots of traditional food avaliable, wurst, kartoffel usw, and at a very reasonable price. About half of us took this opportunity to wear our dirndls (we need to get as much wear out of them as physically possible to justify the purchase!) and weren't the only ones in traditional dress. The room we were in was pretty busy, but we could still easily carry a conversation. Quite a few tables were spontaneously bursting out into 'drinking songs' and 'prostin'` (cheers) each other, which further added to the great atmosphere. It was a great evening and we somehow managed to split a Sachertorte between us all 20 of us as well!
We headed out to a bar afterwards, where our dirndls were definitely a bit more out of place. However, it's still a lot more common here than I'd have thought. I would say that I see people in traditional dress almost every day, so we didn`t get any funny looks. We had a few more drinks and then headed home after a great evening.
On Saturday I had a pretty chilled day with a nice lie in after the 6am starts from the latter half of the week. I then met one of the teachers from my secondary school and she gave me a lift to the bowling alley, where we met up with the other teachers. It was fun, and although I'd been mentally preparing to be pretty embarassed, I'm actually better at bowling than I remember, so was able to save some face there! I noticed another example of Austria`s pretty relaxed approach to rules. When you go bowling in England, you have to wear bowling shoes. It's just a given. It's a rule and we stick to it. Here, however, they have the bowling shoes avaliable, and you are supposed to wear them but it ends up as your own choice whether you do or not. So for the more fashion conscious among us who hate the hideous bowling shoes, I can recommend bowling in Austria! Unfortunately, I haven't quite 'clicked' with this group of teachers yet. I think it might be to do with the fact that a lot of them speak in Dialekt (Austrian German, rather than Hochdeutsch), and so it's harder to keep up with the conversation and contribute normally. It was good to spend time with them outside of school, though and hopefully I'll be invited to other events with them in the future.
During the past week,'Jazz and the City' has been playing in various locations around Salzburg. It's lots of different groups of jazz musicians, who take over a venue and play their different sets all around the building. On Sunday I headed to the Stieglbräu with the mother and daughter from my host family to check it out. There was a very chilled vibe, with lots of people nodding along with their eyes closed, completely lost in the music. I didn't get quite that into it, but I was definitely appreciating it as I haven't heard live music like that for quite a while. Stieglbräu is both a brewery and a museum, so it was interesting to have a look around while we were walking from one act to the next. As it's almost a completely wooden building, the acoustics sounded pretty cool, especially the saxophones. We stayed for about an hour and a half, and as we left the building and stepped into the bright sunlight outside I realised how relaxed the music has made me. Note to self: if stressed, Jazz fm could be a good option!
As all of my introductory lessons were officially over, this would be the first complete week of 'real teaching', so I had an early night in preparation...
We headed out to a bar afterwards, where our dirndls were definitely a bit more out of place. However, it's still a lot more common here than I'd have thought. I would say that I see people in traditional dress almost every day, so we didn`t get any funny looks. We had a few more drinks and then headed home after a great evening.
On Saturday I had a pretty chilled day with a nice lie in after the 6am starts from the latter half of the week. I then met one of the teachers from my secondary school and she gave me a lift to the bowling alley, where we met up with the other teachers. It was fun, and although I'd been mentally preparing to be pretty embarassed, I'm actually better at bowling than I remember, so was able to save some face there! I noticed another example of Austria`s pretty relaxed approach to rules. When you go bowling in England, you have to wear bowling shoes. It's just a given. It's a rule and we stick to it. Here, however, they have the bowling shoes avaliable, and you are supposed to wear them but it ends up as your own choice whether you do or not. So for the more fashion conscious among us who hate the hideous bowling shoes, I can recommend bowling in Austria! Unfortunately, I haven't quite 'clicked' with this group of teachers yet. I think it might be to do with the fact that a lot of them speak in Dialekt (Austrian German, rather than Hochdeutsch), and so it's harder to keep up with the conversation and contribute normally. It was good to spend time with them outside of school, though and hopefully I'll be invited to other events with them in the future.
During the past week,'Jazz and the City' has been playing in various locations around Salzburg. It's lots of different groups of jazz musicians, who take over a venue and play their different sets all around the building. On Sunday I headed to the Stieglbräu with the mother and daughter from my host family to check it out. There was a very chilled vibe, with lots of people nodding along with their eyes closed, completely lost in the music. I didn't get quite that into it, but I was definitely appreciating it as I haven't heard live music like that for quite a while. Stieglbräu is both a brewery and a museum, so it was interesting to have a look around while we were walking from one act to the next. As it's almost a completely wooden building, the acoustics sounded pretty cool, especially the saxophones. We stayed for about an hour and a half, and as we left the building and stepped into the bright sunlight outside I realised how relaxed the music has made me. Note to self: if stressed, Jazz fm could be a good option!
As all of my introductory lessons were officially over, this would be the first complete week of 'real teaching', so I had an early night in preparation...
Sunday, October 14, 2012
So viel Freizeit!
Week Three
After a busy weekend, it was straight into my second week of teaching (third week overall here in Austria.)
I'd sorted out my timetable with the secondary school the week before and it's a little complicated. 'Week A' I'm at the secondary school on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 'Week B', I'm there on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. As this is now 'Week B', I had the day off on Monday, which was my first (of many) experiences of how much 'Freizeit' we'll get here due to only teaching 13 hours a week. I had a long lie-in, read a bit of my book, caught up on some TV (mainly TOWIE... the shame...) and after only one day could already feel myself going a little stir crazy. In Paris, I was busy from 8am-7pm most days, longer if I was meeting up with friends in the evening, so this is quite a contrast! I had to go into town to meet my teacher at the Abendgymnasium (evening school) for the second attempt of planning my timetable, so arranged to meet a few of the other assistants for dinner and drinks afterwards.
They had put together a provisional timetable for me, where I would be teaching on Tuesday and Friday evenings. I am quite keen to go travelling at the weekends in order to take advantage of being so central in Europe, so Friday evening didn't sound ideal. Luckily they were very flexible with the hours and we were able to pretty much completely re-do the timetable. Instead, I'll be teaching Monday evenings every other week, and Wednesday and Thursday evenings every week. All in all it was a very positive discussion.
I met up with the other assistants after, and we went to an Italian restaurant in the Altstadt. After dinner we went to a cocktail bar and then Jody, another assistant, and I, went on to an Irish bar in the town. We got chatting to a couple of Americans there, one of whom was weirdly similar to Jason Segel (from the Five-Year Engagement among other films) but also awkwardly hilarious. They'd flown over to Munich for Oktoberfest, not realising it had ended yesterday, which we, quite frankly, found ridiculous. You'd think they would have at least had a little Google! After they'd gone we were approached by a fat, balding, middle-aged man who handed us a flower and then was pretty insistent that we dance with him. As Jody put it, we were 'offended' that he thought he had a chance with us, and so made a swift get-away. I waited for the last bus home, which never came, so ended up getting a taxi instead.
Tuesday was another day off work, and I was again struggling to fill this new-found Freizeit. Every Tuesday and Thursday there is a Deutsch-Konversationskurs at the library. I was keen not to waste the entire day so tried to make my way there. So far I've been coping reasonably well with finding my way around a new town, but unfortunately this afternoon got the better of me. I did eventually make it there, but it was over half-way through. I took note of where it was and resolved to come back next week.
By Wednesday it was back to the 6am starts. I was still doing introduction lessons, but by now had got the hang of them much better. I knew which questions were getting 'yes or no' answers, and which ones opened up more of a discussion. As another 'icebreaker', I played '2 truths and a lie' with the class. I split the class into groups of three, they had to come up with their stories, come up to the front of the class and two of them would tell the truth, one a lie. The rest of the class then had to ask questions to work out who was the liar, which went down really well. Back in the staff room, I was still having issues with a lot of the teachers talking to me in English, despite me answering in German. I ended up having a horribly awkward discussion with one teacher, who asked me quite forcefully to stop speaking German and repeated that she'll only speak English to me, which made me feel really quite uncomfortable. However, I tried not to dwell on that too much as so far it is the only thing I can pick a fault with of my time here. In the wake of this conversation I went to the university that afternoon with another assistant, Rachel, to try and register for some German classes.Unfortunately the classes are all full until next semester, by which time I'll be in Spain. I'll carry on looking for something similar though, as I'm keen to make the most of my time here and speak as much German as possible.
Wednesday evening was my first time teaching in the evening school. The classes are a lot smaller, sometimes only 4 or so students. Also, they're all here voluntarily, and so the atmosphere is very different. They are very keen to learn, to ask for help, and also seem genuinely interested in a lot of what I have to say. I think this might be because we are all similar ages, so they can relate to it a lot more. They made the lesson very easy as they didn't hesitate to contribute. I stayed to have a cup of tea and a chat after my lessons with one of the teachers who seems really nice. Although she's Austrian, she spent 4 years in Ireland and so speaks English with an Irish accent, which I definitely wasn't expecting. I'm glad to be in two schools, to get to see the best of what both have to offer, and I would say that it makes for a more interesting overall experience.
Thursday was more of the same, with an early start, more introduction lessons, and followed by lessons at the evening school. I know I might regret saying this a month or so down the line, but I was starting to feel as if I've done enough introduction lessons already, and am ready for the real teaching to begin. Although this will mean that I've got to prepare the lessons myself, they should also hopefully be more varied and potentially quite exciting.
On Friday, I had a lesson with the teacher that had flat out refused to speak German to me on Wednesday. I was quite nervous about seeing her again (it was a very very awkward conversation). I'm not sure if she'd had some time to reflect on the reasons for me wanting to speak German in the staff room or what had happened, but she was speaking away to me in German and even invited me bowling with some of the staff on Saturday evening. I was glad that I didn't need to worry any more and as a bonus her lesson went so well that the children clapped me at the end of it, result!
After a busy weekend, it was straight into my second week of teaching (third week overall here in Austria.)
I'd sorted out my timetable with the secondary school the week before and it's a little complicated. 'Week A' I'm at the secondary school on Mondays and Tuesdays, and 'Week B', I'm there on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. As this is now 'Week B', I had the day off on Monday, which was my first (of many) experiences of how much 'Freizeit' we'll get here due to only teaching 13 hours a week. I had a long lie-in, read a bit of my book, caught up on some TV (mainly TOWIE... the shame...) and after only one day could already feel myself going a little stir crazy. In Paris, I was busy from 8am-7pm most days, longer if I was meeting up with friends in the evening, so this is quite a contrast! I had to go into town to meet my teacher at the Abendgymnasium (evening school) for the second attempt of planning my timetable, so arranged to meet a few of the other assistants for dinner and drinks afterwards.
They had put together a provisional timetable for me, where I would be teaching on Tuesday and Friday evenings. I am quite keen to go travelling at the weekends in order to take advantage of being so central in Europe, so Friday evening didn't sound ideal. Luckily they were very flexible with the hours and we were able to pretty much completely re-do the timetable. Instead, I'll be teaching Monday evenings every other week, and Wednesday and Thursday evenings every week. All in all it was a very positive discussion.
I met up with the other assistants after, and we went to an Italian restaurant in the Altstadt. After dinner we went to a cocktail bar and then Jody, another assistant, and I, went on to an Irish bar in the town. We got chatting to a couple of Americans there, one of whom was weirdly similar to Jason Segel (from the Five-Year Engagement among other films) but also awkwardly hilarious. They'd flown over to Munich for Oktoberfest, not realising it had ended yesterday, which we, quite frankly, found ridiculous. You'd think they would have at least had a little Google! After they'd gone we were approached by a fat, balding, middle-aged man who handed us a flower and then was pretty insistent that we dance with him. As Jody put it, we were 'offended' that he thought he had a chance with us, and so made a swift get-away. I waited for the last bus home, which never came, so ended up getting a taxi instead.
Tuesday was another day off work, and I was again struggling to fill this new-found Freizeit. Every Tuesday and Thursday there is a Deutsch-Konversationskurs at the library. I was keen not to waste the entire day so tried to make my way there. So far I've been coping reasonably well with finding my way around a new town, but unfortunately this afternoon got the better of me. I did eventually make it there, but it was over half-way through. I took note of where it was and resolved to come back next week.
By Wednesday it was back to the 6am starts. I was still doing introduction lessons, but by now had got the hang of them much better. I knew which questions were getting 'yes or no' answers, and which ones opened up more of a discussion. As another 'icebreaker', I played '2 truths and a lie' with the class. I split the class into groups of three, they had to come up with their stories, come up to the front of the class and two of them would tell the truth, one a lie. The rest of the class then had to ask questions to work out who was the liar, which went down really well. Back in the staff room, I was still having issues with a lot of the teachers talking to me in English, despite me answering in German. I ended up having a horribly awkward discussion with one teacher, who asked me quite forcefully to stop speaking German and repeated that she'll only speak English to me, which made me feel really quite uncomfortable. However, I tried not to dwell on that too much as so far it is the only thing I can pick a fault with of my time here. In the wake of this conversation I went to the university that afternoon with another assistant, Rachel, to try and register for some German classes.Unfortunately the classes are all full until next semester, by which time I'll be in Spain. I'll carry on looking for something similar though, as I'm keen to make the most of my time here and speak as much German as possible.
Wednesday evening was my first time teaching in the evening school. The classes are a lot smaller, sometimes only 4 or so students. Also, they're all here voluntarily, and so the atmosphere is very different. They are very keen to learn, to ask for help, and also seem genuinely interested in a lot of what I have to say. I think this might be because we are all similar ages, so they can relate to it a lot more. They made the lesson very easy as they didn't hesitate to contribute. I stayed to have a cup of tea and a chat after my lessons with one of the teachers who seems really nice. Although she's Austrian, she spent 4 years in Ireland and so speaks English with an Irish accent, which I definitely wasn't expecting. I'm glad to be in two schools, to get to see the best of what both have to offer, and I would say that it makes for a more interesting overall experience.
Thursday was more of the same, with an early start, more introduction lessons, and followed by lessons at the evening school. I know I might regret saying this a month or so down the line, but I was starting to feel as if I've done enough introduction lessons already, and am ready for the real teaching to begin. Although this will mean that I've got to prepare the lessons myself, they should also hopefully be more varied and potentially quite exciting.
On Friday, I had a lesson with the teacher that had flat out refused to speak German to me on Wednesday. I was quite nervous about seeing her again (it was a very very awkward conversation). I'm not sure if she'd had some time to reflect on the reasons for me wanting to speak German in the staff room or what had happened, but she was speaking away to me in German and even invited me bowling with some of the staff on Saturday evening. I was glad that I didn't need to worry any more and as a bonus her lesson went so well that the children clapped me at the end of it, result!
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Oktoberfest and English Breakfast in Österreich
A group of 6 of us (5 of us dirndl/lederhosen clad which I consider a pretty impressive statistic!) met at Salzburg station at midday on Friday, ready for the 2 hour train ride to Munich for Oktoberfest. The train ride was fun and went quickly, along with some beers and before we knew it we were there. We followed the general crowd of dirndl and lederhosen, which led us easily to all of the action. Once there, it was quite similar to what I'd been expecting. There were lots of food and drink stalls, quite a 'carnival' atmosphere with lots of fairground rides, beer gardens, and, of course, the big beer tents!
We wandered around for a bit soaking up the atmosphere and getting our bearings before attempting to get into a beer tent. Unfortunately we'd left it a bit late, especially as it was the last weekend, so we had no luck getting in anywhere despite spending over an hour queueing outside. Our queueing style was very British and we waited patiently in line. Some others had a very different approach, especially if they were a few beers down the line. Quite a few tried running past the bouncers to try and get into the tent. The bouncers had a very 'no nonsense' approach, and essentially picked these people up and threw them back into the crowd!
We eventually gave up and decided to try our luck in a beer garden. After about only 5 minutes someone in our group had spotted an English speaking group that were about to leave, and they agreed to let us have their table. All 6 of us squeezed on as you are only allowed to order beer if you have a table and were able to order our first Mas (3 pints in a big big glass). We had a great spot directly under the heaters, the evening sky was a beautiful red, the atmosphere was just incredible, and we all get on so well that it was a really enjoyable evening. I left to go back to the station a little bit early as one of my best friends from Durham, Toby, was also in Munich for Oktoberfest and we'd agreed to meet up for a bit. It was lovely seeing a familiar face. The others stayed at Oktoberfest until their table got turned over to mark the end of the evening, and then we all made the sleepy journey back to Salzburg. It was a great day, and I'd love to go for a whole weekend another year and hopefully get into a tent.
I woke up (too) early on Saturday morning as I was travelling with my host family to their house in Wagrain. I've definitely felt better, but luckily it was less than an hours drive and by the time we got there I'd started to feel more human. Their house in Salzburg is quite modern, but the house in Wagrain is exactly what I'd imagine a typical Austrian house to be like. Surrounded by mountains, a stream running through the garden, flowers growing from the front of the house, it was just idyllic. We chilled for a bit and then set off for a mountain walk. Now, last time the family used the word 'walk', they definitely meant walk. Unfortunately it seems I was lulled into a false sense of security, as this was a full on Austrian hike, in all senses of the word! More than half of time was spent on my hands and knees as I was following the son, Jakob, and his best friend. Instead of taking the mountain path, they were being typical boys and climbing up vertically through the rocks and stones. In a word I'd call their route was 'direct'. We got to the top and had a picnic by the most beautiful lake. I was pretty knackered, but thought to myself that after a few more hikes like that and I'll be in great shape!
I walked back down with the parents, who were much more sensible and followed the mountain path. Once home, I continued reading my book of choice at the moment which is Bridget Jones' Diary 2 (jn German, it's a good level of language and the humour isn't lost at all), and we sat down to dinner. After dinner, we all played 'Singstar', which was hilarious. I definitely had the advantage of being a native English speaker when singing the rap of 'Jenny from the block', but hearing the Austrian attempt was also sehr lustig.
We had a lazy morning on Sunday and didn't have breakfast until 11ish. I'd been telling them about English food, and how my family like to have a good old English fry up when we're together at the weekend. The mum had gone to the supermarket especially to buy bacon, eggs, tomatoes etc, which was really thoughtful, and we all enjoyed an 'English Breakfast in Österreich'. Afterwards the children were desperate to go swimming. Funnily enough, a swimming costume hadn't been on my list of 'things to pack for a winter in the Austrian mountains' and so I ended up borrowing the mum's one (which was a lot racier than I was expecting!). The swimming pool was a short drive away and as well as the diving boards and slides (or Rutschen), there was a heated outdoor pool. Apologies for my incessant emphasis on how pretty everything here is, but swimming in a heated pool in the middle of the mountains is pretty mind-blowing. It also started raining, which was awesome! They've said we'll come back when it's snowing, which I imagine would be such an experience. After 4 hours swimming, as well as the hike the day before, we were all pretty done in for so headed back to the house, packed up and drove back. Needless to say I slept very well that night.
It was such an enjoyable, and varied, weekend. I'm starting to feel more and more at home here and as this has all happened in just the first two weeks, I'm really excited to see what the next four months will bring.
(Also, at some point in the weekend, the family have switched from calling me 'Alice' to calling me 'die Coxy'. I find this pretty hilarious, and they think the name is 'voll lustig', so for now it looks like it's going to stick!!)
We wandered around for a bit soaking up the atmosphere and getting our bearings before attempting to get into a beer tent. Unfortunately we'd left it a bit late, especially as it was the last weekend, so we had no luck getting in anywhere despite spending over an hour queueing outside. Our queueing style was very British and we waited patiently in line. Some others had a very different approach, especially if they were a few beers down the line. Quite a few tried running past the bouncers to try and get into the tent. The bouncers had a very 'no nonsense' approach, and essentially picked these people up and threw them back into the crowd!
We eventually gave up and decided to try our luck in a beer garden. After about only 5 minutes someone in our group had spotted an English speaking group that were about to leave, and they agreed to let us have their table. All 6 of us squeezed on as you are only allowed to order beer if you have a table and were able to order our first Mas (3 pints in a big big glass). We had a great spot directly under the heaters, the evening sky was a beautiful red, the atmosphere was just incredible, and we all get on so well that it was a really enjoyable evening. I left to go back to the station a little bit early as one of my best friends from Durham, Toby, was also in Munich for Oktoberfest and we'd agreed to meet up for a bit. It was lovely seeing a familiar face. The others stayed at Oktoberfest until their table got turned over to mark the end of the evening, and then we all made the sleepy journey back to Salzburg. It was a great day, and I'd love to go for a whole weekend another year and hopefully get into a tent.
I woke up (too) early on Saturday morning as I was travelling with my host family to their house in Wagrain. I've definitely felt better, but luckily it was less than an hours drive and by the time we got there I'd started to feel more human. Their house in Salzburg is quite modern, but the house in Wagrain is exactly what I'd imagine a typical Austrian house to be like. Surrounded by mountains, a stream running through the garden, flowers growing from the front of the house, it was just idyllic. We chilled for a bit and then set off for a mountain walk. Now, last time the family used the word 'walk', they definitely meant walk. Unfortunately it seems I was lulled into a false sense of security, as this was a full on Austrian hike, in all senses of the word! More than half of time was spent on my hands and knees as I was following the son, Jakob, and his best friend. Instead of taking the mountain path, they were being typical boys and climbing up vertically through the rocks and stones. In a word I'd call their route was 'direct'. We got to the top and had a picnic by the most beautiful lake. I was pretty knackered, but thought to myself that after a few more hikes like that and I'll be in great shape!
I walked back down with the parents, who were much more sensible and followed the mountain path. Once home, I continued reading my book of choice at the moment which is Bridget Jones' Diary 2 (jn German, it's a good level of language and the humour isn't lost at all), and we sat down to dinner. After dinner, we all played 'Singstar', which was hilarious. I definitely had the advantage of being a native English speaker when singing the rap of 'Jenny from the block', but hearing the Austrian attempt was also sehr lustig.
We had a lazy morning on Sunday and didn't have breakfast until 11ish. I'd been telling them about English food, and how my family like to have a good old English fry up when we're together at the weekend. The mum had gone to the supermarket especially to buy bacon, eggs, tomatoes etc, which was really thoughtful, and we all enjoyed an 'English Breakfast in Österreich'. Afterwards the children were desperate to go swimming. Funnily enough, a swimming costume hadn't been on my list of 'things to pack for a winter in the Austrian mountains' and so I ended up borrowing the mum's one (which was a lot racier than I was expecting!). The swimming pool was a short drive away and as well as the diving boards and slides (or Rutschen), there was a heated outdoor pool. Apologies for my incessant emphasis on how pretty everything here is, but swimming in a heated pool in the middle of the mountains is pretty mind-blowing. It also started raining, which was awesome! They've said we'll come back when it's snowing, which I imagine would be such an experience. After 4 hours swimming, as well as the hike the day before, we were all pretty done in for so headed back to the house, packed up and drove back. Needless to say I slept very well that night.
It was such an enjoyable, and varied, weekend. I'm starting to feel more and more at home here and as this has all happened in just the first two weeks, I'm really excited to see what the next four months will bring.
(Also, at some point in the weekend, the family have switched from calling me 'Alice' to calling me 'die Coxy'. I find this pretty hilarious, and they think the name is 'voll lustig', so for now it looks like it's going to stick!!)
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
That's 'Frau Cox' to you!
Week Two
My first week as a teacher, or 'English Language Teaching Assistant' has gone relatively well. This may well be to do with the fact, however, that I haven't really had to do any teaching yet. Before I fully launch into the events of this week, I'll quickly explain what it is that I'm actually doing here.
The British Council runs a worldwide language assistantship scheme for native English speakers. Although the scheme is available all over, I chose to do it in a German speaking country as it's the only one that offers placements for just one semester, rather than the whole year. As I also have to spend time in France and Spain this year, I couldn't really opt for a scheme longer then 4/5 months, so this is perfect. We have to work 13 hours a week, and my time here is divided between two schools. As we aren't qualified teachers, we aren't supposed to take whole classes by ourselves. Instead, our job is to get the students speaking English, to teach them a bit about our culture, to answer any questions they have - in short we are simply an aid for the English lessons, however the teachers want to use us.
I got up bright and early at 6am on Monday to travel to my first school, which is about an hour outside of Salzburg. My main concern was if they'd even be expecting me, as I'd had very limited contact with the school before arriving (not for lack of trying I must add!). However, quite a few of the other assistants had a similar experience with their schools, so I guess I can consider this my first real experience of Austria's strange approach to rules. As I was arriving for the first lesson, I was on the train with all the other school kids so just followed them off the train assuming they'd lead me in the right direction. Once we'd left the station, the younger kids seemed to be going one way and the older kids another. As I'm teaching in the secondary school, I decided to follow the older kids and sure enough found my way to the school. In Austrian schools, the students have to take off their outside shoes and wear 'Hausschuhe' ie. slippers, so they all went into the locker room to change shoes. I didn't realise this was what they were doing, so followed them in there as well. I quickly realised that wasn't where I was meant to be, back-tracked, wandered round for a bit looking for a Reception. I saw a photocopier in a corner and figured some teachers must hang out around there so headed over, and behind it was the Staff Room. I went in and found my contact teacher and was quite proud of myself that, apart from once actually at the school, the whole journey had gone relatively smoothly! We had a quick chat, and he introduced himself and some of the other English teachers. Almost half of them were speaking to me in English which isn't ideal as I'm here to improve my German! I am making an effort to reply to them all in German, though, so I hope this means the other will eventually switch to German too.
My first lesson was a bit of an anti-climax to be honest. I hadn't been given much instruction, so just stood up at the front of the class and essentially winged it. I introduced myself and then answered a few questions. If I'd known how these lessons would go, I'd definitely have prepared a little talk, maybe brought in some photos and thought of a game or something as well. As it was, my whole thing was over in about 15 minutes and the teacher didn't need me for the rest of the lesson so said I should go back to the staff room. I introduced myself to a few teachers, one of them took me on a quick tour of the school and then I went to the Sekretariat to sign my contract and some other forms. In my second lesson, I only told the children my name and they then had to be the 'detectives' to find out everything else about me. It was a much better lesson, as it was more interactive and got them talking more. The teacher for my 3rd lesson that day apparently didn't know that I was going to be there, (so I guess in a way my fears were confirmed), but that meant I got to go home an hour earlier than I was expecting.
I decided to use the time well and so went to the bank to finish opening my account. This was relatively easy as my host dad knows someone at the bank, so had called up and arranged almost everything. I just needed to go in with my passport and sign the actual documents. Once that was sorted, I headed back home and had a nap to recover from the early start! That evening, I headed back into town as I was meeting with my contact teacher from my second school, which is an Abendgymnasium (evening school) for 18-25 year olds, so will be quite a different teaching experience! There was some timetabling confusion as apparently there hadn't been any contact between the two schools, so we didn't actually get to sort out my timetable as planned. It was good to go the school and get a feel for it, though. It seems a lot more organised, and all of the English teachers were speaking German to me, so overall I got a good vibe.
On Tuesday, I had another 6am start to get to school for the first lesson. I told my contact teachers about the confusion with the second school so that they could get in touch with them to sort it out. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to ask if we could discuss my timetable, as as it stood I had four 6am starts a week and no days off (which apparently we're entitled to). Unfortunately, they weren't that helpful but I said to myself that changes were inevitable anyway, as they have to accommodate the second school. My two lessons were very similar to the day before, with the kids being 'inspectors' and me answering their questions. My working day was over by 9:30am, and I headed straight home for a nap! That afternoon a few of the assistants were meeting for a drink on the Stein Terrasse, which is on the top floor of quite a posh hotel and has such great views over Salzburg. We all swapped stories from our first day, and it was interesting to hear about everyone else's experience as we're placed all over Salzburg, in all kinds of different schools.We had a drink and then a few of us went out to an Italian restaurant after.
Wednesday I had another e-mail from a teacher saying that she didn't know that I was here and so wouldn't need me. The only other lessons I had that day were 'standby' (what that means I'm still not entirely sure) so I didn't need to go in at all. Instead, I spent the day doing 'admin'. I did all of the paperwork for a Vorteilskarte (train discount card), bought a Monatskarte (monthly train pass), had my phone unlocked and bought an Austrian sim. All of this was done in German, so I was pretty proud of myself. Wednesday afternoon is 'music afternoon' for my host family here. They asked me if I wanted to join in, and I had visions of us turning into the Von Trapp family, or something similar. However, using the Year Abroad mantra of say 'yes' to everything, I agreed. The music teacher gave me some Mozart piano music to practice for next week, so I'll update you on how that goes...
Thursday was a 'Wandertag' (school trip) for the whole school so again I wasn't needed. My 5 day week had somehow turned into a 3 days, and meant that I was being eased in a lot more gently to my 6am starts so I can't complain about that! I met up with the other Alice, who also had the day off, and we went to Europark to do some shopping. It was only about 10 minutes on the train and has some pretty good shops so I'm sure we'll make it there again soon. A group of us were planning on going to Oktoberfest the next day, and we'd started to get quite excited at the prospect of going in dirndls. We went back to Salzburg and met up with another assistant, Cecilia, to see if we could rent them for tomorrow. Unfortunately, we got there too late and the place was shut. By this point we were really starting to run away with the idea, so went to a different shop and started trying them on. The whole thing happened very quickly and about half an hour later, all three of us were walking out the shop with our newly bought dirndls (in some kind of state of shock as they definitely weren't cheap). I'd say this is the definition of an impulse buy if there ever was one!
On Friday, my first lesson was on 'manners'. To stress the importance of manners in England, I taught them the phrase "Manners cost nothing, but mean everything", which I think sums it up quite well. The second lesson was a class of 6th formers, so their English is quite advanced. The class was split into two, and I took one half for the first 20 minutes, then the second half. It was the first time I was properly controlling a class, and minus a few awkward silences it went reasonably well. I then got the train back to Salzburg and met up with 5 other assistants, so that we could make our way to OKTOBERFEST...
My first week as a teacher, or 'English Language Teaching Assistant' has gone relatively well. This may well be to do with the fact, however, that I haven't really had to do any teaching yet. Before I fully launch into the events of this week, I'll quickly explain what it is that I'm actually doing here.
The British Council runs a worldwide language assistantship scheme for native English speakers. Although the scheme is available all over, I chose to do it in a German speaking country as it's the only one that offers placements for just one semester, rather than the whole year. As I also have to spend time in France and Spain this year, I couldn't really opt for a scheme longer then 4/5 months, so this is perfect. We have to work 13 hours a week, and my time here is divided between two schools. As we aren't qualified teachers, we aren't supposed to take whole classes by ourselves. Instead, our job is to get the students speaking English, to teach them a bit about our culture, to answer any questions they have - in short we are simply an aid for the English lessons, however the teachers want to use us.
I got up bright and early at 6am on Monday to travel to my first school, which is about an hour outside of Salzburg. My main concern was if they'd even be expecting me, as I'd had very limited contact with the school before arriving (not for lack of trying I must add!). However, quite a few of the other assistants had a similar experience with their schools, so I guess I can consider this my first real experience of Austria's strange approach to rules. As I was arriving for the first lesson, I was on the train with all the other school kids so just followed them off the train assuming they'd lead me in the right direction. Once we'd left the station, the younger kids seemed to be going one way and the older kids another. As I'm teaching in the secondary school, I decided to follow the older kids and sure enough found my way to the school. In Austrian schools, the students have to take off their outside shoes and wear 'Hausschuhe' ie. slippers, so they all went into the locker room to change shoes. I didn't realise this was what they were doing, so followed them in there as well. I quickly realised that wasn't where I was meant to be, back-tracked, wandered round for a bit looking for a Reception. I saw a photocopier in a corner and figured some teachers must hang out around there so headed over, and behind it was the Staff Room. I went in and found my contact teacher and was quite proud of myself that, apart from once actually at the school, the whole journey had gone relatively smoothly! We had a quick chat, and he introduced himself and some of the other English teachers. Almost half of them were speaking to me in English which isn't ideal as I'm here to improve my German! I am making an effort to reply to them all in German, though, so I hope this means the other will eventually switch to German too.
My first lesson was a bit of an anti-climax to be honest. I hadn't been given much instruction, so just stood up at the front of the class and essentially winged it. I introduced myself and then answered a few questions. If I'd known how these lessons would go, I'd definitely have prepared a little talk, maybe brought in some photos and thought of a game or something as well. As it was, my whole thing was over in about 15 minutes and the teacher didn't need me for the rest of the lesson so said I should go back to the staff room. I introduced myself to a few teachers, one of them took me on a quick tour of the school and then I went to the Sekretariat to sign my contract and some other forms. In my second lesson, I only told the children my name and they then had to be the 'detectives' to find out everything else about me. It was a much better lesson, as it was more interactive and got them talking more. The teacher for my 3rd lesson that day apparently didn't know that I was going to be there, (so I guess in a way my fears were confirmed), but that meant I got to go home an hour earlier than I was expecting.
I decided to use the time well and so went to the bank to finish opening my account. This was relatively easy as my host dad knows someone at the bank, so had called up and arranged almost everything. I just needed to go in with my passport and sign the actual documents. Once that was sorted, I headed back home and had a nap to recover from the early start! That evening, I headed back into town as I was meeting with my contact teacher from my second school, which is an Abendgymnasium (evening school) for 18-25 year olds, so will be quite a different teaching experience! There was some timetabling confusion as apparently there hadn't been any contact between the two schools, so we didn't actually get to sort out my timetable as planned. It was good to go the school and get a feel for it, though. It seems a lot more organised, and all of the English teachers were speaking German to me, so overall I got a good vibe.
On Tuesday, I had another 6am start to get to school for the first lesson. I told my contact teachers about the confusion with the second school so that they could get in touch with them to sort it out. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to ask if we could discuss my timetable, as as it stood I had four 6am starts a week and no days off (which apparently we're entitled to). Unfortunately, they weren't that helpful but I said to myself that changes were inevitable anyway, as they have to accommodate the second school. My two lessons were very similar to the day before, with the kids being 'inspectors' and me answering their questions. My working day was over by 9:30am, and I headed straight home for a nap! That afternoon a few of the assistants were meeting for a drink on the Stein Terrasse, which is on the top floor of quite a posh hotel and has such great views over Salzburg. We all swapped stories from our first day, and it was interesting to hear about everyone else's experience as we're placed all over Salzburg, in all kinds of different schools.We had a drink and then a few of us went out to an Italian restaurant after.
Wednesday I had another e-mail from a teacher saying that she didn't know that I was here and so wouldn't need me. The only other lessons I had that day were 'standby' (what that means I'm still not entirely sure) so I didn't need to go in at all. Instead, I spent the day doing 'admin'. I did all of the paperwork for a Vorteilskarte (train discount card), bought a Monatskarte (monthly train pass), had my phone unlocked and bought an Austrian sim. All of this was done in German, so I was pretty proud of myself. Wednesday afternoon is 'music afternoon' for my host family here. They asked me if I wanted to join in, and I had visions of us turning into the Von Trapp family, or something similar. However, using the Year Abroad mantra of say 'yes' to everything, I agreed. The music teacher gave me some Mozart piano music to practice for next week, so I'll update you on how that goes...
Thursday was a 'Wandertag' (school trip) for the whole school so again I wasn't needed. My 5 day week had somehow turned into a 3 days, and meant that I was being eased in a lot more gently to my 6am starts so I can't complain about that! I met up with the other Alice, who also had the day off, and we went to Europark to do some shopping. It was only about 10 minutes on the train and has some pretty good shops so I'm sure we'll make it there again soon. A group of us were planning on going to Oktoberfest the next day, and we'd started to get quite excited at the prospect of going in dirndls. We went back to Salzburg and met up with another assistant, Cecilia, to see if we could rent them for tomorrow. Unfortunately, we got there too late and the place was shut. By this point we were really starting to run away with the idea, so went to a different shop and started trying them on. The whole thing happened very quickly and about half an hour later, all three of us were walking out the shop with our newly bought dirndls (in some kind of state of shock as they definitely weren't cheap). I'd say this is the definition of an impulse buy if there ever was one!
On Friday, my first lesson was on 'manners'. To stress the importance of manners in England, I taught them the phrase "Manners cost nothing, but mean everything", which I think sums it up quite well. The second lesson was a class of 6th formers, so their English is quite advanced. The class was split into two, and I took one half for the first 20 minutes, then the second half. It was the first time I was properly controlling a class, and minus a few awkward silences it went reasonably well. I then got the train back to Salzburg and met up with 5 other assistants, so that we could make our way to OKTOBERFEST...
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Never trust a man in Lederhosen.
On with the second half of the first week...
Sunday was a complete day of rest spent recovering from the previous week, and preparing for my first day in an Austrian school the next morning.
Although the journey to the training course took about 3 hours, the scenery was so stunning that it went quite quickly. I really can't get over how pretty everything is! i feel like everything I saw on the way could have been straight from a postcard. By the time I reached the final bus to take us to the Studentenheim we'd be staying in, quite a group of Brits and Americans had gathered. As we were in such a small town it was clear that we must all be going to the same place. As everyone was so friendly and chatty and I was meeting so many new people it started to feel like a mini Fresher's Week.
After a 40 minute bus ride deeper and deeper into the mountains we arrived, were given our room keys and then all sat down for dinner. After dinner we split into our regional groups so I got to meet the 17 or so other assistants that would hopefully form the basis of my friendship group for the next 5 months. (There is, of course, another Alice in the group... when did the name get so popular?!). After dinner, the British and American Council 'unofficially' treated us to some beer and wine. I was still shattered from the early morning flight so only managed to stay up for 1 beer and was tucked up in bed and fast asleep before 10pm (so not quite Fresher's Week take two!)
The next day started bright and early at 8:30am. We had a workshop on games for the classrooms to get the students talking and to raise the energy levels in the classroom if you're unlucky enough to get one of the later lessons of the day. We then had a class on what to expect from Austrian schools. It seems that due to the country's position between Germany and Italy they have a unique take on rules. The general gist seems to be that 'rules are made to be broken'; the German influence means that there are a lot of rules, however the Italian influence means that these are seldom adhered to. Not entirely sure how this will pan out, so watch this space... We had schnitzel for lunch (surprise surprise) and in the afternoon a representative from the British Council supposedly told us more about the programme. However, the only thing everyone seemed to take away from his session was that we shouldn't smile at the students until Christmas... We then had sessions on cultural differences, stereotypes, the dialect here (again not too sure how this will pan out, although I'm quite lucky as my host family have a very neutral accent), and finally a workshop on using texts in the classroom. Afterwards we all chilled out, and had a few drinks. I was still knackered so went to bed at a decent hour.
Wednesday morning we had 2 optional workshops, I chose extended 'How to get them talking' and 'Using texts in the classroom', which were pretty good. The afternoon was dedicated to a mountain 'walk'. I have put the word 'walk' in inverted commas here, as this was very much a topic of debate. It started out as you'd expect, and I would almost go as far as to say that it was enjoyable. However, our group somehow lost the mountain path. Instead of retracing our steps and trying to find it again we (questionably) continued to follow our Group Leader who was bounding ahead of us in his lederhosen and started to, quite literally, go straight up the mountain. There was panting, sweating, red faces and after a good hour or so of this attempt to essentially transform ourselves into mountain goats someone said the classic line, "Never trust a man in lederhosen". At this point we just had to laugh. We eventually reached the top, took some photos and all was seemingly well. The afternoon then took another (questionable) turn. We walked half way back down the mountain and found a small Gasthaus, so ordered a well-deserved beer. However, practically before we'd even taken our first sip, song sheets were being handed out, someone had whipped out a guitar and I found that having been in Austria just over 48 hours, I was half way up a mountain, beer in hand, singing along with men in lederhosen. Surreal doesn't even begin to cover it. Just when I thought I'd seen enough lederhosen to last me a lifetime, the evening was spent watching an Austrian folklore group dancing, slapping their legs, playing the cowbells and so on. Very entertaining, and very Austrian! At this point, I was starting to feel over-prepared for Austrian life if anything! We then had a quiet evening to recover from the 'walk' before going to bed.
Another day, another 8:30am start. On my way downstairs I could feel leg muscles I hadn't felt since reaching the 6th flight of stairs in Paris! This day was basically the culmination of all the training we'd had. We spent the morning preparing a lesson in groups, and the afternoon we each took a turn at teaching. It went better than I thought it would, and I definitely felt much more prepared than when I arrived here. It was really interesting watching the other groups as well, and I was able to jot down a few good ideas for lesson plans. In the evening there was a ceilidh and then each regional group was asked to contribute something to a talent show. Being from Salzburg, we only really had 2 choices - Mozart or The Sound of Music. We went with the latter and ended up performing a (very) improvised 5 scene summary of the film. Another classic line from this was, "So then the nuns turn into Nazis..". As it was the last day, most people made it to the 'Hexenhauser' (the local bar). It was good fun and I stayed until about 2.30am, headed home and then crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow. It had been an incredibly full on training course!
Friday we travelled back to Salzburg, and I did feel as though I was travelling back with a new group of friends. Everyone was so lovely and most of us went out to dinner that night as well, so I'm sure we'll continue meeting up.
On Saturday, my family wanted to go for a 'walk' in the mountains. I was sceptical at first, but this time it really was just a walk! The mountains were stunning (as per), I got to speak lots of German with the family and it was the first chance I'd had to have a proper conversation and get to know them a bit better, so it was great. We were out for about 4 hours then came home, had dinner, and all stayed up chatting quite late with a few glasses of wine. We seem to get on really well and as they're so easy to talk to I'm getting to practice a lot of German with them, which is ideal.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Los geht's!
Week One
I've been in Austria for a week now, and can safely say that the Year Abroad Part Two has been off to a flying start! Compared to my first week in Paris where I felt as though I was 'tiptoeing' around the city, the culture and the people, I really have been launched headfirst into Austria and everything associated with it. (This week has been pretty jam packed so I'll split it into two blog posts to avoid writing an essay.)
Unfortunately, the process of actually getting here didn't exactly go smoothly. I spent the best part of last Sunday packing, re-packing, weighing, re-weighing (repeat) to try and squeeze everything I considered an 'essential' for the next 5 months into a suitcase weighting 20kg. After much to and fro-ing I had a suitcase weighing 20.2kg and gave myself a pat on the back. However, upon arrival at Stanstead at a very antisocial hour the next morning it became apparent that our scales didn't quite match up and I came in a kilo overweight at 21kg. I quickly transfered a kilo from my suitcase to my hand luggage and thought that would be the end of it... After a tearful goodbye to the boyfriend, there was some hold up ahead of me at security so after legging it to my gate I got there with 3 minutes to spare. Luckily there was still a queue so I wasn't too late. However, at the desk I was asked to check the size of my hand luggage and as much as I forced it it wouldn't fit into their 'hand luggage checker' (which it definitely had done before adding the extra kilo!). There was a very mean man at the gate, a £50 excess baggage charge and some tears, but I made it onto the flight. I sat down, began sorting out my things and realised that in the confusion they'd given me back an Austrian passport instead of my own. More tears and a passport swap with a very confused Austrian lady at the front of the plane later and the flight was finally ready to take off!
When I arrived at Salzburg airport I was fully prepared to stay in my bad mood and blame Austria for the £50 I felt that I'd just unecessarily spent. However, as soon as I got off the plane I fell in love with the place. The airport was tiny and surrounded by mountains, the air was fresh and the sign was in German (which has always been by far my favourite language to study). My host family were there to meet me at the other side, and had even brought the dog along. We drove back to their house and I still couldn't get over the stunning views. Their house is about 10 minutes outside the centre of Salzburg, the view from my room is absolutely incredible and the house is right on a lake so even the walk to the bus stop is breathtaking.
Having woken up at 3am I was ready to crash, but as it was a Der Salzburger Rupertikirtag (http://www.rupertikirtag.at/) (a town celebration and holiday) they were having none of it. I quickly re-packed my hand luggage for the British Council Training Course as I was taking the train there straight after looking around the town and off we went. My host dad and brother were both in Lederhosen which I wasn't sure about but then decided it was cute and nice that they were getting into the spirit of things. Once we got to the town, however, this was seemingly normal and I can say hand on heart that I've never seen so many dirndles and lederhosen all in one place. There were lots of stalls in the town centre selling traditional Austrian fare such as food and clothes among other things, and some classic fairground rides as well. First impressions of the town were great. It's surrounded by mountains and has a river running through the middle which is actually blue, so makes a big change from the brown Thames. There are plenty of old buildings and although it's not the biggest town, it seems right up my street. We were only able to stay for a couple for hours as my train for the training course left at 2 so we all went to the station.
My host dad had sorted out the tickets, printed out a timetable and even carried my little suitcase onto the train with me. I wasn't sure how I felt about being assosicated with a man in lederhosen so soon after my arrival in Austria, but decided to embrace it! They waved me off at the station and I was very ready to sleep but also looking forward to meeting all of the other assistants at the course. I figured that if they're half as nice as my host family then I'm in for an amazing 5 months here!
(Also a quick note about how I came to stay with a family: Accomodation in Salzburg is notoriously hard to find. When you add into the mix the fact that you're trying to sort this out from Paris, only staying for 5 months (when the minimum contract is usually a year), and trying to avoid living with international students to make sure you speak German this becomes practically impossible! I saw an advert on one of the housing websites from this family so got in touch, they seemed really nice and keen to have me so I basically went for it! The deal is that the room is free as long as I speak English with the children. I was a bit worried about this meaning that I wouldn't get to speak German but for now they're mainly talking back in German and whenever I'm with the parents, family friends or relatives we all speak German so so far I'm feeling pretty immersed and not worried at all. I'm living with them basically as a bigger sister, so we all eat together in the evenings and if they go off at the weekend I'm always invited. Similarly though they do know that I'm not their daughter so am free to come and go as I please if I don't fancy tagging along to what they're doing. It was such a relief to get it all sorted and so far it's working out really well. The biggest bonus for me is living with people again as the studio apartment is Paris did get pretty lonely (despite it's great location), so I'm loving the general chit chat and having someone to watch TV with!)
I've been in Austria for a week now, and can safely say that the Year Abroad Part Two has been off to a flying start! Compared to my first week in Paris where I felt as though I was 'tiptoeing' around the city, the culture and the people, I really have been launched headfirst into Austria and everything associated with it. (This week has been pretty jam packed so I'll split it into two blog posts to avoid writing an essay.)
Unfortunately, the process of actually getting here didn't exactly go smoothly. I spent the best part of last Sunday packing, re-packing, weighing, re-weighing (repeat) to try and squeeze everything I considered an 'essential' for the next 5 months into a suitcase weighting 20kg. After much to and fro-ing I had a suitcase weighing 20.2kg and gave myself a pat on the back. However, upon arrival at Stanstead at a very antisocial hour the next morning it became apparent that our scales didn't quite match up and I came in a kilo overweight at 21kg. I quickly transfered a kilo from my suitcase to my hand luggage and thought that would be the end of it... After a tearful goodbye to the boyfriend, there was some hold up ahead of me at security so after legging it to my gate I got there with 3 minutes to spare. Luckily there was still a queue so I wasn't too late. However, at the desk I was asked to check the size of my hand luggage and as much as I forced it it wouldn't fit into their 'hand luggage checker' (which it definitely had done before adding the extra kilo!). There was a very mean man at the gate, a £50 excess baggage charge and some tears, but I made it onto the flight. I sat down, began sorting out my things and realised that in the confusion they'd given me back an Austrian passport instead of my own. More tears and a passport swap with a very confused Austrian lady at the front of the plane later and the flight was finally ready to take off!
When I arrived at Salzburg airport I was fully prepared to stay in my bad mood and blame Austria for the £50 I felt that I'd just unecessarily spent. However, as soon as I got off the plane I fell in love with the place. The airport was tiny and surrounded by mountains, the air was fresh and the sign was in German (which has always been by far my favourite language to study). My host family were there to meet me at the other side, and had even brought the dog along. We drove back to their house and I still couldn't get over the stunning views. Their house is about 10 minutes outside the centre of Salzburg, the view from my room is absolutely incredible and the house is right on a lake so even the walk to the bus stop is breathtaking.
Having woken up at 3am I was ready to crash, but as it was a Der Salzburger Rupertikirtag (http://www.rupertikirtag.at/) (a town celebration and holiday) they were having none of it. I quickly re-packed my hand luggage for the British Council Training Course as I was taking the train there straight after looking around the town and off we went. My host dad and brother were both in Lederhosen which I wasn't sure about but then decided it was cute and nice that they were getting into the spirit of things. Once we got to the town, however, this was seemingly normal and I can say hand on heart that I've never seen so many dirndles and lederhosen all in one place. There were lots of stalls in the town centre selling traditional Austrian fare such as food and clothes among other things, and some classic fairground rides as well. First impressions of the town were great. It's surrounded by mountains and has a river running through the middle which is actually blue, so makes a big change from the brown Thames. There are plenty of old buildings and although it's not the biggest town, it seems right up my street. We were only able to stay for a couple for hours as my train for the training course left at 2 so we all went to the station.
My host dad had sorted out the tickets, printed out a timetable and even carried my little suitcase onto the train with me. I wasn't sure how I felt about being assosicated with a man in lederhosen so soon after my arrival in Austria, but decided to embrace it! They waved me off at the station and I was very ready to sleep but also looking forward to meeting all of the other assistants at the course. I figured that if they're half as nice as my host family then I'm in for an amazing 5 months here!
(Also a quick note about how I came to stay with a family: Accomodation in Salzburg is notoriously hard to find. When you add into the mix the fact that you're trying to sort this out from Paris, only staying for 5 months (when the minimum contract is usually a year), and trying to avoid living with international students to make sure you speak German this becomes practically impossible! I saw an advert on one of the housing websites from this family so got in touch, they seemed really nice and keen to have me so I basically went for it! The deal is that the room is free as long as I speak English with the children. I was a bit worried about this meaning that I wouldn't get to speak German but for now they're mainly talking back in German and whenever I'm with the parents, family friends or relatives we all speak German so so far I'm feeling pretty immersed and not worried at all. I'm living with them basically as a bigger sister, so we all eat together in the evenings and if they go off at the weekend I'm always invited. Similarly though they do know that I'm not their daughter so am free to come and go as I please if I don't fancy tagging along to what they're doing. It was such a relief to get it all sorted and so far it's working out really well. The biggest bonus for me is living with people again as the studio apartment is Paris did get pretty lonely (despite it's great location), so I'm loving the general chit chat and having someone to watch TV with!)
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