Never trust a man in Lederhosen.

On with the second half of the first week...

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.

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.