Was fuer ein Schwein!

Week Six

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

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

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

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

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

Before wine...

After wine...

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

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

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