Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?
You know, I knew when I started this thing that eventually I would get so busy that I would forget to keep up with posting, and I think that time is starting now. It was a very good weekend, but I think I was home for a total of 10 minutes or so! **instert 45 minute war with my keyboard to reattach my enter key here. I won. Thank God.** So let's see....I'll start with school.Last Thursday, I tought my first 8th form. For the Americans, that is the same as 12th grade. Aka, big, scary seniors who hate the U.S. and who can be exceptionally unmotivated. I just did a question and answer class (although the questions ranged less from "what is your favorite pet?" to "do you have a boyfriend?" and more from "why do you think Americans were so stupid as to reelect George Bush?" to "are you allowed to build spud guns in Georgia?"), and I think it went pretty well. I had a tough time convincing them that not everyone in the U.S. supports all of the current administration's policies. It is interesting. They see George Bush's election as an overwhelming show of support by the vast majority of Americans, and I think I finally figured out why. I mean, the election was very close. Bush only won by a few percentage points, and I don't think very many Americans would call that a landslide victory. In Austria (and most of Europe), however, NO ONE ever gets a majority (see: Germany's current political crisis.) The parliamentary, multi-party system of government basically guarantees that true majorities are few and far between, and to a European's ear, which is used to hearing the "winning party" have around 38-40% of the vote, 51% sounds extraordinarily high. But try explaining that to hostile high school kids.
I had Friday off (as I will every week -- yay 3 day weekends!!!), and my weekend was a lot of fun (more about it later). Today was my first "real" day of work, I think. I taught 3 classes, which will be my usual daily load, and I was solely in charge of 2 of them. I had little kids (2nd form, or 6th grade) first, and that was fun. I got a lot of the same questions as usual, but since their homework assignment was to write an 80 word essay about ME, they listened to my answers and took notes. I have to say, I find it extremely amusing to be an essay topic, and not only I, but Buddy and Greg will star in several of these essays. The young ones are mostly interested in pets and boyfriends.
I then had my second ever 8th form, and these kids were even more surly than the last bunch, which had a couple of over-achievers to put me at ease. The teacher didn't give me much planning help; he just said, "oh, find something that interests you and bring it in." So I got an article off of CNN.com about this weekend's earthquake and prepared some questions for discussion about natural disasters, humanitarianism, and political games, which I find interesting. The class, however, looked at me rather blankly. 'Duuuuuhhh you want us to do what?' Meh. I don't like 8th formers.
Anyway, eventually they got talking, but the discussion quickly changed from the philosophy of humanitarianism and how it can be used to create detente to how George Bush managed to get reelected (I'm telling you, after the boyfriend question, all these kids want to talk about is Dubya.) The topic then moved to gay marriage, which really started people off. One kid, who hadn't said a word all class, burst out with "I think the gays should just be happy about being allowed to f*** each other and not want any more than that." My mouth just about fell to the ground. The sentiment behind the statement, though disturbing, was familiar enough, but hearing the "f-word" in a classroom setting was a very bizarre experience. After class, I was talking to Reinhold, their English teacher, and Harry, a first-year gym and German teacher who for some reason wanted to sit in on the class, and Harry told me that I looked completely shocked at that statement. I'm sure I did. Doing Peer Support and learning about "active listening" taught me to school my reactions for the most part, but I swear, I just didn't see it coming. Not that it's a big deal, it's just that, in my experience, if any American HS student dropped the f-bomb in class, they'd get in so much trouble. I don't know, but it was pretty funny.
I definitely have noticed, though, that Austrians don't feel the need to school their language when they are speaking in English. Maybe it has to do with the fact that words spoken in a second language don't have the same impact as they do in a mother tongue because how can you really understand the full history and meaning behind an explosive word, unless you a) are taught to truly understand it (difficult), or b) are a native speaker (impossible to become one if you aren't)? Besides using f*** in class, Austrians also don't seem to have a problem with n****r, which is one of two words that I find to be totally and completely offensive. A 19 year old guy told me a joke the other day, and that word was part of the punch-line. I was so completely taken aback by it, and no one else even seemed to notice. That word is so volatile in the United States, but here it has no real meaning. In their heads, people know it is demeaning and offensive, but Austrians, and probably most Europeans, don't really feel the punch of the word like an American would.
Right. Enough linguistical philosophy (liguistical -- is that even a word? hmmm....haha that question is so ironic.) This weekend, my host family from 5 years ago, Antonia (sister), Gertraut (mom), and Karl (dad), all came into Vienna from Munich and Wolfsberg, respectively. It was sooo nice to see them again, I have to say. Friday night we went out to dinner, along with Lukas (my roommate), Clemens (Antonia's brother), and Birgit (Clemens' girlfriend). It was nice catching up, and Gertraut, Antonia and I made plans for Saturday to museum/gallery hop.
Saturday night, Clemens and Birgit had Antonia, Katharina (Antonia's cousin), Lukas, me, and two other friends over for dinner, which was also really fun. Clemens and Birgit cooked a three-course meal consisting of pumpkin soup, rabbit, potato croquettes, blue sauerkraut, and tiramisu -- an eclectic collection of foods, but everything was very tasty. That night, I found out that the German spelling of my name is Karlie Faula (yes, my name has actually been spelled that way by German speakers, mistakenly of course), which cracked me up. Not only do I have a boy's name (more giggling in class today when I introduced myself, by the way), but they can't even spell it right. Oh well. I guess they are getting me back for what Ellis Island did to people's names 100 years ago.
Sunday morning, Karl and Gertraut met me for Mass at the Jesuitenkirche, where they sang the Lord Nelson Mass by Haydn. AMAZING. They are just so good. After church, we met up with Antonia, Katharina, and Kathi's family for coffee before everyone had to leave town and go home again. Twas fun.
Sunday night, I had dinner at Nancy and Guy's apartment (Nancy is a Fulbright professor here for the semester). Jennifer, Danny, Kelly, and Alys were also there for round one of several "have all the Fulbrighters over to dinner at the Hargroves in groups of 5 because we only have 7 plates" parties. Homecooking is soooo good...spaghetti, meatballs, bread, salad, wine, dessert....mmmmmmm. Afterwards we watched School of Rock, which I had never seen but now love. There is just something about Jack Black.... Anyway. I went home, went to bed, and here I am, Monday afternoon, looking at 3 more days of teaching before my next weekend. Oh well -- at least I get home early most days. Also, classes start this week at the Uni!! Hurrah!! I can't wait :-)
Until my next free hour (or minute....), ciao :-)
P.S. Love and hugs to sissy Bridget who sent me a lovely birthday package. If you *ahem* feel inspired to send bits of home to me through the mail, my address is as follows:
Carly Fowler
c/o Leipold
Florianigasse 16/32
1080 Wien
Austria
Yeah, that wasn't a cheap trick or anything ;-)
posted by Carly Fowler @ 9:24 PM
1 Comments:
I just love catching up on your life this way. I know you only have the occasional free moment, but let this serve as my fervent plea that you continue this. It's my weekend short-story entertainment!
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