What Would Mr. Collins Do?
Loathing. Unadulterated loathing. For your face, your voice, your clothing...okay that really has nothing to do with anything except for the fact that I am currently listening to the soundtrack from Wicked and that song is stuck in my head :-) I sat down to write about Vienna, and all that came out were Wicked lyrics! I'm such a nerd.Okay, that's enough of that. This week went very well. It was an exceptionally light week, actually, which I won't complain about!! To begin with, I only had three teaching days because Wednesday was a Nationalfeiertag (National Holiday), and everything was closed (much like the 4th of July.) That left teaching on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and through some happy coincidence of scheduling (tests, movies, etc), I only taught 3 (yes, 3) classes this week. I actually felt rather bad about that for a bit. I mean, that is a quarter of what I am supposed to be doing each week. But I tried!! I really did!! I walked around the teacher's room every day, basically prostituting myself to all the English teachers. "Hi Prof ___! Guess what? I'm free right now!! Would you like me to come to class?" And all I got was, "Oh aren't you sweet. No, that isn't necessary today. Maybe next week." Meh. I tried, I promise.
I will say this, though. My three lessons were AWESOME lessons. I kicked some major booty, if I don't say so myself! One of my classes was with 3rd formers (13 years old), and they were studying the lingo used to travel in a city. You know, "get on the train," "change buses," "get off at the tram stop," etc. So, I first had them brainstorm about ways to travel in a city, and besides the usuals, they came up with things like "horses," "skateboards," "your dad's back." I was rather impressed, I must say. After that, we discussed some vocabulary by having them describe how to use the subway, the tram, and the bus. Then, I busted out the piece de resistance...I brought a map from the DC metro system and a worksheet, and they had to use the map to tell how to travel from point A to point B...I know it seems rather basic, but they have only been studying for 2 years, so it actually went over really well. They seemed to have a good time, and the teacher (who is rather gruff) was thrilled at the end.
Another of my lessons was with another dreaded 8th form class (eek!) However, this was 8C (the "C" means that they aren't fabulous language students), and with a teacher that I really really like. The class was literally all girls, and the teacher is female, and I honestly think that really changed the dynamic. They were so much nicer than the classes that are mainly male (and, to cover my rear, this is NOT meant as a treatise on the sexes!) The first question I got was (naturally) "what do you think of American politics." I answered honestly, that I don't agree with a lot of what the current government does, and the class started to applaud. I stopped them, though, and told them that just because I don't agree with the current government's policies does NOT mean that I hate where I come from. In fact, I told them, I love my country very much and am proud to be an American (as hokey as that sounds...but you really have to make that distinction here.)
Anyway, the rest of the class, we discussed the English language and its role as the "lingua franca" of the 21st century (among other such topics as, "oooh you have a boyfriend??? are you going to marry him???) At one point, I turned around to write the word "amalgamation" on the board, under some other vocab words the teacher had written, and the entire class started laughing. I was certain that my too-big pants had finally fallen off completely, like I've been fearing would happen these past few weeks, but alas, nothing so dramatic happened. It turns out that Kathi (the teacher) and I have identical handwriting, so the class concluded that that fact, along with the fact that we are the same height and both blonde, means that we are "soul sisters," which apparently means that we are one soul that has been split in two. Who knew? I certainly never knew I had a soul twin! Anyway, I was really happy with how the class went, and it made me feel a bit better about going to the (c)older classes.
AAAAHHHHHH MY ROOM IS FREEZING. I'm going to close my window. Okay I'm back. The wizard will see you now!! (Sorry, still listening to Wicked!)
In terms of classes, nothing too exciting happened. I had one less than usual this week due to the day off. So, no poetry this week. Int'l Conflict De-escalation was good. Um that's it I guess. Like I said, not too exciting. Class is class. I love it, but it doesn't make for very good "action" blogging. Quick aside. I'm reading a great book right now called Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse. It's in the same vein as The Historian, and, to a lesser extent, The Da Vinci Code. I highly recommend it if anyone is looking for something to read.
The rest of my week was excellent. I saw Pride and Prejudice on Sunday with Katharina. And Tuesday with Kim. And I would have seen it again today, except I was told that I wasn't allowed to go a third time in the same week. Maybe I'll go tomorrow ;-D I honestly went in with very low expectations (after all, the BBC mini-series is my favorite movie ever made, and how could Mr. Darcy be Mr. Darcy if he wasn't played by Colin Firth, and let's not even mention Mr. Collins!) Anyway, I was (obviously) completely wrong and very pleasantly surprised. The movie is an excellent distillation of the book (it's just impossible to reduce it to 2 hours, so obviously things were cut, but I didn't notice the absent bits.) Also, the characters were cast perfectly. Matthew MacFadyen was an inspired choice for Darcy, and Keira Knightley was great as Elizabeth Bennett. Okay, I'm not writing a movie review here, I promise, I just loved the movie.
Monday afternoon I tried to go to a step aerobics class with Alexis, but since I hadn't registered yet, they wouldn't let me in. Actually, they told me that if I wanted to, I could watch, from the hallway. I was like, "right. Peace out." I did go with Alexis to register on Thursday, though, and I'm now signed up for that class and another aerobics class, which should be a lot of fun :-) Yay excercise. Anyway, after I decided to leave that Monday, I walked home (about 45 minutes), and on the way, I stopped in a park to sit and read for a bit because the weather was just gorgeous!! It felt so idyllic...sometimes I just have these "Vienna" moments, during which I look around and think, "oh my goodness, I'm actually here...wow." Pretty cool :-)
Wednesday was, as I said, the Nationalfeiertag. And, in honor of 50 years of Austrian
neutrality, the nation staged a military parade on the Ring. Yeah, I don't understand the logic either. So I met up with Kim and Kelly by the Museumsquartier to watch the parade, and let me just say that I have NEVER seen so many people out on the streets of Vienna before!! I have more pictures, check them out on my photo website (link on the sidebar). This is of the crowds watching the parade in front of the museum, and further afield, on the steps of 
Parlament. The parade kicked off with a flyover, and I got several pictures of helicopters in formation, along with this really cool one of some sort of old-school bomber-ish plane. For pictures of trucks, guns, men in full gas suits, and more, see my photo website :-) Only be warned, we were late getting to the parade, and thus, we were about 8 rows back from the street, and all of my photos were taken by holding my camera above my head and clicking away blindly. Thus, there are a lot of tops of people's heads. It is rather amusing, actually. (Mom, I also finally put up pictures of my apartment! Enjoy :-D)Today was also a very good and rather busy day. I met up with Kristina for lunch, and then we went shopping. And, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles (jeepers I can't quit it with the musicals today!!), I FOUND JEANS!! Oh my good Lord!! And I bought them. And my pants fit. And there was much rejoicing *yaaaay* So now I have one pair of pants that fit and five that don't. Okay, well, it is a step in the right direction :-)
OHHH I forgot about the other drama of the week. In a nutshell....German Wings is an airline that has extremely cheap flights in Europe, out of Germany. To celebrate their birthday, they had a promotion to sell 333,333 tickets at 3E apiece (can you guess which birthday they were celebrating?) The cheap tickets were good through March, so Kim and I thought we should take a trip in February, when we have a week off from both teaching and the uni. Thus, we decided to go to Finland and Estonia (I know I'm strange, okay? ;-D) for cheap. Alas, such deals are usually too good to be true, and this was no exception. Turns out, tickets are 3E, but fees/taxes/etc. are in the neighborhood of 50E. Thus, our four one-way tickets apiece (Vienna-Cologne-Helsinki, Helsinki-Cologne-Vienna) would cost upwards of 200E. Right. So much for cheap. So we nixed that, but we still want to go somewhere, so we, along with Jennifer, met up today to discuss. Right now we are looking at a week in Tunisia. There is a package deal - 7 days at a resort (breakfast included) and airfare for 312E. Not too shabby :-) So, we'll seeeeeeeeee....I'm excited though :-D
After meeting up with the ladies, Kim and I went back to kill time at my apartment before we met Jen and her fiance David for dinner at the Mex restaurant and a movie (I voted for Pride and Prejudice, but I was overruled, so we saw Flightplan instead...very good, very thrilling.)
Next week should also be wonderful...it is fall break, so I have the week off from teaching (hurrah!) Tomorrow is the Pumpkin Festival, Monday is Kim's Halloween party, Tuesday is the Cleveland Orchestra playing Stravinsky and Schubert, and Wednesday is the Brahms German Requiem. It should be busy, but fun :-)
Okay kids. I miss y'all. Peace out :-)
posted by Carly Fowler @ 6:44 AM
2 Comments:
I wish your pants would've fallen off...that would've been funnier than you finding your "soul sister" cause you already got 2.5 regular ones. :-) LOVE YOU sounds like tons of fun you crazy skinny Austrian freak. MWAH
Your life sounds so much more interesting than mine right now . . . although I did go to Vegas for the first time this weekend. That was lots of fun. Lost some money but saw the Cirque show Mystere (which was of course fabulous). Miss you tons!
Post a Comment
<< Home