Thanksgiving Is As Thanksgiving Does
So it's totally been a while since I've written anything substantial. What can I say? It's been a busy few weeks, and I'm rarely home for more than a few minutes at a time with nothing to do, so the first thing to go, sadly, is this, since it is not in any way responsible for me getting paid. And my money to live off of must come first, I suppose :-)
Okay - teaching. Things have actually been going pretty well recently. I think I've finally sort of gotten the hang of planning lessons, and I've always been comfortable in front of the classroom, so I guess the two together are beginning to pay off. I've still kind of given up on "hard hitting" lessons because they seem to render the students unresponsive. Instead, I do such things as "personal ads," in which the kids write their own personal ads (which are usually dirty, let's be honest here). Then I collect them all, and the kids read them out and try to guess who wrote which ad. Hardly a life-changing event, but the kids enjoy it, AND they read, write, and speak in English, which is kind of the point. This week was actually completely crazy at work. For the first time since arriving, I finally had taught all 12 hours that I'm supposed to, but that also meant that I had to plan 12 lessons. So literally from Sunday to Wednesday night, I spent every free moment trying to put together lessons on Thanksgiving history, Thanksgiving food, the American school system, scary stories, Native Americans, the Olympics, JFK assassination conspiracy theories, pocket money, and mascots to name a few. To any TA's reading this - let me know if you want my lesson plans...I could start putting a book together at this point. Anyway, that basically took up ALL of my free time this week, and let's just say that I was glad that yesterday was Thursday and my 3-day weekend had arrived!!
What else has been going on? Let's see....I saw Harry Potter 4 and LOVED it :-D I'm going again next week with one of my classes from school, which should be fun. Last Friday night, Guy, the husband of Nancy, who is here on a professorial Fulbright grant, put on a fantastic concert at Fromme Helene, a really cute little restaurant/cafe in Josefstadt. He was great - wonderful stage presence and fabulous songs (standards from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat Cole, etc.) Also, a lot of the Fulbrighters went, and it was great to see people again...everyone's been so busy that we don't get together nearly as much as we used to, but I suppose that is the natural course of events.
Last weekend I made the 6 hour train trip to Munich to see Antonia...it was sooooo nice to finally be able to catch up with her and spend some one-on-one time together. When she was in Vienna in October, we never had the chance to just sit down and talk. It was a really fun weekend. We didn't do anything too exciting because I've already seen the sights of Munich, but we did walk around the innere Stadt and do some shopping and eating of pastries and the best Pad Thai I've had since arriving in Europe :-) Saturday night we went to a church to hear the Brahms German Requiem. I was actually rather disappointed at the performance, since that is my favorite piece of choral music. The choir was pretty average, and the soprano soloist was almost heinous, but that's okay. After the concert, we were both pretty wiped out, so we just went back to her apartment, where I was able to see her photos from the 6 months she spent in Chile. Ahhhh I totally want to go to South America now!! Sunday we slept in, made some brunch, and went for a walk in the English Garden (which is HUGE!) before I left to come back to Vienna and commence lesson planning. Which is about all I've done until now! Hahaha not really.
Tuesday night, I ended up going over to Danny's apartment for a bit, where we watched Noises Off, with Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Nicolette Sheridan, John Ritter, Christopher Reeve, and Larry from Perfect Strangers. It was probably the funniest movie I've ever seen, I must say! Definitely worth renting! What else did I do? Wednesday night Kim came over to borrow my oven to bake her Thanksgiving pies....SO NOT COOL that two pies (one apple and one pumpkin) are currently residing in my fridge and I'm not allowed to eat them!! Yesterday (Thanksgiving), Alexis and I decided to bail on aerobics (because seriously, who exercises on Thanksgiving on purpose?) and instead we decided to be ironically American. First we went to Starbucks for coffee (because they are the only coffee establishment in Vienna that I know about with squashy, comfy sofas), and then we went to *ahem this is shameful* McDonald's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was ironically amusing to say the least. And last night, after McD's, I went to hear the Brahms German Requiem (again) at the Musikverein. The concerts are not even comparable. It was phenomenal, and it was honestly the first time that I've ever enjoyed listening to the 5th movement with the soprano solo. It was such a moving experience. I love that piece so much, and I'm so glad I went.
Yesterday (Thanksgiving) I was so totally homesick. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and it was so strange to a) not be home, and b) to have it be a totally ordinary day. Tonight, however, we Fulbrighters are doing Thanksgiving (a day late because, like I said, yesterday was NOT a day off) and doing it right. We're having it potluck at Nancy and Guy's apartment. They are doing the turkey, I'm bringing ham, and various others are bringing the cranberry sauce (located at a British/American grocery store), greenbean casserole, cornbread stuffing, pumpkin and apple pie, mashed taters, etc etc etc. MMMMMMMMMMM I'm excited :-D I do have to say, though, that I'm so glad that I'm going to be able to be home at Christmas. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't go (not to mention that I'll be able to see Gregory :-D :-D) The countdown is on: 26 days until I'm home, and 35 days until Gregory arrives in Atlanta!!!
BUT it is nice to be in Vienna this time of year. Last night as I was walking home from the concert, it was snowing, and I was walking through the Christkindlmarkt (the open air Christmas market at the Rathaus), and it was just so breathtakingly lovely. Tomorrow I plan on starting on my Christmas shopping by visiting some of the many Markts that are currently open around the city :-) Hurray for that!!
That's about it for now, I guess. Hope you are all well, and happy shopping today!
Ciao.
Bits and Pieces of Fun :-D
Since I am currently sitting in my room, vigorously avoiding planning a lesson on the American school system, I figured I could give a bit of a quickie update in pictures (since they are, apparently, worth 1000 words!)
Let's seeeee...a while ago, Kim came over and we rented the movie Sideways, which I think is hysterical. Most women I've met think it is hysterical, but most men I've met hate it. I have a theory about that: it shows men at their absolute worst, yet is still realistic in it's presentation of the foibles of men. Thus, men hate it because they don't want to see the worst parts of themselves (as a gender) realistically put on screen, and women love it because it is funny, yet it can also (sadly) be true. But I digress. The following photo shows what happens when two women watch Sideways together and decide that the occasion calls for a bottle of wine, and then realize they must finish the bottle because the corkscrew snapped off in the cork and they had to push the cork through into the bottle itself. Not pretty, I'm telling you.
On Friday night Guy gave a lovely concert in the basement of cafe...here are the Fulbrighters who went:
I went to Munich for the weekend (more about that later.) Here is a photo of Antonia and me in the English Garden. If we look cold, that's because we are freezing our butts off! But it was fun :-)
A Week's Progress
Mmmm what better way to spend your day off than going to Europe's biggest shopping mall, running errands, listening to show tunes, and updating my blog? (In case you didn't catch on, that's what I did today ;-D)
Well I must say that I've certainly settled into a pattern since arriving. I guess that's the way life goes when you are living in a (not quite) exotic location rather than just visiting it for a week or two, and I must say, since I am a creature of habit, it is nice to know what I will be doing from day to day. That's not to say that I don't add a dash of spice every now and then, though!
Teaching has been going well of late, which is really nice, I must say. Last week I even got to teach about as many classes as I was actually hired to do, so I didn't feel like a total lazy slug come Friday, which was very refreshing. I had a lesson with one of the classes/teachers that I dread last Tuesday, and it actually went really well. This is one of the teachers who gives me absolutely no guidance, no indication of the language level of the class, no hint as to what subject might be appropriate or might relate to the material they are studying, which is why I don't particularly enjoy working with him. It's like taking a shot in the dark and not knowing in which direction the target is located. Basically, with this guy I've had more "duds" than with any other teacher. BUT this week, in a 7th form class (17 year olds), I actually had a successful lesson!! Wahoo! Since it was a week after Halloween, I figured a Halloween-type topic might still be relevant, so I brought in a couple of "urban legends." You know the ones I mean - we always told these stories at slumber parties. The hook in the door, the ghost hitchhiker, etc. It was fun rather than informative, but the kids actually responded for once, and when I made them write their own urban legends at the end of the lesson, they didn't even complain. So yay for me.
Other than that, teaching was pretty standard for the week (no complaints out of me for that!) Because of all the days/weeks off, though, there are starting to be scheduling conflicts, which is annoying, because I get to be the lucky person in the middle. I basically have a schedule where I have at least 2, sometimes 3 classes per class period, and I rotate classes each week, which means if there is a day off, everything gets thrown off. Ugh. Oh well, I guess it's part of the job. Hopefully I have enough diplomatic and people skills to maneuver through!!
University classes are going well. I don't want to sound snobby or anything, and maybe it's just that I've done a poor job of choosing classes for myself, but so far, university is so much easier than what I'm used to in the States. There is virtually no homework -- no essays, very little reading (optional reading at that), and classes are often pure lecture (even the ones that aren't supposed to be set up like that!) So, I'm not complaining because it does make my life easier, but I really feel like I'm not doing anything in terms of my own classes. Going to class is always good, but they only meet for 2 hours a week (and in European university time, that means 1.5 hours MAX, usually shorter.) So, it's definitely different, that's for sure. Next semester I'm really going to try to shake things up a bit.
And in the rest of life.....all is well :-) Lots of fun, lots of friends, lots of activity, just like I like it! Last Tuesday I met Alexis after work for lunch and photocopying, which involved an interesting excursion to one of the university subject libraries. The uni has an entire library of works in English, including a rather extensive collection of British and American literature. When we discovered this, we were very excited because English language books here are not cheap (paperbacks are about twice as expensive as at home.) So we tried to check out a Jane Austen anthology and a book by Faulkner. I had already picked up my library card, so we thought there would be no problem. Alas, we were wrong. The university library here is "not a lending library" (direct quote from the librarian, who refused to speak to us in German), and actually, I'm not sure if there are any lending libraries here. Thus, if we want to even read a novel, we must do it in the library, during library hours. Hmph. So there goes that plan. Oh well, I'll make do...I can read the classics online anyway, if I want to. After the library, Alexis and I went to the movies. Yes, okay, fine, I saw Pride and Prejudice again. 4th time, and I'm not ashamed! :-D
Wednesday evening, Kelly, Danny, Ted, Kim, and I met at Cafe Central to discuss our potential trip to Tunisia. And the verdict? We are going!! Yesssssssssss!! And luckily, since our break falls during the off-season, we were able to get airfare, 7 nights in a 4-star hotel on the beach, and 2 meals a day for 324E per person. I've (naturally) already ordered my Lonely Planet Tunisia (best travel guides EVER), and I'm getting really excited. *Warning* history nerdiness is about to be displayed *Warning* The ancient Phoenecian city of Carthage is located in Tunisia and is actually very close to where we will be staying!!! (Carthage was defeated and basically destroyed by Rome during the Punic Wars. It should be a fascinating site, and I am absolutely thrilled to be able to go see it!!!) There are also bazaars, caves to explore, islands to visit...it should be amazing!!
For anyone worried about safety, yes, Tunisia is a Muslim country, but it is just about the safest place in the Muslim world that a westerner can visit. Women have equal status with men, and Tunisia is a leading advocate of achieving peace in the Middle East. Also, we will be geographically closer to Sicily than we will to any of Tunisia's neighboring countries (not to mention that Ted has a friend living there, so we have a native contact in case of emergencies.) And after what has been going on in France recently, and after London this summer, Madrid, New York, who is to say that the West is safe anyway? We will be fine :-)
Right. Back to Vienna. After making our decision, Kim, Danny, and I headed to (wait....I said I'd never tell anyone that I did this....oh well) TGI Friday's for dinner. I couldn't help it!! The day before, I had been sitting in my room thinking, "good grief I need a hamburger!" So I went to the probably the only place in Vienna that would serve a decent slab of ground beef on a bun with cheese, lettuce, and ketchup -- an American hamburger chain :-) It was everything I thought it would be....and more. I don't regret a bite of that hamburger!!
Thursday Alexis and I had one of our aerobics classes after work, which was fun. I almost passed out at the end though...this Thursday I really have to remember to drink water before I go, because every time I don't, I basically almost pass out. Bad idea. That night, after class, Alexis, Kim, Kelly, Danny, Kristina, and I headed to this Thai restaurant near Kristina's apartment. Kelly got there after everyone else, and sadly by the time she arrived, we'd finished eating (but my green curry was soooooooooooo good!!!) I would have stayed (and probably would have had an appetizer!) with her, but she, along with Danny and Kim and I, decided that McDonald's was more our speed at that point, so we walked down the street towards the land of McFlurries. Hahaha it was a good time :-)
On Friday, Alexis and I went purse shopping, which was fun. I almost bought a 90E coat, but I came to my senses at the last minute, when I realized I'd basically be spending a 10th of my monthly income on a coat I don't need...I totally would have had buyer's remorse on that one!! But the coat was sooo cute!!! Ahhh well, I made the right decision. Friday night, Alexis and Kim came over, and we ordered pizza, rented Harry Potter 1, 2, AND 3, and curled up for a Harry Potter marathon. Since we have tickets for the English premier, we naturally had to prepare. That night we only made it through 1 and 2, so on Saturday Alexis and I watched the third, as Kim was on a train to Berlin. After the movie, we cooked breakfast for dinner - pancakes and a scramble consisting of eggs, potatoes, peppers, and cheese. Deeeeelicious!! I'm going to have to make pancakes more often, I think :-) So now, we are officially ready for Harry Potter Thursday night!! (We originally had tickets for Tuesday, but when we realized that it could only be shown dubbed into German over here until the American premier, we exchanged our tickets for Thursday night, when we can finally see it in English...I don't care, as long as I see it before my sisters, I'm happy :-D)
Sunday went as Sundays usually do...church and work. I had lunch with Kristina, which was really nice. We experienced the infamously terrible service at Viennese cafes (we sat for 30 minutes trying to flag down a waitress to order), but that is part of the...charm? Sunday night I talked to Sheila for the first time since I got here...it was SO great to hear her delightful voice again :-) The strangest coincidence happened regarding her rooming situation in Philly -- she basically randomly ended up with a friend of mine from my high school church youth group. So weird, I'm telling you!
Yesterday was school again, and aerobics, and today was (yet another) day off from school. I slept in (mmmmmmmm :-D), and then Alexis and I went to Ikea to get her a bookshelf, which was fun. Walking around that place always makes me wish I had an apartment/house of my own to decorate!! And now here I am, listening to Les Miserables and avoiding doing my lesson planning by spending a few hours writing my blog :-) I hope you enjoy my procrastination techniques!!
Miss you. Love you. Ciao!
P.S. Here is some happy birthday lovin' to Emily :-)
Fun with Fall and Other Such Alliterations
First things first, I must proclaim to the world that I have tickets to the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie on November 15!! (Yes, for you Americans, I do believe that is TWO FULL DAYS before the movie opens across the Atlantic!! And yes, I will be watching it in English without any sort of annoying dubbing or subtitles :-D) Hurrah!! I'm pathetically excited by this development in my life, isn't that sad? HA! I don't care -- I still get to see Harry Potter before my sisters do...mwhahahaha!!
Right. So now let's talk about things that I have been doing that are actually exciting rather than pathetic and sad :-) Considering that last week was "fall break," and I thus had nine days to roam free in my new city, I actually have a lot of adventures to relate.
Fall has officially broken in Vienna. The leaves are turning, the wind is picking up, and before the gray skies set in, we had a few glorious days of brilliant blue sky to complement the golden leaves. We Fulbrighters decided to indulge our fall fancies by trekking up Leopol
dsberg to the Kuerbisfest (pumpkin festival) at the top. The day could not have been more gorgeous (although it was a bit chilly!), and the festival was everything that an Austrian festival should be. Namely, there were cute kids, cute parents, and cute old people (wearing lederhosen and dirndls) and lots and lots and lots of alcoholic beverages. Pumpkin beer, pumpkin punch with rum, gluhwein, spiked cider, regular beer, regular wine, you name it, they had it. I decided to be festive and went for the pumpkin punch with rum, which was warm and delicious. And strong. Alexis finished mine. Pumpkin carving was of course another fun feature of the festival (ooooh nice alliteration to me!) Farmers were selling pumpkins and squash of all sizes and shapes off the back of a large wagon, and there were tons of tables set up with carving equipment. However, I think my favorite feat
ure of the fair (good grief this alliteration is getting ridiculous) was a quartet of old men in traditional Austrian clothing who went around singing for their beer. They had an accordian and their voices, which they used to coerce each stall out of four cups of beer. I actually was able to get a video of them singing, and it is a hoot! However, since I can't post video on here (I think), I will instead put up a photo. After the festival, the group went out to dinner at the Bunion *ahem excuse me* the Banyon, a Chinese/Japanese restaurant, and then Kelly and I decided, on a whim, to catch the 9pm showing of ummmm, well, Pride and Prejudice. It was my third time. I swear, I am seeing it with each of my friends individually, because I think I'm going again tomorrow with Alexis. Aahhhhh it's so good!!!
On Monday, I went to my first aerobics class, which was soooo fun. I really enjoy step aerobics, and it was really a good workout. I was feeling my legs and tummy muscles the next day, that's for sure!! Monday was also Halloween, which has apparently only become popular here in the past 10 years. Globalization in a nutshell, I guess. I, however, have been celebrating Halloween since I was born, so I did not feel bad about attending Kim's party :-) It was fun -- Danny, Kelly, Jen and her fiance, Ted, Chris and his wife, Claire, and I all went to Kim's for candy, chips, wine, champagne, and all sorts of odds and ends. I rented The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Ring to put us in the Halloween mood...we watched the first and saved the second, so that night at least, I didn't go home completely freaked out :-) It was a fun night, and very low key.
The next day, All Saints' Day, is another Nationalfeiertag. Austria is officially a Catholic
country, so we get all important Catholic holy days off :-D We wanted to do something really Viennese and creepy at the same time, so Kim, Alexis, Jen, her fiance, and I made the trip out to the Zentralfriedhof (the ginormous cemetary on the outskirts of Vienna) at dusk. The cemetary is absolutely beautiful. The gravestones are all totally ornate and fancy, and especially around All Saints/All Souls time of year, people really keep the graves looking nice with flowers and candles and even paintings. We spent about an hour and half there, and we only left when it got too dark to read the graves. The Zentralfriedhof is well-known for being the final resting place for Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Johann Strauss, and Salieri (Mozart's competetion in Amadeus), among others. We, being silly, did not look up beforehand where these graves were located, so the only famous musician's grave we found was this one:
I don't know if you can read the name on the grave, so I'll just tell you. It says "Falco." To those for whom no bell just rang, join the club. It took me a while to realize that Falco is the recently deceased man who sang the classic song "Rock Me Amadeus." Ahhh Austria...I think it's absolutely priceless that we found Falco, but not Beethoven. :-) In any case, we decided to continue with our creepy night, and Kim, Ted, Kelly and I went back to Kim's apartment to watch The Ring. I honestly don't know why I did that to myself -- I've seen it before, and I couldn't sleep for three nights afterwards!!! Hahaha this time I only had to sleep with the lights on for one night.
Wednesday was a relatively light day in comparison. I met up with Alexis to go jogging/power-walking in this huge, gorgeous park near her apartment, which was sooo much fun. Then we went back to her apartment and carved her pumpkin from the Kuerbisfest. Alas, we were silly and gave him the name "Just Jack" because he was so darn cute. Afterwards, we treated ourselves to schnitzel at Centimeter, which in all likelihood completely counteracted the effects of power-walking, but why excercise if not to feel good about eating bad-for-you food? ;-D That night, Kim, Alexis and I went to a concert at the Musikverein. The Cleveland Symphony Orchestra (one of the best in the States) played Schubert and Stravinsky. The highlights were Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms. Most of the pieces were for chorus and orchestra, which I, naturally, enjoy even more than just instrumental music, and the entire concert was just fabulous. What's even better is that tickets to the Musikverein (standing room tickets, anyway) are cheaper than movie tickets!! Irony.
On Thursday Kelly and I got Thai food and coffee on a very gray day, and because of the weather and the allure of coffee and conversation, I played hooky from my other aerobics class. Meh. I don't regret it at all!
Alexis, Kim, and I had talked about taking a trip on Friday or Saturday, but Alexis decided last minute to accept an invitation to go to Switzerland for the weekend, so I ended up staying in the city, which was actually probably a good thing because next weekend I am going to Munich to visit Antonia, which should be a blast :-D So on Friday, rather than going to Budapest/Bratislava/Salzburg (all of which had been discussed), I did some shopping with Kim, who was also nice enough to help me change my bank account. For some unfathomable reason, Bank Austria won't give foreign students an ATM card that works at ATMs that are not exclusively for Bank Austria. Which sucks. So, with Kim's help, I finagled my way into a normal bank card that can also be used for debit. Hurrah! Friday night was the Vienna opening of Elizabethtown, which a small group of us attended. Danny is actually from Elizabethtown, KY, so we of course had to go :-) We met for dinner at Maschu Maschu, which is this really yummy Middle-Eastern restaurant where you can get a full meal for about 3E. The only downside is that both times I have been there, there have been couples full-on making out at the table next to us. Ick. Is that really necessary people? I think not! Anyway, after dinner we saw the movie, which I really enjoyed. I know the critics have basically panned it, but I actually thought it was rather good!
Saturday I had to do some birthday shopping for my sissy (happy almost birthday sissy Meggie!), so Kim, Kelly, and I met up to shop at/explore the Julius Meinl (Austria's equivalent of Whole Foods.) That place is seriously insane, and I LOVE it!! Besides Meg's present, I also bought some peanut sauce (oh my favorite food ever), and the three of us decided that it was a chocolate sort of day. So we splurged and split a 10E cup of imported-from-France chocolate-caramel fondue. Oooooooh boy. We picked up some apples, bananas, pretzels, and waffle cookies for dipping utensils, and thus armed, we went to Kelly's to have a delicious dinner of rice, peanut sauce, white wine, and fondue to go along with our movie selection of 13 Going on 30. Girls' night? I think so!! So that was about as fun as fun can be (we also watched clips of Jon Stewart on the internet which is always entertaining!)
Sunday. Day of Rest. Day of Grad School Applications. I'm getting there. Really. I also met up with Jo for coffee, which was lovely :-)
Which brings us to today and my return to the real world. I shouldn't complain, today I worked as many hours as I did during all of the last week I worked (lest you be confused, more work is a good thing), and I had my step aerobics class again, which was quite a workout!! Alexis and I grabbed coffee, and I tried to mail my present to Meg. I have to say, I love where I live. I went to a post office in the 9th district because my aerobics class is next door, and the experience couldn't have been more unpleasant. Both attendents were unhelpful and decidedly nasty, so rather than argue, I though "bah i'm going to my post office in the 8th district." And I did. And they couldn't have been nicer!! The attendent was actually trying to figure out how to reduce my costs! Same with my video store -- the guy who owns the place (across the street from my apartment) is practically my best friend, and he made opening an account so easy, unlike the (again) nasty guy at the video store we went to on Saturday night. Yay for Josefstadt!
Short travel update: it's looking more and more like we'll be heading to Tunisia in February, which should be amazing!! My goal is to ride a camel on the beach. I'm not kidding. I will do this!! Anyway, hopefully we'll book our vacation packages soon (I've never traveled like this before, but for a student on a budget, a round-trip flight/7 days at a resort/2 meals a day for 300E is looking pretty good!)
Well I guess that's it for now...new pics will be posted on my photo page sooooooon (like in the next 30 minutes or so), so check those out if you are interested.
Love you and ciao :-)
Chocolatey-Peanutbuttery Randomness
I had my first real American food craving today, and it wasn't what I expected. You'da thunk it'd be Waffle House, Chick-fil-A, or my mother's food (I miss THAT every day.) Nope. It was Reese's peanut butter cups. That is even stranger due to the fact that I don't really LIKE Reese's. I mean, they are okay, but they certainly aren't even my favorite chocolate (mmmm Crunchie bars). So, I improvised. I combined my "Nick's Easy Rider USA Quality Erdnussbutter [peanutbutter]" with some squares from a Milka bar. Reese's, Austrian-style. It was good enough, but I'm still weirded out by the randomness of me craving a Reese's.
A better update will be forthcoming in the next few days, I promise!
