A super, majorly long entry on teaching, classes, people, German geekiness, Austrian TV, racism, Hollabrunn, and news. ( Click to read. )

I know I've gotten really bad at updating this thing, sooo...here are a lot of photos to make up for my laziness. Still no pics of the apartment, though.

First, there are my Mariazell pictures from Spring Break: Click here

Followed by a few Vienna in Spring pictures (which I will probably add to): ClickAnd the school-related pics. These are of ( Read more... )

You know one of the great ironies of life? Okay, maybe not one of the GREAT ones, but still ironic? I had to call the school office today to say that I'm too sick to teach - because I'm losing my voice. Yet somehow calling and leaving a message while I can't talk above a whisper and my voice keeps cracking AND having to do it in German was just ( Read more... )

Due to some miscommunication and good old-fashioned Austrian bureaucracy, I have just now submitted a very poorly planned, frantic reapplication to be an English TA for next year.  I guess it wasn't THAT big of a deal, since all I had to do was write a paragraph saying why I want to stay (in German - bleh), but it's total crap, and I don't even ( Read more... )

Friday

Friday ended up being a pretty good day.  I only actually had one class to teach in Stockerau instead of two, which wouldn’t have been so bad if the teacher had actually told me for sure if I was going to be teaching or not.  The one class I did teach was alright, though.  We talked about the American school system and how it’s different ( Read more... )

Part I: School

Today was definitely not my finest day of teaching.  I completely forgot about plans for two of my five lessons until I woke up this morning, at which point I frantically threw stuff together.  I don't think it mattered that much, though.  In one of the classes, the kids were really talkative when they were supposed to be, but in the ( Read more... )

Today some of my 8th form Gymnasium students (seniors) told me a little bit about Christmas traditions here.  Since it wasn't part of the assignment at all, though, I didn't get to delve into it as deeply as I would have liked.  However, here is what I did learn:

1. David Sedaris was not on crack (well, maybe he was) when wrote "6 to 8 Black Men."  ( Read more... )

Well, this was my first week teaching, and I'm not sure where to start.  I guess I should update more often if I actually want to remember things.

Sunday I ventured off into the middle of nowhere and stayed with one of my teachers, Gabriele, for the night, so that she could drive me to school in Laa with her on Monday morning.  I could go into great ( Read more... )