Teachers' Outing and St Florian's Day

Hello everyone,

I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote! Things got a little hectic with finishing my year abroad research project (dissertation), and finding a house at university - both of which have now been sorted out.

So what have I been up to?

Back in April I went to see 'Into The Woods' at the Musiktheater in Linz. It was totally in German, but I knew the story so it was pretty easy to follow. I really enjoyed it, and was very impressed that they'd managed to fit the extra-long German translation into the already very fast songs!

I also went on a teachers' trip (Lehrerausflug) with one of my schools. It was really great fun! Here are a few pictures from the trip:

We first visited Burg Strechau in Steiermark (a castle in the region of Styria) which was beautiful, and very typical for Austria. 

This was the view from Burg Strechau out over the town.

Chiara the Italian assistant and I spent the weekend together, and it was great fun getting to know her better.

This was the hotel we stayed in in the region of Carinthia (Kärnten)

We also went on a brewery tour and tried some traditional Austrian beer, schnitzel and Goulash

On the way home we stopped off at Friesach, Kärnten (Carinthia) and climbed up a hill to find this view over the town, of the old city wall and the beautiful church. 

Last Wednesday was St Florian's Day. He is an important man in this region because he is the patron saint of Linz, and of Upper Austria. He's also the patron saint of firefighters, chimney sweeps and soapmakers...
So to celebrate the day, I went to St. Florian, which is a little town south of Linz, where one of my colleagues lives. She invited me to visit the market they have, where they sell traditional food and clothing from the region, and to do a tour of the church in St Florian, which also has a very important history.

St Florian was important in the Catholic Church because he was seen as being between mankind and God, so people could talk to God through him. At the time he was alive, the area was under Roman control. After refusing to worship the Roman Gods,  St Florian was sentenced to death, and was drowned in the Enns river with a stone around his neck.
This Church is also important because the musician Anton Bruckner lived nearby, and loved to play the organ here. He is actually buried directly underneath his organ in the crypt. 

The library at the monastery. 

The marble room at the monastery, which used to be used to entertain the Kaiser (royals in Austria) and is still in use today for concerts. 

I am also now the editor for the Student Language Bureau blog, which is aiming to help anyone setting out on their year abroad, or settling back into life after living abroad. We have a range of bloggers positioned all over the place. If you are interested in checking this out, it can be found here: http://www.studentlanguagebureau.com/blog.php
And if you are interested in writing for us, contact me on: editor@studentlanguagebureau.com

Last weekend was a long weekend, and I went off travelling again - I went to Innsbruck and Budapest! I will write another post about that this week.

Thanks for reading!

Laura

Dirndl shopping and a trip to Graz

Hi everyone!

This week has honestly flown by! With all the Austrian religious holidays, it's been a while since I've had a full week of work, so I'm tired, but it was good to get into a routine. This week I've taught lessons on pronunciation, media (phone hacking), the British class system (I used clips from Downton Abbey, the students didn't really get it :P ), and music in Britain, so again a real mix. I enjoy teaching lots of different topics as it varies my day, but it does mean lesson planning takes a lot longer!

Other than school, a few exciting things have happened:

1. I bought my own dirndl!
Dirndls are the female equivalent of lederhosen, and so are the traditional dress in Austria. They aren't worn so much in the cities anymore, but for events and in the countryside they are still very popular. It will be such a good souvenir to take away from this year, and I feel like a true Austrian now :P

2. I am organising film nights for both of my schools to watch 'The Sound of Music'.

No-one over here has really seen 'The Sound of Music'. For us in Britain, it's a classic film about Austria, and it's where we get a lot of our Austrian stereotypes from, but it's not popular over here, so I thought it would be fun for them to watch it. Both schools seem enthusiastic about it, so I'm hoping it will go down well!

3. I've been to enquire about a gym membership and hopefully will be joining fairly soon to go along to fitness classes and swimming etc.

I also went on a trip to Graz, a town in the south of Austria in the Styria region. I went with two other TAs, Emma Cate and Carissa, and we stayed with the daughter of one of the teachers Emma Cate works with. She was lovely, so welcoming and kind, and her boyfriend is from Spain so it was a good opportunity to practise a little Spanish. We travelled to Graz by train on Friday afternoon and came back Saturday night, so it was a flying visit, but I think we managed to fit in everything we wanted to see! Here are a few photos from our time in Graz:

The view from Schlossberg, a huge hill in the middle of Graz where you can see all over the city.

The view from Schlossberg, a huge hill in the middle of Graz where you can see all over the city.

Emma Cate and I in a little garden on the Schlossberg.

The view from Schlossberg, a huge hill in the middle of Graz where you can see all over the city.

The steps up the side of the Schlossberg - we only walked down there, luckily there was a much gentler slope on the other side!

Murinsel - a restaurant built in the middle of the Mur river which also acts as a bridge. 

The opera house

We also went to see the cathedral, ate waffles in the Hauptplatz, and got very excited at finding 'The Body Shop' in the town centre (I may have bought a candle...oops!) 

All in all this week has been great. I'm exhausted and ready to sleep for a very long time, but I've had great fun, and I'm loving having this opportunity to explore Austria. 

However the awful news of Paris has really left me shaken. For something like this to happen so close to home, it really makes you realise how dangerous ISIS is. So many innocent lives have been lost across the world this weekend, not just in the terrorist attacks in Paris, but also in earthquakes in Japan and Mexico, at a funeral bombed in Baghdad, and a suicide bombing in Beirut. It makes me so sad to see the world in such a mess. I am very lucky to have the opportunity I have to be living in Austria having the time of my life, and to be safe, and this makes me all the more determined to make the most of it, and focus on the positive parts of life. 

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Martin Luther King Jr.

Stay safe! My thoughts are with all those affected by this weekend's tragedies.

Laura :)

Teaching Trials and Adventures to Altaussee

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since my last blog post, so I thought it was about time for an update.

I feel like I'm getting into my stride with teaching now. I'm really starting to enjoy it! I've done lessons on Facebook, smoking, bonfire night, prom, report writing...and many more! The staff are very friendly and mostly helpful, and the students mostly are enthusiastic and interested. I especially enjoy teaching the 8th form (equivalent of year 13) because they speak very good English and really like hearing about England and things, and tend to participate in the lessons really well.

There have, however, been a few 'teaching trials', which I feel many of my fellow teaching assistants will understand:
- Some teachers do not reply to emails, ever, which means I have no idea what they would like me to plan for the lesson, and then decide to tell me what they want me to do an hour (or less) beforehand!
- It's hard to get 15 year olds to speak. They just sit there and look at you blankly until you start rambling like a crazy person and wasting five minutes of the lesson.
- Some students just love to talk, only they love to talk in German, and that doesn't really help in an English lesson.
- Some teachers like to sit back and let you lead the lesson, which is fine unless the class misbehave. Others like to participate in the lesson, which is fine unless they say something that isn't quite true, and then you have to decide whether to correct them in front of the class or just let it go and hope the students didn't take it in.

I went to one of my schools' Maturaball last week, which is basically like their year 13 prom, but they tend to do it earlier in the year. It's very different to prom back home though, as it's not just the students that go to the ball, but also their families, teachers, previous students of the school, and younger students too - so there were a lot of people! There isn't a sit down meal, but you have the opportunity to buy drinks and food while you're there. All of the food is made by the students, just like the decorations and invitations, because the whole of the Maturaball is organised and funded entirely by the students. This means that in the weeks leading up to the Maturaball, students are selling a lot of cake at break time, so I'm not complaining! I was really impressed at how much effort they had put into the organisation, and on top of that, they also provided the entertainment. There were group class dances, as well as a teachers dance, a tombola and many sketches that took place throughout the evening. I thoroughly enjoyed my time, and it was a great opportunity to get to know members of staff better and practise my German.

As last weekend was Halloween, I decided some baking was in order. We didn't really celebrate or anything, but my housemate, her boyfriend and I went to a lovely tea house in Linz for a relaxing evening of tea drinking and then came back to carve pumpkins. We were very impressed at Markus' attempt at carving the smallest pumpkin I have ever seen. And of course, I carved a minion into my pumpkin...

My minion pumpkin, Markus' tiny pumpkin and Charlotte's pumpkin

Last Thursday I went to see Spectre, the new James Bond film, and I loved it! I won't be giving away any spoilers, but it was amazing! I ended up going on my own, which I was a little nervous about, but I actually really enjoyed it, and felt like a strong independent woman who just goes to the cinema on her own and doesn't care! Sounds silly, but it made me feel good :P I think it might become a regular occurrence, as it's also a great way to watch German films.

It's also been really lovely to spend time with the other TAs - I feel like I'm making some wonderful friends who I have a lot in common with. It's great to have people I can go exploring with, but also who I can stay in and watch movies with :)

During my days off, I've been spending time working on my year abroad project, for which I have a deadline at the end of November, so a lot of my free time will be taken up with that for the next few weeks, but I have been off on some adventures too, because I want to make the most of my time over here!

For example yesterday, three of the TAs and I went on an adventure to Altausee, which coincidentally is where part of the new James Bond film is filmed! (Everyone was very excited in the cinema I can tell you!) It was honestly so beautiful. We took a train from Linz to Bad Aussee and then a bus up to Altaussee, which is a little village in the mountains. There is a lake there that you can walk around in about 2 hours, and I will add some pictures of our walk because the autumn colours and the reflections in the lake and the mountains surrounding us were breath-taking!

I have plans to do lots more walks like this, and to go and explore lots of towns and villages around Austria, because it is such a beautiful country with such a variety of scenery - I really love it here :) I am also hoping to join some sports classes in the next few weeks with the French assistant at my school, as it will be a good way to keep fit whilst also meeting new people. My aim now is to get involved in a lot more activities and meet new people to practise my German, because I feel like that will help me settle in a lot more.

The final thing I wanted to say is that I am starting to make some progress with the dialect over here. It's not easy at all, and at times sounds like a completely different language...here is a link to a YouTube video that gives you an idea of what I'm up against! The man in the video is actually from Upper Austria, where I am, so that is how people here sound :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkuAd97WUSw

Thanks for reading! I'll hopefully have lots more adventures to tell you about in my next blog post :)

Laura :)

My Second School

Hello everyone!

This week I started at my second school. My Monday morning didn't start off too well, as I arrived at the school and was taken into the staff room by the secretary, and after waiting for ten minutes or so, I was informed that my contact teacher at the school was signed off ill for three days and they didn't have a timetable for me. Luckily some of the English teachers adopted me for the morning and I was passed around different classes until they found my timetable, which then turned out to be wrong, so I will have a different timetable when I go back in two weeks! However despite all of this, all the teachers were very helpful, and one of the teachers especially. She's letting me share her desk, and gave up an hour and a half of her own time on Monday to go through everything with me, introduce me to everyone and answer all my questions. She was a life saver!

Something I have also found about the school is that the children are louder, and like to chat amongst themselves in class. One of the teachers said that this might be because it's a sports school, rather than a private school like my main school, and this can make teaching difficult when you have to spend half the time asking them to be quiet. I've found myself using many phrases I remember my teachers using, like:

"I'm talking, so no-one else should be."
"Please can we listen to one another?"
...and my personal favourite:
*to person who is talking* "Could you please repeat what was just said?"

That being said, I have had some really good lessons this week. The students like to have fun, so if you're willing to laugh along with their jokes and make the lessons entertaining, they will actually participate and learn something. And that is the point of me being there, to give them fun lessons and to get them to speak in English, not to just do textbook exercises. I've also realised how rewarding it feels when someone who has been messing around, actually joins in the discussion and makes a really valid point!

So this week was exhausting but rewarding, and hopefully when I go back in two weeks, I will get to meet my contact teacher (I still haven't met her) and things will be easier, as I've found my feet a little more in the school.

Apart from work this week, I went to watch the quarter finals of the Generali Ladies Linz tennis tournament, which was great fun! We ate cake, watched some great tennis, and even learnt all the tennis terms in German in the process!

I also went to visit one of the English Assistants who lives in a town outside of Linz called Steyr. She gave us a guided tour of the town, and here are some pictures:

There are mountain goats living in the castle moat in Steyr!

Two rivers meet in the centre of Steyr, and it's beautiful. 

I also have a fair amount of lesson planning to do, as the last two weeks have mainly been me doing the same introductory lesson over and over again, whereas now, I've introduced myself to everyone, and I start teaching on the topics they are studying. This week, I will be doing lessons on character profiles, the evil within people (linked to The Lord of the Flies), and ways to learn a foreign language abroad - so quite a variety!

Next weekend we have a long weekend, as it's the national holiday on Monday 26th October, so some of the other TAs and I are planning a long weekend trip to Prague which is very exciting! My next blog post will be all about our adventures there :)

Thanks for reading!

Laura

Becoming a Teacher!

Hello everyone!

This week was my first week teaching in Austria! I am working in two schools, and so will do alternate weeks in each. On Monday, I started at the first one, which is a little outside of Linz city centre. In order to get there, I have a twenty minute walk/10 minute tram journey, followed by a ten minute bus journey. It's not too bad, but the problem is, Austrian schools start at 7.45am!!!! So if I'm teaching first thing, it's a very early start for me!

On Monday I had a little bit of confusion with buses, because apparently the bus doesn't go from the logical side of the road...it goes from a lay-by on the other side of the road, does a U-turn and then heads out of the city - I mean, who wouldn't have guessed that?! Anyway, that meant I'd missed the bus, but luckily I was organised and had gone for an earlier bus, so the next one would still get me in on time. And it would have, if I hadn't then missed my stop...So I eventually arrived at the school, rather flustered, but luckily I met my contact teacher in the car park and she didn't seem to mind at all! Our stereotype of the Austrians being very punctual isn't quite as accurate as I thought - they seem to be very laid back, at least at this school!

This week has involved taking in a lot of information in a short amount of time. Luckily one of the year groups was away, which meant I had less lessons to teach and more time to try and figure out what I was supposed to do! The lesson I've been mainly doing this week has involved introducing myself and where I am from, playing a couple of games, and then discussing stereotypes of Austria and England, which is always good for getting them talking. The students seem to be interested in what I have to say, and are all really well behaved, which makes me feel a lot more comfortable.

I am mainly working with pupils between the ages of 15 and 18 in this school, and I was amazed by the level of their English - they are pretty much fluent! I particularly enjoyed working with the oldest year, as it was just a normal conversation really, and they even tried to teach me some of the Upper Austrian dialect. Each time they asked me to repeat something, they would end up bursting into hysterical laughter - I'm guessing I wasn't quite doing it right! I have to say, I am finding the dialect very hard to understand - hopefully by the end of the year I'll have made some progress.

The teachers at the school have all been so welcoming and friendly. The English teachers like to practise their English with me, and I tend to speak to all the other teachers in German - apart from one French teacher, who speaks to me in a mixture of German, French, and English song lyrics (she doesn't speak much English but has memorised song lyrics - it makes for an interesting conversation!). They've all been happy to answer my questions, show me around or help me with anything I'm worried about, especially my contact teacher, who I've been sending a lot of emails with questions about bank accounts and lessons and general life in Austria!

On Wednesday I had a day off, and I spent the day setting up an Austrian bank account (I did this completely in German, I'm very proud of myself) and I also popped in to my second school, as at this point I'd heard nothing from them, and had no idea when to come in on Monday to start work. The receptionist was very helpful and gave me a bit of information, and so I am coming in at 7.45am with the hope that I will then be given a timetable and be told what I'm doing! We shall see :)

On Saturday I had some friends from the English TA training week over. I showed one of them around Linz during the day - we visited the many churches and cathedrals that Linz has to offer and did a lot of the tourist attractions. Then, after chasing each other around Linz for about an hour because none of us could get in touch with the others, meaning things just got very confused, we had a lovely evening eating pizza and watching a film - it was needed after a long week for all of us! And then today (Sunday) we went to watch the qualifiers of a professional tennis tournament held in Linz. We cheered on our fellow Brit Johanna Konta, and watched some great tennis - we're now thinking about going back next weekend to watch the quarter final or even the final :)

It has taken me quite a while to write this, as Niki (the cat) is begging for my attention, and likes to sprawl out over the keyboard in the hope I'll stop typing and just play with her. I am loving having a cat around the house - she's great company, even is she can have some attitude on her sometimes ;)

"Please play with me????"

Tomorrow morning I start at me second school, so my next blog post will be all about my first week there, and how things went! So I will update you all soon :)

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)

Language Assistants Training Week

Hello everyone!

Last Monday I went to Hinterglemm, Austria for a language assistants training week. It was such a fun week, we received loads of information and resources to use in the classroom, and we all came away feeling much more confident in our teaching abilities and what we needed to do. I spent the weekend planning my lessons, and so far things seem to be going well, but I will write another blog post about my first week at school next weekend :)

One of the best things about the week was being able to meet other English Language Assistants who will be in the same area, and in some cases the same city, as me. I've made some wonderful new friends from the UK, Ireland and the USA, and we spent a lot of the week getting to know each other's cultures and discussing the wide differences between our versions of English! But above all, it's lovely to know that I have people that I get on so well with in the same city as me, and who I can meet up with at the weekends and maybe even do some travelling with!

The course itself was at Hinterglemm, which is home to a ski resort and is located in the mountains west of Salzburg. Here is the view from our conference centre that made us pine to be outside:

Luckily, on the Wednesday afternoon, we went on a group hike up a mountain! The scenery took my breath away, it was beautiful. And it may have taken us longer than the rest, but we made it to the top of the mountain, and back down, and we were only 30 minutes late to dinner! I was so proud of myself for getting to the top, and it was totally worth the sore legs for the next few days! And just to make sure we were all tired out after the 11.5 mile hike, we had a traditional Austrian dance lesson for two hours in the evening! It was great fun, but I sure slept well that night!

Here are some pictures from the hike:

And here are also some pictures of a lovely walk I went on with my housemate Charlotte last weekend. We climbed a tower where we had an amazing view over Linz, and you could even see the mountains in the distance.

Today was my first day teaching at the school. It's nice to be getting stuck in to what I'm really here to do, and all the teachers seem lovely. It's going to take some getting used to, but hopefully the students will find my lessons interesting and I'll get into my stride soon.

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)

My first week in Linz

Hello everyone!

So I have almost been in Linz a week now - the time has flown by! I am still settling in, but my house mate Charlotte has made me feel so welcome, and so far I feel really comfortable living here.

Travel
On Sunday 20th September, Mum dropped me to Gatwick airport to embark on my first solo flight to Vienna, and then find my way by bus and train to Linz. The flight itself was fine, apart from the annoying man sat next to me who kept jabbing me with his elbows and snoring in my ear...!
The plane was delayed an hour, and so I was a little anxious that I might not make my connection, but luckily I'd given myself plenty of time, and the luggage pick-up in Vienna was very quick. Plus it was a great excuse to treat myself to pancakes at Frankie and Benny's at Gatwick airport! When I landed I had to get a bus from Vienna airport to Vienna's main train station, which took just over half an hour and gave me plenty of time to familiarise myself with the sights of Vienna.
I also managed to navigate the trains pretty well - it's very similar to in England, just in German (obviously!) - but whilst at the train station, I had my first time face to face with a group of Syrian refugees. It was quite a shock - I think in England we're very sheltered from what's going on in the rest of Europe, and seeing it for myself really brought home that fact that these are people just like everyone else, wearing clothes like ours and carrying bags like ours, who are having to run away from their own country. A group of refugees were actually giving up their seats on the train for other passengers, and whilst at first I felt quite intimidated being surrounded by people speaking a language I didn't understand, I gradually became more comfortable, and enjoyed watching them play with the new mobile phones they had been given.

Arriving
Charlotte and her boyfriend Markus were there to meet me at Linz train station, and Charlotte was just as excited and nervous to meet me as I was to meet her, which made me feel much better! She gave me a massive hug, and chatted to me in slow, understandable German to make me feel more comfortable. Once at her apartment, she gave me a tour around (it's a lovely apartment!) and we sat and drank tea and chatted in English all evening. Both her and Markus speak fantastic English and are enjoying practising it! Charlotte also has a cat called Niki, who luckily seems to like me, which means I get lots of cuddles!

My bedroom

My bedroom

My bedroom

The kitchen

Niki

The dining area

Food
Charlotte works for a company called Sonnetor who sell organic teas, herbs and spices, so she's very interested in our English tea! She also loves to cook, and so this week she's introduced me to many Austrian delicacies. The majority were high points, like the vegetable soup, the pastries, the bread, and a creamy mushroom sauce she did with rice, with only one real low point which was a soup made from her homemade stock, which was far too rich for me and reminded me a lot of gravy...We've also made pancakes together, and the food highlight of the week was an amazing 'brunch' Charlotte did where she went to a local bakery and brought back so many Austrian cakes for us to sample! And yes, I did try a bit of each!

Austrian cakes

I've also tried to introduce Charlotte to some English foods, for example apple crumble and bread and butter pudding, and I have also promised to make scones (although you can't get clotted cream over here), custard and maybe even a pasty, if Nanny will send me her recipe?!

Exploring
So food-wise, I've had a great week. But I have done things other than eating, I promise! I've managed to navigate the city fairly well so far. I've been to DM which is their equivalent of Superdrug, and I've also been food shopping in Hofer, which is pretty much the same as Lidl or Aldi. I've found my way to one of the schools I will be teaching at, and I went on a walk to the train station. I have also visited the New Cathedral and the Old Cathedral, both are beautiful but completely different styles and it was really interesting to research them, and the main square as well. I have yet to try out the trams and buses, but that will come with time! I would also like to do a test run to the other school I will be working at, which is a little outside Linz centre, and find a swimming pool and the main library to have a little look around.

New Cathedral

New Cathedral - stained glass

Hauptplatz - main square

Charlotte also took me yesterday to register as a citizen of Linz, which made everything feel very real! She did a lot of the talking, and I don't know how I would have done it without her, because the lady behind the desk obviously spoke English (to work where she works she would have had to have gone to a higher level school where English is compulsory) but she wasn't going to speak English to me! I understood the majority, but it was really good to have Charlotte there as back up, especially as the forms were all so important. I have some more forms to fill in to apply for an Activpass, which gets me discount on travel and entry to tourist attractions, and I've also been given a book full of vouchers for tourist attractions that is valid for a year, so I'm looking forward to using all of them!

I think that's everything I've been up to so far...This week coming I am on a training week in Hinterglemm, so I aim to write another post next weekend about how that went!

Thanks for reading!

Laura