Happy Easter!

Hello everyone and happy Easter!

The last two weeks have been super busy and I've done so much, so here's a run down of what I've been up to.

My friend Beth from university, who is on her year abroad in Spain, came to visit me in Linz. We did lots of exciting things, including a visit to Linz zoo, where you can pay €2 to get a bag of food to feed some of the animals - it was very exciting!

We also took a trip on an old-fashioned tram to Pöstlingberg, a small town set up on a hill by Linz.

There is a grotto train (I think it's meant for children but we had fun anyway) that you ride on and see little scenes of gnomes and forest animals. Afterwards you enter a museum where scenes from fairy tales are shown - in Austria, the traditional fairy tales are a little darker in comparison to the UK!

The church at Pöstlingberg which can be seen up on the hill from anywhere in Linz.

The view out over Linz from Pöstlingberg.

And a trip to Vienna...

We started off our day at Schönbrunn palace.

This was the view of the palace ground from the palace steps. We had beautiful spring weather and the grounds were free to explore.

The Gloriette which stands up on the hill was intended to be a focal point and a vantage point for the palace garden. It now, however, houses a cafe.

The view of Schönnbrunn palace and out over Vienna from the Gloriette.

Karlskirche (Karls church) was where we began our tour of the Ring Road, one of the biggest and most famous streets in Vienna where many of the popular sites can be found.  

This is an art museum in the Museums Quarter of Vienna, and shows the sort of architecture which is so popular throughout the city.

The Rathaus seen through the tree blossom.

I introduced Beth to Schnitzel, as this is very important when in Austria, and she liked it.

I then flew home for the Easter holidays. The first few days were spent in London with my friend Jen, as we went to see Adele in concert at the O2 arena.

We also did a fair bit of sightseeing.

We started our day with Big Ben and Westminster

We went to visit the Queen...

...had afternoon tea at the Library Lounge right on the Thames...

...and we went up the Shard. 

This was the view of Tower Bridge from the Shard at night. 

And then I headed back to Devon for the Easter weekend. Mum and Jen planned a lovely half-surprise early birthday party for me, and it was so lovely to see so many friends and family all at once :) I was thoroughly spoilt!

My sister Rachel got me these rather fantastic balloons!

(yes, I did wear my Christmas slippers for the whole party)

I also spent time visiting family and friends and generally catching up with people I hadn't seen since Christmas.

It was a very short trip home and seemed to fly by, but it was lovely to be back.

I am now back in Linz, and I start back to work tomorrow - I only have two more months left here! I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone, but I am determined to make the most of the remaining time in Austria.

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)

A very festive murder mystery!

Hi everyone :)

This week has felt like a very short one. Having Mum, Jen and Alison to stay last weekend, and the bank holiday Monday and Tuesday, meant I actually only worked on Wednesday. Thursday is my day off at my second school, and then Friday was a training day, so the week went by very quickly.

On Thursday I worked on my Year Abroad Research Project, as in school next week I will be working through the classes getting them to fill in my questionnaire for my research, so I've been busy designing and finalising that.

Our training session on Friday was a follow up to our training week at Hinterglemm in September, which now feels like forever ago! It was lovely to see everyone again, as some I haven't seen since September, and to see how we're all getting on. Some people presented their 'Greatest Hits' in the classroom, so it was fun to see how everyone teaches and what has worked for them. We also got some more tips and ideas to use from other English teachers, and generally felt more confident about our teaching ability than three months ago!

On Saturday, something very exciting happened. I'd organised a Murder Mystery evening for some of the Teaching Assistants to come over. Everyone had a character, it was Christmas themed, and it was fancy dress. Overall the evening went very well, everyone got into character and played along really well, and there was a lot of fun and laughter! The bribery and suspicion just made it all the more fun. Naturally as the host, I was Santa Claus, "Head of North Pole Operations" (and because I went all out with my costume, I won the 'Dressed to Kill' award :P ) The best acting went to my beautiful wife for the evening, Emma Cate (Mrs Claus) and 'Mrs Money Bags' was Lisa (Spanky the Elf), who ended the night with the most money, due to her bribery skills. The murderer, Chloe (Jangle the Elf) did a very good job at spreading rumours and covering her tracks, so much so that no one guessed that she was the murderer! So hats off to Chloe! Here are a few pictures from the night that show the fun that was had...

Me getting into character as Santa!

Mr and Mrs Claus

A group picture of us acting out our roles for the night.

Now I am officially in the festive spirit, and I'm ready to teach my students all about Christmas in the UK whilst wearing my Christmas jumper. I hope they're ready for me!

Thanks for reading!

Laura :)