Addendum to the Aufenthaltstitel

I've been here for nearly two weeks now, as a teacher's assistant. The time has been really lively, each class has something different about it, whether it's the students, the teacher, or the material. I'm never sure what to expect.

Since it's the first time that I'm in these classes, I have to do introductions - meaning I talk about myself for 10-15 minutes and then field any questions they might have. Boy oh boy, I'm tired of myself!

I've also covered topics like: the American school system, the American election, stereotypes, etc. But sometimes more interesting subjects crop up spontaneously. Last week, during a 7:30am class (God, it hasn't gotten much easier waking up that early), I had to stumble through FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) with a class, a topic that I haven't ever studied in-depth. An hour later I had to go over eating disorders with another class. I feel somewhat bad for the students; because I don't know much about the topic, I just dish-out my opinions and discuss how such things are viewed in America. But SO EARLY in the morning! And with little forewarning... The surprises in this job never end.

Sunday was the "last rose of summer" over here. It was quite warm and the sun had broken through the thick fog over Ried for the first time in a week. I took the opportunity to walk around town and snap some pictures in the quiet Sunday afternoon. Nothing is open on a Sunday besides the odd restaurant for an afternoon meal. Besides that, no shopping can be done. You have to think ahead and buy food on Sunday or else you'll feel the pinch of forgetfulness in your belly on Sunday.

On Monday, I was quite spontaneous. *beams* I taught in the morning for a few class periods and followed my last teacher out of the building. We were chatting and she mentioned that she was going to run and get manure for her garden. Somehow she mentioned that she would normally invite me home and I interjected that if she needed help moving manure - an occupation to which I feel completely at home - that I would gladly help her. Well, that was that. We left right from the school and she took me home. I played with her three dogs and two young daughters. We worked in her garden and I got to meet a farmer, which may lead to a possible exchange of English tutoring for riding time (a wishful hope). And I can tell you that manure here smells the same as in the States.

It was wonderful! I fell in love with her Fox Terrier named "Belle" who is just like a long-legged, younger Dazzle. I want a dog!!

The only downside to such a fantastic time is how quiet the room seems when I return. The one bed stands empty, the windows are dark, and even the drapes weep solitude. In that sense, today was terrible. I felt quite unsteady, bewildered by what I'm only now beginning to feel as a creeping loneliness. I know my weapons, I know the battle strategy to combat this foe. But knowing and doing are two different creatures and to best the "do", I've got to work on myself a bit more.

Today there was a moment of panic when I received an email from our Supreme Commander. There's some tricky paperwork involved with our payment schedule that is time sensitive. When I got an email about a copy of my Visa being needed, I panicked because I'd never been asked for one. It being only the afternoon, I dashed onto my and flew down to school, only to discover that the secretary's office was closed till 2pm. That left an hour to kill. I took the time to sit in a nearby park and gather myself up; did some soul searching and found that I really have too much time on my hands and that the old adage: Idle hands make idle minds, is a load of tripe. My mind is so un-idle, it's driving me to physical illness!

Anyway, at 2pm I went to see the secretary, a very kind, quick, and efficient lady. She understood my concern but said that they'd never required any such document before. She even called the proper authorities, the Landschulrat, to double check. Nope, turns out the email I got was just a general "reminder" to everyone. *head slam* I hate it when death-tolling emails turn out to be only the clangs of an alarm clock, especially when it involves my paycheck!

A few new pics:

Once Upon an Austria

End of Week One

Week one is over but I'll begin this post with a little backward step to last weekend's orientation. I'd taken this video while up in the Austrian mountains on our hiking trip:
And then I forgot about it until now. It seems that, with the more time I have, the more things I end up forgetting. It's quite troublesome. If I don't respond to emails directly, it's because I receive them, think of how nice it would be to reply, and then I get distracted by the Nothing. How could Nothing be distracting? Just ask Sebastien from The Neverending Story.

Good news is that I have friends now! *impossibly huge grin* And if I am too bold in calling them friends, at least they are really interesting people with whom I can freely talk. There is an Italian girl living next door to me and we have fun talking in halting German. I think we have a similar mentality because when the German doesn't fit, we often resort to shoulder-shrugs and other gestures. I've also gotten to learn an interesting guy from Romania who can speak fluent German, English, and Italian. This makes him the perfect companion for my Italian friend and I. He's impossibly talented. Languages on his "to-do" list, as he says, are Russian and Japanese. We are going to have a party tomorrow.

And this is how it goes for the first week - the week days are somewhat long and slow, flappy, and full of free time. The weekends are packed with various meetings with friends new and old - over Austria. The scales are not equally balanced.

P.S. I splurged and bought a large roll of chocolate filled cookies. BAD life decision. First day, and I'm already through half the pack.

The Question-Answer Game

Second day is already finished and it's only mid morning. My classes on Thursdays and Fridays begin at 7:30am. That entails waking up at 6:10am. I'm ready for a nap.

Today was more interesting. I basically led a 5th year class (high school freshmen) in a discussion and activity (that I had devised myself - I'm quite proud!) with the teacher prompting students to interact. The second class, directly after, was the 8th class - the last level of English. With them, I basically fielded fireball questions like:

What do you think of Austrian boys?
Who do you think will be the next American president?
Do you think America should have gone into Iraq?
Are you proud to be an American?

and more tame questions like:

Do you like sports?
What do you miss most from America?
Have you ever met a celebrity?

Needless to say, some questions required a little more finesse than others. It's fun but I have to work at forming interesting answers. A darker, more mischievous side of me wants to fabricate. :P But nah, I wouldn't!

I discovered that I am not to open my window at night. I woke up this morning with *counts* 5 huge, red, lumpy mosquito bites on my right arm. Two on my hand. They look quite awkward, as if I were a teenager with serious acne or an idiot who'd stuck their arm in a beehive. I smooshed a slow moving mosquito this morning, who was probably laden with my blood, and he left a large red puddle on my palm. Bastard. I hope he was the only one.

Besides having mailed my absentee ballot today, nothing much new has happened. The weekend looks to be full and fun and I've been checking flight prices to Sweden. But they are appallingly expensive and yet I want to go... almost need to go. I want to see a familiar face. Does anybody want to give me a private jet?

As per request, here is my address:

Katie Konrad
Riedbergstrasse 1
4910 Ried im Innkreis
Austria

But please DO NOT put value on packages, if you can avoid it! If you do, I will have to pay taxes, duties, or some such other imposed fee.

Things I like...: photos, candy, tea, letters :)

Pickled Pigs Toes

It's living life the first night after my first day as a TA. I'm sitting here in my room, eating a pale banana, while slowly being driven mad by the tick-tick of my wristwatch. I can't help but think, after reviewing my performance on the teacher's stage, that I remind myself of Buster Keaton, a sadly comic man with a deadpan face. Well, I might have been a little more animated and certainly less silent but I'm still left with the feeling of having pulled myself out beyond clarity for the sake of laughter. I delivered a 10 minute biography to 6 different classes today. I feel like a bit of metal that has only had one corner partially beaten flat. Parts of my life I ignored or glossed over. Heh, it's funny for me to observe my quick-panicking mind scramble for its idea of this life's 'best of' and blurt it out time and time again with little variation. Am I really this dull, I wonder to myself. Or am I my own social experiment?

Anyway, I've never wanted to pick up smoking so much in my life. There's a crowd of student's always chilling outside my building and I watch with envy the ease with which they interact. Even if I didn't smoke, could I just carry around a pack - just in case? It looks like instant camaraderie. Either that or I'm glossing over the specifics.

I have a passing interest in feeling lonely. But only passing. The feeling will surely grow, and grow as I deny it sustenance but that is the way of such things. I've never been one to force relationships - be they friends or (mild hesitation). Well, at least friendship. At the moment, solitude is what I have, whether I want it or not. The doors are open but I'm not crying out loud.

My students are pretty cool people and represent a wide variety of personalities. I teach at a school for students 14-18 who want to become kindergarten teachers (BAKIP). The second school where I work is for 14-18 year old students who want to go to college with no specific training (BORG). All of my students at the BAKIP are girls. The BORG have a more mixed group (appropriate). The boys like to strut. The girls like to giggle. It's interesting and fun - just extremely draining. I had to sell myself 6 times today and I still don't think there were any buyers.

Almost all the teachers have British accents, some of them are quite adorable (both teachers and accents).

A first day audit? I think it went alright but will things continue to go so smoothly? And will the pressing lack of company during the week drive me up the wall? *dum dum daaa* Tune in for more... later. :)

Taking Back Sunday

The internet is back! Apparently a rascally student had damaged the ethernet port in my room with a sharp object sometime in the past. But one grumbling German, a new port, and 4 hours later WULLAH! The posts can now resume:


Ì spent the weekend with my contact teacher outside of Ried in a little town known as Eberschwang. It was quite surprising to me that my teacher would still want me to come out and spend the weekend with her even though I was able to sneak into my dormitory before it closed for the weekend.

It has been a very heartening weekend. My contact teacher, Traudi, reminds me a bit of all the good people in my life. She reminds me of my mom a lot – the quilting, knitting, and general talent for all that she touches. She reminds me of friends from college – she’s jovial, curious, and upbeat. On Friday night, I was more exhausted than I have been yet, since being in Austria, and she outright told me, “This is your home.” And that’s just how I felt. After that first admittedly awkward evening, a groove was found and I settled into a comfort level.

It helped that she is an excellent cook and fed me with meals that rivaled my Mama-san of Japan in quality. We had LAMB for lunch on Saturday and VEAL on Sunday. Take THAT, organic, vegetarian farm in Sweden! It was excellent. For a bit of time on Saturday, I got a ride with the husband back into town. Norbert, the husband, is a flutist and a hobby glide/plane flyer who did most of the construction on their beautiful German house constructed nearly solely of wood.

In town, I purchased a phone card and found the bank and registration office where I will need to attend to a few things. Then Traudi picked me up and we went to the tiny airport where the husband flies for some pizza at a very cute pub/restaurant. I met a British couple who is now living abroad; the gentleman gave me one of his business cards although I have no clue what he does. And then we feasted on pizza and ice cream. When we got home, her two cats – a black and a gray – tackled us, acting much like dogs. Norbert was going to work late at the airport so just the two of us stayed up late talking books, culture, and quilting. Hey, I am open to many-a topic! ;)

Sunday, we awoke and went for an hour hike in the nearby woods. At the summit, we climbed a tall watch tower where you could see all the surrounding towns as well as the towering mountains to the south. I imagined myself on the frontier of middle earth – I’m in Hobbiton and far off in the distance is the angry mountain. Actually, it felt like LOTR meets Narnia. Ice Queen, anybody? Ah, I recently found out that the place where we spent orientation had nearly 70cm of snowfall the day after we left! Already! October and it’s coming. Granted, Traudi tells me that it will all have melted in a few days.

Anyway, after the hike, she cooked curry for me and that really cinched life into one ball of contentment.

Now I am back in my dormitory room and facing a grim life of pretzel snacks and apple juice for dinner. *sigh* Those tasty days of home cooked meals ended too quickly. But, on the other hand, it sounds like Arnold is having a rowdy conversation with somebody next door. The walls are thin.

A Thousand Words

Here I am, in my new home base for the next 8 months: Internat im Ried.

What HAS been going on?

For the past few days I have been completing a mandatory orientation in Saalbach, a ski-town nearly two hours south of Salzburg. It was extremely enlightening (something I really appreciated as I don't really know HOW to teach). The days were full of seminars on how to survive in an Austrian school and the nights were full of riffraffery of the liquid sort. Even the professors joined in, late in the evening.

On Wednesday, after a morning of seminars, everyone who wanted trecked up one of the many nearby mountains. It was beautiful weather. The flirtatious sun choose to shine down and enlighten our trek so that we all became a bit sweaty from the climb. Sweat is a curse on a mountain hike, I've discovered. Once we reached the summit, the sweat dried slowly, leaving me with salty chills and I was really grateful that I had brought along a dry sweatshirt. Blisters, sweat, multiple muscle pain further along in time - it was all worth it. It was an ACCOMPLISHMENT. At the top, I could see far and wide. Austria looks contrived, fake, fantasy - anything but what you would expect of reality. It is, frankly, TOO beautiful. Pictures:

Once Upon an Austria

Thursday, everyone created and deployed a mock lesson in front of their respective groups. We were divided into groups according to our teaching province in Austria. As such, I was with other Oberösterreich-ers (Upper Austria TAs). Again, it was all helpful; I snagged a few ideas and criticism to boost me through the classrooms here. Gosh, I really don't know how to feel about teaching. Ho-hum. Last night in town and everyone went out to the bar. All 80-some foreigners were out - I swear! One night, I didn't feel like going out and I was pleasantly surprised to find a group of girls playing cards and enjoying a selection of the local beer. It's fun because even the people who don't go out don't hole-up in their rooms. Anyway, the whole experience was a pleasant mixture of learning and fun. Good times!

After all that, I managed to make my way by train, bus, and car to my assigned town. Because all the kids go home for the weekend, the staff are gone and that leaves me currently without internet in my room. But I think a student stayed behind because I smell illegal cigarette smoke wafting down the hall and hear really loud music. My shower and bathroom are in the lobby and the kitchen is in the hallway. Cup-o-soup, here I come!

For me, this is really brief because so much has happened. All week long, I have been writing little anecdotes inside my head that I wished you all could read and enjoy. It's a very different kind of place here - loads different from anything else that I have experienced. But I am, as seems the usual norm these days, tired and drained. Maybe after a few days, when I've settled in and no longer have to use these foreign keys, I will write them out. :)

Until then, please look at the pictures and imagine your own stories!

Arrival

Katie has arrived and plans to write the motherload update soon! She lives and will continue the story in a few days! :)

*end service announcement*