London - definitely a grower

London is still not one of my favourite places. Even so I get an overwhelming feeling that I'm going to end up there, particularly given that my trips there are becoming exponentially more frequent!. It's probably very good that my latest trip to the capital was in fact very pleasant.
First of all, life is so much easier with an oyster card. And cheaper. One less thing to complain about.
Secondly, I didn't get lost. I went one stop in the wrong direction on the tube, but that's of little consequence.
Thirdly, despite all the riots (and I did go to an area that was affected by riots), it doesn't look like London was recently bombed during WW3. Nope it's all fixed up.
This really isn't fair. I want to continue hating London, but the city gave me nothing to complain about. For once. No, I shall have to be content with an amazing concert and a wonderful afternoon with friends. Might leave it on my list for a while yet ;)

Lederhosen at Oktoberfest are not practical

The highlight of my little holiday is without a shadow of a doubt, Oktoberfest. The real deal, not Rocktoberfest that we have at my uni, or the copy that Sherbrooke have every year. Oh no the real, world renowned festival of beer. The one in September.
Raffi was insistent that we go in traditonal dress. As a girl that means I should have worn a dirndl. I wasn't game. a) I didn't know of anyone with one b) I definitely wasn't going to buy one. Instead I borrowed some lederhosen. very much cue feeling like a pratt for a very long time, pretty much until sufficient beer had been consumed. It was very easy to pick out the foreigners. They were they ones not in traditional dress.
Finding it involved following some people from the train station, in such clothing (very easy to spot). Hey presto we made it to what very much looked like a fairground at first. We made our way to a tent and sat down at a table. Not a very hip table mind you. There was a couple, minimum age of 60 sat opposite. The woman was drinking coffee. Far too civilised for Oktoberfest! A Canadian guy was later seated at our table. He was on his own and clearly sparked the interest of the aforementioned couple so that Raffi and I had to act as interpretors for his life story/their questions. The table over was hosting far more English speakers so we made a sly shift onto their table.

This hat seemed to be being passed around. I think it looked best on me. It may have belonged to the only other Brit I found all day! That's a Maß in my hand. There's lots of clinking of these glasses, especially when singing along to the live bands playing what I can only assume is traditional/Bavarian/folk music. Being my sociable self, I was befriending anybody and everybody so Raffi, the Canadian (may or may not have been called Brad - I forget) and 2 German guys, decided to change tents for a livelier one. The thing about Oktoberfest is that you need a seat at a table to get served and these tables are often reserved and if not, fill up easily. The idea being that you find a table and stay there all day long.

Our solution to this? We ambushed a table that a company had reserved for its staff. There weren't many of the staff there yet you see and they didn't seem to mind. I think they liked my lederhosen. By this time it was getting towards evening, everybody was a little bit merry and there came a point where it suddenly seemed socially unacceptable to be sitting down. Everybody was standing on the benches, singing, stamping, clinking glasses and having a jolly old time. Sitting down was at your own peril really. If your head is lower than someone's glass/foot/hand you will end up covered in beer, stomped on and possibly getting an accidental left-hook to the chops. Really, it's for your own safety that you stomp and sing along with everyone else!
Somewhere among all the joviality, we lost our table to the employees of the company it was reserved for (probably fair) and I found a group of Australians on an extended trip around Europe (anglophone radar in full swing) We joined the throngs of people not at tables, simply milling around, dancing to goodness knows what music. It was so packed, that it would be an absolute miracle if anyone was able to a) catch the attention on a waiter/waitress to order anything and b) anything ordered actually reached it's intended recipiant.
Either way, we forsook our places in the tent and went outside to explore the fairground bit. I dragged anyone and everyone on any rides that took our fancy. So most of them. Being majorly overpriced didn't seem to deter anybody. We rounded the night off with an ungainly helter-skelter, takeaway, lost wanderings around Munich and finally a snooze on the floor in the train station before catching a very early morning train back to Bregenz.
So Oktoberfest...
Was it as I expected? Not quite.
Was it good? Oh definitely.
Would I wear lederhosen again? Never. Going to the bathroom has never been such a pain.
Was it expensive? Naturaly, but entirely worth it.
Would I recommend going? As the travel expert that I am (ha!) I insist that everybody, particularly anyone who speaks/learns/likes German goes at least once in his/her lifetime.
It is AMAZING. 

Bin wieder da!!

I`d always known Bregenz was small. Still, it came as a bit of a surprise that within such a short space of time (I`d literally dumped my stuff at my friend`s and gone for ice-cream) I saw students, a former colleague and boys from the Marianum.
How I've missed ice-cream by the Bodensee. Proper ice-cream. Mmm.
The day after I arrived was my birthday (I'm telling everyone that I'm 19 now that I'm back at uni) so Raffi and I went to Europa park. It`s probable that I am the worst person ever on a road trip because I pretty much slept  the whole way there and on the way back too. Raffi insisted on the biggest fastest rollercoasters (damn straight) and I forced him onto the water rides and the ridiculously awful things, that were possibly supposed to be scary.
In true birthday style it was rounded off by a few EMK friends coming round for drinks and then heading out to Paschanga for a legendary Long Island Iced Tea für Erwachsene. They ought to be legendary by now, I've blogged about them enough. There were a few other people we knew also there, including a few that I'd played touch rugby with that once. Out of sheer laziness, I hadn't been speaking any German which lead to some hilarious moments. Well hilarious for myself and anybody who knew that I understood everything being said about me. The priceless moment when I finally turned round and said "Ich KANN Deutsch..." Brilliant. Proof that some Brits really can communicate in other languages without repeating ourselves more slowly and louder, with more and more gesticulations.
Whilst being in the general kind of area, I took a trip to Stuttgart to visit my lovely friend Laura. What's a few hours on a train and €40 when I get to see one of my favourite people? It was a rather cold, grey day, on top of being a Sunday which severely limits possible activities. We had a traditional German lunch (more to this cuisine than sausages you know) although I must admit I have no idea what most of what I ate was...
We went for a wander. Cue the following display of superior intellect :
"ooh, that looks a bit Welsh!" In my defence, from the angle where I was standing, the writing was upside-down. We met up with some other people (not really clear on who they were. I did however enjoy their Scottish accents) and mooched round a flea market where we spotted a colossal electric Donald Duck. We debated over its possible purpose. Apparently it waved and the eyes lit up. I sent some things flying on one stall and decided it would be better to keep a safe distance and not end up paying for ivory carvings. We followed this root around with some lovely hot chocolate, a brief visit to Laura's flat before I headed back to Bregenz. My overwhelming impression of Stuttgart is now overshadowed by my own ineptitude.
I rounded off my time in Bregenz (before Oktoberfest - keep your eyes peeled for a post) with a list of errands. A not-so-quick to the bank gave me a nice shiny sum of money, rather than it being held hostage. To make sure they didn't keep it captive again, I closed the account. This was followed by a trip to the school, where I fortunately found all the staff getting ready for an afternoon meeting. I therefore greeted everybody nicely, said hi to all the teachers and picked up my from so that nobody tries to claim back that well-appreciated ERASMUS grant, which I no longer have. Being just round the corner, I nipped up to the Marianum. This wasn't very exciting. I didn't have any post and nobody was around. Boring. However, it was ever so nice to make a trip back, even if I spoke hardly any German.

Top of the Morning to ya!

It`s actually a few months since my trip to Dublin now, but this post has been months in the making. Despite being such a short distance away, that weekend my very first trip to the Emerald Isle. It's funny, I assumed that had something to do with grass being green and there being lots of countryside in Ireland, but almost everything is green. Buses are green. I'm surprised phone boxes aren't green. Actually, I don't remember seeing any phone boxes so who knows what colour they are.
I got very excited upon our arrival, because signs are all in Gaelic as well. Obviously I prefer the Scottish variety, but still... We waited around for a bus, made our way to the hostel and moved in to our dorm, where our nostrils were instantly greeted by Man-smell. Clearly we were not in a single sex dorm. Clarification was later demanded as to whether we meant B.O or fart by man-smell. We're not certain.
Lauren and I went for a wander to find ourselves some alcohol and a bit of food for dinner. I say a bit, we did also have the €5 beer and burger at the hostel. Before long we were all dolled up and ready to hit the town armed with directions to Temple Bar (we didn't get there) and the helpful words "when you see the big pointy thing you know you're home."
We got a little disheartened by the cost of things. Entry, a single drink, a round.. it all seemed extortionate. Seemed is the wrong word. It IS expensive. We found a bar called Dandelion doing a deal - 3 Jaegerbombs for €10. aka 3 shots of Jaegermeister and a small can of knock-off red bull. Maybe it was real red bull. Who knows. We stuck to those. Somewhere in among our drinks, whilst wondering where to go, I asked a guy where he suggested. His suggestion was that we joined him and his friends. So we did. They were quite the nice group of Irish lads. They bought us all drinks and managed to get us free entry to the club. Although I'd earlier joked that the only way to have a cheap night in Dublin would be to find a group of guys, it hadn't actually been our plan! We went for food. Laura and Lauren made a beeline for McDonald's. I followed still chatting to some of the guys and one of them decided I needed a Happy meal. We then spent 2 hours in McDonalds with 2 of these guys before finally getting a taxi home. I spent a grand total of €15. Sadly, my shoes ruined my feet.
I assumed we would be the last ones sneaking into the dorm room. We weren't. A very very drunk young Irish boy strolled in around 7.30 who obviously wasn't in the mood to sleep as he started talking to everyone, opening the curtains and poking my mattress from his bunk underneath. Not the best night in a hostel.
Sunday morning! Finally time to start our sightseeing.
Traipsing round in some lovely sunshine was all very wonderful and we had took in a fair few sights: the castle (not really a castle and vaguely resembles Balamory on crack), some churches, some ruins, a park... but by the time we hit the Guinness Storehouse, my feet were dying. As the storehouse is indoors I decided wandering around barefoot would be perfectly safe and give my poor tootsies a break. One word of warning to anyone out there: you will end up looking like a third world child who has never seen a pair of shoes in his or her life. On the bright side I am now certified to pull the perfect pint of Guinness. That`s a certificate to whip out if I ever want a bartending job...
Oh well, from bar tending to bar-hopping. Not that we did that, but we did make it to Temple Bar this time round. Somehow we picked up a group of Americans. After the bars closed we headed back to our hostel armed with beer and the Americans and took over the games room in the basement. Cue some crazy version of ping pong (it would make sense to call it Beer Pong if such a thing did not already exist) which we played for hours. How many things I would have loved to quote yet can`t quite remember!
Our last day before our flight was much less touristy, although we did pay a visit to Trinity College. We spent most of the day shopping for Laura`s graduation outfit.
A fleeting visit to a city that definitely deserves much more time. I want to visit a distillery, some of the quirky museums (including the leprechaun one, I don`t care how awful it turns out to be!) and the things outside the city centre. Perhaps take in some of the green, that isn`t a bus. Just nobody tell Izzie (remember, the one from China) just how much I liked Dublin, I`ll never hear the end of it!

Austria, this one's for you :)

Once again, I'm back home with little to do. So, let's reflect:

Apparently I'm going to learn how to say 'hiccup' wherever I go. It's Schluckauf in German. This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I hiccup on a regular basis, honestly it doesn't! Unlike at Sherbrooke, I can't quite think of any useless vocab that I've picked up. Well perhaps I won't use Einwurf on a regular basis. How disappointing. I like useless vocabulary.

Austria and I most certainly had our differences at the start. All my hopes of Austria clinging to that mythical German efficiency were well and truly dashed. I've complained about the lack of organisation far too often, even for my own liking. I can now add my bank's failure to transfer money to this list. However, I did enjoy my time in Vorarlberg. (Spell check wants to 'correct' this to Marlborough. Where is the link??)

It made me appreciate the smell of rain and just how picturesque rolling fog and wispy mist actually is. i realise just how random that sounds. As small as Bregenz is and as much of a city girl as I am, even I had to appreciate that it was beautiful place to live. I'm going to miss sitting by the lake enjoying the sunshine, not that Bregenz is perpetually sunshine, mind you. Already my tan is fading. After all the time I spent defending the British weather, it's now clear that I was simply deluding myself and it really does rain as much as everyone thinks.

There are not as many quotations which sum up this semester, although there have been plenty of humorous things said. It seems to work on the basis of songs instead. Haddaway's what is love? and Culcha Candela's Monsta to name but a few. I love songs that make you think of a particular person or place. Musical memories - simply the best. (I apologise already for that :S )

I'm not going to waffle about meeting rather wonderful people. Mostly because of the statistics regarding views in Austria. I'm not one for inflating anyone's egos. Therefore, everyone I met in Austria is distinctly average. :)

This semester I confirmed that I definitely don't want to be a teacher. I learnt that I'm ever so slightly dependant on my laptop and that I would make a rubbish interpreter since I forget English vocabulary on a regular basis.

Yet again I wasn't quite ready to leave. This is the thing with only doing 4 months somewhere. Just when you've finally settled in, it's practically time to leave again. On a slightly related topic, this month is the first full month I'll be spending in the UK since last July, so maybe I'll have the same attitude in September when I have to go back to uni. Who knows. However, this is the end of my year abroad. Bring on 4th year (and hopefully more travels :D )

Calypso didn't ruin my life then

Opting not to spend my last full day actually in Austria, I made a quick trip to Liechtenstein, purely for the novelty value.
What is there to say about that tiny little state? It seems that the nation comprised of avid stamp collectors. At least, there were stamp collections everywhere, on postcards, even on the floor of the main street. Quite the sign that there's not much going on there. They also seem to have a slight identity crisis, selling far too many souvenirs and things that are for Switzerland.
I thought Vorarlberg had a range of architecture, but Liechtenstein wins hands down for the pure craziness of some of the buildings.
The odd thing was the groups of athletes and East Asian tourists wandering around. Turns out that every 2 years the small states of Europe (less than 1,000,000 inhabitants) have their own Games and these just so happened to be taking place in Liechtenstein last week.  Well that explains the athletes at least.
Wednesday, being my last night, was not to be a dull one. The evening started by going for dinner with Maral and then for a few drinks. As well as Thursday/Friday being a national holiday, there seemed to be some big event going on across town so it was very, very busy! Later, Raffi joined us. Maral went home at a fairly reasonable time and Raffi and I continued the partying. We had our last Long Island Ice Tea für Erwachsene before heading to Calypso. I happily danced the night away, although it was very weird seeing the sun come up and then walking home in daylight.
The late night meant I was rather tired on Thursday so lugging my belongings on and off various modes of transport was not so much fun, especially with my hand luggage weighing in at over 20kg :S I was extremely grateful for the various people who helped me with them.
And so that was it, the end of my time in Austria. Auf Wiedersehen Oesterreich, cheers for the lovely send off. Heellllllooooo bonnie England.

Back to being a student bum

I just rounded off my teaching assistantship with a 1st class, doing ordinal numbers and realising I have absolutely no idea how to spell eighth or twelfth. Spellcheck is being put to good use right about now.
There hasn't been much taking up my last weekend, with the slightly large exception of our grill party and me being studious. The grill party started off with Helen and I trying to find an open supermarket. Once successful, she was then ID'd for beer. That's 16. When she handed over her driving license the young man at the till proceeded to ask "really??" in the most disbelieving manner imaginable. I found it hilarious!
We made our to the beach where we found Jesse being a model boy scout (although apparently he never was one) and building up a fire. Everybody slowly arrived in pairs pretty much and food was grilled, burnt and munched. Stones were skimmed/thrown. There was posing in front of the sunset. It was all really rather lovely.
Once it started to go dark we all made our way to Jesse's house, where we changed into white t-shirts (if need be) and wrote all over each other. Standard leaver's practice! You can see them in this photo >> as well as the game we were playing. I have no idea, it was like taboo, but not. I wasn't very good at it. Other events of the evening include playing the piano (we are quite the musical group) and waffling.
After sleeping a little on the floor, I helped Kieran take his stuff to the station, by which point I think most people had gone to get the first train home. I then wobbled home.
After listening to 'The Duck Song', with which at least half of 6bc seemed to be obsessed, my classes were nothing out of the ordinary. I spent the rest of the day in the glorious sunshine, down by the lake. I was actually really productive and it was nice to take regular breaks cooling down by taking a little paddle in the lake. My inability to apply sun cream evenly has yet again been brought to light. So although my tan is coming along nicely, I have random little pink patches. Darn British skin...
I got very restless last night though and needed to go outside. At first I went for a walk, but it was dark so I didn't stray too far. Then I went back outside and ended up sat with some of the boys from the Marianum. And a French girl. No idea what she was doing here. They all got told to come inside eventually (lol), but I stayed outside. Not because I'm badass, but because I don't have rules like they do. This time I just lay on the grass, observing the stars. They seem brighter here. I guess that's to do with less pollution. I still can't find Orion though. The Plough is the most obvious constellation here. At least to my eyes.  It was nice to stare at the night sky, headphones in and just soaking up the beauty of it all.
It's probably good that I wasn't in work until 11.50 today as I stayed up pretty late. However I'm fairly certain my neighbours were pulling an all-nighter studying. It was time to use my ear plugs.
I don't quite know what to do with myself this afternoon...

Wish I'd stolen the inflatable parrot..

I forsook my Friday afternoon habit last week despite the beautiful weather. Well, I took my essay down to the lake rather than a newspaper. It was productive. I wrote a whole section!
Saturday was a rather mixed up day. I did say I would go to Feldkirch with the other assistants as there was some sort of medieval market thing going on. However, I got entirely distracted by hunting down things for a Hawaiian party, which ultimately took me to Switzerland. I did however find a lei, so all was not lost. I also bought a new top, something I was later very happy about after I proceeded to spill food down my front. Why I'm telling the world this little fact is quite beyond me!
The Hawaiian party was sort of Hawaiian. The mass of flowers, inflatable parrots and men in Hawaiian shirts didn't really make the brass bands playing 'Waving Flag' by whichever numpty released it, or the Full Monty and more Hawaiian. It was however quite enjoyable. Raffi and I went for a few drinks in town afterwards. The were no stag do's this time but what I presume was some sort of hen night, as they were all dressed as dwarves (I think...).
Sunday was devoted to lesson planning. There may have been other goings on but my memory serves me not.
So I began my last week in Blumenstrasse. My classes have all gone nicely this week. Even the Wednesday that usual drive me crazy we nice. Although I think they enjoyed the activity I'd set for them. It involved watching the Big Bang Theory and very little talking. Plus I was offering sweets and chocolate.
I got roped into playing volleyball at the Marianum on Monday. While this was actually a lot of fun, clearly my technique needs improving or I should only use a soft ball.  I have a gargantuan bruise on my hand./thumb/wrist. It's not that obvious thanks to covering it in arnica gel asap but it's been pretty sore. (To be honest, the only reason I know it's there is because it hurt) Or I could just blame Christoph and Jürgen for being the ones to ask if I would play in the first place. That's a much better way of looking at it right? Definitely nothing to do with poor skills, even after I attempted to kick the ball and I ended up on the floor. Smooth.

After we finally stopped playing (it was pretty late) I realised I had some stuff to prepare for the next day and spent ages fretting about how to provide a vocab list for this picture >>>
Normally I just give explanations of new vocab in English but I had to provide translations this time. Correctly finding out what a ruff/ bodice/etc. is in German without the help of a German speaker? Stressful.
The class went OK though.
I went to my last house group on Tuesday. We had pizza and I took chocolate. It was really nice. Plus they gave a German bible which they had all signed as a present. Aren't they lovely! It was kinda strange saying bye though.
On Wednesday after more sunbathing (it was a frequent activity at the start of the week) we went for a few drinks at beach bar. Evening by the lake is pretty :)
Yesterday seems to have been erased from my memory banks. This probably means I did very little of actual interest. Oh no wait, I went up the Pfänder!! This was quite the lovely thing to do whilst it was still sunny. Sadly, it was clouding over on my descent and I did get caught in the rain. Better than the fact that I was quite loudly singing along to my iPod whenever I thought there was no-one in earshot. Mostly this worked, apart from when I didn't spot a man sitting in his car. He laughed at me and said at least I wasn't bad at singing. Tiny bit embarrassing, perhaps??
Today the rain persuaded me to be a little more productive. As much as I enjoy sitting in the sunshine with my essay, it's not the best way to get it written. I went to the library again. I'm around 2/3 of the way through my essay, and I got given a supervisor yesterday. I'm a wonderful student :D
Oh and I finally booked a flight home.

Donner and Blitzen ♫ dasher and dancer and...

I've discovered the library. Not that I'm a bookworm, but it is incredibly helpful for researching my essay. After a few days hiding in the politics section so I could open a window and enjoy the sun (if it was there, it mostly hasn't been) I discovered the Kuppelsaal. It's pretty :) This made a much better revision spot until I got chased out yesterday by people setting up mics and repeating "testing. eins. zwei. drei. testing." Of course there has been some teaching involved too. Nothing too exciting. 

I'm a little distracted. There's a thunderstorm going on at the moment. The rolling peals of thunder are immense and the lightening bolts are ever so slightly mesmerising. I opened my window and sat on my windowsill for a while. Little bit cold to stay there for too long. It was absolutely gorgeous today as well. I did some work outside, soaking up some rays. It was after I opted to sit in the big basket swing thing that work got put to one side. Much better to just lie, swing and enjoy the good weather no?
Last Friday provided a brief dry spell, long enough that I was able to carry out my tradition of reading a foreign paper by the lake. Some random guy started talking to me. He thought I was French. He ranted at me about how much better Austria is than France. I jumped at the chance to run away, meet Jesse and get my camera back. There's some interesting photos!!
We had a barbecue. How lovely :) Afterwards Raffi and  I went out. I came home with drawings on my arms. This has something to do with running into a bachelor party. The ink was kinda stubborn. The next day was also very lazy, but in the evening I set off in the pouring rain for Bludenz. There was some confusion over the plan, which resulted in me sitting unnecessarily in Feldkirch for a while. By the time I arrived it wasn't long until the last train again so I opted to just stay over. This involved catching the end of The Life of Brian in German (I've never seen this before) and being told off for not taking up enough of the bed.
After a good lunch and a bit of a gossip about the Vampire diaries finale, I made my way home. I ran into Xan at the station so he came to get his coat which had been sitting in my room since the police brought it round. My tiredness was making me anti-social so I spent the rest of the day as a recluse, maybe watching some TV. That is until my epic skype sesh with the Sherby ladies. We might be in 4 different time zones and have microphone difficulties, but we had a 3 hour catch up and it was amazing.
Which brings me to this week. Very few of the teachers seemed to know I was there this week so lots of my lessons have been cancelled or simply unable to be found. I could moan about turning up early to sit and around doing nothing but I won't. Especially when in the 4 classes I had today, I've done about 15 minutes of actual work. More time to work on my essay sitting in the sunshine :) or on facebook chat. One of the guys here told me to spend less time on that. Oops. I've also munched my way though a LOT of chocolate. It helps me study :D

Thumbs up to the Austrian Police

My contact teacher didn't seem impressed that I'd taken Wednesday off so I hauled myself into school for 8am Thursday morning, wishing I could be anywhere but. I had 3 straight classes, which passed fairly easily, with the exception of listening to a student's rant about how non-Austrians shouldn't be in that school because they don't speak perfect German. I'd have liked to point out that he probably doesn't either but I was just gobsmacked.
Anyway, after these classes I was getting ready to eat my sandwich from breakfast and head home to bed when a teacher asked if I would come to her class. In theory I could have said no, in reality, I would have felt so bad for saying no especially when I'd had the day off before that I duly followed her to a 1st class. They were actually really nice. One kid asked me if I thought Bin Laden was really dead. He's about 10. So they asked me lots of questions as new classes do and then the teacher hit on the bright idea of me teaching them some cheerleading. I tried to get out of this, I really tried. I failed. Before long we were all being ushered outside so we had plenty of space. I taught them the simplest chant I could remember. They seemed to love it. I wanted to die. On the way back to the classroom, 2 girls stopped to tell me I was beautiful. It was like having my Chinese classes again!
I watched some presentations from one class that afternoon. One group made us stand up and treated us to a rendition of 'O Canada'. I stifled my giggles.
Friday was a beautiful day. One of my colleagues had invited me out to lunch. We went to a nice restaurant for a 3 course meal. It was lovely! We sat in the garden part as it was so sunny but only one arm happened to be in the sun and as a result my left arm was slightly pinker/browner than my right. I finished off the afternoon with my foreign newspapers by the lake. The fact that Bregenz made an appearance in my Russian paper made me oddly happy!
Friday night was epic. There was some 80's party at the festspielhaus which we decided to go to. All the assistants came to mine before hand, which involved some of the boys climbing onto the roof (I should probably add that this is below my window and not dangerous) and resulted in a large amount of now dead insects in my room. 2 boys decided to get a late train home and the rest of us went on our merry way. The evening involved manoeuvring chairs to the middle of "wishbone lake" (essentially a puddle with a 'sculpture' in the middle as you can see), rounding up stray cups to get the deposit and therefore not pay for drinks, the macarena, various knee injuries (i escaped lightly with just a bruise) and losing lots of stuff.
The losing of stuff did pose a slight problem as I then didn't have my keys. (I know, I know, I'm an idiot. It was just the keys though. I had my phone, my purse was at home and Jesse had my camera)
Anyway, I crashed at Helen's. After some wandering on Saturday partly for Chinese food, partly to locate lost belongings I eventually rang  Maral to ask her to let me in my building. It took a while before I found anyone who could unlock my room door. The nuns were AWOL. I hadn't been there very long when I got a phone call. The sentences " the police are here for you. You need to come downstairs." don't exactly strike confidence in someone. However, 2 very lovely and rather handsome policemen were waiting by the door, asked me to describe my bag and if I could come outside. They had my bag and Xan's coat in the van. I had to sign some forms and ring Xan to convince them that I wasn't trying to steal somebody else's coat but basically they just came by to drop off the stuff we'd lost. Sweeeeeet!! Considering the only piece of ID in my bag had been my Sherbrooke uni card they must have gone to some effort to find out where I live. I mean, there was nothing to suggest that I wasn't simply a tourist. Pretty much, they are either ridiculously nice or the crime rate is so low here they have nothing better to do! Whichever it is, worked in my favour :)
Saturday evening we headed to Bludenz, where we went out for dinner. It didn't really smell like chocolate. This sadden me slightly. Between Chris and I, everything got eaten. Happy times for my tummy.
After church yesterday, I wasted the beautiful weather by staying indoors all afternoon working. It got to about 6 and I couldn't take it any more and took my work outside. By which I mean I scrapped researching and took a pen and some paper and wrote my introduction off the top of my head. As I discovered last Summer, writing essays outside in the sunshine is most pleasant, although it works much better when it's in English. I rounded off the day with some translation. I am too cool for my own good.

Don't underestimate the importance of food

I successfully avoided napping on Monday. Second major achievement of the day? I knew 3/7 names of student. This is an improvement. Normally I look at them thinking, 'I spoke to you 2 weeks ago. You were with a different partner. Yet I have no idea what you're called.' *inward sigh*

I don't actually have much to write about. I haven't done very much. In fact, I have been very bored and very restless. Some how the ability to successfully entertain myself vanished. 

I had a new class yesterday. Thy were entertaining. Well aside from guessing my age to be 18 and telling me they were going to facebook stalk me. Some of them actually tried right there and then. The delights of modern technology. Luckily they have no idea how to spell my name so they won't find me. When the groups swapped, the first lot didn't want to go back to their real class so one boy said "No, we can't swap yet, we have one more question." That one question... "What's your life story?" Sense of humour :) I took notes from Hannah's storytelling (Maybe I mentioned it, Niagara Falls?) and sent them packing.

Kässpätzle

I wanted to get rid of my restless energy last night so I went for a run. Yes, I run. It's not that shocking.
Today I woke up and felt horrible; the moving made me (more) nauseous so I didn't go to work, which made me feel a bit guilty. However, I know I'm ill if I don't eat. I went down for lunch and had only a spoonful of potatoes and half a bowl of soup. So little food!
I came back to my room feeling sorry for myself and wanting only to sleep, until I remembered that I had a meeting. I decided to go to this meeting as it didn't involve pupils so I could be as pathetic and as grumpy as I liked. Essentially I was just reading through some exam questions looking for mistakes. The teacher was very nice, bought me a cup of tea. She also gave me a present. I now have a shiny cookbook of Vorarlberg cuisine, complete with a list of translations - dialect to German obviously. How nice! Anyone for Kässpätzle?
I'm feeling a bit better now. At least, I'm hungry and feel I could stomach some food. This is a good sign :)

Ich hab dich getoucht!

The majority of my week has been spent sleeping. In my defence, I have been ill. I always seem to be ill in Austria. Noomi said so at house group too. It wasn't really house group as sitting around, chatting and eating pizza. I was definitely sat in the wrong place. I was sat in the middle of 2, sometimes 3 conversations. My brain couldn't handle the amount of noise, the dialect and the speed. I spent a fair amount of time in my own little world, much to one guy's amusement.
Having wasted the entire day, I ended up staying up really late finishing my lesson plans for Wednesday. By the time I had finished, there was little point in sleeping. I'd just wake up grumpier. At least I had Tony, Mark and Liam for company. (N.B asking your ex's best friend for advice on an ex situ , even if it's not the same one, isn't the best way to start a conversation.)
The classes actually went quite well. I did turn up to school without my USB stick and have to come back and get it so I could print things off. That made me late. Oopsy. I was in school on time though, stupid printer being ridiculously slow. So yes, I had only the 2 classes all week. Easy life.
I ran some errands on Thursday and once again left without everything I needed. I made it all the way to the post office without the envelopes. I am a bright one. Anyway, I've now sent off everything regarding my broken phone. I haven't seen my usual post office worker recently though :O
That evening I played Touch rugby. One of the guys from house group had organised it. It was raining. My trainers are clearly not made for wet, muddy grass. I ended up on the floor more than once and came home horrendously dirty. About right for a rugby match then! It was really good fun! The amount of anglicisms was entertaining. Sorry, getoucht, intercept - all perfectly acceptable words. Merci also wriggles its way into common use. Who needs German when you can speak denglish??
Friday night, Maral and I decided to go to the opening of the Beach Bar. Thankfully it had stopped raining. There we ran into Raffi who joined us.(He will probably read this so just to add.. he is well cool) There was a reggae band. How cool! We moved on to a few other bars and met up with some of his friends and generally had a really good night out! Lots of dancing, which was always going to rate highly in my book. We stumbled home in the very early hours, when the sun was already up. Yes, yes, dirty stop out I know!
I spent most of Saturday sleeping, before going to meet the same group of guys at the beach bar again.
It wasn't as busy and it was quite cold. I drew lots of things in the sand, because I'm cool like that. Anyway, after everyone arrived we moved on to somewhere indoors. More dancing! Yay. Definitely didn't stay out anywhere near as late. I did enjoy the kebab on the way home though.

yeah that's right... dancing

I spent most of yesterday watching TV. Lovely and lazy still! Not like I had work to do. The school this week had forgotten to draw up a timetable for me. I had to turn up first thing and let them find classes for me. Before I'd even taught one class, 3 teachers asked if I would be in their classes this week. All I could say, "err I don't know." And they call me disorganised!
My favourite part of the day so far has to have been the boy who asked if we could do the whole English lesson in German, since I'm learning German and it would be really helpful for me. Can't decide if this is cheeky or adorable.  Closely followed by the following conversation:
boy: "What's your last name"
Me: 'McKechnie" *writes it on the board*
boy: "Do you like MacDonald's",
me: "No, not really"
boy: "but your name is almost the same!"
My aim for today is now not to take a nap before this afternoon's class. I can feel my eyelids drooping. Perhaps it's time for another cup of tea.

Sod chicks and bunnies, I want to see a chocolate Easter donkey

I was a bit eager with my train as I ended up with a fair amount of spare time once I got to Munich. Apparently, some of my friends doing Bummit (a charity hitchhike across Europe) were in Munich at the same time. I know this from following their feed rather than seeing them. I definitely wish I'd set off later though as my flight was delayed. The nice man in the shop told me my German was wonderful though,. Sadly the shop shut. Everything shut. There were just lots of easyjet passangers hanging around until midnight.
I felt sorry for my mum who had to pick me up at 1am and then go to work the next morning. Bad Easyjet.
It was lovely to be at home even if I did end up arguing with my mum about how much time I was spending with friends instead of family. Almost ironically, later on in the week she picked up a mug, cooing and awwing at it. It bore the words "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves."  (It's okay to point this out now I'm back in Austria) So I shuffled around my plans and had 3 days in a row with mummy and sister. Bit of a shame that I also picked up a hideous head cold. I blame Katie.

It was good week for running into people. Charlotte, Laura and I headed to Manchester for a night out on Wednesday and found Stefan on the tram. Naturally we dragged him out too. 3 out of my 8 'children'. If only I could remember their names. I think they were It, Daughter and Boy, respectively. Sadly, we went to a student night (80p drinks is enough to lure me anywhere. Almost). Even some of the staff were convinced they weren't ID'ing at the door. We felt incredibly old.
I also saw Ste when returning a video with my sister. I hadn't seen him since college so we swapped digits and arranged something for that evening. I got Ryan to come along too. It started off as drinks in Heywood, where I saw a girl from school, before we went back to Ste's for karaoke. My life is complete having seen Ryan sing. Ha.
Other activities include a trip to Glossop with Charlotte followed by a lazy day in Heaton Park (NB. it is not a good idea to ask your friend's boyfriend's ex-girlfriend whether said boy is a  million dollar boyfriend), making the most of Pizza Hut's all-you-can-eat buffet with Rachel, introducing my god-daughter to my sister, dinner with Claire and finally, badminton in the garden with the cousins and sister. I love the fact that I can borrow Emma's clothes. I hate the fact that she has to be the only person in the world who can repeatedly find really nice clothes from Primark.
So I had the opportunity to wear heels, get on the dance floor, wear going out clothes and eat all sorts of wonderfully British things (including lots of vegetables nom nom). No Easter egg though. Or an Easter donkey. That's far more relevant to Easter than bunnies and eggs. Phht.
Now, I'm back in Austria. It took much longer than I expected to get back to Bregenz from Innsbruck. Then again I did just miss a train and have to wait an hour. I would have stuck around to to check Innsbruck out except I took home the bare minimum and brought back even less. Therefore I had only a toothbrush and deo in the way of toiletries.
Now Austria seems really boring. 2 more days until I'm back at work. What shall I do with myself!!

Who care's? It's Easter!

So this week hasn't really been all that interesting.
My timetable has been totally messed up. I've been turned away from classes, not turned up to the right ones and well it was just rubbish. I've done maybe 6 hours total. I work hard for my money really. The classes have all been quite boring too - no gems to quote, alas. I also was told off today for not giving the students enough feedback and not correcting them enough. 
On Tuesday I went to house group. This generally end in lively debates [that took a really long time to translate vivant - my brain has been working in French all week]. Normally these move much too fast for me to be able to contribute very much, I just listen and follow. This time, I waited patiently and put my point across. I like that group. There's one guy who for the life of me I just couldn't understand a word he said. I ended up hoping he would talk less! Had this not been in the middle of the debate I would have asked him to slow down and maybe use a bit more Hochdeutsch (the equivalent of Queen's English) but I didn't want to interrupt anyone and I picked up most of what was happening from the responses anyway. :D
What else have I done... I tried buying my sister a present. I know exactly what I want to get her but haven't found it yet. Nicky told me yesterday where I could probably get it but I don't have time to go before I come home. Sorry Katie, you'll have to wait :) During this rather brief conversation, one of the younger students walked past and told him to stop flirting. This made me giggle - it's a such a teenage boy thing to do!
I passed on playing football and did some work instead. I have finally settled on a topic for my German YA essay. It's really rather geeky that this is exciting for me but I don't care. I've spent ages trying to dream up a title and now I have a working one.
There is packing to be done but I can't be bothered. I'm setting off home in 3 hours, I should maybe step on it. In around 12 hours I'll be landing at Manchester - home sweet home! 

That's a snouter

I ended up playing football with the guys at my internat on Wednesday. I'm fairly certain when Nicky asked if I wanted to play and I agreed he thought I was joking. There were a few surprised faces when I wandered onto the field anyway, followed by a cry of "Frauen Power!" I particularly enjoyed that the one time someone tried to tackle me he was pretty much warned away by the rest of the boys because they're not allowed to hurt girls. (I probably should have abused that a little bit in hindsight) It was fun. I somehow got grass absolutely everywhere though. Now I'm not an idiot and I'd expect to tramp in a little bit of grass from the field but even after I changed/took off my shoes etc. I was still getting grass in abundance all over my floor, bed, room... You'd think I had been hiding a haystack in my hair or something.

Anyway, since then, I've learnt a few names and a few of the boys now say hi whenever they see me which is nice. Turns out some of them go to my schools. Whether I teach any of them is another matter entirely. That sounds really bad doesn't it! I found this out by ending up walking to school with one boy on Thursday. I felt kinda bad because that obviously meant we arrived together. His friends were outside and it's not the coolest thing in the world to arrive with the TA, even if it is me ;) One of the nuns started telling me how wonderful she thought it was that I'd gone and played and how I'd done such a good job doing the ladies proud. Brilliantly priceless.
Thursday night I headed down to Feldkirch. We didn't go out but stayed in playing 'Pass the pigs' and having a few bevvies. I won the game. I'm clearly awesome. I have no idea if we stayed up late at all, it ended up being just Mackenzie and I chatting about all sorts of things. The next morning Helen and I made our way back to Bregenz. I was shattered for the whole day. I think I did some shopping or something. Either way it ended, I much appreciated spending the evening chilling out at the intenat. 

I chose to spend Saturday in Lindau, which is just across the German border. It's a quaint little town and I was rather excited to learn you can rent pedalos. If not, there were a stupid amount of people who own a pedalo. I must find people to do this with. I had a rather lovely afternoon on my little exploration. I bought the first postcards of my trip so far. I'm normally much more on the postcard ball. Here just doesn't seem postcard worthy though. (Even though it is very lovely!) 

I would have been well up for staying in with a DVD, but Saturday night I ended up in Feldkirch with Xan, Kieran and Droid for a while. Lots of wine, lots of drawing ; mostly on Kieran  . Here's a beautiful example>>  . This is a scale of Heaven's penthouse to what originally stopped at Hell's basement [I think] but got extended to include Stockport, somewhere here and finally Xan's. Bit harsh really! I feature up around heaven apparently :D. Happily, I escaped with only my name, the Loch Ness monster and a lighter. There was also quite a bit of table football. I'm not entirely rubbish any more! I'm not sure how to best describe the night - random is probably most apt.  I felt oddly bouncy yesterday morning given the lack of sleep. Caught up with me later in the day though. And this morning. I was so, so tired. It didn't help that I turned up to a class where I wasn't expected to be. Twice. The first class, she had gotten the days confused and thought I was in her class on Wednesday. The second one though... Turns out the teachers had arranged a swap but failed to inform me of this. I ended up staying in the class I thought I was in and halfway through being chased down by a student and who may have been the principle. I am not a mind reader. I can't second guess which class I'm wanted in as well as what I'm expected to teach. I might be good at my job but that's just too much! 

Fatman has no organisational skills

I just had a meeting with my contact teacher to discuss punctuality and organisation. I resent this. I have been late but on one occasion (per school) and that was because I was ill. Half the time, I can't find the teacher I'm supposed to be with so I have to look up the classroom and go myself. I can't do right for doing wrong. If I do this before the bell, the teachers stress out looking for me but if I do it after the bell then I'm late. It's Lose-Lose. Also, if I spend too long hanging around waiting for teachers that don't come and find me, I get cornered by somebody wanting to talk about lesson plans or something.
As for organisation, half of the things she mentioned were when I didn't have a computer. It's hard to respond to an e-mail before you have the chance to read it. It's also a bit cheeky to criticise my organisation when sometimes nobody has a clue which class I'm supposed to be in. More than once I've found out on the day and had to plan the class. I haven't complained, yet they complain I never e-mail to say I want to use a projector etc. Simple, because I don't use them. I make sure I have all the resources myself.
It's frustrating, particularly when most teachers are telling me how much they've enjoyed my lesson (at least the ones I get to plan myself and don't just get given textbook exercises). The supply teacher at Gallusstrasse positively raved about my class (the one where we only played games). I had a lesson with class 1 yesterday. They're about 10 years old. They loved it and at the end of the class followed the teacher and I out of the class asking when I would do another lesson. At girl at the end of a lesson with class 6 asked the same thing. I'm doing a good job and yet some teachers are apparently complaining about me. BAH!
Rant over.
Other than this meeting I've had a very nice start to the week. As I already mentioned my classes are going well. I managed another Disney reference in class today. I'm not even trying!! It's mostly Finding Nemo as well. Maybe I should broaden my horizons.
As lots of 7th classes are on holiday this week, my classes have been swapped around and I've had some of the younger students. It reminds me of teaching in China and I now miss P6B, P1C and my K3B! I loved those classes. A lot of 6th classes are away too so I've had a mixed up group a few times. We did superheroes today. They are so creative! One guy thought of the most amazing way that his group's hero, Fatman, would save people from a volcanic eruption.
Last night the weather was lovely. Naturally being a boarding school for boys a game of football was organised. Maral and I went outside too under the ruse of 'working'. We were soon just chatting to a few guys, attempting to walk along a tight rope (I have no other way of explaining this. It's also really hard!) and gymnastics. Of course. I'm trying to teach Maral how to do a round-off. After it started getting dark, I introduced her to a proper British cup of tea and spent the evening laughing and chatting to people. Good times.
My dilemma about having booked a flight I couldn't make, has now been solved, classes rearranged and basically, I'm coming home a week tomorrow! haha I am unbelievably excited about this little fact. I have been missing my friends no end and to get to see their faces, other than on the many photos on my walls, is just a wonderful prospect. Think of the hugs!
I think I've just entirely cheered myself up. This is like counselling!

British As.

I don't even know where to begin! Last Saturday probably makes the most sense. I spent most of the morning/afternoon running errands and sorting a few things out before I joined the group of assistants and headed over to Chris and Maria's. There we played a few games before going out for Chinese. A few of my students also came. It was kind of strange seeing them outside of school! I missed the last bus home so ended up staying over. I saw the bus drive past on my way to the stop. It was at least 5 minutes early. Dreadful. I then got up pretty early to get the first bus, go home and get ready to go to church. I was really rather drowsy throughout the service. It was followed by a community meal though. That was quite nice and gave me the opportunity to speak to more people. Aside from the lady who kept trying to talk to me in appalling English. She only knows a few words but won't talk to me in German. The cleaner in the internat is the same. I don't understand it at all!
Classes have all gone quite well this week. I've had some right corkers out of the students. On top of this, I've managed to either quote or make reference to 'Finding Nemo' on 3 separate occasions. I was asked to talk to the 8th class (17/18) about the legal system. So I had to find a way to extend from the 10 minutes I'd done last time. Somehow I managed it and successfully at that, although I gave up on the question 'What is civil law then?' because I haven't the foggiest. They asked quite a lot of questions in this class and at the end of it gave me a round of applause announcing that I should be an actress.
A younger class asked me to do the whole class in a Scottish accent. I declined.
I received a parcel this week. A lovely little care packing consisting of chocolate, teabags and biscuits. WOO!! If I'd had some milk I would have immediately made myself a brew.
On Wednesday, I was out running some errands when I ran into some the assistants. I joined them for a while, finished my errands before rejoining them to spend the afternoon by the Bodensee soaking up the sunshine. Quite a pleasant afternoon/evening. Plus the sunset looked beautiful

Sunset over the lake

.  We stopped for a takeaway dinner and sat in a bar for a little while. No staying too late what with 8am starts and all that jazz.
I also discovered a piano. So on Thursday I went to a music shop and invested in some music and happily whiled away a few hours playing. A student randomly walked in at one point and swiftly left. He must have heard me playing so he can't have wandered in by accident.
That night everyone went for dinner in Dornbirn. I say that, I'd already eaten though I had every intention of ordering pudding. I never quite got round to it and enjoyed some wine instead. Very relaxed. On the train home I was lucky not to get a fine. My ticket out not to be valid that day (oops) but the guy let me off with just buying another ticket. To be honest, I was struggling to understand his accent so he may have tried to give me a fine before giving up. We'll never know!
The weather has been beautiful all weekend. My Friday habit of buying a newspaper and sitting by the lake to read it was thoroughly enjoyable. This week was the turn for French. Much easier. I spent hours there and as a result of rolling up my leggings I got some ridiculous burn lines across my shins. True Brit. They've gone down quite a lot since. Apparently some of the other assistants were also around there at a similar time but I didn't see them. That night we went for drinks in Feldkirch. There was a couple that we were talking to. The girl was Norwegian and was saying just how British I am. I'm just a bundle of walking, talking stereotypes really! I got the last train home and despite having yawned my head of the whole trip proceeded to stay up late chatting to people on Facebook.
I decided to enjoy the glorious sunshine yesterday too, taking a book down to the lake. This time I was armed with sun cream. I also covered up my shins with a shirt. I passed at least 4 hours that way, catching the sun on my back. I'm a shade browner rather than just pale. Score.

View from Gebhardsberg

After oversleeping by a stupid amount of time, I spent today on a bit of a hike/wander. There's some hills/mountains right behind where I live so I set about exploring.  I had a lovely walk. It was so nice to appreciate how beautiful nature really is. It meant I had some quality Jesus time, despite not making it to church. Although, it may not have been on this week, I heard murmurings along those lines.
It started to cloud over so I made my way home. I had a lovely skype with my mother, after all it is mother's day today. I've just spent a while chatting to Maral and girl who has just moved in next door. She seems nice but I've forgotten her name already. Oh dear.

At least it wasn't a camera

I'm apparently rather well known - within the church I've been going to that is. The number of people who have now used the phrase "oh you're the English speaker!" is astounding. I drew enough attention to myself by coughing all the way through the service. I chatted to lots of people, who nearly all told me that my German is fantastic, and forced myself to drink what had been promised as a schwarze Tee. Supposedly the closest thing to British tea. It was not. My sister has posted some Tetley's though. I'm excited for a good brew. Yes, me of all people, excited for a brew. Who'da thunk it.
It must have been due to the weather and not wanting to stay indoors that I decided to go for a run on Sunday afternoon. See, I couldn't find a legitimate reason to spend time outside whilst being ill, but my logic suggested a run was OK. Don't question it. I thought it was a short run, Bregenz couldn't be big enough for a long run. It was nearly 3km. Not that short then.
It's been a good week. Classes have been quite easy. Even the class that drives me mental spoke up a little bit. Plus I had Thursday off this week too giving me a 4 day weekend. Nice, hein? 
Lots of people were round at Chris and Maria's for drinks and food on Tuesday etc. I arrived later than most by which time there were varying states of sobriety. My choice not to drink at all was greeted with a "Why are you here!!" Touching really.
I also went to house group again. This time it mostly a debate about a new church that has been set up recently and appears to be stealing all the youth. I say this, it got increasingly hard to follow. The more heated the debate, the more dialect they used and the faster they spoke. However, my list of vocab to look up was quite short at the end.
Thursday night everyone met up for drinks in Feldkirch. I managed to get to the train station before realising I didn't have my purse and having to trek back again. However, it did mean I ended up on the same train as Helen and her boyfriend. It was quite a competitive evening with table football and electronic darts. I turned out to be decent at the latter because the darts didn't need to stay in the board. Plus I'm fluky. Bonus. In all of this though, my phone fell out of my pocket into the sink. The screen is not at all happy about this. I should not own electronics. Not unless they can withstand falling in the bath like my old creative mp3 player. My phone is now sat in a bowl of rice. Some say this helps draw out the moisture. Fingers crossed it works!
As I stayed over in Feldkirch, I spent the day chilling in the sunshine with Drew and Xan when he wasn't at work. We really didn't do much, we sat on some swings in the park for ages, mooched, bought ice-cream and sat by the river. A very nice relaxed day. I finally went home about half 6. The fact that I had no idea where the train station is may have been part of this. My nose and left shoulder are a little pink now. Damn British skin. Pretty much as soon as I got home I got into my pyjamas and snuggled up watching TV shows. I had to go down and let Maral into the building which I was not impressed about. I was cosy!

Rugby is not a cure for a chest infection

In writing my last blog post, I managed to miss dinner. I therefore had to try and put some food together out of cereal, yoghurt and an orange. Nutritious!
My sister came to the rescue with the legal system dilemma and she provided me with an outline and a handful of interesting facts. I say interesting, the class looked horrendously bored the whole 10 minutes. Another teacher has asked if I'll do a class on the UK legal systems. Why are they so interested???
I only had morning classes and so used the time to catch up on some sleep. 8am starts are not conducive to a full 8 hours sleep. I'm surprised I wasn't horrendously grumpy with my classes!!
In the evening, I went for dinner with the assistants in Dornbirn, which was followed by a few drinks and a lot of drawing on people. There were various designs, all pretty random. I mean the dark mark (Harry Potter) topped with a hat, plus I have no idea why I wrote a bible quotation - I'm certain there was a reason! It was a fun evening, even if I ended up getting a much later train than planned.
Surprisingly I was up extra early for my 8am start giving me enough time to actually enjoy breakfast rather than gulp down some coffee (eurgh) and take a few bites of some breakfast item. This is usually to go. I have no memory of that class now though. How odd.Oh Thursday was the day with all the rain! I don't think it stopped all day! I enjoyed my afternoon class though. The first thing one boy said was that they had told their teacher we had talked about projects rather than playing games on Tuesday. Haha. Bless! Given the date, I went with the topic of alcohol/drinking. They didn't appreciate Michael McIntyre as much as I'd hoped, or at least the first group didn't.
 I went in to town to try and sort some things out, also to pick up my foreign newspaper. I didn't get paid but I went to ask when I would get paid. Originally they said it wouldn't be until April but I talked them into paying me next week. I just have to provide a copy of my passport. I was sure that had been done already. The schools definitely have one. However, I'm taking it into my own hands and taking it down personally.
Maral and I went for dinner which was nice. I've barely seen her all week. Some of the assistants were all meeting up that night but I really wasn't feeling great and wasn't up to making the effort to catch a bus.
I may have felt a little poorly yesterday but I woke up today feeling like there was a sumo wrestler on my chest. Possibly an infection. I will not be going to a doctor in fear of being given some foul medicine (Beijing 2008 - scarred for life by that 'medicine')
After a quick jaunt to the supermarket this morning, I've spent today wrapped up in layers, if not my duvet, doing a bit of work and watching the rugby. Yelling does absolutely nothing, it just makes me cough more :( kinda worth it though, because Scotland won and England aren't getting a Grand Slam. Get in.
I might snuggle up with chocolate and a film now.

Tushi Tushiiii ;)

Friday night I ended up going out for Thai food. That's an invitation not to turn down, I love the stuff! That was with a few assistants. I knew exactly what I wanted but got slightly confused trying to find it in German. Totally I was the only one opting for spicy. I'm hardcore. Afterwards we went for a few drinks in a Caribbean bar. They had coconut monkeys and I really wanted to steal one! I think it would fit right in my room, it would match beautifully to the crucifix, photos and lists of German words. I only put the photos up the other day. Such a rebel, disregarding the no blu tac rule. I sort of ended up with a patch of photos where it's just me and some of my favourite fellas. Ha.
So after swapping my chip with Maral so she didn't get in trouble for staying out late (I honestly don't think she will tbh), I came back later and used her chip anyway. I had to build up the courage as a fat spider was hanging around the sensor. Not impressed.
I have no idea what I did during Saturday. I had a lovely lovely skype call with Miss Moss. I did spend most of it getting dressed etc buuuuuuttt, best of all she FINALLY sent me an iconic photo from our holiday Summer 2007. There has been a gap in my travel journal ever since and it can now finally be complete!
I did sort of have to rush off to the train station.

The plan was to meet one assistant and get a train to Feldkirch, but this is me and things never go to plan! The girl and I never managed to find each other but both got on trains. The plan had been to go to a funke but we were a bit late. Happily I wasn't the latest. My punctuality is improving :) Anyway, we went to a bar instead. I'm apparently awesome at Connect 4. I also have a new best friend. I have absolutely no idea how I started talking to him but anyway. He spoke English and I spoke German. It potentially wasn't a flowing conversation but he seemed like a nice guy! I mean just check out the goggles!
We didn't end up getting the last train home and so most of the assistants crashed at one guy's place. That never bodes well for sleep. The snoring didn't help. There was however a rather stunning view from the window :)
After breakfast at the station 2 of us headed back to Bregenz. I managed to worry my mum half to death in the process. Sorry! I tried to have a nap but it wasn't happening. Instead I nipped into town for some lunch/cash before the rugby. I yelled myself hoarse particularly after Max Evans beaut of a try. I then moved onto some football before heading back to the station to meet the other assistants in Rankweil and actually see a funke. Just to explain, this is a towering bonfire with an exploding witch, traditionally held to chase away winter. You'd think this was quite a lengthy thing but actually if you miss the lighting, then that's it. I've yet to see a witch explode. Darn. Turns out there's not much in Rankweil so we all headed to Dornbirn. The plan for food evolved into donner kebabs (my first ever!) and a bar. There were far too many photos being taken, even by my standards.
It was another late night and I had classes from 8am yesterday. It was the first day in weeks I haven't woken up at 06.44. A very specific and annoying time to wake up I assure you. Must have been tired. I also hadn't planned these classes (winging it much?) but they were the ones where I get 2 students for about 10 minutes. With the second group I was supposed to be discussing the film The Island which they watched recently. After 4 groups I grew bored of the topic (they didn't seem interested to start of with) so the last pair we just talked about random things. They stayed a little after the bell went and were still there when the teacher showed up to ask how it went. Much better than some pairs where making them talk is like getting blood from a stone.
I had a bit of a run around. Turns out the school hadn't told me the right forms to fill in so I had to chase down the form/bank/school and get that done. Somehow, I doubt I got paid today as I was supposed to. Not that it makes too much difference as I still don't have a pin number for my bank card. Maybe I should ask about that...
All the late nights and lack of sleep clearly caught up with and I was a little bit late today. The teacher hadn't wanted me in that class anyway so she did what she had wanted to do in the first place and I sat in the staffroom and helped mark some essays. My next class was with a sub teacher. He basically stood around and left it up to me. I'd been told to discuss their essay topics. How do you discuss 25 individual topics all at once? Didn't happen. Instead I played games for the whole class, just concentrating on getting them talking. It felt like a good lesson, as they were clearly enjoying themselves, laughing but best of all there was plenty of English. (Plus they now know that Krapfen in English is a doughnut - educational). Rows was the best game; cheating was allowed. By cheating I mean, this is about speed answering so when I asked "How many windows are open?" and somebody opened an extra window so his row got it right, I allowed it.
Anyway, best brush up on the legal system in the UK if I'm to do a class on it first thing tomorrow.
Eurgh.

Spring is Coming!

My first class on Wednesday didn't really go to plan. We were supposed to be watching a video but there was a problem with the computers. Whilst the teacher hunted down a techie and well, briefly abandoned ship, it was definitely time for a game! This was followed by a class. Another intro lesson. With a difference. Normally they ask questions like "What sports do you do?", "How old are you?" or "Do you have a boyfriend?". Nice and straight forward. In this particular class, 2 students bet on my answer to the last question. Not sure what to make of that! I must be a prime target for bets, because this is definitely not the first time. There was also a girl who followed every answer with "Why?". Irksome to say the least.
My last class of the day were delightful and even gave me a round of applause.
I plonked myself in the staffroom for much of the day and made excellent use of computing facilities. Trying to work out the code for the printer became an issue. Some nice guy eventually hunted one down for me. No idea who he was. I wouldn't normally have gone to the effort but I had some erasmus forms that needed correcting and sending off again. I've never used a fax machine before. It's surprisingly easy to get wrong! Anyway, I must have looked like a right computer geek, I was literally there for hours. In my defense, quite a lot of that time was spent harassing my French department trying to get an extension.
By Thursday the French department and the computer shop were tussling for a spot at the top of my bitch list. The computer shop redeemed themselves after I got nowty over the phone and demanded my laptop back by the end of the day. Hooray, they managed it! I never knew I was so attached to it! It was tempting to fondly caress it for a while but that would be a little bit too much plus I had to spend the evening sifting through all my documents to sort out my YA project, put it all together again and send it off as soon as was physically possible. That involved a trip back to the staff room on my day off to print it out and get it in the post. The man in the post office didn't like the envelope I was using. Strange man, he almost refused to send it!

The weather was still beautiful so I bought myself a Russian newspaper and sat in the sun by the lake endeavouring to read it. I chose not to give anything up for lent but to take up reading foreign papers once a week instead. Very academic :) Starting with French paper may have been slightly wiser, as would not wearing the same amount of layers I did in Canada. I was roasting!

Short but Picturesque

Bodensee

My brain feels incredibly foggy and I have no idea what I've blogged about already and I'm too lazy to read the last post so I'm guessing. Warning: this will either result in missing bits out or repeating myself.
Monday brought last minute fancy dress (I did not bring the right wardrobe for this), cheap (and therefore bad) wine and some shots. Whether this is standard practice, I haven't got a clue but these particular shots involved some bashing. You had to bash the little bottle the number of times it said on the bottom, then put the lid on your nose and down the shot without touching the bottle with your hands. I was awful at this. What a waste of alcohol, spilling it all down my front!
Having Tuesday off was more than welcomed after this. The students all went straight to school. They have to turn up until the Faschingsprinz sends them home. It was actually a beautiful day so armed with my camera I hit the town/lake where I was able to enjoy the sunshine. The town was filled with stalls and games and bands so that is was not far off a school fête.

St Martin's Gate

Shark??

Apart from including some pictures that I haven't yet shared I'm going to call it a day there. It's for the best. We don't want incoherent ramblings (worse than they already are!)

N.B Faschings has nothing to do with Fascists

Contrary to the week preceding it, I had a rather lovely weekend and was kept quite busy.
I have gotten to know my next door neighbour in the Marianum. On Friday we went out for dinner and a mooch around town. We went to the Festspielhaus as well as the lakeside. This is where the opera seen in James Bond Quantum of Solace was. It's all outdoors and it was pretty cold.
The next day, after a mild berating from the nuns about not eating enough at lunch, we went shopping in Dornbirn. It's the town over and a fair bit bigger than Bregenz, thus it has more shops. It wasn't open that late since it's was a Saturday but I got what I needed. We also decided to go to a bar that night. We made our way into town and into Uwe's. A definite indie/rock den, smoky, slightly cramped and yet sort of perfect for enjoying a few drinks. A number of my students were in there but I didn't acknowledge them nor they I. Instead we settled our selves into a corner with some wine. The music was provided by a jukebox. There was definitely a Johnny Cash fan amongst our midst as 'Walk the Line' was played at least 3 times. Someone also picked 'Fairytale in NY' by the Pogues. I may have been the only one to recognise its seasonal-ness (New word - the Oxford dictionary will include it next year) and happily belted out "Merry Christmas you arse llalalalala and the bells were ringing out for Christmas day".
This is apparently a good way to meet people (necessarily the singing of Christmas songs in Febuary). There was a group of guys nearby who must have figured out neither of us are Austrian as they came over to ask where we come from. On the whole they seemed rather nice and not particularly creepy, which is always a danger when talking to strangers in a bar. I turned down their offers of a drink for at least an hour but eventually gave up. A little while later a girl came over to us. She said she was the only girl out with her group and had noticed we were on our own so did we mind if they came over to join us. One was a native English speaker so they were all trying to talk in English. They were a fun bunch. They invited us to join them going to a club. We agreed and they started to usher us out of the door by saying "Go get dressed!". My immediate response was "Am I currently naked?". That went down a storm. Apparently I can be funny. Get in.
We didn't actually stay very long after leaving Uwe's. Maral wasn't feeling well so we came home.
Sunday afternoon was time for the Faschings parade. We walked into town to watch all the floats and marching bands. It was rally quite cold and my hand was frozen to the bone as I was trying to film it all. They had out lots of sweets at the parade. By hand out, I actually mean fling dangerously in any direction. I caught a few sweets in my boots. Inexplicable really. Mostly I was shielding my head. I broke a nail. How distressing.
After the parade, we got some glühwein, wandered around grabbing some food and worked our way towards some sort of prize giving ceremony/after party. This was mostly a mish mash of fancy dress, performances, dancing and alcohol. We stayed quite a while. A few girls from one of my classes approached me. Not that I had the faintest idea who they were. They stopped and chatted a while, auf Deutsch. I think they were quite glad about that.
It was rather fun, I enjoyed being able to dance away, even if random guys tried to join in with us. On of them ended up spilling his pint over our coats. Silly. One guy came over and said something that must have been in dialect because I didn't have a clue. I pointed out that I wasn't Austrian. He got rather excited about a Brit speaking German before summing up that I was geil. Being not entirely sure what that meant, but assuming it meant nice or something to that effect, I looked it up. My assumption was correct but the first definition that came up was actually horny. I was momentarily very, very confused!
So, Bregenz is not such a dreadful place after all.