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.

silence doesn't suit me

Ah it's been an interesting week.
Sadly there are no worthwhile anecdotes from my classes this week. One student interrogated me on my political views. I haven't really done very much you see. For a number of classes I've sat quietly in a corner.  I did get to watch part of Sherlock Holmes though. That same class had the following to solve.

A snowball is thrown at Sherlock Holmes' window, breaking it. He goes outside and sees 3 running away. Their names are John Crimson, Mark Crimson and Matt Crimson. The next day Sherlock receives a note that reads "?Crimson. He did it." Who should Sherlock Holmes question?

Answers on a postcard please. One girl in the class put me to shame by getting htis much quicker than I did. Actually, I'm not convinced I would have got it. FAIL. 

I lead a class on Pancake Day which, erm, pales in comparison to the Austrian celebrations. 

On Tuesday I went to a church house group, where I met some people my age. yay. I didn't follow all of the discussion but I enjoyed being there. I took my new German bible as well as my english one. I figured it might help with some of the vocab. :D

Wednesday came around and my laptop decided it had had enough. That was it. It was temporarily fixed after I followed some instructions from my friend, making me feel all techy, but then threw in the towel. I couldn't even get it to turn on. I amde a few enquiries and took it to a computer shop on Thursday. I was supposed to get it back on Friday afternnon but apparently it's more complicated that they first thought. As far as I understand, I need a new harddrive. Goodness knows what the other jargon meant. As well as depriving me of my go-to item for entertaining myself, this is causing a slight problem. All my documents may or may not be saved. My first thought, if I lose all my music and all my photos I will be absolutely devastated. Probably slightly more importantly, my YA project, due in today, is saved on there. Needless to say, it won't be being handed in today. Is it sad of me to admit that I have missed my laptop? I never realised how much I use it for. I mean, it's constantly on playing music and now my room has been so very quiet! (I've been able to hear my neighbour play/sing Bruno Mars' Grenade repeatedly)

On top of that, I spent Thursday on a wild goose chase. I have to hand in all sorts of forms and documents so that I can get paid. Sadly, noone deems it important to actually tell me what these are, where to find them or any other pertinant, useful information. That would be far to efficient and German. Instead I spent ages wandering around town going into different buildings and then being redirected to eventually be told that the form I was after, I couldn't get. Nice. I'm now all set with the correct forms and just need to get that signed somewhere.

Just to finish Thursday off, my lightbulb went. This required a huge team effort to change. I learnt the german word for 'bad luck' that day!