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.