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.

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! 

Dubious hymns (and Nuns)

Monday morning blog post? Old habits die hard!
As a completely random piece of information, this is my mouse. He is called Charlie. His name is a recent discovery which only came out after dropping it. He lost an ear in the process and before I knew it "there, there Charlie" had escaped my lips.
I'm settling in nicely to Bregenz, meaning I can now find my way around town, to and from the schools/other important places without use of a map. I have yet to make a full exploration of the place though. Despite having a 3 day weekend, I had a few dates with my French YA (year abroad) essay. I shut myself away and worked away like a busy little bee. It's now in the proofing stages. Someone kindly pointed out that I was missing some vital information  (I don't need to mention who's in power when discussing Quebecois nationalism in a political context, right??) so that needs fixing. The deadline is a week away so I have plenty of time.
Politics is seemingly topic of the month. I've been asked to prepare classes on the British system. Not my strongest subject and I doubt "The LibDems are sell outs" will cut it really.
Yesterday was quite a pleasant day. I only had a little bit of work to do you see. I went to church in the morning. It was much as I expected until they got the little children up to the front. They did a little activity and then started to sing a song. True, it was about God loving every child in every country, but it was really rather racist. You can read the lyrics for yourself here. That aside it was very nice. A young woman came up to me after the service and chatted away, introduced me to people, showed me where the tea and coffee is and invited me to a house-group. Should be a good way to meet people and practise my German. She was very nice and told everyone that I speak "super Deutsch." Yay!
I've also contacted 2 people also doing teaching assistantships in the area and hopefully will be meeting up with them in the near future.
I've just realised the title sounds like the nuns are a bit dubious. They aren't. They seem like very lovely women. It's how I'd imagine having a few grandma's around is. They cluck over me a little, always asking how I am. I spotted one knitting in the office. Nothing like Sister Act I'm afraid.
I've also chatted to a few other people here in the internat. Just to put it out there, are all Moldovans called Viktor? I'm spotting a pattern.
Anyway, my To-Do list for today is quite long and I have a class later...

Hallowe'en

After such a wonderful week it was hard to get back into the swing of studying. I hadn't exactly made it easy for myself. Although I'd taken a book with me, with the best intentions of reading on the bus, I managed to get about a third of the way through before the lecture. Better than none I suppose. I also had a 5-6 page essay to write about time management. Clearly I was demonstrating nothing of the sort since I was finishing it and printing it off just before the class. Doing this actually kept me hidden away until Thursday evening so when Hallowe'en weekend swang by I really wanted to do nothing at all!
On Friday afternoon we shopping for some fancy dress. They go all out over here. We didn't want anything too fancy though, just some wings and masks. We joined the masses heading over to a campus party in G-13. Well there was free beer, of course it was going to attract people. I put on a party dress and heels for the first time and donned my wings and mask. The mask was feathery and I kept geting feathers up my nose and in my mouth everytime I drank, spoke, breathed... There was music and dancing! 2 things I have missed muchly. Despite knowing I had an exam at 9am the next morning, I didn't care and was convinced to join people heading for maison jaune. I was wrongly under the impression that this was a bar or a club. It was not. It was somebody's house and no-one seemed to know whose. It was also a trek away. Lots of walking  in heels? Hannah and I were no so impressed. We did have Gaston walking in the middle of us though. He was enjoying looking a bit like a pimp most likely. Well until we stopped so Hannah could throw up into a bush.

Not a clue what was wrong with her - 1 beer is definitely not enough to do that. We spent a fair amount of time in this random party house running to the toilet generally pushing to the front of the queue. Definitely time to go home. The problem? Neither of us had anything more than keys and a student card with us, we didn't actually know where we were and despite having come with a big group, could I find anyone? No. I left Hannah by the door and went on a hunt. I found one person and came back to find Hannah being chatted up. The guy did not appreciate me taking Hannah away. She looked like she very much did! We went outside, asked a random guy for directions to the bus stop and went. Pierre-Edouard caught up with us. We had a half an hour walk to the bus stop. At one point I took my heels off but Sherbrooke pavements were littered in things that are not friendly to bare feet (it felt like walking on glass) so much so that heels were preferable.
We did manage to catch a bus and were back at the residences by half 12.  Not that this means I got an early night. That would be asking a bit much now wouldn't it.

The test went quite smoothly for the little sleep I'd had (I also got up early, though I did have a good breakfast as a result). In fact,  I got 91% which funnily was the class average.  We had planned a night out for that Saturday, which was the real reason we had bought masks and wings, but with Hannah not feeling good and Victoria not really liking clubs it didn't happen. Doesn't matter. I WILL have a night out eventually. I spent the rest of my extended weekend (so until Tuesday) doing no work. It was wonderful. Well I did say I was totally unmotivated. I watched lots of TV instead. It was a sad moment when I realised I was fully caught up on every series I've been keeping track of. As a result it was hello Megavideo, Glee season 2? Yes please.