Are there long term effects from a stink bomb?

As much as I appreciate the public transportation here, and the fact that I'm saving money not buying gas, I really miss having a car!  I can't go anywhere outside of Baden on my own schedule, and then when it comes to busses sometimes the schedule online isn't very trustworthy.  The bus drivers are often rather unhelpful if you have a question, and they can be downright rude.  On Monday there was this older woman standing by the front door of the bus because there wasn't anywhere to sit, and the bus was full of kids, and the bus driver ended up yelling at her for blocking the door, as if she really had a choice of standing somewhere else.  On my bus ride to school I don't really mind that there are a bunch of my students on the bus with me as they're not exactly awake, but on the ride home they're always really rowdy, which hasn't really been a big problem until today.  Some of the boys at the back of the bus set off a stink bomb (which actually ended up exploding near me) and it was awful!  The whole bus stunk nearly all the way from school back to Baden (and it was a slow bus route, so it took 45 minutes).  At the point when it went off I was the only adult on the bus besides the driver, who took a minute to shout at the whole bus at the next stop.  Usually there's one long stop on the drive back to Baden where the driver leaves the doors open for a few minutes, but this driver must have decided that the boys needed to suffer, so he didn't do this, which of course meant that we all had to suffer.

Something else that I've been running into a lot this week is the lack of respect in Austrian schools.  In nearly every class there's a small group of students who NEVER shut up!  It's impossible to get their attention, and they don't participate in any valuable way.  Even when you want to do something fun, like play a game, there's always students talking despite you trying to explain the game!  Teachers here just seem to ignore it and keep on going, but it's getting to the point where I feel like I just have to say something.  I've tried the stand-at-the-front-silently and giving the death-stare, but they can ignore that way more easily than American students, I don't remember having this many issues teaching at home.  I gave one class of 7th form (Juniors) a small lecture about respecting teachers and peers, which worked for the rest of that lesson... who knows if it stuck any longer than that!  The discipline here is very lax, and there's no real course of action for students who are constantly disrupting your lesson.  I want to have fun with my classes, but that's not going to happen if they keep talking when they should be listening.

To end on a positive note: I went to see a game of handball today!  Two of my classes this morning were cancelled because 1/2 the school was going to the handball game in the morning, and the other half went this afternoon.  I've mentioned this before but the Bad Vöslau school has a semi-pro handball team, and the games yesterday and today were to determine who the best team in Austria is, and who will be representing Austria in the Handball World Championship in April in Croatia.  Bad Vöslau beat the other teams, so they'll be going on to Croatia this spring.  For those of you who don't know what the hell handball is (like me before the game today), imagine a mix of basketball, soccer and hockey.  Its played on a basketball-like court, but with soccer-like goals at each end, the ball is smaller than a soccer or basketball, you don't really have to dribble it, but it's quite a lot of physical contact like hockey.  I still don't know the rules or anything like that, but now I know why the kids like it, it's pretty entertaining.  Next lesson with the 7th form boys at Vöslau: Explain Handball in English!

Now to go finish planning my lesson on addiction, alcoholism, and drinking in Wisconsin.  I think I'll have a glass of wine while I work. ;)