Just living life

Well it's been awhile since my last post... but there's nothing much to report!

I've been saving money, staying in Baden for the weekends, since I've got some long vacations coming up.  Last weekend for something to do I went into Vienna with my flatmate Liz.  We wandered around town, went and saw the Hundertwasser Haus and the Kunsthaus Wien (also by Hundertwasser).  If you don't know Hundertwasser you should.  He's probably my favorite architect, he built/remodeled all sorts of buildings here, and in Germany, plus he even worked on a public toilet in New Zealand, and he has some building out in California as well.  He didn't like straight lines or flat planes, he thought they were unnatural.  He used a lot of color in his buildings, and he wanted them to have a low environmental impact, so the roofs, balconies and window wells are often planted with shrubs, trees and grass. Click here to check out some of his stuff- beware, there are a few naked pictures of him on the site.  I took a bunch of pictures to reference while working at Waldsee this summer; I want to have another Hundertwasser Arbeits Gruppe so we can keep remodeling Baden-Baden (the outdoor shower house at Waldsee).

We also went to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the English cinema, I was a bit afraid that they would ruin the story and make it too Hollywood, but I was pleasantly surprised.  They stayed very close to the book, only changing a few things, and they actually gave more detail than the original Swedish film.  I think the characters were more relatable in this version, and the story is (still) excellent- well worth the money to see it in theaters.

This week I taught a fun lesson about crazy state laws in the US.  It was a fun lesson for me to plan, and the students also enjoyed debating which crazy laws were necessary and which ones weren't.  As a result Minnesota needs to keep their law preventing people from crossing state lines with a duck on their head, because they could be smuggling drugs or something inside the duck!  Also, I found that my mom's hometown (Marshalltown, IA) has a law prohibiting horses from eating fire hydrants.  Good stuff!

I also completed my application to come back here next year, all my teachers seemed surprised (but happy) that I would want to come back to the same schools.  They usually get British TAs, who only stay for a semester, so they're not used to having someone for so long!  I want to come back because it's a nice area, and it would be good to get to know my students more and not have to start all over again!  Anyway, I should find out in March or April if I'll be back in Austria next year, and if I'll be in the same schools.  One day after school this week I spent 20 minutes talking to a group of 3rd form girls (12 yr olds) in German, it was pretty fun to get to know them more and speak some German.  I really need to work on my German more...

The weather lately has been shifting between winter and spring- some days it seems to change hourly- which is to blame (I think) for my lack of sleep, strange dreams, and a headache that won't go away!  Hopefully this week will be better as far as sleep and my head goes.

Now to plan what I'm doing for my Semesterferien (the week off between semesters)- I'll probably go to one or two of the following cities next weekend: Lienz, Klagenfurt, Hallstatt or Salzburg  (I'm leaning towards Hallstatt & Salzburg).  Then I'll probably come back to Baden for a day or two, and then go down to Graz to visit friends!  Should be a good week off, and judging by how my students have been acting they need a break.