Dirndl: A woman's dress in the style of an Alpine peasant costume, with a wide skirt and a close-fitting bodice.

 Here's a small photo drop from the past two weekends- one in Baden and one down in Graz.

Some pretty, small white flowers that popped up in Dobbelhof park.

The tree in Dobbelhof that's older than the US.

Ducks swimming in the pond and people enjoying the sun at the cafe on the far side.

Crocuses popping through the grass in Dobbelhof.

The city of Baden has really nice flower arrangements. 

Domenica and Kristin at the rooftop cafe in Graz

Looking across the red roofs of Graz

My Dirndl!

Now for a bit of what I've been up to:

Last week was a pretty typical week at school.  My schedule at Bad Vöslau was a bit confusing because most of the 6th and 7th forms and three English teachers were in England for a week long English course.  Of course this week there are a lot of tests, end-of-the-unit wrap-ups, the 3rd form is gone on ski week and an English teacher is gone so my schedule isn't exactly "normal".

I met up with my friend Steffi in Baden, we went for coffee and got caught up.  She's been busy studying for her final university exam, which she passed last week!   On Friday I went down to Graz to visit my friend Kristin and meet up with some other friends down there.  We went for drinks with my friend Domenica at a roof-top cafe with a great view of the red tiled roofs of the city and the Schloßberg.  It was great catching up with her and Kristin, speaking German and drinking some nice refreshing Radler!  That night our friend Rob came over so there was more catching up while watching a movie and drinking wine.

The big Dirndl hunt started Saturday morning, and it took going to 5 stores to find one that fit properly, was in the price range, and the right colors- clearly it ended well!  Now when I go to special events here (or at Waldsee) I can wear Trachten (traditional dress).  A little lesson about the Dirndl apron- it matters where you tie it!  I didn't know this when Kristin was taking pictures of me in my dirndl, but now I do.  If you tie the apron to the left it means you're single, if you tie it to the right you're married, if you tie it in the front-middle it either means you're confused or you're a virgin, and if you tie it the the back-middle you're either a widow or a waitress.  For the foreseeable future I'll be tying it to the left.

Saturday evening we went over to have brownies and coffee with the Fuchs family in Graz.  Their daughter Teresa will be spending next school year at SPASH (I helped to find them a host family in Stevens Point), so we got together to talk about Wisconsin and answer any questions they might have.  They're a really great family, and I look forward to seeing them again the next time I go down to Graz! We had tickets for the Diagonale Film Festival that night, so we couldn't stay too long.  The film festival is for films from or about Austria (or really films that have any sort of connection to Austria), the film that we saw, Kuma, was about a Turkish family in Vienna.  It was pretty interesting to see the combination of cultures, especially between the generations.

On Sunday I met up with my friend Babsi at my favorite coffee place in Graz (Tribeka), we caught up and talked a lot about Waldsee.  We're both really looking forward to summer in Bemidji!  It was basically just a weekend of catching up with friends and relaxing.  Yesterday when I got home from school I continued relaxing, while sitting outside reading a book for school and drinking a beer.  My neighbors cat decided to keep me company and slept on my lap in the sun.  I miss my kitty at home, so it was nice to have a little cat love- a pretty perfect afternoon!

Today is my flatmate's birthday, so we might go to a Heurige tonight to celebrate.  Tomorrow some of the 8th form girls are taking me to a Mexican restaurant in Wiener Neustadt in return for helping them get ready for their final oral English exam.  It's going to be another sunny warm week here, so I'll be spending some time reading in the sun and walking around town!

An American in Austria on an Irish holiday

A flock of crows in the vineyards last weekend

Happy St. Paddy's Day! What does an American living in Austria do for an Irish holiday? Nothing!  Well, not really, I'm doing laundry, I've sent some emails, sorted through pictures, I'm going out for a walk later and will probably soak up some sun and read Die Tribute von Panem (Hunger Games in German).  I might have a beer with my dinner, but I'm not wearing any green and probably won't be out at any bars- nevermind that there isn't an Irish pub in Baden.  It's going to be a nice quiet, money saving, weather enjoying weekend!

It seems like spring has really started here, this whole week every day was warmer than the last, and this weekend it's been in the high 60's/70's (18-21 C) and sunny!  On Thursday I wore my new Birkenstocks (which are about 1/2 the price here as in the states) to school, and a lot of other teachers stared at me like I was an alien.  They're all still wearing winter clothes, and they were all certain that I would catch a cold walking around without socks on.  I've been wearing more and more short sleeve tops here, and I get the same reaction to those as my sandals, everyone is sure I'll freeze to death.  Yesterday I went out walking around town to the Dobelhof park (the rose gardens), and I could really see a generational divide in how people were dressed.  A majority of the old people were dressed in winter coats, some had hats, mittens and scarves; in comparison the younger people were wearing light cardigans, sweat-shirts or even a few in short-sleeves like me.  It was nice to see that I'm not the only one who finds 70 degrees warm!  Needless to say the weather has made me quite a happy camper here, especially with the flowers popping up and the leaves coming out.  I love spring!

School this week was also really good.  On Tuesday Bad Vöslau had a School Spirit Day where the theme was cross-dressing.  The older kids didn't really get into the spirit, but the younger ones (middle school aged) did, and they did a really good job!  Since I only see the classes there about once a month I don't know the students very well, so some of them really confused me.  There was one boy that I could've sworn was a girl, and the girls did a really good job of dressing and acting like boys so I had to look a few times to figure out if they were dressed up or not!  A handful of the teachers were also dressed up, but only one man dressed as a woman.  The pictures posted on the school website are great- Cross Dressing Day.

The 7th form (Juniors) English Wahlpflichtfach (afternoon elective class) at Bad Vöslau was also a lot of fun on Wednesday.  The kids were really motivated by the book (The Hunger Games), they really seem to like the story and are excited to go see the movie in Vienna after Easter.  Their English isn't always great, but they put in a lot of effort, and they used vocabulary that they clearly picked up from the book. They also have a really good attitude and sense of humor, so class is always fun even if they sometimes don't know how to answer questions.  I also had a good time this week with the 7th form in Berndorf.  I went to one class twice, and also to their Wahlpflichtfach, so they saw a lot of me.  I think I know those students the best, and I've talked to a number of them outside of class and danced with them at the matura ball.  I really hope that I can come back and teach there next year because I'd like to teach them in their matura year.

I really enjoy my Wahlpflichtfach lessons because they can be a little looser and fun, I can get to know the students better and they can get to know me.  I picked The Hunger Games for the Wpf at Bad Vöslau, and I'm really glad that my co-teacher Michaela agreed to it!  I'm also going to the Tuesday Wpf in Berndorf for a few weeks, and there I'm teaching about the US (states, politics, culture, school).  This past week we got way off topic talking about sex-ed in American schools (we were supposed to be talking about state nicknames and a bit of US geography), and we had a really good conversation.  I'm looking forward to seeing them again on Tuesday to see what comes up this week!

On Thursday I actually ran into some of my students from Bad Vöslau in Baden- which is a first!  They had gotten out of school early and come to Baden for what they claim is the best ice cream.  I stopped and talked with them for a bit, but they kept laughing at my German and I had errands to run so I left.  I've had a few students laugh at me when I speak German, and it really bugs me, I mean I speak better German than they speak English, and for the most part I don't laugh at them.  Sometimes I can't help laughing if they mispronounce something and it changes the meaning of the sentence- i.e. "If I saw a bear in the woods I would run away." but they pronounce it "beer".  The students that I've spoken German with from Berndorf have never laughed at me, they just like talking with me, and they always tell me how good they think my German is. 

Anyway, it's time for lunch & then I'm going out to enjoy the gorgeous weather again!

Woki mit deim Popo- or preferably, don't woki...

So I've been slacking on the blog front... which I seem to do from time to time.  I've been reading a lot of other people's blogs, and it seems like so many of us bloggers write about nothing, but we don't want to see it as "nothing" so we try to put an interesting, funny, social commentary or anthropological spin on it... and I just haven't felt up to the task.  Not that I think I normally put such a great spin on my posts, I haven't gone through and read many of them after I posted them, and this is probably because I'm afraid I come off as some all-knowing (but really closed minded and annoying) harpy.  I've also read a fair number of blogs lately that just got on my nerves because of the over arching labels and ideas that the bloggers are putting on the people in their town/state/country/continent...  So because I don't want to come off, or be accused of (publicly or privately) of doing any of these things I've just been avoiding the blog.

It also may have something to do with the fact that my post about Cafe 27 has gotten way more hits than any previous post, and who knows what I'll ever post again that draws that much attention and feedback!

Anyway, nothing terribly interesting has been happening, life is going along like usual.  I got my contract to work at Waldsee again this summer, so I'm pretty excited about that.  I also booked a trip to Istanbul over Easter break with my flatmate Liz, which should also be a lot of fun- and will lead to an interesting blog post I'm sure.  In less interesting news I bought two new pairs of shoes- I've found that I love shoe shopping, but as I'm a size 42 here it's hard to find shoes that fit!  I finally found a pair of healed ankle boots that I like a lot, and I also ordered a pair of Birkenstocks from Amazon (at about half the price of what you would pay in the US).

In school news I taught my first totally solo lesson last week.  Although we're not supposed to teach on our own here, but it wasn't really a big deal for me, in fact it was sort of nice that I didn't have to worry about what the other teacher was thinking.  The lesson went well, and I had them (8th form, 18 year olds) twice more on my own this week.  I also taught a 6th form on my own, and they had already done the listening test the teacher asked me to do with them, so we played scategories for the hour- thank goodness I always have a back up plan!  We started reading The Hunger Games in the English elective afternoon class I teach in Bad Vöslau, the kids are pretty happy about it, except that they have to read it pretty quickly.  We're going to the movie at the english cinema after Easter break, and most of them will be gone in England for a week, so it doesn't leave much time for reading.  I told them that I would read the German translation in the same amount of time to make it fair, but of course I have to read the book in both languages, so it's really twice as much reading.  At least I don't have much planned for this weekend!

To add a bit of interest (I won't dare to say culture) to this post - here I go trying to make things more interesting - here's the song that will be representing Austria in the Eurovision 2012 contest.

I don't even know where to start with this... First for those of you who don't know Eurovision- it's a competition to have the best song in Europe, it's not taken very seriously (but at the same time it is, if that makes any sense).  Each country selects a group to go and represent them at the contest.  Austria has picked the Trackshittaz- Woki mit deim Popo (Shake your bum).  It has to be the most ridiculous song, really sexist, lyrics that make little to no sense... especially if you don't understand dialekt (there are some translations into Hochdeutsch and English out there).  Sure it's a good under 21 club song... but this is how Austria (or at least the people who watch ORF) have chosen to represent themselves... I really hope they don't take the stripper poles with them to the contest, but they probably will.  As one of my teachers said to me, "The real question is, will they get last place, or just second to last?"