One last post from Ösiland...

...at least for this year.

My last weekend in Europe was a great one!  I went up to Erlangen, Germany on Friday last week to visit Marie, who was our first exchange student.  Her boyfriend Yves was also in town, and it was really good to catch up with Marie and get to know him better.  Friday night we relaxed and had a great dinner from the grill and drank some German beer and Austrian wine.

I never thought that I would like dark beer (Schwarzbier), but it turns out the Germans make it quite tasty! Yves claims that it's a girl beer, but that doesn't bother me- I'm a mädl. ;-)  I've never had a dark beer in the US that I like, they tend to be way too heavy or bitter for my taste.  I tend to drink beers more along the lines of Honey Blonde (from Central Waters), or just the typical Pils and Lager sorts.  I have to say that Austrian beer isn't anything to brag about (although it's better than your average American beer), but the wine here is rather good.

 Yves and I sitting down to a loaded breakfast table Saturday morning.

Yves and Marie in one of the pretty, old squares in Erlangen 

On Saturday after a large and lengthy breakfast we went out to see Erlangen.  It has a pretty nice old city center and a large pedestrian shopping area.  If I have time tomorrow I'll post my pictures from the weekend so you can see for yourselves.  We checked out some of the shops in town, stopped for a really great frozen yogurt (I had mine with raspberry and rhubarb sauce), and did a lot of people watching.  The Bergkirchweih (a festival held in Erlangen) was going on, so there were a lot of people to watch!  We saw a huge variety of Trachten from rather skimpy mini-Dirndl to men and women's Lederhosen.  That night we went to the Berg to see what it was all about, and we wore our Dirndls of course (Yves did not wear Lederhosen, or a Dirndl, which would've been funnier).  The Berg was PACKED! I don't know if I've ever experienced a crowd like that...  It took us quite awhile to get up to a beer tent to get our 1 liter mugs of beer, and then we were lucky enough to find somewhere to sit too.  Surprisingly I've never had the stereotypical German (Bavarian really) liter of beer from a ceramic mug before, but I got that in a few times over the weekend.  I took the Bier Krug (known as a Beer Stein in the US, apparently not in Germany) with me on Saturday night, but when we stopped at another place on the way back to Marie's I set it down and forgot it there.

Wearing Dirndls drinking from Krüge (those things are heavy when they're full!) at the Bergkirchweih.

Sunday Brunch

Our breakfast on Sunday was also quite big, and it was more like lunch-time when we ate... so it was really more of a brunch.  I never took a picture of the dinners we made, just the breakfast tables because it was an impressive spread!  We went to Bamberg that afternoon to check out the old city, which was quite pretty, and go to a typical Bayrisches Biergarten.  The town is known for having Rauchbier (smoked beer), I don't really know how it works, but the beer does have a smokey flavor to it.  I had a Radler (1/2 beer 1/2 lemonade), which is good, otherwise I don't think I could have drunk a whole Krug of the Rauchbier.  I also had some Bratwürste, which made me think of a song from Waldsee- Wenn Bayrish Bier regnet und Bratwürstl schneit (When bavarian beer rains and bratwurst snows).  After going to a Cafe to get some sugar and caffine to keep us going we went back to Erlangen to grill out and Skype with my parents.

Marie and I admiring the part of Bamberg called 'Little Venice'

The view of Bamberg from the Biergarten.

After another typical German breakfast on Monday Yves had to catch a train back to Leipzig.  I didn't have to leave until nearly 2pm, so Marie and I went back to the Bergkirchweih to get another Krug.  After checking some shops in Bamberg, where the mugs were rather kitschy, empty and 15-20 Euro, I was quite happy to get an authentic Krug from one of the biggest/most popular beer houses at the Berg.  It was 12 Euro, and filled with a Radler!  Afterwards we went back down to the train station and I came back home to Baden.  It was a great way to end my year here, and I'm looking forward to meeting up with Marie and Yves again next year (maybe in Austria)!

Yesterday was my last day at Bad Vöslau-Gainfarn, as well as my birthday. Two classes sang 'Happy Birthday' (aka Birsday) to me, which was quite sweet.  One was a 2nd form, so they're about 11, the other was my 7th form Wahlpflichtfach (so they're 17).  It was sad to say goodbye to my colleagues there, but I'll be in the area next year, so I'll stop by to visit & check out the construction and the expanded block of containers outside.

In return for my help with the Matura and for my birthday two of my teachers from Berndorf took me to dinner and an opera in Vienna last night.  We had dinner at a place in the Naschmarkt (where I go for falafel and scarf shopping), we went to one of the nicer places and had middle eastern food.  My meal consisted of lamb meatballs with Pita bread, lots of veggies on a bed of delicious hummus.  We went to Theater an der Wien to see La Traviata (there wasn't a show at the city opera house), and it was a good show.  The music was really well done, the singers were amazing, and I understood/had time to read most of the German subtitles.

Today is my last day at Berndorf for the school year, I'll be back here next year though, so it's not too sad.  I wore my Dirndl to school, and it's attracted quite a bit of attention, the students find it quite funny, and one teacher said I was the only Austrian in the teachers room.

Tomorrow and Saturday will be full of packing and cleaning... fun stuff I know!  I have no idea how I'm going to get all the wine, chocolate and scarves that I have back to the US.  I'd also like to say that I've already accomplished one of the things I want to do next year- I bought a bike from my friend Kittel on Tuesday!  It's rather pink... but it's a pretty good bike (it has gears, no brake built in to the pedals, a decent seat and it's not too heavy).  I fly home on Sunday, it's going to be a really damn long day of travel- I have to be at the Westbahnhof to catch the airport bus at 5am, I have a 6 hour layover in Copenhagen, I arrive in Chicago at about 6pm and then there's the 5ish hour drive home from there... Can't I just skip the next 3 days and go straight to Monday?!?

The strudel wouldn't fit in the envelope...

Well I suppose it's about time for my weekly blog post...

The Kurpark in Baden last weekend

Earlier today I thought about writing a reflection on the past 9 months, and then I realized that if anyone wants to know how the past 9 months have been they can go back and read through them all (or you know because you've been reading all along, so why bore you?).  I'll sum it all up by saying that it's been a really good year, full of new life, language and teaching experiences.  I'm sure I'll repeat that sentence more than a few times when I go home in 2 weeks.

It's becoming more and more apparent how little time I have left, and when I think of the things I didn't do this year I get a bit sad, and then I remember- I'll be back next year!  I've written up some goals for myself for next year, and since I'm documenting them here hopefully I'll accomplish at least some of them!

• Learn English Grammar (I really need to be able to explain why things are what they are in English...)
• Sit in on some German classes at my schools
• Speak more German (this is my own fault... I get lazy and switch to English with all my co-teachers)
• Do some German independent grammar and vocabulary study to keep up/expand my skills
• See more new places (Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, oh and Berlin)
• Buy a bike for exploring more of the area around here

This week was a good one at my schools.  I've started telling some classes at Gainfarn that I won't be there next year, I haven't told all of them because I usually forget, but they'll figure it out in the fall, and I don't think they'll really mind.  On Wednesday at Gainfarn we had a Teacher Trachten Tag (Tracht is traditional clothing including, but not limited to, Dirndl and Lederhosen).  It was pretty fun, there were about 12 of us dressed up in various types of Tracht, I got lots of compliments from teachers and students on my Dirndl.  

Most of the teachers who took part in Trachten Tag (there are a few missing)

Next weekend I'm heading up to Erlangen to visit one of our former exchange students (my only Gastschwester, all the others were boys), so this was my last weekend in Baden.  I went in to Vienna to buy some gifts, and further my scarf collection... which has officially gotten a bit out of hand (good thing that some of them will also be gifts!).  I spent Saturday wandering around Baden soaking up the sun and checking out the festival that was going on... I thought it was supposed to be about wine, but I didn't see much wine around, just a bunch of different stages with not a whole lot going on around them... so who really knows what that was about!  Today I went up into the vineyards around Pfäffstätten for a hike on the trails.  I wanted to go up to the top of one of the hills where there's a look out platform, but true to form I got lost and spent about an hour wandering various trails through the woods that never went up to the top, so when I found one that went back down towards town I followed it home.

Hiking back down into town through the Vineyards

In other news I'm once again pissed off at my bank at home (The International Bank of Amherst) for their utter lack of International-ness.  I tried to order some clothes, an iPod (to replace my missing/stolen one), and my dad's birthday present from sites in the US, to be shipped to my parents house in the US, and of course the stupid card didn't work because my computer and I are not physically located in the states.  Worst system of banking EVER, I really don't understand WHY it doesn't work, according to them it should work... but it doesn't and I fully intend to go there when I get home and repeat this rant to them face to face.

Lastly (but not least!) I want to say Happy 60th Birthday Dad!  Your card is in the mail, and your present will be shipped soon (if I were a bit more on top of things they'd be there sooner and there wouldn't be strudel remnants on the card...).  Love you!

Love your mother!

I don't have much to say since this has been a pretty relaxed weekend.  Liz and I met up with our friend Steffi for pizza on Thursday evening.  It was a really nice way to relax after a week of reading Matura (I swear I won't talk about them anymore!), we've met up at the pizzaria a few times now and the waiter recognizes us now- probably because we're the only English speaking group that goes there.

On Friday I was pretty productive, I went and turned in my application for an extension on my residency permit bright and early, and then I went and did all my shopping.  I didn't need as much paperwork as I thought I would, which is good, but I still have to go back this week or next and show them my plane ticket for June, and then prove that I'll have health insurance for the month of September (which means I have to go figure that out at some point this week).  The woman who I always see about residency permit stuff has a nephew at Berndorf (in the 8th form), so I think that's why she's always super nice to me.  I also went over to Steffi's to hang out in her shady garden in the afternoon and drink the Austrian version of iced coffee- coffee with vanilla ice cream!  Pretty tasty!

After looking at the calendar today I realized that in exactly 3 weeks I'll be flying back home to the states. I can't believe how quickly this 'year' has gone, and I'm really looking forward to coming back next year.  However, I'm really going to enjoy my time back in the US as well.  I'll be home in Wisconsin from June 3rd through July 7th or 8th for any of you who will be around and want to get together.  I can't wait for all the neighborhood parties, Wednesday night dinners at Sunset Lake, American Players Theater, the Energy Fair, Thursday nights with my girls, swimming and kayaking... the usual summer activities!  Of course I have to cram them all into one month before I go off to teach German at Waldsee in Northern Minnesota, which I'm also pretty pumped about!

Now, to the main point of this post: HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!  This goes out to all the mom's in my life, but mostly to the best mom in the world (in my opinion)- Denise Brennecke.  So I didn't send a card because I'm terrible about sending real mail... but not to worry, I'm bringing home plenty of gifts.  I'm looking forward to skyping with her later, catching up on the local happenings, planning my welcome home/birthday party, and discussing our next Euro-trip.

Love you mom, thanks for everything you do!

You hold my back and I'll hold yours

Wow that last post was fun wasn't it?  Pretty sure that was just brain diarrhea, and I thought about deleting it, but I've decided to leave it as an example of what reading final exams can do to a person.  I've noticed nearly the same effects in my colleagues here at Berndorf.  At this point I've read and corrected all of the English Matura exams, 38 in all- less than I expected (thank goodness!), so I'm feeling much better, but I feel like my language skills are still recovering so forgive me if this post isn't the greatest English... I have no idea what's proper English anymore.

Besides frying my brain on final exams all week nothing has really happened... I've talked to a few more non-English colleagues at school, and they're all happy that I'll be coming back next year.  They've all commented that unlike past teaching assistants I don't sit in a corner and pretend like no one else is in the room, I actually talk to them.  Another plus is that my German is actually quite good (at least that's what they say).

I had one rather strange interaction with another teacher (NOT an English teacher) here at Berndorf this week... She often makes little comments that, when I think about them later, are really quite passive aggressive and mean.  The Spanish assistant has also noticed this, so it's not just me.  One day this week we were talking about the school lunch, and I said that hers smelled good, in what I'm pretty sure was perfectly normal German.  She responded (after a delay) by telling me that she thought it sounded bad when a non-native speaker says something in dialect, so I should just stick with speaking 'Hoch-Deutsch' or standard German.  I was a bit taken aback because I wasn't trying to speak dialect, and I really don't think I did... unless there was something in my accent or the way I pronounced it that made it dialect, but it's not like I do it on purpose, it's just how I speak!

Later that day I was laying in the sun outside school resting my eyes, when she came out.  She said 'Auf Wiedersehen' to which I responded (without even thinking about it) 'Wiederschauen'.  What she said is considered more standard German, and what I said is more Austrian German.  It's something I picked up when I studied in Graz, and it's just an automatic response for me, I don't say it because I want to be cool and speak "better" Austrian German than an Austrian.  Anyway, she came over and told me AGAIN that she thought I should just stick with speaking Hoch-Deutsch because it sounds so bad when I try to speak dialect.  I told her that I've had lots of compliments on my German, it's not really something that I try to do, but I do like learning dialect, and also the students like it when I say something to them in dialect.  I mean, it would be pretty impossible for someone who has learned German to live here for a year and leave not knowing or understanding some dialect (especially understanding because pretty much everyone speaks dialect).  I learned a lot of it when I was in Graz (in fact one of my professors taught us dialect), and I've picked up a bit more here... but for the most part I'm pretty sure I speak standard German.

I've never really run into that attitude before, most Austrian's I've met think it's cool (or funny) if I can say something in dialect, and they like that I want to learn more.  I talked to an English teacher at Gainfarn about this whole thing yesterday, and she gave me a confidence boost by telling me that my accent in German is pretty good, of course it's not really German or Austrian, but it's also not really American!  I would be interested in more thoughts from Austrians on the idea of non-native speakers picking up dialect.

Now that I've got that off my chest I can (hopefully) entertain you with some of the choicest quotes from the Maturas: (the themes were online friends vs face-to-face friends, summer jobs and a letter of complaint about a language course)

"there will always be a person to hold my back"
"non of use would say no to a bit more pocket money" (it was supposed to be none of you)
"humans are like a pack of wolves"
"it is very important for life to have face-to-face friends"
"All in all, swimming on the internet is impossible."
"This is especially true of those who are thick and want to surf the internet."
"I had many disappoinments in life" (talking about the language course)
"noone explain me why the tour was cancelled"
"Hugging your computer screen is just not the same as being held in the arms of a human being."
"Some people say friendship is like a flower, you have to take care of it or it will wilt."
"A real adorable friend accepts every part of you."
"The tutor did not speak audible."
"You drink a hot chocolate on a rainy day with your friends, you eat a whole bowl full of ice cream on a hot summer day with your friends."
"I hope that I will not be forced to take further information." (further action)
"That was no problem, it was a funny afternoon." (classic misuse of 'funny')
"The internet is not a place where I can and should visit people"
"What is more, your grades at school can also suffer from writing too much with uncorrect spelling" (now how's that for a slice of irony!)

I laughed out loud as I came across several of these, so at least there was some fun to be had while correcting!

Sick from reading

No, you didn't read that wrong... and I didn't use the wrong preposition (although after the past two days that wouldn't be a surprise), I literally feel ill, and I blame it on all the hours of reading I've done.   I've read and corrected 26 Maturas (at roughly 4-6 pages each) in the past 24 hours (since I started last night).  I still have 15 to go, which is less than I expected, but they'll have to wait for tomorrow otherwise I might actually throw up on the exam.  I know that gives you all a nice visual- sorry!

When I've completed all of them I'll post some of the best (or worst) quotes from them here... but I can't be bothered to do it now, especially when there are more to come.  I really hope that next years topics have nothing to do with social networks, language courses or summer jobs... I don't think I'll be able to read anything about these topics for quite some time without feeling nauseous.

This is a short post, to share with you all the misery that is final exam correcting (corrections?... I don't know, both my languages aren't working, thank god for spell check, otherwise this would be unreadable).  

I'd also like to take this rare moment share with you all my disappointment in your lack of comments (who ever you are who's reading this)... which is probably partly my fault because I can't get the facebook/blogger comment feature to work, so you're all stuck with the annoying and inconvenient blogger comment box.  I don't often direct thoughts/words to whoever reads my blog because blogs that start off with thinks like "Dear Reader," annoy me, and there's a (small) chance that I don't know you and you don't know me, so I'd rather not pretend at some one sided friendly banter or whatever... if that made any sense to anyone you must be pretty special, to all those who don't know what the hell I'm on about, don't worry about it, my brain has fallen out somewhere and been replaced by a jello.

That's all I care to ramble on about for now... I'm going to go stare blankly into space for the rest of the evening. Wiederschaun.

Not to rub your noses in it but...

It's been a pretty chill weekend in Baden, which was quite nice.  Liz and I went into Vienna yesterday to watch the FA Cup between Chelsea and Liverpool at an Irish pub.  It was pretty fun, even though Liverpool lost, and the Chelsea fans we saw later were quite annoying about the win.  Another TA friend of ours came too, so we had a nice time catching up.

The main reason for this post is to share with you all my schedule for this month:

All the red days are days off.

Feel free to laugh at how little I'll be working... I don't know how I'll ever go back to having a real job after this TA gig is up!

Hope you all have a great week, I'll be spending most of it reading and correcting the English Matura at Berndorf - all sixty some... (The Matura are the final exams that students here have to take and pass before they can graduate from the Gymnasium.)

Travels in Ösiland

So I meant to write up everything from last week on Tuesday... but clearly that didn't happen.  I've been too busy reading and relaxing while not at school, and I haven't been very motivated to blog... (Funny how most of my posts start off with an excuse for my lack of posts).  Beware- this is a long post!

A cherry tree blooming in the Graz Stadtpark.

After my last post I went down to Graz for a wonderful, relaxing weekend.  I stayed with my friend Kristin for the last time, we had a fun night with our friends Rob and Johannes, plus Kristin's roommate Jan hungout with us for awhile.  The next day we wandered around Graz enjoying the spring flowers and sun before going to meet my friend Domenica and her boyfriend Roman for our trip to the spa.  We had a nice drive out to Bad Blumau (the Hundertwasser spa in Steiermark), where we checked in at 5 pm, and didn't leave until 11.  The Blumau spa/thermal baths are pretty extensive with a network of thermal pools and a bunch of different kinds of saunas.  I think my favorite pool was the outdoor one that's fed by the naturally occuring mineral springs, it was especially great at night with the steam rising from the pool and this big light up balls and fire baskets surrounding it.  My favorite sauna is definitely the Turkish steam bath, closely followed by the Kräuter sauna (an herb scented hot and humid sauna) and the stone sauna, which is really hot and very dry.

The outdoor pool surrounded by lights and fire. (more pictures on SmugMug)

On Sunday I came back to Baden, and that night Micha arrived from Germany.  He is one of our former exchange students from Magdeburg, and he's probably one of the most laid back Germans I know. ;)  Sometimes after a vacation with other people I feel like I need another vacation just to relax, but after the spa and a week traveling around with Micha I was completely relaxed and stress free for my last month of school!  I should also point out that this wasn't a normal school vacation, but my schools were really nice and let me have the week off to spend with him!

Panorama of Schönbrunn in Wien (click for a larger view- Micha's panorama's are pretty great!)

On Monday, after a slow moving morning, we went in to Vienna to check out some of the touristy sights, since Micha had never been before.  By the time we got there and decided what we were going to do for the day it was lunch time, so we had to sit at a nice street cafe in the old city and eat something.  I had what was basically a heart attack on a plate- Bernerwurstl: bacon wrapped cheese filled frankfurters), it was something I hadn't had before, and due to the fat factor I'll probably not have again, but they were pretty good.  After lunch we went and bought some Manner, which Micha hadn't had before (if you haven't had them I'm not sure how to describe them...).  Then we went an a narrated bus ride around Vienna to see the most famous/popular sights and learn a bit about the city.  It was pretty interesting, although we realized that the English and German guides talked about different things and we were both wishing we could listen to both tracks at once.  After the bus ride we sat down at Cafe Mozart to have coffee and cake and figure out what to do next.  Micha decided he had to have Sacher torte, which I always find disappointing- it's supposed to be a chocolate cake, but it really doesn't taste like chocolate and it's usually quite dry.  This one wasn't as dry as others I've had, but I still wasn't a huge fan. Afterwards we wandered and took some pictures, but it was getting cloudy and windy, so we didn't hang around for long  before going back to Baden.

Every night of vacation we went to a Heurige for dinner and a couple glasses of wine.  Micha had never heard of a Heurige, and he really liked the idea behind it, and trying out many different ones (we only had one repeat).  We had all different wines, lots of fresh food, and it was cheaper than going to a normal restaurant.  I also found that the Heurigen in Pfäffstätten have more of a homey country feel than the ones in Baden.  Austrian Gemütlichkeit! (Gemütlichkeit- an atmosphere of comfort, coziness, sociability, peace and acceptance)

On Tuesday we went back to Vienna to see Schloss Schönbrunn and the zoo (which is the oldest in the world).  It took quite some time to get through it all, especially because a big chunk of the zoo was under construction.  We got to see a baby elephant and a baby panda though, so it was totally worth it!  Later we went back to the city center to take some more pictures of the old city, and have coffee and cake at Cafe Landtmann (where Freud went).  On our way back to the Badner Bahn I saw Geoffrey Rush near the Opera, apparently he's in town filming an indie movie about the art and auction scene in Vienna.  I snapped a creepy picture of him, it's on SmugMug with all my other pictures from the week (which were posted and captioned before I even started this post!).

Berndorf and the memorial to Arthur Krupp's father.

Wednesday was spent touring Berndorf, Gainfarn/Bad Vöslau, Sooss, and Baden. In Berndorf we hiked up to the Guglzipf, the tower on the hill behind the town.  The weather was really great, Monday and Tuesday had been a bit cloudy and windy, but pretty good temperature wise; Wednesday was the real turning point in the weather, it felt like summer!  After our hike we drove through Gainfarn and Bad Vöslau so he could see where my school is, and then we went to Sooss for lunch at another Heurige.  The afternoon was spent showing Micha around Baden, which is quite pretty in the spring.  We also sat in the sun in Doblhoff park for awhile before going to the Heurige across the street from my first apartment in Baden.

We went back into Vienna the next day, because Micha wanted to go to a museum and do a walking tour of the city as well.  We ended up picking the military history museum, because we thought it would be interesting for both of us, and it was.  The museum covers most of the history of Austria, so there's a lot to see from suits of armor to World War II tanks.  They have a room dedicated to Franz Ferdinand (including the uniform he was wearing when he was shot, the car he was riding in, the weapon that shot him and the couch he died on.  The WWII room was also really interesting,  they had lots of old propaganda posters and other artifacts that I've only seen in pictures before.

Neusiedlersee

The weather on Friday was really sunny and warm, which was perfect for our trip to the Neusiedlersee.  It's a huge lake on the eastern border of Austria, and it's known for being rather shallow and surrounded by marshlands, which is great for all the birds.  We parked in Neusiedl am See, rented bikes and rode from there to Illmitz, which according to Google Maps is 30 km (19 miles).  We stopped in Podersdorf, which is the only town that's actually on the lake shore, for an ice cream break.  There was a World Wind Surfing Championship going on there, but there was next to no wind on Friday... so there wasn't much going on.  When we got to Illmitz we realized how intense the sun had been, and that we were both going to be pretty crispy critters, despite wearing sun screen.  We thought about taking a ferry across and biking up the other side, but I had seen an ad for a Taxi service which takes bikes as well, so we decided that would be the quickest option to get us back to the car and out of the sun.  If we would've known how much it was going to cost and that there was a convenient train connection from the other side, we would've taken the ferry!  Despite the sunburn it was a fun day, and I'd like to go back to the lake again and bike the other side.

Dürnstein in the Wachau valley on the Danube.

We had booked a cruise in the Wachau valley on the Danube for early Saturday morning, so we had to get up quite early and drive to Melk.  Micha drove down from Germany, so it made our travels much easier, plus it was fun to ride around in a car zipping through Niederösterreich listening to German club music.  The cruise left from Melk, went to Krems, and then came back to Melk.  It was a really beautiful ride with some spectacular scenery!  On the trip down river there weren't many people on the boat, so we were continuously snapping pictures of everything we could see.  On the trip back the boat was packed, and there weren't many chances to get a good picture because the deck rails were packed with people.  We also got a bit more burned, despite wearing the thickest sun screen Micha could find... It turns out Austrian sun is pretty intense!  When we got back to Melk we had lunch and then went up to Stift Melk (the monastery) to snap some pictures before driving back to Baden for a last night at the Heurigen.

It was a really fun week with a mix of repeat and new experiences, a mix of languages (German, English, Denglish/Deutlish) and a lot of sun!  This week has been pretty standard, except that we had Tuesday (May 1st) off because it was the Austrian Labor Day.  The weather has also been more like July/August than May here, with temperatures in the 80s (30 C), which makes teaching and learning a challenge!  With all the holidays in May I've figured out that I'm only working 15 days this month, and I only have one normal week of classes.  I also have an update as far as my schools for next year goes- I'll be back at Berndorf! However, with this change it means that I won't be back at Bad Vöslau :( I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too...  My other school for next year is a Handelsakademie (a business focused high school), which will be different from my Gymnasien this year.  The HAK is only a 5 minute walk from my apartment though, so that'll be nice!