O the balls in Austria

Well the past two weekends have been a lot of fun and pretty packed!

Last weekend my roommate from last year, Liz, came to town.  She was a teaching assistant at the BISOP (a school for social workers) here in Baden, and she came over for their Matura Ball- sort of like prom, but more formal/involved.  I hung out with her and her students a few times during the year, so I went to the ball with her.  The school balls here start with a choreographed performance by the students who are graduating.  Then there are two separate dance areas, the ball room and the disco (or club), as well as a few different bars for beer, wine, cocktails and also some food (typically snacks and cakes).  The students also sell raffle tickets for a variety of prizes.  At midnight the graduating class dances another routine- opening performance is typically a ballroom routine, and the midnight routine tends to be more modern.

So at the BISOP ball Liz and I were pretty much only in the ballroom to see the choreographed performances and to chat with some of her colleagues from last year.  The rest of the night we were up in the disco dancing with her students, or in the teachers lounge with the English teachers.  I was still wearing my immobilizer on my leg, so I couldn't dance too much, but I still had a good time.  I saw a few of my students from Berndorf and the HAK and talked to them a bit.

This week was pretty normal, except that I'm no longer wearing my immobilizer, so I can get around a bit easier.  My knee is feeling a lot better, but still not 100%.  Thursday was Leopoldi (St. Leopold is the patron saint of Niederösterreich and Wien), so we had off of school.  On Wednesday night we met up with Laura, Almudena and Steffi to go out for dinner, speak German and get to know each other/catch up.  Steffi is a friend of mine that lives here in Baden, we met last year, and this year is her first year as a teacher.  Laura and Almudena are language assistants (Italian and Spanish respectively) who each work at one of my schools and one of Erin's (my roommate). On Thursday Erin and I went to SCS, the mall between Baden and Wien, to celebrate her first pay-day.

Saturday was a packed day! There was a tour of Theater an der Wien (the oldest opera house of Vienna) organized for TAs from the states, so Erin and I went in a bit early so we could get some falafel in the Naschmarkt and meet up with some friends before the tour.  It was nice to see some of the other second-year TAs again, and my friends who are new this year.  The tour was pretty entertaining, I'd been to Theater an der Wien for La Traviata last year, but we got to go on stage, back stage, under the stage, over the stage, in the Kaiser's box... it was great.  Our tour guide was pretty funny too, and they gave us a special offer for tickets to the opera tonight, so Erin and I are heading back into the city in a bit to see Iphigenie en Aulide.  After the tour we went back to the Naschmarkt to go scarf shopping- of course! What else do I do in Wein?!?  We had to wait around for an hour or so since there was a second TA tour, and then we were all going to go and get some Punsch together at one of the christmas markets.  While we were waiting there was an impromptu Waldsee in Austria reunion, and I'll be seeing a lot more Waldsee-ers this weekend for Thanksgiving in Germany.  When everyone was reassembled we went to the market in the Museums Quartier to get a hot drink- I had apricot ginger Punsch, it was really delicious and much needed with the cold weather.

Erin and I had to rush out after getting our Punsch since we were going to the HAK ball last night.  We got back here and had just enough time for dinner and getting dressed before walking down to the HAK.  It was a really fun night full of dancing (both watching and participating) and talking to students from Berndorf and the HAK.  There was a group of students who graduated from Berndorf last year who were really surprised to see me, and hear me speak German, and the HAK students who spoke German with us thought it was cool/funny that we could and wanted to speak German with them.  The theme of the night was the Garden of Eden- between Heaven and Hell, so Erin and I made a lot of jokes about that.

Next weekend there's another ball for the school in Gainfarn, where I taught last year and where Erin is teaching this year.  I'll be in Germany for Thanksgiving, so unfortunately I'll miss seeing all my students from last year getting drunk.  I don't think there'll be another ball for awhile, so hopefully my knee will be up to more dancing by the next ball!

A whole lot of nothing

Well it's once again been awhile since I posted... with good reason.  There's really nothing to report.  Last week Friday was a national holiday (basically Austrian independence/unification day since 1955), and both of my schools had off Monday-Wednesday, and then yesterday and today are also national holidays (All Saints Day and All Souls Day).  So I've had 10 days of not much going on.  My knee is slowly healing, I no longer wear the massive immobilizer at home, but I do wear it when I go out (and I don't go out very much).  I've got some range of motion back and I'm doing strengthening exercises.

I'm sure when I go back to school on Monday some of my co-teachers will harass again me about going to a doctor... Austrians (at least my Austrian colleagues) seem to go to the doctor for every little thing.   Have the sniffles? Off to the doctor!  Call in sick for work.  I'm pretty sure if any of my co-workers had dislocated their knee cap they would not come to school until it was totally healed.  However, I'm not built like that! If I'm able to teach (and an injured leg doesn't hinder my teaching abilities), then I'm going to school.  Anyway, if I feel that my knee isn't healing, or if I mess it up again I'll go to a doctor, but for now it's slowly but surely getting better.

In other news I've realized how nervous I am about the presidential election... In the midst of teaching a class about 'The Road to the Whitehouse' I got really anxious.  I've already voted. One good thing that came out of my knee injury- I went to my town clerks house and got a ballot.  While I was there she said she'd already sent me my absentee ballot, but she wasn't sure if she sent it to Australia or Austria... and I haven't gotten anything in the mail here, so I'm betting it's in Australia somewhere!  This is a source of amusement for my students here, they always ask what Americans think of Austria, or if they know anything about it... and I've got several such stories of Americans confusing Austria and Australia.  Anyway, I really hope that everyone gets out there and casts their vote!  I really wish that I had Wednesday of this next week off so that I can either stay up for election news, or have the day to process the results.  I warned my co-teachers that I might be a bit out of it Wednesday morning.

To kill time while healing I've been watching lots of dubbed TV, which is always an interesting vocabulary lesson, and it helps get my brain functioning in German instead of English all the time.  I've also been cooking more than I usually do since I've got all kinds of extra time.  I made a good pasta dish with spinach, peas, onions and gorgonzola, cranberry sauce (fresh cranberries are sort of a rare find around here, so I was pretty excited about this), well seasoned potato wedges, and a big pot of vegetable soup that turned out really well.  Of course I end up with a bunch of leftovers every meal since my lack of movement means I'm never very hungry... so anytime I make a new meal I end up eating it for 3 or 4 days.

Anyway, that's the extent of my news.  I've finally finished captioning all the pictures from Slovenia... I don't know why, but uploading and captioning pictures always takes me forever.  http://travelingallison.smugmug.com/ Check them out!