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!
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