My kids are awesome

Every once in a while I come up with a lesson idea that works really well and that I am very proud of and today was one of those days, so I want to share my lesson with you! Two weeks ago, the last time I met with this particular class of 14-15 year olds, we talked about life for an American High School Student. We discussed how American schools differ from Austrian schools and, using lots of pictures from my high school, I attempted to explain student life in a typical American public school. We talked about sports teams, school spirit, pep rallies, Homecoming, Prom, the arts, and clubs, among other things. I showed them a video clip from one of my high school’s pep rallies (which resulted in me having the Color Shout, our obnoxious school cheer, stuck in my head for weeks) and even let them ruffle through my high school yearbook (#embarrassing). I had a lot of fun reminiscing about high school while putting the lesson together.

We had a really interesting discussion because most of this stuff is absent from Austrian schools. There are no high school sports teams and very little opportunity for participation in the arts, within the context of school. There is also little freedom when it comes to electives, because the schools themselves are more specialized, so in a way students have already chosen “electives” by choosing which school to attend. My school is a general Gymanisum, intended for students who want to go on to study at University. Some schools are specialized for agriculture or business or art or sports. My friend Lizzy teaches at a horticultural school, so you can see there really are schools for everyone! 

Anyway, since a lot of the students had found the topic of school spirit so interesting and foreign in the last lesson, I decided to do some activities dealing with the same topic when I met with the same class this week. First, I had them work in groups to come up with an identity for their school: a mascot, school colors, a school cheer or song, a logo, spirit week theme ideas, etc. I showed them the mascots and logos from some high schools around Irvine to give them inspiration but didn’t give them too much direction, because I wanted them to be creative. The kinds of things these kids came up with were adorable, hilarious, bizarre, and fantastic. A lot of them chose green for one of the colors, because the school itself is green, as you've probably noticed. Some of my favorite mascots were the “Evils,” crocodiles (and everyone at the school gets free crocs), pandas, “Purkibear,” evil poisoned frogs, stick men, “holy foxes” (they’re clever and can fly because they’re holy), and two groups picked unicorns. They seemed to really enjoy choosing spirit week themes too, and came up with some interesting ones: King and Queen day, Halloween Day, Boys Dress as Girls and Girls Dress as Boys Day, Nerd Day, and Suit Up Day (I asked what the girls wear on that day and these boys said “nothing”). Below are two of the designs the kids came up with.

How cute is this!? So magical! So creative!

If you ignore the spelling mistakes, that is apparently the REAL school song for the Purkersdorf Gynamisum. It's in English. Who knew? The class broke into a spontaneous rendition of it for me, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, how adorable are these girls?!

These boys had lots of explanation involved in their choices. The panda mascot wears big green gloves so he can go around giving people hugs.  And green represents friendship, black represents teamwork, and white represents something I can't remember. It was cute though. Of course.

The other activity we did (we only had time for 2 out of my three ideas because they got so into it J) was more for conversation practice. I gave them a picture of two or three people—typical high school scenarios—and had them come up with a conversation between the characters in the picture. The real fun of this was choosing the right pictures for the right kids. For example, I gave two particularly chatty and ostentatious boys a picture of a girl crowning another girl Homecoming Queen. Their conversation was predictably hilarious. One of my favorite results came from a boy and girl who had received a picture of two cheerleaders talking. The boy’s “cheerleader impression” was hysterical, SO flamboyant and fantastic. The best part was when he was talking about “the CUTEST boy he met the other day” and then obviously used his own name. The kids loved it, I loved it, it was great.

Moral of the story: my kids are adorable.

Church Music, Jewish Love, and Christmas!

The past two weeks have been surprisingly busy with both school and outside-of-school activities. I really feel like I'm settling in and getting to know the students and other teachers well. I see some of the school kids in town or at the train station at they're always super friendly and excited to see me and chat, which of course makes me feel great. They're quite delightful. I’ve also been spending a lot more time with friends in Vienna, doing my best to meet lots of new people! I am loving the city itself, and even though I've done a ton of exploring, there's still so much more to see and experience, so I'm really glad I am spending the whole year here!

Yesterday was particularly full of culturally things, so I'll share with you a recap of what I did! I began the day with a visit to the Augustinkirche, the chapel that is part of the Hofburg Palace. Rick Steves told me that the choral music there during Sunday morning mass is fantastic, and since I had yet to take advantage of this free cultural opportunity, I thought it was about time! This church is where most of the Hapsburgs were married, and I had been to it before, but hadn't yet gone inside. Although it doesn’t look very impressive, or even very “churchy” from the outside, as soon as you walk inside, the regalness really smacks you in the face. It’s not exactly gaudy, just very majestic, and I could vividly picture a royal wedding taking place there. The music for this mass was written by Mozart, Vienna’s little baby, and hearing such majestic church music in such a gorgeous hall was really something special. I probably enjoy classical music more than the average 22 year old, but I certainly don’t listen to it often, and frankly often get sick of it after about 10 minutes. However yesterday I did not feel that way at all! I really loved the experience, and the fact that the music was interspersed throughout the mass made it quite nice. The only downside was that I got there a little late so there was absolutely nowhere to sit, and I had to stand the whole mass. When I go back (which I definitely will, especially because Advent time has some great music), I will have to get there early so I can sit down.

After getting my church fill for the day, I took a two minute walk down the street to the Vienna Jewish Museum (the natural next step, right?). I had expected this museum to be mostly focused on the history of the Jewish people in Vienna, told through cultural artifacts and documents—your typical museum. That was not the case at all. The museum was more specialized, with special exhibits related to Jews and not much at all about the Viennese Jewish community as a whole. For example, there were two photo exhibits: one featured pictures from Viennese women photographers from the 1920s and 30s, and the other featured pictures from one photographer that capture contemporary Jewish life in the city. I liked the latter a lot. Some of my favorite pictures were of orthodox rabbis reading Hebrew texts on the Strassenbahns (street cars), old Jewish men chatting in a café, a few Jewish weddings in parks, and groups of kids at a Purim party. These pictures showed me that even though the Jewish community of Vienna is only about 8,000 strong, it is lively! The only cultural artifacts the museum had were held in an area called “visible storage” that had some information about the various Jewish communities in the area throughout history, but it was terribly organized and not very nicely put together. Oh well.

The museum is in 2 parts, one of which is an Judenplatz, the area in the 1st district (the main historic part of Vienna) on which the old main synagogue used to stand. Now there is a beautiful Holocaust Memorial there. I thought it was really lovely.

The last part of my Sunday cultural adventure was the most classically Austrian part: a visit to a Christmas Market! These markets (called Christkindlemaerkte) happen all over the country in the time before Christmas (apparently they open earlier and earlier every year, according to the woman I live with). There are several in Vienna, and each has a different feel to it. Some are more focused on crafts and handiwork, others are just food and drink, and some are a mixture of it all. The one I went to is in ront of the Rathaus (city hall) and is mostly for kids and tourists. It was kind of kitchy, but still AWESOME. There were pony-rides and little huts with interactive games for kids, as well as little huts that sell everything from toys to ornaments to hats to specialty gifts. The kind of food sold is also really fun: lots of caramelized almonds, roasted chestnuts, cookies, cakes, baked potatoes, wurst, other traditional Austrian foods, and LOTS of DELICIOUS hot drinks. Punsch and Glühwein are two classic Christmas drinks, both kind of a mix of tea, hot apple cider, and wine, which I realize sounds gross, but that’s false. They’re delicious, and perfect for warming you up when you’re wandering around the cold market! Just the atmosphere of the whole place was so perfect and magical—twinkling lights, little wooden huts with pine needles on them, happy children, all in an explosion of Christmassy goodness. All we needed was some light snow and the picture would have been perfect. And this is just the start of the season—I can’t wait to visit more markets as Christmas gets closer!!! [sidenote, I do feel guilty that I’m indulging in this kind of Christmassy goodness before Thanksgiving, but it’s just too hard to escape it. There’ve been advent calendars for sale in stores since mid-October…]

My friend Annie and me with our Orange Punsch

W&L at the Museumsquartier Christkindlmarkt

So many Gingerbread cookies! 

Entrance to the Rathaus market

Terrible quality picture, but I'll be visiting approximately 17000 times, so I'll get better pictures next time :)

Croatia Part 2: The Sunny Part

SPLIT: A Day with the Emperor

We pick up my chronicles with my day in Split. I think I would have been much more impressed with Split if I had visited on a day other than November 1. Because All Saints Day is a holiday all across Croatia, the two coolest and biggest things in Split (the Cathedral and palace basement halls) were closed on the day I visited. Thus, I spent my day wandering through the Old City, exploring as many sites as I could without actually going inside anywhere. I did get to see a segment of the basements, where the marketplace is, and that was pretty cool, but I sadly didn't get to tour the older, supposedly cooler parts. Oh well.

One thing I will say, Split is a city full of surprises. It’s built on the site of Diocletian’s palace, but only certain parts of the palace are still intact. The rest of the space was converted into residences for the city’s rapidly expanding population in the years since Venetian rule ended. What we’re left with now is an interesting mix of roman ruins, baroque palaces, and ugly 70s architecture.

Baroque architecture in the main square

Because of the randomness of Split, you can turn a corner and never know what you're going to find! For example, in my period of aimless wandering, I turned down a narrow alleyway and found this:

I like that a lot about this city. It, like Zadar, is walled and on the coast, but its walls are much more integrated into the more recent buildings than in Zadar, where the wall was completely intact. On the promenade by the water, you can see the different layers of construction from different periods. 

Luckily the weather was quite nice on the day I visited, so when I had exhausted my city-wandering possibilities (there’s only so many times you can get lost in the same confusing labyrinth of tiny alleys) I sat out on the lovely harbor promenade and read a book, enjoying the clue skies and sunshine that had been previously unexpectedly absent from my trip.

Renaissance-era town hall, also in the main square

DUBROVNIK: The "OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS TOO BEAUTIFUL" City

The first thing I did in Dubrovnik was walk around the entire city atop the old wall, that still stands completely intact (thanks to lots of renovations).  I was able to walk the whole perimeter and it was incredible—it provided wonder after wonder after wonder. Here’s a video of a small segment of my walk:

And a video in which I talk about my first day in Dubrovnik:

View of the harbor from atop the walls

In addition to the walk around the walls of Dubrovnik, which was probably my favorite part of the whole trip, I enjoyed other city sites as well! One favorite was the Rector’s Palace, which is a Renaissance palace that has been converted into a museum. The architecture itself was pretty cool, with a lovely courtyard in the middle and rooms sprawling off to each side, each with a different exhibit. One had baroque furniture, another held Renaissance paintings, and another had medieval church icons. My favorites were the section on weaponry, with actual swords and armor from different time periods, and a war photograph exhibit with incredible pictures of Dubrovnik from 1991. Seeing the streets and plazas that are now packed with locals and tourists completely abandoned, boarded up or destroyed was a very sobering sight. And to think this is all so recent gives it another chilling quality.

Rector's Palace at twilight

View from the balcony at the place I stayed

My other favorite Dubrovnik site was the Jewish Museum. Apparently Dubrovnik was at one point home to a small but mighty Jewish population! Who knew? There’s a museum with Torah scrolls, mantels, Chanukah menorahs, seder plates, prayer shawls, and other possessions of the city’s Jewish residents from over the years. There was even a letter from Moses Montefiore thanking the Jewish of Dubrovnik for their birthday greetings, which I thought was cute. There were also copies of the proclamations declaring all Jews in Croatia to identify themselves and cease gatherings and assembles—a sobering reminder of the extent of the Holocaust’s spread. This museum was on the second floor of an ordinary house in the old city, and the third floor holds the synagogue! It’s a very small space, but just marvelously put together. The ceiling simply but beautifully painted and the chairs, made of gorgeous dark wood, surround the room along the walls so you can imagine everyone sitting almost in a circle facing each other during the service. Ther wasn’t anything especially different or unique about the synagogue but for some reason it was very striking and moving. I loved it. Sadly, no pictures, though.

Market square with statue of Ivan Gundulic, beloved Dubrovnik poet

The rest of my time in Dubrovnik was spent on the beach, soaking up the sun, or people watching in the main square. The city definitely hs a relaxed Mediterranean feel to it, which I really loved a lot. I HIGHLY recommend Dubrovnik. It’s a must for anyone visiting Croatia!!

Thanks for reading these two endless posts! It was a really great trip, and I hope you all get the chance to check Croatia out sometime!! The gelato is wonderful.

Flying Solo in Croatia Part 1!

Greetings, friends! I have safely returned from a fantastic 10 days in Croatia, and am now attempting to get caught up on all the emails, errands, and work that I happily let slide while away. Here’s a recap of where I went, what I did, and my general feelings on the country of Croatia!

Zagreb: A conundrum of a city

I began my trip in the capital city of Zagreb. I had read that Zagreb is often wrongly-overlooked by visitors anxious to get to the coast, so I thought I’d check out what the capital has to offer. To be honest, I’m not sure how I felt about it all in all. Granted, the weather was pretty terrible, which probably skewed my view a bit, but I didn’t really LOVE the city. It was nice, but I didn’t feel any kind of strong attachment when I left. That said, there were some really cool aspects. The city is divided into Upper Town and Lower Town. Lower Town is the newer part, with lots of museums and some very nice parks. Most of the architectural gems are in Lower Town, but I liked Upper Town better. It had the narrow cobblestone streets, random staircases, smaller and quainter homes, and hidden alleyways that are typical of an old country town. I climbed to the top of Lostrscak tower, which offered a 360 degree view of the city as well as the mountains that surround the city, and it was really gorgeous. All the roofs have the same red-orange tiles, so they look really cool from above. I have to apologize because I don’t have any pictures from Zagreb. I dropped my camera in the ocean in Zadar, so I lost my Zagreb pictures. I know. It’s horrible. But that’s what the internet is for, so if you’re really interested in Zagreb you can google it.

The only picture I had on my phone from Zagreb. A horribly-executed selfy of me in front of my favorite building in Zagreb, St.  Mark's church. The roof is so cool!!

My favorite museum in Zagreb was called the Museum of Broken Relationships. Basically it’s a collection of artifacts people have donated that represent their own broken relationships (some break ups, some deaths). Each item is accompanied by a description, or in some cases, a stpory. There was everything from photos to stuffed animals, to dresses, to an axe. There was even a lock of hair. Gross. Some stories were heart-breaking, some were hilarious, but all were super interesting. The museum claims its aim is to act as a cathartic outlet for the trauma associated with heartbreak. It was a really really cool museum, so I highly recommend a visit to anyone who goes to Zagreb!

The other highlight of Zagreb was Mirogoj, the city cemetery! As someone who truly loves cemeteries, when I heard that Zagreb’s is known as one of the coolest in all of Europe, it was top of my list of attractions to see. It definitely lived up to my mental image! One thing I thought was especially cool was that everything and everyone was mixed together. Graves with crosses were next to graves with Jewish stars. People who died in 1860 were buried next to those who died in 1995. All the grave markers were really beautiful and not tacky, and there were super interesting monuments. I loved it. I only wish I spoke Croatian so I could read the dedications on the graves. I had fun trying and filing to read the Hebrew inscriptions—there were a surprising number of them! (The website is in Croatian, but at least pictures defy language barriers!) Apparently Mirogoj is extra awesome on All Saints Day because the graves are all decorated, but I was in Split by then, so I missed out. 

ZADAR: Where my camera went to die

Stop two was a city on the coast, Zadar. I LOVED Zadar. It is situated on a peninsula and is still surrounded by the 600 year old walls originall built as protection from the Venetians and later the Turks (as my super chatty-chuck waiter told me very proudly while I was eating dinner one night: Ghenghis Khan, the Ottomans, and other bullies who tried to expand their empires never made it past Zadar!).  Inside the city walls are a lot of roman ruins, scattered amongst the stuff built later, so you can really walk, climb, kick, or picnic amongst them as you please. There are several old churches and palaces as well, and since I love old stuff, I found all of it to be very cool.

5 Wells Square

Ruins near the old Forum

Benedictine Convent and church with cool museum of old church art from the 12th-17th centuries

But what I loved most about Zadar was its vibe. First of all, my days in Zadar were the first bit of sunshine I had on the trip, and also my first glimpse of the ocean, so that certainly helped. The streets are made of smooth tan stone, not unlike Jerusalem stone (which makes me happy), and there are lots of galleries showcasing the work of local artists. One that I visted was filled with expecially cool work, and after I asked the artist a question, we ended up having a good 30-40 minute chat about everything from arts eucation to Hurricane Sandy, to the liberal arts ideal, to vegetable gardens. It was fabulous. This old man was not shy about sharing his opinions and rambling on and on to a complete stranger. That’s one thing I’ve found to be interesting about Croatia in general. They’re very proud of themselves, their county, and extremely willing to share that with others. It makes for a really great experience for a tourist like me who is interested in all that.

Probably the highlight of Zadar sight-seeing is the Wester Quay, which is home to the sea organ and salute to the sun. The sea organ is basically a set of steps that goes down into the ocean. There are holes in the steps that connect like pipes to holes in the ground above. When the tide comes in, the waves push air through the “pipes” to produce chords! At different times of day, they sound different. Sunset was definitely my favorite. Here’s a video!

You’ll also notice how gorgeous the sunset itself is. Apparently Alfred Hitchcock called it the most beautiful in the world. So there you go.

Here’s a video explaining the Salute to the Sun!

By the way, since I realized that I wasn't going to want to write a novel-lengthed blog about this trip and you wont want to read a novel-lengthed blog, I decided to add some videos into the mix because I learned in "How to be interesting 101" that mixed media is always a good thing. So I hope you enjoy my horrible-quality videos.

Until next time, when I'll share with you my experiences in Split and Dubrovnik! With many more pictures, this time, courtesy of the iPhone saving grace.