Lists!!

I'm leaving this beautiful but currently rain-soaked country in less than 24 hours, so it's time for my "final thoughts in list form" blog post. I'll take a lot more time to fully reflect on the past year, but the following lists will convey the basics. Enjoy!

Things I Will Miss About Austria (in no particular order): 

1. The amazing friends I've made this year--they made my experience so memorable and I'm going to miss them all dearly. Thank you, guys, and I can't wait to see you all in the US!

2. My school, colleagues, and students (most of them at least :) )

3. The adorable town of Purkersdorf and how beautiful it is!

3. Speaking of beautiful, the incredible landscape of Austria!!

4. The relaxed pace of life, the possibility to sit in a cafe for hours without anyone bothering you, or thinking it's weird.

5. Paying the price on the sticker--tax already included!

6. A 13 hour/week job...that's not a real job.

7. Cheap, delicious wine and AMAZING food

8. Speaking German

9. Long weekends and relative ease of travel!

10. Heurigen

11. Christmas Markets!!

12. Seeing things like this:

13. Sad Child statue in the Westbahnhof (and the Westbahnhof in general. We got to know each other REAL well. I think he's going to miss me):

14. And finally, the beauty, richness of culture, and grandeur yet also Gemütlichkeit of Vienna. The parks, palaces, gardens, and each and every unbelievably gorgeous building.

Now, Things I Will NOT Miss About Austria:

1. Train rides. I've gotten real sick of train rides.

2. SMOKING EVERYWHERE! Hooray for clothes not smelling like smoke all the time!

3. Having to plan a year in advance when you want to pay at a cafe/restaurant. And unpleasant waiters.

4. Fear of awkwardly running into students when I don't want to

5. Fear of misunderstanding or not understanding the opposite person in a business transaction, store purchase, or other important meeting situation.

And finally, Things I'm Looking Forward To About America:

1. Being able to text/call my friends and family whenever I want!

2. Understanding every word of every conversation happening around me!

3. Target

4. Driving

5. Mexican Food

6. The Beach

7. Hopefully better weather than we've been having here (this was the worst, longest, darkest, wettest winter in at least a hundred years. And now there's massive flooding....so pretty much anything is better than this)

8. My next adventure! California for the summer then WASHINGTON DC! I can't wait to see what life has in store for me next!!

Thanks for sticking with me not only through this long post but through the year! I hope I was entertaining, or at least informative and interesting. Now it's your turn to go to Austria and eat/see/experience all the things I mentioned above :)

Pop Goes The Culture: Austrian Television!!!

It's pouring rain outside and I have the house to myself for the weekend, so I'm sitting on the couch currently watching the finale to Germany's Next Top Model, so I figure now is as good a time as any to share with you the last segment of my less-than-successful series: Pop Goes The Culture! Today's topic: horrible Austrian television!!

I spent so much time watching TV shows that I thought it would be a good idea to try to watch some Austrian shows both to embrace the culture and to help my german skills, but every time I asked students or friends what Austrian shows I should watch, they just laughed in my face. All they watch, they claim, is American shows dubbed into German. While I tried watching How I Met Your Mother and the Big Bang Theory in German, I just couldn't handle how terrible their voices sounded and frankly, it didn't do much for me. So that plan failed.

What I did discover, however, was a plethora of Austrian reality and competition shows of the kind of quality TLC and MTV would be proud of. While I'm sure there are sitcoms and dramas and other "normal" TV shows, there are way more of these reality kind of shows, most of which revolve around dating. Here are a few I've gotten to know:

Bauer Sucht Frau ("The Farmer's Looking For A Wife"): The title kind of gives away the premise, but what makes this show fantastic is just how stereotypical it is. The farmers are 10 guys from around Austria, all of whom either own a farm or live and work on their parents' farms. They range in age from 25 to 50. The show's hostess, a woman with HUGE lips, super long and gorgeous brown hair, and the most frilly, milk-maidy dirndl imaginable comes to visit each of the farmers to interview him and his family/friends, see his place, and find out what kind of girl he's lookin for. Then women who are interested in each farmer send letters, the farmers read the letters, and pick three women to come visit their farm, and then choose one.

Hostess, Katrin Lampe

Having an in depth discussion about his ideal woman.

Now, here are a few things I noticed about this show. The scenery is stunning, and while it's full of super kitsch shots of rolling hills, craggy mountains, the hostess trekking through a field of flowers, the men driving their big tractors, etc, there's no denying how gorgeous these farms are. Also, all the people involved are normal people wearing normal clothes, talking about normal things. The women drive themselves out to the farm (no limo and rose and unrealistic heels and mini skirts ala the Bachelor), and I very much appreciate that. As ridiculous and stereotypical as the show is, perhaps it does help rando farmers who wouldn’t have any other way of meeting someone, find their mates!

let's talk about his outfit.

And let's talk about his outfit too. I'm pretty sure he was trying to show off how many pull ups he could do. Or something equally lame.

Sorry, if that cat is around, I am NOT writing in to go
on a date with you. Mr Grumpypuss.

One of my favorite moments in the episode I watched (I couldn't stand more than a few), was when these two girls showed up at Farmer Andreas' house, and there was therefore a little fued because girl #2 brought Andreas a present during their first meet and greet. The present was this little cow bell collar (that was super adorable), but it pissed off girl #1, because she thought it was pretentious. It was pretty dramatic. Also, they pick weird background music. For example, Pumped Up Kicks was playing while they were all reading the letters, which is somewhat ominous, considering the actual significance of the song. I think they just choose catchy American songs, regardless of what they’re about. Whatever. 

Also, one of my friends from Upper Austria told me she knows one of the farmers in the show! So they're real people!! Anyway, so that's the hilarious farmer show.

Messer, Gabel, Herz ("Knife, Fork, Heart"): This show is another dating show, which seems like it belongs on MTV. A woman goes to the home of four different men, each of whom cooks her a three course meal, and as they eat and chat, she chooses one of the four to go on further dates with. I heard about this show because an Austrian friend told me that he was approached while shopping one day to go on the show, and offered 400 Euros for it. He declined but several of his friends accepted. So apparently they're desperate to get people for the show! I thought it was hilarious because the people were SUPER awkward and the name of the show kind of makes it sound like you're eating a heart. Which is creepy. Here are some screen shots of moments in the show (again, I could only last a few episodes--it was pretty painful).

Hi, sorry, does that say "Miss Online Autonews 2. Platz" aka runner up? To an "online something or other" pageant? Well, Good for you Corinna! I'm glad you're proud of your accomplishments!! 

Again with tshirts. I don't think this is an appropriate first date look. I get you're going for the casual look, but maybe a plain white T would have been better??

Okay actually this guys was super adorable and I was definitely rooting for him. Although the blindfold was a little creepy. I don't think I'd go for a blindfold when I'm at a strange man's house, but to each his own, Miss Online.

This show wasn't as ridiculous as Bauer Sucht Frau, other than the questionable conversations that went on during the dates. Also the girl would randomly wander through the boy's room and stuff while he was cooking dinner (some of them still livd with their parents). The weird part was at the end of each episode when the girl left a note for each of the guys telling him what she thought of their experience together. She hand wrote the note while the boys were cleaning up from dinner (maybe?) and left it in a heart-shaped box for the boy to find after she left. Cute.

Other shows, which I will not go into detail about include "Mama Sucht Mir Eine Frau" (My mom's looking for a woman for me), "Schwiegertochter Gesucht" (Searching for a daugher-in-law), "Millionaer Sucht Frau" (Millionaire's lookin' for a woman), and others. Like I said, this is no worse than Room Raiders, Parental Control, that awful bride surgery show, Sweet Home Alabama, and other bizarre shows we have in America, but I guess it's interesting to see that culture exists here as well!

Teacher goes to Prom!

A few weeks ago one of my students handed me little pamphlet as I was exiting the teachers room, saying, "Here is an invitation to our Prom. I hope you can come!" Naturally, I was incredibly curious about what an Austrian Prom is like, especially a Prom to which teachers are invited. And not just teachers; the Austrian "Schulball"is an event put on by the school to which students, alumni, teachers, parents, and community members are all invited! So wipe your brain of all pre-existing notions of what "prom" is like, and I'll tell you what my experience was.

Naturally I didn't want to fly solo at an event like this, so my friends Michelle and Annie graciously agreed to come as my dates for the evening! The attire was much more fancy than any dance at a US High School. Basically everyone was dressed in floor-length gowns or the male equivalent. The theme was "Ein Sommernachtstraum" (A Summer Night's Dream) so the town community center, where the ball was held, was beautifully decorated with twinkle lights, tissue paper flowers, silver and gold leaves, and vines. There was one large room with the stage and dance floor, but the dancing area was quite small because most of the room was taken up by tables. When you buy your ticket for the ball, you have the option of reserving a table as well and most people do so. Already this is sounding very different from your typical prom. There were TWO bars, one with beer and wine and the other with hard alcohol, and there were waiters who would come around to the tables and take orders (of course there was a wristband system for ordering drinks, but since the drinking age is 16, most of the students were old enough for the bar anyway!) There was also a limited but impressive food menu for people to order.

The ball was officially opened by a presentation of "debutantes," just like the traditional Viennese Ball I went to in January. There were about 10 female students in white dresses, escorted by adorably dapper male students in tuxes. They did a very formal choreographed dance, then there were speeches by the principal, mayor, and other official people, and then the debutantes and their escorts opened the ball with the first waltz. Remember, these are 15-18 year olds doing this very formal performance. Some of my favorite students were out there on the dance floor and I felt like such a proud mama watching them look so beautiful and classy!

The rest of the night went on in a similarly classy fashion. There was a band that played a mix of waltzes, salsas, tangos, swing, and traditional austrian music (we Americans were pleased to hear a little Frank Sinatra and Beach Boys thrown in there), and to my surprise, many of the students continued with the formal partner dancing...and they were so good at it!! And the best part of it all was that they were dancing amongst parents, community members, and teachers. Everyone was hanging out together and having a grand old time! It was so fun to witness. Annie, Michelle, and I discussed what the reaction would be if you brought the average American high school student into this atmosphere. I think they would be confused and weirded out and they would definitely make fun of all the couples waltzing and tangoing together! They'd be like "where's the bump and grind?" We also decided that if our high school dances were like this, we would have had way more fun.

Another funny part of the evening was when we discovered this secret room off the side of the main hall, where a bunch of boys were huddled together, watching something projected on the wall. Turns out it was the Champions League Final! The smart Ball-planners realized that they had scheduled their ball on the same night as the biggest club football event of the year (especially this year with two German teams in the final), and decided to be prepared with a projector and laptop to live stream the game. I imagine this kind of thing would happen if the Super Bowl took place on Prom Night. It was cute to see all the kids in their tuxes and dresses anxiously watching a soccer match!

The ball went on until 3 AM but we definitely did not make it that long. Instead, we stayed until midnight, when the raffle prizes and Ball King and Queen were announced (turns out they were already a couple...dawww). The best part of the midnight show, however, was the teacher performance. All the teachers came out in bizarre costumes and did an impromptu Harlem Shake, and then ran out and pulled students onto the floor for a massive one-song dance party. It. was. awesome. Have I mentioned how much I love this school???

All in all, the night was really fun. It was great seeing all my students all dolled up and coupled off--I definitely was really excited when I figured out two of my favorite students, who are in different classes, are a couple. It was certainly a prime night for teacher gossip, and just an all around fun, classy, beautiful event! If Woodbridge High School's dances had been anything like this, I definitely would have gone to more of them! Well done, Austria. Well done.