That Week I Slept In A Castle

"Hey you just got here, and this is CRAZY, but here's some Kinder, so teach them maybe?"

I just got back from a long but very very fun week of orientation with the other American and British TAs in Vienna, Burgenland, Niederösterreich, and Steiermark (three provinces in Austria).  It took place in Graz, the second largest city in Austria, which is located in the beautiful beautiful Sterian region. The train trip there was unbelievably gorgeous. I was so awestruck riding through huge mountains covred in trees the most perfect shade of green. Every few minutes we would see a tiny little village with multi-colored thatched roof houses. Picture in your mind what you think Austria looks like, and that’s what this landscape was. Only more beautiful. There were about 140 teaching assistants from both the US and Britain (including England, Scotland, and Ireland) and although we were split up into groups for most of the week, I got a chance to meet a majority of the other people because our meals were all together and the little down-time we had was also in a communal area. Most of our time was spent in seminars, where we learned how to make a lesson plan, classroom management tips, discussed cultural issues we might face, and tried out a lot of games to play with our students. I had a lot of fun with my group, reverting back to childhood and playing super fun games that not only cultivate competition and excitement but also teach vocabulary and encourage student involvement. I’m really excited to try them out with my students. The games can also be adapted to fit multiple levels of language knowledge, so I’m hoping I get a lot of use out of them. I think I will.

We also had a big group lectures. The most interesting was about current topics in Austria. It was essentially a speed lesson on Austrian culture, politics, economics, and demographics. We learned all about how Austrians perceive themselves, how they think the world perceives them, their relationships with other countries, the ethnic and religious make up of the various regions, among other fascinating things. The presenter used lots of statistics, newspaper headlines, videoclips, and music as examples, which made it all the more interesting. One of my favorite sections was all about the rivalry between Austria and Germany. Even though the two nations depend heavily on each other for tourism and economic security, there is a bit of animosity and cultural rivalry: each accuses the other of trying to “steal” celebrities, Austria constantly reminds Germany of the one time they beat the Germans in a soccer game (World Cup 1978), all kinds of Austrian advertisements pick on Germans, etc. Some of the examples were really hilarious. We also had an interesting discussion about the way modern Austria reflects its long history, particularly the extent to which the Austro-Hungarian Empire provides the basis of modern Austrian culture. I could go on about all this for days because I thought it was simply fascinating.

One of the funnier parts of the week was Tuesday afternoon, when we shuttled down to downtown Graz for tours of the city center. The fun part was that our tour guides were 14-year old students, who had done their own research and planned their own routes. They led us through the city, telling us all about various buildings and history, completely in English!! If I were a 14-year old kid I would have been TERRIFIED speaking in a foreign language to a bunch of native speakers who are all at least 6-8 years older than me. But these kids were absolutely fantastic! Christoph and Simon were our guides. They had this hilarious little back-and-forth humor rapport where they were constantly teasing and ratting on each other. Christoph had a fantastic sense of humor and tried really hard to be extra charming, whereas Simon was clearly the brains of the operation, with a ton of knowledge and a real knack for telling stories. They worked together so well and were so interesting and funny that we TAs just could not stop grinning, the entire two hours!

The Graz city center is really historic and interesting. Whereas Vienna’s beauty is very Hapsburg (lots of baroque architecture, very ornamented, frilly beauty), Graz is more rustic. The city hall (Rathaus) and main cathedral (Dom) were both gorgeous, but in a different way than Vienna is gorgeous, and I think I liked this more “country” feeling better. My favorite part of the city was the Schlossberg, literally “castle mountain,” a mountain in the middle of the city that used to hold a fort, but now holds a clock tower and restauraunt and historic information, because the old fortress was destroyed in Napoleon’s time. From the top of the hill you can see the entire city of Graz below. It was really stunning. 

Cathedral in Graz

View from the top of Schlossberg

Clocktower on the top of Schlossberg

Rathaus, the city hall--a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site!

 Another highlight of the week was the accommodations. My group slept in Schloss St. Martin, which is none other than a castle. Yes. A castle. With towers and arches and a hilltop view. I spent the week meeting, eating, and sleeping in a castle. Do I need anything more?

One view of Schloss St. Martin

Schloss St. Martin's inner courtyard--hangout site for the week

I came away from the week feeling much more relaxed about this next year. We got a lot of really awesome ideas for lesson plans, activities to play with the kids, and strageties for dealing with the students, our colleagues, and Austrians in general. I met really really great people, laughed a ton, and learned much more than I expected to! I start teaching on Monday morning, and I could not be more excited about it!!

Wir Tanzen!

The past two days were packed with touristy exploring, so I’ll get right to describing everything I did and saw! Saturday morning I embarked on my first venture into Vienna itself. I met up with two other W&Lers, Christine and Nico, at Schoenbrunn which is often called the Versailles of Austria. It’s a Hapsburg palace with huge gardens, a zoo, a hedge maze, fountains, and everything else you could possibly ask for in a palace. We wandered the grounds and even took on the hedge maze, which I was horribly unsuccessful at, but didn’t go into the palace itself. We even had coffee at the café on the top of a hill that overlooks the palace. It was just lovely. Going back on a sunnier day and exploring the inside of the palace as well as the outside is definitely on my to-do list.

That afternoon, Christine had to go to an Austrian Folk Dancing lesson for one of her classes, so she dragged me and Nico along (well, I didn’t need any convincing). It. Was. Awesome. We took the street trolley out to this super adorable area of the city and met up with the rest of the group and our “instructors” inside a church. There were about 10 American students, 2 older Austrian women wearing Dirndls, and 2 older Austrian men, one of whom played the accordion and sang while we were dancing. Everything about it was fantastic. We learned about 5 or 6 dances, some partnered and some with 1 guy and 2 girls. They weren’t as hard to pick up as I thought they might be, and they were SUPER fun. I’m ready to take on any American dance floor with these moves.

After our dancing lesson, we tried to wander the city some more but it started raining and we had worked up quite an appetite dancing so we went to a Pakistani restaurant buffet with delicious food, which was super cheap because you essentially pay what you want. There are no prices, you just give what you feel like giving. So we each paid 5 Euros and ate a TON of great great food. I like this city.

Today I had some errands to run in Vienna so after I got those done I decided to do some more touristy exploring on my own. Well, I wasn’t really on my own, because I had Rick Steves accompanying me, and he’s the best companion any girl could ask for. I started by walking down Mariahilfer Strasse, which is a huge shopping street that leads from my train station to the city center. I kept stumbling upon beautiful churches and statues and fountains. At one point I realized that no matter what direction you walk, there is something awesome ahead of you.

As I got closer and closer to the city center the buildings got more and more beautiful, even those that were just drug stores or bakeries. Whenever I’m in a new place I like to just wander and see where that wandering takes me, so I didn’t really have a set plan other than eventually I wanted to end up at Stefansdom, the big cathedral in the middle of the city. Some of the things I stumbled across on my way were: part of the Hofburg Palace which I will surely visit and describe in great detail at a later date, the museums quarter, the Albertina museum with a very interesting sculpture garden outside, the Augustinian Church (where the Hapsburg weddings took place), the stables for the famous Lipizzaner horses, some Roman ruins, the Jewish Museum of Vienna, and tons and tons of statues and beautiful buildings that have less significance.

[Augustine Church, Central Bank, Jakobsplatz]

[Hofburg Palace, way to Lipizzaner Stables]

[pretty church]

Stefansdom itself was breathtaking, but kind of sad because there are some restoration projects going on on one side so there’s all this scaffolding set up, and the scaffolding has really tacky advertisements on it, which is just depressing. Taking that bit apart from the rest, though, the cathedral is gorgeous and huge. I didn’t get a chance to go in because there were some services going on, but Rick has a whole chapter devoted to a self-guided tour of this place, so I’ll be back. One of the best parts of the Stefansdom plaza, though, was a group of men dressed in Mozart-esque attire chatting with tourists, trying to get them to come to some kind of concert. I was entertained.

 

   

 

My last stop of the day was an islet on the side of the Danube river for the Red Bull Flugtag, which is a huge event where people get together in teams and attempt to create flying machines and then compete to see who can fly the furthest. The “planes” these people created ranged in design from glider-like to nothing resembling anything that could ever fly. Some were very decorated, molded to look like birds or ships or the red bull logo, or dragons. Others were accompanied by teams dressed every costume from kilts to aliens (tin foil in the hair, blue skin, etc) to fighter pilots to many things unrecognizable. The furthest a “plane” “flew” while I was watching was 17.2 meters, before it went crashing into the river. The place was absolutely packed and people seemed to be having a grand old time. I thought it was pretty ridiculous and hilarious, and definitely an experience worth having. I then saw a report on TV later on after I got home. Apparently this is a big event here.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Graz, a city south of here, for my orientation. I’m really excited to meet the other TAs and spend a few days hanging out in a castle, learning about teaching. Nothing about that sounds bad. Thanks for reading!! 

Exploring!

As promised, I'm back with a report from my day of exploring Purkersdorf!! This morning I successfully got my Meldezettel, which is basically my registration form giving me permission to reside in this city. I did the whole transaction in German which required a lot of pointing and confused looks on the part of the lady helping me, but we made it through, and at the end of it I was gifted with a lovely little welcome packet: a bag filled with brochures, maps, and very helpful information about Purkersdorf.





















As I left the building with where I got the Meldezettel, which is located in the city center pedestrian zone (Fussgaengerzone), I discovered that Fridays are the day for the outdoor market! There were stands of fruits, vegetables, cheese, breads, wine, and other delicious looking items. I was a little overwhelmed so all I bought was a mini quiche from the one of the bakery stands, but I will do real shopping there in the future, now that I know it exists! After wandering through the market I found a cafe where I could sit to peruse my new information packet. I successfully ordered auf Deutsch (again, pointing helped). Because I know any German professor I've ever had would be upset if I ordered Kaffee without Kuchen, I had to order a slice of cake too. Thus, today I ate my first Sachertorte (Viennese specialty--basically super delicious chocolate cake). It did not disappoint. This could be dangerous.

Inside the goodie bag, I found a letter from the mayor of Purkersdorf, information about the history of the city, public transportation time tables, fliers about various upcoming events, and brochures about local services, nearby attractions, and self-guided tours on various themes. There was also a map with suggestions for running around Purkersdorf, which I found very exciting. It gives you suggestions based on different lengths, and it looks like a lot of them go through the Wiener Wald (Viennese forest), which sounds thrilling. I'm going to try the first one this afternoon, because running through a forest sounds awesome. There are also maps of hiking trails. I embarked on a quasi-scavenger hunt through the city center, trying to spot all the historic buildings in the Stadt-spaziergaenge brochure (city stroll). If my goal for life in Purkersdorf is to not look or feel like a tourist, I failed miserably today. I was taking pictures of everything, retracing my steps over and over, and staring confusedly at signs. Oh well. Amongst the highlights of today's stroll were the following:

 St. Jakob the Elder Catholic Church, in the city center, between the Marktplatz and Schloss...

 ...the old post office: originally built in 1558 as a rest stop on the road from Vienna to Linz (which followed the old Roman Road), converted to a post office in the middle of the 18th century, temporarily housed some famous people over the years including Pope Pius VI, Mozart, and Casanova, today it holds restaurants and offices...

 ...Schloss Purkersdorf: not as "Schlossy" as I hoped it would be, but still very pretty, originally built in the middle of the 12th century, held the Kaiser's "forest office" from 1500-1788, destroyed by the Turks in the first siege of Vienna in 1529, rebuilt, and then destroyed by the Turks again in 1683, rebuilt, and home to Kaiser Leopold 1 for a while, today it houses a museum, therapy center, and administrative offices for the area...

 ...definitely the best part of today's adventure was when I accidentally stumbled upon this forest path that brought me to a scenic outlook over the entire city. I was following a road (aptly titled Berggasse--berg means mountain...) towards a monument, when all of a sudden there was no more road, just a rocky dirty path. The path got narrower and narrower as I kept climbing until all of a sudden I was no longer in civilization. I continued, not certain of where the path would lead me or what kind of animals were in the woods, still climbing, until the trees cleared and opened into an area with benches and a picnic table and a gorgeous view of the city below. This place is absolutely delightful.

The rest of the exploring consisted of touring a few stores in town, and attempting but failing to find other landmarks on the map I was following. Oh well, I have all year.

Lessons Learned From My First (less than) 24 Hours in Austria

1. When you're the only person standing at the baggage claim and there are no more suitcases going around, your bag is more than likely lost. Standing there saying "please arrive please arrive please arrive" will not make it arrive. You will just look like a crazy american.

2. Bring a backpack and/or other large bag when grocery shopping. They do not have bags for you.

3. When you don't have a 1 Euro coin to use to unlock the carts at the grocery store, a quarter works just fine. But it will jam, and you wont get it back, and you will be forced to run away hoping no one deports you for breaking the cart payment system.

4. The word for conditioner is Pflegespuelung. At least I hope it is. Otherwise I could be putting something terrible in my hair.

5. People here greet each other with "Gruss Gott"

6. 50 Shades of Gray has made it to Austria, with the inventive title "Shades of Gray." Nobody bothered to translate it.

7. When you're searching for the administrative offices of the city and walk around the city center for 20 minutes, looking like a confused tourist, asking for directions and still failing, try the largest building in the entire place. The one staring you in the face. That's probably the one you're looking for.

8. Make sure you find the above building within its business hours. That helps.

9. Purkersdorf has a Schloss. Yes, Schloss as in the german word for palace. As in I live near a palace. As in I can indulge in princess fantasies every day. I know where I'm going whenever I'm sad.

10. Purkersdorf Schloss isn't actually as cool as it was in my mind. But that doesn't mean princess fantasies are out of the question.


In other news, Purkersdorf is absolutely delightful. I will explore more tomorrow and perhaps take some pictures. For now, though: I am settled with all my luggage in a room in the most beautiful house with a gorgeous garden that is literally a 2 minute walk from school. My supervising teacher is a doll and apparently the kiddos are very very excited for my arrival, so lets hope I meet their expectations! Stay tuned for more results of my city exploration tomorrow!

Here I go!!!

Please keep in touch!

email: yadlin.shiri@gmail.com
skype: syadlin
twitter (for the really dedicated): @ShirdlesY
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Bye, America!

Four Days and Counting...

Anyone who knows me knows that it is my lifelong ambition to be even 2% the woman that Julie Andrews is. She is my idol. I believe she epitomizes elegance and talent and warmth and everything wonderful. So, if I can grow up to be as cool as she is on a not-cool day, I will be more than satisfied. When I found out on the last day of Winter Term this past year that I was accepted into the USTA Program by Austria's Fulbright commission, the first image that ran through my mind was that of Sister Maria running through the hills of Austria singing about how great it is to run through the hills singing. While my life this next year will sadly not be anything close to Maria's life, as much as I like to think it will be (Nazis, nunneries, naval captains, and puppet shows will probably not play a huge role in my daily life),  I am excited for the adventure I am about to embark on. Much like Maria, I'm extremely nervous. I identify with her sentiments in what is one of my favorite songs in the musical, "I Have Confidence." Just as she was leaving the life she knew to take responsibility for a bunch of kids she had never met, I am moving to a foreign country (to which I have never been), knowing almost nobody, feeling shaky on my language skills, about to take partial responsibility for the education of a group of European teenagers. I have no idea what to expect but, in the words of Maria von Trapp, "With each step I am more certain. Everything will turn out fine!" Despite the anxiety that has been setting in the past few weeks, I have confidence I'm looking forward to a thrilling, spontaneous adventure where I will meet interesting people, see beautiful things, and certainly learn all kinds of fascinating stuff.

Here's a quick overview of what exactly I'll be doing over there. Thanks to these folks, I will be an English teaching assistant at a high school (a Privat Gymnasium, to be precise). My primary responsibilities will be one-on-one and small group conversation practice, as well as presentations on various aspects of American culture, holidays, traditions, and daily life. I can't wait to share with these kids quintessential American things like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Rose Bowl, the meaning of a Homecoming Court, college rivalries, Election 2012, Mean Girls, and so much more. Hopefully I do my job well and maybe I can even get some of the older kids to apply to W&L :)

I'll try to post here regularly, keeping you updated on how everything goes, from daily life to big trips. Thanks for reading so far and don't be a stranger about keeping in touch!! I'll need a taste of home every once in a while!

Oh, and to answer the question most people are asking: I leave Tuesday September 18th!!