Wait, You Call this Class? Ok! I'm Game!

Well, I have officially survived my first week of class and I have to honestly report that I love all my classes!  I met with my teacher for the teaching internship.  She is a very nice woman with a lot of energy (we're going to get along swimmingly).  She teaches ages 10-18 but I will mostly be working with the 10 year olds.  Monday and Friday mornings I work at a school teaching English and music.  The 10 year olds are so much fun to work with.  They had a list of questions prepared for me to answer and they had to write my answers down.  On Friday I worked with a group of 15 year olds.  They were not as excited as the younger ones were but I'm sure I can get them to warm up to me.  I am excited for the upcoming weeks because I have been asked to prepare lessons on American culture and customs during the Fall.  I'm pulling out all my Halloween songs and art projects.  We're going to have so much fun.

Mondays and Wednesdays I have Music in Performance.  We are required to attend 8 events were music is a large part of the production.  We then have to write about 3 of them.  In class we listen to music and watch performances.  No musical knowledge is required for this class so I was kind of bored for the first one when we went over all the main instruments in the orchestra.  But other than that I love my homework! 

I have German class three days a week.  I am at the point now where it is no longer review.  German I think will be my hardest class and will require the most of my study time.  But I'm thankful for this because it will force me to work on my language skills.  Class flies by and I am much more engaged than I was in my German classes back home.  The one problem with all this German though is that I am now replacing English words with the German ones unconsciously.  Like the world house.  In an email the other day I wrote haus.  This is not helping my appearance of being an educated young lady...oh well.  I'm just hoping that by the end of my stay here I will have a dream in German.  They say this is the ultimate sign that you know the language. 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have the History of the Hapsburg's Empire.  This is basically the history of Austria with a focus on the happenings in Vienna.  I know I'm going to love this class.  Every Thursday is an excursion.  Class will take place in a museum or a palace or some cool place like that.  The best part is that I now have a museum pass which gets me into all the major museums in the city for free.  This last Thursday, we went to the Imperial Treasury.  It was so cool.  Our teacher just led us through and at each display would give a history lesson on the object and tell the story behind the object.  It was funny because many people stopped to listen and some even causally followed us from room to room.  I think that all the knowledge will stick better this way because I have an object to associate it with.  Instead of just memorizing that Otto I defeated the Hungarians and became the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, I remember seeing his crown and all the symbols on it telling the story of his life.  Let's just say that class will never be boring.  This week we are heading to the Imperial Armory to get a lesson on warfare.  Not too shabby for a day of class.

My last class is a psychology class, which is a field I have never ventured into.  This class only meets on Wednesdays for three hours.  Now you might being saying 'three hours?  In a classroom?'  Well fear not!  It is three hours because this class as well will be held on cite.  For example the Freud Museum or the first ever Insane Asylum.  Our teacher even has a night tour planned for the Insane Asylum!  Spooky!  This class is very interesting to me just because I never have studied psychology before.  It is not a hard science and therefore in the past I avoided it.  But this time I thought that being in the home of Freud I could give it a chance. 

Staatoper

After a long week of class, I decided a break was needed.  So Friday night I had dinner with some friends and we learned how to play some Austrian board games, all written in German.  German Taboo is very funny.  I think we spent most of the evening laughing at our bad German or at how people explained the word in German.  It was a good time.  Saturday night, I had a ticket to the ballet given to me by my host grandmother who I fondly call Host Oma.  I had a great seat in a box dead center.  It was really fascinating being in the Staatoper.  Every box has it's private for-chamber to hang coats and place purses.  I felt so fancy!  The ballet was Onegin, which is a very famous Russian novel.  It was tragic about love found and lost.  Sunday, I met with some family friends from back home who just happened to be traveling through Vienna.  They had a package of drugs for me that my parents asked them to give to me.  Haha, it's not as bad as it sounds.  It seems like everyone here smokes and there is no smoking free areas in the restaurants and cafes.  This has reeked havoc with my asthma and I have gone through my asthma medication much quicker than I anticipated.  So instead of shipping my refills to me and having them be stopped by customs, my parents sent them through our local friendly drug mules known as the Becks!

Konzerthaus

Monday was the start of my second week of class.  I decided to get a head start on my music homework so I attended a concert Monday night of Mahler's 2nd Symphony.  My mind was thoroughly blown!  It was the most amazing three hours with gorgeous music and in a gorgeous building.  There was a huge choir as well for the 5th movement with a soprano and an alto soloist.  My favorite part was the 5th movement when the organ came in.  It was very powerful!  Overall, I love school!  I actually wish I could take more classes!  Anyway, that's about it for now.  I'll be sure to update again after the weekend, which is quickly filling up with planned shenanigans.   

Prague, the Original Bohemia

Astronomical Clock

We got into Prague in the late afternoon. Our hostel is once again in the very center of town and everything we want to see is within walking distance. That evening we walked through Jewish Town and the Old Town Square. We saw many cathedrals and stopped at the Astronomical Clock. On the hour, this clock chimes and the 12 apostles turn around on a track. It's pretty cool to see when you remember that the clock was built in the 15th century. We also crossed the Charles Bridge, which is lined with beautiful statues. For dinner we went to a traditional pub that Hannah's mom told us about. She found it years ago when she was visiting Prague. This pub is just full of long tables lined with benches. You just find a seat and the next thing you know a mug of beer is put in front of you. This beer was really dark and really good. I was surprised to find I liked it because normally I prefer a light beer. After the beer was served, a man came by with shots claiming that it was tradition and good for the stomach to take it before dinner. The taste was very herby and a little bit like a Ricola cough drop. I had really good sausage with cabbage and potatoes. The Czech Republic is definitely a meat and potato country. They really don't believe in fresh vegetables. After dinner the guy with the shots came back and told us again that it was tradition and good for the stomach to take the shot after dinner. We just laughed at him. We made it an fairly early night in order to get up early to tackle Prague Castle.

In order to get a quick and easy introduction to the city, we took a guided bus tour. It gave us general history and pointed out all the important buildings. There was just so much to see and do that we knew we couldn't get to it all. The bus tour helped to fill in the gaps and assisted us in seeing the important sites. After, we hiked up the hill to the biggest castle system in the world and the oldest castle still in use by the government. This place was beautiful! There were all different systems of buildings and palaces all clustered together. There was also a huge cathedral that was breathtaking inside. We did an audio tour and I was glad because it gave all the back ground information and little stories about what we were seeing. There was even a changing of the guards which happened every hour.  We spent the entire day at the castle. That night we went out and met some people from Sweden. It was a really fun day overall.

Cathedral at Prague Castle



Prague Castle at night

Inside the Cathedral



The Doll had Vampire Teeth



The plan for Saturday was to go to Jewish Town and see the Old Jewish Cemetery and the synagogues. What we failed to considered is Saturday is Sabbath and all the Jewish buildings were closed. So instead we went to the Communism Museum. It was really interesting. The history of communism in the Czech Republic is fascinating. People in exile in Russia brought the ideas of Marx back to the country. During the end of WWII, Prague forced the German's out of the city a day before the Soviets were able to liberate them. The Soviets were actually upset because they could not claim the liberation of Prague. Czech was behind the iron curtain and anti-America propaganda spurred the spread of communism. It's weird to think that the USSR was still in existence when I was born. The Velvet Revolution took place in Prague in November of 1989. It is called this because the end of communism in Czech was a very easy and smooth process. It was a very cool museum and I learned a lot.

Next we went to the Franz Kafka museum. Kafka, author of Metamorphosis, was born in Prague. This was a very weird museum but very fitting for Kafka. He was a strange man and in my opinion whiny and wishy-washy. I found the museum interesting, but overall not my cup of tea. I don't understand Kafka and the museum was set up in a way to reflect his writing and in general his mind. There was weird music playing and it was very darkly lit. There was media art throughout. Good experience, but I have no desire to go back.



Old Jewish Cemetery

Saturday night we joined the Prague Pub Crawl. This was the cheapest way to check out all the local clubs. One was the largest club in central Europe with 5 different themed floors. It was so much fun and we met many people from all over. I was even able to practice my German with a group from Berlin. The next morning before our train left, we went back to Jewish Town. We saw the old synagogues and there was a museum about the Jews in Prague and in Bohemia. We caught the one o'clock train back to Vienna with very tired feet but also a great feeling of accomplishment.

Overall, I had an amazing 10 days! I have learned so much and feel rather independent. It was fun living in hostels with other travels. I wandered cities I only dreamed about visiting. The three of us made all the travel arrangements ourselves. I navigated the streets of three different cities without speaking the local language! Yes, I'm exhausted but so overjoyed! I'm loving my time here in Europe. I've been here a month now, but the time has just flown by. Anyway, back to reality (if you can believe going to school in Vienna for the next three months as reality)! I start my classes tomorrow and I'm really excited for them. I need a routine again. Well, I'll be sure to let you all know how my first week goes!

Do You Speak Czech?

After Budapest, we went to Brno in the Czech Republic. This is the second largest city in the country and is quite charming. The inner city is cobble stone streets flanked by old buildings and spectacular cathedrals. Arriving at a new city is always a little hectic. Brno caused a higher stress level for me than Budapest. The train station was all in Czech...no English or German. When we finally found information, the people working there only spoke Czech. We found this to be a pretty common theme throughout the city. We finally found someone who in broken German was able to tell us our hotel was only a block away. Our hotel is again in prime location in the middle of the city. Everything is literally within a short walk. Luckily, the receptionist spoke English. She was a young woman who told us our accents were fantastic and that we spoke like all the movie stars. She explained that the only American accents she hears are from films. This was the first time someone has complimented my accent. She was very helpful in explaining the layout of the city and telling us some fun places to visit. Our hotel (only 10 Euros a night) was two rooms that could sleep six sharing one bathroom. We lucked out and had two rooms for just the three of us. After sharing a hostel room for 8 for the past three nights, this was a nice change.

Parnassus Fountain

Exploring the city, we found a pub that served traditional food. Pork medallions in a sweet plum sauce is a speciality here and it was very tasty and very cheap. The Czech Republic is not part of the EU and therefore they do not use the Euro. Instead, they use a crown. One Euro is worth 28 crowns. All the museums and places we wanted to visit were closed for the day, so we just wandered around after dinner. We stumbled into the main square and found what is called the Cabbage Market. This is the location where farmers would gather to sell their wares. It still is a farmer's market today. The main fountain, Parnassus Fountain, in the middle is gorgeous and this was where live fish used to be sold from.

Later that night we found a pub and stopped in for a few drinks. Czech is famous for it's beer which costs 25 crowns for a half liter. A very good deal! I am not a beer drinker, but I actually liked the taste of what I tried. It was very light and had a sweeter aftertaste. Hannah, a beer conosur, believes the darker the better and she too was very happy with her beer choices. So there was something for everyone. Afterwards, we went to a dance club. This place played the best music. All classics in the US. They even played Katy Perry's California Girls and Lady GaGa. We had a lot of fun dancing and trying to talk to people.


Yum!

Wednesday morning we got up and headed out to find a place for breakfast. Unlike our last hostel, our hotel did not include breakfast. Breakfast in Europe is not the same thing as breakfast in the US. Crepes and pastries are offered as well as fruit and cheese plates. When ordering toast, don't forget to order butter as well for it is not included. There are no eggs or bacon, no oatmeal or hash browns. So finding a place open was difficult. Most cafes don't open until 11. Brno is not a huge tourist destination so the menus were only in Czech, which is nothing like German or English. We had to rely on the pictures. I thought I had ordered a fruit and muesli bowl with yogurt. What I actually ordered was fruit with sorbet. I'm not complaining! It was delicious, I just wasn't expecting ice cream for breakfast.

Next we headed to Spilberk Castle which was founded in the 13th century. It was converted into a citadel during the 17th century and political prisoners were imprisoned there. The case mates were converted into cells which were later used during WWII by the Nazis to hold Czech prisoners. The castle was not exactly beautiful, but very study and structurally sound. Since it was built so early and later used as a prison, it was never spruced up. There was not need for the flash and flair of other castles. The castle now houses the Brno City Museum. We learned about the history of the city and about all the people imprisoned there. Many famous writers and artists were imprisoned for a time, as well as nobility. Anyone seen as an enemy to the state. Once again the English translations were comical at times. There were also displays of Czech art and a whole section devoted to architecture in Brno from 1919-1939. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I did peruse it so I could report back to Dad. (I don't want to disappoint my father the architect :) ) The case mates is now the Museum of Prison Life. It was very interesting to see where prisoners were housed. There was a section on torture and another on how the Nazis used the building during the war. The case mates were very cold and dark being built underground. Prisoners were crammed in and kept in awful conditions. 



Spilburk Castle

 

For Dad

 

What will happen to Elizabeth if she ticks us off

Abby of St. Thomas

Our next destination was waited for with great impatience and anticipation on my part. Brno is home of the Abby of St. Thomas, which doesn't sound like a big deal to most. But those of you who know your science history are probably already bouncing with joy. (I know the phrase is typically jumping for joy, but I assume most of you are reading this sitting down and therefore bouncing is more probable) The Abby of St. Thomas was were Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, conducted his research while working as an abbot. The Abby now contains the Gregor Mendel Museum!  I was able to see his greenhouse where he grew all his peas and his beehives!  The museum was full of all his personal things.  I loved it!  It was a science nerds paradise!  Once I got my fill of all things genetics, we found a place for dinner.  We made our night a little more exciting by switching restaurants for before dinner drinks, dinner, and then desert.  This gave us the opportunity to wander the city and make sure we could try a little bit of everything.  

The next day, our train for Prague left at one, so we had the morning to get one more place in.  We went to the Capuchin Monastery.  This monastery has a very unique crypt.  Bodies were placed in this crypt as is.  They were not embalmed or mummified.  Rather they were allowed to decay naturally in the dry air underground.  The best part was that we actually got to see all these bodies!  They were in glass coffins really well preserved.  They had fingernails and teeth still intact.  One even still had an ear!  It was so awesome!  It was definitely one of my favorite visits!  After the crypt, we grabbed some lunch and got on our train.  Now, off to Prague!   



Dead Baron



Dead Friars!  How Cool!



I walked myself Hungary!

Wow, Budapest is amazing!  It's a gorgeous city that has so much history.  It's very old and some places look tired.  It's clear when looking around that Budapest has had a tough life. 


I'm Rich!  Hey big spender!

We arrived yesterday afternoon after an easy train ride from Vienna.  The country was beautiful and looked just like a patchwork quilt.  As soon as we got off the train we were confronted by people selling tour packages, rooms for rent, and taxis.  We headed to the tourist information booth first to get a map and find the nearest ATM.  Even though Hungary is now a part of the EU, it has yet to adopt the Euro.  They still use the Hungarian Forint, which is a little scary to me seeing how one Euro is 284 HUF.  So when I ordered dinner the first night, my meal cost over 3000 HUF which is just a little over 10 Euros.  I've never felt so rich seeing 10,000 bills in my wallet.   

I am the Queen of Maps!


Anyways, we took a cab to our hostel, which has a prime location right in the middle of the city.  After checking into our hostel, we decided to just wander around and orient ourselves with the city.  I'm traveling with two girl friends and we all have a particular job on our trip.  Elizabeth was in charge of booking the hostels, Hannah is on train departure and arrival times including which trains, and I am directions girl once in the cities.  I have an excellent sense of direction and am pretty competent at reading maps.  So far, we have all come through with our tasks. 

So we wandered into what's called Buda which has the old castle and cathedral of the city.  We had to take a mixture between and train and a cable car up the side of the cliff to get to the castle.  It was really pretty and from our vantage point we could see all the city spread out below.  We found a Hungarian restaurant and asked our waiter what the local specialties were.  I learned that Hungary is known for paprika, red cooked cabbage with apples, and potato dumplings that look like gnocchi.  Not to mention a whole list of baked goodies that we will be sure to try out before we leave.


So good!

I had a veal stew over a bed of dumplings and it was so good.  While wandering back to our hostel, we stumbled upon a triathlon in progress.  It turns out that this weekend there is a huge triathlon with athletes from all over the world competing.  We were right in the middle of it and it was fun to be in the crowd hearing everyone cheering for different countries.  Whenever someone from the US ran by, we screamed extra loud. 

Once back at our hostel we met our roommates, a group of guys from Scotland.  It turned out that the hostel had a scheduling error and there wasn't enough beds for everyone.   The guys kindly offered to share our beds, causing us to laugh in response.  We told them that two of us would share a bed and the third would sleep on the couch.  This was actually to our advantage because we then got the night for free.  Before calling it a night, we headed out with our new friends to check out the night life.  Coming in for the night, we were met with a Bachelor party in full swing.  We met some nice locals and laughed the next morning when not all of them remembered meeting us.  Our hostel provides breakfast in the mornings which gave us the opportunity to get some advise on what to do and see while here.


Palace with booths for the Wine Festival

Sunday, we left with the intention of going to the National Hungarian History Museum.  On our way, we not only saw day two of the triathlon, but also a huge international wine festival.  Well, since we're here to experience the local culture, we decided that the wine festival needed our attention.  I tried many good wines and now have a souvenir wine glass.  We found out that this festival was the 90th anniversary.  There was food and live music and the best part was that our admission to the festival included the history museum and the national museum!  It was the perfect day!
 

Me with the Royals

I learned so much in the history museum about Hungary. Hungary was constantly switching leaders and belonging to different empires. It was conquered by the Romans, who built baths at all the thermal springs which still stand today. The Romans were pushed out by Attila the Hun. The name Hungary comes from this era and just stuck with the country. With the death of Attila, the Huns fled and the Franks and Turks started to settle in the area. The Ottoman empire controlled Hungary for the longest time until the Hapsburg of Austria took over in 1686. As part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Hungary was introduced to western European culture. When Austria was taken over by Prussia, Hungary was as well. Many revolutions were attempted but none were successful. Hungary entered WWI with Austria and Germany. They were declared a republic in 1918 after the end of the war, but were on the losing side of the war and therefore stripped of two thirds of their territory. Wanting to gain this land back and rise in economic power, Hungary joined Germany again in WWII. Hungary was liberated 1945 by the Soviets. Communism ruled Hungary until 1989 with the fall of the Berlin wall. It was then declared Republic.



My new home...in my dreams



It was interesting to read all the plaques in the museum. They were in Hungarian, German, and English. It was obvious that they were not written by a native speaker, but instead were translated. Though the words made sense, the sentence structure was very amusing. We found this throughout the entire city. For example, the English version of "open 24 hours a day" is "open non-stop."  And phrases like 'mind the gap' in the subway were 'watch feet'.

Budapest itself was two separate cities, Buda on the west of the Danube and Pest on the east. They decided to join as a center of commerce in 1873. At first the newly joined city was called Pest-Buda. The castle we toured is called the Buda Castle and was a favorite place for Empress Elisabeth of Hapsburg to stay. Her and her husband Josef were crowned in the Saint Matthias Church which is a short walk from the castle. Both buildings were simply stunning. The Church is Gothic in structure but then painted in the baroque fashion. There is a wall surrounding the church called the Fisherman's Bastillon. From here, the view of Pest across the river is amazing. In the market square by the church, we found a shop that specializes in marzipan. I love marzipan and this was the best marzipan I have ever had! It was so good and there were so many different flavors! They also had all these cute figurines made out of marzipan.

Elizabeth and I at the Fisherman's Bastillon

 

Elizabeth striking a pose


 

Me with Hungarian Santa

 Monday, we made our way to the Parliament Building. This building has more spires and towers than the castle across the Danube. Next came the Vajdahunyad Castle. This is known as the schizophrenic castle since the buildings are all in a different style. There is baroque, Tudor, Romanesque, and Gothic all within yards of each other. It was fun to see. There was this huge statue of Anonymous, who was a guy said to be in charge of records. The statue was done all in black and the figure was seated with a book and a pen with a hooded face. We decided he was trying to be Santa so we all sat on his lap and told him what we wanted for Christmas.  In order to get to this park, we had to ride Europe's oldest underground. This train was very old and we were a little surprised it was still working. I think I held my breath the entire ride praying silently that the engineers in 19th century knew what they were doing. Every noise made me wince, but we made it out alive. The train deposits you in Hosok Tere, or Hero's Square for those of us who don't speak Hungarian. This had a huge statue celebrating a conquest, not sure which one.  

In front of Parliament



Hero's Square

Inside the Synagogue

We tried to go to the Terror House museum, but unfortunately it was closed on Mondays. This museum specializes in accounts of spying and atrocities. It follows Hungary's tough times during WWII and under the Communist regime afterwards. Instead, we toured the Opera House and then stopped for some lunch. Afterwards, we headed to the largest synagogue in Europe. The only one bigger is in New York. This synagogue survived the war mostly because it was located in the ghetto of Budapest.  This place was beautiful and breath-taking! The courtyard has been made into a memorial garden. Jewish tradition does not allow the removal of a body once it has been buried, so during WWII those who died in the ghetto were buried in mass graves in the courtyard. They believed that this would keep them safe. Now, the courtyard and garden are full of tombstones of those laid to rest there. It was sad to see the dates and realize how short some lives were. There was a small museum at the back of the synagogue that was dedicated to those Hungarians who had helped the Jews during the war. We ended the day strolling the streets at the market.

Overall, a very successful trip to Budapest. I learned a lot and had a ton of fun. Now, I'm off to Brno in the Czech Republic.



 

Work Hard...? Oh well, I'll still play hard!

So, my three week German intensive is complete!  It wasn't terribly hard seeing as I only had class from 9-12 everyday.  And this included many field trips of course :).  But anyways I took my final this morning and now I have a 10 day break.  It's weird to think that I've been here for almost a month now.  And I haven't even started real class yet!  Tomorrow I'm heading to Budapest for four days with two friends.  After Budapest we are heading to Prague for another four days with a two day stop in Brno on the way.  I'm excited to see some sights!  I'll try to keep you all posted on this adventure, but I'm not sure how much internet connection I'll have for the next week.  I'll be sure to definitely post some pictures when I get back if I can't during.  Auf Wiedersehen meine Freunden!  Ich reise am morgen nach Budapest mit meine neu Freundinnen!  Ich schreibe einen Brief nach meine Urlaub wann ich zurueckkommen, ob nicht spaet ist!  (Translation:  Goodbye my friends.  I am traveling to Budapest in the morning with my new friends.  I promise to write about my trip when I return, if not sooner.)  see, I'm learning.    

I watched the sunrise...on my way home.

pretty blue tree

What an epic weekend!  It all started Friday evening.  There was a huge celebration throughout the entire city both Friday and Saturday night because it is the first weekend that the U-Bahn runs 24 hours.  Everyone could ride for free and there were no cover charges on any of the clubs.  Bars were having specials and there were bands playing everywhere.  The entire city came out to join the party.                                                                 We started our evening at the park for a free concert by the world famous Volk Oper.  They sang songs from some of my favorite musicals and operas.  Pieces of Carmina Burana were even played.  It was amazing!  The park was all covered in lights and everyone was just sitting at tables or standing on the lawn in front of the stage.  My favorite song was Nessun Dorma sang by the best tenor ever!  

 

After the concert, we all went to this bar called the Traveler's Bar.  It was so much fun and there were people there from all over.  They played the best music and we knew all the words.  The bar tender/owner was super nice and offered all of us jobs.  We met these girls from Vienna and these guys from Spain.  They were all really nice and so when they headed out they invited us along.  Overall the night was a total success!  

Saturday, I checked out Grinzingerstrasse which is where all the local wine is grown.  We went to a little Heuriger to try this seasons wine.  It is super cheap and super good.  The little town was so cute and pretty.  The streets were cobblestone and the houses were all bright colors with gingerbread trim.  We had dinner at a traditional tavern.  I had my first original Wiener Schnitzel and it was delicious!

Saturday night, the city was still celebrating the 24 hour U-Bahn.  We went to this club called the Loft that was having a really big hip hop party.  It was great with everyone dancing and having a good time.  We left the club at about 3:30.  Now I know this sounds late, but here clubs are open until 6 in the morning.  The so called night life doesn't begin until after midnight.  So leaving at 3:30 was considered leaving pretty early. 

Me, greeting the morning!

On the U-Bahn home, we got distracted talking to these people from Poland and missed our stop.  After backtracking, my friends and I split ways to get to our individual homes.  While standing at my building door, I realized I had left my keys in my other purse which was on my bedroom floor.  I didn't want to wake up my Host mother at 4 in the morning so I headed back to my friends place.  They hadn't gotten very far after misreading a map.  We ended up taking some wrong trains and having to transfer many times to get where we wanted to go.  At the high point of our frustration, we ran into a guy we met last weekend.  I think I've truly met only a handful of people since living here (school is not in session yet so most young people my age are not in the city right now).  And it was pure luck that we ran into this guy and he was able to tell us the right way to get home.  So finally, at 5:45 in the morning, we were on the right track.  We got to watch the sunrise as we walked up the street to the apartment.  The entire time we were all laughing at ourselves.  A teacher in our program was telling us when we first got here to get lost and explore.  We now think he needs to put a time limit on that.  So after a long night meeting new people and having tons of fun, I crawled into bed at 6:24 am.

The clock at the U-Bahn Station

I successfully made it home this morning after calling my Host mom to let me in.  After explaining my adventure, she laughed and told me that it's happened to all of her students in the past.  She told me that in the future, she doesn't mind being waken up in the middle of the night every now and then to let me in.  I just hope there won't be a similar situation in the future.  All in all, a good night and a wonderful adventure.    

 

   

Teaching Internship

So I got the teaching internship!  Though I signed up for this class weeks ago, acceptance was not guaranteed.  I had to fill out a secondary application and interview.  I'm happy to report they want me!  This is a class where I will be working with an Austrian teacher in the classroom as a native English speaker.  I will be helping students not only with their curriculum, but also with their English.  This class met for the first time today and I was introduced to the European schooling system.

It is a very different system with its own pros and cons.  Children start school here at six years old.  Kindergarten is strongly recommended at five, but as of yet not mandatory.  However, there is a strong push right now to make it mandatory.  All classes are the same for all students for the first four years of school.  The students keep the same teacher and the same class.  Then, at the end of grade four, it is determined by the teacher only whether the child has the ability to attend what is called secondary school.  Secondary school is like middle and high school and is considered the "academic" route.  Children continue grades 5-12 at this school and then can continue on to University.  All the children not deemed ready for secondary school go to a different school that is geared less towards the academics and more towards trade.  It would be comparable to a vocational school in the states.  These students only continue through grade 9 and then they enter the work force.  In both school systems, the students don't change classes.  The same set of students stay in the same classroom and the teachers come to them.  Schools here also don't break for lunch.  Rather they start earlier and are done by one so the students can go home.

Upon hearing all this, I'm grateful for the school system back home (though it definitely has its own faults and is far from perfect).  I liked having different teachers and different students in my class.  I also felt a certain freedom when I got to high school and could take AP and Honors classes.  Each classroom was a different environment that I had to adapt to, which is a skill I think everyone should learn at a young age.  I can't imagine the rest of my life being determined for me by one person at the age of ten!  I remember being pretty silly in elementary school and playing around a lot.  I'm sure I drove my teachers mad with my "energetic" behavior.  I feel sorry for the students who realize a little later in life that they want to go to University.  It is so much harder for those in the vocational system to go to University since they have to on their own complete grades 9-12.  Though I see flaws in the system right now, I'm excited to begin my time in the classroom. 

I will be paired up with my teacher in a few weeks once the school year here begins.  There is a whole matching program that I am now starting to get the best fit.  I feel like this experience will really help me to understand the school culture and observe a different system.  I feel very biased right now but I know that my opinion will change once I am working on the inside.  I will then have first hand knowledge and therefore a better idea of how the school works.