yummy yummy!

Last time I updated was a long time ago, so I'll just let you know what is up-

Started classes last week. Lemmie tell you, i had a hard time finding classes to take. Over here, the austrian students test out classes for a couple of weeks before deciding if they wanna take the classes. They will enroll for more than the amount of classes they wanna take, and then drop the ones they don't wanna take before the add/drop period, which is almost two months long. For me, i went to 3 classes, dropped all three, and added two new ones that I love.

I met a bunch of Austrian students! We were VIPs at a party, and we got free drinks, free shirts, got to dance to a really cool band, and even got to meet the band! Everyone wanted to meet the cool americans that were at the bar, so henceforth, that is how we met a lot of people. BTW, I was invited by my orientation buddy, who is quite cool, i must say.

We went to Graz this weekend, and toured around wine country and the city. It was so beautiful, and I got plenty of pictures. Check facebook for these photos later this week. Our tourguide did a lot of english/german translations, and her english was terrible, and hilarious at the same time. We went to a wine tasting, went up into the mountains and had some food and more wine, and saw so many vineyards. It was beautiful.

I started my internship! I work in a middle school helping/teaching English to classes. I range from 1st year English learners to 4th year learners. This means I speak a lot of German and English on any given day. Good practice for both, actually. There have been a lot of teachers, though, that have said, 'ok, nice of you to be here, now teach us for 50 minutes. ' Doing that without a lesson plan is terribly hard, so I have just started to come up with lesson plans incase that happens again (which it will... I know it). But hey, that's what being a teacher is all about, right?

And then there is vienna. I really love the city, cause there is so much one can do here.

And then, next weekend, i think i am going to Hungary. And then the weekend after that, I am going to Barcelona for 4 days, which we found tickets for extremely cheap! That trip is going to be very cheap. I am excited for all of this traveling coming up here. Eventually, during sometime, i want to get to go skiing, go to zurich, stolkholm, and poland. should be fun.

Well, this was short, but just letting you know what was up. Here are some awesome pictures that were taken by me and others on our program

Up on the hill in the middle of the city

This stone was expensive to cut, because it was thrust into the hot soup of our earth two times... Quote from our crazy tour guide

When renovating a building, they found a lot of different roman tombstones, which had a lot of historical importance for the people of the area (by Graz)

The drummer to the VIP band show we went to

A snowman group picture!

Vienna.. wonderful city!

Let's just say this, I love vienna- a lot. I moved into my permanetn-temporary dorm, and it's smaller, but very very homey! The people there are super nice and everyone is wonderful.

The city has so much to do. I've never lived in a city, so this is new, but then again, I feel as though Vienna has so much more to do than a lot of other cities. On saturdays, there is this huge flea market that we go to almost every week to find bargains. We also go occasionally out to IKEA to enjoy a nice cheap lunch or dinner, and then go around the store. There are also over 100 different museums to visit in Vienna. Any museum you ever wanted to visit is probably here in vienna.

Talking about museums, last night was the "Lange nacht der Museen" (Long night of the museums). 94 museums were open from 6 pm until 1 am and all you had to do was buy one entrance ticket (11 Euros for students) and you got into all the other museums for free! We went to the Schnoops museum (free shots afterwards), a museum over eastern asian culture and religion, and the natural history museum, which is world renowned for it's exhibits. It had a lot of great stuff in there.

The public transportation here is also lovely, but i did have to spend a lot of money to get a semester card. I do love going in the subway, hundreds of feet below the city and riding around town. It's awesome.

We also did a scavenger hunt with the college one day. That was a blast. There were 4 groups of us, and just running around vienna trying to find out the answers to our quest things was so much fun. We met up with other teams, ran down streets, used street cars and subways, and did all sorts of things. We had a blast and got a ton of exercise.

We've also been around a couple of night life places and found some awesome little knooks here that are away from tourists. That, and I've really learned that the mexican food here is not real mexican. It's basically many different variations on fajitas, which is yummy, but i miss real mexican.

Well, i'm just happy, but classes are starting here really soon. I'm really nervous for my math class, which i think i'm dropping anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter. I'm doing an intership in a middle school, and I have to do a lot of teaching english. Because I told the teachers that i am an aspiring teacher, i get to teach lessons and whatnot. That's all good and dandy, but when i have to make up 9 lesson a week on top of homework and college, it's a little overwhelming. I can do it though, cause it'll be a great experience. :D

In my internship, i'm working with a big range of kids. All of them are in middle school, but some of them are just begining, some are in the integration process, and some of them are being taught completely (almost) in English. It's really interesting, but the younger ones get on my nerves a little, since they don't like to pay attention. I have already learned a lot about the educational system. One thing that is totally different is that the teachers move around, and the students stay put (most of the time), which is opposite of America.

Anyway, i have pictures, but not on my computer. I'm still without internet, so i'll work on getting pictures up sometime here soon! Check out my facebook group for photos!