Schnee

Updated photo.

It almost snowed yesterday

Hey everybody - that's right. It snowed in the higher parts of Southern Austria today; above about 500 meters or so, which means that it didn't snow on us in Wiener Neustadt (about 250m), but it really wanted to. This is good news because snow is great and last winter there was hardly any snowfall. I took this picture a couple weeks ago from the balcony of my school in Semmering, and those are the still-green ski slopes. In the meantime, before the white stuff comes, the weather has taken a turn for the worse. Cloudy, drizzling, windy and about 40 degrees describes an average day now: Have a look.

School is going very well. I am getting into the groove of teaching and the kids seem to be warming up to me and talking more than they did at the start. Both of my schools have their Maturaball coming up, which is basically a senior prom, but it specifically celebrates the students in their final year who have to take the Matura - a big test they have to pass to get into any University. I think I will be going to both events with my colleagues.

And I almost got hit by a car yesterday on my bike. Up until that point, the vast majority of drivers I have encountered have been very respectful of bike traffic - most of the time, though, it is not really an issue because the bike lanes constitute a separate traffic network. Anyway, I was entering a traffic circle after I had waited for all cars to exit it - the designated bike lanes end at these circles and they are open to all traffic. As I started riding around it, some guy pulled out right in front of me and just snuck by. That made me nervous enough, but then the car behind him also drove into the circle. I knew I would have to do something quick, and with a rush of adrenaline I turned sharply and hit the brakes. My back tire slipped on the wet pavement and I basically did a power slide and ended up about a foot away from said car's tire. Thankfully, he finally saw me as I was falling and he stopped as well. I got up without thinking and did my best to get mad at him in German. It was in broad daylight and clearly his fault. He rolled down his window and I asked him if he even saw me. He said no, apologized and asked if I was ok. My heart was racing, so even if I had been hurt I probably wouldn't have noticed. Still in the middle of the traffic circle, with the guy blocking the way of several cars behind him, I made sure that my bike was still working and told him to pay more attention on the road. Only after I walked away was I able to gather my thoughts and go through what had actually happened. Although the incident was not my fault, it still makes me a little wary of traveling on two wheels. My housemates recommended a less-traveled route to the train station that I will take in the future. Anyway, everything is fine and I suffered no injuries to speak of, not even a scar. Needless to say, I feel extremely fortunate about that.

First Week as a "Teacher"

Hey everybody. This past week was the first time I got to meet my new colleagues and students at the schools. Everyone has been really nice and the teachers are all very enthusiastic about me being here and getting the students to talk. I am working with eleven teachers per week (for now), and that means I have about 180 students' names to learn. That should be fun. The students that I am teaching range in age from about 17 to 20, and when I asked some classes how old they thought I was, some actually guessed as high as 25. I told them that was a compliment. Then again, I have already been mistaken for a student in the hallways more than once. Anyway, things have gone really well so far in class. I have basically only had time to introduce myself and field questions about George Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paris Hilton, the death penalty, and whether or not I can speak German. It has been fun, and I am continually amazed with how well-behaved the students are. I suppose it helps that I am closer to their age than most teachers, not to mention that I am not even allowed to do any type of grading.

A hot topic among Austrian teachers recently has been the Education Ministry's proposed overhaul of the school system. As it stands now, all Austrian students go to a Volksschule, which is akin to an Elementary school. When the students are ten years old, their teachers determine whether to send them to a Gymnasium, after which many go on to study at universities, or to a Hauptschule, after which most students go on to start apprenticeships for mostly blue-collar careers or go to trade schools. This decision is made based on the students' performance in school up until the age of 10, and switching between the Hauptschule track and the Gymnasium track is not easy. The proposal would create Gesamtschulen, where all students, regardless of how well they did in elementary school, would go until they were at least 15 or so. I work with students and teachers within the Gymnasium side of the school system, and most of the people I have spoken to oppose the change. The proposal has yet to be voted on in Vienna. I'll let you all know what happens.

Tonight I am going up to Vienna to meet a couple new friends. We are going to the "lange Nacht der Museen" which means, as you can probably guess, the "long night of the Museums". Basically, we pay 10 Euro for the whole night and then we can go into as many of Vienna's museums as we want to until 2AM. It should be fun.

Hope all is well with everybody. I'd love to hear from you, so drop me a line when you get a chance.