These are some pictures from the past few weeks. The first one is me sitting at the desk of a former
Bundeskanzler - October 26 is the "National Holiday" of Austria and several government offices in Vienna were open to the public. On the same day the Austrian military, or the
Bundesheer, put on an exhibition with Helicopters, fighter jets, grenades and guns for the public to check out (as seen in the next photo). It was a little odd. There were a fair share of protesters there as well. I think the goal of hosting the exhibition was to promote recruiting. Most Austrian 18 year old men opt for civil service instead of military duty. In the next shot I am dancing at the
Maturaball of the school in
Semmering. I may have borrowed the suit from my roommate but that cheesy smile is all mine. My dance partner is Bettina, a friend of mine and a French language teaching assistant who lives in Vienna and teaches in Wiener
Neustadt. The ball was a lot of fun. Plenty of music - good and bad - dancing, food, and some champagne too. It was a bit like a senior prom, but a lot of the students brought their families along and many of my fellow teachers were there as well. I stayed at the ball with some students and another teacher until early in the morning. We got to see a great sunrise over the mountains. The last few pictures are from an afternoon of hiking with a couple colleagues (on the right of the first photo - Reinhardt and Peter, respectively). It was a gorgeous day and, as you can see the snow has melted. We could see our school in Semmering on the other side of the valley and there was a great view of the
Rax, the big snow-capped mountain in the second pic.
Last night I got my first taste of the nightlife in Wiener Neustadt. I saw a lot of my students in the bars I went to and we went into a pub called Clumsy's and I can only describe its theme as being 'the english-speaking world'. Among the kitsch on the walls were the flags of different anglophone countries, Guinness posters and, coincidentally, a North Carolina license plate. Bis gleich.
These are some pictures from the past few weeks. The first one is me sitting at the desk of a former Bundeskanzler - October 26 is the "National Holiday" of Austria and several government offices in Vienna were open to the public. On the same day the Austrian military, or the Bundesheer, put on an exhibition with Helicopters, fighter jets, grenades and guns for the public to check out (as seen in the next photo). It was a little odd. There were a fair share of protesters there as well. I think the goal of hosting the exhibition was to promote recruiting. Most Austrian 18 year old men opt for civil service instead of military duty. In the next shot I am dancing at the Maturaball of the school in Semmering. I may have borrowed the suit from my roommate but that cheesy smile is all mine. My dance partner is Bettina, a friend of mine and a French language teaching assistant who lives in Vienna and teaches in Wiener Neustadt. The ball was a lot of fun. Plenty of music - good and bad - dancing, food, and some champagne too. It was a bit like a senior prom, but a lot of the students brought their families along and many of my fellow teachers were there as well. I stayed at the ball with some students and another teacher until early in the morning. We got to see a great sunrise over the mountains. The last few pictures are from an afternoon of hiking with a couple colleagues (on the right of the first photo - Reinhardt and Peter, respectively). It was a gorgeous day and, as you can see the snow has melted. We could see our school in Semmering on the other side of the valley and there was a great view of the Rax, the big snow-capped mountain in the second pic.
Last night I got my first taste of the nightlife in Wiener Neustadt. I saw a lot of my students in the bars I went to and we went into a pub called Clumsy's and I can only describe its theme as being 'the english-speaking world'. Among the kitsch on the walls were the flags of different anglophone countries, Guinness posters and, coincidentally, a North Carolina license plate. Bis gleich.
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