Hey everybody. Well, I thought spring was slowly making its way into Lower Austria, and I was thrilled. The days are getting to be normal length, the birds are chirping, and the first flowers are starting to bloom... and then, yesterday I rode my bike home from the train station in a blizzard, and today in the mountains the ski resort is making a fresh batch of artificial snow. I guess I just have to be patient. The second semester has started for me and I have several new classes. The older groups that I had last semester all have to prepare for their Matura, the big end of high school test that they need to pass in order to go to a University. I think I like teaching the younger groups anyway. We did have a vacation between the semesters, and I went to Prague with a friend. We stayed at the house of a complete stranger thanks to CouchSurfing.com. The picture was taken there.
This summer the European Championships in Soccer are being hosted by Austria and Switzerland, and the country is gearing up for it bigtime. You can buy cheap-o novelty soccer balls in pretty much any grocery store you walk into, and the Austrian team has played some big-time friendly matches in preparation for the tournament. They played Germany a couple weeks ago, losing 0-3. The result was not a surprise, but the optimism that many Austrian fans had after the game was. The next game is later in March against the Netherlands in the Ernst Happel Stadion, Wien. I've already got my tickets. To end on a good note, my team finally won the Thursday night pub quiz last week. We each took home 25 Euro. (that's almost $40 going by today's record-breaking exchange rate). Tonight we look to repeat. Wish me luck and all the best. I'd love to hear from you. Here is one more picture.
