The Blue Danube Waltz

I attended the HTL's Maturaball last night. HOW AWESOME WAS IT!?!? Answer: VERY!

As I arrived, the school leavers were doing a waltz-type dance. All the guys looked smart in their red ties and suits and the girls looked pretty with their hair up and elegant white dresses.



I sat with one of my teachers, her 2 nieces and their friend and they were all really nice and spoke English when I didn't understand!



We all agreed that the band playing in the main room was dodgy



so went down to the disco room to dance for a while. I didn't really like it though 'cause it was really hot and smoky and I didn't know any of the songs.

When we returned, there was 'Tool Time's Got Talent'! There were some singers:



Some traditional male dancers:



Some cowboys:



and of course:



yep, you guessed it, THRILLER!

Really enjoyed watching them all perform - everyone was really talented! I wanted to go congratulate them all on their performances but I didn't know who exactly was in the performances.... There were pupils from the HTL who I recognised but they didn't take part in anything and I saw lots of pupils from the HBLA and HIB, a couple of which were definitely in a performance! I was SO CONFUSED! But despite this confusion, I managed to have a nice chat with a few of the pupils I recognised.

As a note: Maturaballs rule!

♫ She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes... ♪

The first Friday since coming back after Christmas, I was invited to go to Saalbach to see the annual 'Mountain Attack' race, where hundreds of skiers take part in a 6-mountain uphill hike and downhill ski. Anstrengend! The skiers start in the centre of Saalbach, run to the bottom of the first mountain (Schattberg), put on their skis and begin the exhausting climb up.





As mere spectators, we took the cable car to the top of Schattberg where we later would meet the skiers at the end of their first climb. Being slightly scared of heights, getting into a little glass box with 5 other people and dangling from a rather thin looking piece of string, wasn't exactly comfortable but there was a good view of the village and of the skiers. Looking straight down was a mistake though!





After around 35/40 minutes, the first skiers reached the top of the mountain. They all looked like it was a stroll in the park! I would've been on my hands and knees at this point! At around the 50 minute mark, my teacher's husband appeared so we cheered and encouraged him.




We went back down to village in order to get food and went to THE poshest hotel restaurant I've ever been in. The chairs were so posh, my teacher's sister insisted I had a photo in one. What a princess!



Since we'd been up the mountain and in the restaurant, the centre of Saalbach had been transformed. Instead of a cobbled highstreet, there was now a piste! And the skiers ended the race by coming down this piste and turning the corner to meet the TV reporters.



So, after seeing this and the excitement it created, I have decided skiing doesn't seem that uninteresting any more! I want to give it a go. Even though it looks scary (the cable car went over a black piste, which was basically vertical...) and I'll fall over lots, I feel less apprehensive about shelling out for skiing gear and more inclined to learn.

Oh, and I also spoke more German than I've spoken in a long time. SUPER!

♪ This Means Nothing to Me.... Oh, Vienna! ♫

Last weekend, I ventured to the capital of Austria, Vienna. Anne, one of the main people involved in TEA (Teachers of English in Austria, not just a group that really, REALLY likes a cup of Earl Grey) had sent an email round the Salzburg Teaching assistants inviting us to join her for a party in Vienna. I'd kinda forgotten about this email as it had been sent in October (I think.. Or i might just be very forgetful!) but Ali reminded me and was so glad she did because I ended up having a really fun weekend!

Organized to get the train from Salzburg with Ali and we got on the big international train which travels from Munich to Budapest. Unfortunately because it was the big international train, it was packed and so we traipsed up and down the aisles for AGES before eventually deciding to split up and find our own seats. Typical! The one time I go somewhere with someone, we can't sit together! Luckily Ali found us both seats pretty near each other and the person next to her got off at Linz, so I joined her for the rest of the journey. It took around 5 hours altogether to get from home to Vienna.

FIRST IMPRESSION: Vienna = proper city! Immediately outside the train station, there's big billboards, large roads with traffic lights, tram stops and pedestrian crossing and plenty of global, well-known brand shops.

Ali and I were hungry and we saw the yellow 'M' of the Mecca of fast food. Was so tasty as I hadn't eaten for such a long time!

We went back to the train station after to meet up with the 'Tirolians': Elina, Sam, Kerry, Betsy and Suzy then we went our separate ways... Ali and Suzy were having a St Andrews get-together and I joined the other to go to Anne's house. However, as they hadn't eaten yet, I somehow ended up in the second restaurant of the evening! As I didn't REALLY feel like a second meal, I had a 'Wiener-Mädl torte' instead. White chocolate, sponge cake and vanilla creme.... HEAVEN!!!

FIRST IMPRESSION OF ANNE'S HOUSE: Amazingly massive and grand! Anne was so nice and welcoming, the first thing she said was: 'I Have one rule: Make yourself at home!'.

Met Rachel and Pavel (a Polish assistant, teaching English in Rachel's town) in the kitchen and for the rest of the night, waited for the others to arrive. Pam, Karen, Walter and ... someone who's name I've forgotten :S all arrived throughout the evening and we spent time catching up and hearing about each others experiences.

DAY 2
Woke early - lot of time to explore! We split into groups because everyone wanted to do different things and so walked towards Hofburg with the Tirolians. We passed the Rathaus, where a large but very tourist-y Christmas market was but we didn't have time to look around.





At Hofburg, we went round the Porcelain Museum and the Sisi Museum. Porcelain was pretty boring. Some facts were interesting, but after seeing one set of plates, you don't really need to see 700 other sets! :S


The Sisi museum on the other hand, was really interesting! It was amazing to walk around the living quarters of this iconic Queen and learn about her troubled history. One of my favourite items on exhibition was the syringe filled with cocaine which was used to 'cure' menstrual pains! LOL!

After this, we walked back into the town centre where we had some pizza and saw a really talented artist spray painting amazing sci-fi landscapes! His name is Joel Chavez so check him out!





After marvelling at the artists skills for half an hour while he created another work of art, we went to the Sacher Cafe. This is the place where the world famous Sachertorte was created. It's probably the poshest cafe I have EVER been in, with a cloakroom and the most polite waiters/waitresses in the world (and there was a 30 min queue outside)! The Sacher torte was delicious - I'd defo recommend a visit here.


Mmmmmmm Sachertorte!!!

On the way back to Anne's, we went round two other Chrismtas Markets - One at the Museumsquartier (Maria Theresien-Platz) and one at Spittelberg. Viele Geschenke were bought here!!!

We got back at 7 and more people arrived: lots of TEA members from all over Austria and a few second year TAs, all of whom I'd never met before. We were joined by more 1st years as well: Ali, Suzy, Emily, Nora and Lars from Salzburg. Had a few drinks, sang Christmas carols and ate food together. Really enjoyed it! Met a few cool new people and had some interesting chats! :D

SECOND IMPRESSION: Anne is THE BEST! She gave us a buffet and wine/beer, put 15 of us up for the night and made sure we were really well accommodated in general! Definitely one of the most generous people I know, especially as she didn't really know us before that weekend.

JOURNEY HOME: Got the 1.15 train with Ali. Managed to get a comfy seat across the aisle from Ali, but think we were both too knackered/hung over to talk! I know I was knackered at least!
At Salzburg, we got on a train that went through Hallein. The trains were running slow anyway, but this train stopped at EVERY station along the line, so I ended up missing my connection at Schwarzach! I waited for 30 mins, got on the train and was soon in Saalfelden. The majority of passengers got off here (I guess coz they were school kids and probs go to the schools I teach in!) so took the taxis waiting outside. How annoying! I was going to walk all the way home, but it was soooooo cold I rang a taxi.

All in all the journey took 7 HOURS from door to door! HOW RIDICULOUS! Too long for me!

As a final note, here is a children's shop in Vienna:

My Weekend In Innsbruck

On the 27th, I went to Innsbruck for Sam's 21st Birthday Gathering. Was really good and had a fun time as I hadn't seen any of the assistants (apart from Kieran) since the induction course and I was reminded that everyone is SO nice and friendly! Elina was kind enough to put me up for the night, along with Melissa and Abi, and they were all really chatty - felt like I hadn't missed out on that much (which i thought i might have, given my lack of doing many social things!). Interesting to hear about their teaching experiences, though and how they're settling in to other parts of Austria - think we're all in a similar situation, having different styles of classes but also different outside of the school.

We went to the Christmas market and had some Glühwein - kept my cup as a souvenier! :D - then met up with Ross and Chris and went back to Elina's to get ready. Had a bit of an adventure getting to the place we were going! Chris left early to meet Sam and the others at the train station and he took them to the Hofgarten. We went with Elina there but she'd never been to the tent/bar place there! So we spent around 20 mins walking round, shouting 'SAM!!!!???' before we eventually found the right way to go. Part of that story may have been a little exaggerated... So we sat inside the tent bit of the bar for a while, freezing and eventually decided to go inside the actual building. Sam had to leave early for her train home, which was a shame, but enjoyed catching up with the other TA's Helen, Betsy, Hayley and Kerry and the other new people I'd never met before Chris and Nathan.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend and will definitely visit these people more often! I hadn't laughed so much in a long time!

A Tribute to Leslie Nielsen

On the 29th November, I heard that Leslie Nielsen had died (aged 84). This upset me tremendously. He was an utter LEGEND and his spoof films are so funny, they have determined my own sense of humour. The Naked Gun (and the original Police Squad series) made fun of American cop dramas and Nielsen's serious portrayal as the bumbling Frank Drebin made the whole thing much funnier than if he had been played in a slapstick manner. Airplane! is another classic film and although Nielsen is not the main character, his lines are probably the most memorable parts of the film. His more recent movies were a little bit of a sell-out (Spanish Movie - he has 2/3 minutes on screen) but who cares? He's AMAZING and deserves any role he wants! The comedy world will 'shirley' miss Leslie Nielsen, as will I...

My Quotes:
Airplane:
Stewardess: Surely you can't be serious?!
Doctor (Nielsen): I am serious. And don't call me Shirley

Doctor: We need to get these passengers to a hospital.
Stewardess: What is it?
Doctor: A big white building with patients inside. But that's not important right now.

Doctor: I just wanna say, Good Luck! We're all counting on you.

Naked Gun
Frank Drebin (Nielsen): Nice beaver!
Jane: Thanks! I just had it stuffed.

Frank's inner monologue: Who was this character in the hospital? And why was he trying to kill Nordberg? Did Ludwig lie to me? I didn't have any proof, but somehow, I didn't entirely trust him either. Why was the 'I Luv You' not listed in Ludwig's records? And if it was, did he know about it? And if he didn't, who did? And where the hell was I?

Police Squad!
Det. Frank Drebin (Nielsen): [running gag] Cigarette?
Various: Yes, I know.

Superhero Movie
Uncle Albert (Nielsen): Remember, with great power comes...
Rick Riker: Great responsibility?
Uncle Albert: Well, I was gonna say bitches, but if you want to be a virgin for the rest of your life...

Scary Movie 3
Agent Thompson: Sir! Step away from the window!
President Harris (Nielsen): What? Did I forget to put my pants on again?

A Realisation

There are numerous times when I really want an Xbox or a Playstation. I see the adverts for the latest games and accessories and I get a little jealous – they look so much fun!

But today I realised that not having a games console is a good thing. I was talking to Chris, and was telling him about the pianos in basement of the boarding house I live in. I’ve been there a couple of times to have a bit of a play and at the weekend, tried to teach myself Fireflies by Owl City (which is coming along quite nicely!). I enjoy doing things like this as I love music and enjoy trying to learn such an artistic, respectable skill. It was only after Chris said that I enjoy learning whereas he enjoys playing his Xbox that it hit me how great it is not to have a games console.

If I had an Xbox or a Playstation (they are the only consoles I’d want), I would ALWAYS spend my time on them! They are a great way of relaxing and keeping you entertained but at the same time, it’s a way of wasting time; you don’t gain any transferable skills from them, you don’t learn anything that can bring happiness to others and it’s scary how much time you actually spend on them without realising it. Basically, people are becoming zombies because of an addiction to simple pleasure.
Learning to play a song on the piano in comparison, takes time and practice but in return you gain a massive feeling of satisfaction and success. So if learning an art is the alternative to becoming a slave to the game, then I guess I will continue to take advantage of the pianos on offer here and stop complaining that I don’t have a console.

Fun Sunday!!

Had an extremely productive Sunday yesterday. I retuned my radio to all the fabulous Austrian pop music stations I could find, tried to play the piano for about an hour, went on a walk up the hill where I live and fixed my hard drive! Well good!
On the first day here, Gerhard told me there was a nice walk up the hill to a hermitage and I presumed he meant along a road but I deiscovered yesterday, there’s a whole hive of paths up there! All of them are scenic, woodland-y routes along earth paths and there was even a notice board with all the information about these paths on it in German and English. I followed the most obvious looking path and managed to get to the big building halfway up the mountain you can see from the centre of town. This is Schloss Lichtenberg. I would’ve carried on to the hermitage but I left the start time of my walk a little late and I wanted to watch the Arsenal-Everton match online (we luckily held onto a 2-1 lead!) so I turned round after reaching here and returned to my house.









My portable hard drive decided to break the other night. Every time I plugged it in, Autoplay wouldn’t load up and the drive didn’t appear in ‘My Computer’, only in Device Management so it was impossible to load the files stored on it. This frustrated me so much! I checked online and tried various solutions, but none of them worked. After a day or so of getting angry, throwing it against the wall etc. I had a look in the box it came in (which I’d forgotten I’d brought with me). In it was a disk and a screwdriver. Dad recommended reinstalling driver software but when I loaded disc up, there were too many file names and paths for me to know exactly which one I’d want so I did nothing. I thought I might as well have a look inside, in case there were any obvious flaws. So I unscrewed the end and pulled it out. The actual disc part was still inside. I couldn’t see anything wrong with the end bit so pushed it back in, trying to be careful not to damage anything. But when I plugged the HDD into my laptop again, the light didn’t even come on…. OOPS! :S so I unscrewed it again, pulled the end out and slid the disc bit out as well. This time I reconnected the ‘teeth’ of the disc into the slots of the end bit, plugged it all back in and it worked. Amazingly Autoplay ran straight away, ‘Panda!Panda! (G:)’ came up and I was so happy!!! Have no real idea how I fixed it, but if anyone wants me to look at their technical equipment, you know where to come in future!