""Oktoberfest"" and Orientation Week

An eventful week!!

So, it looks like I already have a lot of catching up to do on the blog. The only reason I'm updating this now is I start teaching TOMORROW! SO much has happened since I last posted. I also realized I am not very good about taking photos so many of these photos are courtesy of other TAs. This batch has a lot of photos from the other American TA in Villach, Karen.

OKTOBERFEST

So this past weekend I attended the Villacher Oktoberfest. In the past this was originally celebrated to honor the wedding of “royalty” in Bavaria way back in 1810. Obviously since then, Oktoberfest has become famous for being a huge fair full of Bavarian food, large steins of beer, and Tracht (dirndls, lederhosen, and other outfits constructed as “traditional”). Because of this fame which has nothing to do with dead married people any more, a few nearby areas began to hold festivals for a few days overlapping with the 16-day Oktoberfest in Munich. Villach is one of those places, and even titled it “Villacher Oktoberfest.” Villach has it's own festival in late July/early August called the “Villacher Kirchtag”, but why NOT have another excuse for pretty dirndls and delicious beer 6 weeks later?

So naturally myself and some other TAs in Villach and Klagenfurt attended one afternoon

Of course the obligatory tent, large Bier, and Dirndl pic

And now just the Dirndl

Note too, the huge Austrian flag/banners everywhere. There was also a large flag of the town shield/coat of arms. Which seems a little strange (or involves a trip to the museum/asking around as to WHY a severed bird leg).

ORIENTATION

From Monday to Friday this week I was at Orientation. The location, Saalbach-Hinterglemm was supposed to be central for everyone teaching in the western half of Austria.

Above is the map of Austria showing where I am in relation to the camp. It's located IN the alps (my town is south of them) and in the winter is a popular skiing area. Orientation was a LOT of fun and probably the only time I'd get to see so many other TAs in one place at once.

The group was full of characters. Our “teachers” were all wonderful. The one assigned to us was Hans. He loved playing up essentialized “Austria-ness” which was infectious.

Here's Hans walking up the Alps, in Lederhosen, probably yodeling

Though Tuesday was mostly filled with lessons, the other days were full of some interesting experiences.

Wednesday afternoon we hiked up a local mountain. It was pretty strenuous since I'm not used to hiking AT ALL. But it was beautiful and so worth it. There was a little restaurant near the top, where a bunch of TAs played music and danced. All in all it was very gemuetlich.

I also geeked about the cows and sheep (their wool will be mine!!) just hanging out around the mountain

That evening there was also a hired Folk Dancing group. One part of this was the Schuplattler section, invoking a “traditional” dance of slapping one's thighs, and stomping, and hitting one's shoes. There were lots of other dances, and the dancers frequently grabbed members of the audience to go out on the dance floor. Since I was wearing my dirndl, I was probably and easy target. I didn't have my camera with me, so these pics are all courtesy of Karen

I have since done very basic surface research about Schuhplattler. I assumed what we were watching that night had its basis in something very old and variable. But had since been transformed with the expansion of the Austrian Empire, forces of nationalism, AND tourism both generations ago and especially in recent years. Sort of accurate without any specifics, I guess.

Factoring into these strands of reinventing this dance, though, are women and LGBT groups also laying claim to this. There are a few all women groups, when the dance had been previously only for men. Something I had NO idea about was how some members of the LGBT community here have also laid claim to the dance. For instance, in 1997 a group from Munich formed calling themselves the "Schwuhplattler" (Schwuh is sort-of Bayerish-German for gay). I can skip over anthropological gushing and rambling about identity politics, but in short, I think this is the coolest thing ever.

Anyway, here's the website for "d'Schwuhplattler" which also gives a good brief history of the dance and its ever-changing forms and contexts (in English)

http://www.schwuhplattler.de/index.en.htm

I just graduated from studying anthropology, of course I would analyze a dance that only made up an hour and a half of my week =P.

Back on track: meeting the other TAs and people from the program was amazing. Sad I probably won't get to see all of them in one place ever again, but I'll manage. I'm glad it'll be easy to meet up with many of them in my Austrian state, at least + have some people to visit when I want to travel.

I should go to bed soon since tomorrow IS my first day of teaching, and you'll all get a very different sort of blog post very soon. Bis bald!

Time for Exploring!

Hey everyone =)

I'm slowly settling into my new life in Villach, and it's been pretty great so far.

There were a few bureaucratic things to take care of in the beginning, most of which went smoothly, so I had plenty of time to explore new new home.

Whenever someone move to a new town in Austria, they have to fill out a "Meldezettl", basically let the town know they live there. Little did I know, they closed at noon on Friday, my first full day in town. So I will have to take care of that once this is posted. It should be pretty straightforward (I hope!)

Opening a bank account wasn't too difficult either. There's a bank literally across the street from me. I filled out the paperwork (never mind I don't really know financial terms in German that well) and meet with them this coming Friday to get my ATM card.

Getting a phone wasn't too bad either, though a little round about. Getting new, basic, cheap phone at a place called "Handywelt" (Cell phone world) isn't the right place though. Instead I had to go to an office/school/? supply store called "Libro". It was a bit chaotic since it was the first week of school for everyone and it was PACKED with kids scrambling to get all the exact folders and pens for each class. But now I have a pre-paid phone. Another plus is it only costs money (kind of a lot) to send texts or make calls NOT receive them.

Grocery shopping was manageable too. Even though the grocery store, Interspar, near my house is HUGE I somehow remembered enough from my few times shopping to make it out of there alive and with tasty ingredients. Its really nice to be maybe a 2-3 minute walk away, too.

Aside from a wonderful Saturday evening with Megan, a former TA who stayed in Austria, and her Austrian boyfriend and friend, I've been doing lots of wandering around Villach.

And now the fun part...pictures!

Breakfast: Tea, amazing bread, delicious cheese (Bergkaese), SPECK (like bacon but smoked and somehow even tastier)

View from the other side of my apartment. Coincidentally, those mountains also form the borders of Italy and Slovenia. I small a short train-adventure in my near future.

A view of the Hauptplatz, an area that's car-free and has lots of shops, cafes, and all sorts of cool stuff

Part of the Altstadt, the oldest part of town. I WILL check out the Stadt Museum there!

One of my favorite parts of the city so far is that it's on the Drau River, which is gorgeous. There's also (no joke!) a Gail River just a few miles away. 

For my social justice friends: Compare and contrast what you know about Sarasota benches (purposely designed to make it difficult to stretch out/sleep-- or else non-existent) with THESE in Villach.

Visiting Megan, Matthias, and Tom Saturday night was also lots of fun (and full of delicious chili). I played my first game of Risk--and won. Hope to see them again soon and can't wait to meet the TAs coming to town soon!

Arrival in Austria!

I am writing this from a beautiful cafe on the Drau River (one of the few places I've found with Wifi). Aka... I'M IN AUSTRIA!!

Time for catch ups?

I left Sarasota on September 4^th after selling my car. This gave me a week to just relaaaax and spend time with family and do some last minute preparations. It was really great to be able to visit my sister, currently attending school in Tallahassee—especially since I rarely get to spend time with her.

The last few days also involved a lot of repacking: Fitting everything in the suitcase wasn't too difficult, but staying below the weight limit was. And with only a small backpack and purse as extra storage, it was an interesting exercise (and I definitely wore my winter boots on the plane).

My parents took me to the Tampa airport the morning on September 11^th. I am very glad I got to spend some time and say my good byes before heading off through security

Though I arrived on time (in fact earlier than originally scheduled), the flight was a mini-adventure in itself.

I was supposed to fly from Tampa to Chicago to Madrid to Vienna, arriving at 11ish.

About 5 minutes after boarding was supposed to begin, there was a mechanical problem with the plane and they had to change my flight to Tampa-Miami-Duesseldorf-Vienna, arriving at 10:20.

And that plan worked to get me there. My luggage was not so lucky. It arrived today, Saturday. About 48 hours later. Luckily squishing everything in my backpack was a good idea: when I woke up, I had a brand new outfit to wear plus plenty of extra socks and underwear.

After landing in Vienna, I took a bus to a Vienna train station, and then it was a 4 hour trip to Villach. Once in town, the skies greeted me with a double rainbow, which was pretty awesome.

(The double rainbow showed up right after I took this pic, unfortunately)

There my Betreuungsleherin (teacher I'm working under) picked me up from the train station, took me to get a few very basic groceries, helped me get to my apartment, and took me out for a small bite to eat. And then I slept for 10.5 hours.

Stay tuned for more posts about ACTUALLY being in Villach! It's been great so far.

As a quick spoiler, I present to you the view of the city from my bedroom window:

Attempting to Dress like a Grown-up

Starting October 1st, my job overseas will entail being in a classroom four days a week, imparting knowledge and wisdom to impressionable Austrian High Schoolers. One challenging component of this apart from planning lessons and holding a class's attention includes dressing the part.

For some TAs this might not be so difficult. Me? Not so much. My past four years were spent studying anthropology at New College. Its a wonderful public liberal arts college in Florida. I learned a lot, had memorable experiences, and met some fantastic people. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

During my time there I guess I grasped conceptually what sort of power choosing certain apparal can have or project. You can perform gender or index certain groups whether meaning to or not. If I wanted, I can talk to my classes about American school dress codes and all the different ways they intersect discourses of race, class, and gender in the states. (Actually.... now I really really want to do this lesson.)

But actually applying these musings to my own life and projecting the role of a teaching assistant?

Me, my second year at New College. "Special" top courtesy of the school's "Free Store"

That needed work.

Luckily I was fortunate to find a summer job that would help me with just this. For three months I worked at the Habitat ReStore' clothing boutique in my town. In addition to a reliable schedule and enough funds to get me to my first paycheck in Austria, it also gave me access to new (used) clothing. LOTS of it. And a dressing room.

Since summer is my town's slow season, I had some time to try on various outfits and see HOW different clothing fit on me. The clothing from there was also CHEAP. While I didn't find everything there, it gave me ideas on how to prepare. And I ended up still finding most things second hand.

I figured out:
-I don't know how to coordinate patterns yet, so ALL THE SOLIDS
-Lots of neutrals + bold, cool colors is what I LIKE to wear
-Scarves are the best things ever--especially since I can wear them more than 10 days a year
-Sweaters (errr, one so far) + waist belts= definite pulls things together
-I need to wear petite pants AND  tops (especially the more professional ones) as much as possible. Since petite tops are usually only found with higher-end brands, scouring thrift stores is an important skill to have

If any future TAs are stalking this blog, hopefully my recent knowledge can be of use to you.

Now for narcissistic pics of  sample teaching outfits!