As I got ready for my time teaching in
Austria, there were a lot of things I had to keep in mind. One of
which was the rather strange pay schedule. Unlike most jobs in the
United States, my paycheck came once a month instead of every two
weeks. Another issue with the program was that most assistants don't
receive their first paycheck until November 15th. Our
teaching contract+ filling out all the paperwork starts on October
1st—but for October pay info to be processed it needed
to be turned in in mid-September. So once November 15th
rolled around, lots of TAs all around the country received two months
salary all at once.
^ That was basically my life some weeks ago.
It was great. Even better? The 15th fell on a Friday
Since I finally had money, it was time
to do a little travel!
Bamberg, Germany (November 15th-17th)
Luckily in my time here, I already made
a few solid friendships. Two of the people I spend the most time with
are Stefan and Karen.
Karen is another American TA who lives
in Villach. She's great for rescuing me from my landlord's laundry
habits (long story) and accepting my obsession with knitting
(us—watching a Norwegian knitting
marathon show)
Another friend here is Stefan. He moved
to Villach about a year and a half ago from Germany, and has been
instrumental in me meeting other new-ish people in Austria outside
the group of Tas.
Stefan is from a little village near
Bamberg and wanted to go back for the weekend, so he invited me and
Karen along!
It's about a 5 hour car trip from
Villach to Bamberg (8 hours by train) which we filled with lots of
singalongs.
We stayed at his parents' house. They
and Stefan's sister were super nice and welcoming.
That Saturday Stefan went to visit some
of his old friends while Karen and I explored the city. It just so
happened that one of Karen's good friends also lived in Bamberg, so
we hung out with her and she showed us all around the city.
I have to say, it was VERY different
from what I'm used to in Austria. Bamberg's influence was stronger
centuries before Austria's was. In fact, at one point in time Villach
belonged to the diocese of Bamberg. I definitely made an effort to
take pictures of the Michaelsberg Monastery, something I remember
learning about in one of my old professor's classes.
Even though Bamberg has about the same
population of Villach now, it certainly seems much bigger. Maybe
because this part of Germany is much more densely populated? Who
knows? Anyway, great city; I wouldn't be opposed to tagging along
with Stefan again.
Vienna, Austria (November 22nd-24th)
While Bamberg for me was a place of new
people and new sights, Vienna was all about nostalgia.
I had visited Vienna a few times before
during my exchange year
And did some of the touristy sights. So
this time I was able to go to ones I missed at a more liesurely pace.
More importantly though, it was super
nostalgia. I got to meet up with all sorts of wonderful people!
I got to meet up with Amelia!!
Amelia and I were great friends all
through New College. She put up with me when I first got back to the
States and wouldn't shut up about Austria. So this marriage of New
College+ Austria was a long time coming.
While we were both indecisive and
terrible with directions, we still managed to see some good sights
including the Modern Art Museum (where only AFTER I left did I
realize how much fun it would be to screw with people and sit and
start knitting in the middle of the exhibit halls),
The Natural History Musuem–with the
Venus of Willendorf! Also, me nerding out way too much about HOW
knowledge was represented in the museum—both the older parts and
newly renoved parts. *Heterotopia-gasm*
Plus Amelia taking us to a ballet—3
Euro for standing room—not bad at all.
Not to mention a bunch of Christmas
markets+ Gluehwein
Another part of my visit included
finally meeting up with classmates from exchange! While I saw my host
families last time I traveled around Austria, I didn't meet up with
any classmates. This time I got to meet up with Eva for most of the
afternoon and Petra for some of the evening. A lot of fun catching
up—seeing what changed, what didn't and just having that time to
hang out. I never thought my New College and exchange parts of my
life would be so neatly reconciled, but there you go.
And I'm looking forward for a few weeks
from now when I'll be BACK in Vienna—meeting up with my mom and
sister!
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