New Years Plan: France

It's official- I just booked a flight to Paris on the 26th of December. I decided to fly because the train is actually more expensive for some odd reason, and I found a very reasonable flight. That, and it takes only two hours instead of 17. So, I'll be flying into Charles de Gaule, and then I will take the TGV to Dijon. TGV stands for "Train à Grand Vitesse", which means "Train of Great Speed". These are world famous trains which reach a top speed of 186 miles per hour. The ride from Paris to Dijon with the TGV takes about an hour and thirty minutes according to the SNCF (French National Railways) website. The regular trains take about an hour longer. My reason for going to the mustard capital of the world is to visit my dear friend Alice during her holiday. Her name is pronounced ALL-EECE. I knew her as a student at Ohio University, but she now lives and works in London. But, her parents live in Dijon, and they said I was welcome to come stay with them for awhile over the Christmas holiday. I did meet them when Alice graduated from OU, and they were very nice people, although they don't speak English. I have been brushing up on my French with my little phrasebook, since I hear the French are rather unwilling to speak foreign languages. As long as I make it through my train trip and arrive in Dijon, everything will be fine though since Alice is quite competent in English and can play the translator. I am very happy that I will be ringing in 2006 with one of my best friends in France!

Another Turkey Day Pic

Here's me making the pie crust with my makeshift rolling pin.

thanksgiving in the studentenheim

We had a turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, cranberry sauce, bread, wine, wine, wine, and some more wine. I even made a pumpkin pie! That bottle of wine you see in the picture was my rolling pin for the crust! Dinner was great, very wonderful night... but now I'm hung over and its 8:19 AM and I have to go teach. Hooray! at least its friday.

Taxi Pfluger Saves the Day

What a day! I woke up late (whoops), and rushed through my morning shower and promptly called a taxi. There are several taxi companies in town. The most popular is "Hallo Taxi", since they advertise a lot, but they really suck. There have been a few times that we've called them to go out in the evening and have to wait for 30 or 40 minutes before they come. So, in my state of hurry, I called Taxi Pfluger. The guy showed up just as I was coming out the door, and he took one look at me and said "Did you oversleep?" Thankfully, he was the coolest taxi driver EVER. I said "Umm, if you take a right here, and drop me off at the pedestrian zone through the public gardens... it's much faster". He was like "OK! Give my your taxi card!" So, he stuck the card into the reader while driving zealously through the back roads and passing semi-trucks and tractors at what most definitely was an illegal speed. I must say, it was my best commute ever! I rushed in the door, and was in class 2 seconds behind the teacher, so it worked out perfectly. If you ever come to Eisenstadt, Taxi Pfluger is highly recommendable.

One entry after the other....

Björn wrote a nice entry on his Blog about the games we play in the Studentenheim. We all look completely silly playing, thanks to the post-its on our heads. The idea is that everyone writes down the name of a person or thing and then sticks it on someone elses forehead. Then we go around asking yes/no questions to determine who we are. The sticker on my head in this picture says "Osterhase", meaning "Easter Bunny". Nina said I would have to come up with something evil for Gabi, so I wrote "Verkehrsampel" (Traffic light) for her! I remember my brother Eric coming up with this one years ago while playing "20 Questions" in the car on a long road trip. We all had a hell of a time figuring out what it was, so I thought I'd spread the love on to poor Gabi! By the way, I'm impressed with your photgraphy Björn! Keep up the good work, and maybe E-mail me larger versions of the files!

It's Snowing! Not only here, but also in Hungary

Seems like Sundays with Alexandra are becoming something of a tradition. She called me up yesterday and said "Monika and I are planning to go to Hungary for lunch tomorrow, want to come with?" Of course I said yes! She came and picked me up at 11:30, then we went to get Monika. She teaches religion and choir at the HTL, and she is also very cool. She's the one who asked me about the lyrics to an Aretha Franklin song a few months ago. Apparently, the first day I was there, I asked her if she was the Direktorin, which she is still laughing about today! She found it very flattering. So, an innocent and happy mistake :) Now there is a running joke that we call her Frau Direktor. I was hoping to get a stamp in my passport at the Hungarian border, but the control just waved us through quite unceremoniously. We went to a nice restaurant about 3 km from the border, where I think every customer was an Austrian. Of course all of the waiters speak German, and being on the border, you can pay in Euros as well. The currency of Hungary is called the Forint, and something like 240 Forint equals one euro. Of course Hungary is cheaper than here; haircuts, cigarettes, and some other things are about half the price. After leaving the restaurant we went for a quick auto-tour through the city of Sopron. It has a big city feel, and Monika described it as a mini-Vienna. All of the signs on the businesses were in Hungarian and German, and I think half of the cars there had Austrian plates. So, a true border city. I think I will have to go again the next time I need a haircut. Monika showed me where the train station is, and the hairdressers is about 2 blocks away. Then we went back to Monika's (through the border again)and had some coffee and sweets and listened to some music until about 6 o'clock. Her neighbor across the street is an old spintster that watches everything she does through the window, and sure enough she stared at us all as we got out of the car. Konstantin, the 10 year old, amused himself by spying back on her. He says he wants to be a policeman when he grows up, and needs to practice his spying apparently. A and M also told me a lot about their last English assistant, a chap named David from Wales. They said he was great at the beginning of the year, but towards the middle started show up late and unprepared all the time and looked completely tired. They said they didn't know why at first, but then found out that he was juggling at least three girlfriends in Eisenstadt, Vienna, and the Czech Republic! They all found out about each other and he had a hard time with it. I told them that this would not happen with me. Despite his laziness and tendency to be unprepared, he managed to stay for a second year. They also said that my German is better now than David's was after two years of living here. Normally they speak English with the assistants, but they said I was a rare exception in that they feel as though there is no need to speak English to me. Hooray! Therefore, all of these stories and anecdotes have been directly translated in my head. Good exercise for me!
I'm also aware that Thanksgiving is coming up. We assistants in the area are planning to meet up in the Studentenheim and make a turkey on Thursday. That should be lots of fun. Also, Ludwig in Vienna said he's planning a party for the weekend. The festivities carry on despite the distance.

Bis zum nächsten Mal meine liebe LeserInnen-
(Until next time my dear readers-)
-Arthur

Sonntag schön.... Montag Überlebt

"Beautiful Sunday.... Lived through Monday"
Sunday was very nice. One of my favorite teachers from the HTL, Alexandra, invited me to lunch at her house. She made a delicious Lasagna (although of course not as good as yours Mom :-), and did all sorts of nice things. First, she picked me up, then made some coffee, loaned me some books and films, and I played the German kids' version of Trivial Pursuit with her and her 10 year old son Konstantin. It was a wonderful day to spend a Sunday, and her teaching resources proved to be very useful in my lesson with the 4th class today. The little brats apologized to me for behaving badly last time, and they did a little better this time. For my second lesson, I actually got lost and was late to class. How embarassing! I've been here for seven weeks, and I can't remember where all the classrooms are. Ug. Monday. So, I lived through it, came home and took a nap, and woke up at 5:30 to discover that it's dark already. Blah.
Thanks to all for sending me so many emails recently- sometimes the box is (English.... how does one say "ständig"?? *thinks*) PERPETUALLY empty and other times it overflows. So ist das Leben (such is life).
Until next time....
-Herr Professor Cornwell :-P

A Picture

Gabi snapped this picture of Sandra, Myself, and Ines in the kitchen. Don't we look happy???

Furthering my Education....

Hanging out at the Studentenheim, my friends are constantly talking about their marketing professor. The class is held in English and taught by a Czech woman who doesn't speak any German. They always complain about how she is impossible to understand, and that she doesn't understand anyone who can speak English well- only the people who have very limited capabilities of expression in the language. Being the troublemaker that I am, I decided I had to find out for myself. Yes, I woke up at 8:00 today, specifically to go to a Marketing lecture at a university I'm not even enrolled in. I met Sandra, Björn, Gabi, and Nina outside the Heim before their class. They are all eagerly awaiting this blog entry. So, going into the class, I noticed that European lecture halls have a different feel to them, just like I had seen in films. They are all very vertical, such that you have to climb steep steps and each row is substantially higher than the one before it. People started sifting in, looking bored and tired, and the professor wouldn't start until more people arrived. Niko the Finn came in and looked at me funny and said "What are you doing here?". The prof waited for about 10 minutes before starting up the computer and starting her lecture about branding. She did indeed have a very thick accent, but she was nice enough and I found her vocabulary to be sufficient. There were definitely a few funny moments though. For example, she was talking about how a company can be named after the founder's family, which can be good because it has the ring of a personal promise. "Buttaaa.... if your name means something bad... do not name a company this". At this point she wrote the word "Death" on the board, and the crossed it out. What?? Who is named death??? She went on, talking about how a corporate name should be easy to pronounce and the same across borders. I decided to mention an exception to her, the fact that the grocery store chain "Aldi" (German) is actually called "Hofer" in Austria. As Sandra predicted, she didn't understand a word I said. Looking around the classroom, everyone was playing solitaire on their laptops (Gabi!! I saw you doing that! And no I won't let you copy my notes!!), reading magazines, talking to their neighbor, or doing a crossword. Of course the situation was funny and all, but I did begin to feel a little sympathy for the poor teacher.... She did seem nice enough after all... and that certaintly can't be easy for her. Of course, this is speaking from the new-teacher-myself perspective. Also funny: I signed my name on the attendance list, which will probably cause some confusion in the main office. WHO is Arthur Cornwell??? Björn said I should go to the office later and ask for a certificate proving my attendance (A Bestätigung- one gets one of these for almost everything in Austria... like crossing the street, for example. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration....). Everyone thinks the situation was very funny. Good times.

Stayin' Alive

Today was a pretty good day, all things considered. My activities in the 4th level class went over well, although the class is difficult to control. Being the younger ones, they always want to test their limits. Afterwards I talked to Frau Professor Soleder about it, and said that I have a hard time being strict because it simply isn't part of my personality. She urged me to channel the darker side of my personality. I think I can do that :) The next lesson was lots of fun, because the 7th level class is very intelligent and engaged. They had asked me at the beginning of the year what my favorite band was, and if I could share some music with them sometime. I devoted my entire lesson to two Cake songs: "Dime" and "Palm of your Hand". They really loved it and we got plenty of discussion out of it. I was planning to have them write a little mini music review at the end, but they talked about it so much that I actually ran out of time! That was wonderful.... normally I feel like I'm grasping for things to do at the end. Still feeling the need to stay active, I decided to go ice-skating after class. They have a nice setup at the Sportzentrum, with two outdoor rinks. The rental skates were a bit expensive, and they were also too narrow and the arch too high. Ouch!! I had lots of fun there, but some blisters to show for it. I think I've decided what I want for Christmas: Mom and Dad, send me my skates!! They're in a box in the basement. That's all I want. Seriously. Well, that and maybe some crunchy Jif.

Vacation Over!!

Hello All...
I've been spending my Sunday trying not to get depressed about the gray weather and the fact that I'm really starting to feel quite homesick. Yesterday I felt melancholy all day and sat in my room doing a lot of nothing until Sandra rang and invited me to go out with her and the gang. I decided that was probably a better alternative than staring at the ceiling, so I agreed. We went to a new place called CEBU, which is a funky little cocktail bar that looks like a tiki lounge. And guess what I found there.... a real American-style gin Martini!! It was delicious. Also, its a lot more comfortable than Mendez because the music isn't so loud that you have to scream to have a conversation. In Mendez I find myself saying "WAS?????" a lot of the time. I think I have a new favorite locale. Well, that was yesterday... and today is Sunday. I was starting to feel blue again at the beginning of the day, so I decided to take a proactive approach and go for a nice long recreational bike ride. I went over to the next village, called St. Georgen, which was very quaint and pleasant with its old buildings and lots of tractors and smoke coming from the chimneys. I also swung by the swimming pool just to check out the hours, and probably would have gone back for a swim if I hadn't had so much to do in preparation for tomorrow. In theory, exercise and physical activity are great antidotes to depression. I did feel better after my ride. Back home I had to read and correct about 30 essays on the topic of "My Ideal School". Correcting essays is so strange... I now have a deeper appreciation for all of my German teachers that had to read our crap homework and try to evaluate it fairly. Some of them were very amusing, particularly the kid who proposed a "heavy-metal school". Oh my. I've just got all my lessons in order and tidied up... so hopefully I'll be able to go to sleep early enough to have some energy in the morning. Those kids are gonna have lots of fun tomorrow, gosh darn it. As for me... I'm hanging in there.

Ikea-fication

Since I finally got paid, I made a trip to Vienna with some of my wonderful new friends in order to make a trip to the big blue and yellow Swedish superstore. I was supposed to catch a train out of Eisenstadt at 06:53 AM and then meet Stefan in Bruck an der Leitha, but unfortunately overslept and woke up to a telephone call from a quite perturbed friend saying "WO BIST DU???". He informed me that the next train left in precisely 25 minutes, and that I had better hurry up. I rushed out the door like mad and flew with the bicycle to the train station. I caught the train, so it all worked out pretty well. Finally met up with Stefan, had some coffee, wandered around the shopping streets, checked out the parliament building and imperial palace, met up with some more friends, went a museum exhibition about Austrian Architecture since 1945, and then finally caught the blue and yellow IKEA bus. Yes, Ikea has a free bus that takes people from downtown Vienna to the shopping city, which is about a 30 minute drive when traffic is good. I managed to buy all kinds of nice things for my room, such as a new duvet cover, some knives, a French Press, coffee mug, blanket, some live bamboo, and an ironing board. I managed to get all this for €53! I love Ikea!! Of course, hauling all that stuff back in the train that evening was a bit of a challenge, but I managed. And now my room is Ikea-fied, and as you can see from the photo, much more "gemütlich" than it was before. I will have to resist the temptation to make another trip!