Mom and Donna visit, first weekend

My March was full of craziness, though definitely a good kind of craziness.  Mom and Donna were the first to visit, followed by Dan, followed by a ski week with one of my boys' schools.  Mom and Donna landed on a Saturday morning, which meant that I was up at 5 to get to the airport in Munich by 9 (in case their flights arrived early).  I was a little drowsy when I got there but was excited.  Mom's flight was already on the board labelled 'descending,' which I took as a good sign.  I got myself a coffee and a pastry and camped out in front of the security doors....and waited.  And waited and waited.  The flight changed from 'descending' to 'landed' to 'baggage claim' and still no Mom.  My coffee was finished and at this point I had to use the bathroom pretty badly.  But Mom couldn't be that long, could she? I didn't want to miss her, since neither she nor Donna had working cell phones, a fact that made us all nervous.  Meanwhile Donna's flight changed from 'descending' to 'landed' to 'baggage claim,' too, and Mom's flight was taken off the board to make room for other flights.  I waited some more.  Around 11.30 I finally decided to ask for assistance.  I called Dad.  Dad is not a morning person, and especially not a 4 in the morning person.  I'm not sure that he even woke up to answer the phone, but he somehow managed to tell me that Mom had in fact gotten on the plane and should be there.  Then he told me something really inspiring like 'it's not time to panic' and promptly fell back to sleep.  Thanks, Dad.  Almost as helpful as the time we had a mouse under the tent (that I thought was actually in the tent because I could feel it moving around) and Mom instructed me to 'deal with it' when I woke her up.  Very helpful.

After Dad's inspiration, I asked the lady at the information counter.  She cheerfully informed me that someone's luggage had probably been lost, and that I should just wait.  Ugh.  At this point I was grumpy, and I had to pee so badly I was sure I would wet myself in the airport.  Finally I decided that it was a life or death (slash eternal embarrassment) situation, and ran to the restroom for 5 minutes.  During this time I left my post at the doors.  When I returned, Mom was on the other side of the doors waving to me.  Apparently she had been waiting there the whole time, running back and forth between the doors hoping to get a glimpse of me so she could tell me that Donna had lost her luggage and would be a while.  I, however, had been standing between the doors in such a way that I couldn't see her, and she couldn't see me.  It was all very dramatic at the time - everything's dramatic when you've been up for ages and are concerned that your mother and aunt have potentially made it to an unknown destination and are somehow wandering around Europe totally lost and without communication devices.  Oh well.  In the end, Donna managed to call me on someone else's cell phone, and together we sorted out the luggage dilemma.  It actually made getting back to Salzburg much easier.  

Back in Salzburg, we fit in as much shopping as we could before the stores closed for the weekend at 6.  Lufthansa was kind enough to offer to cover the cost of any replacement items while they located Donna's suitcase (note to self: always fly Lufthansa when going through Philly with luggage, as they will inevitably lose it and I can get a 50% off shopping spree out of it).  Then we wandered, ate, and passed out.

The next day was cold and grey, but was thankfully not rainy, so we hiked up to the fortress to see the city from above.  Donna took about 8 million pictures of every door in the fortress, which actually turned out quite nice though we gave her a hard time about it.  We wandered until closing time, which was early because it was Sunday, then wandered around the city again and had another delicious meal, though I can't for the life of me tell you where or what we ate that night.  Regardless, all of our meals were good that week!

On the train back from Munich, photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

Take two.

You could look directly into my bedroom window from Mom and Donna's hotel room!  I'm pointing to my window, though actually it's the window to the left of where my finger is.  Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

Donna taking pictures in Mirabell gardens

Salzburg.  Mom is on the left looking up at the statue.

Statue in the cool cemetery we stumbled upon

Mom and Donna checking out the little chapel that smelled like incense

Sorry Mom, you're making a funny face.  But Donna looks happy so I had to post it.  On our way up to the fortress

Still climbing up to the fortress

At the top, Mom checking out the view

Trying to get her bearings

The view from above.  Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna

Marionette exhibit in the fortress

Donna and I as marionettes

Mom as a marionette, right before she epically failed at taking our picture.  Instead of looking through the viewfinder, she tried to look through the flash and then wondered why it wasn't working.

Mom looking through the wrong part of the camera and laughing hysterically.  Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna.

Salzburg from the fortress

The fortress

More Salzy

Enjoying a little momma bear time at the fortress. Photo courtesy of Aunt Donna/

Hiking back down.  Donna was somewhere taking pictures of doors

Mommy, looking very happy

And again

The descent

Mom

Mom again

Momma bear and Kerbear

Doesn't she look happy?

Donna doing her thing

One of my goals for Salzburg was to get a picture alone in front of Mozart's house.  It's almost always overrun with tourists.  This isn't alone, but it's pretty darn close!  Only one tourist managed to sneak in there.

Fulbright Feature

Apparently MICDS (my high school) is interested in doing a feature on us Fulbright girls.  I'm not entirely sure how this came about, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with Meredith and/or Kaci informing the alumni office that there are three of us here, that we were all Doc's German students and that it's kind of unusual for this to happen.  So I got an email from this woman who organizes such things, and here is what I wrote her.  It gives a pretty good overview of what I'm doing and how I got here, just in case I've been vague about it at all.

Dear Debbie,

The easy answer to why I decided to apply for a Fulbright is that it seemed like a logical next step.  Honestly, the answer is far more complex than that.  There are several reasons why it seemed like a good idea, the first being why wouldn’t I want to spend a year (or two) traveling, teaching and building my resume and international experience at the same time?  Here I need to echo what both Kaci and Meredith have said: Doc Kalmar could be cited as the reason that I took an interest in International Relations/German in the first place.  Thanks to Doc, my family had an “accidental” exchange student my sophomore year of high school – “accidental” because her original host family backed out and my family stepped in, though I was not a German student at the time.  The experience was such a positive one that I joined Doc and his students on their trip to Lindau at the end of the school year.  Upon my return to the states I took an interest in International Relations, and picked up German as a second language.  These became my majors at Bowdoin College, where both the German and Government departments steered me in the direction of a Fulbright.  Bowdoin’s German department is notorious for doing so: 60-some percent of Bowdoin’s Fulbrights come from the German Department.

The Austrian Fulbright is a little different than what Kaci and Meredith have – technically it’s an “English Teaching Assistantship administered by the Fulbright Commission and the Austrian-American Educational Commission.” My hunch is that they have it as such so that people can apply to both Germany and Austria (lest they lose applicants to one country or the other).  I, too, applied for both.  Austria’s application is done all in English and includes the normal forms (health, GPA, etc.) and “Why do you want an Austrian Fulbright” essays that you would expect.  Additionally, they ask you to rank your location preferences both in terms of State and size of town/city where you would like to teach.  All of this is due in January; in March they tell you if you’ve made it past the first round and in April they give you the final decision and placement.  I was lucky enough to get my first choice – Salzburg.

Though we are both teaching Fulbrights, my situation is very different than Meredith’s.  I teach in three different schools around Salzburg: two all boys’ private Catholic schools and one public technical high school.  My students range in age from 13-20.  In addition to the normal challenges of being a teacher – coming up with lesson plans, keeping my students engaged, etc. – I have the added challenge of having 37 different classes that I teach once every three weeks.  The job requires plenty of creativity and energy!  I teach a little bit of everything; the basic idea is that the students become conversational in English and well-versed in American culture.  I have taught lessons on everything from gun control to racism, from Facebook to the Superbowl.  The students are mostly interested in what life is like as an American teenager.  I, in turn, have learned what life is like as an Austrian.  I have learned to ski, learned how to find groceries and medicine, and have learned to understand (and even speak) the thick Salzburger dialect.

Like Kaci, I have not yet solidified any future plans.  I have applied for a second year here in Salzburg so that I can continue to improve my German, but have yet to receive the Commission’s decision.  Ultimately I plan to use my German and my Fulbright experience in some Diplomatic capacity.

Skiing in Zell am See

The sign for Zell am See

Being the way that I am - unable to sit still for long - I couldn't let a weekend go by where I didn't have a new adventure.  Between February break and Mom and Donna's visit, I headed out to Zell am See to go skiing.  It was actually Maija's idea, and I'm glad she suggested it!  Maija and I ski at about the same level.  We're both a little afraid of the steep challenging stuff, though (at this point at least) we're both fairly capable skiers.  Annabel and Maria, two of the other assistants, came with us.  We lucked out with a gorgeous day: blue skies, mild temperatures, and good snow at the top of the mountain.  All in all, it was an awesome day!

Maija, Annabel and Maria in Zell am See

Maija and Annie on the way up in the gondola

And the other side of the gondola: Maria and I

Safety first!

Our first sight at the top of the mountain: a wedding. 

Ready to go!

Gorgeous mountains

Maria became an expert quickly

Maija

Maria in action

Maija, me and Maria

Lunch break at the top of the mountain

I refused to take my helmet off due to an awful case of helmet-hair

Maria and Maija are unfazed by the helmets

Gorgeous

So excited to be skiing!

Skiing: a self portrait.  My excitement looks a little more like pain than anything else here.

Self-portrait take two

A little too much apres-ski at the top of the mountain?

View from the top

Our only group photo: Maria, Annie, me and Maija

More views from the top

The town of Zell am See from above.  The line in the middle of the lake is actually a hiking path.  Apparently the thing to do in winter is hike around on the lake, though I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't feel comfortable doing so no matter how frozen the lake was!