About Me
- Lindsey
- Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria
Hi, and welcome to my blog! :D
I made this blog to be able to keep everyone updated on, as it says, my adventures while studying in Austria. :) I apologize for the Englishness (those who know me will not be surprised), but there are a quite a few non-Dutch speakers that wanted to keep up with me and I wasn't really up for writing every post in both languages... My apologies! :)
That said, have a look around, drop me a comment and enjoy! ;)
PS: © for the header to Melora @ deviantArt. I'm not that good of an artist, sorry. ;)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Day 57 - 67: Homework, cooking, homework, teaching, homework, hiking (!) and oh! more homework! :D
And to think I used to update this every 2-3 days. :/ Now I keep telling myself "Oh, it's only been a week! I've still got time!" XD Onwards!
Day 57: Tuesday, April 21
Very uneventful. In the morning, the trainee that was supposed to teach didn't show up (for the second time in a row. :| And without notifying the teacher!) so Prof. Wohlgemut had to, pretty much, pull a lesson out of her, er, magic hat. :| And you couldn't even tell! My hat's off to her. :)
In the evening there was a cooking adventure! :D I cannot for the life of me remember what it was we made, but there were 4 dishes and, lol, teachers came to eat it! XD It was pretty fun though, being able to cook in a huge and professional kitchen with every utensil you could possibly need! :D And the food was good! Impartial sources said so! And nobody puked and/or got poisoned! :D Win! :D
Edit: I found the menu! Here's what we cooked:
Spinatknödel (something difficult to explain with spinach)
Kasnocken (something equally difficult to explain with 4 kinds of cheese)
Schlutzkrapfen (Some kind of big ravioli with vegetables inside!)
Gemischter Salat
Apfelradel mit Preiselbeerschaum (so so good HOMG. :D)
Day 58 & 59: Wednesday, April 22 & Thursday, April 23
Wednesday was sleep-in-late day, as it usually is. :) I only have class at 1:45pm, so. ^-^ I also had a bit of a scare in the morning because, omg, my INTERNET wasn't working anymore! :o :o Cue panic! Luckily I was able to fix it. Or, rather, it fixed itself, cos when I came home from class it was working again. :D
During class, Kevin and I had the unfortunate duty to announce that, hey, next week's lesson (you know, the last one where you have the exam?), we can't come! :D Naturally, Mrs. Katzlinger wasn't very pleased about that and as such frowned a lot. But, the silver lining, this means that due to scheduling difficulties, we don't have to do the exam. :D We got a v. big replacement task, though. :( Which I am getting at. No, really. I am!
Thursday was probably the most productive day I've had in weeks! :D I was so proud of myself! :D Of course, I countered that by doing nothing at all over the weekend. Oops?
Anyhoo, Thursday! I taught! And it was cool! ...Okay, honestly, it wasn't the best lesson I've ever taught, but mostly that's because the kids were YOUNG (like 9-10years young!) and they barely knew ANYTHING! I mean, when one asks where France is and they point ount the UK...YEAH'S ALL I'M SAYIN! :p But all in all, it was okay. :) I taught them at least something and the teacher said I was really natural in front of the class, so. :D
After teaching I: went to the store, did laundry, cleaned my room and did a lot of homework! :D Mostly when I write on here that I did homework, I mean "attempted to do homework and mostly kind of failed a little." :D But on Thursday I didn't mostly kind of fail a litte! :D Go Team Me! \o/
Day 60 - 62: Friday, April 24 - Sunday, April 26
Since I wrote a novella about the twodays above and since this is going to be a long as hell journal entry already, allow me to some up my weekend in a sentence. :D A sentece I was pretty much thinking throughout the whole weekend, even! :p
"Ooooh boy, I should really do some homework. ...Ah well, let's laze about and read instead!" :D
Because, and you should know this already, that's how I roll. :)
Day 63 - 65: Monday, April 27 - Wednesday, April 29
On Monday, my second Kreativmodul started! You may remember, I did one before, we made toys, etc etc? That one was fun. Three half days and the week was over! \o/ This one was also rather fun, but less easy. :p We went to a couple of nearby villages to explore the geography, history and biology of those places. :)
On Monday we went to Thaur, which is this really cute village nearby! :D It mostly survives because it is home to the largest vegetable farm in pretty much the whole of Tyrol. :D So, a cutesy little town surrounded by farmland. :D Was almost like home. :p We started with a walk through the town and then we hiked up the mountains. :D It was nice, if a little tiring. :) Gorgeous view and all. :) I have some pictures, I'll try and post them here soon. ^-^
On Tuesday we went to Hall in Tirol, which is a very old town and v. v. beautiful. It became important in the 1100s or so because of the salt that can be found in the mountains very near. :) It reminded me a lot of Bruges, actually, though it's a lot smaller. (Which is saying something because the old town center of Bruges? Not very large!) In the morning we walked through the town, talking about the history of it and such. V. interesting though probably less so for all the geographers in our party. :D
After the walk, we paired up and had to make a city search thing! You know, like, you put numbers on a map and every number has a question attached to it and then you have to go all over town, trying to solve the questions? :) (We didn't get to do the searches until the next day, but making it was fun too! :D Even though Manuela and I were practically sleeping and our questions weren't great. :p)
After that, we changed teachers and in the afternoon we went with this crazy Biology professor, doing things like sketching the mountains and walking along the river, identifying plants ("This plant is especially known because you can also smoke it!" "Is it pot? :D" "...no, it's not.") and composing a poem about the river since it was "Kreativ"modul, so we had to be creative. I know. :p
Pretty funny is also that it turns out that the afternoon professor, Professor Hofer, came to KHBO (my school in Belgium) last year! :D So now I'm under oath to bring across "Liebe Grüsse für die Miranda" when I get home. (I'm assuming Miranda is the Bio teacher. :p)
Wednesday started again with the crazy Bio prof, prof. Hofer. We were supposed to go hiking again but the weather was ghastly so we stayed at school, teaming up to make a report on the nature surrounding the river Inns and how the salt ended up in the mountains. (Unfortunately, as all the reading was in German, I only caught about half of it. My German has definitely improved a lot since I got here (hooray!) but not that much. :p)
In the afternoon we first exchanged the city searches between groups (you could hardly do your own search, after all) and then set out to solve them. :D Ours was pretty easy, and we got everything right! After that, we went to the Bergbaummuseum which was about the salt mines. Which, in all honesty? Was pretty much wasted money because I couldn't understand A THING that guide was saying. :| Of course, afterwards, when the prof. asked us how we found it, we smiled nicely and said we caught most of it. :p After the museum we went for a drink and an Apfelstrüdel (which, homg, yum! &hearts_♥) and then homewards!
Day 66 - 67: Thursday, April 30 & Friday, May 1
On Thursday (yesterday) I woke up with a horrible headache. :( I'd been having them all week, possibly because I'm chronically bad at going to bed at a decent hour. Painkillers are my friends. :D Anyhoo, on Thursday, it was pretty bad. :/ Woke up, took a painkiller and went to bed again. Sleeeep, glorious sleeep. When I woke up properly again, it was about halfway in the afternoon and I felt better, so hooray for that. :) Did some homework, read some and went to bed rather late again. I will be better at that. I WILL. *resolved face*
And this morning, I was promptly woken up by the fucking town orchestra? Idk what else to call them, they're the "fanfare" in Dutch but in English... It's like a group of people walking around playing instruments? Often seen at important events?
Well APPARENTLY, May 1 is an important event here. It seems they go around and play the same diddly in front of every house and then expect to get MONEY for it. Most awful way I've been woken up since, pretty much ever! >:(
In other news, I can't believe it's May already. :| May is the month I LEAVE. :| :| It feels like only yesterday that we first arrived here. :| Very odd.
Plans for the day include making that replacement task for Mrs. Katzlinger. If I can finish that today (and I SHOULD be able to, if I work at a decent pace), I'll be happy. :) Then I can start worrying about all the other stuff I still have to do. :D
Oh, and happy May Day, Schätzis. ^-^
Wiedersehen!
Fia/Lindsey
Monday, April 20, 2009
Day 50 - 56: Uhm. Well. That's to say. I'm sorry, okay! :p
Yeah. IN MY DEFENCE, I didn't think you would all be entertained by daily updates going "todayyyy I slept late! And then I did homework! And then I lazed around and read! And then I tanned! OMG!" Heavy stuff? Not so much. ;)
Day 50 & 51: Tuesday, April 14 & Wednesday April 15
...were pretty much those kind of days, actually. :D What, I blew half my holiday off to Vienna, I had to make up somehow? And I'm rather pleased to say I did quite a lot! :D Of course, I didn't do as much as I'd hoped, I am She With Impossibly High Expectations, of course. But I figure, I only ever do bout half of what I plan (whether I plan a lot or not) so half of a lot > half of not a lot, right? Right. :D
The only thing worth noting? Wednesday night I didn't sleep. Like. At all. It was horrible. :( By the time I could actually sleep, it was so late that I kept thinking "omg must sleep have to get back up in 2 hours must sleep must sleep aaaaah panic!". Which, obviously, didn't help at all. :( So in the end it was 5:30am and I decided that I should just not sleep at all, rather than sleep for 50 minutes and then wake up again. It was awful. :(
Day 52 & 53: Thursday, April 16 & Friday, April 17
You should have seen me on Thursday, oh my god. XD I felt like I'd just gone through an entire exam period on only 5 hours of sleep averagely a night. :p And the awful part was, on Thursday, Kevin and I were supposed to teach! About Belgium!
Luckily, we were supposed to teach together so I just went over and asked him if he'd feel up to doing it by himself, please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top? And he did! :D I wouldn't ask, normally, but I think he could see how awful I felt. By lunch I was, like, swaying. :| I was a little scared I was gonna get run over on my way home or something. :p
In any case, Kevin's lesson was fine and next week it's my turn. :D Well, next week or May 14 (angry teachers, holidays, looooong story.) It was nice. :) Though we started out by singing the national anthem and, I swear, they looked at us like we were insane. XD But twas good aside from that. And they all agreed that Belgian chocolate > anything else, ever. Well, duh. :p
On Friday I was supposed to go to Salzburg, but even an afternoon nap hadn't been able to make me feel human again, so I overslept and missed my train. So instead I did homework! Yay! :p
Day 54 - 56: Saturday, April 18 - Monday, April 20
Saturday: Salzburg day! I will admit, I didn't stay very long. I visited the obvious places, though! (Exception: I didn't go into the Mozarthouse because a) a, uh, load of tourists queuing up and b) pricey for just a house.)
So I walked around, took pictures, got accosted by random bums (WHY does that always happen to me? Seriously!) and then! Then! Then I found this cute little bookshop that MADE my trip! :D
The thing is, I've been looking for calendars, right? Because a decent calendar has, like, 12 good pictures in one and if you cut them off, you can use them for decoration of your walls! It's the cheapest way, really. So I looked in Innsbruck: nothing, zip, nada. Looked in Vienna: nothing, zip, nada. I realize, April is rather late for a calender, but COME ON! And then, in that cute little bookstore: 2 EUROS APIECE! :D
So of course I bought 5. :D And now my room is all decorated, it's awesome! :D You might say overcrowded, but I say come have a look at my room at home, you'll die. :p
Anyhoo, when I came home, I sort of redecorated and now my room feels awesomely homey. ^-^ Yay!
Sunday was the last day of the Easter hols! Technically they ended last Tuesday, but since we only had that tiny thing on Thursday, I counted Sunday as the last day. :) And I spent it doing, well, homework. :p You'd think that after having had a whole 2 weeks, I would NOT do my homework for Monday on Sunday, but. Well, clearly you don't know me well. :p
And then Monday was back to school day! :( In the morning we went shopping for ingredients. You see, on Tuesday eve they expect us to cook Tirolean dishes. Me. Cook.
Now, don't get me wrong, I can feed myself no problem! BUT following recipes? Not my forte. I EVEN MESS UP PANCAKES, OKAY. :p So obviously that's going to be a disaster and you should probably check the newspapers on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for, like, "Mass death of Erasmus students in PHT kitchen." cos I might poison everyone. :D
After shopping there was lunch and then class! And, yknow, it was nice. Ish. A presentation in both classes so, yeah, the ish is warranted. :p AND THEN. HOMG.
After the last period, we went to see Mrs. Pietersteiner who will as of now be known as The Evil Bitch Monster Of Death™ (TEBMOD™)(This isn't actually swearing, okay, it's totally a Buffy reference! Pop Culture! But she kind of deserves the title.) And she told us that we'd been handing in our corrected assignments wrong. AND WE HAD TO DO ALL OF THEM OVER AGAIN! Seriously! SERIOUSLY! You could not have told us this AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TERM, EBMOD! [insert pissed off swearing here, because I'm at least trying to keep this clean :p]
So. The day ends on a rather PISSED OFF note. Who'd have thought. Of course, by now I've rather calmed down, but still. Ugh. EBMOD.
I'm gonna go shake and shimmy my bad mood off, y'all. :D (another Buffy reference! ...sorry, I'll behave. :/)
Ciao! :)
Fia/Lindsey
Monday, April 13, 2009
Day 42 - 49: Christ, has it really been that long?
I know what you're all thinking right now: Oh hey, look, it's Fia/Lindsey, SHE'S ALIVE! And.
Well.
...okay, fine, you have an EXCELLENT point. I am, in fact, still alive! Surprise! :p
But IN MY DEFENCE, I was in Vienna for days! Where I, okay, had Internet, but only for 20mins at a time which I used to spam my Facebook, obv, and e-mail my mom like the dutiful daughter I am. Shut up, I can see your incredulous looks, I AM! :p
Anyway, enough spazhattery (this might be my new favourite word), on with the reportz. :)
Day 42 - 45: Monday, April 6 till Tuesday, April 9
Which was basically my trip to Vienna!
Points of note:
- Vienna is, apparently, the only capital city in Europe where people still meekly wait for the light to turn green before crossing the street. :)
- Americans from Chicago are very nice. Just tossing that out there. :D
- Still a Starbucks groupie.
And I'm sure there's more but I can't really remember, so I'm just going to direct you to where my pictures with comments are, you can follow the trip through there. :)
This way for the Pictoral Story of Vienna! :)
Day 46 - 49: Friday, April 10 till Monday, April 13
Now, I know y'all going to think I am cowardlying out of writing things out all detailed and rambly, but actually, it is like this. I am on holiday! I don't really do much!
Things Fia Has Done These Past Days:
- Read stories.
- Marathoned Season 2 of Veronica Mars. Ah, Neptune High, good times. ♥
- Done homework
- Lounged in the sun
- Lazed around.
No, really, It's kind of embarrassing how much I'm not kidding. :p This is how I roll.
So, I guess that's it, then. :p This must have been the shortest blog update ever, huh.
See you 'round, folks. :)
Fia/Lindsey
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Day 37 - 41: Short short short, Fia's in a hurry!
It's gonna be a v. v. quick entry, you guyz, because I completely forgot to do this and now it's late and I have to get up at 6 AM tmrw. Pity me. :(
Anyhoo, I used to do this all the time on LJ, so let's see if it works here too! My week in bullet points:
Day 37: Wednesday, April 1
- Homework in the morning, English in the afternoon.
- Mrs. Katzlinger remains to be filled with... Well, I wanna say spunk, but that would be gross. :| Boundless energy? :D It's nice, mostly, but she never seems to have time for anything. This is less nice, sadly. :(
- Fia ♥ Metric!
- Metric's a band, you see, and I got their new album and it is amaaaaaazing. And of course they are playing Belgium while I am in Austria. :( Just like, oh, say, 436245736743657236 of my other fave bands. D: MY LIFE, SO HARD! :(
- Fia also ♥ Lupe Fiasco, who is a rapper. :D
- In conclusion: Wednesday = musicday!
- WAIT, I forgot something! Wednesday was also the start of the amazing weather times we've had here since. :D I lounged in the sun after class, till it was too cold, finishing The Golden Compass. And it was glorious. :D The weather. The book was only okay? :p
..
Day 38: Thursday, April 2
- Praxis again in the morning. The kids had a test, was interesting to see how this works in other countries. :)
- We made more agreements about the teaching that is supposed to occur after the break. Teaching German kids about Belgium, should be a whoop! :D And we don't even have to fill a full 50 mins. ^-^
- More lounging in the sun. Our terrace is almost windfree, and ok, the chairs aren't the most comfy thing in the universe, but, sun! Books! Music! Tis Utopia, indeed. :D
- Also of note: There are, apparently, no commercial movies in Innsbruck that aren't dubbed. :( Meaning I won't get to see Fast & Furious until it comes out on DVD cos it's dubbed here and by the time I get home it'll be out of theatres. Sulk.
- I also watched an old Queer as Folk epi on my iPod thursday eve, and 'lo and behold! Rekindling of the love! Ahhhh, good times with Brian and Justin and their Epic Gay Love. :D ♥
- Afternoon: last German class! I do think I will miss it, Kate was a fun teacher. :) And the field trip ended up being to McDonalds. Lol. :p It was neat, though. ^-^
- Oh, and. HOOOOLIIIIIDAAAAAAAY! \o/ :D
Day 39: Friday, April 3
- Friday morning: sleeping in. What, you're surprised? :p C'mon. :p
- Friday afternoon: desperately looking for a printer in school, due to the need to print things for my trip to Vienna. Not finding anything or anyone there. Eventually half begging the gruff man in the library. Victory! \o/
- Also Friday: groceries! I walked, since the weather was so. unbelievably. awesome. :D Hoooonestly, I love it. *thrives*
- Friday Eve: Birthday party for Elina, another Erasmus student here, from Finland. :) Wine was served, conversation was exchanged, fun was had. \o/
Day 40: Saturday, April 4
- Picked up the camera Cristina lent to me for the holidays! It will henceforth be known as My Precious. :D :D Yaaaaay. :D
- Went for a loooong walk talking a bazillion pictures along the way. ^-^
- Weather still awesome.
- Basically, what you can say is I walked around and enjoyed the weather and the sun. Muahahahahhaha. :D May be boring, but meh. (I may have also bought Queer As Folk DVD's. Sorry Mom! D:)
- Oh, and woke up to fantastic news! In case you hadn't heard yet: Iowa legalized same-sex marriage! I'd dig up a link for you, but I'm lazy. Also in a hurry. ;) But this is good news! :D Go Iowa!
Day 41: Sunday, April 5
- Which is today!
- Which started with finishing the Queer As Folk DVD's I bought the evening before. Ahem. A full season in about 24 hours. Obsessed, who, me? TV-show-athons are awesome, okay? :p
- QaF put me in a great mood, which continued for the rest of the day! Yay, happy days! :D
- The rest of the day: shower, decadently late brunch, ironing, skypeing with aunt-sister-mom, packing my stuff, updating blog! :D Soundtracked by my happy playlist. :)
So basically, that was my week in bullet points. :D I shan't be around for the next couple of days as I am GOING TO VIENNA! Yes, this warrants caps. Trust me. :D I'm really excited! :D The weather's predicting up the 20s (Celsius, obv) and sun! HOORAY! :D I have a camera (sadly not Cristina's, but I'm not taking that expensive thing with me to Vienna, srsly. What if I lose it?!) so expect a lot of pictures when I get back! :D
Until Friday, Schätzi's. ;) Wiedersehen!
Fia/Lindsey
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