At the end of my first working week, I reflect on how far I've come and grown as a person

Hey There! 8-D
I have now finished my First Week as a Language Assistant.
I did a pie chart of my time, in order to make my blog accessible to all kinds of learners (this is something I learnt about at ELA camp!)

As you can see, I spent a lot of time sleeping! This is because I am meeting lots of new people, so my Beauty Sleep is very important. Of the time I spent teaching, I would say I spent 10% of it teaching English and 90% of it being stared at fearfully.

All the people I've worked with so far have been really friendly and very reasonable, and they make you feel very welcome. There's definitely a small town atmosphere, one of my students came up to me at the shops yesterday and had a chat, and even teachers who don't teach English have made an effort to come and introduce themselves and chat to me! It's so friendly! Unfortunately, if any of them attempt to talk to me in German, complete confusion ensues and the chitchat comes to an abrupt halt. But I'm sure that will change very soon!

I had lunch in the school today. Because it's a hospitality school some of the students learn catering and for practice they cook and serve the school lunches! This was a three course meal of soup, 'Autumn roll' filled with spiced mince and served with potatoes and salad and then this amazing messy pancake thing which comes with sticky stewed plums. I've had the pancake thing before, but last time I had it, it was at a buffet, and I thought it was potatoes so covered it with meat and gravy. The gravy mixed up with the icing sugar and it was kind of strange. Turns out it tastes a lot better when eaten as a desert! It costs 3.80 euros, but one of my teachers paid for me today as she said I was 'her guest'. It was incredible.

This morning I found the notes I made at our pre-departure meeting, where our lecturers told us about Austria and Germany. The first point says "You WILL have all your civil liberties in Austria." However, this week I have come to realise that this is far from accurate. Austrian schools cause what any normal, sane human being would describe as a Cruel and Unusual Punishment, as they start the school day at 7.30 AM. Who in the world is up at this time, let alone out of the house, at work, and STARTING work!? Are we postmen? NO! So why force us to get up!? As a true believer in following the Body Clock method of time-keeping, I think waking up before dawn is truly inhumane. But here they make you WORK before dawn! It's  so mean :( Next week I start work at the Grammar School, which is part of the Abbey. I'm excited to see the abbey, but it's a 40 minute train journey from here, so God Only Knows how I'll get there in time.

okay, gotta go and moisturise (cold weather is drying me OUT and I'm getting all scaly and lizard-like ;-) )

NEXT TIME: Schnitzel or Shitzel - THE TRUTH!

xx