Another weekend, another trip!

So with another 4 day weekend, me and my friend Helena from uni back in Cardiff decided to go on a little 'eurotrip'!

She arrived to Austria from the Uk on the thursday, and by friday we were already in our first destination.. Udine in northern Italy!

Enjoying some more delicious italian food...

Udine is situated just some 2 hours from Klagenfurt by coach, so we enjoyed a great day out, wandering around for the day...


New day, new country! By saturday it was time to say ciao to Italy, Aufwiedersehen to Austria and
dobrodošli to Slovenia!

Slovenia is just an hour away from Klagenfurt


Helena has a friend who lives in Ljubljana, so we stayed with her for two days... On saturday we explored the old slavic capital...

View from top of castle...

Shoes.. next to the 'Shoemakers Bridge'...

This is called a moving cake - a slovenian delicacy consisting of layers of pastry, apple, poppy seeds, walnuts and cream cheese.. needless to say it wasn't the nicest thing I have ever eaten!!


On sunday, we took a trip to the beautiful Lake Bled

View as we tripped...

The famous Lake Bled

Jasna, Me, Helena enjoying the spectacular views at Lake Bled...

After a lovely weekend tripping, we managed to squeeze in some time in my home city of Klagenfurt, paying a visit to 'Minimundus', a theme park where you can find some of the worlds most famous landmarks... just on a tiny scale!

Hollywood or Klagenfurt?!

Summer seems like it has finally well and truly arrived here in Austria. It feels so strange to think just 3 months ago I arrived here to temperatures of -10 degrees and snow up to my waist! I'm definitely going to make the most of this beautiful weather before it's time to say Aufwiedersehen once again... but this time, it will be for good!

Mai - der Monat der Feiertage

So here we are in may, just 2 weeks to go til the end of my placement here in Austria and it really does seem to be the month of school holidays, with almost every weekend in may being 4 days long! The first of these holidays to celebrate the traditional may day was spent with my boyfriend. He flew out here on the tuesday, and from there we spent 2 days in Venice, 2 days in Vienna before spending some days in Klagenfurt before he jetted back!

First we spent some time in Venice, where the weather was beautiful and the food was even better!! I suppose it goes without saying but the pasta was incredible! 

Venice is only 3 hrs by bus from Klagenfurt.. 

Then come friday we found ourselves in the austrian capital - Vienna!

a bike tour around the city was a great way to see all the sights... in speedy time!

Enjoying a famous curry wurst from a street stall...

Vienna is home to beautiful buildings, mozart, art, history, opera ... all in all a very luxurious city!

I feel very privileged to have been able to travel so much whilst in Spain and now being able to see so much of this part of Europe.. I can't believe my time is almost over but I will sure be making the most of my last few weeks here!

Bis bald!

A Weekend in the Wald

Last weekend, I went to stay with my friend Sophie (there's just so many of us!!) who is doing the same english teacher assistantship like me but in a small farming village called Bezau in the north west of Austria

Klagenfurt is right down in the south of Austria, my friend lives as far west as you can get! (She borders with Switzerland and Liechtenstein) The trip to see her took a good 8 hours, with a stop in Salzburg in the north of Austria and a quick trip through Germany too! But it was well worth the effort, as it was lovely to catch up with a good friend, and see a bit more of what Austria has to offer!

Bezau is a farming village, with a population of 1 thousand people, so we were never going to have a busy weekend. Nevertheless we enjoyed lovely bike rides through the Wald (forest) and even helped out milking cows on the farm my friend is staying at!!

 A really different weekend, but great fun and an experience I'll never forget!

Taking the fresh milk to the Sennerei to be made into cheese!

Enjoying a well earned home-made schnapps with the farmers after our hard grafting!!

Eine Freundin aus Kärnten

                                                 Hallo!

Mein Name ist Lena und ich bin aus Österreich. Ich bin 18 jahre alt und ich gehe in die 8. Klasse des Gymnasiums in Feldkirchen, welches wie eure High School oder Secondary School ist. Feldkirchen ist eine kleine Stadt in Kärnten. Kärnten ist ein Bundesland, also ein Teil von Österreich. Ich wohne aber nicht in Feldkirchen, sondern in einem Ort der etwas entfernt davon ist. Er heißt Ebene Reichenau und ist etwas abgelegen mit vielen Bergen, Kühen und Feldern. Ich wohne nicht so gerne hier, weil ich Berge nicht so gern habe, aber es kann auch sehr schön sein!

Im Moment mache ich die Matura, ein sehr sehr großer Abschlusstest unserer Schule. Also ist es sehr stressig im Moment. Hoffentlich schaffe ich die Matura und kann dann nach Wien studieren gehen. Ich würde gerne Medizin in Wien studieren und dann dort wohnen. Leider ist es sehr schwer.

Meine Hobbys sind Tennis, Klavier spielen, Freunde treffen und Filme. Ich interessiere mich sehr für Biologie und Chemie. Außerdem liebe ich eure Sprache und bin deshalb ganz begeistert, dass Sophie an unserer Schule ist. Ich finde es auch sehr nett, dass wir so Kontakt mit Engländer aufnehmen können, da dies immer sehr aufregend und spannend ist.

Vielleicht schreibst du mir ja zurück und ich erfahre etwas über dich und deine Gegend. Hoffentlich verstehst du alles, ich habe mich bemüht sehr einfach zu schreiben. Ich weiß auch nicht wie gut du schon Deutsch sprichst oder verstehst.
Du kannst mich gerne alles Fragen was du über mein Leben oder über Österreich wissen willst. Ich helfe dir auch gerne mit der Sprache oder bei Hausaufgaben.

Bis bald und liebe Grüße aus Österreich
Lena :))

Can you write a reply to Lena? What questions do you have for her? She's waiting to here from you!

Österreichisch Frühling

Spring has finally arrived here in Kärnten!! FINALLY! (I say finally but really I have only had to endure this arctic weather since feb... the austrians have had to deal with this for 7 months now...)

Upon my arrival back in Klagenfurt after a lovely warm easter in Spain, I was greeted with seb-zero temperatures and snow blizzards galore... What a treat!

But thankfully this didn't last long and by mid april the weather took a turn for the better and now the whole region is enjoying beautiful sunny and hot days, we are talking 26 degrees by 10am!! Now that is a turnaround!

Thankfully scenes like this are now a thing of the past! (or at least 'til november time anyway!)

Lake Wörthersee in Klagenfurt

          The beautiful view from the classroom window on wednesday afternoon!

But with spring comes that dreaded time of year for many of my older students.. It's exam time! And most of my classes are preparing to take their matura exams in the next few weeks.

The matura is the austrian equivalent of A-Levels or the Abitur as it is called in Germany. Unlike in Britain the pupils must study a range of subjects and have little choice over what they do study. They must study the core subjects; maths, science, german and a foreign language so for the students at my school this is either english, latin or italian (or all three if they are very clever!!)

But out of the 8 or so subjects that the students study, they only have to do exams in 5, and these exams can either be written or oral tests. The thing that I find strange though is that they can chose which subjects they want to do the oral test in, not just the obvious option, a foreign language. So for example, I have students that are going to have an oral test for maths.. in which they must answer maths problems out loud in front of their teacher and explain their methods and workings out on a blackboard, whilst using all the correct mathematical terminology... sounds a bit too complex for me!!

Also if the students don't pass the matura, they cannot graduate from high school. They have to stay there, studying and taking the exams again and again until they pass... that's why I have some students who are 21 in a class of 17 year olds!

The exams are also created by the teachers themselves and usually the students know 2 or 3 days later whether they passed. When I explained that results day for us in the UK is usually a good 3 months after we sit our exams, they were shocked!

Also, in Austria, it is compulsory for the boys to do Zivildienst o Wehrdienst once they leave school at 18. This is either 6 months training with the army or 9 months working in a civil service job like as a paramedic, fireman, policeman etc. It is compulsory and the boys are paid around 200 euro a month for the work they do.

What do you think about the school system as I have described it so far? Do you think it is very different to that in the UK?

How would you feel if you had to stay in school 'til 21?

And boys, imagine you have to join the army upon leaving school? What do you think about that? Do you think it's good training for young men and teaches them valuable life skills, or do you think they should have the option to go on to study at university or start a job that they want to do once they leave school?

Let me know your responses... und wenn auf deutsch, bessere!

Vuelto a España

So during the easter holidays (A lovely long break of 3 weeks from work here in Austria), I decided to head back to Valencia to visit some friends and stay in the city for the wonderful festival of 'Fallas'.

Fallas is an old tradition, held every year in the city over 5 days in the middle of March. The idea behind the festival is that years ago, people used to clear out their houses come March as a sort of spring clean, to get rid of all their old belongings and furniture ready for the new season ahead. Each 'barrio' or district would collect everyones furniture and use it to create some sort of sculpture which would be put on show for everyone to enjoy, before being burnt.

Over the years, this festival has become more and more popular, bringing in tourists from all over the globe.. and now the sculptures or 'Fallas' aren't made out of old wood...

This Falla was voted the best Falla in the city for 2013 and cost around 300,000 euros to build! To visit it, you have to pay a small fee of 1 or 2 euros

Nowadays, each falla is designed to depict a story or scene, with most of them having some reference to something currently in the news or to do with politics. Sometimes they can have a fairly ironic or satirical message behind them

Many Fallas made references to the economic problems facing Spain at the moment

Me with Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, depicted here to be 'killing' countries like Greece and Italy













Each Falla has a Fallera or Queen who is the head and representative of the falla from her barrio. Probably her family contributed a lot of money to the building of the Falla, which is why she gets to be the 'face' of her area's Falla for this years festival

During the weekend, there are massive processions, where all the falleras meet and walk through the streets of Valencia in beautiful dresses, where they present flowers from their district to the statue of the Virgin Mary in the one of Valencia's old plazas

Fallas is a very noisy occasion (of course, it's Spain!) with people lighting fireworks (in the day as well as the night) and bangers in every street. Biggest of all though, was the firework display held in the plaza del ayuntamiento (town hall square) every afternoon at 2pm. The display was so loud, it was deafening and the brilliant blue sky would turn grey and white in a mass of smoke!!

Hertzlich Wilkommen nach Österreich!

Hallo aus Österreich, Hallo aus Klagenfurt!

After a hectic exam period in January in Valencia, I had 2 weeks 'holiday' before the big move to Austria, in which I caught up with friends, enjoyed the beautiful weather (we are talking 25 degrees in Feb?!?!) and made the most of my spanish experience before moving onto my new placement. After a few tearful goodbyes, a quick pit-stop back in Wales, I found myself plonked in Austria with snow up to my waist and temperatures of about -10! Quite a difference!

From enjoying paella in the February sun in Valencia...

















... to deepest, darkest winter in Klagenfurt!













Rather than studying in a university like in Spain, here in Austria I am working as an english language assistant in two schools in the small town of Feldkirchen. The schools are situated on the same site, but at one end you have the 'HAK' (Handelsschuleakademie) which is a sort of technical college, for more vocational subjects and at the other the 'Gynasium' a more academic school for pupils who will probably go on to study at university after they complete their 'Matura' exams at 18 years old (our version of a - levels, known as 'Abitur' in Germany)

In both schools I teach classes from about 14-15 years to 18 or 19 in the Gynasium, and actually up to 22/23 years in the HAK, as the austrian education system says that you have to stay in education until you pass your end of high school exams, regardless of your age and so it is possible to have pupils of 18 (normal school leaving age) to as old as 23 in the same class - can you imagine that?! High school until your mid twenties!!

Bundeshandelsakademie und gynmasium, Feldkirchen, Oesterreich - my workplace for the next 3 months!

I work at the school around 13 hours a week (with friday as a day off!), splitting my time equally between the two schools. The town Feldkirchen is pretty small (approx. population of 14,000) and is situated in the austrian state of 'Kärnten' or Carinthia for us brits, in the very south of Austria, on the border with Italy and Slovenia. Feldkirchen is in the middle of two of the states biggest cities, the capital of Klagenfurt to the south about 25 km away, and Villach to the west (about 20km away). Given its proximity to these bigger, busier and more bustling cities and the fact that I actually am only in work a few hours a week, I decided it would be a much better option to live in the capital Klagenfurt, and commute to the school every morning

Landkarte von Österreich, im Blau ist Kärnten

Quaint street in the town of Feldkirchen...

A very cold Sophie!!

















Given all my free time,  I have already been able to really take advantage of my new home in central europe and visited some awesome places.

One tuesday, I joined my 4AHH (equivalent of year 12) class to 'Dreiländerreck', a ski resort in the west of Kärnten, from which you can be standing on a mountain in Austria, and see across to mountains in Italy and others in Slovenia. We spent the day tobogganing down the mountain, completing a course of nearly 9km - it was great fun!

eine malerische Aussicht auf die Berge - beautiful views of the mountains

 I also took a trip across the northern border into Germany to visit the amazing city of Munich. I met up with two friends from Cardiff Uni (who are both also on their year abroad) to spend 4 days soaking up the bayerish (bavarian) culture!

Dachau concentration camp - some 20 mins outside of Munich city centre, Dachau was one of the first concentration camps to be used by the Nazis before and during WW2

My friend Emma enjoying the traditional bavarian cuisine - Currywurst mit Pommes und Sauerkraut

The two Sophies in Hofbrauhaus - the famous royal brewery of Munich 

A strange memorial to the prince of pop - Michael Jackson situated in the heart of the city...

Beautiful neue Rathaus (townhall) in Munich's Main Square

In just three short weeks in Austria I have already seen and experienced so much. It's a really different country and actually culture to Spain and to ours in the UK but I am really excited to enjoy my time here to the max!

Von Österreich... Bis Bald!