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!!