Doing Austrian Things: Step Two: Find a Job

I finally have an excuse as to why I haven’t written sooner. After pretty much bumming it for the first three weeks or so, I found myself a good, old-fashioned occupation. 100 points to Hayley. Let’s go back a few steps.

I was walking around alone in the depths of Ikea (twice in one month, you’re kidding me) carrying two folding chairs over my shoulder like a homecoming sash, a big, blue Ikea bag over the other shoulder like a purse, my actual purse, and to top it off, a full-length mirror under the least occupied arm. This is how badly I did not want to have to make another trip to that place. I noticed a voicemail pop up on my phone, but no missed call. I decided the message could probably wait, seeing as I was slightly preoccupied. I paid for my things and headed to the bus stop, trying to deal with being 3 times as wide as I usually am. Luckily nobody suffered injuries on my mirror’s account.

At the bus stop I listened to the message. Ahhhh yes, the call. The one I hadn’t actually been waiting for or expecting, but it came nevertheless, right when I needed it to come. I had successfully and unknowingly convinced a language school in Salzburg that I might be able to teach English for them, especially because they desperately needed to find someone by the end of the week, otherwise they’d lose a major client. So I came in for an interview the next day and an hour afterward I got a call back and a job offer teaching 22 units per week. Plus, it’s considered freelance work, so I didn’t have to wait to get a work permit. The stars aligned. I would start the following Monday. We would do an express training to get me through the first two weeks until I could attend an official training weekend. Did I have a driver’s license? Had I driven a stick before? WAIT, WHAT? No, no, no I have not really driven a stick before, besides that one time Kevin taught me and I killed it six times in a row at a stop sign and all the people drove around me and laughed. Oh well, you’ll do fine! They said.

So that Wednesday I was hired by Educom to teach Business English to employees of Amag Metal Company in Braunau four days a week. And that Friday I got my second ever manual driving lesson. And the following Monday I was entrusted with the company car and another employee’s life during the hour long commute to Amag’s offices. It was at least a nice ice breaker to tell all my students that if they had looked out their window at about 8:30 that morning, they would have seen me struggling to park the car for a good 10 minutes, killing the engine a minimum of eight times.

Luckily I only have to drive on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays I get to go with Gareth, an Australian guy, who drives much better than I. But poor Pamela sits shotgun on Monday Wednesdays because she doesn’t even know how to drive an automatic. Sucker. I think next time we get in the car I will play the song Jesus Take the Wheel and see how she reacts. Pamela and Gareth are also teachers at Educom and teach at Amag every other day. We all have separate classes and levels of students.

It’s boring to explain it all, but I basically teach six classes, ranging from English for Secretaries, to Sales, Project Management, and Quality Assurance. I’m responsible for making all the lesson plans and deciding what would be most helpful for them to improve their English in the workplace. I never have more than 4 students in a class, and they’re all really nice, even some cute Austrian guys…

So far, so good.

Last weekend Kevin and I went up on the Gaisberg, which is one of the mountains that surround Salzburg. There was snow at the top and it was freezing! Yet the sun was shining and the view of the city and valleys below was clear. Oh Austria, so green. It was nice to get out of the city and enjoy the fresh air. We hiked around for an hour or two and then retired to the restaurant on top for a beer. This is the life. All I need to complete it is a dog.

Atop the Gaisberg

It was cold!

We met my friend (I HAVE A FRIEND) for a beer that evening at the Augustiener Bräu. Her name is Sabi and she’s from Munich. She’s a medical student and likes to watch Grey’s Anatomy and eat pizza. It’s like we were made for each other. She lived in Louisiana for a year in high school, so we speak half German and half English so that we can both practice. I met another girl the other day, too, named Julia, but she was kind of weird and played that instrument from Zelda, so. I think we will just be casual acquaintances. She was nice nonetheless.

After my first real week as a teacher, I had to have my first weekend as a student. That was this past weekend, otherwise known as “Emma’s Birthday Weekend.” On Friday evening I had three hours of introduction for the Intercultural Studies program. We listened to some of the professors talk then drank champagne and had a dinner buffet, where we could get to know all of our colleagues a little better. There are 25 students in the program and I am the youngest by 6 years. A few in their late twenties, mostly thirties, and some forties or fifties. I felt like a little kid, but I am still going to call them my colleagues.

Happy 13th Birthday Emma!
Last time I was here, she was turning 10!

The first night was okay, I mean, how could it be bad with champagne? Then came Saturday, the first real lecture. It lasted from 9 am to 5 pm and by the end of it, I literally still couldn’t tell you what I learned. Honestly, it was everything I hate about what university is becoming. A place where you pay money to listen to the other students “teach” class. There’s some big phenomenon about student-lead discussions and courses going on these days. The phrase blind leading the blind comes to mind. It’s like you pay to get into Disneyland and inside you have to build your own rides or ride a rollercoaster built by other Disney-goers. It’s either going to be realllllly sucky, because nobody knows (read: has been taught) how to build one, or everyone dies. And that’s how I feel about this Master’s program. There is no way to know Intercultural Studies. It is all subjective, a meta subject, you talk about talking about it. Wrong. It’s all wrong.

This picture was of course taken during my walk to class on Saturday morning

Then I had to go sit in a building for 8 hours...

I can’t write further on the topic, because I hate it.

Enjoyable this weekend was a breakfast buffet in the Altstadt, driving to the Lake District and taking the train up the Schafberg and watching people paraglide over the lakes, and going to Hallein to visit with Eva. Sunday was the best day. I hope none of my students recognized the fact that I had no lessons planned for today. Regardless.