Culture Talks

This post is being written after my band’s first ever show, so I thought I’d let you all know how it went.  I’ll say that it was quite stressful leading up to the actual performance, but as we got
closer to the show, I somehow got less nervous.  So basically it was a
pretty big success I think.  I felt really comfortable up there (after the first song or two) and found it really energizing.  I remembered all my words, which
was the biggest thing I was worried about.  Plus a lot of people came
that we knew, and also people we didn’t know, which was really nice.  I
would say that there were about 50 people came all together. 

But I got paid a lot of really nice compliments by people- many of whom I didn’t know.  And it meant that much more because people knew
they had to speak in English to me, and were clearly nervous about it,
so it was really nice that they said something at all.  I even got the audience speaking English when I told them that they’d have to translate Zugabe (encore) into English- they went with ‘ONE MORE SONG’!  The English thing is kind of working in my favour.

So now Andreas is working hard to book some more shows for us, which is a bit easier now that we’ve made some contacts through the first show.  It’s a really great thing to do on the side, and make a little bit of money (especiallly considering how little I can work now with my German course). 

Anyway, I made $50, and had a good time, so I’m happy.

Happy Austrian Independance Day (26 October)!!

There have been many changes in my life since I last wrote… I guess the last time you heard anything was about my vacation.  Well, things kind of went downhill after that, but seem to be on the upswing agian.  For a good 3 weeks after  being back in Graz, I had no work at Berlitz.  Like, in a month, I made 24 Euros.  So that was tough.  Around that time I was looking into German courses, and found one that seemed to be really good.  It’s part of the University here, and it’s called the Vorstudienlehergang.  Which basically is a course designed to prepare foreign students to take the German exam which is required of all non German-speaking people.  It could be summed up as ‘intense’.  I have 24 units a week, which is about 20 hours of class all together.  I started out in the beginner, level-one, never-heard-German-before class, and soon discovered that it was time to move up to the next level, because I just wasn’t being challenged.

So now I’m really up to my ears in German.  I’m learning a lot, but it’s hard to see that sometimes because of the fast pace.  It’s definitely an asset to have an Austrian boyfriend though- and I’m looked very well upon by my classmates for that (because I have a live-in teacher!).  My teachers also like the fact that I’m a teacher, and Canadian… I get a strange sort of respect from them for it.
Other things that have been going on…

Tutoring Andreas’ lovely Aunt Uli in English.

Andreas’ "uncle" Toni- (Austrian, but who lives in Montreal) visited for 3 weeks in September.  We had a really nice visit with him.  Here is a picture of Andreas and Toni playing an Austrian card game (Schnapsl)

And Andreas and I had a really nice evening out with some friends of ours (my colleague Nick and his girlfriend, Andrea; as well as my Austrian friend Birgit).  We drank way, way too much, and were severely hung over the next day.  But we spent it hanging around on the couch watching movies and napping.

And for those of you who don’t know, I’m in a band.  We have our first gig next Thursday (the 19th).  I’m scared, scared, scared.  Here are some pictures of us.