Fall in Vienna is turning out to be absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe that in only one week from today I'll be turning 26! That seems so old to me. Oh well, at least I get to spend my birthday in a beautiful city! That's me in the Schönbrunn palace park last Monday.
Yesterday I bought plane tickets to Zurich (see above!) to visit my good friend Susanne. I'm so excited to visit her - I'll be there the weekend of Dec. 4 (also my parent's anniversary). We have many plans already, including day trips to Bern or Lucerne, shopping and christmas markets and of course lots of fine dining! I'm also planning on visiting the school where she teaches. It'll be fun to be a "guest of honor"!
I'll also be going to meet my good friend Darin in Prague on Nov. 21st! That's about meeting in the middle for us. I'm looking forward to going there finally - it seems I just kept missing it on my other trips to Europe, and it is supposedly a BEAUTIFUL city! I'm also excited for these little trips because it means it's closer to christmas break! Only 55 days till home! (... and Colin!)
My dance lessons are going well - Gergely (my partner) and I have decided to go twice a week now, since we need to get as much out of it as possible (as we need to be ready for the ball on January 9th at the vienna city hall - see above!). Below is a picture of our dance instructor - he's a gem! He's very disciplined but also has a feisty sense of humor. So far we've tackled the waltz, tango, rumba and samba. :o) There are a good mix of people taking the class and we're hoping to go to drinks with some of them after the next class.
Today I had my last day of school for the week. It was a good day - I taught lessons on Seattle, Brave New World (my level 8's are reading that - and they're reading 1984 in the other school) and The Onion Newspaper (which everyone loved!) I also got to help in a wood-shop class for the 1st years - and boy, were they scared of me! But they loosened up once they found out I understood german. :o) Also, my teachers there invited me on the school ski trip! More information on that later, though. Speaking of more info, I was also offered a job at a week-long intensive english seminar the last week of June in the resort city of Semmering! But, like I said, more on that later...
----------------------------------------------------------------