A Year Abroad as an Adult: Salzburg

When I decided to apply for masters programs for German, I noticed there weren't many to choose from.  I wanted to study somewhere outside of Washington State because I have connections here already and I wanted to get everything I could out of further studies.  My GRE scores weren't impressive (seriously, why do we only test English and math no matter what subject we're applying to study? I could rant about the educational system for far too long...), and I'm relatively certain that's why I didn't get accepted to most schools.  Bowling Green State University not only accepted me, but offered me an assistantship, which in the end meant being paid to earn my masters degree through them. Because of delays in recommendations, I would have to defer my education for a year in order to guarantee an assistantship both years.  I decided that was worth it, so I had my first year teaching German as a .8 teacher at a high school that had already gone through 2 teachers the year before.  I was sorry to create more instability there, but it was a good experience and I then knew more what I needed in order to be a successful educator.  (Side note: apparently all of my pictures from this year are lost.  All pictures included in this blog, while still mine, only exist because I first posted them to Facebook, or because I went back and have pictures from other trips.)

I am happy I chose this program.  Visas and room and board were arranged for us.  Since getting there was on us, I flew with the only airline that would arrange round trip for this length (British Airways) and make a stop in Waiblingen to see my host family.  Arriving in Salzburg by train, I simply had to take a taxi to the dorm building and check in there.  The first semester I shared a room with a first year undergraduate Austrian student.  It was nice to have an Austrian there as I adjusted, but at this time in my life, I had already lived alone for two years and study habits were quite different between the two of us.  Dorm rooms included two twin sized beds with desks at the end, connection to ethernet (it was 2005 in Europe, the fact that we got internet in our rooms was nice) and a door separated the sleeping space from the bathroom/toilet and closets.  Our room was near the stairwell and across the hall from the shared kitchen (each floor had a kitchen), where many of the residents gathered and smoked.  It was a hard environment for me to live in.  On the positive side, the dorm building was a 10-15 minute walk from the university, very near a tech building (computer labs are useful when the internet is down in the room).

Back to the real work - everyone takes a test at the beginning of the year to be placed in the correct level of German as a foreign language.  I was unhappy with where I tested into (Mittelstufe III), but I got to take the course with a friend and our professor was amazing, so I got a lot out of it.  Besides that, we had other courses just for our group and were allowed to take whatever courses we wanted to take at the regular university.  I took linguistics courses on morphology with another awesome professor.  I was so impressed with him in semester one that I made sure to take another course with him the next year.  It was fun being in there for the second semester (Morphologie: Deutsch und Englisch) because I was the only native English speaker there, so I was used often as an example, especially for the purpose of pronunciation.  I attempted to take a pedagogy course as well, but the schedule wasn't perfect and I couldn't keep up without being there the whole time.  The courses for us included: Literature, Business German, Austrian Politics (?  okay, I remember learning about Austrian Politics, but I don't remember if it was its own class... and my memory has faded about anything else...) I also got to be a tutor for the undergraduates' music course for the first semester and I was an English speaking assistant in a nearby Gymnasium second semester. I mostly worked with one class, though I visited a couple others.  The students were mostly about 15 and they were reading Lord of the Flies in English and discussing and analyzing it.  (Comparison: our 15/16 year old students complain that that same assignment is too hard... in their native language.)

We did a lot of things as a group, but had freedom most of the time.  Early on, we walked/hiked around the area and in the city to help us get used to the area.  We spent some time in Wien.  We attempted to see an opera, but the actor declared himself ill in the first scene...  Touring the capitol was nice, though.  I got many ideas for where to take my parents when they visited for Christmas.  We visited a castle in the area, but I don't remember much about the tour.  Apparently I had a little claustrophobia and passed out...

In the spring time, we took a trip up to Berlin, making a few stops along the way.  There was Nürnberg - we saw the castle and had a city tour.   There was an art protest, apparently, surrounding some of Nürnberg's famous statues.

Bamberg's Dom is an interesting one.  It was built as the style changed from romantic to gothic, so one side of the church has rounded arches, while the other points at the top.




















We went to Dresden (seriously, that hotel was creepy - I wish I could remember the name so I could warn everyone about it!).  I believe this was my first time going in the Frauenkirche?   I remember it was finished by this time, anyway.










Berlin was interesting as usual.  It was all decorated for the world cup.  A few more memorials were available now than in the years past.  I love returning to Berlin because it changes so much so quickly.  Our city tour took us past the Holocaust memorial, which was being built the last couple of times I had been in Berlin.  We went to Check Point Charlie.  I feel as if this spot is a little more hype than anything else by now.  The history is interesting, at least.

I spent Christmas with my host family.  My parents met me there the next day and we toured southern Germany and Austria for the next two weeks.  We went back to Fussen and this time went into Neu Schwanstein. It was really amusing, actually.  Ludwig II. had the rooms decorated with the influence of Wagner operas, which were musical versions of the literature we were studying.  I remember remarking as we walked into a room with a checkered person "This must be Parzival - that's what was imagined a person would look if they were half black and half white" and then the tour guide confirming that thought.  My dad was surprised I know that. (Quite frankly, I'm surprised I knew that... and that I still remember it.)

We spent New Year's in Wien.  I showed them some of the places we had gone as a college group, including the Parliament building.  We took a tour there that was quite intriguing.  (Political history is actually very interesting and gives you a better understanding of culture and wars that have happened since.)  On New Year's Eve my mother and I had Glühwein from the market and then we went to the hotel, played games, and watched TV.  It's when I heard Durch den Monsun for the first time...

We ended our time together in Salzburg, where I was able to take them to concerts and several of my different hang outs.  Restaurants, cafes, stores, etc.  I took them up to the Festung for the museum as well.  It has some interesting history to it.  We went on the Sound of Music tour together.  It's embarrassing to me that the man in charge was an American who had lived in Salzburg for 7 years and still spoke no real amount of German.  The tour was cheesy, but fun.  It was also nice to see areas outside of the city that we might not have found on our own, including some of the scenes where the movie was filmed.

My sister visited during her spring break that year.  Instead of doing the Sound of Music tour, I took her to some of the highlights with regular public transportation.  We also hiked up Gaisberg, which I had previously done with the group.  It was still fairly cold up there in March, so it made for a fairly comfortable hike.

Untersberg.  You may recognize it from the Sound of Music.  Unfortunately, crossing this mountain will take you straight to Germany.  Maybe not the best way to end that story...










During this year, I collected evidence for my thesis plan (using authentic German-language music in the German as a foreign language classroom, specifically in the second year). I made friends, I made connections, I learned another dialect.  I went for walks along rivers and in forests.  This year changed the way I thought of education and reminded me of the importance of visiting other cultures.  After my schooling ended for the year, I took another month for travel.  That's a blog for another time.