New Photos from Schladming and Yours Truly in Austrian Tracht

Check out my freshly updated photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/spbrown2009

You can see pictures of my backyard when it was still warm in Rohrbach (already getting cooler), from my recent trip to the town of Schladming with teachers from the business school, and, finally, your own Stephen dressed to the brim in ceremonial Austrian attire.

Servus ("Greetings"),
-Stephen

Betriebsausflug (Business Trip)

What better to get to know your co-workers than by traveling with them?

On Saturday morning (Oct. 17th), I stepped aboard a charter bus that was parked near the business school in Rohrbach. Ready there and waiting were several of the teachers I would be spending time with over the weekend: Walter, the proud Austrian; Klaus, my contact teacher/supervisor; Ingrid and Isabelle, the two English teachers (who always enjoy speaking English with me); Beate and Wolfgang, the German teachers who I like hanging with (figures, eh?); and Katherina, the lively and socialable blonde.

We departed from Rohrbach on a rainy Saturday morning for what would be a 4-hour bus ride into the province of Styria. Although scenic, the route was at times nausiating as we were driven around tight bends and through dark tunnels. After driving south from the lowlands, we reached the more mountainous region of Upper Austria, which borders with Styria.

From Apartment shots (backyard and kitchen) and pictures from my trip with the teachers

Me and the teachers taking a coffee break from the bus ride.

We found our accommodation in Schladming at the Posthotel, which turned out to be a great place to stay. The interior was traditional Austrian, with antique-furniture in the lobby and dining room, yet very modern bed rooms and bathrooms. The staff added a unique touch to the place by setting out bowls filled with fresh apples in every room. After unpacking and settling our things, the teachers and I gathered again in the lobby to plan out what to do with our afternoon. The decision: A hike up the nearby Planei mountainside; but, to make it less strenuous, we used the bus to get us up past the snow line (the point in elevation where snow begins sticking).

After riding our bus up the mountain for 30 min, we found a place to begin the hike. The trail we chose was ca. 400 meters up the Planai mountain range, which was covered at the time with about 4-5 inches of snow from the previous days. Hiking up a snow-covered mountain in Styria is very scenic and idyllic, especially if you are from a flatter, and, um, less exciting part of the US (Great Plains, for instance). After 1 1/2 hrs. we reached an alpine pasture, called an "Alm" in German, and, being a very Austrian/European/fun group, we found an "Almhütte," or hiker's lodge, and went in for some beer and schnaps. While we were enjoying ourselves, guests at a nearby table began performing a few folk tunes on accordion and banjo. My teachers wanted to have some fun with me, so they ordered me a little schnaps.

The high-point of the 2-day trip was our visit to the Hallstat salt mine. The village of Hallstat is very small, with under 1,000 inhabitants, but it's history is rich in economic success. Since the 1300s it had been a trading-hub for salt, which is still mined out in the Salzkammergut region in which the village is situated. Today, a main attraction in town is the legendary "Salzwerk," or salt mine in a nearby mountain. As a group, we took a mountain train similar to an incline (very similar to the mountain incline in Pittsburgh) to quickly ascend 1000 ft. uphill. We entered a large facility at the summit, where we dressed ourselves in protective clothing and headed with a tour guide into the mine. Before we could see any of the inner caverns, we had to first walk through the lengthy tunnels in the mountain, and this distance under the earth meant temperatures were very neutral and the air was humid. After more than an hour of touring the inner caves, tunnels, and caverns, and learned numerous facts about the mine's successful past, we exited via a tunnel train (check out my footage).

After touring the mine: Isabelle, Me, and Ingrid

Having finished the trip in Hallstat, we headed back to Rohrbach in the bus. Altogether, it was a great trip with the teachers. I learned to know them better, and I even picked up a few words of the Mühlviertlerisch-dialect here and there. Now it's time to give my co-workers at the technical school a try and getting to know me... ; )

Photos!

-Stephen

Gala night with "Upper" Society

Thursday evening (Oct. 15th) was a celebratory night in Linz.



The Austro-American Society for Upper Austria (Österreich-Amerikanische Gesellschaft Oberösterreich) held a gala event to celebrate the group´s 60th anniversary. Nearly 300 guests attended the party, which included several speeches by key players in Austrian and Transatlantic politics: the US Ambassador to Austria, multiple diplomats from various Austrian agencys, the newly re-elected Governor of Upper Austria, and several members from the city´s administration. A visit by the St. Florian Boys Choir (St. Florian Knabbenchor), who performed works from Mozart´s Die Zauberflöte and old American folk songs, also highlighted this cultural summit. Guests were even treated to a full-dinner, with traditional, Austrian cuisine (Knödel, Sauerkraut, Spätzle, Hünchenpaprikasch, etc.) and American desserts (apple pie, Banana Foster´s, and chocolate chip cookies), as well as an open bar.

One special service the group offers are weekly chat sessions, in which Americans and others wanting to speak English can meet and talk over coffee for a couple hours. There might even be room for me to volunteer during these meetings, as they are always looking for Americans to act as host. Personally, I am trying to organize a weekly "Kaffeestunde," or coffee hour, for English teachers in Rohrbach to meet and speak English. Since they are usually the ones most eager to improve their language, it would be a great opportunity for me to get to know them better. Besides that, I am hoping to tutor students at the HAK who need additional help in English. I´ve suggested they visit the weekly English-speaking sessions in Linz, but we´ll see how many go.

Thursday night was something to remember, and I hope to branch out from that to even volunteer occassionally in Linz - might be a good way to make contacts!

Here is the organization´s website: http://members.liwest.at/aas/

More to come later,
-Stephen

Weekend in Linz

Grüßchen!


This past Saturday, I went to the city of Linz to meet some friends also teaching English there. It was also an opportunity just to simply hang out with other Americans and Brits (yeah, it was that time in the traveling abroad experience). The evening went so well that I ended up spending the night and touring the city all day Sunday, loving every minute!

Linz is both the largest city and capital of Upper Austria, and it serves as a major transport hub along the Danube river. The city is very modern and houses several museums, such as the new Lentos and Schloss museums. As it lies directly on the Danube, many visitors take river boat rides from the old city to other nearby hubs, like Vienna and Budapest.

Getting to Linz from Rohrbach was easy for me, since a train stop is only 15 minutes from my apartment. One advantage of taking the train is the very idylic and romantic scenery it offers. The train traveled through the southern tip of the Bohemian Forest and along small farms and rolling pastures; so for those of you that read the Polar Express as a youngster, it was as if you were traveling on a small train right alongside a hiking trail in a deep forest, and headed for a destination in the far North. Here is a link to the route I took.

I´m excited to see what it´ll be like this winter!

Linz shines brilliantly at night, and the most illuminous landmarks are the Nibelungen Bridge, Electronica Center (which changes colors in random patterns), and the Lentos Museum. Most of the city is well-lit and it wasn´t difficult for our group to get around. Check out this picture of the banks of the Danube at night.

The next morning, I had hoped to leave early for Rohrbach to return for an organ recital at the town´s main church. Little did I know that my return train would be leaving NOT from the central train station, but rather from an alternative station on the other side of the Danube. So, I missed the train and along with that my chance to hear an organist play Mendellssohn. However, I now had the whole day to spend in Linz!

With my full day ahead of me, I visited a tourist booth and picked up some flyers to see what was happening in the city on a Sunday. The Lentos Museum, with its exhibition on sight/sound, immediately caught my eye, but I had two hours to until it would open. Considering that, I thought it best to visit a church for mass. Leaving the train station, I found a bus stop and hopped on the No. 45 to the Neuer Dom / Marienkirche (the New Cathedral / St. Mary´s Church). FYI, the Neuer Dom is the largest church in Austria and was built in the 19th Century with a Neo-Classical design. Although the church was not as stunning as the Dom in Graz, it was still very well maintained.

Following mass, I decided to treat myself to some after-church breakfast (Brown family-style). Walking south from the church on Herrenstraße, I came across a quaint pastry shop called Wrann Konditorei (http://www.wrann.konditorei.cc/). The inside was small, but the store owners make a great use of the little space they have. I ordered an Apfelstrudel mit verlängerter Kaffee (apple strudel with coffee and milk) and I savored it just as if my Grandmother had made it...yummm lecker! And when I returned to Rohrbach later that day, my landlady even told me that the shop was indeed known for just that!

With my freshly caffeinated self, I continued to the Lentos Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentos_Art_Museum), which was a 10min walk away along the Danube. The museum is very modern, and at night it lights up in bright red, pink, and maroon pulsating colors. The two exhibitions currently open offer very different works to a visitor: the first highlighted the city of Linz with cityscapes painted throughout history and portraits of famous citizens; and the second presented modern, and alternative uses of sound in the art industry. More influential, the second exhibit featured hundreds of works dedicated to the art of sound. While some pieces showed how sound can be manipulated and used to accompany certain colors or images, other pieces allowed the observer to interact with certain sounds, such as in changing pitch, or moving small pieces of magnetic strips with booming, electromagnetic pulses - I know, hard to visualize.

As I left the museum and walked east along the Danube, I came across the Bruckner Haus (a center for performing arts in Linz: http://www.brucknerhaus.at/). I looked along the glass wall that separated the lobby from the exterior and noticed a poster of Franz Welser-Möst, Director of the Cleveland Orchestra. As a total surprise to me, I discovered the Cleveland Orchestra is set to perform in Linz on November 3rd this year!!!
Talk about home away from home! It would be great to visit Linz for the concert as a field trip with my students and show them a piece of my culture from back home ; )

After walking around a bit more that afternoon, I then headed back to the train station - the correct one this time - and returned to Rohrbach. The scenery was just as stunning on the way back as it was arriving the day before. And the 1 1/4 hour train ride gave me enough time to read the city magazines I had picked up and to rest a little.

Aside from the sights and landmarks, a few things stuck out to me. For one thing, I am now deeply thankful to live in a nice apartment, and with an accommodating family! My friends that chose to live in Linz and commute do have the advantages of urban living, such as meeting many new people with often liberal viewpoints, enjoying different foods, and getting to places via public transit. However, they are also cramped in small apartments with fewer cooking options, smelly hallways, and at times questionable flat mates. On top of that, I personally value close relationships with neighbors and families more highly than the excitements of city life. Sure, I enjoyed seeing Linz and living it up in the Großstadt for a night, but I´m happy living in Rohrbach. I´ll take the fresh air and hospitable people in the country any day.

Enjoying Rohrbach,

-Stephen

And here comes first post!

Hello all,

Grüßchen! As they say in Rohrbach, the town where I will be teaching this year!

Last Monday, I began my term as a US Teaching Assistant through Fulbright Austria. I met with my Contact Teacher at the Business and Trade Academy (HAK) in Rohrbach who organized my working hours for the week and introduced me to the several English teachers at the school.

The HAK has around 1,000 students that are pursuing Maturas, or specialized High School degrees, in multiple fields of business, including IT, International Business and Marketing, and Digital Business. The students range in age from 15 to 19 years old, with the oldest in the 5th Class completing their Matura with an English oral examination at the end of the year. After they graduate, the male students are required to complete 6 months of army training or 12 months of civil service.

My duties as the English Language Assistant at the HAK primarily deal with helping the students communicate with each other in English. I do this through designing group activities, brainstorming, and presenting situations to the students that require their response and input. Besides helping the students with their English, my secondary roles revolve around the teacher. I assist the teacher whenever help is needed, or if he/she wants a second opinion on certain words or phrases in English.

So far, each day has been getting better, and I´m finding more creative and unique ways of reaching the students. For example, I introduced myself to most of the classes this week by presenting my hometown, Akron, as well as other characteristics of where I´m from. Surprisingly, some Austrian guys know more about American basketball than even me (I asked if anyone had heard of LeBron James or Shaq - and several students raised their hands : ). When I told them that LeBron was born in Akron, a few of them were notably stunned.

Some of the students´questions that I came across were to be expected: Do you like Fast Food? Do you drive a truck? Did you vote for Bush? etc.
At the same time, though, I am a little narrow-minded when it comes to knowing Austrians. Do you know any Austrians? Luckily, I have gotten to know the German Language Assistants at Wooster as good friends, but I still sometimes associate German culture with Austrians - Wrong!

The more time I spend talking with teachers and students, the more I find that Austrian culture differs in many ways from German culture - and, for the most part, I really like these differences. We´ll see how I do this coming weekend: Music rehearsal with the local brass ensemble this Friday night (I´m betting there will be some beer drinking to follow - "haha, shall we get the American betrunken" - ehh), perhaps some hiking in the Bohemian forest - which is practically in my backyard ; ) and then listening to a Organist perform at the Pfarrkirche, the main church in Rohrbach.

Getting settled in,
Much love,
-Stephen

Testing out the new blog!

Hello everyone,

This posting is only to test how the new blog will look. What do you think?

Also, what would you like to see from my travels so far? I've taken photos upon my arrival in Hamburg, in the old port city of Lübeck, while visiting the Röhl Family in Rostock, during my tour of Germany's capital, Berlin, and my short trip to Graz, Austria, as well as during my week-long Fulbright orientation in Hinterglemm, a small town 1.5 hrs south of Salzburg.

Now, I am moved-in and becoming well-settled in the town of Rohrbach, Upper Austria. This is where I will be spending my year as an English Language Assistant at the Business and Trade Academy Rohrbach (Handelsakademie Rohrbach).

I miss my family, Wooster, my friends, and the rest of Ohio, so please send me an email soon,
-Stephen

Btw, here is my new online photoalbum!