In which Emily owns the Eistraum.

10:27 -- Vienna, Austria

I am now realizing that many of these posts are written within approximately fifteen minutes of my having woken up, which results in a lot of misspelling (z.B. I spelled "approximately" wrong just then). Forgive typing errors. My brain is fuzzy.

Real classes began this week, and I'm taking a teaching internship course that has me teaching English in a Volksschule (an elementary school, basically) three times a week. I went in for an introduction to the classes I'll be teaching and was greeted by THE CUTEST LITTLE CHILDREN EVER. First of all, they are extremely well behaved. Secondly, they all went around saying their name, their age, and what they liked to do: "My name is ---. I am ten years old. I like swimming." I use this example because once someone brought up swimming, it was like no one had done anything else, ever. Their teacher pondered aloud that many people whom she had never known to like swimming suddenly were avid fans. One boy said: "My name is Timmy years old," which was really cute.

Also, in the teacher's lounge there is a coffee machine. Not as in a drip, drip, wait ten minutes for substandard flavored water machine. As in, press one of four or so butttons and your desired coffee will be produced for you in record time. Muahahaha! Teachers unite!

Last night we went Eislaufen (ice skating!) at Eistraum, the outdoor ice skating rink in front of the Rathouse. This is what the Rathaus looks like lit up by the lights:



There was a little ice river you could skate away on (Joni, anyone?) and two main rinks. They played music, you looked at all the happy couples skating and holding hands and swallowed your urge to whack them in the knees with a stick, listened to crazy eclectic music and generally had a great time. I'll have you know I did not fall even once.

Also, I finally caved and bought a cheap, 3/4 size nylon-stringed guitar! It makes me very happy.