Jana's European Adventures

Hello all! I had to write real quick to tell you about the LOVELY weekend I had. I left at 8 am on Saturday for Prague, which is in the Czech Republic. The ride was a little over 4 hours, but it wasn't bad at all. I went with one of the other teachers at the school and we just chatted the whole way (shocking, I know). Prague was such a beautiful city!! I absolutely loved it! It is quite a bit smaller than Vienna, so it had the small-town feel, but it is definitely still a city. We just walked around all day Saturday, and ate at outdoor cafes. It was absolutely packed!! I guess tickets from England are very cheap, so I heard English all weekend. It was so weird! Funny, isn't it? I think it's weird to hear English now! We went out to dinner at a great Czech restaurant. There was a live band, so we hung out there for a while and then walked back to out hotel. Our hotel was actually a "botel." It was a hotel on a boat on the river. Cool, huh?? It was about a 30-minute walk outside the city, but that wasn't too bad. On Sunday we got up, had breakfast, and walked to the castle, which was on the other side of the city. We just shopped and had lunch and enjoyed being outside. There were a few bands that just played on the street, so we watched them for a while. It was just such a good weekend!! I hope you are all doing great. I heard it snowed!! I hope it goes away, because I will be home in ONE WEEK. Yea! Talk to you soon!!

Hello all!! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I had lots of fun. On Friday, my train left for Munich at 4:00. I met some interesting people on the train, that's for sure. I sat next to a man from Israel and all we did was fight about the United States. He things everything is wrong with it, and I happen to like it. :) I guess it made the trip go by quicker. The ride was about 4 hours long. I met my friend, Clayton, there (from Traverse City). He was standing right by my train when I got out, so that made things easier. Since I didn't get there 'til pretty late, we just went out to dinner Friday night. On Saturday, though, we got to see more of the city. It was a beautiful day, so we went to the zoo in the morning, which was lots of fun. We spent forever there, though! After that we went to the English Gardens. It is 3 miles of gardens, a pond, a park area, and woods. It was very pretty to see. We kinda just laid around there. After that, we went to the Hofbrauhouse, a world-famous beer house. There were SO many people there. There was a true German band, which was cool to see. It was all old men with accordians or something. Fun! (Or funny, you chose.) We also got ice cream and walked around downtown and saw all the nice old buildings and the marketplace and stuff. Today we just got up and had breakfast and then I had to get to the train station. The weekend flew by, but it was definitely a good time. I couldn't believe I was in Germany. And I just loved having someone to hang out with. It gets lonely doing everything alone. I hope you are all doing well. For some reason, you are all forgetting to comment, so let's work on that. :) I can't believe I will be home in 16 days!!!! Talk to all of you soon!

Okay, I had to write real quick to tell all of you what happened last night. I was meeting someone downtown, so I had to take the tram to the U4 station. Everything was going just fine until I got on the U4. Now, to explain a little, the U4 is an underground train, or subway. I have only taken this line about three times, so I am not really sure where it goes. I just know where I have to get off. Halfway between two stops, the subway came to a screeching halt. The engine was turned off, and the lights were turned off. They made an announcement in German and everyone got upset. We waited about 15 minutes or so, and they make a couple more announcements. At this point, I was quite curious as to what was going, so I yelled, "Does anyone in here speak English?" One guy, from Italy, answered and came over to sit by me. He explained that there was an accident and no one could leave the train. Since we weren't at a subway stop, the doors wouldn't open. Okay. Sweet. About 10 minutes later, they announced that there would be firemen at each car to help us exit the subway. Two firemen came to the door I was sitting by. They showed us the emergencey procedure for opening the door (yelling, in German, from outside). It took a while, but we got the doors open. They set up ladders and we all had to climb out of the train. We had to walk down the tracks, into a tunnel, then up a staircase to get to the main street. Once we got on the main street, we saw LOTS of people, policemen, and fire trucks. What had happened was, a man had jumped in front of our train to commit suicide!!! I couldn't believe it!! I still can't believe it. Everyone was watching, but I couldn't. I walked down the street quite a ways, with my Italian friend, who showed me a bus to take to get downtown. It was a night like no other! I just had to tell you the story. Talk to all of you soon!!

Well, after 17 days off (including weekends), I finally went back to the reason I am here. It was actually a great day. I think my students are just so great, so it was actually good to see them. Since I moved, though, I have to leave the house by 6:30 (if I am a minute later I will miss the train). And it is a mile walk to the train. At 6:30 in the morning, that feels like forever, let me tell you! But besides that, everything is great. I even started teaching swimming lessons yesterday. Yes, swimming lessons. Weird, I know. But somehow I told the mom that I am living with that I used to lifeguard, so she assumed I could teach her daughter how to swim. Since she's two, I told her I could try. But then she called a few of her friends, so now I am teaching two two-year-old girls, one three-year-old, and one four-year-old every Monday and Thursday evening. I guess it gives me something to do! I hope you are all great. Tickets to Munich didn't work out for last weekend, so I am going this weekend instead. I will be sure to tell you all about it. Talk to all of you soon (hopefully)!!

Hello! I thought I would write a quick update on where I am living now. I moved to Perchtoldsdorf (hence the name of this blog). It is right outside Vienna, even though it takes me an hour to get into the city now. I can either walk 20 minutes, take a 25 minute train ride, and then a 5 minute subway ride OR I can walk 10 minutes, take a 30 minute tram ride, and then a 10 minute subway ride. Either way works. I know, I have so many decisions to make! The family has been wonderful!! I love having people around all the time. Even though the language barrier has been difficult, most of them speak pretty clear English to me. I am trying to learn more German, as they are trying to learn more English. The food is wonderful, my bedroom is great, and they have the internet right downstairs! Really, I have no complaints. Right now, the 2-year-old is having a play group. So there are 6 kids running through the house, screaming. :) As soon as the group is done, I am goingto walk through the vineyard with the mom and 2-year-old daughter. We are going to go to the park and out for ice cream. Then I am going to work on lesson plans for quite a while. I want to be ahead when we start school again. I am going to Munich tomorrow (for the weekend), so I will have a lot to write about that, I'm sure. Keep in touch!!

Well, let me tell you. There is nothing like trying to lug 3 suitcases onto 3 different forms of public transportation with a sweatshirt and coat on in 70 degree weather! This morning was a challenge. I got a phone call from the family this morning, telling me they were still on their ski trip because one of their sons got in an accident. She was actually at the hospital when I talked to her! I guess he's okay now, just a headache and minor bruises. I am really not sure what happened, but they will be home tonight. Because of this, she asked me if I could try to move in using public transportation. Well, yes I did! I finally gave up at the last bus stop and took a cab the rest of the way (once I found out I would have to walk). The house is great. Their oldest son just left for Paris, so I am staying in his room. Like I had said before, there are wine vineyards (literally) right across the street. So it is a beautiful area. I think it will be much better having people around all the time. Definitely not as lonely! I will write more soon. I have the internet right downstairs now, so it will be much easier to communicate with all of you! Hope you are doing great. I know you know this, but I MISS YOU ALL!

Where do I even start? I just had the best week ever!! I love Vienna, but it is just SO MUCH MORE FUN having someone else around. My family left this morning, which is sad, but we had such a good week. I think we fit at least 2 weeks worth of sites into about 5 1/2 days. I will try to give you the quick run-through. Besides their flight coming in 6 hours later than expected, everything was great. Saturday night we walked around downtown and went out for a great schnitzel dinner and ice cream. It was just fun to show them the city. Sunday we went to the Hofburg Palace to see the Vienna Boys' Choir perform during the Easter Sunday mass. Even though the service was in German, the choir was excellent. Afterwards, I showed them my flat and then we went on to the Schonbrunn Palace. It was amazing!! We all loved it! There was even an Easter market, where my mom and I bought a little too much. :) We went out to an EXCELLENT, fancy dinner at a famous beef restaurant. Monday, I showed them my school and we went to the Hundertwasser house (a famous artist from Vienna). We loved the gift shop there, too. We also went to the Prater Park and walked along the Danube Canal. Later in the day, we went to St. Stephan's Cathedral, the famous center of town. My dad, Jeff, and I walked up 340 winding steps to the top of one of the towers. The view was amazing. We went and looked at the Hofburg Palace more thoroughly and (of course) went out for ice cream. We also went out to a (different) great schnitzel place for dinner. Tuesday, we took a day trip to Salzburg. We hired a driver to take us, which was great because we got to stop at 2 beautiful lakes on the way. For you Sound of Music fans, one of the lakes was where Maria sang "The hills are alive..." My mom and I were very excited about that! The city was great. We went to a fortress, the abbey, the cemetary, the gardens, and shopped around town. And yes, it was where the Sound of Music was filmed. So almost all the sites we saw were in the movie! It was right on the mountains, so it was so beautiful! We even drove through Wachau Valley and saw all the wine vineyards on the way home. Wednesday, we spent more time downtown. We saw the Belvedere and the Opera House. We also went back to the Hundertwasser house, and took a tram around the center of town. Thursday, we made a pretty spur-of-the-moment decision to go to Bratislava, Slovokia for the day. We took a train in the morning. It was VERY different from Vienna and Salzburg, so it was very cool to see. We saw the castle and many famous statues and buildings. We were back in Vienna for the evening. We went out to dinner and took a carriage ride around the city. As you can all see, we had a GREAT week. The weather was great. It was a little chilly, but the sun was out every day. We ate lots, but walked even more! I think we figured we walked 6-8 miles every day!! Maybe if I can keep that schedule up, I won't gain weight from all the great Austrian food I keep eating!! I hope you are all doing great!! I think I will have better access to the internet next week, so keep e-mailing and writing comments. I miss you all (LOTS)!!