marching on

Spring is beginning to show her beautiful pastel-colored face in Graz. The birds have begun to chirp again, flowers are slowly creeping out of the thawed ground and I've successfully felt actual sunshine on my squinty pale face. Sun? IS THAT YOU?! NEVER LEAVE ME AGAIN. 

As of today I have 40 more working days here in Austria. 40! (plus 22 days off...) My flight home is booked for June 5th and my last day of school will be May 28th. How did this happen? February, thank the gods, flew by. I've never disliked a month more than I dislike February. Last year was the snowy season from hell plus the lost house key debacle and this year was another round of gray skies and cold noses plus the unfortunate escalation of health problems for yours truly. GET THEE TO A NUNNERY, FEBRUARY.

"Health problems?" you ask. Since the beginning of December I've been plagued with a gastrointestinal tract that simply won't play nice. Since then I've seen several doctors, both stateside and abroad, been administered this test and that, and had the misfortune to lose and gain symptoms as easily as the wind changes. Thanks for the consistency, body. Rude. 4 weeks ago I scheduled one of those incredibly invasive procedures that are typically reserved for the over 50...And in one week I'll finally undergo said procedure. The main downside to my brief affair with socialized medicine is that because I wasn't hemorrhaging from my innards at my hospital visit, I was simply scheduled as soon as I could be fit in. Naturally, the plus side is that I wasn't bleeding all over my guts. However, the downsides of waiting 5 weeks for an exam are the constant gnawing worry, impatience, discomfort and guilt for the increasing amount of classes I've missed. I have no idea what's quite wrong with me, I just know that I can wake up feeling like there's a hot ball of lead in my belly, or that I'm going to retch over a class of 20 youths or even feel perfectly fine. Sometimes food helps, sometimes it hurts. Sometimes I forget that something is wrong only to be reminded a few days later. I'm smart enough to know that if I truly felt the need, I could visit a hospital any time, any day. The mildly annoying fact is that, as uncomfortable as I may feel throughout the week, I don't feel bad enough to go to the emergency room. Double-edged sword, I suppose.

Hopefully this explains why I've become more and more of a recluse, why I spend more time than should be legal online and why my online updates are far more subdued. I'm laying low until I know what the heck is wrong with my bod.

BUT as my exam draws nearer, I can feel my stress decreasing. Which has allowed me a bit more fun this past week than previously.

Tuesday was Mardi Gras, or as it's called here, Fasching. This year I played it safe and was only out of the house for 3 hours and refrained from imbibing (which did me little good, because I still wound up staying home from school the next day due to awful queasiness that lasted well into the evening) I threw together an impromptu costume of what I had lying around the place and became, for those 3 hours, a mime.

New career choice?

Jenn went the Rocky Horror Picture Show route and inevitably had much more fun.

The festivities continued as my dear friend Lauren from HIGH SCHOOL came to see the sights of Austria and Graz. A successful attempt to eat her way through this country.

Her first experiences with Austrian beer and Käferbohnen. THE BEANS!

An afternoon in Vienna

Ginko. Vegetarian heaven.

I CAN'T STOP/WON'T STOP

"Everything the light touches is our kingdom."

Graz on high

Biggest pizza party.

Lauren's gone now and I have zero plans for the weekend except to sleep and eat and sleep and eat. Over Easter break I'll be traveling to Amsterdam, seeing The Netherlands for the first time as well as being reunited with my heart and soul, Tini.

Those are all the words I have for today. I'm going to feast on that leftover pizza now...

verona favs

Remember how I used to update this lil' guy? Hmmf. Well this and that happens and I don't find myself as compelled to do much of anything these days. Except stroke small animals and eat lots of cookies. I'm hoping my generally cheerful disposition returns with the sunshine of March! Even though I already put all these on the facebook, here they are again to prove that this was a travel blog of sorts.

parents, pumpkins and perspective

Perspective is a funny thing.

It's also really hard to draw correctly, like seriously, you keep having to erase, redo, erase, repeat. WHY IS PERSPECTIVE SO HARD?! But I digress…

I now have 6 days worth of perspective from my last bout of rambling and i can vigorously and honestly say that those 6 days have been mighty helpful. Before I was feeling a bit "UGHHUNFFHGUHH HARD WORK" about this teaching thing but now I'm totally like "OKAYYEAH TOTES DOABLE." A lot less grunting now. I'm not making much sense, am I? The point is, one of the lessons that didn't go according to plan on Monday, was much better the next time around, in fact, I've been asked by 2 other teachers to do it for their classes. I'M IMPROVING, GUYS! I'm learning that things won't always work in a classroom, and that it's no big deal. It's no one's fault, the teachers won't hate me, and the students will put up with my novelty.

This past week was incredibly tiring,  fun and fruitful. I've been getting lots of happy feedback from the teachers about the students' general reactions to me. aka THEY LOVE ME. Also, I'm slowly weasling my way into the teachers' hearts as well heh heh heh. Hopefully more baked goods are in my future. So far, my lesson topics have been:
- Introductions
- Health and Fitness, with the help of Michelle Obama and Beyoncé
- T.V.
- American High School
- Teen Problems

I haven't picked these bad boys myself, and i have a feeling they will only get more bizarre as the year goes on…OH WELL. I'm currently working on setting up an English hour somewhere in the city once a week so the kidlets can talk about things they actually want to, not just why Americans are so fat, Romney is an insane loon, and High School Musical…Hopefully I get that straightened out before November :D

This week was both fun and fruitful because, guess who came to town?! MY PARENTS. The mom and pops joined me on the continent for a weekend of eating, walking, shopping, picture taking and more eating. There was a lot of eating involved. We ate a lot of pumpkin. Styria (the province I'm in) freaking loves pumpkin. If Graz could marry any vegetable, it would be the pumpkin. (are pumpkins vegetables or fruits…?) They also really like wild meat here, so of course deer gulash and deer schnitzel were on the menu as well. Mmmm…Though, I could definitely go for a detox right about now…SO MUCH BUTTER. Anyway, took the parents out for food, castle viewing, shopping, sturm drinking, beer drinking, etc. etc. While they were here we more or less planned the upcoming Heinrichs Family Christmas. I'll be flown to Brentwood for the actual festivities, but afterward we're going to GRANADA OH YEAH SPAIN WOO MOORS YEAH AL HAMBRA! I'M SO EXCITED. Eeeeeee! But more on that later.

Although my week didn't actually involve much fruit, it was fruitful in the sense that now my room feels like my room. The giant white walls now have things on them, I bought MOOD LIGHTING and the number of scarves hanging from their hooks tripled. LIFE IS SO GOOD. As you may well know, a Kat Heinrichs room needs mood lighting. (we all remember the Love Lair) So, I will post pictures of my cozy cozy domicile soon…I still need to clean it.

THERE YOU GO. My week in a nutshell. Oh, also, roasted chestnuts are still gross.

THAT IS ALL.