My first day of school at ICSV

Today was our first day of actual classes, and it was a success!

Last Friday was Registration Day, which just involved students coming to the school, getting their handbooks, signing up for sports and clubs, and saying "hi" to their former teachers.

This is the Secondary English Department last Friday- Stefanie, Reesa and me.  I teach only high school, but the other two teach a combination of middle and high school.

I also teach the entire 10th Grade, which is only 25 students, but it's kind of daunting to think about!

Here are some photos of what my school's like inside...

Part of the front entryway

(There was too much sunlight to take a better photo of the rest of it.)

Our hall of flags in our foyer! :)

They represent the countries where our students have been from. Last year, we had 52 nationalities represented. (Not sure about this year yet.)

This is what you see when you walk in

This is a beautiful painting w/ mirrors and Bible verses written on it in German.

My classroom schedule, since I have to share it w/ 2 other part-time teachers.

My door with a sign pointing to my room, since the door's hidden behind lockers.

Meet Miche.

Miche is a German teacher that shares my classroom with me, and he teeters between being my "son" and my Austrian brother.  :-D  Last week, he was testing all of the board markers and wrote this.

My classroom from the doorway

My desk area

My professor at Taylor University wrote these books that the Bible classes will use!  (They're being stored in my room.)

Part of the reading area

This is my kids' favorite reading corner.

Who needs a boring student station when you can have a classroom cafe?
(And, yes, I drank 4 lattes just so I could use the bottles to hold markers and pens.) :)

The area where we have larger assemblies

Centimeter: THE place to eat!

On Sunday, I went to an afternoon church service at what I thought was going to be the Rathaus.  (I found out the word means "city hall" and doesn't actually refer to a dwelling place for rodents.)

I met up with some other teachers at the Rathaus train station, and we didn't go to the building, which you can view if you click on the link above.  We went someplace a few streets away from it, and then we ate dinner together at a place called Centimeter.

(I still don't understand its name.)

We ate in the beautiful cellar, or "keller".

This was the menu folded up, but it opened up long ways, like a measuring tape.  :-P

There were many of us who went out to eat.  Therefore, we ordered some specialty things and split the cost between all of us.  In the end, we ate a TON of food for the equivalent of about $5ish!

I was pretty happy.   :)

They served some of the meat and sides on a SWORD, of all things...

...and then also in a wheelbarrow, which was set right in front of me.

I was very happy!  :)

My new name is Xena:  Warrior Princess! 

 This is Bill and Ada.  They're new this year and hail from Florida with their son and daughter.

Bill's awesome and ornery; he feels like my third dad.  :)

Family fun with a sword!

Bill's "attacking" his son while his wife looks on in horror.  

:-P

Living in history

A few days ago, after I wrote my previous post, I was inspired by the Jewish plaque in that post to do a bit of research on the history of Jews in Vienna.  It was a reminder that I'm living in a historic section of a very historic, cultural and modernized city.  There are many Jewish stores here, and I see Orthodox Jews walking around my area all the time, always wearing traditional attire.  (And, occasionally, with an Ipod, which would make for an interesting photo!)

During my few minutes of research, I discovered that I live in the heart of the Jewish sector of the downtown Vienna area.  It's practically as alive and thriving now as it was before World War II.

Because of that fact, many Jews were deported from my neighborhood during Kristallnacht.  If I look out of my bedroom windows, I see my lively street full of personality, music, and all kinds of different people.  If I look to the right, though, I see the exact buildings where these Jews used to live and were taken away.

From what I've been able to understand from a Google search, no Jews lived in my building.  They did live in all of the other ones around me, though.

(I haven't yet walked down that section of the street; I always turn left out of my apartment to go to the train stop.  I do plan on turning right sometime to visit a famous park that's located near the end of our street.)

Anyways, I did this research on Thursday night, and I went to sleep thinking about all of this and feeling a bit...freaked out...sickened...shocked... I don't really know how to describe my feelings, but all of a sudden, I was hit with the realization that I'm truly living in history.  The original buildings where these real Jews lived are still standing; they're not torn down or completely reconstructed.  I don't live far at all from where Hitler made his speech about the Anschluss.  (You can read about that here.)  

It just became even more real to me that, even though there is much beauty and wealth and modernization to this city, there's also so much tragic history.  It's something tragic I would like forget but can't.

Going along with this, several teachers live in an apartment complex on a street called Templestrasse.  It's where a huge synagogue used to be before it was mostly destroyed during Kristallnacht.

Here's part of the street.  I haven't seen much old - fashioned streets like this one here, but there might be a few left.

This Jewish bakery is across the street from the synagogue and apartments.

(I love the Smurfs next to the menorah!)

This is the only remaining fourth of the synagogue.

The 4 white columns represent the other 3/4 of the synagogue that were destroyed.  The building behind them is part of an apartment complex where some of the other teachers live.  Just beyond the columns is a police office.

I don't know too many more details of this place, other than what I've shared, but I do know that the government has some sort of agreement to guard its city's Jews now.  Off to the far left, not in this photo, is a small guard shack, and there's always someone on patrol for the synagogue and the Jews that live here.  The security fence has been built for this reason, too.

A close up of the memorial plaque on the fence

What the synagogue looked like preKristallnacht

Using Google translate, something like, 

"Here was ... the Leopoldstader Temple, in the year 1858 according to plan of architect Leopold Forster with its Moorish style built.  And at 10 November, 1938, in the so-called "Kristallnacht" by Nazi barbarians was destroyed.  Jewish Community Vienna"

 On a lighter note, this was on a building beside the Jewish bakery.  Hahaha!  :-P

For the love of architecture

A few days ago, I ventured out again to find the Euro store - on the CORRECT train line, this time! - and it was a success.  :)

This particular store is located on this street, which can be compared to Michigan Ave. in Chicago.

Woo hoo!  The Euro store!  

(Think Dollar store-type, but the stuff actually works and doesn't fall apart.)

Anyways, because this blog is really about the various types of architecture, I've taken a lot of photos of it around the city to share with you.

In the middle of this photo is a sign for Kindergarten, which is more like a nursery or preschool over here.

A souvenir shop

So, there's nothing architecturally wondrous about this hot dog stand, but I took a photo b/c you can buy beer w/ your meal.  

(You can also bring an open beer bottle and drink freely from it on public transportation.  I've seen many a tipsy man on the trains in the morning as I go to school.  They don't act drunk, but they move so slowly in boarding the trains that I'm afraid they won't make it on in time and that the doors will close on them.  Scary stuff!)

These stands are everywhere, too.

HAHAHA!

It really means something like, "Have a good trip!"

You've gotta laugh, though!

This is the longest F word I've ever seen.

If I ever get married and/or become athletic, I'm changing my name to this. (I don't know which is more likely, haha.)

The Austrian Aldi's

This is a Jewish convenience store that's around the corner from my apartment.

Signs on its doors

I tried to use an online translation for this plaque.  Something like, "This house (???) during the war 1939-45 disabled people and from funds the Federal Ministry F. Handel U. post-war reconstruction in the years 1958-59 under the Chancellor Ing. Julius Raab.

Major typo.  *sigh*

Here's a mixture of old, new, and random architecture.