Odds and Ends

In my last post, I wrote solely about my first job opportunity, leaving out some other items which have occurred recently. On Sep. 18 and 19 we spent a night in Stoob, Austria which is where Marlene's sister, Christine, lives. It reminded me of a small Midwest town mainly inhabited by farmers, including Christine and her boyfriend's family. However in Austria, Stoob is reasonably well known for having a ceramics/pottery college. They have a small farm by American standards, there are a few cows, pigs, chickens, rabbits, and further outside of town they grow some crops. We spent the majority of the time playing the board game Settlers of Catan and playing with their two kittens. We left the next afternoon and they gave me two different kinds of homemade sausage and a big slab of bacon. I ate the sausages pretty quickly but I've still got some of the bacon left. It was really a big chunk which was fantastic because I'd complained many times about how the grocery store bacon is so thinly sliced, but now I can cut it as thick as I like.

My German class ended on Tuesday this week but I've signed up for another course at the same academy which begins on Monday. I decided pretty late to sign up for another course because it's a bit expensive and I wasn't sure if it really constitutes value for cost but beyond just the learning German aspect, it's a good way to meet new people and get out of the apartment. When I went to sign up for the next course yesterday though, they told me it was already full. They said I could take a test to try and get into the next next level, so I did, and passed it! The course I did in September along with the one I tested out of, together are meant for level C1 of the European Framework for Languages. The course I'll be taking in October now is for the first half of the C2 level, which is the highest. Beyond that, there's only one more class I could take. So I'm very excited about that, and I am beginning to feel a lot more confident in speaking.

I officially registered as a member of FC Adrenalin and played in the first team match last weekend. I subbed in for the last 20 minutes and the game ended in a 2-2 draw. All the scoring happened while I was still on the bench. If you look at their website now, I'm listed in the roster and it has my stats. There's no picture yet, but I did ask the webmaster to change my flag to that of the USA, it showed me as an Austrian just a couple days ago.