the gods must be crazy
a life-necessities update: money, food, warmth, & love ((with excerpts from an email to dad))


So I got home today around 2:00 and, like I've been doing for the past week, hopped online to see if my American bank balance was still the same and not dropping... After clicking on "Check My Balance", I was surprised to find that, instead of a low, one-digit number, I had an extra $400 to my name! Dad had gone to the bank this morning and repaid some money I had given him before I left (originally borrowed from my brother), and threw in a little extra to help solve our apartment's plumbing problem. Needless to say, this $400 just made my day, week, and the rest of the month.

I quickly calculated how much $400 was worth in Euros, minus the 2% "transaction fee" that National City charges for every International ATM transaction, and ran across the street to the bank to get it in cash. With said cash, I skipped over to the nearest grocery store just before closing and bought bread, cheese, yogurt, and bananas to supplement my stash of rice, toast bread, and canned kidney beans.

I also came back home today to find a snake running down into the shower drain, and a frustrated housemate sitting on the couch. It looks like tomorrow or the day after, we will end up a) going to the landlord/landlady and asking him/her to fix the problem, or b) banning together (with my extra "plumbing spending money" in hand) and hiring a plumber. I'll let you know how the situation resolves itself.

More good news - the secretary at school came up to me this morning with a UPS package in her hand, containing the two checks (together worth around $1500) that Concordia Language Villages reissued to me. I stopped by the bank after school and, although it will take up to 30 days to have them processed, it will mean an extra $1500 put back into my account, right where it belongs.

And even MORE good news - In addition to depositing my two Concordia checks, finding an extra 400 dollars in my account, and getting closer to resolving our two-week-long plumbing problem, I ALSO recieved a package slip from the Austrian Post saying that I had a package from home waiting for me at the local office. The package was my feather comforter and a pillow case from home, which will be very welcome with the dropping temperatures.

A warm comforter, a full stomach, financial peace of mind, and love sent in small, cross-continental packages... I should sleep very, very well tonight.

((taken from a draft five days ago... i started an entry, then got distracted. for five full days.))

saturday night and i ain't got no-money

i believe the last time i wrote was on monday, my first day of school. since then, i have had three days of teaching (tuesday, wednesday, and thursday), and am still not convinced that this is where i should be right now, but... oh well. there have been some really good classes, and some really not-so-good ones... mainly depending on whether the teacher gave me direction or not, whether the kids were engaged or not, and how badly i wanted the school day to be over.

most of the classes i taught were "introduction" classes, meaning i introduced myself - either through personal objects that i had brought, or through an introduction of "America". i wrote the word "America" on the board and asked the students to say what words came to mind. answers were anywhere from "hollywood" to "children with guns". after writing on the board the words "Americans are...", answers were anywhere from "fat" to "rich" to "friendly" - good to know that Austrians don't have ENTIRELY negative impressions of America(ns)!

on a side note, i just found out tonight (after having my credit card rejected from the machine twice) that i have no money left in my american bank account. nada. zip. zilch. i knew i was pretty low, but had no idea how bad it was. i blame this on the following:
a) i still haven't recieved two out of three checks for this summer. that's almost $1000 missing from my account
b) the austrian school board refuses to pay the teaching assistants until the beginning of november, and
c) the first month came with a lot of big expenses: deposit on the apartment, payment to keep the apartment furniture, a cellphone, the plane ticket to austria, 100 Euro here and there to get registered, etc. etc.

not that anyone cares about my financial situation except, well, my stomach and i. and my parents, i suppose. anyway, i figure if a week of rice, stale bread and soup mixes doesn't kill me, it will only make me stronger (and slimmer!). and thankful for the months to come when i will be making a comfortable living for relatively little work.


my dinners come from boxes: split-pea soup and knoedel/dumplings

have a good night - i hope you're eating well :)

first day of laissez-faire teaching, the bare necessities

after much anticipation, i went to my first day of teaching today at the HAK III/HAS IV Vienna Business School in the eighth district. worried that something freakish might happen that could cause me to be late - a mugging? an earthquake? the apocalypse? i don't know - i hopped on the bus at 7am, and arrived at school a half an hour early. like preparing for a bad blind date, i circled the block twice, watching kids wander one by one into the building. i finally came to my senses, checked my reflection in a nearby window, and went in.

after meeting the secretary, who was very bubbly and overly excited by my presence, i ventured into the teacher's lounge, only to discover that my Betreuungslehrer - my advisory teacher - was not even at school that day. another english teacher, professor tunkel, took me under her wing for the day and tried to find things for me to do. instead of visiting classes (i went to one of hers, quickly introduced myself to the kids, and sat in silence while they discussed a novel), i instead was asked to copy down the classes of all the english teachers, then type it up in a legible format for scheduling.
... for some reason, i guess i assumed that this would have been done before i got there. ...i suppose not.
anyway, after a few classes, professor tunkel said that i might as well just go home for the day, and come in at 9am tomorrow to start working with the kids. it was a startling beginning to the school year, since i had brought with me an introductory lesson and was prepared to do it with three or four classes on the first day. instead, it was like they weren't prepared for my arrival, or they just had a really laissez-faire way of welcoming the new assistant teacher. oh well. at the end of the morning, professor tunkel gave me a pat on the shoulder and said "we're glad to have you", and i went home satisfied.

since i had the entire afternoon off (i could really get used to this schedule!), i headed over to the Meldeamt to register with the authorities. apparently this is not as complicated of a process as the Fulbright commission made it out to be - all it took was a signature and a flash of my passport, and i was registered to live in Vienna.
after that, i bought a good 20€ ($25) worth of groceries, stashed half of them on the bottom shelf of our pantry and stuffed the other half into various nooks of the fridge. in case i haven't mentioned, i share a fridge with five other people... a waist-level fridge that, by american standards, should be used by a single college student. still, it seems like the housemates manage to respect each other's food, and shift things around when it gets a little crowded.



i have discovered, especially in the last 24 hours of living in a strange room, that there are certain things that i cannot avoid purchasing. a pillow, for example - something i have taken for granted all my westernized life, and last night i slept without one. sheets and a blanket, also, are some necessities i picked up today, having slept on a bare mattress with no covers. tomorrow definitely involves a little bus ride to IKEA on the north end of the city, where i will invest in the simple things like:
- a table lamp so i can read at night
- a cover for the naked lightbulb hanging from my ceiling
- a cup and plate... maybe i'll splurge and buy a bowl, and
- a trash can to put shit in.

it's the little things like these that i always assumed will be there, until i moved into a naked viennese apartment room with all of my bare necessities sitting in ohio. i leave you with the lyrics from a childhood song that pretty much sums this all up:
Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
That's why a bear can rest at ease
With just the bare necessities of life