Fotos von dem Schnee und Robbi

Here are some pictures from this weekend.


Probably my most favorite photograph from this weekend. I absolutely LOVE this dog.


If you look to the right side of the photograph, you can see two black Cormorants sitting atop the conifer tree...


Robbi in the Weber's backyard.


In the Buchenwald up the mountain from the Webers. I was on a search for a Burgruine, (castle ruin), which of course I never found, but I did find this beautiful spot, and the dog was kind enough to sit paitently (with a little persuasion from the Stangerl, doggy treats) and wait for me to take pictures.























This is a game that I like to play with Robbi, it's called "Wo ist die Maus?" (Where is the mouse). If you simply repeat that question, over and over again with excitement, he goes crazy looking for a mouse, digging in the snow, pouncing, jumping. It is really quite hilarious and sweet.


I just liked this one because it looks like he is doing a handstand.

PLAAAAAAAAAAANE TICKETSSSSSSSSSSSS & Happy Birthday Maia.

I now have a plane ticket home!

YIPPPPPEEEEEEEE!

355,08€ which is about $428.00.

I have to spend the night in Gatwick airport in London, but for the inexpensiveness of the plane ticket it is a small price to pay. Plus, I already checked out the airport, and it has lots of places to eat/get coffee! :)

p.s. Maia's old today. Everyone should give her a hard time.

:-D

movies and swans

Last night Elodie, Isadora, and I went to see Er steht einfach nicht auf dich, or the American title… He’s Just Not That Into You. I read the book in 2005 because Janet told me it would change my life. I had a very long plane ride to Vienna and knew that it would make good plane reading, so I caved, bought the book which looked like it catered only toward a ‘certain type of woman’ (yes, I stereotype a little), gave in to the neon pink and green cover and started reading.

If I could tell you now, how many angst-filled mornings, nights, and afternoons I would have saved myself by simply heading all of the advice in this book… Maybe, if I start now I can save myself a few wrinkles as I age. Advice of the book goes as follows…

1. If he is not calling you… He’s just not that into you. When guys like you they CALL. If they want to be with you, they CALL.
2. If he introduces you to his friends as his “friend”… He’s just not that into you. If a guy likes you, he will want to show you off and let other people know that you are taken.
3. If you have been together for an extremely long time and he’s not marrying you, we’re talking… over five years… He’s just not that into you.
4. Last but not least, my personal favorite, because you think this would be a dead giveaway… If you want to sleep with him and he’s not sleeping with you, he’s either gay or… He’s just not that into you.

There, of course, were more tidbits of advice in the book, which now I can not remember, but I think those four are probably the most important.

Why, do we as women torture ourselves when the answer is often so obvious? I think it is because we want to believe that we are the exception, or Ausnahme. Should we blame Hollywood for this, or ourselves? Or, does it go deeper to the lie that our mothers tell us when we are little because their mothers told them when they were young, and their grandmothers told their mothers when they were young, and so on and so forth, that when a boy is mean to you, it means he actually, secretly likes you. Gee, if that were the case, I would have so many boyfriends right now I would not know what to do with myself. If I end up lucky enough to have a daughter one day, and she asks me why a boy has pushed her down in the playground, I will hopefully be strong enough not to start the vicious cycle anew, but instead reply with… “honey, maybe he’s having a bad day, but that still doesn’t excuse his behavior.”

So yes, Janet was right. This book did change my life, although at first I was hesitant to admit it simply because I did not want to fall into a category. Specifically there were several instances just last year when I found myself saying… “he’s just not that into me”, but not wanting to believe it, because I had read it in a book that half of the women in America had also read, but also because I wanted to be different… the Ausnahme, the exception. I would make excuses. Well, maybe he’s tired, or maybe he’s out with some friends, or maybe his phone has no battery left. But the truth of it is… I was just too chicken to actually believe that maybe, just maybe it was because he did not like me. As the book says… If a guy likes you… he will call you. He will call you because he wants to talk to you, to hear your voice, to ask you about your day.

I recommend this book to any and all women. It really will change your life.

On another note. There are swans in Wieselburg and Scheibbs. I went out on Saturday and photographed them in Wieselburg. They were being fed bread by some children.

Interview

I had my first official interview with Eckerd yesterday.



I think it went very well. The next step is a background check, but they can not do that until three months before I would potentially start working. In other words... I have to wait. Yay! The thing I most love to do.



He asked me to explain in detail my experience with children and youth, my wilderness experience, a problem that I stuck with until a solution presented itself, a confrontation with someone, the most stressful thing from the last year and how I handled it, and... I think that might be all.



The whole thing lasted about forty minutes, and I think I made a good impression, conducted myself honorably and intelligently, and I made him laugh... huzzzzzzzzzzah.



The only consolation he gave me was that they usually don't offer camp stays to people they aren't serious about, and so assuming my background check goes well... (they shouldn't find anything... or as Maia says, they will find a lack of anything) then I will go on my camp visit (all exspences (sp?) paid. wooooooot.



My hopes are high, but my fingers are still crossed.

this is what happens

When you are housebound... you go a little crazy.

Thursday. I just have to make it to Thursday. Then I can go swimming. Until then I am trying to make humor out of my cabin fever.

I documented my illness, first the day I got diagnosed... it was snowing. HARD. I couldn't go outside to play.









































This picture amuses me. a lot. It reminds me of the X-Files, when they would call for Deep Throat, or Mr. X, Mulder and Scully would always put an 'X' up on Mulder's window.

















These are all the tissues and medicines I used and took. I would just like to say... the yellow ones are all from one day. Three rolls of toilet paper.

Pneumonia, Snow, and Interviews.

So I haven’t written in awhile. A lot has happened and nothing has happened. All at once!

I had my first telephone interview with Mr. Keith Gauthier, my Eckerd recruiter last Wednesday. It went well and I was supposed to have the official interview yesterday, but I had to postpone it because… last Wednesday, the same day I first spoke to Mr. Gauthier, I got diagnosed with pneumonia. The night before I went to the doctor I thought… This is just a head cold… I’ll get over it in a few days. HA! Ha ha ha HA! Needless to say, I became a human pin cushion for the next week. Dr. Fritsch (pronounced Freeeeech) took blood, made me breathe into this machine that measures your exhalation. Instead of going up in a nice little diagonal line my chart made a nice steady slope downwards. He told me that I failed. He then prescribed for me an antibiotic, a decongestant, an inhaler, AND a nasal spray… OI. I spent the weekend miserable, not getting any better, sleeping 12 hours a night and then taking a 2 hour nap each day because I could not get even take a shower without becoming exhausted. I think I was the weakest I have ever been.

ANYWAY. Monday came around and having stubbornly put up with Maia’s sage advice all weekend… “Marion, I really think you should go back to the doctor.” I caved and trekked to the doctor’s office in the foot of snow that had accumulated between last Tuesday and Monday.

Once at the doctor I was put on an I.V. of medicines and goodies for my body, and they drew blood yet again. I was more or less fine until I got up to the counter, but since I had been flat on my back for five days my circulation was all messed up. I ended up realizing, thankfully, before it happened that I was going to pass out, so they rescued me and I made it to the table safely. Here I got another I.V. (yay!) with Glucose, a shot, Traubenzucker (grape sugar), and got to lie down for a nice little time until Martina Glaser, one of the teachers I work with in Scheibbs picked me up and too me to get my chest x-ray. Everyone was so nice to me. I was put on ANOTHER antibiotic, because the first one was apparently not strong enough…

I got to go BACK to the doctor the next day where I got another shot (yay). Both shots I got in the nice fat part of my hips. (why do some shots need to go in fatty areas?) THANKFULLY I started feeling better yesterday, and today I am feeling better than I did yesterday. I still get exhausted if I try to walk to the super market… but it is an improvement.

The doctor told me today that I am not allowed to put a TOE in the pool until next Thursday at the earliest, which is sad for me because I just spent the last SEVEN days flat on my back. However, I know that I need to take care of myself.

Needless to say, this whole last week was our Semester Break, so I did not miss any work. AND….. the best part of the whole thing!?!?!?!?!??! THE DOCTOR’S VISITS AND THE X-RAYS WERE COMPLETELY FREEEE! The only thing I had to pay for was the medication. GO Universal Healthcare….

I will post pictures at a later time. Just wanted to let everyone know that I am, indeed, still alive.

Thanks be to the nice Americans who brought me food and checked on me in the dorm, Martina, Maia for reading to me for hours, even IF it was depressing Jack London stories, and… Austria/Europe for the Universal Healthcare System. I am being spoiled and will be sad when I have to pay $300 dollars again for someone to stick a flat stick down my throat and tell me I’m fine.







yes. I know... I am a sick, sick person. But I had to do SOMETHING. I was just sitting there for 30min and I had forgotten my book.

Here are some photographs of Wieselburg in the snow.



The river Erlauf


The other side of the river Erlauf


The Garden Shop


Sunrise from my bedroom window


THERE ARE SWANS IN AUSTRIA!!!!




A guinea pig. Keri... they had 9 of them. I was in guinea heaven!


My refridgerator!