It's just a matter of trust, for us, for lust

Ended up getting about 4 inches of snow last week. My balcony was covered. The mountains were beautiful and it felt like a fantasyland. This weekend, the snow melted a bit. The mountains still are covered, but it feels like fall again instead of winter. I miss fall, so I would love to actually have fall! I really wish I could go to a cider mill..... cinnamon-and-sugar donuts and cider.... mmmm!

Last Wednesday, I learned how to shoot a crossbow! It was a parent/teacher event, so I was the only "young person." One of the parents said I look like a student, and I was like "Oh, I'm the English Assistant" ha! After I sat for the whole evening, listening, trying to discern what people were talking about, the director asked me if I understood anything. I laughed and answered, "No." I really am starting to hate the dialect around here. I can hear there is a pattern, but I have yet to decipher it... What makes things worse is every city in the Salzkammergut has their own "special" dialect, so I have to deal with different dialects, too. Anyway, I was quite good for a first time shooter. My partner, who was also a first-timer, and I got 5 place out of 10 places, so that's pretty good, eh?

Teaching has been quite good. I'm glad that I'm enjoying it. Teachers usually give me a topic to teach on, which is helpful, and usually I can use the lesson again for another class because I teach two of the same level, usually during the next week. For example, for today, I didn't have to plan anything because I'm teaching classes that I made lessons for last week. Nice.

Frankie visited again this weekend! It was great to see her! She finally got an apartment, so I'll be visiting her next week. Exciting!!

And while BA has been quite lovely so far, I really need to get out. I'm going this Friday to Bruck an der Mur, 2 hour train ride away, for a girl's, Emilie, birthday party. A lot of the other assistants will be there, so I'm really looking forward to it! From there, I hope to go to Ljubljana, Slovenia on Saturday. Andrew suggested I go to Ljubljana - he said it's really beautiful, so I'm excited! I'm 98% sure I have Monday the 26th off, so spending half a day Saturday, Sunday and half day Monday in Ljubljana should be perfect! Hopefully someone else at the party will travel with me, I'm sure it would be much more fun with a friend! But I'm going to go anyway because I just need to get out of this city. I'll be traveling for the next three weekends, so it'll be awesome!

Something else I'm quite looking forward to: NaNoWriMo. Have you ever heard of it? It's short for National Novel Writing Month and it happens in November. The goal is to write 50,000 word of a novel in the month. The quality doesn't matter - the goal is just to get a 175-page first draft of a novel written! I'm so looking forward to it! I think writing with a deadline, or a goal, will really help me get something written. For those of you that don't know, my only, consistent life-goal has been to become a published novelist. I'm excited and already outlining an idea.... :)

OK, well....Happy Monday.....?
Cheers,
Alaina

ps, ONLY 60 FREAKIN' DAYS UNTIL I FLY HOME FOR 3 WEEKS FOR CHRISTMAS! yeeeeah, that's right! That's NOTHIN'. The next three weeks are going to fly, because I'll be traveling and has stuff to look forward to! Wooo!!!