I'm Baaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!

Well...it has been a very long time since I've written anything on here...I had almost forgotten that I had a blog! So much has happened and so much has changed since the last time I posted anything! I will get to that...but first I want to mention that the focus of this blog is about to change somewhat...What was just a random collection of random thoughts about random things will now be (hopefully) more consistent! This is due to the fact that I am about to embark on an adventure in Austria(!) and I wanted to have a way to record my experiences (even if I'm the only one that reads any of what I post!) and keep them all together...hence, me remembering that I had a blog! So, here goes...new post #1...

     WHY I DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY FOR A LITTLE WHILE

I was stuck. At the mall. Waiting for my car to be repaired. Again! I had a toothache. Again! And I kept thinking, "There has to be something better out there for me". I took this all as a sign that something needed to change. I was stuck in a rut. I had been going through the motions for almost 8 years in a career that I liked OK but did not love and I was constantly stressed out and sleep deprived. I lived in a city that I have loved dearly since I was in college, but I never got to enjoy living there as an adult because of ridiculously early sleep and wake up times and a mind-numbing commute that ended up taking its toll on both my car and my health. As soon as I got my car back, I went home that afternoon and started looking for an escape plan. Long story short, I found my escape plan! It involves teaching English to and living with a family in Austria for a month!


Austria. The birthplace of Mozart, Bruckner and Schubert. The adopted home of Beethoven (my musical hero!). A place that I had been drawn to since learning an easy piano transcription of "Tales From the Vienna Woods" when I was a kid. I was obsessed with classical music and Austria was part of that obsession. Somehow I knew that Austria and I were connected and were destined to meet one day. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I got accepted into a program that will allow me to live and teach (and learn and explore) in Austria! Yay!

Another reason I am excited about teaching English to German speakers is that I have not formally studied German at all. I am frantically trying to teach myself (through computer programs, apps and grammar books) some German basics before I go and am falling in love with the German language. It is the language of my Swint ancestors and (of course) the language of Beethoven. So I hope that I can learn enough German while I'm in Austria to at least be able to functionally communicate and to be able to read Beethoven's letters in their original language. Fingers crossed!

So with only 2 weeks left before I leave for my adventure in Austria, I have a ton of things to do. Packing. Unpacking. Repacking. Planning fun activities to do with the kids I will be teaching. Figuring out exactly which books to take (I tend to always want to bring more books than necessary whenever I go on a trip somewhere). Learning as much German as I can...knowing that it won't be enough...and that immersing myself in the local dialect will be much more effective upon my arrival. Trying to figure out maps, train schedules, etc. for any trips that I want to take during any free time I have. Etc. Etc. Etc.

So that's it in a nutshell...admittedly, a rather long and wordy nutshell...but that's me! I hope to be able to regularly update this blog once I'm in Austria...I don't know exactly what 'regularly' will be since I'm not sure about internet access where I will be (which is a really small town I'm picturing as the Warthen of Austria!)...but hopefully more often than I've updated this blog in the past 2 years! Haha! On that note, I will close for now. Excited that my adventure is about to begin!