On Friday morning, I covered for one of the teachers for an hour and a half class.\u00a0 It was fun.\u00a0 The class is “Foundations of Teaching English.”\u00a0 The teacher said I could do whatever I want, so I showed them some games they can play with their students in their English classes, and we had a bit of a discussion about what kinds of classes and teachers have helped them to learn English.\u00a0 Then we had a few minutes for them to ask me some general questions, for example about if I like Obama and things I’ve done in Linz. \u00a0 They also convinced me to speak some German; people tend to be pretty curious about my German ability.<\/p>\n
Today (Saturday), we went to an art museum and a museum at the old fort on the hill.\u00a0 At the art museum, they were still working on an installation, so we didn’t get to see a lot.\u00a0 Fortunately, we have year passes for most of the museums in Linz, so we’ll be able to go again for free later.\u00a0 They also had some weird modern art.\u00a0 I think Will and I share a disinterest in modern art.\u00a0 Will says if you have to explain your art, you’re doing it wrong, and I tend to agree.\u00a0 Probably the worst one was video of a woman blowing, almost like she’s in labor but more obnoxious.\u00a0 Apparently it’s a poem that’s all just blowing.\u00a0 We got a booklet to explain all the art.\u00a0 Here is an excerpt:<\/p>\n
Line by line and column by column she works her way through the poem she is offering us, the poem that demands so unusual an expression.\u00a0 The motivation that drove the artist in this performance may have included the desire to feel her own body, the wish to explore the language of the body or non-traditional ways of communication and an overriding urge to give expression to a state of speechlessness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So the art museum was pretty lame.\u00a0 But the fort museum was pretty neat.\u00a0 They had a lot of nice paintings and some artifacts like old globes and star charts, sun dials, dishes, traditional clothing, and coins.\u00a0 They also had some creepy religious stuff.\u00a0 A few centuries ago, body parts of saints were considered holy, for example, the church in Watkins supposedly has a piece of bone from St. Anthony.\u00a0 Anyway, there are only so many pieces to go around, so replicas are often made.\u00a0 So we saw replicas (at least I’m pretty sure they are replicas) of mummified hands and tongues in golden frames.\u00a0 On a related note, two of the churches here in Linz have full skeletons that you can see.<\/p>\n
One thing you can see at the fort museum starting on the 28th is an exhibition of nativity scenes.\u00a0 Many of you know I’m not particularly religious, but I like nativity scenes.\u00a0 Also, Christmas.\u00a0 They’re already setting up the market in the main square; I got pretty excited when I saw it.<\/p>\n
In other news, we ate at McDonald’s today.\u00a0 They didn’t have our Big Macs ready, so they sent us to sit down and they were going to bring them to us when they were ready.\u00a0 I went to the bathroom thinking they would just drop them off, Will could say “danke” and that would be it.\u00a0 When I got back from the bathroom, our Big Macs were there, but Will had a look on his face.\u00a0 Apparently, she brought one Big Mac.\u00a0 Will told her “zwei?” and she went to get another one.\u00a0 He was scared.\u00a0 I’m not sure why.<\/p>\n
Anyway, we were planning to go to Vienna on Tuesday, but I think we’ll wait.\u00a0 Then we can stay the night and there will probably be a Christmas market.\u00a0 We’re also hoping to meet up with Gretchen in Salzburg some time in December.\u00a0 On Monday, all the English assistants are getting together to celebrate pay day.\u00a0 So there’s also that to look forward to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Friday morning, I covered for one of the teachers for an hour and a half class.\u00a0 It was fun.\u00a0 The class is “Foundations of Teaching English.”\u00a0 The teacher said I could do whatever I want, so I showed them some games they can play with their students in their English classes, and we had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryjoandwill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}