And classes begin

You take a look at Salzburg, and you think, "Life here must be so relaxing, so peaceful in a city with such obvious charm." And from what I can tell, it usually is. But first weeks anywhere just have a real talent for kicking you in the pants.


The first day of work was Monday. The three schools I will be working at are all in a town called Hallein, which is about 19,000 people big and is south of Salzburg. After spending Monday and Tuesday finishing up paperwork and opening a bank account, I finally got to some actual lessons at my first school. And here it is, along with a picture of Hallein.

It's a HAK/HAS, meaning it's a business school. I'm not 100% sure of how that effects the curriculum overall, they still take standard math, history, etc. But besides the ever-popular American elections, I've had to use affirmative action and advertising as lesson themes. Good thing I know so much about that... er.

The real problem of the week was housing. You know, I never thought I'd get the chance to say, "Hey, I'm an illegal alien." But that was before I went up against the beast that is Austrian bureaucracy. The day after returning from orientation, I moved into the room I arranged to stay in for a month. Because this summer I had had so much trouble finding a place to stay for the year, I though I'd just rent a room for October and take my time finding a place once I actually got to Austria. Once I moved in, however, I found out that no one there would sign my Meldezettel. It's a complicated story, but basically, you need the landlord or the primary renter (if you're subletting) to sign this thing and then turn it in within three business days to the Austrian authorities. The three days thing is fairly flexible, but that really wasn't the issue. The first problem was that the person who was subletting me his room, aka who should have signed my Meldezettel, was out of the country. He's an international student and went home to get his wife. I thought it would be fine for the person mediating the sublet, a friend and neighbor of his, to sign my Meldezettel instead, but he declined. Instead, he sent me to the office for international students which oversees their housing. That's when I found out how much trouble I was actually in. As it turns out, it's illegal for that room to be sublet. The renter's contract includes a clause saying as much. If an Austrian had been staying in the room, it could have slipped past everyone and been fine (though still not legal), but for an unregistered foreigner, it's a big problem. Apparently the primary renter was aware both of this clause and (I know because I told him) that I was a. a foreigner and b. unregistered. To add insult to injury, I found out he pays 50 Euro less for the room than he was charging me. Worse still, he receives a grant each month, part of which pays for his housing, and although he's out of the country, he was still receiving the grant for this month. I about had a breakdown in the office, so the woman I was talking to actually offered me Prosseco, which I gladly took, ha. She offered me another room, which I could legally rent, but it's a decent distance outside of Salzburg in a very small town called Kuchl, so I asked for a day or two to think about it. Well, after spending Monday evening frantically looking for room in Salzburg to no avail and still without a place to legally reside, I resigned myself to the room in Kuchl. At that point the headache was just more than I could take, so the easy way out looked pretty good to me. I finally moved in yesterday. It's true, it is farther out than I would like, but there are cows and sheep to keep me company, and the view outside my window isn't bad either.


And with a few Halloween decorations to remind me that my favorite holiday is almost upon us, I don't think I'll mind it here too much.

Thus concludes my first work week abroad. TGIS.