Fall Break and more

I only have 16 days left in Austria. Time has flown. This is my last week of teaching in most of my classes! I have had incredible experiences and made wonderful friends here. God has definitely shown me that his plan for me is not always one that I can see.

Our pastor spoke on Isaiah 42 today, and I thought the main verse seemed very fitting for my time here and my future: "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16. If you think of it - pray for me as I make some decisions about my future and where God would have me go next.

Fall Break



We had fall break two weeks ago. My brother, Shawn, flew to Vienna and traveled with me for a jam-packed four days! We spent half a day in Vienna on Thursday and took a night train from Vienna to Venice on Thursday night. We spent all day Friday in Venice, which was beautiful! I didn't expect it to be sooo nice. The buildings and the canals... I loved it! Friday night we hopped back on a night train and went to a little town on a lake called Hallstatt in western Austria. Hallstatt was quaint and breathtaking. We were surrounded by snow-covered mountains and even hiked up one! We spent most of Saturday there, and then took a couple-hour train ride to Salzburg. By the time we got to Salzburg, I was about ready to pass out I was so exhausted (sleeping on night-trains was more difficult than I had anticipated). We slept in a hostel in Salzburg Saturday night. On Sunday we took a Sound-of-Music bus tour through Salzburg and the lake district outside of Salzburg, then walked around the city on our own. After that, it was back to Vienna late Sunday night. Shawn had a flight out the next morning, and I had to go back to school. : )

Spiritual Emphasis Week

 This past week was spiritual emphasis week at the school. The students had chapel every day and heard some amazing testimonies from some of their teachers and classmates. One of my students came to accept Christ as their savior this week!! It is so amazing to work in a place that places Christ first and cares for the salvation and spiritual health of their students. We have a wide mix of backgrounds, cultures, and religions at our school and its so cool to get to love them all and hopefully model Christ for them!

Luke 15:7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance

Fall Break

A view from Monday morning

The snow on my walk to work

Well, ICSV is now on our Fall Break until November 5th. On Monday and Tuesday we had professional development with a team from Biola Univeristy, and a hilarious staff talent-show on Monday night. We also recieved the first snowfall of the season on Monday. I woke up to about an inch of snow and freezing weather, but it was beautiful! 

        Today I did some lesson planning so that I'm ready to jump back into school on Monday. I also baked muffins to eat as I travel with my brother, who is currently en route to Austria! We are going to visit Vienna, Venice, Salzburg, and Hallstatt. I also went shopping with a friend today and heard Christmas music playing in the stores - Happy Halloween! Actually, Halloween is not a big deal in Austria. I saw two people dressed up, but for the most part there is no trick-or-treating and the people do not make much of the holiday.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins!  

God has been continuing to bless me here. I have had wonderful experiences with friends from the school and have been welcomed so much by the staff. I went to brunch at my pastor's house with a group of young people on Sunday, and I really feel that I am exactly where God wants me. I have really enjoyed attending Grace Church here and have found it to be a good fit. Having a good home church is so important in feeling "at home" in a place. Pastor Mason and his wife are very caring and welcoming people. 

The Weekend Update

Dinner with friends

I can't believe I only have a month left here! This trip has been incredible so far. I am really starting to feel settled in and like part of the family at school. I found a church that I enjoy and am blessed to have been welcomed into a group of teachers who attend the church. We meet for coffee before the service and have a great time together. The service is taught in English and simultaneously translated into German, which is really interesting to see.

Mandy and I at Augarten

This weekend I had the opportunity to spend time with my friend Mandy. We went to the Augarten park and enjoyed the beautiful fall foliage in the midst of two WW2 anti-aircraft towers there. I also spent time with some teachers at a Mexican restaurant after school on Friday.

flak tower at Augarten

Plaques remembering people who died in WW2
are in the sidewalks throughout the city

A Typical Day

This seems to be a popular post-idea, and perhaps something you all are interested in. Here's a typical day for me in Vienna!

7:15 I catch the bus to school
7:25 I prep for the day.
7:50 on Tuesdays this is worship time and Fridays are staff devotions. Every first Wednesday is all-staff prayer as well.
8:20 home room

8:30 I teach 6th grade English class to second language learners from Russia, Austria, and Korea (not ELL, but a seperate Language Arts for ELL learners)
9:30 I am a teacher's aid/observer for 10th grade English for second language learners
10:35 I teach 9th grade English
11:15 I have lunch and a planning period
12:40 I teach 7th grade English
1:30 I teach 8th grade English Literature for  second language learners
2:20 I have a planning period
3:45 Staff meetings on Thursdays
4:00 I go home

Posters for short story unit with 9th grade

Night at the Museum(s)

Rooftop View of the City at Night

It is a tradition in Vienna to have one night in October when a 12 euro ticket will give you access to any participating museum in the city from 6pm-1am. Last Saturday, October 6th, was the Der Lange Nacht der Museen. I met up with about 10 other teachers from ICSV at 4:30pm. After fueling up at Starbucks and prioritizing our list of museums, we set out! We saw the Chimney Sweep Museum, the Coffee Museum, the National Library (part of the Habsburg Palace), the Albertina Art Museum, and The Demel (the royal bakery). I had a great time getting to see original Michelangelo's, Picaso's, bakers making sugared acorns and trees, and getting to spend time with some of the teachers. I also tried a new church with some of the girls from the group the following Sunday, and I really loved it!

Our group taking a break outside the Albertina

Sugar Wedding Dress at the Demel

Inside the National Library

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” ― Helen Keller

I am so grateful for the friends God has given me at ICSV. I never would have met these kind, welcoming, gracious, and understanding people if God had not led me to this school.

One of the teachers I work with invited me to a girl's brunch at her apartment this weekend with about 10 other women. She and her room-mate made homemade crepes for us! Afterward, my friend, Mandy, and I took an impromptu visit to the first district (where the Habsburg palace is) for some pumpkin-spice lattes (yay Fall!). I cannot image how lonely and bored I would be without these women! It is also nice to be with people who understand the process of moving to another country and working in a new school system.

Reesa, Mandy, and I at a cafe

Mandy and I 

4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Week 1

Reesa and I

Well, week one at the International Christian School of Vienna is over! It's crazy to think that I only have 11 weeks left! Things are still a bit unstable as we try to figure out for sure which classes I'll be teaching and who my supervisors are going to be, but I LOVE the staff here! What a difference it makes to work in this environment of Christians! We start off some of our mornings with staff devotions and worship songs. The teachers and staff are so kind and will do anything for you!

I have three different cooperating teachers at the school, and they are all amazing! My main cooperating teacher invited me to go out for dessert with her and another English teacher from the school on Friday evening, and we went to the city-center to a very fancy cafe. It was such a nice time to get to know them better and have a girls' night out!

Behind Schonbrunn Palace - the gardens and Gloriette

My health is still not at 100%. I went to a doctor twice this week, and they're not sure if I have a virus or an infection. I have been on several different medications, and am still not feeling very well. God provided a wonderful lady at the school who has been a huge blessing to me by translating and accompanying me to the doctors appointments. She has such a servant's heart. Getting to know her and hear about her experiences working at various schools, including the Black Forest Academy, has also been very interesting!

Schonbrunn from the Gloriette

On Saturday I went to the summer palace, Schonbrunn, and walked around. It is a beautiful property with lots of gardens, park walkways, a fake roman-ruin built in the 1700s, and a gloriette that was partially ruined during WW2 and is now restored.

The Gloriette today

The Gloriette after an air-raid in 1945

Autumn in Vienna

I used this Saturday to explore some more of the city. Neither cold, nor rain, nor wind stood in my way!

One of the flak towers from the U-bahn station.

First stop on "Sarah's City Tour:" The Augarten Flak Towers. Hitler had these towers built in the 1940s as anti-aircraft towers. They were built to be invulnerable and have walls that are about 9 feet thick. The towers also housed weapons and had windows to shoot from. The towers also provided a base for the Nazis' radar equipment. Flak towers from WWII are spread across Vienna, Berlin, and Hamburg. Imagine what the Viennese people felt when these looming monstrosities went up in the middle of their beautiful city. 

A closer view of a flak tower from the park.

2nd flak tower

I didn't even know that there was another flak tower in the same park until I got there and saw one built in a slightly different style just about a couple hundred feet from the round one.

Augarten Park with the 2nd flak tower in the background

 The park that these towers were built in is beautiful, and is near Augartenpalais, a building that has been around since 1600s (it was damaged during WWII, but has been restored). 

Augarten Park

2nd Stop: Belvedere Palace 

This palace was built for Prince Eugene around 1717. I think that it is my favorite building in Vie

nna so far. All of the palaces here have extensive gardens that are still in bloom.

         

Front of Belvedere Palace

Me in the rain at Belvedere.

For Such a Time as This

As some of you know, there were some problems at Danube International School. When they agreed to take me on as a student teacher last year, they did not understand that the internship program requires me to do full-time teaching for at least 6 of the 12 weeks. Many international schools have a baccalaureate program for their secondary schools, and DISV did not want a student teacher to be involved in their 11th and 12th grade English classes, as they are preparing the students for the intense exams that go along with this program.

I only found out that they were only offering me 2 classes worth of teaching when I arrived here. I let Cedarville know right away, but between Cedarville and DISV, there was no obvious solution. I stayed for the first week of school at DISV not knowing what would happen. Apparently my supervisors at Cedarville had been busy contacting other schools in Vienna in addition to some in Budapest to see if they could take me on. If none of these schools worked out, they wanted me to fly back to the United States to complete my student teaching there. The only one they heard back from was the International Christian School of Vienna (ICSV), and we didn't hear from them until a full week into my internship at DISV. 

On Wednesday of this week I went to the Christian school after teaching at DISV and had an interview with the secondary principal and the school Director. They were very willing to help me, and even excited to have an extra set of hands at the school. Because of my unique situation, Cedarville is allowing me to do some literature-based ESL classes as part of my internship, and the Christian school is short-staffed for ESL teachers this year. They said that it was a "God thing" that I had contacted them. 

All of this change has been chaotic and confusing. After getting settled in one school only to uproot and go through the process at a new one, I was not sure why things were playing out as they were. It seemed pointless for me to put in 2 weeks of training and teaching at a school I had planned on interning at only to move to a completely new one. When I was expressing my frustration and anxieties to my mom on the phone, she ended our conversation by quoting a verse from Esther "for such a time as this." I still wasn't sure if all this was meant to be.

Friday was my first day at ICSV and the school does staff devotions every Friday. The director started off by introducing me and saying again that my internship was an answer to prayer for their school, and then went into the devotions. I was shocked to hear that their theme for the year is For Such a Time as This. It's amazing how God uses little things to tell us that we are right where he wants us, even if we don't understand his ways. 

Esther 4:14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom (or Vienna!) for such a time as this?”

Dinner above the Danube

Tonight I had dinner with some friends in the Danube Tower, 252 meters above ground.

The cafe that we ate in completes a full rotation every 30 minutes, allowing us to see all of Vienna. We went at sunset and watched the spectacular dusk over the Czeck mountains.

A Walk in the Park

At Hundertwasser Haus

On Saturday I went to a picnic with the International Church of Vienna. It was nice to meet a few of the people at the church, although there are not many people my age there. After the picnic, my host and a few of her friends took me around the city to show me the sights. We started at Hundertwasser Village, a neat place in Vienna that an artist built. The streets and the buildings are completely uneven, and there are no matching windows or straight lines anywhere on the building.

After that, we went to the city center, where I had my first Viennese gelato (chocolate of course!). We saw the Imperial Palace, the House of Parliament, and Rathaus (the city hall). There is a summer film festival going on at the city hall, and tonight we are going to see a live streaming of an Adele Concert from Albert Hall. There are tons of international food vendors surrounding the festival and they light the  hall up in all different colors at night.

Rathaus

    I still have not heard back from the Christian school here, but I am desperately trying to switch over so that I can fulfill all of the requirements of the internship. They seem to be very busy at the school as it is starting on Tuesday. Please pray that they get back to me soon and let me know if I can complete my internship there!

Gloria and Romina (L-R) my tour guides!

Part of the Imperial Palace

The Imperial Gardens

Rathaus (City Hall)

Horses and Carriages by St. Stephen's 

St. Stephen's Cathedral