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

Adventures in the City

The street where I registered. Most of the buildings in
Vienna are this beautiful!

Yesterday I went into the city to get my "Meldezettel," a registration form that everyone in Austria must have. I also got my background check at a police station in Vienna. It was quite an adventure navigating through the streets and subway system, but I got both done! The police station proved to be more confusing than the Meldezettel headquarters. I ended up waiting in a line at the station for quite awhile. I was pretty sure it was not the right line, but did not know where else to go and no one else spoke English.

Finally I realized there was a sign for something about "Prostituierte" and some flyers that had an English translation and were about getting help with prostitution problems. I realized at that point that I was definitely in the wrong line, got up and moved. I used my German-translation book and asked someone who worked there "Wo ist..." and pointed to my police check form. I was quickly re-directed to a different room!

After getting those things done, I tried to find an ENT that my travel insurance had listed. I found his office up 7 or 8 flights of stairs only to discover that he was not in his office that day. At this point my ears were both clogged so that I could not hear at all and had a considerable amount of pressure pushing into my head. (I almost got hit by a car because I could not hear it coming - yes, I should have paid more attention....).

I went back to my apartment and called another English-speaking ENT, but he wasn't in his office either. The school sent me home right away when I tried to go to the teacher's meetings, and the pain was growing worse at that point, and the infection was obviously not going away on its own (I'd had it 7 days). The school secretary had given me a list of hospitals, and even though I really REALLY didn't want to go to a hospital in a foreign country by myself, I dragged myself to one and carried a note written in German that explained my condition. After an hour long trip to the hospital, the receptionist told me that they could not help me at that hospital and gave me a list of hospitals with ENT specialist... (I would not be able to find these hospitals without returning to the apartment and looking up directions).

Finally, around 6 or 7, my host returned home from her weekend trip to Poland, and took me to another hospital, where an ENT told me that I have a double-middle-ear-infection and and a swollen nose. She gave me antibiotics and pain reliever! I woke up this morning able to hear out of one ear again, but still feeling pretty miserable and decided to stay home and try to get as well as possible before returning to school tomorrow.

Praises:
God has been good to me in allowing me to navigate the city and find the places I need to go

Praise God that I passed both Praxis II exams! I can only take them in the states and I had to pass before completing my student teaching!


Prayer Requests:

My apartment building

- I have missed a lot of teachers meetings and not had time to discuss the curriculum with my cooperating teacher. Please pray that I am able to catch up quickly and that communication is good between my coop and I.
- Please also pray that the antibiotics work quickly and that the infection would leave and my hearing would return!

Vienna!

The airport in NY - there was terrible flooding!

I'm safely in Vienna! God made the way pretty smooth so far. I am settled in the apartment with my hostess and made my first trip to the school today! Taking mass transport was a bit scary for me because I'm not used to it, but it turned out to be fairly easy. As long as no one asks me a question in German, I'll be ok.

The farthest I've ever been from home!

The staff at the school are very kind and helpful. I met my cooperating teacher who was very nice. Unfortunately, I have to do a lot of paperwork with the local authorities in order to live and teach here. I was kind of hoping that my visa would be enough. : )

On the downside, I have a terrible ear infection that is keeping me awake from the pain at night. It's hard to adjust to the time difference and even make it through the day with this infection. Please pray that it goes away quickly! God is a great healer!

View from apartment

My room

Living room

T - 3 days!

In three days I will be boarding a plane for Vienna! I had an amazing summer at Mont Lawn Camp nannying for these wonderful boys and am sad to leave them. I hope I fall in love with students in Austria as much as I did with this crew. 

I found out that I will be teaching 7th and 9th grade English Literature and we will be doing units on vampires, memoirs, and short stories. I think that the vampire unit will be the most challenging one for me, as I am not very interested in blood or horror stories, but it will be fun to try something new and get the students excited about it! 

School starts a week from Thursday, and I couldn't be more excited!