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!