Schlitz and Giggles

If my blog doesn’t make you want to do a year abroad then I don’t know what will. I’m basically getting paid to get drunk and overeat in Austria.

My charity

If you follow my blog, you’ll know I signed up for a course a few weeks ago. It was called “Richtig Pinzgauer”, a course about the Pinzgau dialect (where I live).

In a nutshell, I went to the first session and it was shit, so I didn’t go for the other 2 weeks.

Then I got an angry email saying the course has finished and I still need to pay the €39. So I replied back politely, telling them I’ve been ill for the last 2 weeks, which is why I couldn’t attend the course.

But earlier today I checked my email, and I received this:

It says I need to send them a note from my Doctor, otherwise I’ll have to pay the €39. I’m so pissed off. And out of principle, I don’t want to pay.

So I’ve set up a justgiving page.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rachel-warwick

If you’d like to give me some money to fund the course that I didn’t attend but still have to pay for, it would be much appreciated.

Salzburg

On Tuesday I headed into Salzburg (the city) to see my fabulous friend Aisha.

It was really nice being in the city for the day; Saalfelden isn’t the most cosmopolitan town lol. Originally I was really gutted that I wasn’t working in Salzburg, but I absolutely love Saalfelden. And Salzburg is very close, so it has worked out for the best.

Aisha and I had a loooovely catch up and we had dinner with Pearl and Ava. I’d not seen Aisha in a few weeks and I hadn’t seen Pearl and Ava since the training course (read about it here) and it was so so so nice to spend the evening with them!! We also got told off for being too loud in the restaurant, but what do you expect with 2 Americans, an Irish gal and a Brit. I think the Austrians were just jealous or maybe xenophobic.

After dinner, the girls took me to their favourite place to go drinking – O’Malley’s Irish pub in Salzburg (Aisha, you can take the girl out of Ireland…). We were there for happy hour and it was just so fab. We finished at the pub, then Aisha and I went back to hers for a girly sleepover.

I had to leave Wednesday morning as I had a lesson that afternoon. Isn’t being a language assistant just the best though?! I can nip into the city for a girls night and it doesn’t matter if I’m hungover or tired because I only have one lesson the next day.

If any of you are second years and considering about what to do on your year abroad – I would 10000% recommend working with the British Council. Remind me and I’ll probably write a blog post about it (reasons to do year abroad/be a language assistant/live in Austria), and I’m always happy to answer any questions.

Déjà Vooorarlberg 

I know you’re not supposed to wish your life away but I spent the whole of last week counting down the days until Friday.

I spent another weekend in Vorarlberg. I don’t think my last one counts as I had food poisoning and couldn’t stop being sick/pooing so I returned this weekend to make up for lost time. I arrived in Feldkirch on Friday (after a loooong journey), but it was so worth it. Megs picked me up from the station, we dropped my stuff off at hers, and went to Interspar. We bought our food and drinks, and took the train to Dornbirn. And we were thirsty on the train so we cracked open a bottle of wine.

Thursday 23rd was Thanksgiving, so we celebrated on the Friday evening. We went to Mitch’s flat in Dornbirn and everyone bought a plate of food. But Megan and I don’t know how to make pumpkin pie/stuffing/green bean casserole so our contribution to the dinner was chips, dips and vodka. Apparently that’s a traditional Thanksgiving dish though. I’m pretty sure the Pilgrim settlers also had a feast of Doritos and Russian Standard in 1621.

We spent the evening chatting and drinking and it was lush. We drank too much wine and got really tired, so headed home at 1:30am ish.

Just a quick message to my friends in Vorarlberg – thank you so much for inviting me to your Thanksgiving dinner. I’m sure it must have been difficult for my American friends to be spending Thanksgiving away from home, so I hope you had a lovely evening too. It was so kind of you to have me and I loved spending my first Thanksgiving with such an amazing group.

On Saturday, Megan and I spent the morning in bed, and went to the Christmas markets in Feldkirch for lunch. We had raclette and crepes and it was sooo yummy. It also made me really excited for the holidays – I’m spending Christmas in the UK but going to France a few days after. The smell of raclette cheese made me really excited for France. I fkin love Austria but I also love Christmas and I’m getting so pumped to go home (only 3 and a half weeks left!! Where has the time gone?!!!!).

Saturday night was COCKTAIL NIGHT and we’d been planning it for ages. Megs and I accidentally ate 3 dinners on Saturday. At Feldkirch station we had a sandwich each, then made nachos when we got to Sam and Luke’s, and then we ordered pizza a few hours later. Oops.

We decided on an 80s themed night so Megan and I wore scrunchies in our hair and I wore my mum’s ugly 80s jumper. The boys (Sam, Luke and Michal) dressed as bartenders and made us some very yummy and very strong cocktails. We all got really drunk so I guess they did the job well.

I took this off Megan’s snapchat which is why there’s a big ugly heart in the way

Victoria and James joined us later, and we kept drinking for a bit longer. We walked to the station, got a train to Dornbirn Hauptbahnhof, and then took a free shuttle bus from the station to the club. It had started snowing and it was foookin freeeeezing on Saturday night.

The club was really cool and it was kind of in the middle of nowhere. Big shout out to Megan – I love going out with her, she’s almost as weird as I am. The music was fab, it was such a good atmosphere and I was with some of my best friends (plus Mich).

Drinks were so expensive though. I bought a €7 vodka lemonade, and then a man turned around and knocked it out my hand. To say I was vexed is an understatement. I was soooo livid. I shouted and I told him he threw my drink on the floor and he should buy me a new one but he was drunk and horrible and didn’t and said it was my fault. Ugh. And because I’d wasted €7, I made it my mission to get free vodka lemonades so I went round asking people to buy me drinks. Which someone did. A glass of sparkling water. What a prick.

there about 17 filters on this and we still look shite

I don’t want to drop Sam in it, but he was quite tipsy on Saturday (lol). I remember looking after him, which made a nice change for me. Normally I’m the one being looked after.

There was a blizzard on Saturday night and aaaall the taxis were booked, so we had to wait ages for one. We also wanted to go to McDonald’s, but it was shut (even though it says it’s 24 hours) and we were soooo cross.

When we got back to the boys’ house, Sam kindly cooked käsespätzle for us. He doesn’t remember making it, but it was really yummy and was far nicer than McDonald’s.

We all ended up staying at Sam and Luke’s because there were no trains/taxis. God knows how we managed to fit 6 of us in Luke’s bedroom. Megan and I got back to the boys’ at 4am and had planned to stay awake until 5:30am and get the first train home, so we started watching Blades of Glory to try and stay awake.

But Blades of Glory is my favourite film and I was still drunk. So I was quoting the whole thing. And apparently other people don’t like that when they’re trying to sleep. James is just as bad as me though; whenever we’re together we are like children and we couldn’t stop laughing for about an hour. Then we fell asleep and woke up a few hours later so got the train at 8am I think??

Me on the train in the morning #SportySpice #HungoverSpice

On Sunday, after 2 hours sleep, Megan and I went for lunch with the boys. My food was very very yummy, but I was so hungover and had no appetite. You know when you’re really hungry and think back to a time when you didn’t finish your meal and it makes you frustrated because you’re like oh if I’d eaten that extra bite of food 3 weeks ago I wouldn’t be hungry now !!! That’s how I feel about the lunch on Sunday. I wish I had eaten the rest of my meal. Oh well. Life goes on.

I got the train back and arrived in Saalfelden at 6pm, and then went to bed at 8:30. I slept for 10 hours last night and I’m still knackered now. But it was so so so so worth it. This weekend and my weekend in Vienna have been my 2 favourite trips during my year abroad so far.

Thanks to everyone who made my weekend such a good one. I’m feeling hashtag blessed.

Speak soon. Love,

Rach x

• Word of the week: vexed
• Film of the week: Blades of Glory
• Quote of the week: “What the fuck happened” – Sam

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