Best wrapping ever

My tutor group at school did a Secret Santa and one of my sixth grade girls (who was my "secret" Santa) put my present in the coolest box ever!  Check it out!  That's Snow Patrol on the top and Zac Efron on the side.  LOVE IT! :)  So sweet. :)

The world needs more Natalias

This morning, one of my seventh graders walked in with a big red take-away coffee cup.  My first thought was that perhaps she was trying to get on the teacher's good side by bringing me some hot chocolate.  "Here's a chai tea latte from Natalia!"  I took the cup and realized it was a Starbucks cup.  Please note that I live in the middle of the Austrian alps.  The closest Starbucks is across the border in Munich (about two hours away or so).  The only Starbucks in Austria are in Vienna (a three hour drive but an even longer journey if you don't have a car).

So I thought Natalia had saved the cup and made her own chai at home and filled up the cup - a very cute gesture.  But then my student told me it was an actual chai from Starbucks.  I took a sip...and she certainly wasn't lying!  I had a genuine Starbucks chai tea latte in my hands in my classroom in my little alpine village in the middle of nowhere!!!  WOW!!!  WOOOOOOOW!!!!  

Anyone who knows me, knows my slight (slight? haha!) obsession with Starbucks chai tea lattes.  I just love, love, love them!!!!  WHAT AN AMAZINGLY, WONDERFUL SURPRISE!!!!  Talk about the coolest gift ever!!!!!!  Natalia had been in Vienna over the weekend, so she got me a chai, put it in a thermos, taken it back to St. Gilgen (on a train & bus), I figure refrigerated it overnight, then heated it up, poured it back in the original cup and had it delivered to my classroom!!!  How thoughtful is that?!  It was wonderfully delicious and it also just made me wonderfully happy that there are some people who are just so lovely to make such delightful surprises for a friend. :)  Yay for friends! :)

(The lid says "Thank you for this weekend" as I covered the boarding house for part of the weekend so Natalia could get a well-deserved weekend off for once!)

Today I...

1.  Had Thanksgiving with a bunch of people twice my age.  (Very random lunch with the Austro-American Society of Salzburg.  Yes, it exists.  And it also is mostly made up of Austrians rather than Americans.)


2. Met someone who lives in the originally von Trapp house and has offered me a tour.  I shall be singing the entire way and wearing a dress made out of curtains.


3. Won an umbrella.


4. Watched a rubbish football game (Salzburg vs. Vienna).


5.  Accidentally drove to Germany.


All around a good day.  Should really get some lesson planning done though...

My first YouTube video

I've finally posted my YouTube video of Gary talking to me at the Newcastle gig.  I think the other one that the other person posted is better but you can hear my responses to Gary on this one. :)  

Compliment of the Year

We have a conference going on at our school this weekend and students from other international schools have come to participate.  This evening I was chatting with two girls from the international school in Ljubljana and a couple of minutes into the conversation one of them asked me, "Do you go to school here?"


Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!  I was very pleased!  The poor girl was so embarrassed when I told her I was actually a teacher but I kept on trying to convince her that it really was okay and I probably haven't gotten as lovely a compliment all year.  (The one thing is that it was rather dark outside so that probably helped hide my age a bit.  I do get people thinking I'm in my early 20's but never in my teens!)

I love the internet!

Thank you to whoever karina_bn on Flickr.com is because I've now got a picture of my sign in action!  :)  No wonder Pablo couldn't read it at first - looks like it folded over a bit.  It was a bit ghetto made up of lots of pieces of paper taped together!


This is what it originally looked like (it's the size of the hotel bed!)

O Pablo, Pablo. Wherefore art thou, Pablo?

This is something I'm not sure I should admit on a public blog, but then again I am always embarrassing myself in public so why not online too, right?  Anyway, as usual, I decided to embarrass myself on Saturday evening at the Newcastle concert with a sign.  I don't think I've even ever wrote about my previous signs on this blog for fear of embarrassment - haha!  I generally always have a silly sign at Snow Patrol concerts.  It's done the job because Pablo always seems to find them funny and then smiles at me throughout the concert. :)  


On Saturday, I had tickets for the balcony (I was on vacation and had found out about the gig too late to try to get front row seats in the stalls).  So I came up with what I thought was the genius idea of a sign saying "O Pablo, Pablo.  Wherefore art thou, Pablo?"  I thought it was pretty witty! :)


When the concert started, only Gary and the harpist were on stage for the first song.  Then in the second song, a couple more people joined.  Finally in the third song, Pablo came on stage.  So at the end of the song, Alison helped me unfold the sign and get it up over the balcony then Christine helped me hold it up.  Of course by then...Pablo had left the stage again!!  (It was a "reworked" gig so they were doing different versions of all their songs which sadly meant Pablo wasn't needed all the time!)  


I think we held that sign there for about three songs with no Pablo on stage.  Of course, some people might have found this appropriate seeing so many people seem to think "wherefore" means "where" and not "why."  Finally, Pablo came back on stage.  I saw Jonny, the drummer, point out the sign to him.  Pablo looked over and appeared to have trouble reading it.  Then Gary noticed it.  And read it out loud to the entire audience.  The reaction was pretty good and the comments in the attached YouTube video ensued.  I've actually got a video of the entire thing too (I got Alison to film it for me as I had suspected Gary might make comments on my sign :)) where you can actually hear my comments back to Gary, but it's easier to post this now as it's already online.

I'm back!

According to last week's Sunday Times "Style" section, "Lazy Bloggers" are out.  "If you're not blogging daily, we're blogging off."  So, I figured maybe I should try to start blogging again.  If anyone's actually reading this.


Of course, in true Tanja fashion, there's a Snow Patrol story in this all.   

In August, SP announced a "Reworked Tour" - something for the true fans (ie me!)  They'd be playing different versions of their songs, old songs they never play, songs by The Reindeer Section (Gary's other band).  I went ahead and got tickets for their gig in Newcastle - the only Saturday date in their tour.  Now that I teach, I can't get time off work and go anywhere mid-week.  Of course, when I got my work schedule I was on boarding duty for that Saturday evening.  But my fabulous colleague, Martha, who likes the Reindeer Section said she'd trade with me as I had to go to the gig.

And I'm so glad I did.  It was probably one of the best SP gigs I've been to.  And even better, I finally got to properly meet Pablo, the bassist who I have a bit of a crush on.  The result is this fabulous picture!  Do we look good together or what?  Also please note how well our outfits match - it's like I chose the scarf to match him.

Okay, I need to lesson plan now but maybe more later.