Looking back on the days I worked alongside Professor Maria Siller at this school these past four short months, it is not difficult for me to say that my time here has been the great joy of my time in Vienna.
I have been gifted beautiful friendships in different corners of the city, but working with students here has made me beam the most genuinely, the most incandescently. I was able to share personal anecdotes with 8A about my work experience in sales and marketing. We explored the verbiage necessary for job searching and applications, and we practiced multiple times. With the older students, I was also able to discuss the Paris shootings. We sought clarity and understanding in our open conversation. The students of 3A took me along with them to the Schönbrunn Zoo, where they, in pairs or groups of three, gave fantastic oral presentations of the jumping monkeys, braying goats, reindeer, and panthers, present just behind them. With these same children, we practiced the art of story-telling with skill in English. The 1A children always surprised me with their laughter, each Tuesday and Thursday, when we would sit outside working on our English pronunciation. They would laugh so hard when I would form my mouth emphatically to make the “th” sound.
Thank you to Haizingergasse for a lovely look into some of the young minds of Vienna, who are bright, creative, and blooming with joy.
Lauren Franklin (Los Angeles, US)