Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch!

Well I'm all packed and ready to go to Germany tomorrow!

This week has really gone slowly even though all my lessons have been pretty fun.  I've been teaching about Christmas, playing Christmas jeopardy, reading 'Twas the night before Christmas.  It's probably because I've been looking forward to this weekend, going up to Germany to see my parents and our former exchange students and their parents.

I'll be leaving early tomorrow morning to meet up with a friend in Wels (he lives in Graz), and I'm riding up to Erfurt with him, and from there I'm taking a train to Leipzig.  It's going to be a long day of travel (a bus, a car and two trains), but it'll be worth it to see family and friends!

We'll be in Leipzig until the 27th, and then my parents and I will be going to Prague for two days, and then we'll be back here in Baden to celebrate the New Year.  I'm not sure what exactly we'll be doing, but it's going to be fun to see my parents!

This is a short post, just to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year since I don't know when I'll be posting again.

Happy Holidays!

Having a hard time with the Christmas spirit

Well it's time for my weekly post- maybe one of my New Years resolutions should be to post more often...  It's been a good week!  I was in the 7th form Handball class this week, and I always have fun with them.  They explained to me how handball works, which is not at all like American Handball, it's a great combination of soccer, hockey and basketball.  We cracked some pronunciation jokes because they all have issues with their "th" sounds, and they also (inexplicably) have problems saying a "v"- which they have a TON of in German.  When I talked about the death penalty with them I heard a lot about "wengeance".  Many of the teachers here also have strange pronunciation, or they try to over-enunciate, and I don't really know what to do about that besides sit back and smile (since correcting most of them will just blow up in my face- or they're in such a habit of saying it wrong they won't remember).  

This week in the teacher's room we had some interesting conversations about the history of Santa Claus- which countries he's in, and how he became who he is today.  Of course I knew about the connections between Santa and St. Nikolaus here, but I didn't realize that he was also made from the myth of Father Frost from Russia and Scandinavian countries (who ran around wearing a red suit and brought winter with him wherever he went).  I had a children's book about Father Frost- so I knew about him, without ever making that connection.  We also (randomly) talked about how many continents there are.  I've always learned that there are 7 continents- but as it turns out many people learned just 5 or 6.  Many of the teachers here learned America as 1 continent, not two, and they also don't think of Antarctica as a continent, but most of them learned Oceania (the islands between Asia and Australia) as it's own continent.  The geography teachers told me that now all the kids here learn that there are 7 continents, and its the same 7 that I learned- Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America.

Most of my lessons this week will be about Christmas in the US, which will hopefully get me in more of a christmas-y mood.  I don't know if it;s the lack of snow here, or that this is my first time away from home for the holidays, but despite the decorations and markets everywhere I just don't feel like Christmas is only a week away!  I've noticed some pretty funny decorations here over the weeks, but I haven't really written about them.  Many of the trees around town that were decorated by the city have their lights hooked directly into the power lines, so they have signs on them saying "Beware- high voltage" (in German of course)- talk about holiday spirit!  There are also these sort of creepy Santa decorations of Santa climbing up a ladder or rope into a window.  They're everywhere, and then ones hanging from a rope are especially off-putting.  I also saw a female Mannequin dressed in a man's Santa suit in a shop window- it was very strange looking to see a big white beard and mustache on a clearly female figure.

This week I checked out a different grocery store in town and finally found a good brand of chocolate soymilk (there are a lot of bad ones here), two Radlers I haven't seen before, some new Milka chocolate bars and fresh CRANBERRIES!  First off, a radler is a beer with juice or soda added to it, secondly, while Milka isn't my favorite kind of chocolate the new varieties sounded delicious and they were on sale, and lastly I've really been missing making and eating my cranberry sauce.  I had to improvise a bit on the cranberry sauce because two of my usual ingredients are a bit hard to come by, and then I had to do some calculating and converting to figure out the ingredient proportions- but I got it all sorted out and made my usual delicious sauce, which I then ate straight from the container within 48 hours.  I bought some more cranberries and will be making more sauce today!

Preiselbeere Radler (Lingonberry juice and beer)

Johannesbeere Radeler (Black currant juice and beer) 

Milka Daim (sorta like a heath bar) and Milka Oreo bars

This week I also had two Christmas parties to attend.  One of them was for my school in Berndorf, all of us teachers met up at a heurige in Sooss (it was one that I walked past a few weeks ago when wandering through the vineyards up there) for dinner and drinks.  It was a good time, getting to know my colleagues better and speak German.  The teachers from Berndorf have all known each other for quite some time, so there's a real feeling of friendship and community, which was great to be a part of.  The school where I work as a tutor also had its christmas party this week, so I got to meet some of the other tutors and talk to them over dinner and drinks.  Inge, the woman who runs the school, also bought us all little gifts, so I got some really nice vanilla body wash and lotion.  On Wednesday this week my other school is having their christmas party, but I haven't decided yet if I'll go or not.

Yesterday I had to run to IKEA to pick up some things, so I took the Badner Bahn to the Shopping City Süd.  I don't know if it's the biggest mall in Austria, but its certainly the biggest mall I've been to in a long time, and since it's the last weekend before christmas it was PACKED.  I'd like to go back sometime and see more of the shops, but being there yesterday was a nightmare, and I was just trying to get to IKEA and looking for very specific things- so all the slow meandering foot traffic drove me nuts.  To get back to the train station I opted for walking back through the parking lot instead of the mall.  Later in the afternoon I met up with my friend Kristin, who's a TA in Graz, but staying in Vienna for the weekend.  We went to the Naschmarkt- where I bought yet another scarf.  Every time I go to the Naschmarkt I end up buying another scarf, it's dangerous because they're like 90% Cashmere and they're just 5 euro!  I'm going to end up with a suitcase full of them if I don't stop myself soon.  I also got some tasty dried fruit, and had a falafel sandwich for lunch.  I never thought that I would like falafel- but Dr. Falafel in the Naschmarkt knows what he's doing!  After sitting in a coffee shop to escape the sudden downpour we went to 4 different Christmas markets around Vienna. 

 I'd already been to the MQ Market and the Rathaus market, but I hadn't been to the Karls Platz or the Spittalberg markets.  The market on Karls Platz had a lot more artistic works than tourist crafts, so that was interesting to see.  The center of Karls Platz is usually a big shallow fountain, but now it's a petting zoo and covered in straw that all the kids were playing in.  The Spittalberg market is in a very narrow old street, and it was full of the traditional market stands.  We ended up getting dinner there, I had Leberkäse for the first time.  It literally translates to liver cheese, but really there's no (or very little) liver in it, and usually there isn't cheese in it either.  Its basically like a meatloaf, usually made of pork (in this case it was wild boar, but there's a place in Baden that has horse Leberkäse).  The stuff that we had was served on a seasoned roll with a really delicious mustard, I would eat it again; it's not your most gourmet meal, but it is a pretty typical street food around here.  After seeing the Spittal market my foot was aching and I was ready to head home.  On the train platform I ran into two of my students from Berndorf so we talked for awhile- that's the first time I've seen my students outside of a school setting!

Anyway, I cleaned my apartment this morning, and now it's time to go make my cranberry sauce.  I'm really looking forward to heading up to Germany this weekend and seeing my parents!!!!  I'm not sure when my next post will come, so don't hold your breath. Incase I don't post next week- Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Rutsch! (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!)

Krampus Video

My friend Kristin posted a link to this on Facebook today- it was actually at the end of an article on NPR's website about Krampus coming to the U.S.  The video is pretty cool, it shows you what a Krampuslauf is like with all the creepy masks.  I'd like to get a Krampus mask, but I have NO idea how I'd get it home!  It would be fun to bring something so authenticly Austrian like that back with me.

The video is better if you can watch it larger than it plays here.

Another week in the life...

I haven't posted all week, but mostly because nothing terribly interesting has happend.  Monday was Krampus, and one of my teachers had warned me there would be people dressed as devils running around hitting people with sticks.  I was all over town on Monday night going to tutor a kid and running errands and I didn't see a single Krampus in Baden.  Tuesday was St. Nikolaus, I got a tiny chocolate Santa from one of my teachers.  On Wednesday I finally taught my last Thanksgiving lesson- which means that most of my lessons in the last two weeks will probably be Christmas related.

Thursday was Mariaempfangnis- which I'm not really sure what that is, except we had the day off from school.  One of my teachers told me she thought it was the day the Arch Angel came down and told Mary she was going to give birth to God's son, but then we both thought that was a ridiculously short pregnancy, and then we realized that we both aren't at all religious and didn't really care what the day meant.

As my dad likes to point out, Austrians have a holiday about every-other week, and I sure don't work much!  I was going through my calendar the other day and there have been a number of weeks when I've only taught 8 lessons due to holidays and/or exams (we're supposed to do 13 a week- but if we're short because of holidays or exams we don't have to make them up).  I've been putting in more hours than I'm scheduled for the past few weeks just from sheer boredom.  Besides I spend pretty much the whole school day sitting around at school waiting for my next lesson- I might as well do something!  I went to a 1st form (10/11 yr olds) German lesson on Fairytales; it was pretty fun, the kids were all shocked that I understood and spoke German.

Since I had a long(er than usual) weekend I thought I might go down to Graz, but I sort of lost my ambition to head down there and didn't find a place to stay.  Some friends from Burgenland (the eastern-most state in Austria) were coming to Baden to visit Liz, and I wanted to see them again so that also played a role in my decision to stay home.  We had a good time hanging out on Thursday night, we watched some terrible TV, went out to eat at another Italian place in town, drank beers and local wine.  It was about 2 am when I decided it was time for me to go home and go to bed; on my walk home I twisted my ankle, which was then swollen and sore the next day.

We had talked about hiking up to some ruins on Friday, but everyone at Liz's got a late start, so by the time they left for their hike I was busy tutoring.  I met up with them in the Christmas market when they came back into town and we walked around checking everything out again.  There were a lot of people out, and a bunch of musicians were out singing carols.  We all ended up with Feliz Navidad stuck in our heads- not what you'd think we'd hear in the streets in Austria.  After some Punsch and Glühwein we went to a Heurige for more wine and a rather large delicious dinner.

So that's pretty much what I've been up to this week- nothing too terribly out of the ordinary or exciting.  I'm looking forward to meeting up with a friend in Vienna next weekend and going to a few more Christmas markets & my parents will be coming over soon too!  It's hard to believe Christmas is coming up though, we still don't have snow here, and this weekend it's been in the 40s F (4-7 C).

So that's why Pagans have more fun!

Well it's been another lovely weekend here in Austria.  We still don't have snow, and it's still chilly and cloudy- but it's all good.

On Friday I went into Vienna with my friend Liz.  We went shopping at the Naschmartk (a big outdoor market, which is mostly food), around in the city, and also at two of the Kriskindlmaerkte (christmas markets).  Then we went and saw the 4th Twilight movie at the English movie theater.  I didn't go in with very high expectations of the movie, so I wasn't disappointed.  They changed things from the book of course, and some of it they stayed a little too true.  There were some pretty gruesome scenes, and the 10 year olds in the audience were scared out of their wits.

A stall in the Naschmarkt full of fruits, nuts and vegetables.

Some traditional wooden ornaments at a stall in the Museums Quartier Kristkindlmarkt.

The most American display I've seen since the 4th of July, I'm not sure why it's right outside the Rathaus Kristkindlmarkt.

Rathaus Kriskindlmarkt

These big pretzels with all different fillings and toppings seem to be popular this time of year.

Tonight I met up with Liz again and we went to see what Perchten is all about.  Usually the Perchtenlauf (or parade) is put on by a local Perchten organization.  The closest group to Baden is actually from Berndorf, so there's a good chance that some of the people I saw tonight are colleagues or students.  I don't know what all the group does besides get into costume and put on these parades, but the parade was cool enough for me!  I think the best way to describe it is hilariously terrifying.  These people in out-of-this world costumes and masks walk slowly, creepily toward the crowd, swishing their horsehair whips or reaching out to touch the people in the first few rows.  Most of them went toward this group of teenage girls in the front across the aisle from us, but a few came our way too.  Liz was molested by a wolf, and an absolutely enormous Perchten with a nightmare-inducing mask got up in my face (well my face was pretty much in the mouth of his mask) and asked if I was "brav" and at that moment I couldn't remember what that meant- except that it does NOT mean brave.  It means good.  Liz was pretty much screaming at me to "Just say yes", and I was laughing from the absolute absurdity of the situation... and a bit of terror.  We both were hit with whips several times, but they don't really hurt.  I took as many pictures as I could, but my camera was being stupid and slow.  

Even kids are Perchten.

It's hard to even see the face in this mask.

Many of the masks are enormous, I'm not sure how some of the people could see.

Some of them had light up eyes.

This is the Wolf that got Liz.

This one was in the midst of whipping the guy next to me.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and an excellent cultural experience.  It seems like it must be the remnants of the Pagan traditions that the church has tried so hard to take over.  I'm surprised that it's still celebrated in such a Catholic country, but I'm glad it's here. 

Tomorrow is the real Krampus, and after I'm done teaching I'm tutoring, so I'll be out and about in the streets of Baden to see what happens!

For more pictures click here!

Don't break my achy breaky... wait, what?

I realized that I haven't really said that much about teaching or my schools for awhile, and this week has been full of fun, teachable moments.  Pretty much every week there are funny things that happen, or that students say, but I never really write about them- so now I'm going to.

My schedule right now at Bad Vöslau is a bit of a mess, I'm there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and I ended up hanging out at school pretty much all day, just looking for a lesson to join.  It's test season right now, so many teachers couldn't use me because they either had their last lesson before the test, or they were giving the test.  There have been two or three teachers who have left the school to go on maternity leave, which is why the schedule is constantly changing.  Instead of just getting a substitute teacher in to teach their classes they rearrange everyone's schedule to cover those classes.  They actually don't have substitute teachers here, when a teacher is gone the other teachers have to fill in for those classes.

On Tuesday I ended up putting in two hours in 1st form classes (10 yr olds), which is a bit hard because they don't understand a lot of English, but they have a lot of energy and are pretty funny.  In the first one we just did a Q&A- they asked me questions in German or English, the teacher wrote the English on the board that they didn't know, and I'd answer.  I was surprised at how many questions they came up with in English, including, "How much are you, teacher?"  This is funny for two reasons- 1) He was trying to ask how old I am- obviously didn't quite come across that way! and 2) When they ask a question in German here they usually either start or end with saying "Frau Professor", so he took that and changed it to English as best he could.  Anyway, I had a lot of fun with them, and they were really enthusiastic about everything, even if they didn't understand much!  The other 1st form was doing body parts, so I thought I'd teach them Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, maybe play some Simon Says (Simon Says touch your right elbow to your left knee!- you'd better all be doing it, or Simon will know!). When it came time to leave what was in the book and do my own thing their teacher jumped in and made us go back to the book, so I was a bit disappointed.  We listened, sang, and danced to the song provided by the book writers- which was a very strange, awful techno song- it seemed like a bad joke to me.  The kids all thought it was hilarious, and they got to dance around and be silly.

Wednesday I really filled up my day because I'd been so bored on Tuesday with only two lessons.  I taught 5 lessons, 3 of which were about Thanksgiving.  In one of the Thanksgiving lessons I asked them what they think we eat for Thanksgiving, and after giving me a few dishes (Turkey, mashed potatoes...) they broke down and started giving me ingredients they thought we might use (onions, butter, salt).  The teacher and I just started laughing at them.  One lesson was another book lesson- but it was the last lesson before the test, so I didn't mind as much that we had to stick with the book topics.  In my last lesson (for the two hour Wahlpflichtfach) we wrapped up their last unit, and started talking about American High Schools- more specifically high school sports.  Most of that class are guys from the handballer class, so I thought the topic would be interesting to them, and I think they like the movie I picked too; we're watching Coach Carter.

I teach at Berndorf on Mondays and Thursdays, and I have a pretty nice, set schedule.  I only change classes once a month, so I get a chance to know my students a bit more (although there's still a lot of them!), and I'm only with 6th-8th forms (think Sophomore-Seniors) so we can do more advanced lessons. There's a class of 10 8th form boys- most of whom are footballers- that I saw twice this week (since we started the week in November, and now its December).  I've been teaching them about US Government and Politics, and they've been telling me about Austrian holidays and family traditions.  The teacher for that class told me last week that she had told the boys they were going to be doing some reading during one of my classes with them, and they all protested, "It's Allison's hour!" "We want to talk to Allison!", so I thought that was pretty funny.  They've told me some pretty interesting things about the holidays and traditions around this time of year like the meaning of Advent Wreaths (nearly impossible for them to pronounce, they usually say reas-s or reafs), how they celebrate St. Nikolaus, what Perchten, Krampus, or Knecht Ruprecht are, how they celebrate Christmas (on the 24th of December- not the 25th), the history and importance of Christmas markets, and sort of randomly- one kid told me about Johan Hölzel, better known as 80s pop sensation Falco.  I have no idea what Falco has to do with holidays and traditions (as far as I know he never put out a Christmas album- I hope!); plus I've seen the movie Falco: Verdammt wir leben noch so I know a fair amount about him.

This post is already getting a bit long, so I'll just fill you in on some of the stranger or more interesting things they've told me.  Perchten and Krampus are nearly the same thing, and they're usually celebrated on December 5th (the day before St. Nikolaus).  People dress up in creepy devil masks, the more traditional ones are carved from wood and hand painted.  For Perchten they usually have a parade through the city center with torches and who knows what else (Perchten is on Sunday here in Baden- I'll fill you in a bit more after I've seen it).  For Krampus the people dressed as devils wander randomly through the town with bunches of evergreen branches that they use to beat people (or just hit them once or twice), they usually go for women and kids (not the really little ones- more like middle/high school kids).  As I understand it both of these traditions come from the story of Knecht Ruprecht.  He would go around with St. Nikolaus from house to house, and if the children were good they'd get candy and fruit from St. Nik, if they were bad Knecht Ruprecht would put them in a bag and beat them with a stick, or throw the bag in the river.  This is also where we get our Santa Claus that we have to be good boys and girls for- or else we'll get coal.  Obviously we've tamed it down a bit!

Some other interesting things the students told me is that Silent Night was written in Austria in the 1800s, I always thought it came from somewhere in Germany.  They also told me the first Christmas market ever was in Vienna (the one in front of the Rathaus that I'll be going to see today), and it was first mentioned in writings from the 1200s.  I couldn't verify this, Wikipedia doesn't say anything about it.  They also told me that we get the name Chris Kringle (Santa's name) from the German term Christkindl(markt), a German term for the Christmas markets.  I can see that.

In one of my other classes yesterday we got a really good debate going about smoking in Austria, the laws involved with it, and where people should/shouldn't be able to smoke.  I was surprised at how many people really stayed on their side of the issue and argued with people of the opposing opinion.  In the US it's really not hard to get students to debate each other- but here it's usually like pulling teeth! They don't want to disagree- so they all end up changing sides saying things like, "I understand what you're saying and I agree." when they're supposed to disagree!  If you assign them an opinion they have to argue for they have a really hard time pretending it's their opinion... so usually I avoid having them debate something because it's just pointless.  However, this class did an excellent job, I even got to jump in and mediate, I was very proud of them!

I've also noticed that most students here want to be on exactly the same level as their peers- they don't want to be better than the others.  So in one exercise when they were supposed to be comparing themselves to someone else if a student said, "I think _____ is cleverer than me." The student they named as cleverer always had to put up their hand and say something like, "I don't think that's correct, because _____ always does better than me at _____." or something similar... They don't mind putting themselves down as being bad at something, but they don't want anyone to think they're good at something.  I find it a very interesting cultural phenomenon.

All along I've been seeing strange or wrong things in the textbooks here, but this week I've really been noticing it.  Some of the stuff that I don't like turns out to just be British English, which I have a hard time not correcting (If I ever say "at the weekend" kick me!).  One of the funny examples from this week is "a pot plant" apparently in British this is simply a potted plant, but I think of marijuana every time I see it.  I asked Liz, a British friend of mine here, and she said it's just a potted plant, but when she googled "A pot plant" only one variety of potted plant appeared!  Some of the other stuff is just wrong, especially when it comes to adding articles like "the" "a" and "an", but the teachers are sure that because it's printed word it must be correct and I'm wrong.  I think I'll stop bothering trying to correct the book- it's just not worth it in most cases!

If you've read this far- congratulations! You're nearing the end, and this is the non-school related fun!  Last night I met up with Liz (Brit), Steffi (Austrian), Kittle and Kate (both American) in Baden, and we went out for Punsch, Glühwein and other Christmas related drinks at the Badener Adventmeile (or christmas market).  It was a lot of fun just hanging out, swapping stories, trying out all the different drinks and standing around a hot mushroom (the literal translation of the German word for one of those big outdoor propane heaters- they do look like large mushrooms!).  There was also the most eclectic live band playing by one of the huts.  They played everything from 1920s swing, to early 90s country; including My Achy Breaky Heart- which, judging by the crowds reaction, is an absolute favorite here!  Everyone was tapping their toes, singing to the chorus, bopping their heads- it was pretty funny.  After nearly 3 hours of standing around outside we were all pretty cold, and our feet hurt so we split up and went home.

Today I'm going to go get some of my Christmas shopping done, and check out some of the Christmas markets in Vienna.  As of yet we don't have any snow here- which is turning out to be a really big problem for all of Austria- even the Alps are lacking in snow!  Hope we get some soon!

Berta- the Queen of the Birds

It seems like it's been a long time since I last posted, and I've been busy!

Last week Thursday I went to St. Pölten for a reception given by the Landeshauptmann (Governor) Niederösterreich for English TAs.  There were a bunch of train delays, so I ended up being an hour late and I missed going up in the tower.  I got in on the museum tour, which showed a lot of the natural and art history of Niederösterreich.  Then we saw a film about the Landeshaus (capitol)- it turns out St. Pölten has only been the capital of NÖ for 25 years, before that all the government buildings for NÖ were in Vienna.  Other than that fact the video was just really cheesy.  After touring the capitol buildings we had a very nice sandwich/salad buffet with free wine and beer.  Mostly I was just happy to catch up with the other TAs a bit and see people I know!  I got back home late, and had to pack up for Waldsee Thanksgiving in Bopfingen, Germany for the weekend.

The legislature hall in the capitol building.

The Klangturm in St. Pölten outside the capitol

Luckily all the trains were on time on Friday!  It took 7.5 hours to get from Baden to Bopfingen, and it turned out to be a pretty boring journey.  I thought there might be some pretty scenery, but besides the mountains between Linz and Salzburg there really wasn't much to see that didn't look like the Mid West; the sun did finally come back (it's probably been two or three weeks since we had any sun in Baden) and I got out of the fog.  Parts of Germany reminded me of all those Thanksgivings driving down to Grandma and Grandpa's in Iowa, so that was a nice bit of nostalgia.  I also saw some hunters out in the fields, which was another reminder of Thanksgiving at home.  On the trip I listened to some of our Waldsee songs to get a bit of a refresher since I figured we would have Gesang (singing).

I was the first (besides our turkey- Berta) to arrive in Bopfingen.  Lotta (our hostess) took some of us on a quick tour of the town, which was really cute, but I didn't take any pictures.  Throughout the afternoon we worked on preparing dinner as more people slowly trickled in.  Some of them I knew, others I was just meeting for the first time, but there's something about the Waldsee experience that makes everyone who's been there feel like family.  We've all had similar experiences and we know so many of the same people it's like reconnecting with a long-lost cousin.  Our dinner was delicious with all the usual Thanksgiving dishes (except we had Pumpkin cake instead of Pumpkin Pie).  We were up until pretty late drinking wine and beer, digesting our food and talking.

Lotta and her mother basting Berta the turkey.

Getting all the food and drink on the table for Thanksgiving dinner.

On Saturday we had a pretty late start and didn't leave the breakfast table until about noon.  We meant to leave and go see some of the neighboring towns as soon as we were all ready, but somehow we got started on Gesang, which lasted nearly 2 hours!  By the end all of our voices were shot.  We then went to a nearby town in Bayern (Bopfingen is in Baden-Württemburg) where we walked around half the town on the old city wall.  At one point we passed a brewery where a little boy with a stuffed tiger asked us what this chute-door in the wall was for.  Of course we didn't know either- and we all thought it was funny that he was shouting up at us on the wall from the street about this thing.  We really confused him by starting to sing after talking to him about possible uses for the chute.  After we came down from the wall we walked through the old town center where the christmas market was.  It was very cute, and much better than our market here in Baden.  We had some Glühwein (mulled wine), sausages, and doughnuts.  I tried a heiße Caipi (a hot Caipirinha) which was interesting, and some of the others had heiße Nikolaus (Hot Chocolate with Baileys).  Then we went back to Bopfingen and had a Skype date with Otto (another Waldsee-er), and had a late dinner of leftovers.  After dinner Lotta's dad brought out all their homemade schnapps, and we had another late night of toasting and trying all the different kinds of schnapps.  I don't normally like schnapps all that much, but all the different varieties they had were incredibly (and dangerously) good. 

Part of the christmas market we went to.

After breakfast on Sunday I had to run up to the train and start my 9 hour journey back to Baden.  It was a really long day, and I was so happy when I got back to Baden.  I had a really great weekend, and I really hope I see everyone again at Waldsee this summer!

This week I have my first tutoring sessions, so I'll be earning some christmas pocket money.  I also got an advent calendar from one of my teachers, I really love my co-workers at Berndorf!

One last thing: THERE'S NO FOG TODAY!!!!! Not even in Berndorf (where it's been foggy since the beginning of October)! It's sunny, and even a bit warm!

Keeping busy!

I finally got the Matura Ball pictures from my colleagues! I'm not in many of them- so I don't know if I'll post any on my smugmug, but here are a couple:

Berndorf's Direktor and I after dancing

The 8th form students performing their opening dance.

Yesterday I had a meeting with the director of the Learning 4 Life language school here in Baden.  I wanted to see if I could possibly work for her on the side doing tutoring or teaching small classes.  She's incredibly nice, and I think I'm going to have fun working there (when she gets students for me); she even invited me to their christmas party in a few weeks!  It'll be good to get to know more people here in Baden.  Afterwards I walked around town a bit taking pictures of the christmas lights and the christmas market huts.  Most of the huts just sell snacks, drinks and sweets, there aren't many that sell ornaments or crafts, but it's still pretty!

This morning on the way to school I thought I saw snow in Sooß and Bad Vöslau, but when I was walking to the train station after class I realized that it was actually just the fog/mist that had fallen and frozen.  It must be just a bit warmer in Baden (not that you can feel it), I didn't notice the frozen fog here.  One of the teachers at school today invited me to go see Stomp with some of the upper-class men from Bad Vöslau-Gainfarn in January, it's a ways off, but it should be a lot of fun!  

I know tomorrow is Thanksgiving for all of you back home in the US, but here it's just another day of school.  Almost all my lessons last week, this week, and next week have been about Thanksgiving.  The TAs here in Niederösterreich actually do have a special event tomorrow though!  We've been invited to an afternoon reception in Sankt Pölten (the capital of Niederösterreich) by the Landespräsident (something like a governor).  It's a full afternoon program- complete with free tours and food!  It should be pretty interesting, and it will be good to see some of the other TAs again.

I'll be getting back from that late tomorrow evening, and then early Friday morning I have to get up and catch a train to Bopfingen, Germany.  I'm going up there for a Waldsee Thanksgiving get together, so don't worry, I'm still getting a Thanksgiving meal!  I don't know everyone who's coming, but we've all worked at Waldsee (German language summer camp) so I'm sure we'll have a good time!

So if you don't hear from me until Monday- that's why!  Happy Turkey day everyone!

Prague, Prag, Praha

I don't know if I really have the patience to write a blow by blow of my trip to Prague at the moment- and as much fun as it was I don't know how much it would interest you all since a lot of our fun came from the silly/stupid things our group did.


On Friday the 6 of us, Liz, Jon, Steve (all British), Leire and Marta (both Spanish) met up in Vienna to catch the bus to Prague.  The bus ride wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, each seat had its own little screen and you could watch some shows or movies, plus we had a half hour break in Brno- in all it was 5 hours.  We got some crowns (Czech currency) during our short break, it's rather strange currency since their coins are from 1-50 crowns, and their bills are from 100-5000 (or maybe more) crowns.

 

After we got to Prague and checked into our hostel we went out for dinner and a beer at a nearby restaurant.  I had a potato pancake stuffed with ham and sauerkraut, a typical Czech dish.  It wasn't the best meal, but it was hot, huge and cheap.  The beers were also good, and only cost about a euro or two for a half liter.  

On Saturday we got up and wandered around Prague all day long.  We saw pretty much all of the old-city, for further details check out my pictures on smugmug (link to the left).  I took a ton of pictures of all the gorgeous old buildings, but I don't really know what many of them are!  My foot has been feeling a bit sore since my hike in Graz, and by the end of the day wandering Prague I was in quite a lot of pain.  Every once and a while it would shoot through my foot and make me moan a loud- completely involuntarily, which has never happened to me before- so I'm thinking I need to find a foot doctor here.  Anyway, we stopped at one very typical Czech looking restaurant and had beer and gulasch in bread bowls for lunch.  It was very tasty and cheap, but the service was super slow, especially when we wanted to pay and get going again.  I wanted to light a fire under our waiters ass- but he was too busy having a smoke break every other minute.  For dinner we ate at this classy & expensive looking place right on the river, but it was actually cheap & good Italian food.  I had ricotta ravioli with chicken and prosciutto meatballs in a tomato basil and parmesan sauce- it was delicious!

 

We took our time heading back to the hostel and took som great night shots of the city.  My new camera did alright for its first test- sometimes it's a bit annoying, but it's just an adjustment period.  I've also discovered that it doesn't have steady-shot, and my hands are always a bit shaky, so anytime I zoom in it takes a few tries to get a steady picture.

On Sunday we didn't really have time to go see anything else- which my foot and I were just fine with!  We packed up and came back to Austria, getting back in the dark, and it was colder here than it was in Prague.

Last note: I saw snowflakes this morning! For about two minutes, and then it stopped and just got foggier.  

Suddenly, and rather unexpectedly, he died.

It's amazing what getting paid and having a bit of money does for your outlook on things!  Yesterday was payday- after 8 weeks of living here and scraping by on what I had saved at home.  Of course yesterday was also Leopoldi, a holiday for the patron saint of Niederösterreich and Wien (otherwise known as Lower Austria and Vienna), so I had off from school, and was free to shop for some things I've been needing.  I also went and bought a new camera- a purple Nikon CoolPix.  It was cheap (99 Euro), but also a relatively decent quality, it'll be thoroughly tested this weekend in Prague.

I spent most of Tuesday wandering town, and planning lessons.  In my wanderings I stumbled across more huts for the christmas market- which is called the Badner Adventmeile and opens this Friday.  I also saw a man selling roasted chestnuts and Bratkartoffel (sautéed potatoes) with a truly glorious Austrian-Mountain-Man mustache.  The stands for chestnuts and potatoes are all over town- but such mustaches are not, and if I'd had a working camera with me, and were he not looking at me, I'd have taken a picture to show you the glory.  Instead I'll let you admire the lovely facial hair of Kaiser Willhelm I of Germany- his burnstache (as Urban Dictionary labels this facial hair) is nearly the same as that of the man in the stand.  

In my wanderings I bought myself two of my favorite treats at the bakery.  One is a recently discovered favorite- Linzer Kipferl.  It's a U-shaped sandwich cookie where the cookies are a bit like sugar cookies (just not as sweet or buttery as ours) held together by Marillen Marmelade (apricot jam- but it sounds so much better in German), and the ends are dipped in dark chocolate.  The other I've known since I was in Graz the first time- and it's also filled with Marillen.  They're called Krapfen here, but in Germany they'd be called a Berliner.  This should sound somewhat familiar to those of you who remember when J.F.K. said that he was a jelly donut and people in Berlin went wild and wanted to eat him (or was there something else they were happy about?).  Krapfen are associated with Fasching (or Karnival) here, which apparently starts on 11/11, as one of my teachers told me.  I wasn't aware that Fasching lasted that long, I only know Faschingdienstag- which is known in the US as Fat Tuesday.  To celebrate Payday I also went to the Heurige across the street for drinks and dinner with Liz (British) and Steffi (Austrian).  It was fun- and once again cheap; I really wish we had Heurige in the states.

It's finally gotten a bit chilly here, Monday was the beginning of the weather change, it was very foggy and never got above 40.  Tuesday the sun was out, but it was still cold, and today was even colder (30-32) and incredibly foggy all day.  Steffi told Liz and I yesterday that Fall here is usually very foggy, and it has something to do with the thermal fault that runs under the region, which is also the reason why it's good wine country, and also why we have so many spas.  Since it was so cold today I decided to wear my new winter coat for the first time.  I bought one of those micro-down coats last spring, but I've never had a chance to wear it.  It's pretty thin, so I was skeptical about how warm it would actually be, but I'm pretty pleased; I didn't get over-heated (except on the bus- where my seat was practically on top of the heater), but I didn't get cold either.  Today felt colder than it really was though, with all the cold moisture in the air it feels cooler, and it's the kind of cold that really sinks into your bones.  Needless to say I'm looking forward to the end of the foggy season, Steffi said once we have snow the sun comes back and the fog lifts.

In other news I'm currently reading a book called The Empire of Austria: Its Rise and Present Power by John S.C. Abbott.  It was published in 1859, hence the "present power" of the empire, which lasted until 1918 (of course in the last 50 or so years it was known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire).  It's quite an interesting book, and it's very well written with language that you don't often see or hear today, but is so formal and eloquent.  The books starts with Rhodolph of Hapsburg in 1232, and because it covers so much time there isn't a huge amount of detail, or really specific stories about each ruler and his family, but there's enough to keep you interested.  Unfortunately they weren't very creative when it came to names, so there are a lot of Rhodolphs, Alberts, Leopolds, Maximilians and Mattias' to keep up with, with the occasional Fredric, Otho and Ferdinand thrown in to spice things up.  There aren't many women mentioned by name thus far, but I'm just getting to the late 1400s- Maria Theresa is yet to come.

A map of Europe in 1850

A large part of why I'm reading this is that I wanted to read more on the history of Austria- and this was the only free (for Kindle) Austrian History book that seemed to be what I wanted.  It's turned out quite well, as it's not only interesting, and well written but also unintentionally humorous.  Granted it's more of a dark sort of humor, but nonetheless when he writes about people dying (often suddenly) it's written in such a way that I can't help but nearly burst out laughing, there are also other non-death related funny bits too.  Here are some examples that I hope you also find amusing:

"With this arrangement Leopold was satisfied, but unfortunately, just at that time, his impetuous spirit, exhausted by disappointment and chagrin, yielded to death. ... His widow, Isabella, the daughter of the King of Arragon, became blind from excessive grief, and soon followed her husband to the tomb." p. 19

"when, in the midst of success, the deposed Emperor Louis fell dead from a stroke of apoplexy, in the year 1347." p. 20

"Burning with vengeance, he traversed Europe almost with the zeal and eloquence of Peter the Hermit" p. 22

"William and Hedwige no sooner met than they loved one another, as young hearts, even in the palace, will sometimes love, as well as in the cottage." p. 24 (she ends up being forced to marry an older man she can't stand and Austria looses the chance to gain control over Poland)

On another (and final) note- In the book the author always writes Hapsburg, but here anything with their name on it is spelled Habsburg, so I looked it up to see what's what.  Apparently Hapsburg is the English spelling of the name, and both spellings are acceptable, especially since you pronounce it as a p whether it's spelled Habsburg or Hapsburg.

They must think I'm crazy, but no, I'm just from Wisconsin!

Well first I'd like to say congratulations on the first snow of the year Wisconsin!  So far we haven't even had a hard frost here in Austria, and this weekend the clouds finally lifted and we had some sun! Of course there was still fog- I don't really understand how there can be fog in the middle of a bright sunny day, but it's Austria.  In other news from home: A plane landed on a street in Eau Claire (no one was hurt, so feel free to find this funny, I know I did).  And there was another run-away Emu who ended up at my parents house.  It's been about 10 years since we last had an Emu run in, so I'd say we were overdue, right?  Anyway, the farmer it belonged to came over and shot it, sounded like a good time!  If you have any other strange news tid-bits from home let me know- I appreciate a good story. Now to tell about my weekend:

On Thursday I met up with three teachers from Berndorf and the Spanish TA at the Heurige across the street from my apartment.  I was surprised at how cheap everything there was (especially the food), and also very good! We had a good evening of chatting, eating and drinking locally.  It was nice to bond and socialize with some colleagues outside of school.  Even though Berndorf is more remote and sometimes difficult to get to/get back from I feel more connected to the school.  I feel like I know more staff there (or at least I talk to more of them).  I also have more of a chance to get to know my students there since I'm only with 6-8th forms (Sophomore-Senior) and my schedule only changes once a month.

The Innenhof (courtyard) of the Heurige across the street.

Friday I wandered around town checking things out.  They've already put up the christmas decorations on the streets and in shop windows.  I thought we started early in the US (usually after Thanksgiving, although I know some places/people get a jump on it earlier), but they've got us beat!  I don't think they've turned the lights on yet, but I'm sure it'll happen soon.  There are also huts going up in the lower Kurpark for Baden's christmas market.  It might even open this week- I've heard that many christmas markets in Niederösterreich (Lower Austria) open on Landespatron-Leopoldi.  Leopoldi is Saint Leopold's day; he happens to be the patron saint of Niederösterreich, and schools are closed to honor this holiday.  The church and national holidays certainly are a bit strange, especially when they fall in the middle of the week, but I'm not complaining!

A lovely Christmas display.

On Saturday I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and went for a hike up on the hills above Baden.  It was a really nice day with the sun shining, so I had my jacket tied around my waist.  All the Austrians I came across were wearing what I consider to be winter jackets, many were also wearing hats and gloves, so I'm sure they thought I was crazy.  Instead of coming back to the Kurpark on one of the many trails I decided to take the road back down into town, since it went through a part of town I'd never seen.  The houses were nice, and I noticed one with very old stonework- above the door it said it had been built in 1906.  In the US if something was built in the early 1900s I would consider it quite old and historical, however my reaction here was different.  When I saw 1906 I thought, "Well that's not old at all!"  It's strange what being surrounded by buildings much older than that, and a history that goes back to the 800s does to your perspective of time.  I mean the ruins here were built in the 1100s, and they're still standing!  Of course the fact that I'm reading a book about the Habsburgs might also have something to do with my perspective on time and the history of Austria.

Yesterday evening was also the Matura Ball for Berndorf, but they hold it in a hall in Bad Vöslau.  The Matura Ball is sort of like our Senior Prom in the US.  The 8th form plans it all out, many of them end up working shifts selling tickets, taking tickets, pouring drinks etc.  They also do the set-up, decorating and clean-up, so all the teachers are expecting the 8th form to be absent Monday.  The Matura Ball is definitely something more formal than our Prom!  First there's an opening ceremony, where the members of the 8th form have a choreographed dance; it was really fun to watch, and pretty impressive that they could pull it all together with everything else they have going on.  At this ball they had two different dance areas- one with a band and ballroom style dancing (where all the tables and chairs were too), and a disco (dance club) in the basement.  I've never been to a ball before, and it was interesting to see (and experience myself) the men very formally asking women to dance, and then escorting them back to their seat when they're done dancing.

I danced the first two dances with the Direktor (Principal) of Berndorf.  I don't really remember where/when I learned to Walz, but thank god I had a quick review of it at Waldsee with Otto this summer!  My Walz skills aren't bad- whatever the other dance we did... I never really got the hang of it.  I also danced with another colleague later in the night to the big hit from Dirty Dancing- Time of my Life.  He's probably older than my dad, and I was having a really hard time not busting out laughing at the song.    I spent most of the evening either down on the ground floor chatting with students, or in the disco.  I was surprised at how willing the students were to talk to me, I thought they would be too intimidated and think that they could only speak to me in English.  Many of them did start with English, but in the end we all just spoke German.  It was fun for me to really be able to talk to them!  When I was down in the disco I danced with a group of girls who I see in their usual English class, and their elective English class, so I know them a bit better than most of my students.  They're pretty goofy, and we had fun trading silly dance moves.

Sadly I don't have any pictures from last night.  I'll be getting some from a few other teachers, but my camera decided that after working well (not perfectly- but still working) for a week that it was done.  It started doing its annoying shake again.  I tried the reverse engineering trick that worked last week, but it seems that was a one time fix.  After some testing I can still occasionally get a clear shot, but mostly its blurry.  Enjoy the video example from my busted camera!

Are there long term effects from a stink bomb?

As much as I appreciate the public transportation here, and the fact that I'm saving money not buying gas, I really miss having a car!  I can't go anywhere outside of Baden on my own schedule, and then when it comes to busses sometimes the schedule online isn't very trustworthy.  The bus drivers are often rather unhelpful if you have a question, and they can be downright rude.  On Monday there was this older woman standing by the front door of the bus because there wasn't anywhere to sit, and the bus was full of kids, and the bus driver ended up yelling at her for blocking the door, as if she really had a choice of standing somewhere else.  On my bus ride to school I don't really mind that there are a bunch of my students on the bus with me as they're not exactly awake, but on the ride home they're always really rowdy, which hasn't really been a big problem until today.  Some of the boys at the back of the bus set off a stink bomb (which actually ended up exploding near me) and it was awful!  The whole bus stunk nearly all the way from school back to Baden (and it was a slow bus route, so it took 45 minutes).  At the point when it went off I was the only adult on the bus besides the driver, who took a minute to shout at the whole bus at the next stop.  Usually there's one long stop on the drive back to Baden where the driver leaves the doors open for a few minutes, but this driver must have decided that the boys needed to suffer, so he didn't do this, which of course meant that we all had to suffer.

Something else that I've been running into a lot this week is the lack of respect in Austrian schools.  In nearly every class there's a small group of students who NEVER shut up!  It's impossible to get their attention, and they don't participate in any valuable way.  Even when you want to do something fun, like play a game, there's always students talking despite you trying to explain the game!  Teachers here just seem to ignore it and keep on going, but it's getting to the point where I feel like I just have to say something.  I've tried the stand-at-the-front-silently and giving the death-stare, but they can ignore that way more easily than American students, I don't remember having this many issues teaching at home.  I gave one class of 7th form (Juniors) a small lecture about respecting teachers and peers, which worked for the rest of that lesson... who knows if it stuck any longer than that!  The discipline here is very lax, and there's no real course of action for students who are constantly disrupting your lesson.  I want to have fun with my classes, but that's not going to happen if they keep talking when they should be listening.

To end on a positive note: I went to see a game of handball today!  Two of my classes this morning were cancelled because 1/2 the school was going to the handball game in the morning, and the other half went this afternoon.  I've mentioned this before but the Bad Vöslau school has a semi-pro handball team, and the games yesterday and today were to determine who the best team in Austria is, and who will be representing Austria in the Handball World Championship in April in Croatia.  Bad Vöslau beat the other teams, so they'll be going on to Croatia this spring.  For those of you who don't know what the hell handball is (like me before the game today), imagine a mix of basketball, soccer and hockey.  Its played on a basketball-like court, but with soccer-like goals at each end, the ball is smaller than a soccer or basketball, you don't really have to dribble it, but it's quite a lot of physical contact like hockey.  I still don't know the rules or anything like that, but now I know why the kids like it, it's pretty entertaining.  Next lesson with the 7th form boys at Vöslau: Explain Handball in English!

Now to go finish planning my lesson on addiction, alcoholism, and drinking in Wisconsin.  I think I'll have a glass of wine while I work. ;)

Herbstferien (fall vacation)

Alright so to tell you more about my week since Kristin was in Baden!

On Wednesday I met up with Steffi, an Austrian living in Baden studying to be an English and Spanish teacher.  We had coffee and chatted for a few hours, it was really great to get to know another Austrian, especially as I haven't met many Austrians my age in the area.  On Thursday I went over to Liz's house to do some laundry (since my washer still doesn't work, and my landlord hasn't answered my emails, must email him again this week), have dinner and hang out.  The laundry took forever, but it was fun to hang out with Liz and chat about life!

Clearly I have an excellent track record with electronics at the moment… My old laptop crashed 4 times the night before I left the US, so my parents (who really are the best) bought me a new one on the way to the airport.  Then I get to my apartment where my washer doesn't work, and in the first week I broke the incredibly cheep flimsy toaster… Then on the train ride to Graz on Friday my camera falls on the floor and breaks, which I didn't realize until yesterday.  My friend Peter who was hiking with us (and is also an excellent photographer, I'm hoping to steel some of his pictures from Saturday), told me that I should reverse engineer the issue.  Basically he meant that I should drop it again and see if that fixed the problem, as turning it off and on, taking out the battery, and all other possible solutions failed.  When I was back at Kristin's after our hike I decided to give it a try, I mean as long as it didn't land on the screen it really couldn't get any worse, could it?  So I estimated about how far the fall was, and then dropped my camera, and as it turns out it works again!  I really should never doubt engineers.

One of my pictures with my "broken" camera.

Peter and Johannes, rather fuzzy!

Anyway, back to my weekend:  On Friday after I got to Graz and dropped my stuff at Kristin's we went for a short wander around the city.  It was short because the sun sets at about 4:30, so we were running out of light!  We met up with our friends Johannes (Austria) and Rob (Wisconsin) at one of the Irish pubs; Rob also brought two Austrian friends with him, and we had a really good time with a lot of language switching.  We went to Posaunne for dinner, it was one of my favorite places when I studied in Graz, to order you just pick out the card for the entrée or side you want, check mark what toppings you want (I usually order pizza) and hand it off to the waitress.  I got a pizza with salami, corn, kidney beans, and an egg (of course there was cheese and sauce as well).  It was quite delicious, and I always have a hard time deciding what sort of pizza to create there.  

As I said before on Saturday we went for a hike up Schöckl, the highest place around Graz.  I'm not quite sure if it's a mountain or a very large hill, but Johannes called it a mountain so I'm gonna go with that.  It was a pretty tough hike as the trail is pretty steep at points, and it's very rocky (some solid rock, some loose rock), but I'd say it was well worth it.  We had really great weather, the views were great despite it being a bit smoggy/foggy down in the valleys.  When we got to the top we stopped and had some soup and drink at one of the restaurants.  We sat out on the balcony wrapped in blankets eating Goulasch and chatting.  We took this crazy Hexzenbahn (witch train) down a small part of the mountain, not exactly the safest feeling "ride" in the world, and then my cart was really slow, so the other 3 were waiting for me at the bottom & making fun of me, but I swear I really didn't put on the breaks that much!  

Later Johannes, Kristin and I met up with two of Kristin's friends from Oklahoma who are in Graz and we went out to a Buschenschank*.  We had some good wine, a ton of good food (basically different meats, and cheeses on bread), and it was all pretty cheap.  It certainly wasn't the cheapest Buschenschank I've been to, but it was nice to be there and the food was good, but if you're a vegetarian it's hard to find something that doesn't include a large pile of meat.  I also got adventurous and had horseradish on some of my bread; I actually sort of like it in small doses it livens things up a bit! 

*Side note, I feel like I need to set up a lexicon of my commonly used German terms so I don't have to explain them every time I use them- If you wanna know what a Buschenschank is look at previous posts*

My Jausen plate (lots of different meats)

After dinner we met up with Rob again, and hung out with him and his rugby buddies chatting and having a good time.  Before we realized it it was ridiculous o'clock (a British saying), so we all split up and went to bed.  I really only slept about 2 hours, maybe a little more, and then I gave up on sleep and decided to just get up, get ready and catch the train back to Baden (which I'm riding as I'm writing this).  It was a really great week off, I had a lot of fun, got some good relaxing in there, had a social life… couldn't have asked for a better fall break (after only a month of working)!  The only fly in the ointment is that I spent a little more than I should've, and I won't be getting paid for another 9 days.  Moral of that story: I won't be getting into much "trouble" this week, but I will be going to a Matura Ball (like prom) on Saturday, I'm sure that will be a cultural experience! 

Nur kurz

I don't have the time for a big long post about what I've been up to the past few days, but I just wanted to post a bit about today, and I'll give a more detailed post later.

I'm down in Graz staying with my friend Kristin (who stayed with me last weekend) and today we went on a hike with our friend Johannes (Austrian) and my friend Peter (German).  It was really great to reconnect with Peter as it's been a few years, and we all had a really great time!  More details on that later...

The main reason I wanted to post is to report the sad sad news that one of my most faithful and constant traveling companions has died.  My camera slid out of my bag and hit the floor of the train on my way down here, and now it makes a terrible buzzing noise when I turn it on, and it shakes constantly so the pictures it takes are ridiculously blurry.  When I get home I'll post some of the sad pictures I took today, that is if I can get the pictures off my poor little camera.  One more thing to add to the list of "things to buy when I get paid."  It's a sad day.

Mixing cultures in the graveyard

This weekend was a lot of fun!  My friend Kristin, who is also a UWEC Alumni and Uni Graz alumni, and also a TA (but down near Graz) was up to visit for the long holiday weekend.  It was great showing someone else around Baden, and because I had company we went some places I'd never stopped/been before.  I always see this used book place in a little tunnel, but I never stop, it turns out all his books are 1 Euro, so we each got one.  Mine is called Barry Trotter, it's a spoof on Harry Potter; I think it'll be pretty funny, but right now I'm working on finishing a book for one of my classes.  We went in and out of a few shops that I hadn't stopped in, and just generally walked around town.  The weather was pretty nice this weekend, so we took advantage of it and hiked around a bit, and sat in the parks reading our books and people watching.  One phenomenon that we've both seen, and find funny, is the popularity of Nordic Walking (aka walking with two poles).  I can understand the use of poles while walking/hiking trails, and I know that if you keep up a good quick pace while using poles it can be more of a cardio workout than just walking.  However, many of the "Nordic Walkers" I've seen here are going at a slower pace than me, so it would certainly not be a workout!  Also, people here take it very seriously, the have special walking outfits (I saw a husband and wife wearing head to toe matching walking wear), and if you don't get out of their way, or pass them, they act as if you've been very rude.  It's pretty funny.

Along with shop adventures we also had some small food adventures.  Before this weekend I hadn't eaten out anywhere in Baden, so we tried a few places.  We stopped at one of the street stands and bought some Bratkartoffel (baked slices of potato) with garlic sauce, they were quite a tasty snack.  We also had Kebab for lunch yesterday, I finally saw a kebab place that looked like people went there and it had been cleaned in the last decade, so we checked it out.  It was rather good, although they only have one sauce, which tasted a bit like ranch (my favorite place in Graz has two sauces, one creamy garlic and one spicy).  Today for lunch we went to one of the Italian Pizzerias in town; I walk by it a lot, and it always smells amazing.  We both ended up ordering pasta dishes, and we were very happy with our choices.  Next time I go in there I have to order pizza, but today I just wanted baked pasta.

We watched some rather interesting TV this weekend.  One of the reality TV shows here, and in Germany, is called "Bauer sucht Frau" (Farmer searching for wife), it's not at all intellectual, but it's rather entertaining.  We saw two episodes of the German version, and one of our favorite farmers is gay, a first for the show, but really it's all pretty cute, and reminds me of Wisconsin.  We also saw (but didn't pay close attention to) a bit of this movie called "The Witches of OZ".  It looked awful, and based on the terrible dialog and effects I thought it was a 90s made-for-TV thing, but apparently it was made this year! However, it was doomed from the start as it was released in Eastern Europe before it was shown to the rest of the world... the reviews on IMDB are pretty funny though!  We also watched a few of my movies: In Bruges (Irish, dark comedy with a bit of action and romance, and MIDGETS!), Sissi (an Austrian film from 1955 about Empress Elizabeth, the first in a series of 3, it's so adorable, everyone should watch it!), and of course The Nightmare before Christmas (because it's Halloween!).

Speaking of Halloween, we saw some Trick-or-Treaters yesterday afternoon.  It's not terribly common in Austria, but it is catching on.  We also saw some houses with Jack-O-Lanterns outside, and my doorbell rang a few times, but we didn't have any candy to hand out.  We didn't dress up at all, but we did decide to celebrate Halloween by creeping ourselves out.  Because today is Aller Heiligen (all souls day) people started cleaning and decorating graves yesterday during the day.  They cover the graves with flowers, and light red candles to burn through the night.  We decided to check that out (one of Kristin's teachers told her she should), and also scare ourselves by being in a graveyard after dark.  It was pretty spooky for us, but we saw some older people in there, either lighting candles or just walking around, so clearly we've seen too many scary movies!  We went back to walk through in the daylight, and there were a lot of people there visiting graves.  Graveyards here are quite different than American ones, I always think they're much prettier and give more of a sense of tradition.  We were sort of looking for the oldest grave, and we did find one from the 1860s, but I'm sure there were older.  There were of course many people from the first and second World Wars buried there, and in a separate section of the cemetery there was even a graveyard full of Russian soldiers who died during World War 2, everything there was in Russian, so I don't know anything else about it.

Anyway, the time changed here on Sunday, so I'm an hour closer to home, but it also means that the sun sets at 4:30... it seems very strange!  For the next two days I'll be staying in Baden, and maybe hiking in Berndorf if the fog ever lifts back there, but on Friday I'm heading down to Graz to return Kristin's visit!