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!