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!)