Living life in the big Ö

So it's been more than a month since my last post... oops! I've been trying to figure out what I've been doing for the past month... and I guess the best answer I've found is simply living.  Between teaching, tutoring, having an English Stammtisch with Erin and our students, and meeting up with friends there hasn't been a ton of free time, or terribly interesting things to blog about.

One thing that happened at school was the Intercultural day at the HAK (business high school). Classes and groups of students prepared food, presentations and booths about different countries, languages and cultures.  I, of course, worked with a class on creating an interactive USA station... which hardly anyone checked out in the end, but I had fun with the group of students and I was proud of the work they did. The following are some pictures of different booths:

Russia

Albania-Kosovo

There were a number of countries downstairs as well.

The American corner- in the banner of flags hanging across our booth Wisconsin was missing! 

Turkey (they had really good food- of course!)

At the end of the day they filmed a Harlem Shake video- this was the beginning.

And this was the end with everyone in strange costumes.

A lot of students asked me to take part in the Harlem Shake video... and I always said no!  Most of them didn't even know that Harlem was actually a place in the USA, and that the Harlem Shake is an actual dance move, not just air-humping while dressed in some weird outfit. I showed the class I did the intercultural project with this video as a reason why we shouldn't participate in the HAK-shake video:

As far as I know none of them were in the video- most of them either left when filming began, or they were standing with me on the balcony watching everyone else.   Here's the HAK-shake video:

During the opening ceremonies I talked about my impressions of Austria and things that I've found strange/funny here that natives wouldn't notice- so look for a blog with those observations coming up soon(ish, maybe). 

In Other News:

It's now Spring/Easter break, and I decided to stick around the Baden area.  It's been a nice relaxing vacation with some day trips into Vienna and making Easter crafts.  We've actually had cold/snowy weather, which is disappointing since it was sunny and warm just a few weeks ago!

Tuesday evening was my Easter Craft time.  I decided instead of doing the typical hard boiled route I'd blow out the eggs, and after I dyed them I drew designs/patterns on them with Sharpie.  For anyone interested in doing this I've got a few tips-

1. A tip I stole from some other blog- use a corkscrew to poke the holes in the eggs for blowing them out. Then use a toothpick to make sure the membrane is punctured and to make 1 hole bigger.
2. I like to use a small segment of a straw to blow out the innards... not sure if that serves any real purpose, I just think it's a bit easier, and then I don't have to kiss eggs. ;)
3. Use a fat tip Sharpie- it'll go quicker!
4. Draw with Sharpie first- then dye them (it leads to fewer colored fingerprints on the eggs)
5. Use the innards to make a frittata (except don't ask me how to do this, while I've made successful frittatas in the past the one I made on Tuesday wasn't very good and wouldn't come out of the pan)
6. If you plan to do what I did next make sure you rinse the insides of the eggs out... good luck not messing up the dye! I did this by dripping hot water into the inside of the egg with a straw, putting fingers over both holes and shaking vigorously. Leave them to dry for quite some time (I left mine overnight, but I don't think that was strictly necessary). 

On Wednesday morning I decided I'd fill the eggs with brownie batter and bake them (another idea I got from a blog).  It turned into a super messy project... I had the wrong kind of plastic bags for making a good pastry-bag type thing, but I eventually managed to get all the eggs filled without making the 'big' holes bigger.  The other problem was that I couldn't really see how full the eggs were, and I didn't know how much the brownie batter would expand.  I knew from the website that they should be about 3/4 full and they would still run over a little bit.  Once they were full I made little aluminum foil nests for them and put them in the oven.  They made a huge mess with the amount of overflow and kind of ruined the dye job... and since they were dyed the brownie bits I pealed off the outside had an awful vinegar aftertaste.  As of yet I haven't tried one of the eggs... I suppose I should do that!

The eggs after being dyed, drawn on and rinsed out. 

The eggs overflowing in the oven (the brownies came with a paper baking pan- so there wasn't much clean-up!)

If I did this again I think I'd skip dyeing the eggs.  I'd blow them out, soak/rinse them in salt water for 30 min (as per the other blog's instructions), decorate them with sharpie, fill them (it would be easier to see how full they are without the dye) and bake them.  The baking and then cleaning the extra brownie off the outside didn't change/ruin the sharpie at all.

Some things I'm not sure how to fix- batter leaking out of the little hole on the bottom, there was one egg that, despite baking for 40 minutes, was still 1/2 uncooked, and some of the eggs (after overflowing) cracked their shells. Overall not a terribly successful experiment... but at least they were just box brownies, so no huge loss there if they're not worth eating.

More about my week later, this blog is long enough!