Christmas with my family!

My time with my family this past week was really nice.

They arrived (only slightly delayed) on monday afternoon and we spent the afternoon walking around graz

showing them my house, having some glühwein at the christmas stands

(dad, (dad and i especially enjoyed the feuerzangenbowle)

and having a really good dinner at the Landhaus Keller, a traditional styrian restaurant. On the way to my house we bought a really cute small christmas tree so that when we celebrated christmas we didn't leave out the most important part! (actually christmas braid, our family's traditional bread is also really important, but we made that as well!) We also took a night walk through the Stadtpark which was pretty and covered in snow.

On tuesday we walked up to Schloßberg, where there was still quite a bit of snow from the snowfall of the previous few days.

Shanny and I had fun hitting eachother with snowballs and making totally awesome snowmen. We also went to the Volkskundesmuseum where we learned about the christmastime austrian tradition of Krampusse, the 'evil' counterpart to St. Nikolaus. It was a really cool exhibit with lots of interesting Krampus figures and information. Dad and I had more glühwein

Yummy flaming punch!

wwe had dinner at Michaela's (one of my english colleagues) house. She made some good austrian food, consisting of salad with potatoes topped with of course pumpkin seed oil, bread and cheese and meats, as well as some goulash for my family (and a mushroom soup just for me!) all topped off by a delicious topfen cake and plenty of wine as well. My family really liked her and she and her husband and son were very hospitable to us.

On wednesday we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel (very very good buffet style with fruits and veggies and cereals and bread and yogurt and coffee and lots of tea sorts) and then headed off too vienna. Shanny and I went to an international drink store before we got on the train where she got some Irn Bru

We got there in about 2.5 hours. we walked around the town a bit and went to the main Art Museum which had some cool renaissance paintings (and also a small christmas market in the plaza in front of it).

We had dinner at a restaurant called Plachutta, which we walked to from our hotel which meant walking through the main center of town which was decorated with lots and lots of decadent lighting for christmas.

I liked the big red balls and the huge bow the most.

We walked past St. Stephan's Cathedral which is a crazy and cool center of the city, although it seems to be going under lots of restoration. Dinner was great and we went back to our hotel for the night.

On thursday after another awesome breakfast we took a bus tour of the city and saw all of the main sights. We went to the main christmas marked which was filled with lots of people, perhaps too many people. I prefer the christmas markets in graz, although this christmas market had some really cool decorations that lit up in the trees at night.

WWe had some cake and coffee at a famous cafe called the Landmann where Freud apparently often went. Aww shanny is cute. We also had a nice dinner at a restaurant called Listaurant which was open on christmas eve. We saw some freaky animatronic thing in the park too. In Austria they acutally celebrate christmas on the 24th, so many of the restaurants were closed and most stores closed in the early afternoon.

Friday after breakfast we went to the Sissi Museum/Living quarters of austrian royalty, which was actually quite interesting, and then headed back to graz where we made the christmas braid (but didn't have time to bake it) and set up my room all christmas-y with candles and christmas music and then opened the presents that we got for one another.

I am really glad I got to spend this time with my family.

Shanny and I made christmas braid We had dinner at another styrian restaurant which was of course, really good. We had some GREAT food on this trip.

On Saturday we took a day trip to Riegersburg where there is a castle in the hills.

Unfortunately it was closed, but the taxi drive there was beautiful. It was a gorgeous blue skied day and this region was really nice and green.

We didn't get out of the taxi when we realized we couldn't go up to the castle, so we took it further to Blumau, where there is a thermal spa created in the 90s by this well known austrian architect called Hundertwasser. (we also saw some of his architecture in vienna and i saw a castle he decorated with sylvia when i went to the therma with her and her family about a month ago). It is very childlike and uneven and colorful, but actually really cool and environmentally friendly.

We had some lunch here and wished we could have gone into the thermal pools which looked relaxing, but had to go back to Graz that night. We walked to town where we thought the train station would be, but couldn't find it and I asked some locals where it was and they said that we would have to walk outside of the city center about 30 minutes to get there. We took a cab since it was dark and they weren't very sure of how to get there. The train station ended up being a small platform with a few seats and that is it. It was the most sparse train station i have seen in austria. the train came and we got on it and went back to graz where we cooked the christmas braid which had been rising in my house (its a yeast dough) and ate that for our dinner. Yum!

On sunday my family left back home. I know my sister was excited to see Isaac again, but I was sad to see them leave, but thankful that I have a family that cares about me and that I care about too. Thanks for a great time fam!

I am heading off to Turkey tomorrow morning to see Jen and Andrea! I will be there over new years and I am really excited to explore this new area.

Soccer, Austrian Metal, Advent, Chorus, Dinner, Students, SNOWWWWWW

Hi everyone!

I really need to take more pictures. I have lots of things to tell, but not too many pictures to bring them to life! I will take pictures, I will take pictures, I will take pictures.

On sunday I went to go see a Sturm Graz soccer game with some of my students from the HTL and also a couple of teaching assistants. We were in the fan section, which is for all the fans who want to stand and cheer and sing songs and chants the whole time. It was really fun to learn all the songs and sing along, although the game ended up being a tie 0-0. The team they played against was Salzburg, which isn't liked very much by the Sturm fans, as far as I can tell, because they have "sold out". They are owned by Red Bull (a product of Salzburg, which i didn't know) and so they buy all the best players and have lots and lots of money. One player on the team used to be on the Sturm team, but left for salzburg because he made more money. Needless to say he was booed quite a bit by the fans. I liked the cheering but I thought all the booing and calling of the opposite team players as they were announced at the beginning "arschloch" wasn't very nice. Afterwards we had some glühwein at one of the stands in the Hauptplatz.

Ok random insert... there is an italian guy below me who plays keyboard and he ALWAYS plays the same song when he practices "Killing Me Softly". He is playing it right now which is why I mention it. Lauryn Hill did a great version of this song (originally by Aretha Franklin), fyi. Here is a link if you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YAEWrnOtrY&feature=related

Anyways, on monday we didn't have school because tuesday was a holiday, so we got monday off as well! I spent the morning planning a sweet trip to Kitzbühel in January to go snow shoeing and watching the 70th annual international downhill ski races! woo hoo! At night I went to a place called the Postgarage with one of my students, which had some local metal bands from Graz. One band had 3 girls which was quite exciting for me. They rocked the best as well.

Tuesday was a holiday called Maria Empfängnis (Immaculate Conception of Mary). This is a national holiday so many stores were closed and schools and workplaces were also closed. I went over to Sabine's house and saw her and her family, along with Peter and his daughter Lisa (all from the hiking trip). It is so nice to know an austrian family and get to spend time with them almost every other week. They are really down to earth and we spent the whole night talking about interesting things, like psychology and politics. They also speak the most dialect of any older austrians i know. We had some glühwein and traditional evening meal of bread and cheese and assorted spreads. They are really nice people, i should get them a christmas card.

On wednesday I went to chorus practice again. There is only one more week before our show! We sing on Saturday night the 19th, unfortunately before the fam comes :( We are definitely getting better, but it still doesn't sound amazing. We have a couple more practices before the show though, so hopefully it will all come together. Some of the songs are really really beautiful. Has anyone ever listened to Bach's Christmas Oratorium? We are singing the songs for the first 3 Days of Christmas, if you are familiar with it.

On thursday I made some dinner with Justin and Peter, a couple of teaching assistants one from Maine and one from Texas. They are also vegetarian so we made a delicious meatless dinner of eggplant parmesan and biscuits and gravy. We sat around and ate and drank wine and listened to music.

I had to work on friday which was a bit unusual, but i didn't mind since i had nothing i would rather be doing. Lately i have been teaching a lesson on football and baseball in america which the students seem to really enjoy. This week i am comparing the christmas traditions in america and austria mostly. Some teachers want me to talk about jobs in america and the economy. I also came into work on Saturday to help some students do a practice exam for their First Cambridge Certificate. This is a standardized test that many students take so that they can put it on their resumes and show that they are proficient in english. I had about 9 groups of 2 each for 15 min and had to ask them questions (from a list) and have them compare pictures and listen to them discuss a topic with each other. This took all morning and afterwards my teacher took me out to lunch at an organic restaurant. Yum!

At night I went out with some students and assistants. There was cute snow falling all around us! I was so excited. We went to a really beautifully decorated hookah bar and also to a bar called Matrix (yes named after the movie). This bar caters to young people (like...16). It is still weird to me to see so many young people drinking at bars and matura balls. The legal drinking age here is 16, which seems kind of young to me, but also 21 seems too old.

On sunday i woke up and looked outside my window and everything was snow covered!

It snowed all day and has been snowing all day today as well. It is so cool to me! This is the first time that I have lived anywhere where it has snowed, so it is really cool to experience the seasons really changing. For example here are a couple of pictures of the stadtpark on the 1st of november:

On sunday I went to the stadtpark and took a couple of more pictures. the first one is the same location as the first pic from nov

Only the evergreens stand the same!

Pretty awesome!!!

Also on my walk on sunday i saw this interesting sight:

Santa Claus on stilts and little kids have to walk up a ladder to get to him and pick a little present out from his bag. Very interesting, I will have to ask my students about this and see if this is traditional, or just weird.

Anyways, everything is going great here. I'm loving the people and even the weather!

I am looking forward to my family coming on the 21st!

Steyr

I spontaneously decided on thursday to travel to Steyr that night. Steyr is a small-ish (40,000 inhabitants) in the province of Upper Austria. I read that it was really cute especially during christmas time, so i just went!

I arrived at night and went to the local youth hostel where I dropped off my stuff and then walked into town for some dinner. I went to a brewery which had good beer and i had a reallly good dinner of spinach palaschinken (basically a crepe with spinach inside) and cheese baked on top. yum.

I walked around the main square a bit which was really pretty at night.

There was a small christmas market similar to ours in graz, but with less handy crafts it seemed. The rathaus (town hall) was really beautiful and there was a really big christmas tree in the center of the sqare that cars drove around.

I went back to the hostel and got a good nights sleep and woke up early the next morning for an all day tour of the city. The hostel was kinda in the burbs and not in the town proper, but it was still a nice area.

The mayor and city wish me a merry christmas and happy new year!

Steyr is a special town because it is located where two large rivers meet.

There are some interesting frescos around town.

There are also many churches. First I visited Michaelkirche which was pretty (as most european churches tend to be).

I also went to the local castle (seems like everyone's got one!). Unlike other castles though, this one is not preserved as a castle inside, but rather houses many government offices (police, etc). I walked around the inner courtyard which had really beautiful walls and window designs.

Outside of the castle was the famous christkindl christmas market. There were cool play areas for kids and lots of stands with glühwein and other warm drinks and sweets.

Next to the market was the city park, which was not as big and pretty as our city park in graz, but was still really nice to walk through.

I decided to walk to Christkindl, a small city outside of Steyr proper, about at 30 minute walk.

I passed by a christmas tree farm on the way:

Although it is a small town, it is famous in Austria for a few reasons. Firstly, a man here prayed to a small wax figure of jesus for weeks and was cured of his epilepsy. People heard about this and started to come from all over to be healed by this figure which was inside the trunk of a tree. So many people came they had to build a church. The altar of this church is built around this tree trunk and you can still see the almost 300 year old wax figure there on the altar!

When I got to Christkindl St. Nikolaus came out of a small store and gave me candy! He followed me into the church where I heard him tell all of this to a man there who was from Thailand.

The Thai man was there visiting his business partner who was showing him around Steyr. We 3 went to the Christkindl Post Office together, which is the other reason Christkindl is so famous. Every year thousands of children send their wish lists to this post office so that the Christkind will receive them! In fact, when I was there there was a group of kids doing just that!

The businessmen invited me back to Steyr in their car ( a really nice jaguar!) Instead of walking I accepted and the austrian businessman took us to a monument of Josef Werndl, a man who he obviously really admired.

He was the first man in austria to start moving from slow front loading guns to movable parts and back loading guns. He also brought electricity to Steyr, which was the first european city to have street lights!!! He also showed us the oldest building in the city center.

After they went to work I walked around the city some more. I visited 2 more churches which were both really beautiful and also did some christmas shopping.

I went to the Stadtmuseum which had some random old stuff from the city (irons, pots, and a sword collection, and also a stuffed bird collection from some guy from steyr who died and his family donated the collection.)

They also had some cool figurines that were meant to decorate nativity scenes

, and also a nativity scene with a painting of Steyr in the background.

Although I didn't ride it, there was also a really old bus called an "oldtimer" that runs through the city during christmas time on the weekends and takes tourists to different christmas markets.

I stopped for a coffee and cake at a cafe nearby. I got the best seat in the house! a little alcove that looked over the rivers converging.

On the way home to Graz friday evening it snowed at the trainstation I was waiting at. It is getting cold here! about 35 degrees. Be ready family!! I hear it gets colder in january.

Yesterday was St.Nikolaus tag/Krampus tag where Krampus' (more furry less scary than perchten i was mentioning in my previous post) go around the city and hit people with their sticks. this didn't really occur in graz, as it is mostly practiced in smaller villages. The bakeries did have Krampus bread though! So cute! They even have little sticks that they beat people with!