This is How You Give Thanks in Austria

Last week I had the pleasure of celebrating two Thanksgivings, thanks to the fabulous American friends I’ve made here in Austria! Luckily I only have to teach one class on Thursdays so it was almost like I had the day off for the holiday. I went to Vienna for a lovely make-shift Thanksgiving dinner with three other Teaching Assistants and 2 visiting Americans, one of whom had brought Partridge Farms stuffing mix and Ocean Spray dried cranberries from home with him (Thanks Michael!). Considering the fact that stuffing and cranberries are two Thanksgiving foods I usually don’t eat, the fact that I was so excited about them shows just how deprived of traditional Thanksgiving ingredients I was feeling. Trying to find canned pumpkin, brown sugar, corn, and any kind of turkey was nearly impossible, and even if we had found all these things, none of us have ovens or pans big enough to cook a turkey! Instead, we made do with lots of side dishes: carrots, potatoes, Michael’s stuffing, applesauce, and rolls. I made apple crisp, but even that had some questionably substituted ingredients. Luckily it turned out to be surprisingly delicious!

It may be a sad looking plate, but everything on it was delicious!

The important part was that we all gathered together and could talk about the holiday, our families and traditions, and the things we’re thankful for. I made my usual list of 100 things I’m thankful for, and some of the others loved the idea and said they would too. Sharing the happy, thankful sentiment is of course more important than the turkey, although some pumpkin bread would have been a nice touch. With chocolate chips. Mmmm.

Michael and Tschuna serving a very happy Meredith her stuffing

4 American TAs, 1 American visitor, and 1 Austrian roommate

On Friday I got to do the whole thing over again with a different group of Americans in St. Pölten, a city directly west of Purkersdorf (the opposite direction of Vienna). This one was a little more Thanksgivingy because we had roasted chicken, which is one step closer to turkey than no meat at all. We had so much fun cooking together and spending time with one another that we decided to try to hold these kinds of group dinners more often. [And we also decided we’re all going to see The Lumineers in Munich in March! SO PUMPED]

The cutest potato I've ever seen, hidden in our bag of potatoes

You mash those potatoes, Michelle!

All that remained of our dinner...plus some leftovers in the fridge.
It's not Thanksgiving if you don't stuff yourself, right?

This time with friends reminded me again just how thankful I am to have been blessed with a community over here in Austria. I’ve been here for just over 2 months but I certainly feel at home already and that’s largely thanks to these great friends I’ve made! I am so excited to continue to grow these relationships throughout the rest of the year. Although I’m a little late in saying this, Happy Thanksgiving to all!! I hope your holiday was lovely and this coming holiday season brings you great joy!

Pop Goes the Culture: Sissi

Part 2 of my ongoing series about Austrian Pop Culture is a bit of a throwback, and definitely something you’ve already heard about: The Sissi Trilogy. After hearing all the hype about Austria’s beloved Empress Elisabeth and the beloved movie trilogy based on her life, seeing her face EVERYWHERE, and then visiting the Sissi Museum in the Hofburg Palace, which told me everything pop culture had to say about the woman is a lie, I decided I needed to actually watch these films as part of my cultural education. Here are my reactions.

I am only slightly ashamed to say that I LOVED the first movie. It’s all about how Sissi, a young Bavarian princess with the perfect Bavarian life and the perfect Bavarian family, meets her first cousin Franz Josef, newly crowned Emperor of the Austrian Empire and falls in love (yes, her first cousin, we’ll get past that by remembering this was a different time, and the Hapsburgs wouldn’t be the Hapsburgs without some inbreeding). I’m not going to tell you the plot because I want to remain spoiler free, but I will say that I loved the cinematography, the costumes, the breathtaking landscapes, and though the dialogue was cheesy and sappy, FJ and Sissi did have lovely chemistry. Plus, Romy Schneider (the actress who plays Sissi) is undeniably beautiful, and FJ isn’t too bad looking himself. The film was the perfect fantasy story for any young girl, complete with a wedding unmatched by anything I’ve ever seen. 

I couldn’t help but snicker, though, whenever Sissi and FJ talked to each other. Literally every time Sissi walks into a room, FJ will dramatically look up and exclaim “Sissi!” and then she will say “Franz!” and then they run to each other and embrace. As if every time they see each other it is a huge surprise reunion. If I had a nickel for every time one of them says “Ich bin SO glucklich….” (I am SO happy/lucky) I would be able to afford my own royal wedding. Also, I could have a penny for each time someone said “Aber Sissi, du bist Kaiserin von OESTERREICH!” (but Sissi, you are empress of AUSTRIA), with exactly the same inflection every time, I would be rich enough to buy out the Hapsburgs and all their golden age holdings.

Look how adorable they are! True love.

Anyway, first movie, super adorbz. Second film “Sissi: The Young Empress” was only slightly less great and slightly more cheesy. In this one, Sissi gets pregnant and has to deal with her evil mother-in-law’s attempts to take over her life. I have to say the most entertaining parts of this installment were twofold. 1) Sissi’s 8,000 siblings who dress in adorably stereotypical Bavarian clothes and seem incapable of speaking their own dialogue. Instead the poor kids are relegated to unison cries of “hooray!” and “Sissi!” and “warum?!”—they’re so cute and so entertaining. And 2) The incredibly tacky and lacey baby blanket little baby Gisella was wrapped in during the scene below. Outrageous.

They're so cute! And so funny! Here they are learning that Sissi is pregnant!

Tell me that's not the most ridiculous birthing blanket you've ever seen.

My feelings on the third film, “Sissi: The Fateful Years for the Empress” are quite strong. It seems the director and writer were confused about whether they wanted these movies to be good or horrible, because this one was horrible. The main plot deals with…well…I don’t know because there were just stupid story lines that dropped or magically resolved and weird scenes that were too tacky for even a Disney freak like myself (who thrives off of tacky) to accept. 

Here is Sissi pathetically shoving a gypsy man who was fighting with this gypsy woman. Right after, the gypsy woman tells Sissi some lame depressing fortune that one thinks will spark a plot line for the rest of the story. It doesn't.

Also, the relationship between FJ and Sissi is very tumultuous. I understand that couples fight, but their version of fighting is stupid and resolved much too quickly. There’s also a sickening scene of the two of them wandering through a random field in the alps that is too perfect to be cute—it just made me gag. This is coming from someone who has princess fantasies whenever she visits a castle, so it’s not like I’m naturally adverse to cuteness and romance. This scene was just that horrible.

oh please.

Also, don’t get my started on the ending. It was incredibly daft. Talk to me once you’ve seen it. We’ll discuss.

Anyway, the third movie was rough but the first two were definitely worth watching, so I highly recommend the series to anyone who speaks German or can find an English copy! Just remember to read a book about the real Empress Elisabeth or something so you can see just how tragically different her real life is from the picturesque film version.

My kids are awesome

Every once in a while I come up with a lesson idea that works really well and that I am very proud of and today was one of those days, so I want to share my lesson with you! Two weeks ago, the last time I met with this particular class of 14-15 year olds, we talked about life for an American High School Student. We discussed how American schools differ from Austrian schools and, using lots of pictures from my high school, I attempted to explain student life in a typical American public school. We talked about sports teams, school spirit, pep rallies, Homecoming, Prom, the arts, and clubs, among other things. I showed them a video clip from one of my high school’s pep rallies (which resulted in me having the Color Shout, our obnoxious school cheer, stuck in my head for weeks) and even let them ruffle through my high school yearbook (#embarrassing). I had a lot of fun reminiscing about high school while putting the lesson together.

We had a really interesting discussion because most of this stuff is absent from Austrian schools. There are no high school sports teams and very little opportunity for participation in the arts, within the context of school. There is also little freedom when it comes to electives, because the schools themselves are more specialized, so in a way students have already chosen “electives” by choosing which school to attend. My school is a general Gymanisum, intended for students who want to go on to study at University. Some schools are specialized for agriculture or business or art or sports. My friend Lizzy teaches at a horticultural school, so you can see there really are schools for everyone! 

Anyway, since a lot of the students had found the topic of school spirit so interesting and foreign in the last lesson, I decided to do some activities dealing with the same topic when I met with the same class this week. First, I had them work in groups to come up with an identity for their school: a mascot, school colors, a school cheer or song, a logo, spirit week theme ideas, etc. I showed them the mascots and logos from some high schools around Irvine to give them inspiration but didn’t give them too much direction, because I wanted them to be creative. The kinds of things these kids came up with were adorable, hilarious, bizarre, and fantastic. A lot of them chose green for one of the colors, because the school itself is green, as you've probably noticed. Some of my favorite mascots were the “Evils,” crocodiles (and everyone at the school gets free crocs), pandas, “Purkibear,” evil poisoned frogs, stick men, “holy foxes” (they’re clever and can fly because they’re holy), and two groups picked unicorns. They seemed to really enjoy choosing spirit week themes too, and came up with some interesting ones: King and Queen day, Halloween Day, Boys Dress as Girls and Girls Dress as Boys Day, Nerd Day, and Suit Up Day (I asked what the girls wear on that day and these boys said “nothing”). Below are two of the designs the kids came up with.

How cute is this!? So magical! So creative!

If you ignore the spelling mistakes, that is apparently the REAL school song for the Purkersdorf Gynamisum. It's in English. Who knew? The class broke into a spontaneous rendition of it for me, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, how adorable are these girls?!

These boys had lots of explanation involved in their choices. The panda mascot wears big green gloves so he can go around giving people hugs.  And green represents friendship, black represents teamwork, and white represents something I can't remember. It was cute though. Of course.

The other activity we did (we only had time for 2 out of my three ideas because they got so into it J) was more for conversation practice. I gave them a picture of two or three people—typical high school scenarios—and had them come up with a conversation between the characters in the picture. The real fun of this was choosing the right pictures for the right kids. For example, I gave two particularly chatty and ostentatious boys a picture of a girl crowning another girl Homecoming Queen. Their conversation was predictably hilarious. One of my favorite results came from a boy and girl who had received a picture of two cheerleaders talking. The boy’s “cheerleader impression” was hysterical, SO flamboyant and fantastic. The best part was when he was talking about “the CUTEST boy he met the other day” and then obviously used his own name. The kids loved it, I loved it, it was great.

Moral of the story: my kids are adorable.

Church Music, Jewish Love, and Christmas!

The past two weeks have been surprisingly busy with both school and outside-of-school activities. I really feel like I'm settling in and getting to know the students and other teachers well. I see some of the school kids in town or at the train station at they're always super friendly and excited to see me and chat, which of course makes me feel great. They're quite delightful. I’ve also been spending a lot more time with friends in Vienna, doing my best to meet lots of new people! I am loving the city itself, and even though I've done a ton of exploring, there's still so much more to see and experience, so I'm really glad I am spending the whole year here!

Yesterday was particularly full of culturally things, so I'll share with you a recap of what I did! I began the day with a visit to the Augustinkirche, the chapel that is part of the Hofburg Palace. Rick Steves told me that the choral music there during Sunday morning mass is fantastic, and since I had yet to take advantage of this free cultural opportunity, I thought it was about time! This church is where most of the Hapsburgs were married, and I had been to it before, but hadn't yet gone inside. Although it doesn’t look very impressive, or even very “churchy” from the outside, as soon as you walk inside, the regalness really smacks you in the face. It’s not exactly gaudy, just very majestic, and I could vividly picture a royal wedding taking place there. The music for this mass was written by Mozart, Vienna’s little baby, and hearing such majestic church music in such a gorgeous hall was really something special. I probably enjoy classical music more than the average 22 year old, but I certainly don’t listen to it often, and frankly often get sick of it after about 10 minutes. However yesterday I did not feel that way at all! I really loved the experience, and the fact that the music was interspersed throughout the mass made it quite nice. The only downside was that I got there a little late so there was absolutely nowhere to sit, and I had to stand the whole mass. When I go back (which I definitely will, especially because Advent time has some great music), I will have to get there early so I can sit down.

After getting my church fill for the day, I took a two minute walk down the street to the Vienna Jewish Museum (the natural next step, right?). I had expected this museum to be mostly focused on the history of the Jewish people in Vienna, told through cultural artifacts and documents—your typical museum. That was not the case at all. The museum was more specialized, with special exhibits related to Jews and not much at all about the Viennese Jewish community as a whole. For example, there were two photo exhibits: one featured pictures from Viennese women photographers from the 1920s and 30s, and the other featured pictures from one photographer that capture contemporary Jewish life in the city. I liked the latter a lot. Some of my favorite pictures were of orthodox rabbis reading Hebrew texts on the Strassenbahns (street cars), old Jewish men chatting in a café, a few Jewish weddings in parks, and groups of kids at a Purim party. These pictures showed me that even though the Jewish community of Vienna is only about 8,000 strong, it is lively! The only cultural artifacts the museum had were held in an area called “visible storage” that had some information about the various Jewish communities in the area throughout history, but it was terribly organized and not very nicely put together. Oh well.

The museum is in 2 parts, one of which is an Judenplatz, the area in the 1st district (the main historic part of Vienna) on which the old main synagogue used to stand. Now there is a beautiful Holocaust Memorial there. I thought it was really lovely.

The last part of my Sunday cultural adventure was the most classically Austrian part: a visit to a Christmas Market! These markets (called Christkindlemaerkte) happen all over the country in the time before Christmas (apparently they open earlier and earlier every year, according to the woman I live with). There are several in Vienna, and each has a different feel to it. Some are more focused on crafts and handiwork, others are just food and drink, and some are a mixture of it all. The one I went to is in ront of the Rathaus (city hall) and is mostly for kids and tourists. It was kind of kitchy, but still AWESOME. There were pony-rides and little huts with interactive games for kids, as well as little huts that sell everything from toys to ornaments to hats to specialty gifts. The kind of food sold is also really fun: lots of caramelized almonds, roasted chestnuts, cookies, cakes, baked potatoes, wurst, other traditional Austrian foods, and LOTS of DELICIOUS hot drinks. Punsch and Glühwein are two classic Christmas drinks, both kind of a mix of tea, hot apple cider, and wine, which I realize sounds gross, but that’s false. They’re delicious, and perfect for warming you up when you’re wandering around the cold market! Just the atmosphere of the whole place was so perfect and magical—twinkling lights, little wooden huts with pine needles on them, happy children, all in an explosion of Christmassy goodness. All we needed was some light snow and the picture would have been perfect. And this is just the start of the season—I can’t wait to visit more markets as Christmas gets closer!!! [sidenote, I do feel guilty that I’m indulging in this kind of Christmassy goodness before Thanksgiving, but it’s just too hard to escape it. There’ve been advent calendars for sale in stores since mid-October…]

My friend Annie and me with our Orange Punsch

W&L at the Museumsquartier Christkindlmarkt

So many Gingerbread cookies! 

Entrance to the Rathaus market

Terrible quality picture, but I'll be visiting approximately 17000 times, so I'll get better pictures next time :)

Croatia Part 2: The Sunny Part

SPLIT: A Day with the Emperor

We pick up my chronicles with my day in Split. I think I would have been much more impressed with Split if I had visited on a day other than November 1. Because All Saints Day is a holiday all across Croatia, the two coolest and biggest things in Split (the Cathedral and palace basement halls) were closed on the day I visited. Thus, I spent my day wandering through the Old City, exploring as many sites as I could without actually going inside anywhere. I did get to see a segment of the basements, where the marketplace is, and that was pretty cool, but I sadly didn't get to tour the older, supposedly cooler parts. Oh well.

One thing I will say, Split is a city full of surprises. It’s built on the site of Diocletian’s palace, but only certain parts of the palace are still intact. The rest of the space was converted into residences for the city’s rapidly expanding population in the years since Venetian rule ended. What we’re left with now is an interesting mix of roman ruins, baroque palaces, and ugly 70s architecture.

Baroque architecture in the main square

Because of the randomness of Split, you can turn a corner and never know what you're going to find! For example, in my period of aimless wandering, I turned down a narrow alleyway and found this:

I like that a lot about this city. It, like Zadar, is walled and on the coast, but its walls are much more integrated into the more recent buildings than in Zadar, where the wall was completely intact. On the promenade by the water, you can see the different layers of construction from different periods. 

Luckily the weather was quite nice on the day I visited, so when I had exhausted my city-wandering possibilities (there’s only so many times you can get lost in the same confusing labyrinth of tiny alleys) I sat out on the lovely harbor promenade and read a book, enjoying the clue skies and sunshine that had been previously unexpectedly absent from my trip.

Renaissance-era town hall, also in the main square

DUBROVNIK: The "OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS TOO BEAUTIFUL" City

The first thing I did in Dubrovnik was walk around the entire city atop the old wall, that still stands completely intact (thanks to lots of renovations).  I was able to walk the whole perimeter and it was incredible—it provided wonder after wonder after wonder. Here’s a video of a small segment of my walk:

And a video in which I talk about my first day in Dubrovnik:

View of the harbor from atop the walls

In addition to the walk around the walls of Dubrovnik, which was probably my favorite part of the whole trip, I enjoyed other city sites as well! One favorite was the Rector’s Palace, which is a Renaissance palace that has been converted into a museum. The architecture itself was pretty cool, with a lovely courtyard in the middle and rooms sprawling off to each side, each with a different exhibit. One had baroque furniture, another held Renaissance paintings, and another had medieval church icons. My favorites were the section on weaponry, with actual swords and armor from different time periods, and a war photograph exhibit with incredible pictures of Dubrovnik from 1991. Seeing the streets and plazas that are now packed with locals and tourists completely abandoned, boarded up or destroyed was a very sobering sight. And to think this is all so recent gives it another chilling quality.

Rector's Palace at twilight

View from the balcony at the place I stayed

My other favorite Dubrovnik site was the Jewish Museum. Apparently Dubrovnik was at one point home to a small but mighty Jewish population! Who knew? There’s a museum with Torah scrolls, mantels, Chanukah menorahs, seder plates, prayer shawls, and other possessions of the city’s Jewish residents from over the years. There was even a letter from Moses Montefiore thanking the Jewish of Dubrovnik for their birthday greetings, which I thought was cute. There were also copies of the proclamations declaring all Jews in Croatia to identify themselves and cease gatherings and assembles—a sobering reminder of the extent of the Holocaust’s spread. This museum was on the second floor of an ordinary house in the old city, and the third floor holds the synagogue! It’s a very small space, but just marvelously put together. The ceiling simply but beautifully painted and the chairs, made of gorgeous dark wood, surround the room along the walls so you can imagine everyone sitting almost in a circle facing each other during the service. Ther wasn’t anything especially different or unique about the synagogue but for some reason it was very striking and moving. I loved it. Sadly, no pictures, though.

Market square with statue of Ivan Gundulic, beloved Dubrovnik poet

The rest of my time in Dubrovnik was spent on the beach, soaking up the sun, or people watching in the main square. The city definitely hs a relaxed Mediterranean feel to it, which I really loved a lot. I HIGHLY recommend Dubrovnik. It’s a must for anyone visiting Croatia!!

Thanks for reading these two endless posts! It was a really great trip, and I hope you all get the chance to check Croatia out sometime!! The gelato is wonderful.