Monday, August 17, 2009
Posting Comments
Just so everyone is aware you can make a comment on my blog without an account. You just have to select anonymous from the drop down box. However, since I am posting my pictures to facebook you must have a facebook account to make comments directly on the photos. Thanks to everyone for reading.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Howard the buffalo goes to Europe:The Photo Diary
So Jamie let me borrow Howard the Buffalo for my trip to Europe and this is what he's been up to. She was nervous and shy for the first few weeks, but now he's out and about and loving life. See what he's been up to: click here
Austria Compared to Home
All the windows here are the same and very interesting. If the handle is in one position it is locked, if it’s in a seconds position the window hinges from the side and opens all the way up and if it’s in a third position the window hinges from the bottom opening it a bit at the top. None of the windows have screens so sometimes bugs get it. You have to make sure the windows are closes when you turn on the lights at night or else a lot of bugs will get it.
Most houses have a lot of doors. Usually every room can be closed off from the rest of the house with doors. With my limited architectural knowledge I find there to be a lot of wasted space in the way the houses are designed. I’m sure they have their reasons for doing what they do. Almost all houses are made of masonry block making them cooler in the summer, since there is no a/c, but also cold and uninviting on cold, rainy days. Carpet is almost non-existent. Some houses have a separate room for the toilet and another room with the sink and shower.
Most people eat their big meal of the day at noon. Mid-afternoon cake and coffee is very popular. The cakes contain less sugar than at home, but the main dishes are usually fattier and much saltier. Both times I’ve made tacos for my host families they asked if I needed butter or oil to brown the meat with. I told them no and later drained half a cereal bowl of grease from the meat.
The refrigerators in the kitchens are “dorm sized”, but there’s always another one in a pantry or somewhere else. Since there are many more people in a smaller area and the towns are only a few miles apart there is a grocery store around every corner, so it’s not necessary or common to stock up for 2 or 3 weeks. I have been to a store very similar to Sam’s Club where you could by food items in bulk.
They are shocked by the fact that we can drive at 14 and can’t drink until we’re 21. They can drink at 16 and drive at 18. Most bars don’t have a certain time they have to close, like at home when they have to close at 2am. Many, especially on the weekends will stay open as long as there are customers. Even if they have a set time to stop serving alcohol they will allow people to buy multiple drinks and stick around until 4 or 5am. Staying out until the early morning hours is very common among the young people. I have been a pub that had what I named “last call glasses”. They were wine glasses where the stem was bent, so you couldn’t set your glass down without the contents spilling out. This was to discourage people from making their last drink of the night take too long.
The farms and fields are much smaller here than at home. Many of the animals are kept in the barn year round, especially in the areas where you’re able to plant crops. In the mountainous areas the cows stay in the barn during the winter and go to the mountains in the summer. Now they are towards the end of the wheat harvest and it’s funny to see combines that are about the size ours in fields that are so small, only a few acres. They grow a lot of wheat, corn (sweet and regular), and vegetables for human consumption here. It’s interesting to go to the grocery store and see all the food you can buy that’s produced in Austria, but they are starting to have a problem with products being imported for nearby countries where they can be produced cheaper.
Among my families and the people I’ve talked to there have been varying opinions, but it’s very common for kids to live at home for an extended period of time. Some parents think their 18 year old needs to move out and live on their own while other parents are letting their 28 year old remodel their house to make an apartment.
In Austria they don’t have 4-H, but they have Land Jugend (rural youth) which is similar. You can be a part of the Land Jugend program when you are 14-35. Since they are older than 4-H’ers they do more large community service projects and have more balls and parties. Last weekend I attended the awards banquet for a national Land Jugend competition that judged the contestants’ knowledge of agriculture and culinary/ food and also the 60 year celebration of Land Jugend in the local village.
Most houses have a lot of doors. Usually every room can be closed off from the rest of the house with doors. With my limited architectural knowledge I find there to be a lot of wasted space in the way the houses are designed. I’m sure they have their reasons for doing what they do. Almost all houses are made of masonry block making them cooler in the summer, since there is no a/c, but also cold and uninviting on cold, rainy days. Carpet is almost non-existent. Some houses have a separate room for the toilet and another room with the sink and shower.
Most people eat their big meal of the day at noon. Mid-afternoon cake and coffee is very popular. The cakes contain less sugar than at home, but the main dishes are usually fattier and much saltier. Both times I’ve made tacos for my host families they asked if I needed butter or oil to brown the meat with. I told them no and later drained half a cereal bowl of grease from the meat.
The refrigerators in the kitchens are “dorm sized”, but there’s always another one in a pantry or somewhere else. Since there are many more people in a smaller area and the towns are only a few miles apart there is a grocery store around every corner, so it’s not necessary or common to stock up for 2 or 3 weeks. I have been to a store very similar to Sam’s Club where you could by food items in bulk.
They are shocked by the fact that we can drive at 14 and can’t drink until we’re 21. They can drink at 16 and drive at 18. Most bars don’t have a certain time they have to close, like at home when they have to close at 2am. Many, especially on the weekends will stay open as long as there are customers. Even if they have a set time to stop serving alcohol they will allow people to buy multiple drinks and stick around until 4 or 5am. Staying out until the early morning hours is very common among the young people. I have been a pub that had what I named “last call glasses”. They were wine glasses where the stem was bent, so you couldn’t set your glass down without the contents spilling out. This was to discourage people from making their last drink of the night take too long.
The farms and fields are much smaller here than at home. Many of the animals are kept in the barn year round, especially in the areas where you’re able to plant crops. In the mountainous areas the cows stay in the barn during the winter and go to the mountains in the summer. Now they are towards the end of the wheat harvest and it’s funny to see combines that are about the size ours in fields that are so small, only a few acres. They grow a lot of wheat, corn (sweet and regular), and vegetables for human consumption here. It’s interesting to go to the grocery store and see all the food you can buy that’s produced in Austria, but they are starting to have a problem with products being imported for nearby countries where they can be produced cheaper.
Among my families and the people I’ve talked to there have been varying opinions, but it’s very common for kids to live at home for an extended period of time. Some parents think their 18 year old needs to move out and live on their own while other parents are letting their 28 year old remodel their house to make an apartment.
In Austria they don’t have 4-H, but they have Land Jugend (rural youth) which is similar. You can be a part of the Land Jugend program when you are 14-35. Since they are older than 4-H’ers they do more large community service projects and have more balls and parties. Last weekend I attended the awards banquet for a national Land Jugend competition that judged the contestants’ knowledge of agriculture and culinary/ food and also the 60 year celebration of Land Jugend in the local village.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Almost a month already
I’ve decided here a Sunday with God doesn’t mean sitting in a church pew. It means you spend 4
-6 hours hiking up a giant mountain so you are physically closer to God. It’s also quite possible at some point you get lightheaded and dizzy and think you “see the light.” The scenery you do see is beautiful. Last Sunday I could see the highest point in Austria from one of the places we stopped to take a break. I also go to see a groundhog. Due to technical difficulty with my camera I wasn’t able to get any photos. I did get a video clip the week before of the church group singing and something that could very well have been a yodel. So, yes they do sit in the mountains and yodel.
I’ve made friends with Florian the almost 2 year old nephew/cousin of the family. Most of my host dad’s family lives on the street across the field from our house, so there is lots of socializing among the family. Since I’m not able to engage in any adult conversation because I don’t understand German I’m been appointed to entertain Florian. He talks to me, but I don’t know what he’s saying except when he says “Da Lacey!”
I spend my days helping in the kitchen they have their big meal of the day at noon, so all the cooking happens in the morning. I also mow the lawn and help clean the apartments after the guests leave. In the evenings we often go for a walk or bike ride. Last Friday I cooked a Johnsen family specialty of pork loin with apple raisin dressing and I also made brownies. They seemed to think I did a good job. And ironically, since it was South Dakota food day, there was a picture of Mt. Rushmore in the local newspaper because of the Green Peace things that were going on. On Monday I also made tacos. I had to demonstrate how to make a taco and how to eat it.
Last week Tuesday my host mom and I went to this thing with the farmers’ wives. We met a bunch of other ladies along the side of a road. This guy that turned out to be a fancy vegetarian cook started showing the ladies different plants along the side of the road. To me all the plants looked like weeds. We walked some and he showed more weeds and then they started collecting the weeds in their baskets. I met a girl whose mother had been an English teacher and al
ways made her kids speak English at home, so she knew English well. Then after they’d collected a bunch of weeds they started collecting flowers. After they’d gotten enough roughage we went to the restaurant of a fancy hotel. They sorted all the weeds and flowers. Then the cook started cutting and blending and mixing the weeds with other ingredients. After 3 hours of chopping and cooking we ate the weeds. There was soup made from weeds, salad made with weeds and potatoes, tofu kabobs with weed sauce, juice with flowers in it, and a fruit salad that was actually good but it had flowers that you were supposed to eat in it. I just didn’t eat the flowers in my fruit salad, but my host mom hid them in her napkin I knew we were going to be doing something with plants and then cooking and eating, but I wasn’t expecting that.
The rain has finally stopped coming so often. Out of the first 17 days I was in Austria there
were only 4 days without rain. They say this year is unusually wet. I’m convinced all the rain here is to make up for my 10 days I spent in Ireland with only 1 day of rain.
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