Video Blog: Thanksgiving Edition

I have not updated my blog for the last couple of days but I will tomorrow. I just received a package today and it IS Thanksgiving so I couldn't resist making another video blog. Enjoy! AND HAVE A HAPPY TURKEY DAY EVERYONE!

It's A Christmas Miracle, I Mean Market!

I just couldn't resist blogging about what's been going on here the past few days so here I go!

Wednesday, November 20th, I finished my time in town by walking around the Christmas markets once again, watching everyone do their final set ups. I was beyond excited to see it all open tomorrow at 10am! 

Thursday, November 21st, it's time to go to the open Christmas market! Today is also the last cooking class so we went shopping at the weekly market like we usually do, headed back to the college and then I was off to adventure. Wow, I was just in awe walking around. The lights were on, the people were smiling, the stands were packed full of gifts and I was enjoying it all. I walked around for about an hour and a half just browsing around and I did happen to buy some gifts already! One of which is a Christmas collar for my dog Oakley (mom, I just couldn't resist buying this even though Oakley might hate it haha). 

I sampled some traditional Austrian sliced pancakes and am definitely getting that soon. It is very sweet and you can add toppings such as chocolate sauce, vanilla sauce, apples or plums! Also the people were so nice at that stand, they kept giving me samples of different pancakes. After I saw all the stands, I decided to get this pretzel I scoped out before for lunch. It looked like a pretzel with 3 eggs in it...

...doesn't it look like eggs? Yeah, I thought so too. I sat on a bench in the market because I couldn't resist the urge to try it. Low and behold....NOT an egg pretzel. The 'yoke' was some type of fruit (maybe a peach or apricot) and then the filler was a fruity jam and the actual pretzel had a sweet taste to it. It was definitely not what I was expecting but it was still delicious. After photo class I headed back to the markets and bought a hot White Russian which was amazing! 

And that is a very strange add for one of the chocolate stands there. Haha. Then is started to get dark and the whole market was lit up! And on the walk back to the college I passed by some cute dog that was just hanging outside one of the stores, enjoying the lights and people watching I assume. Haha

Now it was time for cooking class again! For our final meal we made Salzburger Knoblauchsuppe (a butter and garlic soup), Schweinsbraten (a type of meat) with semmelknödel (dumplings) and sauerkraut. For dessert we made Salzburger Nockerl which is basically just sugar, eggs, flour and milk for the most part. 

Afterwards, another food coma was had of course! It was Julian's (one of the guys in the program) birthday yesterday so around 9pm we all met up at the Augustiner for some drinks. They have a seasonal beer (bockbier) there now so I got to try it and I am definitely going back for more soon. 

Friday, November 22nd, a long day of baking. Woke up and got to the college by about 9:30am and did some thanksgiving decorating around the college and waited for Frau to arrive. Once she got there, we got to baking for several hours for a Christmas market that is taking place in town this Sunday. Brownies, snicker doodles on sticks, sugar cookies, etc. We bagged them up and tied them with ribbon but had no idea that presentation was EXTREMELY important for this particular market. We were told that the vendors there are very professional with their stands and the people that come to buy the foods there will be picky about some things. This then created stress on a lot of us and I realized that I could never own my own bakery. I like to bake for my friends and family with love and not for competition or presentation always. As long as it tastes good (right dad and Keith!?!) haha.

This is Frau and myself working hard in the kitchen with our paper baking hats. This woman is such a sweetheart! 

After a long day of baking, I was exhausted and headed home a little after 6pm. Let's see what tonight brings I guess. Oh by the way, today is friday, which means only 3 weeks left until I am back in New York! :)

Success.

If you read my last post, I left off mid day for Wednesday so here is the continuation and more!

Wednesday, November 13th, a lucky day after all. After Starbucks, I headed to the college to upload my blog and I was the only one in the main seating area be air everyone else was in German 2. Within minutes there was a knock on the window, I look over and see half of a mans head peeking in and he points over towards the door. I walked over, looked through the door and it was our Irish bartender friend that works at the bar a couple doors down. He knows all the Salzburg college students, nice man. Anyways, I opened the door and he immediately said "hey, it's your lucky day". He then went on about how he had 3 tickets to this gastronomy festival in town and him nor his co-workers could attend because they had to work, or they already went. He didn't want the tickets to go to waste and he wasn't asking for any money, the only thing was one of the tickets still had to be paid for at the door of the fair (only 22 euros). Of course I took the tickets and after everyone got out of class, I found 2 more people who said they would join me. And off we went on the bus at about 12:30 to this fair! We first walk in and see what looked like a coffee machine you would see in an office but we were fooled, it was a soup machine!!! Free thing number 1: samples of awesome soup. And this went on all day; free beer, free wine, free pizza, free chips, free chocolate, you name it! Granted they were still 'sample sizes', well most of them were, but it was so worth it!

We headed back around 3:30 because the others had class.

Thursday, November 14th, our second cooking class! In the morning we went shopping at the markets again, then I had photo class during the day and finally we met again at night to start cooking! This time we made Gulasch for dinner with apfelstrudel (apple strudel) with a vanilla sauce for dessert. This vanilla sauce was basically just milk, sugar and some pudding powder and we mixed it then heated it up and if you let it sit for a little it thickens and it tastes like magic, soooooo good. Frau had also bought us beer to have with dinner this time. We had traditional rolls and a type of bio bread with the Gulasch as well. Everything was so delicious once again and I was in a food coma for what felt like forever! 

I'm so excited for our next cooking class again, unfortunately it'll be the last one. 

Friday, November 15th, fancy dinner night. During the day I was working in the darkroom and was there for about 7 hours. It felt like I was back at SUNY Purchase and I loved it, although it's frustrating at times, it's the best. Later that night we all got dolled up and met up for a dinner reservation we made at 6:30pm. I had the biggest baked potato and a delicious weisbeer. 

Afterwards we headed to a place closer to our college for dessert. I got a double shot of espresso and I was ready to go out! Haha. I headed back to my dorm and waited for Haley, one of the girls from the program, and her guy friend from Vienna who came here again! (Lukas!! You're in my blog again! I love when you visit, hope to see you so soon). Haley and Lukas are just adorable together if you all must know. The three of us then met up with my roommate at we hung out at an Irish pub for the night and met a group of funny Austrian guys who were sitting next to us. We were playing games with the coasters and one of the dudes gave me an awesome zipper bracelet. A successful night and we made it back safely in a cab ride to the dorms again.

Oh and I can't forget about this one moment...when the one dude showed Lukas this zipper bracelet, he was so excited and Sam missed it because she was on her phone but Lukas screamed in the bar, "SAM!" and it was just the best moment. 

Saturday, November 16th, I walked around the Christmas markets all day with my camera and headphones on, even though they aren't opened yet. I was able to see some stuff being set up and I stumbled upon the ice skating rink! 

Later on I sat outside the college because the wifi was excellent and I skyped with Keith and Michelle who were trying to figure out how to preparel a turkey properly before the rest of my family arrived in Florida at Keith and Kim's new house. 

After I headed back to the dorms and at dinner, I went to Murphy's Irish pub by our college for a beer by myself. I never went to a bar alone before but hey, I guess there is a first for everything. And then I used their awesome wifi to Skype with Ariana finally! (Ariana, I miss you so much and we need to Skype soon again! Can't wait to see you!) After a while I headed to another bar and met up with my Austrian buddy (everyone in the program is given a buddy). The bar we went to was packed and they had a live band, it was pretty cool. 

Sunday, November 17th, I went out to photograph for a little but mostly I caught up on sleep. Not a very exciting day. 

Monday, November 18th, my photo class was moved to tomorrow but I went to the college anyways and printed in the dark room again. 

Tuesday, November 19th, I had photo class in the morning and then our weekly general assembly. I stayed at the college until it was time for dinner back at the dorms. At 8:45 was kickoff for the Austrian vs. USA soccer game so we went to the tv room in the dorms and watched the first half....Austria scored a goal. Unfortunately, USA lost but apparently both teams played poorly and the refs were not so good either. 

Wednesday, November 20th, no classes but lots of things to catch up on, like this blog! Once again I am currently updating my blog in Starbucks and have no plans for the rest of the day. I am going to print out my plane ticket for London and wander around the Christmas market again which opens up tomorrow finally! I am beyond excited, it will be a real life Christmas wonderland. 

First Week Back

After traveling around for 16 days, it was nice to finally relax and have nothing to worry about besides classes. As far as my classes go, I only have them Monday and Thursday so sometimes I feel like I don't even go to school. Haha. But I'm keeping myself busy nonetheless. During the beginning of the week, a couple of us from the program went geocaching. Two of the guys had a geocaching app on their phone so we used the GPS and on we went! After trying to find the first site for a good 30 minutes, the GPS brought us to the middle of a parking lot. FAIL! Haha. But we tried another and after a bit of hiking and searching we found this one! There was a little box connected to the end of a braided piece of long hair hanging outside a window and there was a long stick left there in order for us to retrieve it. The riddle we followed said something about Repunzle and using a weapon so there you go! It was so exciting and we didn't really have anything to leave in the box so we all just signed the date and our names in one of the little notepads.

After we returned the box to the hair and it's natural hanging habitat for the next geocacher to find, we hung around for a bit because the view was perfect...

And then we saw this other bottle with a message inside, not sure what it said but it was pretty cool. 

During the middle of the week I took a trip to Starbucks for their wifi...and the coffee. I was really going for wifi but I caved. However, I now know it is officially Christmas time because of the cups. Thank you for the update Starbucks! 

Thursday, November 7th, was the first day of my Austrian cuisine class! We met in the morning around 8:15am and walked over to one of the markets and bought out supplies we needed to cool out dinner later on. We were done within an hour. I had my photo class during the day and then at 6:45pm it was time for Austrian cuisine class part 2: cooking! We made vegetable soup, fresh potato salad, turkey schnitzel with cranberry sauce on the side and then a linzartarte for dessert! Everything was so delicious, I was surprised at how well we did. 

Just casually beating the meat with one of the host mothers next to me. Haha. She was the teacher of our cooking class, such a sweet lady! I can't wait to see what we make this Thursday. 

And she bought us a bottle of wine! I was  in a serious food coma after that meal. 

Friday, November 8th, the weather was beautiful so I woke up and took a nice run outside. I'm not exactly sure where I went but I found a farm along my travels and the views I had were just amazing...

Later that night, there was a wine tasting going on in town that we were told about. It was only 5 euros to get in so a group of us went at 7pm and I must have tasted a minimum of 30 wines. They hand you a packet of all the wines with a pen when you walk in and I tried to whole packet and gave each wine a star rating from 1-5 stars. That was fun haha. (Mom, dad and grandma this place was right up your alley!) They had little bowls of bread at each table in order to cleanse your pallet. Our group was easily the youngest there...

Oh and I did I mention our new friend we adopted for the weekend! She used to go to Salzburg college 2 semesters ago and was visiting from the good ol USA (Jenna, I miss ya already! Haha). 

After wine tasting was over, everyone partied ways for a bit and then met up again at a pub in town. It turned out to be a good night with lots of new faces. Unfortunately all the wine had me almost falling asleep at the table haha.

Saturday, November 9th, a day filled with laziness. But the night was approaching so we got ready and headed over to one of the host moms house! I tried her home made "

'Kasnocken' which may not look that appetizing in the photo below but it was awesome. I had some salad with dressing on top of it as well. 

And here's a selfie with the one and only Sissi, a great cook, a sweet lady and an awesome host mother to 2 girls in the program. 

One of the girls from the program had a friend she made from Vienna come to visit so he came out with us! (Lukas, if you read this today, happy belated birthday again! And come back to Salzburg to hang with us soon!). We all took the bus into town and headed to a bar that was super crowded but we had fun. 

Sunday, November 10th, another lazy day but today I went to the farm I found on my run! I hung out with all my farm friends that I already love so dearly. And this visit, I got to witness their feeding time.

Yes, there is a whole pond of flamingos (it's kind of hard to see but it's true). 

If you couldn't tell already, the goats are my favorite. They just make me laugh. So cute.

Monday, November 11th, woke up at a decent hour and took another nice stroll to the farm and then around town for about an hour and a half. And as you will see there is snow on the mountains which is pretty beautiful and exciting! 

Spent the rest of my day out in the town then headed back to the dorms. I was going to stream a movie online (The Life of Pi, I've heard great things about it) but within 10 minutes my internet stopped working. Fantastic. This is a daily occurrence at the dorms for me, and the wifi motor is in the guys room next door so I can't even restart it and they are usually out all day until dinner time. Next option....a nap!?! Yup, fell asleep for 3 hours. I guess that's a nap on crack. Haha. 

Tuesday, November 12th, got myself up early again (Mom, aren't you proud I'm not sleeping until 12pm like I normally would haha). I headed to the college a bit because every Tuesday we have general assemblies at 1pm. After that me and another girl from the program headed to the Fotohof (the photo gallery in town) and spent some time in the photo library doing research for one of the photo class assignments. Found some pretty awesome stuff and I found out they have wifi there...(lets be honest, thats another reason to go more often). Unfortunately on the week days they don't open until 3pm. Later that night, back at the dorms, I finally figured out how to fix the stupid treadmill that is in the basement and I finally got a workout in. I also skyped for a while with my friend Charleene who is studying abroad in London at the moment and we planned my trip to go visit her in a couple weeks! I should probably book those flights soon...Then I got to end the day with skyping with my sister! (Michelle, I miss you so much and your skypes always make me feel better! Love you). 

And that brings us to today...

Wednesday, November 13th, exactly one month from today I will be on a plane heading back to New York! Am I excited you ask? Of course! Right now I am sitting in Starbucks finishing up this blog. Unfortunately, I talked to one of the workers here and the wifi isn't working for anyone so they are trying to get someone to fix it. They better step up their game and get it done. I have faith in you Starbucks! This morning I woke up 'early' again (8:15), got ready and went for another adventurous walk. I found some cool paved walkways in the woods and then wound up by a playground and somehow managed to lead myself back into town. It was very relaxing. Who knows what I'll do the rest of the day but I will probably blog about! And hopefully I will find some inspiration to photograph here and for my next project.