Where's the Best Food in Europe?--Woche 6

Lisbon

In keeping with our new family mantra, "Forget the diet!", we sure did enjoy this week!

Dan had a trip to Lisbon for work. The work part went well and he had a chance to meet with colleagues and potential Portuguese clients, but the highlight was the food! The Portuguese claim to have the highest per capita consumption of fish and seafood of any other European country and perhaps, the world. Dan's colleagues told him that the average consumption is somewhere around 46kg/person/year (that's 101 lbs. or, a whole lot of fish). Since I don't cook fish at home, Dan took full advantage of the chance to load up! He got to eat mussels, salt cod (which funny enough, comes from the Nordic countries, but is one of the most popular dishes in Portugal), fresh prawns, another fish he was unsure of the name, but the highlight was the octopus feast he had during his last lunch, before flying to Spain.

Dan thought that the food in Portugal was the best he's had in all of Europe so far, and is unsure about how the Portuguese have not developed an obesity problem like the Americans--maybe it's all the fish! We are adding Portugal to our list of family vacations for sometime in the future. Dan finished his business trip with one day in Madrid and then came home Wednesday night.

We realised on Monday, that the weather forecast for our part of the world on the weekend looked amazing, at 65 degrees. The kids also had Friday off, and since hockey is winding down, we didn't have games or practices on Saturday. We decided to go on a road trip to Prague. We headed out on Friday afternoon and drove 3 1/2 hours to Prague. We rented an apartment that had 4 bedrooms and could sleep 10, so we brought our friends, Liz and Csaba with us.

We rolled into town, just at dark. We stayed really close to the old town section of Prague. Prague is different from other cities nearby because it has a very new feel, with modern buildings and architecture, except for the old town, which looks very medieval. The architecture there is stunning. Walking through the streets is delightful! That night, we could even leave our coats at home and just thoroughly enjoyed walking around in our sweatshirts. We stopped at a local pub for dinner. Finding one that could fit our entire group was a little difficult, but we managed. The food was incredible. Dan and I shared a plate for 2 that probably had a whole pig on it (if pigs had chicken wings). The kids all enjoyed their chicken schnitzel and fries--all except Deagan who slept through dinner. Dinner here was much cheaper than Vienna. We headed home to let the kids sleep.

The original recipe

The next day, we woke to much colder weather and rain (so much for Monday's weather forecast). We had to make a pit stop for umbrellas and hats for the kids. We walked around the old town more and visited a chocolate museum. We were able to try their pralines at the end of their demonstration. Interesting note: pralines in all other parts of the world just means a bite sized piece of chocolate with some kind of filling. (The tour offered hazelnut nougat). Unlike home, pralines are not just pecans and caramel covered in chocolate, or caramelised pecans.

We wandered around and discovered that old town is full of crystal/glass shops, Czech garnet/jewelry shops, and marionette/puppet shops.  You could also find Russian matroshkas and fur hats.  While wandering we stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant for lunch. We had to go through an alley, down a flight of stairs, around the corner and into the basement restaurant. We had the best Mexican food ever, in this little back alley in Prague.  Everyone enjoyed their burritos, homemade mole enchiladas, and nachos.  They even had horchata.  Who would have ever guessed that you would find really good Mexican food in the middle of the Czech Republic???

We were reeling from our lunch, so we decided to do a bit of walking around and shopping to burn a few calories.  We ended up purchasing
some yummy dipping chocolate and some fudge from the chocolate shop.  The apricot fudge was so tasty.  Then we found some Czech crystal.  I bought 2 vases.  One is a contemporary cut, very simple in design, and the other is more of a classic style with the cut glass.  Now all I need is for Dan to bring home some flowers so I can show off my vases!  On our jaunt through town, we also came across something new.  We found a chess board for 3 players.  Since Dane is starting to get into chess a bit, we decided to pick up a small board, and figure out how to play!

After all that shopping, we happened upon an ice cream shop.  This ice cream was again, very good--certainly up to European standards.  The mango ice cream had huge chunks of mangoes in it.  We knew it would be good ice cream, when we saw that they had a crystal/glass chandelier hanging over the freezer. 

We stopped in a small mall towards the end of the day.  Deagan got bored and started throwing his new hat up in the air and trying to catch it on his head as it came down.  Although Dan told him to quit about 100 times, Deagan continued throwing.  When Dan realized that Deagan was no longer walking beside him, he turned around to find Deagan in a very serious conversation with a jewelry store worker.  Deagan was pointing behind the counter trying to explain in English that he had lost his hat behind her counter and she was looking utterly confused.  When Dan backtracked and finally could hear what was going on, it was very clear that she did not speak any English.  Since a lot of the workers we encountered also spoke Russian, Dan decided to bail Deagan out and give Russian a shot.  Sure enough, the lady spoke Russian and when she realized what was going on she laughed and laughed.  After handing Deagan back his hat, she explained to Dan that she thought he was asking her to see a very expensive (several hundred Euro) necklace that was displayed in the case.  She wasn't sure how he was going to pay for it and was not about to open the case for him as he didn't look like he had the money to cover such a purchase.  We all thought it was very funny and had a great laugh, but Deagan didn't think it was as cute as the rest of us and threw a hissy fit in the street in front of the mall because we were "making fun of him"
.

Even the meringues were good!

After that, all our eating and walking, the kids (particularly Deagan) were worn out.  The rain did stop, after the chocolate factory, but the wind picked up and we were all still cold.  We decided to head back to the apartment.  We hung out there.  The kids played games on the ipad.  We visited a bit with our friends.  After awhile, we called it a night.  We got up fairly early on Sunday morning and headed back for home.

We got back to Vienna, just in time to shower and get ready for church.  Dyllan was asked to give a talk in primary, and Dane was asked to teach the lesson in priesthood for all the Aaronic Priesthood quorums.  It was an exciting day, as Dane was ordained to the office of a deacon and he was able to pass the sacrament for the first time.  Certainly a memorable day for all of us!

As for Prague, we felt like we didn't get quite enough time there.  We would have liked to have at least one more half day.  I think we will plan to go again.  It seemed to be cheaper and we haven't seen it all yet.  I think that Dyllan and Deagan have next Friday off too.  Hmmmm, sounds tempting.

Birthday Greetings!!--Woche 5

Well, just a normal week in the life of the Baker's.  We had school, we had work, we had hockey, we had German lessons, we had music lessons.  I spent a lot of time planning more trips or vacations, or dreaming of trips or vacations.

Dan had a work colleague come from Texas.  We spent an evening with him at a couple of touristy places.  We took him to Cobenzl, where you can see an amazing view of the city.  We stopped at a restaurant at the top and enjoyed some dessert.  Next we headed to Mayer am Pfarplatz (one of the heurigen down the street) for dinner.  It was an enjoyable evening.

We decided to try taking Danyon off milk products for a little while to see if his skin would get any better.  It seems that we just can't get rid of the eczema.  Sometimes, it seems manageable, but then the weather changes, or we look at him weird, or we put him in jammies, and he breaks out again.  We started him on almond milk, as he is not allergic to nuts.  Since then his skin is much, much worse.  However, we were told that this is a good sign that the milk was the culprit.  If we can just hang on for 3 weeks, then we would know if milk was the cause, or one of the causes, of his eczema.  Hopefully, we can get him cleared up before too much longer!

The big news for the week:  Dane turned 12!!!!!!  We wanted his birthday to be fun, so we did our grocery shopping early.  I know it is every young man's dream to go shopping all day on his birthday, so that's just what we did!  Okay, it might not have been his favorite thing to do, but we wanted to get Dane new shoes and a new suit for church.  He needed to be there for all of it.  The good news is, we found a huge store that sells traditional Austrian clothing--including for kids (Dane decided that he wanted his new suit to be Austrian cut), and the store is just a few minutes drive from our house.  It was a good find!!  We found stuff for Deagan, Dyllan, and Dane, but they didn't have the right size jacket for him.  So, we found another store at a huge mall.  We had a fun time going through the mall.  Just when we thought we were done shopping, (we found all Dane's suit stuff, plus a few other little gifts, plus shoes for Dan), we found another GREAT find.  We walked into a store that was crawling with people.  It was a huge store that you could barely move in, with all the people.  We soon learned that this store is like the Austrian Walmart for clothing, shoes, and accessories.  We found all kinds of deals surrounding us, but didn't have the time to fight through the crowds to get them.  I did grab a few T-shirts for Dyllan (as she is quickly outgrowing hers), for 2.50 Euro a piece.  I found a couple other tops for her as well.  Everyone was tired and ready to go, so I left the rest of the store untouched (at least by me) with a promise that I would return again--SOON!  I ended up getting Dyllan 7 different tops for 30 Euro.  Comparing to my other "cheap" store, I would have only come out with 3 tops for that same price.  I realize that with clothes that cheap, the quality might not be that great, but even if all the shirts end up as P.J.s, it is worth the money, even for that!

The rest of Dane's birthday was fun, too.  Dane chose to go to his favorite Greek restaurant for dinner.  The food there was absolutely amazing last night.  Maybe shopping exhausted us more than we thought, but it really seemed better than usual.  We came home and Dane opened a couple little presents from his siblings and family.  Then we ate cake.

Dane still opted to have a homemade cake at home (although, this year, Dane picked a traditional chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream icing).  I guess no more skateboards, pirate ships, and sharks eating penguins for cakes anymore.  I think the other kids are planning to choose more elaborate cake designs, which may prove hard to find candy and other implements for, but Dane seems to be over it--now it's just about the taste.

We did have firework candles.  They were fun.  Dyllan had previous experience with some from a friend's birthday party.  She said they almost burned down the bowling alley, so we opted to put the candles in the lawn outside, instead of in the cake.  We sang to Dane outside while he tried to blow out his candles. 

We finished to evening watching a movie together as a family.  Hopefully, it was everything Dane wished for on his big day!

Raining Confectionaries??--Woche 4

The first week back went relatively well.  The kids reluctantly went back to school.  Hockey seems to have slowed down, somewhat.  Dan was gone to Antwerp for a couple of days this week.  We seem to have things running pretty smoothly. 

On Monday, I went to a girl's lunch.  I haven't done a whole lot of "girl's nights" since we got here.  Things just seem to be very busy with all the kids activities and spending time with Dan, when he is in town, seems to be more important.  Since this one was during the day, when kids and husbands schedules did not conflict, I decided to go, and I was glad that I did.  It is Restaurant Week in Vienna.  Some restaurants have set menus for set prices during this week.  It is a good way to get out and try new places.  We met at a little tiny restaurant called Chameleon.  It is right in the downtown area.  It has about 5 tables maximum.  The owner is Swiss, and his restaurant is fondue.  On our set menu, we were served a very nice salad, followed by a cheese fondue and then dessert.  The owner was so good to us and to Danyon.  I've mentioned before that it is rare for someone here to pay attention to Danyon, and when they do, you can usually bet that they are foreigners.  This was no exception, but the owner was very happy to have Danyon there and thoroughly enjoyed him.  He even asked to hold him, but Danyon wasn't having any of that.  The food was delicious.  When the owner discovered that we did not drink alcohol, he said that the "set dessert" had alcohol in it.  He said he was working on something else, especially for us in the kitchen.  He came back with a huge platter of fruit and a chocolate fondue.  It was very, very good.  I would like to go back with Dan sometime.  Anyone who has that amount of customer service in this city will get my vote and return visit!! 

We went to the final home AIS basketball game.  We had a friend who was playing on the team.  It was interesting to me that we didn't need to buy tickets and they only had one set of bleachers set up.  Our family got there just as the game was beginning and we doubled the people in the stands.  According to a friend, the school only gets about 3-4 parents to come out and watch the games.  For a varsity basketball game, I thought that was sad.  Our team ended up winning fairly easily.  It was fun to support our friend and school.

Just before stepping into the awaiting carriage

This was a big week for us.  I had to finish preparations:  I got my dress all ready.  I got my fingernails and toenails painted.  I bought fake eyelashes for the first time.  Dan got the babysitter.  We were so excited to finally go to the ball!  We picked our friends up and headed to the Wiener Konzart Haus.  We walked into the building, that was crawling with people.  In the large foyer, they had little bags and candies for everyone.  They also had a gift for everyone--ladies got a package of cookies and the gents got a package of coffee.  (Dan was a little less excited about his gift--we will find someone who will be the lucky recipient.)  This is a tradition that started long ago, with the first ball.  This gift called the Damenspende is a token gift presented to the ladies upon arriving at the ballroom.  It used to be something really cool like a mother-of-pearl fan and a card given for gentlemen to claim a dance from the lady.  But now it is something cheaper--usually confectionary or a CD or something of the like. With the equality of the times, some balls also give a Herrenspende (man gift), but it was not given long ago.  At the Bonbon Ball, there were 3 different dance rooms.  The main hall had very good music with fully orchestrated band.  The music played was traditional ballroom music with a huge variety of styles.  There were waltzes, rhumbas, fox trots, etc.  In the other rooms, the bands were playing other genres, one was a latin room.  It was so much fun to dance.  However, when I say dance, I mean it quite loosely.  There are so many people on the dance floor, that you can not move without running into people.  Although most of the people at the balls know how to dance--especially the Viennese Waltz, it is impossible to do any dance correctly.  It seems that no one knows the line of dance, and everyone was milling about with no rhyme or reason.  We now know why line of dance was created!  It was still so much fun to try to dance!  The bands also shortened the songs so that they were only a couple of minutes long, rather than the entire version of every song.  This made it possible to get more styles of dance in and also it kept the men, who were in their jackets the entire evening, from completely overheating. 

Of course, eating Bonbons

We watched the crowning of Miss Bonball ceremony.  It wasn't really a highlight.  It seemed rather boring, actually.  But things picked up with the midnight Quadrille.  It is a traditional dance that is called (kind of like a square dance) and they play it at every ball--stemming from the first balls in Vienna.  Since our German is not spot on, we decided to watch the first round.  It was fun to get to see the chaos that was the Quadrille.  Everyone had a great time.  We loved spending time with our friends.  We had to pay extra money to have a table, but we were so glad that we did.  It was nice to have somewhere to go and sit, visit, and rest our feet.  They had a few more candies at each of the tables, which was nice, but paying 4 Euro for a small bottle of water was a bit steep, I thought.  It just seems that water would be a given at a dance--to keep people from passing out, but not here.  You have to pay for it. 



Props to Dan, my best hairdresser. 
This was even after the
 entire evening of dancing!

No one lost their glass slippers and no one was forced to leave at midnight.  We quite happily danced the night away, and finally our feet gave out and we ended up leaving at about 2:45.  I thought I would be okay with going just once--as it is a once in a lifetime experience, but somehow, we had so much fun and the music was so good, that we are convinced that we will go again.  Maybe not to the Bonbon Ball, but we would love to attend another one next year.  Dan was even ready to go again on Saturday night, although, I have to admit, my feet couldn't have handled it!

Side effects of the Bonbon Ball

So instead on Saturday, we did our usual grocery shopping.  Dan took Dyllan and Deagan to their last hockey practice on the outdoor rink.  (It is getting to look like Spring here.  We have leaves starting to pop out on bushes and trees have started to bud--a huge turn around from last year.)  Dan met some friends at the hockey rink and helped their little boy with his first experience skating.  Dane went along and Dan helped him with some pointers for his skating as well.  I stayed home with Danyon, while we both took naps.  That night, Dan promised the kids that he would take them to Ebi again (the all-you-can-eat sushi buffet).  I think the promise was more for Dan's enjoyment than the kid's, but it worked.  We met our friends there and had a great evening.  By the time we got home, Dan was practically a zombie.  He hadn't gotten a nap in and we since we live with kids, there was no sleeping in that morning.  He needed to send a text to someone from church.  He fell asleep 4 times while trying to type one text.  I woke him up each time telling him to hit the send button.  Once he did, he was asleep before he could put the phone down--and he told me he was ready to go to another ball that night.  It would've taken a lot of help from his fairy godmother, just to keep him awake for another ball!


Ski Week--Woche 3

The kids had all week off!!  They were so excited and so ready for a break in the schedule.  We took a couple of days, just relaxing at home, cleaning, playing Wii, and watching some Olympics.  I have to admit, there was less cleaning than I had wanted, but it all turned out okay.  Our weather has been very different from last year.  Last year, we had snow and were making snowmen and having all kinds of fun in the cold weather.  This year, the kids spent a lot of time jumping on the trampoline in their T-shirts.

Wednesday, Dan took a day off work, and took the kids skiing.  It took some work to dig up all the snow gear, but they finally got on their way.  Dan took them back to the same place that we went last year, Stuhleck.  Dan took them on the family lift first, just to refresh their skills.  Both Deagan and Dyllan were able to fall off the T-bar lift in the first couple of tries.  Dan was a little put out by the whole thing because he had to pay for each time they rode the lift, and falling off, not getting to ski down, still counted as a ride.  After 4 runs down the family run, they were ready to move on to the real resort.  They went and bought their "real" lift tickets for the first time.  Dan took them to the top of the world and they got to ski down.  Dyllan thought that the big lift was scary because their skis were hanging down and she thought that they might fall off.  Dane was so scared that he couldn't even speak.  Deagan just went with the flow.  Dan thought it was pretty scary for him too:  taking three kids for their first time on the big lift, two of which weren't even tall enough to get on the lift without him grabbing the back of their jackets and lifting them into the seats next to him.  Apparently, there was more than one occasion that they had to stop the lift to allow more time because one of the Baker bunch hadn't made it completely on, in the given amount of time.

 

There were only a few mishaps.  Deagan, being the typical, reckless maniac, managed to take a run straight down the mountain, where he nearly bowled over the entire line-up for the lift, but upon seeing the wooden fence approaching, decided to do a massive wipeout instead of crash.  On the next run, when Deagan was trying to pull the same stunt again, Dan tried to head him off before he got too far, but Deagan's skis ended up tangling up together with Dan's and they ended up in a pile in the snow drift.  Based on the decibels of the screams coming from the pile, Dan thought for sure, Deagan had broken his arm.  But apparently, it was only the ego that was bruised and for the rest of the day was able to proceed on future runs with slight caution to the wind, and even listened to his dad a couple of times throughout the day.  On another run, on a narrow shoot coming off the top of the mountain, Deagan claims that Dan cut him off, which initiated a chain reaction (in other words, Deagan was racing down the mountain to get down first), which resulted in Deagan barreling into Dane, Dane running into Dyllan, and Dyllan running into the fence.  Again, there was an exorbitant amount of screaming, in which Dan thought the entire ski trip was over.  But alas, it was not the case.  Again, everyone came out unscathed.  They went for a few more runs and claim that despite all this, they had a great time.  The jury is still out on Dan's assessment and he hasn't volunteered to take them again next year.  I have already volunteered to stay home with Danyon for the next three decades--or until he figures out that he is being left out.

The next day we visited the Haus des Meeres (House of the Seas).  It is a small aquarium in the middle of town.  Dan took another half day off work so we all got to go together.  We saw all kinds of cool sea animals and fish.  There were a couple land dwellers as well.  The highlights were 1) A huge (and when I say huge, I mean bigger than you've ever seen) crab.  This one crab would feed an army of people with one leg alone.  Hadn't seen a crab this big--ever.  2) We were there for the monkey feeding.  We went to the monkey area and waited for the feeders to arrive.  We expected to hear the naturalist come and give her spiel and then set out little pieces of fruit, so we could watch the monkeys eat.  Well, she came and said about 3 sentences about the monkeys, then proceeded to hand live grasshoppers to any kid in the area who wanted to feed the monkeys.  Apparently liabilities of monkey bites are not an issue here.  All three kids (with lots of coaxing) were able to hold on to a grasshopper, but the anticipation of holding a live animal, waiting for the monkeys to come and take it was too much.  All our kids ended up throwing the grasshoppers at the monkeys, but in theory, they were able to feed the monkeys.

After our tour of the aquarium, we went to the Snack Shop.  This is a newly found place (someone from church told us about it) that sells some American foods.  We were salivating at all of our possibilities.  Macaroni and Cheese never looked so good (or cost so much 4 Euro/box).  We also found cake mixes (5 Euros--which we left on the shelf).  We were able to afford the Cheetos, the Doritos, and the Oreos.  We bought popcorn and some other little candy as well.  We loved the little taste of home.

Dyllan and Deagan were invited to play in an exhibition hockey game on Saturday.  They both played so well.  We were very proud of them.  Their team won 2-0, with Deagan having 2 assists.  Dyllan and Deagan both had several shots on goal, but the goalie was a little too good.  It was a fun afternoon. 

We had Stake Conference at the church this weekend.  Dan and I had to go to 2 meetings on Saturday.  It was all in German.  Dan did very well with the understanding.  I didn't do as well.  I needed the translation headphones.  Sunday, we had the big meeting as well.  I was a little disappointed because they only had one room set up for English translation and by the time we got there (not late), there were no chairs left to sit on.  We headed downstairs to a room to listen in.  The room was labeled as Deutsch.  As it turned out, it ended up being in English so we were all able to understand it.  It turned out to be good, as on the way home, all the kids could tell us things that they learned and heard from the meeting.  I was grateful that we were able to hear it with English translation after all.

 We hurried home to watch "the game of all games"--Canada vs. Sweden, Gold medal game.  Luckily, Deagan still had on his "lucky" socks.  He has been wearing this same pair for 5 days straight--afraid to take them off, in case bad vibes cause tragic losses in Sochi.  There wasn't as much turmoil in the house as the US didn't do as well as one of us had hoped.  Regardless, there was plenty of celebrating, and plenty of rubbing it in, going on in the Baker household.

Love, exciting and new. Come along, we're expecting you!---Woche 2

We had a great week!  Everyone got in on the Valentine's stuff.  Deagan and Dyllan had some fun ativities at school.  Dyllan celebrated in true American style with 4 cupcakes and 1 cookie. 

Dane decided to make his own Valentine's for his friends and teachers.  Dan and I had our Valentine's dinner party.  We spent two days preparing for it and getting everything ready.  We decided to do a Valentine's theme, of course:  We served strawberry soup, garnished with strawberry hearts.  Next we had a wedge salad, complete with homemade candied pecans, dried cranberries, cherry tomatoes, bacon, and choice of feta or bleu cheese.  We served rolls with heart-shaped pats of butter.  Next our main course was pork and veggie kabobs.  We put paper feathers and arrowheads on the skewers to make them look like cupid's arrow.  We also served baked potatoes.  One of the potatoes was even heart shaped!  For dessert we had a chocolate buffet.  We had turtle chocolate fondue with cheesecake, brownines, fruit, marshmallows, and pretzels to dip.  We also had chocolate covered strawberries, white chocolate covered marshmallows, and store bought candies.  We played some fun Valentine's themed games and had a great time.  Dan had the house all decorated with hearts and red paper lanterns.  It was so much fun!  We just had one little mishap.  Dan went to the church to borrow a table and chairs.  There were people there and he felt sheepish about taking a table from there.  So, he ended up going to IKEA and buying a new table and 6 new chairs.  We are very excited to have folding chairs, as they will always come in handy.  Our new table can accommodate 12 people (all be it scrunched), and it now sits in the dinning room.  Dane was excited to have the old kitchen table for his new Lego table in the play room. 

Dan took me dress shopping for the ball on Saturday.  We were able to find a couple of dresses as possibilities!! I was very excited to be able to find one that didn't need to be altered, as we are running out of time.  You'll have to wait for pictures for the ball.

We went to a professional Capitals hockey game on Saturday.  We all had a great time!  The Capitals lost in a shoot-out.  It was fun to get to see some high-level hockey.--not that we're not getting enough from the Olympics.  Go Canada!!  The kids got really interested in the game, after we bought them Kaisekriners, nachos and popcorn.

We took the kids out to McDonald's after the game, as a reward for all their help with the party.  We actually went in and sat down.  It has been over a year since we have done that.  It was interesting to note the clientele of the McDonalds here in Vienna.  There were a couple of kids, but most of the patrons were teenage kids, and an alarming amount tables filled with only adults.  I don't think that McDonalds is a hot spot for date night in the states.

After our party (not getting to bed until 2:00) and the night before not having a great night (baby up all night), I crashed on the couch on Saturday night.  I was asleep before Dan even could find something to watch.  When he woke me, I had waffle-face because I was sleeping on his waffle Henley.  He laughed and laughed at me, until he noticed the revenge I had already taken.  As I walked upstairs to bed, I laughed too, at the large pool of drool on his shirt.   

Lassen Sie den Beginn der Olympischen Spiele--Jahre 2, woche 1

So many words for something so easy to say!  This week we have been enjoying the Olympics!  We have watched more T.V. this week than we have for the last several weeks combined.  The good news is, we now have three different countries that we can cheer for, so the cheering is more abundant.  We still haven't caught everything, but we watch the highlights in the evening.  It is interesting to see the differences in the broadcasting from a different country.  It seems that the only highlights that we get to see in the U.S., have to do with the American athletes.  While I enjoy watching an American get a medal, I might be still interested in the sports where an American isn't the favorite.  Here, we get a lot of different sports, as the Austrians love winter sports altogether.  They televise the entire events, not just the highlights.  Go USA, go Canada, go Austria!!! (In that order, of course!--for some of us).  If Dan, the editor of the blog, gets his hands on this, it will be a different order.  We are excited to see Canada play Austria in the men's hockey in just a few days.  That should be good!  Dan is trying to favorably sway the vibes of the Canadian team by wearing his Team Canada hockey sweater to church today.  I made sure that I had on red, white, AND blue.  There's obviously going to be some healthy rivalry over the next couple of weeks in this family.  It's probably been years since the likes of this has happened (four to be exact).


Dane was able to play in another hockey game this weekend.  It was an exciting game because he got to play in the rink that the professional Viennese team plays in.  It was fun!  His team won pretty easily, at 13:2.


While at the ice rink, we discovered a new game.  There was a competition going on,on one sheet of ice.  We have seen this game before at the outdoor ice rink, but this is the first time that we have seen it in competition form.  From what we can figure, it is a mix between curling, shuffleboard, and horseshoes.  They throw little alien spaceship type things across the ice and try to hit the other ones at the other end.  We're not sure how you score or even the name of the game, but it seemed pretty popular, as the entire rink was filled with teams for the competition.  They had a whole bunch of flags representing the Austrian equivalent of state flags hanging at one end of the ice.  Thus, we assume that the teams came from all across Austria. Unlike curling, where you sweep the ice to alter the speed and curl of the stones, with this game, they unscrew the base and replace it with the appropriate base for the type of shot that they want to make, with no brooms or sweeping involved.  (Side note, we have since discovered the name of the game:   Eisstockschießen.  Translated to Ice Stock Shoot or Ice Stock Sport or Bavarian Curling.)



We have decided that we love Austrian soups.  It is becoming a habit that Dan will order soup every time he goes to a restaurant because he is never disappointed.  I have bought a few of the dry soup mixes that you just add water.  I think that our tastes have shifted slightly since living here, but I even love the soups from dry soup mixes.  We have tried the cream of garlic and cream of mushroom, and I will buy a few more to try those as well.  I think they are the perfect dinner for cold, busy days!  And what could be easier than adding water and boiling?  They are half the calories of Campbell's and don't contain as much salt either.  Just add a salad from the fridge and have Dan stop at the bakery, on the way home from work, for some fresh bread and you have a complete meal!

We have just been doing the same old stuff this week, but we did invite some friends over for a Valentine's dinner party.  We have been having fun trying to plan it all.  Love is definitely in the air!!  Dyllan will get to exchange Valentines in school.  Deagan can make them, but will not have a Valentine's party in his class.  Dane doesn't even want to discuss the meaning of Valentine's at his age.  He said he would gladly make Valentine's, but not for everyone.  I suppose there's just a few select girls that would be on his list (ha, ha!  But secretly we're hoping that they're cute).

We Made It!!-One Whole Year--Woche 52

It's hard to believe that we've been here for 1 year.  The time seemed to fly by, yet some things seemed to drag.  Looking back, it's been a good year, overall.  We've come a long way.  We are getting used to our surroundings.  Dan even said last week that he was ready to stay here for good.  "Ha, Ha," I said.  "I can't live without real pizza and steak, and who are you kidding, You can't either"  His smile kind of faded, and he agreed that we would eventually move back home.  We have LOVED getting to travel and see different parts of the world.  It has been so much fun. 

But life at home this week wasn't full of travel for anyone but Dan.  He went to Antwerp this week.  This is a regular occurrence and will be for the rest of our time here.  His meetings went well.  He finally got some of the break through that he's been waiting for.  He can finally move forward with his job, instead of being stuck, not being able to accomplish anything.

Dane was invited to play on the hockey team again.  This was his second time playing with the team.  It was exciting!  He got to play in the rink that had seats, so we finally got to sit and enjoy a game!  His team won the game 7:3.  It is fun to watch these kids play.  They're good little hockey players.  It is also fun to note, that the playing style is different here.  For the entire game, there were only 2 penalties called (one being too many men on the ice) and the other being a real penalty.  This is also a league where body checking is legal.  I think that I saw only a couple of hits, and they were just to edge the other kid away from the puck.  It comes across as a much "classier" style of playing, where the kids are there to play the game, not just out to get each other and retaliate and cheap shot each other throughout the game.

A friend of mine and I went shopping through Mariahilferstrasse (the main shopping district in Vienna).  We were looking for ball gowns for our ball.  We went to several stores, and tried on several dresses.  We were exhausted after the morning, and still hadn't found, "the dress".  A lot of shops carry these formal dresses.  It is kind of like shopping for Prom all over again.  I kind of thought that I was too old for such a frilly, poofy dress, but, I was assured, that these were perfectly acceptable for women of my age to the ball.  It still seems weird, so I don't know if I'll ever find the perfect one.  I'll try again next weekend.

While I was out painting the town with Liz, Dan, Csaba, and the kids all went bowling.  They had a great time.  Csaba pulled the win on the first game, and Dan couldn't be shown up, so he had to come through for the win on the second game.  The kids had a great time--except for Deagan, who somehow dropped the ball on his finger.  It was just a 6 lb. ball, but his finger looks like he may have broken the tip of it.  He was done bowling after that, so Danyon took over in his spot.  Danyon's debut went well.  He got a spare (without using the bumpers) on his first frame.



Deagan's finger

After the shopping and bowling, Liz, Csaba, Dan and I met for lunch at a fun little place called Inigo.  We had a fun lunch and it was fun to get out on a date without the kids.  I tried the spatzle for the first time.  These are very Austrian.  They are a potato based, homemade pasta, with cheese.  It was good.  Dan had an antipasta plate.  I have never seen so much prosciutto in all my life.  It was very good, with olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, salads, etc.  He is going back, just for that plate again. 

We finally figured out what all the costumes for the kids were for.  The Austrians celebrate Carnival throughout the entire months of January and February (ball season).  They really get into this whole facet of putting on a mask, and being someone else for a night--which rolls into the ball scene, with some of the balls, of course, being masquerade.  I haven't seen any specific activities set up for kids, but there sure are a lot of costumes, so maybe they have parties or something, in their families.

Dan had a surprise "Viennerversary" party for me.  He and Dane planned for 2 weeks.  They wanted to do something really fun to surprise me.  So, today (our actual 1 year anniversary of being in Vienna), Dane suddenly got sick at church and Dan had to bring him home (as he had puked in the hallway).  I had to stay after church for a primary meeting.  So, Dan left me with Deagan and Dyllan to finish up church.  Then, after church, our good friends told me that they would take the kids home for me, while I finished my meeting.  I had my meeting, and started to head home.  One of my friends needed to come to my house to get some electrical tools.  She came home on public transport with me.  When I got home, I walked into a full house of friends and yelling "surprise" and "Happy Viennerversary".  I was completely floored!  I hadn't suspected a thing!  All of the stories were made up--Dane wasn't even remotely sick!  It was all just a big plan to get everyone at our house for the party.  Dan and Dane made sure that we served all of our "favorite" Viennese foods.  Dan had appetizers with bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, all kinds of olives, salami, pepperoni, cheese, kaisekriners, german potato salad, and cream of garlic soup.  We had fresh grape juice and peach nectar along with Almdudler.  For dessert he made Austrian crepes (palaschinken) with vanilla ice cream (eis) and apricot preserves (marillen sosse).  It was so much fun to be surprised for our anniversary.  It was tons of fun and a perfect evening with friends.  I know that after reading this, you will all want Dan to plan your next big event--which he will gladly do---for the right price!