Spoiler: Don’t read this if you’re feeling hungry!

Pic: now not such a rare sight! Pizza in Greece.

Recently, it has struck me how many things I now appreciate that I really didn’t before. These are mostly food-related, hence the spoiler alert. For example, when I was younger I had something irrational against pizza. I can’t explain why, but it wasn’t until I ate a proper pizza in Italy that I began to realize what I was missing. Furthermore, as I have travelled, I have broadened my horizons as well as my taste buds to the point where I will try everything and anything at least once.

 So now I’m surprised to find myself eating foods like sweet potatoes, broccoli, pesto, peanut butter and mushrooms rather often. A few years ago, you wouldn’t see me eating any of these! There seems to be no limit now to the possibilites for my palette. I have to thank my younger brother for bringing sweet potatoes into our lives - I now swear by them as the best side dish for almost every meal. It's just a pity they're not really grown in Europe. 

I also turn out to be quite a fan of very hot, spicy food, whether it be Indian, Nepalese, Mexican or whatever! The more spice, the better. I became accustomed to this when I lived in Finland; that may seem unorthodox considering Finnish food is not known to be particularly spicily scrumptious, but I’ll address that later. My love of hot food developed thanks to my Bangladeshi neighbour whilst living in Finland, who made the best, spiciest, chicken curry that I’ve ever tasted.

Back to Finnish food. Despite it’s poor reputation in the food department, which can be relatively justified (if only by Mammi or the opinion of Gordon Ramsey), it can be accredited with my fresh appreciation of fish and reindeer meat. Generally, with the expense and rather poor quality of meat, fish is a much better alternative in Finland. Nevertheless, reindeer meat proved to be a delicious treat, especially when served as the main dish of a Sami buffet in Lapland! This was one of the best eating experiences I've ever had, thanks to Matti for the idea to go there. Reindeer ribs, reindeer leg, reindeer tongue, you name it, they eat it! And it is a beautifully tender meat that simply melts in the mouth.

Picture: Ulster Fry. Potato bread=the best.

So many people have influenced my improved and growing palette: My mum, who serves the best fishcakes and pavlova (not together of course!), amongst many other creative dishes. My dad, who makes simply the best Ulster Fry in the land – the signature dish of Northern Ireland that can’t be matched elsewhere. My granny, who introduced me to the best chocolate cake, ice cream, peppermint creams, and homemade stew. My man, Tom, who continuously inspires me with the best spontaneously cooked meals. Eni, my best chef and educator about food, whose dishes I simply can’t get enough of. Nipoon, for enticing me to try the best, homemade, spicy food that would light my tastebuds on fire with a hearty warmth;  and Henri, who became the best provider of opportunities to cook and eat together, a tradition that I long for and value more and more … There are of course so many others who have also featured in my international recipe book and have brought a new lease of life to my palette!

Here in Austria, I’ve tried a few curious new dishes that I never would have thought would work in combination with each other. For example, in a local Einstein restaurant I had heated brown bread with brie and apple slices – mouth-wateringly good! It was also my first time trying different flavours of ice cream: the highlights and most unexpectedly good flavours being poppy seed ice cream and cinnamon ice cream.

Furthermore, I have previously, strongly underestimated vegetarian food, which is sometimes, or more often than not, the better option. Sushi is also something I'm becoming a big fan of. Although, I do miss proper meat – for me, meat tastes best at home. I maintain that the “meat deal” one can avail of at St George’s Market in Belfast delivers the best meat around for the best price. I could sell it myself but I hope I’m far beyond my first job working in the butcher section of a supermarket!

It's interesting how drastically your taste can change during your lifetime. Sometimes our tastebuds just haven't been exposed to the range of quality flavours that are out there and opening yourself to new cultures and possibilities is the best way to enhance your experience of food. And especially, finding healthy food more attractive to eat, instead of being sucked into the trap of a vicious cycle of junk (easily done.) 

In short, I’ve come to realize that healthy food can be really tasty if cooked creatively. Don’t get me wrong though, I’ll still be occasionally accustomed to a good ol’ dirty McDonalds, or the sweet treats that are impossible to resist in Vienna, Switzerland or at home.

Productive Times

This has been by far the most productive week I’ve had in terms of dealing with practical issues mainly relating to the prospect of staying in Austria longer than originally planned. My Comenius contract is for ten months (the school year, Sept-June); meanwhile, I’ve been searching for possibilities once this has ended. 

After networking as much as possible, I landed an interview with an interesting European primary school, with the main language of instruction being English. I was invited back to teach a 15-minute trial lesson followed by a second interview. I jumped at the very promising chance of a job possibility but also found myself facing the challenge of teaching within such a short time frame; the only instructions for which were: no games, songs or introductions allowed, only normal teaching and something connected to the English language. That narrows it down a bit. All I knew was that I’d be teaching for 15 minutes in a third grade class (children aged 8 or 9) and there would be 18 children in the class. This school has a cap on the number of children admitted, with 18 being the maximum per class. Ideal. 

I decided that I would use the famous children’s book, The Gruffalo, as I anticipated that most (if not all) of the children would know the book. My idea was that they would first receive a black and white version of the Gruffalo character and describe him without using colours. After receiving some descriptions and writing them on the board, they could then also describe the colours, using a coloured version I’d pinned on the board. I underlined the descriptive words used, which they identified as adjectives.

The next task was to create a ‘girl Gruffalo’ using as many adjectives as possible and I would use their descriptions to draw the new character on a mini chalkboard, without letting them see. The children responded really well to this activity and most of them contributed something. A few I had to settle as they were a little too talkative but it was a good opportunity to show how I manage a class, as the Principal of the school was watching. After the girl Gruffalo was complete, I showed them what I had drawn according to the descriptions they had given. It was rather amusing and I could use the new character as a way to end the short lesson by saying that the girl Gruffalo must go now and says goodbye! 

In the end, it was a success and I enjoyed the short time I had to teach normally, or as normal as possible in that situation. It has been a long time since I’ve been able to teach a class ‘normally’, meaning that they understand everything I say and there is no need to translate or repeat things many times because of the language barrier. The language barrier exists in my Comenius teaching so either I can teach small groups myself, or the whole class with the help of the regular class teacher. In the European school, the interview following the trial lesson also went very smoothly and I was asked if I would be interested in teaching there from March onwards, just one day a week while I finish my Comenius contract, and then hopefully more full time from September 2014. This seems ideal for me, although we still need to discuss the details but that will happen after Christmas; now is a very busy time for schools!

Now that the idea of staying in Austria for a while longer seems to be strengthening, I have taken action this week to facilitate this. Firstly, I officially registered my residence here at the immigration office. This is necessary if you want to stay more than three months. It is basically just a way of making money in my opinion, but at least I think it’s a bit cheaper if you’re an EU citizen. It cost me 30€. It is rather strange system here though because before this registration, you must apply for a ‘Meldezettel’ which is probably the single most important document required for everything here: it registers you to an Austrian address to which you can then receive post, open a bank account or set up a contract. Supposedly, one must apply for a Meldezettel within 3 working days of living in Austria, which is rather unrealistic if you ask me. 

Nevertheless, having completed the necessary bureaucracy, I decided it’s time to improve my internet connection, because since I’ve been living in Vienna I have been using a prepaid internet stick which not only limits my internet usage, but is also uneconomical. It works out cheaper and more efficient to set up my own internet contract to have wireless in my flat. I had originally tried asking the neighbours if I could use theirs and pay something towards it, like I did in Lithuania, but they insist that they don’t use wireless. Either they just don’t want me to use it and didn’t want to say that, or this country is as behind the times as it sometimes seems.

Regardless, in order to set up a direct debit for the internet, I had to open an Austrian bank account. I was pleased to find that this was rather straightforward; after booking an appointment online, I went to the bank, was offered tea or coffee, and appointed a personal consultant whom had already prepared all the necessary documents. After opening the account, I was able to create an internet contract with the help of a friend who works for an internet provider. I’m very lucky that I happen to meet the right people who make everything so much easier. So, a date has been set for the installation of wireless in my apartment and I shall start the New Year with a new internet connection!

In the meantime, I have been trying to bring some technology into my Comenius work by showing the 4^th grade children a video by Matti, a good Finnish friend of mine and also a Comenius Assistant in Norway, and his Norwegian students. The idea is to create our own video in reply but to do this I first had to send permission slips to all the parents and wait for all of them to be returned (which of course takes some time, especially as there are always a couple of kids who forget!) 

Then, to show the video, I had to locate the only ‘beamer’ in the school (what I call a projector, they call a beamer, because a projector to them is an old-school, overhead projector which is still commonly used.) It is kept in a locked cupboard in the staffroom but unfortunately not many people knew which cupboard, or where the key is kept. Eventually though, I managed to make it work using my own laptop with the projector. The kids showed a lot of interest and we set about making our own video. So far, we have done all the preparation, the groups and topics have been organised and everyone knows more-or-less what they will say. 

Now it’s just a matter of ‘shooting’ the video. There have been several obstacles in the way of this, from unexpected events in school (like a visiting theatre company) to sick days. Therefore, it may be the case that I’ll have to make multiple videos with the small groups and put it together as one. I have been learning how Movie Maker functions so I’m ready for this possibility! Regardless, I plan (and hope) to complete it by the end of next week. Fingers crossed the productive times continue!

Swiss-ness and Christmas - does it get much better than this?

It’s not often that I write about Switzerland, despite the fact that it has a strong influence in my life (thank you Thomas) and I have spent quite a lot of time there during the past three years. This small, successful, overpopulated, central European country has a lot to offer and fulfils, rather effortlessly,  the dreamy stereotype it tends to have. Swiss chocolate: to die for, Swiss watches: top notch, Swiss army knives: a practical essential, Swiss cheese: delicious, Swiss cows with bells on: easy to see why the cheese is amazing! Let’s not forget the Swiss Alps: WOW, and Kambly biscuits: if you don’t know what they are you’re missing out on something!

Pic: My fave Kambly biscuits

All of these luxuries of course come at a price and Switzerland also manages to live up to its reputation of being incredibly expensive. This, for the most part, is true. However, I’m lucky because having a Swiss boyfriend means I usually don’t need to spend much and he knows all the tricks and tips. We have visited many places in Switzerland together, including Bern of course, Geneva, Zurich, Zermatt (where the Toblerone mountain is in the Alps), Luzern, Murten, Thun, and many more! 

However, until very recently, I had never been to a cinema in Switzerland. This was mainly because it is ridiculously expensive, but we had an excuse to go this time as Tom’s friends invited us and we had free tickets! It was a silly, easy-to-watch movie that I’m glad we didn’t pay for! Nevertheless, it was interesting for me because I found it so strange that in a standard 90 minute movie, they have a break in the middle. Perhaps it’s a good idea during longer movies, like Titanic or Lord of the Rings, but I don’t really find it necessary during a 90 minute movie. It is just convenient for those with weak bladders, hunger or a need to smoke.

Recently, I spent a long weekend in Bern visiting Tom, his family and friends, and playing the tour guide to a friend from Finland, currently living in Zurich as an au pair. Bern is not a typical capital city, mainly because it doesn’t display much of the busy hustle and bustle of big city life. Rather, it oozes charm from the UNESCO World Heritage old town and against the backdrop of the Alps, on a clear day, it sets a stunning scene. Switzerland may seem annoyingly perfect, and in many ways it is, but it doesn’t exist without its own problems, for example, its issues with drugs and overpopulation.

Nevertheless, we spent a lovely Sunday together showing Emmi around the beautiful Bern: We climbed the steps of the highest bell tower in Switzerland, the Münster-Turm, and admired the view; we observed the bears (the bear being the symbol of Bern) in the bear pit, one of which is named Finn because he was born in Helsinki; we caught a special light show at the Government plaza, Bundesplatz, that impressively told a story on the front of the old building; and finally, after a Swiss-filled day, we enjoyed something different in an Ethiopian restaurant, where we simply ate with our hands from a shared basket of our orders, full of flavour and spicy hotness. 

I have spotted a little Swiss-ness here in Vienna, especially at the Christmas markets. The cheese stalls have an area dedicated to Swiss cheese, typically Emmental (yes, that’s Swiss, don’t trust Lidl.) It’s great when they also offer samples and I can have a taste of Switzerland in Austria. It’s a pity they don’t do the same with chocolate.

There is a great variety of Christmas markets here in Vienna, from huge, tourist-filled ones; to cute, cosy, wee Christmas markets. So far, I have been to a mixture of both at the town hall, the Rathaus; an old, traditional, festive market at Freyung; a student-filled market at the university campus that was previously a hospital, the Altes AKH; and in the local Weihnachtsmarkt in my district, set in the lovely surroundings of a park with ponds and fountains, the Türkenschantzpark. There are countless Christmas markets here and I would still like to see a few more of the main ones at Karlsplatz, Spittelberg and Schönbrunn. I’m glad there are still a few weeks to conquer them! Each of them have something unique to offer and there are many varieties of Punsch on offer (a rum-based punch with different flavours to choose from, such as orange, Bailey’s or raspberry), as well as Glühwein, which is a kind of mulled wine.

Such festive markets create a wonderful atmosphere where I feel Christmas can really be enjoyed with people and laughter. Of course, the real Christmas joy is evident in very excitable children and the kids at the school where I’m working provide no exception. As Advent approaches, everything is almost revolving around Christmas and the Weihnachtsfeier evenings when they will perform in front of their parents. I’m involved in several of these as well, as the teachers are eager for the children to recite a poem or sing a song in English. I’m also quite excited to see how they turn out.