Home Sweet Home

Hello everybody!  I made it home safe and sound, although there were some problems along the way.  Despite that, I am happily home now!  I arrived in Norfolk, Va. on Thursday at around 4 p.m.  My dad greeted me at the airport.  It was so nice to see him!  We drove home, and my mom came running out of the house with my new puppy, which I haven't met in person yet (only on video chat).  I had always wanted to decorate our house with Christmas lights, so my mom surprised me with Christmas lights outlining our house!

My mom also had another surprise waiting for me.   As I walked to my room, it had a "CAUTION" banner on the door.  As she opened the door, I had to close my eyes.  When I opened them, to my surprise, my room had been completely changed!  She bought new furniture for me and painted the entire room!  It looked as if she raided the store, Pier 1 Imports!  I loved my newly decorated room!  After seeing my room for the first time in three months, I had dinner waiting for me in the kitchen.  It was nice not cooking dinner for once!  One thing I really missed in Austria was sushi, so my parents had sushi waiting for me! 

I was only able to enjoy one full day at home on Friday for I traveled to Connecticut on Saturday to visit Quinnipiac and my old friends from my prep school, The Gunnery.  I drove 8 hours although I was already really exhausted from my trip home from Austria.  I arrived in Connecticut just in time for a 4 o'clock game at the TD Bank Sports Center.  The Quinnipiac women's ice hockey team was playing Princeton!  It was nice to see my teammates and some of the fans!  As the team beat Princeton the night before, they continued their winning streak and beat Princeton at home!  They won their sixth straight victory and Coach let them go out for some drinks that night!  I was really happy that I was able to party with my teammates that weekend.

After spending Saturday night with my old teammates, I traveled to Southbury, Conn. to spend some time with my prep school friends for I hadn't seen most of them in over a year!  We all went out to dinner on Sunday night, and then we went to a sports bar in Watertown to watch some football and have some drinks.  The next day, I returned home.  It was a great weekend seeing all my old friends!

I am tired from all my traveling, so I don't think I will be doing much traveling for awhile, although I am going to Washington, D.C. today.  My mom bought my brother and I two tickets to see a Washington Capitals game as part of our Christmas present!  My brother and I will be driving to Washington, D.C. to see my favorite team play the Philadelphia Flyers at 7 p.m. tonight!  I'm excited to watch the "Caps" play live since I had been watching them play on little screen on my laptop for the last three months in Austria!

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My Trip Home for Christmas

On Wednesday, I will be traveling for 27 hours and four minutes in order to get back home to Virginia.  I leave from Vienna International Airport on Wednesday at 7:40 p.m. and arrive at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol at 9:40 p.m.  I have a 10-hour and 55-minute layover in Amsterdam, so I booked a hotel room so I could get a good nights rest before I travel in the morning.  I leave Amsterdam at 8:35 a.m. on Thursday and arrive at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport at 11:25 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time).  This is obviously my longest flight as I travel across the Atlantic Ocean for a total airtime of eight hours and 50 minutes.  My departure time from Detroit is 2:05 p.m.  I arrive at Norfolk International Airport at 3:54 p.m.  Hopefully, there will be no delays or cancellations for my trip is already well-over 24 hours.  My total airtime for my entire journey home is 12 hours and 39 minutes.  I'm looking forward to coming back home to the States and seeing all my friends and family!  I return to Austria from my Christmas break on Wednesday, Jan. 4.  A map of my trip home is displayed below.


View My trip home in a larger map

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Wiener Christkindlmarkt

On Wednesday, my boyfriend, Michi Schmieder, took me to visit the Christmas markets in Vienna.  The Vienna Christmas market, or Wiener Christkindlmarkt in German, has been a special attraction to Vienna residents and visitors for more than 700 years.  Merchants and traders gather to form a market for potentially selling their products (sweets, toys, clothes, jewelry, and other Christmas goods).  Once we got into the city, there were several Christmas markets around the area, but we found a parking spot near Rathaus, or city hall, where a large Christmas market was located. 

An alignment of small huts created a market in front of the hall.  The smell of candied apples, roasted chestnuts (maroni), pretzels (Bretzeln), and glühwein formed an aroma in the air.  Glühwein is a traditional beverage offered and drunk in German-speaking countries during the Christmas holidays.  It is usually prepared from red wine, heated and spiced with cinnamon sticks, vanilla pods, cloves, citrus, and sugar.

We had glühwein on Sunday when we went to a soccer game, so we decided to have punsch this time.  Punsch is similar to glühwein in that it is also a traditional warm beverage in Austria.  It contains rum-marinated orange slices or berries that are usually prepared in a cup of hot-spiced red wine, like glühwein.  We had the berry punch, or Beeren Punsch.  It was delicious.  It tasted similar to a hot, berry-flavored tea.  I enjoyed it even more because it brought some warmth to my freezing body.

As we drank our punch in the cold Austrian weather, Michi was hungry, like all boys usually are.  He ordered langos toast, which was like a fried dough with meat and cheese in the middle.   We continued to drink our punch and we ate our langos toast.  Of course, Michi ate two on his own.

After we finished our drinks and food, we proceeded to look around the market for Christmas gifts for my family back home in America.  We stopped at one hut that made fresh crepes, so we tried one.  It was a warm rolled-crepe with Nutella and banana slices inside.  It was even more delicious than the punch!

As we walked around some more, we met up with Michi's brother, Alexander.  He bought us another round of punch.  After we finished this round of punch, we walked through the market once more.  Michi stopped at another hut and ordered some roasted chestnuts, or maroni, since I have never tried them.  They were also really good.

Once we finished shopping and walking around the market, we went to a nearby restaurant to have a couple beers.  It definitely was nice being in a warm atmosphere rather than the cold outdoor area of the market.  After we finished our beers, we went to his brother's apartment, which was located about 15 minutes outside the city.  There, I met his girlfriend, dog, and two cats.  After spending some time with his brother, we drove nearly an hour back home to Mürzzuschlag.  I had a great day seeing the Wiener Christkindlmarkt for the first time, and especially tasting all the delicious food and drinks!

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"With Sturm, Glühwein and Cooked Rabbit"

"With Sturm, Glühwein and Cooked Rabbit"

1. November 2011

"The Neuberg Highlanders remain undefeated in the Damen Eishockey Bundes Liga, as we won our seventh consecutive match in the league.  We beat Gipsy Girls Villach on Saturday, 11:2.

After a great match, I decided to attend another sporting event the next day.  On Sunday, I went to my first futbol game.  In America, we call it „soccer“ and the sport doesn’t seem to be as popular as it is in Europe.  It was interesting observing how wild Austrian fans can be at these futbol games.  As the crowd cheered loudly for Sturm Graz, I silently enjoyed my first taste of gluehwein.  We don’t have such a drink back home in America.  It tasted like hot apple cider, and it seemed to really hit the spot, especially since I was freezing my butt off watching a futbol game outdoors.

After the game, my boyfriend, Michi Schmieder, and I went to have dinner with his parents.  This marked my second dinner date with his parents, so I was not as nervous as the first time.  I think I was more nervous for what we were about to eat.  His mom cooked rabbit, but they called it Gebratener Hase.  Rabbit is also not a popular dish that someone would eat in America, but I tried my first rabbit anyways.  To my surprise, I enjoyed it.  It tasted similar to turkey or chicken. 

Although I enjoyed trying rabbit and gluehwein, I am looking forward to returning home on Wednesday and having some authentic American food and drinks!"

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