Christmas means Krampus.

In many ways, Christmas in Austria means much the same as it does in England; Christmas trees, Christmas carols, a time for family and friends, mulled wine (or Gluhwein as it's called here), roasted chestnuts (or Heisse Maronis) and general festivities. In other ways, however, it definitely does not. By this, I am of course referring to the Krampus.

From the first of December onwards, men (and women) all over Austria will dress up as these beast-like creatures, and terrorise the citizens, especially the children. They are usually brown or black, and wear a terrifying, but intricate, mask, have horns sometimes up to three feet long, and walk with cow bells attached to them, so you can always hear when they're coming. Oh, and they also carry a whip, with which they hit people so hard that 9 times out of 10, it will bruise.

A Krampus carrying two sticks!

The Krampus is the antithesis of Saint Nikolaus. Instead of rewarding the good children with gifts, as St Nikolaus does, the Krampus is said to capture particularly naughty children in his sack and carry them away to his lair in the mountains. The feast of St. Nikolaus is celebrated on the 6th December here, and he is often accompanied by Krampusse. The night before, however, the Krampusse often take to the streets by themselves, in a so-called Krampuslauf (Krampus run).

Unfortunately, I missed the Salzburg Krampuslauf on the 5th December, as I had to teach in the evening school. I met up with the others afterwards, however, and what horror stories they had to tell! Almost all of them had been hit at least once by the Krampus, and one of the group had even been carried off over the shoulder by one of them. Here are a couple of photos the other TAs took that evening:

The next evening, I was lucky enough (is lucky the right word?!) to go to a Krampuslauf in a small village outside of Salzburg, Sankt Johann. My host family told me that the Salzburger Krampuslauf is a lot more touristy than the ones in the smaller villages. In Salzburg, they are only allowed to have whips made out of cow/horse hairs for example, whereas in the smaller villages the whips (or ruten) are made out of birch sticks - and so naturally tut a lot more weh! They also said that the Krampusse from the villages are usually more vicious, as the events are a lot more alcohol fueled than the inner city ones. Sure enough, the Krampusse in Sankt Johann were separated from the crowd by barriers, whereas in Salzburg they'd been free to wander around the crowd, both police and ambulance were on stand-by, and it looked like the sticks hurt a lot more than the animal hairs. Each Krampus has a number attached to them, so that if they are badly behaved, they can be easily identified and banned from any future Krampuslauf. We saw numbers right up into the high 600's, and so I would guess that there were about 700 Krampusse that evening. 

Leaning over the barrier to attack the crowd

Close-up of a mask

One group of Krampus make an entrance

The scare/thrill you get when a Krampus comes near you is hard to explain, but I would liken it to that of the adrenaline you get on a rollercoaster. It's something you're apprehensive about at first (when you fist see the Krampus), fun in the middle (when the Krampus comes near), then you get a huge sense of relief once it's over (once the Krampus as left and you are unscathed). 

At various points in the Krampuslauf, people (usually teenage boys), would jump over the barriers and away from safety, the Krampus would then swarm around them, and they usually ended up getting beaten to a pulp. I just don't understand why someone would do that?! Here's a blurry picture of it happening, I think I was in too much shock to keep the camera steady :

As we were all stood a safe distance from the barriers, none of the group got hurt. As soon as the barriers were taken down however, we made a bit of a run for it. At a lot of these events, things have really kicked off towards the end of the evening, when things are a bit less controlled, and the alcohol has started to take its effect. We'd left the main area and were on our way to the train station, and saw a small Krampus group across the road. My stomach instantly dropped - there were no barriers now, we definitely weren't safe. As we were a group of 8 or 9 girls, we naturally attracted their attention and they immediately ran over. I spotted a Saint Nikolaus walking at the front of our group, so joined him and luckily the Krampusse left me alone. Unfortunately, the others weren't so lucky, and most were hit at least 3 times each. There were a lot of stinging legs on that train journey home!

Good Old Saint Nick!

There was another Krampuslauf on the weekend my family were here. This time it was a lot closer to the city centre, so the Krampus were not so vicious and in my (now hardened) opinion, not as scary. My family, as with many others, simply could not get over the idea that people were allowed to dress up as the monsters and run around hitting, (and in some villages even hospitalising) the locals. My brother, in particular, was terrified of the Krampus. When one came near him, (and do bear in mind this was the evening before his 18th birthday), he could only hide behind my mum and even pushed her towards the Krampus, instead of himself!

Hopefully that's made this, quite frankly, crazy Austrian tradition a little clearer. In case it hasn't, however, this article explains it all very well, and was written by a friend of mine in England who spent an Erasmus year here in Salzburg last year. All that's left to say on the matter of the Krampus, is that I would much rather take coal for being a naughty child anyday!

We caught a Krampus on their break - photo op!

My One Hour Working Week.

I met with Linda, the teacher from the evening school, again on Monday. As we'd gone to quite a traditional cafe last time, we decided to mix it up a bit and went to a more modern, Italian one instead. We had a nice long lunch, and some great conversation too (all in German - winner!). She spent a year studying in England, so we were swapping stories from university and having a great laugh. She found all of my stories from sharing a room particularly amusing, especially as in Austria it's not that common to live in halls at university, let alone in a shared room. In the afternoon, I went for another run and ran for a minute longer than last time. Not a great improvement I know, but an improvement nonetheless!

In the conversation class on Tuesday, we were talking about Christmas traditions in Austria and around the world. There are 3 Brits in the class, and it was surprisingly hard to explain what a Christmas cracker is, and when/why we have them. Most people couldn't get their heads around the idea that we had it with Christmas Dinner, but that it wasn't food, and found it even more bizarre that we wear silly paper hats while having our meal. I just take it for granted that that is what happens, so it was funny to see it as a new and strange tradition through everyone else's eyes.

Afterwards, I went into town to meet with a different Tandem Partner. She's from Austria originally, but lived in New York for 18 years and as she didn't mind whether we spoke German or English, we spoke German for the whole two hours which was great. She seemed really friendly and a lot more open-minded than most Austrian people I've come across so far, so it was much more successful than my last Tandem meet-up, and I'd happily meet up again. In the evening, I headed over to the 'Languages Exchange' couch surfer meeting again, with Alice and Cecilia. This time it took us a little longer to get talking to a native speaker, but we did in the end, which was great. At the end of the day, I'd spoken about 6 hours of German, and felt great about that. When I was working in France, I'd speak, or at least hear, 7 or 8 hours of French a day. In comparison to that, I am still speaking very little German here, but I have to create my own opportunities much more than in Paris. It's still something that is in the back of my mind, so I'm just trying to be as pro-active as I can, and days like this show that that must be paying off.

A group of us went to Cafe Tomaselli on Wednesday. It's one of the most famous cafes in Salzburg, and supposedly was a favourite hangout of Mozart and his wife! All of the waiters are in black tie, and the cafe has a fairly formal feel to it, but there's a good balance, and it's not so formal that you can't relax. They also do great cakes - I had a raspberry meringue type one, and it was delicious! Afterwards, we walked to the centre of the Altstadt to catch the Krampuslauf. This is an 'unusual' Austrian tradition, so I will dedicate a separate post to it, as it really does deserve one of it's own! Unfortunately, I had to teach at the evening school and so had to leave before the Krampusse came. It also turned out that I had a nightmare journey ahead of me. There was a student demonstration on the Staatsbrucke (the bridge which connects the two parts of the city), and so no buses could get from one side to the other. I was, of course, on the other side of town from where I needed to be, and the journey took about an hour and a half in total. This meant that I missed the first lesson, but luckily the teacher was very understanding. After the second lesson, I headed back into town and met the others for dinner at Stieglkeller, a traditional Austrian restaurant and a favourite of ours - we even have a table that we sit at everytime now! I was gutted to have missed the Krampuslauf, but all was not lost as the Krampusse (along with St. Nickolaus) paid a visit to the restaurant, and we must have been good this year, as our table was even given some sweets!

Thursday, the 6th December, was Sankt Nikolaus day here in Austria. The children usually put hang their shoes outside the night before, and in the morning, if they've been good (and their shoes were clean), Saint Nicholas will have brought them a present overnight. I didn't technically hang my shoes outside, but Saint Nicholas came for me anyway! He bought me a very nice new pair of gloves, along with some nuts and chocolates. That morning, I went with a few classes to the English theatre. They were playing 'A Picture of Dorian Gray'. The show was only an hour long, and the dialogue quite simple so that all of the Austrian students could follow it. It was very entertaining, and a much nicer way to spend the morning than teaching. In the afternoon, I went to the conversation class, and afterwards went to the train station to catch a train to Bishofshofen, an alpine village about 50 minutes outside of Salzburg, as we were all meeting for Emilia's (the TA who is based there) birthday meal. After the meal, a group of us went to Sankt Johann (another nearby village) for the Krampuslauf there. I won't write about it here, so watch this space for the Krampuslauf post, that will explain all about this strange strange tradition...

I'm not sure if you can work it out from this post or not, but I have had a huge amount of free time, and only taught for an hour in total in the past week! 'Week B' is normally the quieter week so I'm used to that, but this actually ran over back into 'Week A'. Three lessons on Wednesday morning were cancelled, I missed one on Wednesday evening due to the demonstration, went to the English theatre on Thursday instead of teaching, Thursday evening lessons were cancelled, and all lessons on Friday were cancelled as we had a seminar for the TAs. Most of my lessons were cancelled quite last minute, so I couldn't arrange to go travelling anywhere and have just been chilling in Salzburg. Having this much free time, as glorious as it is, did affect me a bit and I ended up feeling much more home sick than I have since arriving here in Austria. 

Luckily, this weekend my parents and brother had planned a visit to Salzburg, so they ended up arriving bang on cue...

Fitness, Freezing, and Football!

My day got off to an unusual start on Friday, as this was when I decided to take myself off for a run. Now don't get me wrong, I do like doing sports, but I've always done them as part of a team, and never as a solo venture really. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything here that still has space to sign up to, so on Friday I bit the bullet and went for a run. It only lasted about half an hour, and I just went around the lake outside my house, which I'm sure doesn't sound too monumental. As this is the only time in my life I can remember voluntarily going for a run, however, it will certainly stick with me as an experience here.

The rest of Friday was much less alarming. Another American TA was visiting Salzburg, so we went out to an Italian with him that evening. All I'll say about him is that he's definitely quite a character, and that I'm more than happy sticking to the American TAs we've got here for the foreseeable future! After the meal, we tried to go to the Augustinerbraeu for a drink, but unfortunately there was no more space. As Christmas comes closer, the tourists are really flocking in. As we're such a large group, this is a problem that we've encountered a couple of times, and we've definitely learnt our lesson now about reserving in advance (although for the weekends, the better places are already booked up right into the New Year). We opted for a different bar as well, which luckily had some space. As the restaurant didn't serve pudding, I was very excited to share an Apfelstrudel with Erika. I'd been told that the strudels here with good, and it definitely didn't disappoint. If anyone reading this ever gets to try a strudel here, I would definitely recommend that you ask for it with Vanillasosse. It's like custard, but oh so much better. After a while the bar started to get very smoky, so we called it a night and headed home.

On Saturday morning, the 1st December, I woke up to find that the Christkind (or christ-child - the traditional Christmas gift-bringer in Austria) had been and left me an Advent Calendar. I went downstairs to thank my host mum, but she just shook her said saying, "No no, it was the Christkind.". I then asked her to say thank you to the Christkind for me, and she said that she would. Afterwards, I headed into town, to meet the student from the evening school who was interested in a German-English exchange. We did an hour of English first, and then an hour of German. I'd not spent a prolonged amount of time with the guy before, so I didn't really know what to expect. It was alright, but he seemed pretty socially awkward, for lack of a better word to explain it. He was very open, perhaps too open, and something just wasn't quite right. From a language point of view - great, but otherwise I'm not so sure... 

Afterwards, I went to a carol service with the other TAs. It was held at the Nonnberg Abbey, which is famous for being 'Maria's Abbey' in the Sound of Music. The concert was short but sweet, lasting only about 45 minutes. There songs were in a mixture of languages and sung by the students at one of the TAs schools. They did a very good job and it was a nice way to spend the hour. We then headed to the Schloss Hellbrunn, a nearby castle, to visit the Christmas markets there. It was all very pretty, but as the weather was rapidly dropping, and so we only managed to stay for about an hour (and a cheeky Gluhwein of course!), before we all headed back as we were absolutely freezing. As we couldn't get in for dinner anywhere after (should have reserved - again!), the group dispersed and I went for cocktails with 3 others to finish off the evening/find somewhere warm to defrost! 

On Sunday, I'd learnt my lesson and made sure to wrap up warm before venturing outside! A group of us had tickets to the FC Red Bull Salzburg vs FK Austria Wien football match. We were sitting second row from the front, and so had prime seats for all the action. Unfortunately, despite a couple of near misses, the game ended 0-0, and so there wasn't that much action to be seen. This was actually the first football match that I've been to, and it was so interesting to take it all in. I particularly liked that the fans had an actual conductor, so they knew what to be chanting and when. There were a few firecrackers thrown onto the pitch, but they were quickly removed and apart from that the crowds were pretty well-behaved. Nevertheless, there was a great atmosphere and it was a nice (if a little chilly) way to spend a Sunday.

A definite highlight of the match was when the ball came into the crowd, and I CAUGHT IT! I had to throw it straight back so no keepsakes unfortunately, but I did take a picture of the ball once I'd thrown it back to the little guy waiting for it!

That evening I stayed in with the host family, and we ordered a Chinese. Again, there was just something about the way that Austrians do a Chinese that wasn't quite right. I stayed up chatting with the parents afterwards. I knew that the mum is a surgeon, but what I didn't know, was that she's a brain surgeon (!). She told me a few stories from her hospital, which was absolutely fascinating. One operation, for example, lasted from 9am until 4:30 am the next day (ie. went right through the night). I think I'll stick to my 13 hours a week being a Teaching Assistant for the moment thanks!

Eine weitere Woche ist verstrichen.

Now for the second post from last week with what I actually did.

Monday was a fairly normal teaching day. It was the last time that I taught the evening class on Monday evening, as from now on they are preparing to take their exams. The exams are offered twice a year, and as this group are taking theirs this semester, I am no longer needed. After the class, a student asked for my e-mail address and if I was interested in being a 'Tandem partner' (we'd speak half an hour German, then half an hour English etc). As he was no longer technically my student, I agreed and we arranged to meet that weekend.

On Tuesday evening, I headed to a Mexican restaurant after the conversation class. We'd been once before, and it definitely didn't disappoint this time. I must admit that I'm not a huge fan of Austrian food; it's a bit too 'stodgy' for my liking, and I find the flavours quite bland. At the Mexican, I shared some nachos to start, and then had fajitas, which came in about 4 separate dishes and managed to take up the majority of the table. It was very good food though, and we were all very excited to enjoy some actual flavours and spices for a change.

After the meal, I headed straight to a 'Language-exchange meeting' with two other TAs Alice and Cecila. It is a meeting organised by Couchsurfers, but you don't actually have to be a couchsurfer to come along. It's just meant for people who like travelling, so that they can share their experiences, and, as in the name, it's a place for you to practice different languages as well. As we'd been expecting, there were quite a few who had gone just to practice their English. We were quite lucky, as we managed to get chatting to an Austrian, and so the three of us were happily speaking away in German all evening. He had done quite a bit of couchsurfing, so had some cool stories from that to listen to, but seemed equally interested in us telling him a bit about what we're doing here, and our impressions of Austria.

On Wednesday, I went to the lecture on trans cultural communication in the morning. The lecturer spent about 12 years in the Far East, and interjects the lecture with lots of interesting anecdotes. A lot of the slides are also accompanied by pictures of him with the locals in various places, which adds a nice personal touch to the lecture.That evening, I was teaching a lesson on stereotypes. We were talking about British stereotypes, and one of the older guys in the class made some very negative, almost offensive, suggestions. I'm not sure if this was his genuine opinion, or if he was saying it to provoke his fellow classmates, which he does occasionally in his position as eldest in the class. Either way, it was pretty awkward and I dealt with it by just not writing his suggestions up on the board (but in a subtle way...). Luckily, the next lesson was a lot more relaxed. It was a lesson on British humour, and we basically spent the whole lesson watching videos on Youtube.

On Thursday, I went to another uni lecture, the convo class, and evening school but there's not much else to report from that. As my last post was fairly long, I'll leave it there for this week and document my weekend in the next one.

In other news, in addition to my runs (I have now gone on two runs, so yes, they are plural), on the 1st December I started the '100 Day Burpee Challenge'. It's pretty simple - on the 1st day, you do 1 burpee, 2nd day 2 burpees and so until the 100th day, when you bust out 100 burpees. It's going okay at the moment, and hopefully this will continue over the Christmas period...

Wer bin ich?

This week marks the end of my second month in Austria, meaning that I've been abroad for just over five months in total. As I was out for a run at the end of this week, three things dawned on me. A) I now consider 8:30 am a lie in, B) I couldn't remember the last time I had a nap, and, perhaps most shocking of all, C) I was (voluntarily) out for a run. I was forced to ask myself the question, "Wer bin ich?" (Who am I?).

I'm going to split this week into two posts; this post for a little more reflection, and another post for what actually happened this week.

As a direct result of the Year Abroad so far, I feel that I have become more independent, more culturally aware and matured a great deal.

As I now have to get up in time for work, rather than for sporadically timed university lectures, my body-clock has definitely changed. I can no longer sleep in past 8:30am (and if I manage to stay asleep that long, I would even call it a lie in!). As this earlier start means that I am also going to bed earlier, it looks as though I will staying in this 'good sleeping pattern' for the foreseeable future. I can't remember the last time that I saw 2am, let alone seeing in 2am just in time for settling down at the table with my fellow hyenas, as the hilarity unfolds late into the night once summative season is upon us, as was my life last year. Part of me does miss that way of life, which you'll only ever really experience as a university student. However, I also feel as though I have never seen so many mornings in a row, and it turns out that morning aren't all that bad!

Another reason for feeling more mature here, besides my very grown-up sleeping pattern, is that this insight into the 'real world' has given me a whole new wave of motivation for when I return to university next year. I'm excited to pick my modules, to attend my lectures, to type up my lecture notes, to organise my work well ahead of the deadlines, and generally to be the best student that I can be. Granted, that sounds a bit geeky, but after working in the office in Paris with lovely colleagues and interesting and varied tasks, I am striving to give myself the best chance at a graduate job (and hopefully one that I would enjoy as much as my job this summer). I want to graduate from Durham in 2014, knowing that I tried my best in everything I did there.

By this point, I have 'upped ship' and moved twice. Both times to a completely new country, with a different culture, and had to settle in, adjust, and make new friendship circles. It shouldn't be underestimated how much of a task this is, and I can say that I am genuinely proud of myself, as I reckon I'm doing pretty well so far. Back in England, I have a good family life, and was very happy at university, and so was rarely forced outside of my comfort zone. The fact that I have done this successfully, makes me think that I'm a lot more independent than I may have given myself credit before, and that's good to know.

In other news, the cultural differences here in Austria are still coming thick and fast. I am noticing more and more how relaxed things are here, in comparison to England.

One example of this is at school. As well as there being no school uniforms and the children walking round school in what are essentially slippers, the whole teacher-student relationship seems to be a lot more 'locker' (relaxed). In England, if a student hasn't done their homework, the class will generally be stopped while this child is told off, and the appropriate disciplinary action is taken. Here in Austria, however, the teacher simply nods, and notes down a 'minus' next to their name. No shouting, no screaming, no threats of detention. Just a small mark next to their name and they move on with the class. Some teachers even ask the class to raise their hand if they haven't done their homework, and mark down the names of those that haven't. In England, it definitely wouldn't fly if half of the class had failed to complete the homework, but here the teacher doesn't even seem to bat an eyelid. The same goes for talking in class. In England, the rule is that no-one speaks when the teacher is speaking. If you speak, and continue to speak after being asked not to, you would invariably be told off/sent outside the room/given a detention/you get the idea. Here, however, the teachers carry on regardless and seem to have the attitude that the students will listen if they want to, and not if they don't. I sometimes find this awkward in class, as my natural instinct is to tell the students to be quiet. I'm slowly getting used to just letting them get on with it. As most of my lessons are playing games to get the students talking, the majority end up listening anyway as it's more fun for them than a normal lesson! I actually think that this more relaxed attitude has a lot of advantages. Although some of the younger classes aren't as well behaved as their equivalent in England, the older classes are probably more so. The good thing is that it comes from the students themselves, rather than the teachers. The students don't seem to be as 'mollycoddled', and when a teacher here has the respect of their students, it's because they've earned it, rather than demanded it, which in my eyes can only be a good thing.

The second example of the Austrian's more relaxed attitude is unfortunately not something I'm such a fan of. They have a very half-hearted smoking ban here, which means that legally, bigger restaurants/pubs have to have a non-smoking area, and that smaller places can decide whether they allow smokers or not. Unfortunately, the majority of smaller places have opted to continue to allow smoking, which means that non-smoker or not, you cannot escape the smoke in these places. For the bigger places, although they do have separate areas for non-smokers, they are usually separated by a swinging door, which means that the rooms ends up smoky anyway, or you have to walk through the smokers area to access the non-smokers area. So, either way, you and your clothes end up smelling of smoke and the end of the night, which as I'm sure you can tell, I find less than pleasant. I'm already looking forward to the next time I'm in England and can go out for a nice meal or coffee with a friend, without smoke being omnipresent, as it is here.

I'll end with one more observation, and finish on a more positive note. Something that they are very good at doing here in Austria, is splitting the bill for you at the end of the meal. It is so much easier to pay directly for what you've had, rather than working out how much you owe, and then trying to find the right coins (especially as euro coins all look the same!), and then working out who owes what in terms of a tip etc. It makes a nice change to skip out the stressful end to the meal as we attempt to pay, and instead to be able to walk out of the restaurant nice and relaxed after enjoying a meal with friends.

That's it in terms of reflections for now, and I'll leave you with a few pictures of the beautiful city of Salzburg, which I am lucky enough to be able to call my home (at least until February!).

Steve in Salzburg.

The weekend of Friday 23rd to Monday 26th November was one I'd been looking forward to a while, as it meant that Steve was coming to Salzburg!

There were no cheap, direct flights so he had to fly Manchester to Munich, which meant a bit of a nightmare 14 hour journey. He arrived in Salzburg around 3pm, we went home and he spent the afternoon sleeping off the journey. Since being in Austria, I've somewhat lost the ability to nap (I will elaborate on this is a future post), so I spent the afternoon pottering quietly and trying not to wake him up. He eventually rose and we went downstairs to have dinner with the family. There was a definite language barrier at the table, as as the parents were away in South Africa, the grandmother was there looking after the children. She doesn't really speak a word of English, and the children are still talking to me in German so there was no way they were going to start talking to this stranger in English. There was a lot of translating on my side, a few hand gestures, but also a bit of awkward silence until the children gave up and started their own conversation.

Afterwards we took the bus into town and Steve (a massive Christmas fan) admired the Christmas lights of Salzburg. We headed to Augustinerbraeu to meet a few other TAs. This is by far my favourite brewery in Salzburg. The rooms are huge and always full, so there's such a great atmosphere. I love that so many people are in Tracht (traditional dress), and I still find the process of filling up your own beer mug very exciting. As an added bonus we managed to get a table in a non-smoking room this time, which made a huge difference. We stayed drinking beer, chatting and laughing until closing time, 1am. Everyone was very welcoming to Steve and we all got along really well. We made a mad dash to try and catch the last bus home but had left it too late, so ended up getting a taxi home.

On Saturday we had a lazy morning and headed into the Altstadt just after lunchtime. We picked up some food and then started walking up the Moenschberg together. I'd now call this a 'mini mountain', so a safe bet for anyone who isn't into the Austrian way of 'hiking'. We stopped just under half way up so sit down on a bench, eat our food and generally enjoy the magnificent view over Salzburg. We were lucky with the weather as the day before had been quite cold and foggy, but today the skies were clear, it was even quite sunny (!) and we could see right over the city. After a few stops to take the view in along the way, we reached the Festung (fortress) about an hour and a half later. We went in and it was pretty interesting to look around. In the tour they explained how the name 'Salzburg' comes from 'Salz', meaning salt, and 'Berg', meaning mountain, and about the importance of salt in the city's history. Thinking about it now, this seems pretty obvious, but it was a good fact to come away with. We also made it up the viewing tower which had a spectacular view over the city in all of its Christmas glory.

We took the funicular back down and made a bee-line for the Christmas markets. We had a look around for about half an hour before stopping for a Bratwurst and Gluehwein. Steve then proceeded to eat a pretzel bigger than his face, while I opted for some chocolate covered strawberries. Wandering around the markets hand in hand felt so Christmassy and perfect. I love looking around at what each of the different stalls has to offer, and there is a high chance for anyone receiving a Christmas present from me this year that at least one part of it will be purchased here! After having a good nose around, we decided to look for a cafe to have a sit down. Unfortunately, as it was Saturday evening, everywhere was packed already so we ended up heading home instead.

I had asked Steve to bring over some Yorkshire Puddings, so that we could contribute something to the Thanksgiving celebration planned for Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, they hadn't lasted his 14 hour journey so well, and when he went to take them out of his bag when he arrived, he pulled out a box of liquidy mush that looked very sorry for itself. We put it straight into the freezer, to try and salvage at least some of the puddings. On Sunday morning, we went back to the freezer to see what had become of them. It didn't look great, but we decided to soldier on in our attempt to give the Americans 'a taste of England'. We did what we could, but unfortunately the end result left a lot to be desired...

It was around this point that things started to go downhill...

We headed over to Rachel Fry's flat, where 'Thanksgiving' was being hosted, and were greeted by a wonderful spread of food as thankfully everyone else's cooking endeavors had gone better than ours. I piled my plate high with turkey, mash potato, carrots in a boubon jus (delicious), olive salad, and anything else you could dream of having at a really good roast dinner! We spent the afternoon playing games, which included old classics such as 'Mafia' and 'Wink Murder', and new favourites such as 'Chicken Goggles' and 'The Hat Game'. In the third round of 'The Hat Game', you say one word and your team try to guess which word is on your piece of paper. As a testament to the catastrophe of our cooking attempt, one word said was 'failure', and the team immediately guessed 'Yorkshire Puddings', which was shamefully the correct answer. I can only apologise to everyone again, especially the Americans who were looking forward to trying them!

Although Thanksgiving doesn't mean nearly as much to us Brits as to the Americans, it was a great afternoon and it really did make me appreciate the wonderful group of TAs that are here in Salzburg. To top off the weekend, Steve borrowed Tim's Lederhosen just before we left, and we got this picture together, which is potentially my most favourite one of us ever taken!

My most favourite picture ever!

The girls in dirndls.

The weekend went far too quickly and on Monday morning it was already time to drop Steve off at the station and go back to work. However, it won't be too long until we see each other again at Christmas, and in the meantime I've got some great memories from his weekend here to be going on with.