December 2008

Happy Winter Holidays to one and all!



I hope this little blogletter finds each of you happy, healthy and warm. As the holidays approach it becomes a time of great joy but also, I discovered, a time of some meloncholy when we think of those who are not near us or whom we miss at this time of year. I have, however, discovered that there is great joy in embracing the moment, celebrating where you are and appreciating those with whom you find yourself. There is so much to enjoy, I hope not to miss a single morsel of the season.



Since I last wrote I hosted a traditional American Thanksgiving in my apartment for 40 of my nearest and dearest friends. Just like last year, we had people who joined us who had never had an American Thanksgiving. Some had never had turkey, many had never eaten so much in their lives. We even managed to find a little American football on CNN and were able to laugh together while trying to explain the game to people who found no sport at all in running into each other and knocking each other down, just so they could carry a ball down the grass. We tried to explain that it was soccer for barbarians but the irony seemed a bit lost in the translation. Oh well, one can't always explain tradition. We had a great time and it was a great kick off to the holidays.



The cold weather, snow and Christmas lights have arrived in Vienna as I know they have in many parts of the world. It is fun to see that no matter where you may travel or where you may go, people find a very special way to celebrate the winter season. My muslim students are celebrating transitions with food and prayer, my Jewish students are excited for the candles of the menorah to be lit and whether it's Sankt Nicolaus, Peetz, or Krampus you await, it's a time of great joy and anticipation.



I thought it might be fun to share with you my experiences this month by sharing some of the Austria Christmas traditions. I've had fun experiencing new things and adding some of them to my own traditions and then sharing it all with wonderful friends. What a great life it is!



The Christmas lights were lit in the streets and neighborhoods of Vienna in early December and are beautiful to see each afternoon as I drive home from school. Now that daylight savings time is over it gets dark in Vienna at 4:15 in the afternoon. This makes it a little hard on the internal clock to figure out whether it's time to go shopping and exercising or if it's time to go to bed. Ooops, can't go to bed, it's only 5:30. Quite interesting.



Instead of going to bed it is popular to partake of the Christkindl Markts. These are little markets set up throughout the city which sell every imaginable form of decoration, gift and goody that you can imagine. I'm sure I told you about them last year. This year, since I'm a veteran Christmas market shopper, the focus is not on shopping, but on meeting friends at the markts and having a cup or six of Gluhwein or Punsch. Gluhwein is hot spiced wine and Puncsch is like hot fruit punch with a ton of alcohol and sugar in it. I recommend both highly. I discovered recently that they have tremendous medicinal powers as well. There is a tradition here in the mountains and countryside villages that before Sankt Nicolaus comes on December 6, his arch rival and alter ego, Krampus, comes and give sticks and coal to children who have been bad. I have been told that this tradition originated from Pagen ceremonies centuries ago when beings with long furry hair, faces like monsters with long curly horns, wearing giant cowbells ran through the city chasing the evil spirits away in preparation for the coming of winter. Well, this has transformed into a ritual known as Perchten. These big hairy monsters run through the towns wielding whips and sticks and hit those in their path as a way of chasing out the evil spirits. Thus, you are "beat" clean for the upcoming year. Well, not being one to shun a cultural experience, some friends and I went to a gathering where we knew the Perchten would be. It was amazing! Such a visual and cultural treat. There were about twenty of the beings, each armed with a horse tail sized whip made of leather strips (I'm told called a cat of nine tails) and a riding crop with a leather loop on the end. Those who are interested in having their evil spirits chased away take their whipping and become part of the ruckus. Well, let's just say that after 10 days my bruises and welts are healing nicely. I couldn't believe it. That night I had raised red welts on my leg and by morning it had turned into about 12 long, thin bruises marking the spots where the whip had driven out the evil spirits. I know it sounds barbaric, but in reality was very fun and the pain was greatly eased by the Punsch that is purchased for the victims of the Perchten's treatment by sympathetic friends. After a couple of those you really don't care whether you got beaten or not.



A much calmer and more palatable tradition is the Christmas concert. Free concerts of Christmas music pop up all over town and I have seen everything from American Gospel to classical instrumental to traditional Austrian acapella. It's been fabulous.



Parties are scheduled almost every night between now and Christmas. The holiday foods are fabulous and plentiful, and the economic woes of the time don't seem to be effecting the shoppers much. I live one block away from a busy shopping street and each Saturday in December they close down the street and leave it open just for shopping. I have never seen such hordes of people in my life. Shoulder to shoulder, one after another from sidewalk to sidewalk. I chose to either stay in my apartment or get on public transportation and leave the area all day. I don't dare move my car because if I do I will not find another parking place until sometime in the early morning hours of Monday.



There are a couple of interesting traditions I chose not to follow here but are worth noting. First of all, the carol Silent Night was written in Austria by a priest. It is a sacred tradition here that Silent Night is neither played nor sung EVER until Christmas eve. It is considered incredibly bad and horrible to play or sing it before then. This is a very sacred part of their Christmas beliefs. The other is that Santa Claus doesn't come here on Christmas eve. The one who comes on Christmas eve is the Christkind, the Christ child, and he is the one who brings the gifts. He is also the one who "surprises" the children and puts up the Christmas tree in the family home on Christmas eve. It is very rare indeed to find a decorated Christmas tree in an Austrian home prior to Christmas eve.



I am enjoying learning of these and many more traditions from around the world. I still shake my head in wonder sometimes when I think what a privalege it is to live in a place where such diversity is possible. I'm in heaven.

One other little fun event that I had the honor of attending was the National Independence Day Celebration on December 2 for the United Arab Emerates. The father of one of my students is the UAE Ambassador and I, along with my assistant, were invited guests to their formal celebration. It was quite the event with traditional Arabic foods, music and entertainment. Brian, my assistant, and I felt a little nervous but soon found the people, food and fun to be great. I am continually amazed at the different cultures and people I get to experience here.

I must also share with you that from the Austrian/European perspective there is much to celebrate this year. They are thrilled at the American's choice for president and there is much talk about how the world can once again start to look at the US with favorable eyes. I never realized, until living overseas, what a tremendous impact the US has on the rest of the world. Oh, I knew we were influential in terms of our military, money and politics, but I had no idea that our influence had such an effect on the ordinary people of the world. What happens in America REALLY, REALLY effects the rest of the world. I have become very encouraged and hopeful that once again the US has an opportunity to be looked upon with tremendous respect by the rest of the world. Let's all hope and pray for a more peaceful world in the upcoming year.



I am thrilled to be traveling to Colorado to spend Christmas with my family. I will only be home for two weeks but am looking forward to spending time with them and being able to enjoy the company of my incredibly special niece and nephew, sisters and mom. I don't know what your plans may be for the holidays but I do hope that they are filled with love, joy, health and safety for all of you.



I am currently sitting at my computer listening to Austrian Christmas music, looking at the lights on my tree and thinking about what I love most about the holdiays. I guess I have come to the conclusion that what I like best is the fact that for a short time during our busy, busy lives, we take the time to celebrate, find joy, show kindness and generosity and share wishes of love with family and friends. I hope that your holidays are filled with all of those things and that whatever your beliefs, traditions, hopes and joys may be, that you find peace and love in the season. I truly hope that the new year brings us all good news, good luck, good love and good life. Know that those things and so much more are my Christmas wishes for each of you.



I will close with a line from a Christmas carol which holds greater meaning for us all now than perhaps it ever has...



Peace on earth, goodwill toward all!

Jodie

November 2008

Can you believe it? It is already November. Where has the time gone. It seems like only a couple of days ago that I was writing telling you what a hectic start to the school year it has been. Well, needless to say, life goes by way too quickly and here we are. In the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I am going to prattle on this month about all the wonderful things I have seen and done and the people I've been fortunate to spend time with this month.

To begin, I just put my mom on a plane back to Denver yesterday morning. She came for an 18 day visit. It was soooo... good to see her and spend such wonderful time together, just the two of us. She arrived on a Thursday and just hung out on Friday while I finished up the school week. Then on Saturday we spent the day wandering through the Vienna woods in search of a pumpkin festival. Pumpkins are a big thing here. Not because of Halloween, since they don't really do that here, but because they grow about 500 different varieties of squash, which they call kurbis, or pumpkin. They make everything you can imagine out of pumpkin. They make pumpkin wine, beer, marmelade, soup, schnitzel, salad, strudel, cake, cookies, sauce and pickles. I know I sound a bit like Bubba in Forest Gump, but it's true. Anyway, we found the festival, had a great buffet and took tons of pictures. I bought four great big pumpkins for Halloween and realized when it was time to pay that they were 40 euros/55 dollars US. Needless to say I was shocked. Oh well, sometimes it costs to keep up traditions you love.

The next day we left for an 8 day vacation on the Greek Island of Crete. It was fabulous. We had such a great time. We saw a ton of things that were new and different. We tasted olives right off the tree before they are cured, YUCK!!! (See picture at left.) We ate, drank, toured, slept, read and walked ourselves silly. We were able to spend a day visiting a family in a traditional Greek village up in the mountains, visit an island that was once a fortress and later became a leper colony and later take a 2 hour boat trip to the amazing island of Santorini. It was breathtaking. The villages there are all painted while with royal blue roofs and doors and are built on the top of this volcanic stone island. It's just incredible. We rented a Smart car, one of those little 2 seater jobs for exploring and enjoyed the stares and honks from fellow motorists who weren't as humored by our wrong turns and wrong way on a one way street as we were. No one got hurt or died so I guess all is well that ends well.

We eventually had to come back to Vienna. I went back to work and mom spent a week playing housewife, resting, reading and shopping. It was great to see her relax and enjoy herself. On Friday we helped out with the school Halloween party and handed out candy at the "Trunk or Treat" event. Since the Austrians aren't big into Halloween, we decorated our car trunks and the kids wandered through the parking lot begging candy and showing off their costumes. It was great fun and was a joy to share with my mom.

I must say, it was hard to say good-bye yesterday after such a great visit. The good news is that it's only 6 weeks until I'm coming to Denver to spend the Christmas holiday with my family. I can't wait. There's no place like home for Christmas.

All of my fellow Americans overseas and I are anxiously awaiting the results of the presidential election. With the time difference it will be 4am on Wednesday for us before the polls close in California and we find out who the winner is. There are all night parties springing up everywhere to watch election results and then pancake breakfasts to prepare everyone for work in the morning. Chadwick and I have made a little more sedate plans. He is going to have a sleep over at his house, wake up at 4am to get the results, we'll have a little fun breakfast and then make our way to work. It's still a nasty time of morning to get up but I'm too old to do very many all nighters now.

I am, again this year, hosting a gathering of international friends for Thanksgiving. At present there are about 35 on the guest list and it grows by the day. If it's anything like last year it will be great fun. I provide the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and everyone else brings a dish to share that makes it Thanksgiving for them. We'll have everything from sushi to schnitzel. It will be amazing. The interesting part is getting that many people into my apartment with a plate of food all at the same time. Last year everyone was great about pulling up a chunk of floor space or sharing a chair and going with the flow. It was fun.

I signed the formal paperwork stating my intent to return to the school for next school year. At this point I have decided that I will probably just stay one more year. I haven't finished doing all of the traveling that I wanted to do from here and I may also have an opportunity to get the tummy tuck done that I really, really want and that would mean staying another year so that the insurance company will pay for it. If that's all it takes, I'm in. As much as I miss my family, friends and home, it's an opportunity I just can't say no to.

Here in Europe we are watching the current economic crisis carefully. It's been interesting to see how the whole world is affected by what is happening in the US. It is also interesting to hear people's thoughts about the US and what they think of the government. Sometimes you want to yell and say "Hey, it's a great country, don't knock it!" Other times you want to hide and tell people you're from Canada just to avoid the hassle. I guess it's kind of like the coffee mug I got in Washington, DC last year. it says, "I love my country, it's just the government I'm afraid of."

Bottom line, however, is... I'm still lucky to be a citizen of a country that lets me say what I want about the government without fear. I've met way to many people here who don't have that privalege. Kinda puts things in perspective.

I continue to love it here, am grateful for the wonderful and dear friends that I have who enrich my life here beyond measure and for the opportunity to live a life most people only dream of. I am grateful for all of you, my wonderful family and friends, and for the security of knowing that no matter where I go, what I decide or the choices I make, I will always have people I care about caring about me.

Have a great Thanksgiving and don't forget to vote. It really matters this time.

Love to one and all,

Jodie

October 2008

Happy Herbst from Wien!

Welcome to my first ever attempt at joining the techno-age. A friend suggested I try this blog thing and that way I could post pictures and everything. So, here goes. Let's give it a try.

Where does the time go? It is already October 7 and we have been in school for 7 weeks! One and a half more weeks and I get a week's vacation. This break from school brings yet another amazing travel adventure for me. This time the destination is Crete, and island of Greece.

On Friday, October 17 my mom arrives for her second visit to Vienna. We then leave on Sunday for the beautiful island of Crete. It has long been one of my dreams to visit Greece. To go there with my mom and to stay at the beach and relax and island hop is much more than I could have ever hoped for. Next month you'll have to endure the photos and stories from there.

It's been a busy month since I last wrote. It's hard work having a birthday and getting another year older!!! Actually, it was a ton of fun. The custom here is that if you want to celebrate your birthday, you throw the party yourself. So, I planned my traditional end of summer, birthday barbeque. I had friends who have a grill help me grill burgers and sausages, I made good, old fashioned American potato salad, baked beans and green salad, I even got yellow American mustard (not easy) and American hamburger and hot dog buns (also not easy). My international collection of friends were delighted. The question did, however, come up... How do Americans manage to get sooooo.... many calories into everything they eat? Makes one stop and wonder doesn't it? Especially when the question comes from people who's main source of energy is fried wienerschnitzel, bread dumplings and sausage. Oh well, it was all in good fun. My friend Holly made this amazing chocolate cake and we ate and drank ourselves silly. It was just what I wanted. About 15 of my best friends from Vienna came to help me celebrate.

At the beginning of the month of September, my friends Holly and Craig and I all boarded a plane for Brussels, Belgium for a world famous Belgian Beer Festival. Apparently the Belgians are considered to have the very best beer in the world. In my expert opinion they are right. There was a huge tent set up in the central plaza of the city with about 25 different breweries set up selling their best brews. Between them all there were about 450 different beers available. I, myself, managed to try about 30 of them in the course of a day and a half. Not bad for a beginner. I made an amazing discovery about my taste in beer while I was there. My favorite beers are the ones that don't taste like beer. Go figure!!! I had raspberry, lemon, chocolate, chile, wheat beers but my all time two favorites were coconut beer, which tasted just like Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion smells and a rum/beer combination that was fabulous. Needless to say, I had a good time. There was music, fun and interesting people at all levels of intoxication and a great weekend with my friends. It is now one of my favorite memories of my time here.

My kids at school continue to be my daily injection of joy. They never cease to make me smile. Whenever the hassles of being a teacher and working in a school that, like everywhere else, has it's issues, gets me down, one of the kids comes along and does or says something that makes me laugh (or cry) and reminds me why I'm really there. One of my little Austrian students has taken it upon himself to be my private German tutor. He's one of the squirreliest, goofiest, orneriest kids you'll ever want to meet but when he starts teaching me German he becomes Henry Higgens and is bound and determined to turn Eliza Doolittle into a proper Austrian speaker. (If you're not sure what I'm talking about go rent My Fair Lady, you'll love it.) Today, after my brief lesson on reading and nouns and their articles he gave me the highest grade he's given me so far. I got a B+ and a note saying that I was improving. High praise from this little task master. Gotta love it.

It has been an absolute hoot to be abroad during this whole election season. Getting all the news about 12 hours after it happens and watching the European reaction to Palin and the bickering between the candidates is a real experience. The Austrians just shake their heads and say "Only the Americans". By contrast, the Austrians have a system whereby about a month ago the ruling party Chancellor of Austria ruled that the parliament wasn't doing a good job so he ended the terms of all the representatives, called for a new election, the election was held three weeks later and now, as of last week, there is a new bunch of representatives in place. Technically, they aren't really new. Most of them were the incumbents but nonetheless they are a newly formed group. There are officially 7 parties that were on the ballot. Two that are the front runners, about 3 that are significant and 2 that never had a chance. The way it works here is that if you get at least 5% of the vote you get representation in parliament equal to your percentage of the vote. So, the two big parties of course control everything, but even the little guys get some say. Quite interesting. They know they have problems with their system too but it's fun to watch. I just can't wait till our election is all behind us and we can get back to other aspects of life.

My German lessons continue and I am happy to report that I can now talk about the past. Up until about 3 weeks ago, if it wasn't happening right now I couldn't talk about it. I am so proud now to be able to go to an Austrian party and tell someone I ate lunch yesterday. It's quite a thrill!!!! Those of you who have ever tried to learn a second, or third, language will understand what I mean. My friend Michael has offered to provide my lesson in German profanity. He and I both feel that it's time. I think I can now learn them without fear that I'll get confused and tell someone something I shouldn't. Could be interesting.

I am really lucky this year that my mom has decided to stay an extra week after our vacation to Greece to relax and enjoy Vienna with me. I have to go back to school but she will fend for herself during the day and then in the evenings we have plans to go to the opera, take long walks, enjoy the sights and one night have a little gathering so all my friends can meet her. I am so lucky to have her. She's the best!

One of the fun things we will be doing while she is here is participating in the school Halloween festivities. The PTA puts on a great big party in the gym with games and food and fun. Right before it starts you can sign up for a place in the parking lot and they have what they call "Trunk or Treat". Since the Austrians don't do Halloween and probably wouldn't appreciate a bunch of strange kids in costumes harrassing them by ringing the doorbell, you park your car in the parking lot, decorate the trunk and then the kids come around to the trunks and say "Trick or Treat" and you hand out candy. It's a real kick in the behind. It's one of the biggest functions of the year. Afterwards, everyone goes to the gym and plays and dances and has a good time. I'll take pictures so that you can seem them next month.

Well, I guess I've blogged long enough for this month. I hope you are all happy and well and that life continues to bring you the best and many, many fall blessings. May your days be filled with sunshine, your lives with color and your hearts with warmth.

Auf Wiedersehen,
Jodie