School is out! (for the austrian kids)

Today was the first day that kids in Austria had no school (most schools in Austria and Germany share the same last day, although I'm told some schools differ).

My austrian father and I headed to Villach to meet up with some of the austrian kids to celebrate the end of school and to offer congrats on grade reports (that came out today). He first had to stop at a office in Villach so I was left on my own devices for about twenty mins. How much trouble can I get into in 20 mins?

Street performer in Hauptplatz standing next to St. Jacob's church

Doughnut I bought from a vendor in the street (farmer's) market

Of course it is filled with some sort of cream. I wonder what my diet in Austria says about me.....

Some of the vendor stalls at the market

I met my austrian father at Cafe Rainer where we settled down and waited for the austrian grandparents, aunt, cousin, brother and sister to show up. While we were waiting, my austrian father peered at the menu and said "too early for lunch" and then handed me the cake and ice cream menu telling me to look it over.

Once everyone showed up we started ordering a combination of cake and ice cream (some people ordering both).

My austrian brother focused on his cake

And my ice cream arrives! I think it is called a "Danemark"? Much bigger then I though it would be...

While we were eating my austrian aunt mentioned she had been to the U.S. before and how surprised she was of all the big people. I should probably pause at this point to explain why this was mentioned as a description of the U.S. (not the first time I have heard it). What you should know is that Austria is not filled with extremely thin people but a broad assortment of body sizes, shapes, and proportions. What you will have a hard time finding in Austria are people who are morbidly obese.

A quick search of statistics (2002 and 2003 stats had best comparisons) have U.S. with 30.6% of population obese versus Austria with 9.1% of the population obese (obese defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30). In terms of people being defined as overweight, the numbers are a little closer with U.S. at 73% versus Austria at 50% (numbers from 2007, BMI=>25).


So far the only morbidly obese person I have seen in Austria was in Vienna, and it was both noticed and commented on by my austrian companion at the time. I am not entirely sure what to attribute to such a difference in obesity however I could guess it might have to do with the fact that Austrians walk quite a bit, don't eat a lot of fast food, only drink soda/pop as a treat, and their breads and desserts seem to contain a lot less sugar. Sometimes its hard to believe while I'm watching my austrian father and grandfather down a slice of cake and a ice cream sundae in one sitting but somehow the Austrians stay relatively fit without sacrificing their love of food.


My austrian father and I left the family in Villach and headed to the InterSpar to grab some groceries (bread, butter, tomatoes, water, etc.). We headed back to the house as the weather started to turn cloudy and by noon we had some good thunderstorms in Sattendorf. A friend of the family stopped by briefly (often family and friends stop by to visit) and the weather eventually cleared up around 7 pm.


I spent most of the evening rewriting my Salzburg wall post that somewhat spectacularly failed to publish last night with everything I had written (it is now fully updated as of this post, the 75% of the post that went missing I had to rewrite).


Tomorrow will probably be spent at the lake if the weather is good. From what I heard last a bunch of the family should be at the house tomorrow cooking and talking it up.


Ciao!

Austria meets Australia? (+ birthday party)

 Yesterday (June 28th, 2012)

Started out the morning helping prep for a birthday party (my austrian father almost had me drive a stickshift car to the grocery star that he had has a rental but I had to explain to him that stick shift cars aren't as popular in U.S. and that I wasn't familiar with one) but then went to my austrian sister's school for a 'Austria meets Australia' performance. Apparently Austrians are well aware people mix up the names 'Austria' and 'Australia'. They even have shirts saying 'I'm from Austria' with a kangaroo crossed out on it. I went to this performance not sure what to expect but there turned out to be some english, etc. Also a lot of music and dancing. This performance also seemed to double as a acknowledgement of who is graduating as well as show casing some of the individual skills of the students. There are quite a few videos and if you don't want to watch all of them then I highly suggest the video of the girl singing a rendition of Adele's 'Someone like you' it was quite good. Since I was sitting a little ways away I couldn't see all of the dancers' feet but there were some very energetic performances.

Something interesting to note that my austrian father mentioned as we were watching the performances is that not all the kids are originally from Austria or speak German at home. He said some speak Turkish, Serbian, and Croatian at home (immigrated). Also this was a middle school with age groups from 11 to 16 (the austrian school system is a little confusing to me but if you are curious I can try to explain to those interested).

 

I'm a kangaroo?

 

 Plane ride to Australia (24 hours in 20 seconds)

 How can we talk about Australia and not do the "Down Under" song?

Fantastic dancing!

 Rendition of Adele's "Someone like you"

Wait for it... Wait for it... Newspaper skirts?!

The boys with more swagger

The song is in Spanish. I'm actually somewhat familiar with it; I think the song was one of the top videos on youtube for a day or two. Lets see how many of you know it :D

Then we went out to lunch in Villach, or was it brunch? Anyway it was at Cafe Rainer and I ordered some sort of pancake with spinach and cheese. The pancake turned out more to be like a crepe but it was quite good. Also had some apple ice cream but it melted so fast I didn't have time to take a picture of it; had to eat it!

My meal

My austrian sister concentrating on her toast

We swung by the Interspar and picked up some 'Cola'. I found out what they call cola isn't really cola. Its more of an austrian version of pop/soda which has a somewhat ginger root taste.

We picked up my austrian brother from school and headed back to the house for a birthday party! ON the way back home the radio was talking about U.S. healthcare and possible judgements the Supreme Court might make. Once again I was in the awkward position of trying to explain U.S. healthcare to my austrian father who asked 'What happens if you are sick and have no healthcare?'; I could only reply 'While sometime the emergency room might work but otherwise you probably aren't going to get treated....' My austrian father seemed a little aghast. I then tried to explain that even with insurance we still have to pay additional money when we see a doctor (deductibles, etc.) and he just seemed more confused. We got back to the house and went to the lake to swim as my austrian brother's friends showed up for the party.

Lighting the cake!

The cake is sparkling!

Kids gathering around to look at the cake

Exercising caution

Opening up presents

Gathering around to look at one of the presents

The aftermath

Eating cake!

Most of the gifts had to deal with star wars (the clone wars) legos. I at one time mentioned 'what about Luke Skywalker?' and my austrian siblings said 'only skywalker' and showed me their Anakin Skywalker lego *sigh* At least clone wars still have Yoda and Obi Wan. Later, we set off some fireworks in the yard.

Tonight I will be near Graz and won't be back until Saturday evening when I will update my blog. Also the next few days are suppose to be in the 30 degrees celsius range (80 F and up up up) so I might get sunburned again... Ciao!