Rainy/Snowy Day Activity Poll

What's your favorite rainy day activity?  

I suppose, since many of you are having snowy days this week, I will practice my politically correctness and rephrase my question.....

What's your favorite inclement-weather-day activity?  This is assuming it is too terrible to be outside.

I love snuggling up with a salty snack and a hot mug of caramel-nut or mint coffee and watching a good movie.  

This poll reminds me of snow days at UNL.  When I lived in Abel, snow days were warmly embraced.  During my 3rd-5th years, I lived in what was known as the "freshmen party" dorm.  We had quite a few snow days in the winters of my 4th and 5th years.  We made the best out of these days.  I lived in this building with a number of friends.  Most of us "upper-levels" moved there on purpose for the ministry possibilities and we intentionally lived on the same floor.  I remember my 4th year was especially pressing academically.  My friend and floor mate, Jeff, and I enrolled together in some of the Universities most difficult biology classes.  With this being a major factor, Jeff and I spent nearly all of our free time studying together (we never would have made it without each other).  On these snow days, he and I really couldn't afford the luxury of having a lazy day.  So we would move our study materials into one of the lounges on the floor and we'd work while the others watched a movie. These days were the blessing we all hoped for.  These were the days with enough study time that Jeff and I could take a break from memorizing the skeletal system of the skull or the nervous system and work on assignments for our other classes.  Our group was really a little family, especially on these days.  We'd work together, take study breaks and play games, go eat together, and get back to work together.  

I am grateful for good friends with a good taste in coffee.  We never had bad coffee when we studied together in Abel Hall.  That's for sure.  Even when the faces changed in my 5th year, quality coffee and tea remained important priorities.  MMmmm......I miss good, fresh ground coffee.

So what do you do when you're stuck indoors?

polling

Hey there

I was having trouble getting this weeks poll to work.  You can expect in the next day or so... or next week.  :-)  We'll see.

I have one more day left of freedom before tests and teaching start again.  I'm going to enjoy every last minute that I have remaining to relax.  Okay, that's not true- any one who has ever taught knows that a vacation isn't complete without working on lesson plans.  I will also work on some things for BLAST (we have another school the 6-8th of March).  And.. I have a test on Wednesday morning.  Sooo, really, I am only going to pretend to spend my last minutes relaxing when in reality I am working on many things.  

Happy Monday!

Happy Fat Tuesday!

and in case I don't come back again before then- Happy Ash Wednesday!

Frühstück (Sorry, Jason!)

I must say, I've really grown fond of the typical Austrian breakfast.  A cup of coffee or black tea along side some bread with meats and cheeses and a bowl of joghurt and fruit makes for the perfect start.  I even like the sour joghurt now.  The family I am staying with here in Hrvatska drinks Turkish coffee.  Yes, Debbie, it's that "nasty stuff" we gave Ebert.  While it's pretty good when made correctly, it still isn't the best coffee I've ever tasted.  In fact, I always feel a bit queazy as I finish the last few sips.  

Back to the typical Austrian breakfast, though.

Bread-

The bread in Austria is delicious.  There's a great variety of darker, whole-grain breads.  I'm not a huge fan of many of them yet, but it will come with time...maybe.  Toast is commonly on my menu.  It's cheap and it lasts longer.

My all-time favorite bread here is the laugenstange. Basically, it's a pretzel stick but doesn't have to have salt on it. Mmm... it's so good with the "good cheese" (description coming soon).

Meats- Austria is known for it's sausages and salamis.  Out of respect for a favorite reader who happens to be pregnant with handsome Levi whom I'd really rather not make sick, I won't include pictures.  The meats are of all different kinds.  There are salamis from beef, pork, venison, and so on.  There are pepper-stuff salamis and cheese salamis.  There are some that have so many chunks of extra stuff that it makes me sick to my stomach when I see it.  Needless to say, I've learned to try the salami without looking at it first.  It seems to taste better if I don't see what's in it.  

Cheeses- Cheese here is hard, soft, spicy, sweet, strong, or mild.  My preferred cheeses are tilsiter, gouda, and butterkäse.  Butterkäse (Butter cheese) is what some of us have resolved to calling the "good cheese."  There's a particular brand that is absolutely delicious.  Mmm.  It's a soft and mild cheese that has a great taste with the laugenstange and salami (and it's not expensive!).

That's my typical breakfast on later mornings.  Mornings with an earlier start, I usually just have toast with butter and joghurt with fruit.  

What do YOU prefer for breakfast?  Check out this week's poll and leave a comment about your choice.

Learning Lessons

This week has been a very productive week.  I'm slightly impressed with myself.  Combining our productivity rates, Julia and I decided that we had good reason for a movie night last night.  A set of bagpipes made a short appearance in our film.  That's when the following conversation took place:

J: (excitedly asks) What do you call those in English?"  

C:  Bagpipes.  

J: (now sounding very disappointed)  Really?  That's it? 

C:  Mmhmm

J: (very matter of factly)  We call it Dudelsack (doodle-sack).

Sometimes, German just makes me smile.  Dudelsack is FAR better than "bagpipes"...

Oh, and I learned this week that the Electric Slide isn't international.  I never would have guessed.  I taught one of my 14 year old classes the Slide yesterday and tomorrow I'll be teaching the 12 year olds.  Ahh... still changing this world one adolescent at a time.