Gösting

Some days are more Austrian than others. 

A couple weeks ago I took advantage of a really beautiful day (the birds were singing, the sun was shining, children were laughing) to hike up to some castle ruins in a nearby village called Gösting.

Within the ruins there's a stone chapel. I'm guessing the shields on the walls depict the heraldic symbols of former important Styrian families, because I didn't recognize the shields of any cities or provinces. Austrians are sort of like a lot of middle-aged high school quarterbacks. They love to reminisce about the bygone glory days. 

Running around the castle grounds with high-fructose fruit drinks in hand and no parental supervision in sight was a group of wild/really cute kids (substitute "discipline" for "parental supervision" and you have Austrian schools... more about that later). What made them REALLY Austrian, though, was the fact that the leader of the pack was wearing Lederhosen. 

Styria is a pretty traditional place. It's not all that rare to see people walking around in Tracht (traditional dress), though it's usually for a special occasion, like a banquet. You (meaning Austrians, not me) can tell a lot about a person from their Tracht, especially from a Dirndl, like where they come from, marital status, and sometimes even family. So owning a pair of Lederhosen isn't rare, but using a pair as play-clothes for a five year old is.

Walking up to the castle and waiting to take a picture of the kid in Lederhosen without looking like I was taking a picture of the kid (what if his parents suddenly came looking for him and wanted to know why I took a picture of their son? Explaining that I just wanted to post his picture on my blog wouldn't do much for damage control) made me thirsty and hungry, so I sat at the castle's outdoor tavern (which had an awesome view and I'd really like to take my family to when they come) and ordered a beer and sausage with mustard. To make this meal even more Austrian, when the server brought the plate out sans mustard and slightly rudely insisted that I hadn't ordered it I argued back ("Ich hab's DOCH mit Senf bestellt."). 

And at no point during the day did I feel like a dancing bear.

Ostern

Easter in Austria is really similar to Easter in the US. There are only slight variations.

Austrian kids get their pictures taken with the Easter bunny just like American kids do.

But in Austria the pictures are taken at the Easter market with a polka band playing under the neighboring tent.

 

It's the one Sunday in both countries when churches are full (you can see some of the spires in Graz in this picture).

But in Austria almost everyone's Catholic and you celebrate a lot longer. I got almost two weeks off from the Fashion School and Gymnasium and three weeks off from the university. This was how I got to spend Easter in Croatia with my Rick Steves guidebook and these lovely people.

Both countries have traditional foods that they eat on Easter. Americans eat ham at their Uncle Sonny's.

In Austria they eat Pinzen, which are small breads (surprise, surprise) that are sweetened and butter- or marmalade-flavored. They sell them at EVERY bakery.

 

And just like in the US, the Easter bunny brings Austrian kids lots of eggs and candy. Especially Lindt Goldhasen. 

I received three of these chocolate rabbits from various teachers and students. Some one couldn't help herself and ate the ears off of one on the way home from school. This is why the ears and head are strangely crinkled.

This last part isn't actually different from what happens in the US.

And the Winner Is...

There are times when I really like my job. Really, really like my job.

Right after the Oscars I did a lesson with 3b (the same class I had Thanksgiving breakfast with) about the Academy Awards. We talked about the fashion, the celebrities, and the winners. Then we did a listening exercise about what the academy is and how voting works. Next, we had our own Academy Awards.

I made two categories of movies and assigned a pair of students to each category. Each pair had to write an acceptance speech in case their movie won, so I taught them phrases like, "I'd like to thank...", "A big thank you to...", and "I appreciate the support of...".

Then we voted (each student got one vote for each category) and the winners had to deliver their acceptance speeches.

I wasn't expecting much from the speeches because the kids seemed
1) to be really confused
2) to be writing some pretty interesting speeches... I answered vocabulary questions like, "Ay-mee-lee, what means 'Kaninchen' in Englisch?" (it's rabbit... to be fair I did tell them they could thank whomever they wanted)
3) to have poured Red Bull all over their cereal that morning

So I was completely surprised when I announced the first winner and they all clapped and cheered for the students who won, who actually looked excited and prepared.

Even better, their speeches were really good. I had expected something along the lines of, "Today thank I the dog Fluffy," but what I got were things like, "We'd like to thank our team for being the best team ever. We couldn't have done this without you!" and, "A big thank you to our editors for working so hard. We really appreciate all you did!" These kids are only in their third year of English, but they'd obviously seen an acceptance speech or two before.

After each speech the class would applaud again without even being prompted. I'm not sure whether they were ever really confused or if they just always look lost, but what started as chaos turned out to be almost as good as the lessons I did on Michael Jackson and the No Pants Subway Ride (Google it).