Quick Update

So, I haven't really done anything exciting since my last post, but I figured I'd fill you in on the little things and my plans for the next few months.

- Last Tuesday I went to the birthday party of Helena, a Czech trainee at ECHEM who lives in Wiener Neustadt. It ended up being lots of fun, and there was so much delicious food. I wowed a group of people with my Aunt Kate's vomiting cherry tomato trick which she would always do for us when we were little (you cut a small mouth-like slit into the tomato then tell a little story which inevitably ends with the tomato puking which you achieve by squeezing it to make all the seeds spew out). The Serbians thought it was hilarious and I was asked to repeat it so many times I used up all the cherry tomatoes at the party. I also ran into Helena's old German teacher who I will likely be taking lessons from for a fraction of the price that I'd pay in Vienna.

- Last Wednesday a large group of people from ECHEM went to a traditional Heurigen in a little village half way back towards Vienna called Guntramsdorf. Heurigens are restaurants which serve their own wines and are set up almost like a deli. You go up to the counter and pick out ready made salads and other small dishes, and order whatever else you want. The company paid for all the wine and platters of sliced bread with a bunch of different spreads. Most of us got a traditional heurigen meal of surschnitzel and some form of potato salad. Surschnitzel is a pork schnitzel which had been soaked in brine for a few days before being fried. It was really good, but describing it right now I realise how unhealthy a big chunk of salty fried pork and a bowl of potato salad was. Oh well, when in Rome...

- Last Thursday there was an IAESTE international foods party at our residence. We were thinking about making poutine, but I couldn't find curd or gravy. That didn't deter Andrew, who just made cheese-fries with a big blob of ketchup in the corner as the "Canadian dish". Highlights of the party were Russian/Lithuanian/Bosnian/Croatian hashbrowns, a hand-made Viennese sachertorte, a Portuguese version of pigs in a blanket made of sausages wrapped in some kind of thick lettuce, then soaked in red wine and cooked in the oven, and a 'low fat' Uzbekistani salad that contained egg, corn, shrimp, rice, and enough mayo to hold it all together. A new trainee from the US arrived that day. She's working in the same building as me and unfortunately I had to tell her how long it takes to get to Wiener Neustadt every day. Her name is Cora, and she'll be here for 10 months. We're already making plans to visit Greece in the spring when most of the other trainees will have left. Also, her Grandmother has a house in the south of France, so we're all going to go and check that out sometime between now and May.

- The building we live in (for now) which I showed you a photo of in July is finally (almost) finished. At least the facade is uncovered, I'll take a photo when I get home and add it. [Just got home, its really rainy and dark, so the photo will have to wait until tomorrow]

- On the night of September 27th MA and I are leaving for Munich. On Friday we'll spend the entire day at Oktoberfest, hopefully meeting up with Henrik (Vienna trainee from Sweden) who moved there a week or two ago and Andrew (the other Vienna trainee from Canada). On Saturday we're going to the village of Füssen to see Neuschwanstein, the castle that inspired the Walt Disney castle. Finally, on Sunday we'll just be hanging out around Munich. Thankfully Henrik has said we can sleep on his floor because hostels were booked up months ago (when I first looked) and any single hotel rooms that are still left are starting at 400€/night.

- On Halloween MA and I are flying to Paris for 6 days. We booked a really great hostel in Montmatre recommended to us by the Columbians, and I'm really excited. We may take a bus to Belgium for a day, but that's all still to be decided.

- Right now it's rainy and 9°C, apparently that's not too odd for September in Austria. Also, there's a big storm warning so the trains are sure to be off schedule. Tonight we're going to an old restaurant the cellar of a building in the old part of the city. Should be fun. Tomorrow is MA's birthday, so I'm sure we'll do something, and on Friday we're all going to see The Bourne Ultimatum, which is just premiering now.

OK, gtg do some work, I wrote a lot more than I expected.