November 26, 2004
Thanksgiving and Other Events
Well, last night was Thanksgiving. We celebrated too, in our own way. We met up with the missionaries at the church. None of us had any experience cooking a Thanksgiving meal, but we wanted to keep our American traditions alive, but skewing them just a little to give it an Austrian twist.
I was in charge of the turkey schnitzel. Now, I've never made any kind of schnitzel before, and it's a very difficult thing going to the store and purchasing items when you have to go simply by pictures. Sometimes you mistake pepper spheres for poppyseeds, but that's another story. I found some schnitzel meat in my local Spar, but it didn't say what kind of meat it was. However, it did have a little picture of a turkey on it, so I figured that must be good enough. Then, I didn't know what other ingredients I needed, but I figured there had to be a mix that went along with it because I had seen lots of mix packages with "Schnitzel" written across them. Well, I knew it couldn't be Huehner because in my limited German, I do know that has something to do with chickens, but it was the closest I could find. So I picked up some packages. When I met the missionaries at the church, they looked at the packages and I realized that it wasn't quite what I was supposed to get, but it worked out okay. Rather than breaded schnitzel, we had schnitzel with an oniony sauce.
The sisters sliced up potatoes, so we did at least have some mashed potatoes with our meal, but we didnt' think about gravy, so they were kind of dry mashed potatoes.
Elders being elders, they brought rolls and a salad.
The table is set, and the sheaves of wheat make a nice impromptu centerpiece. We toast apful gesprizt (or something) and go around the table saying what we're thankful for. Afterwards, we enjoy a frozen apple pie that I've heated up in the oven. We were going to try and make a real pie, but unlike those celebrating Thanksgiving in America, I had classes all day, so I didn't have time.
This is Sam eating the leftovers:
All in all, it turned out well.
And since I'm behind, I also want to put in some pictures from the Christmas Market that we visited on my birthday. This is the main street in town, Maria-Theriesen Strasse, all decked out in lights:
And here is the Old Town, near the Goldenes Dachl where one of the two famous Christmas Markets are. People gather from all over to drink gluwein (I'm so sorry that I'm spelling all the German words wrong.) and eat kiachl, either sweet (with cranberry jam) or sour (with kraut). We didn't have anything to eat that night because we were going out to dinner later, but since then, I've had some kiachl, and it is tasty. (Also surprisingly filling).
And here are some flowers that my friend Simone gave me for my birthday. She didn't forget about it (like some people I might mention...):
Okay, so that's all for now. I'm caught up and plan on doing a better job in the future. Some things to look forward to:
- Ugly Innsbruck (where I take pictures of the less-than-idyllic aspects of Innsbruck)
- People on the bus (where I describe people who ride the bus, but I don't think there will be pictures, unless I can be discreet)
- Holiday trips to Vienna, London, and Dublin