Erntedankfest? (Thanksgiving)

So the weather has been crazy around here the last couple of weeks. It had been sorta fall-ish weather and then suddenly got cold and snowed a bunch. In three days we got 8 or 10 inches of snow (which is unusual for early November around here), then it stayed frozen for 4 days or so, then warmed to just above freezing during the day. Then suddenly we got "Foen" a warm wind, and all the last snow melted in the last couple days and it feels like early fall again. Below is my train station (Landeck) when the crazy snow was starting.
One of the melting days but still crazy beautiful. I actually can't remember exactly where I took this picture.

GLUEWEIN! Woo Hoo! As we move toward the Christmas season, the Weihnachtsmarkte (Christmas Markets) open up in towns small and large. I had to go to Innsbruck to run errands anyway, so I met up with a couple other TA's for the first real Gluewein of the season. Gluewein is one of the most wonderful beverages ever. It is hot red wine mixed with spices and orange. Usually you can only get it in the winter and always at the Christmas markets. I first had it when I was in Germany back in the day and have been looking forward to having it again for a while.

This Thursday was the second time in my life that I had to go to school on Thanksgiving. That's two times too many. Turns out it's an American holiday. The nice thing was that it gave me an obvious lesson plan idea for the week that I got to reuse several times (8 to be exact). That meant I got to practice it a lot, but it did get a bit boring by the end. But it was nice because I had visitors come on Wednesday night, so I didn't have to spend time preparing lessons while I had friends over. Kathi that I visited in Graz a few weeks ago came with another friend from Wednesday to Sunday because they were doing an avalanche course nearby. We were going to do a mini-Thanksgiving one night, which didn't work out because they found out they would have class until late each night but we did do apple pie. Dessert is the most important thing anyway right?

It is funny how a recipe that I have made many times, can become so complicated in another country. I have to figure out what the ingredients are called in German, figure out if they even have this product, recognize strange types of packaging, convert the measurements, and then hopefully get a decent dish. I thought pie would be easy enough, there aren't' that many ingredients. Finding the shortening was the hardest part but I finally did. It was kind of a different color, but not a big deal right? Well, I had rolled out the dough and got it in the dish and was pouring the apple in when I noticed a smell. It smelled kinda like meat but not. What could it be? I sniffed the dough. Strange. I took a nibble. Disgusting! Turns out my shortening was actually pork lard. Why I hadn't noticed the smell sooner, I don't know. I considered just leaving it and hoping the apples would overpower the pork task, but thought better of it. So I dumped out he apples and started anew. I didn't have the right kind of shortening of course, so I took my chances with using all butter. And it worked! Woo hoo. (See picture of pie remnants at the bottom of the post).

Despite the awesome pie baking experience, the best part of the weekend was going snowboarding. As a college student I didn't really have the money to buy lift tickets, so I only went snowboarding a couple times a season. But now that I have more time and some money I am going ot take advantage of if. I commited and bought a season pass on Monday. Now I only have to go riding 10 more times before it starts to be worth spending 1/3 of a paycheck. Hopefully I will make it well worth it.

I went up on Friday and Saturday. Friday the weather was better but the snow was pretty hard. I wasn't sure how hard it was, so I though I should test it out. Getting off the lift one time, I glided over the ice rink that had formed from dripping water and fell. I now have two rad bruises, one on my butt-hip and the other just above my knee (yes, of course my bad knee-but it didn't hurt my actual knee, yay).

The view from next to the lodge on Friday. (Below) I didn't realize it right away, but when you take the lift all the way to the top, you get to 10,104 feet in elevation. It was the easiest trip I've ever had to 10,000 ft. Many times I have have spent 4 or 6 or more hours hiking or in a rope team to get to such an elevation. Crazy to get there so easily. And now I realize why I was getting out of breath so easily, I thought I was just out of shape. I should go up to Kaunertal to run and sleep at low elevations, like the pros.

Kaunertal (Kauner valley) ski area is on a glacier so their season is from September to June.

Marco, Stefan, Kathi, and Simone getting ready to go on Friday.

Looking down the hill from the lodge area. The weather looks down right fabulous compared to Saturday but it was pretty windy. They almost kept the ski area closed because of the wind. Friday night and into Saturday it snowed so the snow was great on Saturday but visibility was bad. Below is a self-portrait of my self (surprise, surprise) with my big head in front of the glacier.

And a big chunk of the glacier that you can see, right next to the ski run. Don't fall over that direction.

The best visibility we had all day on Saturday. right before it was time to go home, sad.

Kathi, Regi, and Me after a solid day of riding. Oh, yeah, and of course there was Milka chocolate involved.

I could have gone up on Sunday too, but when I got home Saturday night I was so dead tired. It was a beautiful feeling to have been out in the wind and fresh air all day, using muscles I hadn't used in a long time. Oh and that feeling of riding again! Of leaning downhill into a turn, shifting my weight ever so slightly, carving across the snow, leaning again the other direction, swooping back and forth in a dance. Ahh! I just love it. I am so rusty, there isn't much grace to my movement yet, I'm still working on maintaining control, but it is just great. And it's coming back quickly.

And I was so pleased that my knee did really well. After two days in a row it was only a tiny bit sore. I thought that the deep squatting and twisting required for making turns would be really hard on it, but it wasn't. I finally tweaked it once on Saturday afternoon, but other than that, little lefty did awesome. I had been working a lot on getting little lefty strong again, especially because I knew snowboarding might be hard on it. So I have been doing a lot of squats and such the last few weeks.

Anyway, on Sunday, despite my little snowboarder heart awakened again to true love, I decide to stay home to keep my knee from too much stress and to let my sore body heal and rest. And since I had bought a turkey (cleverly disguised as chicken) for our Thanksgiving dinner, I baked it and had that for dinner. I made garlic mashed potatoes and gravy with it, and nibbled at more of the pie. Dad would be proud that that those are the foods I chose to learn how to cook. Mom wold be proud that I can cook them. I am proud that my mom cooks so good and that she taught me how to make all of those things.

As I sat down to eat tonight, it occurred to me that I was eating my childhood. That may sound disturbing but it is true. If I think back on my childhood dinners, I picture the Alaska house and the four of us eating some form of meat and potatoes with gravy, with an iceberg lettuce salad (those were dad's favorites). And it was usually dark outside because even if it was 5pm, those long Alaska winters have such short days. The other dinner I remember having a lot was fried rice with baked chicken and oriental cabbage salad. Tonight I had potatoes, chicken, gravy, salad. And for lunch I had had that same oriental salad. Growing up I also remember how often we had oatmeal for breakfast, especially int he winter. I think we had it 5 days a week. I got so sick of it, I didn't mind it so much but was just sick of it. It took me many years before I would eat it voluntarily again. Oh the joy of food memories!

I just want to say that I am so excited, my dear friend Allie is coming to visit me at Christmas time. She is coming on the 19th of Dec and staying until Jan. 3. So just a little more than three weeks 'til I get to see her! Woo Hoo!

Well, I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Thanksgiving whether with a turkey and family at home or dumplings with the guys or snowboarding in a distant land. Wherever you were I hope it was relaxing and thought provoking and thanks-filled.

If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing.- A saying from Zimbabwe

A wise woman once told me, "Attitude is key!" It's true.