Home...where the peaches grow.

Why thank you, KLM/Delta! I'm not quite sure where that picture is supposed to be from in y'all's email, but I DID enjoy my stay in Atlanta.

I really wouldn't have if it weren't for the following taking place:

1. Family time

2. A gorgeous and fun wedding

3. A great last night in the States with lovely friends

Photos from those 3 things, you ask?

No worries...here ya go!

I got to meet this little bean!

and reunite with this one

Look! Friends!

 I am jealous of their baby cousin hand holding cutefest.

 Soooo big.

 My beautiful sister, Wendy, holding her new baby niece....Wendy, otherwise known as "what I will look like in 9 years".

Babies interacting is adorbs.

 all she does these days...just like her Aunt Ashley.

 Oh hewwo deres, freepy head!

 Photo shoot

 Gah, so cute.

 Me and some good snugglers.

 I love that Emmie is sticking her tongue out and that McCarty is looking at her. :)

 Wedding fun

 Get yo hurr did, boss lady

 Beautiful Kristin!

 Make-up time!

A moment of stress, yet still pretty

Quotes of note: 

"Have you ever been to one of MY weddings???"

"Honey, I love you; but if you call our wedding a party one more time, you may not get invited."

and last but not least...

"It's perfect."--Ashton Burtt 

 Beautiful Bride

 Bridal Party party in the limo!!!

 Berry College Friends

 Sally and I...I don't think Europe is ready for this combo.

 I love this one so much.

 What a great night with great girls!

A grateful heart

There are a lot of things that have happened in this past month that have truly sucked.


But I am grateful that God allows me to live in such a beautiful country and work here:

 There is a fancy-pants restaurant in that building up on the mountain that I really want to try.

 I love this adorable house.

Oh what a night!

I really hope that when you read the title to this post that you sang (this) in your head. I did.


I have been told that I am an enthusiastic person. I would agree with that assessment, actually. I really enjoy being festive and getting excited about things. No matter how silly they are. 


The Super Bowl is no different. I don't even have to care about the teams to be excited about it. I like things that bring everybody together and give people things to talk about. 


My current situation might have made enjoying the yearly American tradition of food, drink, friends, and football a little difficult. I was worried my enthusiasm would be lost this year. But have no fear! Even Vorarlberg got in on the action! Ok, maybe not all Vorarlbergers were plopped in front of the t.v. from 12:30 a.m. till 4 a.m. or whatever. However, over at the American Roadhouse bar in Koblach...my friends and I could be found cheering on the losing team till the wee hours of the morning. 

No, this isn't a joke. This place exists here.

I mean, this place was awesome. Our friend Sean's roommate works there and that's how we found out about the Super Bowl deal. Entry tickets were 30 Euros ahead of time and included all you can eat/drink from about 10:30 p.m. till the sun came up. 

I almost lost my mind when I saw this.

I really wish I had taken pictures of the food. It was greasy American goodness. Basically a help yourself buffet was set up that was refreshed every so often. Delicacies included jalapeno poppers, hotdogs (that weren't very good), pizza, curly fries, regular fries, potato wedges, and (of course my favorite) chicken wings. Was heißt "all flats, please" auf Deutsch?


And the drinks included a couple different stations:


~one for beer straight from the tap in big mugs
~one that had limo and mineral water
~another with all sorts of yummy juices


Bet you could guess which one I visited the most.


We got there really early in order to get good seats. And it's a good thing we did, too! The place was PACKED by 11 p.m. (a full hour and a half before kick-off). They showed the game on a giant projector screen via ESPN America. So, we even had English commentary. Pretty sweet!

Maaaybe we had facepaint. The Super Bowl is serious business.

Sadly, we did miss out on the commercial front. But hey, you can't have everything you want in life.


The evening was made even more interesting because of the group of us in attendance. Three Americans and three Brits. Three girls and three guys. I might also add that the three of us girls were three out of maybe seven women in attendance. After I did a mini-lesson on American football on the train ride and again at the bar, they were ready to enjoy their first super bowl as knowledgeable fans. Most of us were cheering for the Patriots. Unfortunate, I know.

Sean screaming about rage at the end actually really frightens me.

Clearly I thought watching the game was more important than looking at the camera.

Just like Guy thought screaming "Go!" was more important than taking this picture.

This is Manny stressing out about the fact that his team has only about a minute left and isn't winning. Mackenzie, the seasoned football fan, is there to offer some comfort.

Also unfortunate was my mistake of setting my alarm for p.m. instead of a.m. and not waking up in time for my first two lessons at school. The amount of disappointment in myself today was through the roof.

Saving the Children with International Gluttony

 I was having a yummy hot chocolate in a Viennese cafe with some other language assistants when my friend and I got a tip. We were told it was lucky we were in town because there was a special event going on over at one of the United Nations buildings. Apparently once a year the Women's Guild of the UN hosts a big fundraiser in Vienna to raise money for the work they do for suffering children around the globe. The fundraiser was in the form of an International Bazaar. 


The second I heard about this, I knew it was something I would want to check out. This is the sort of thing that makes me love travel. You never know what you'll come across. And this experience has a special place in my heart.


Now we heard the dealio with this whole bazaar thing is that most of the member nations have a booth where you can try foods from their country at pretty cheap prices. 


Sold! Many of you know how much I love food. All of you should know how much I like trying new things, especially when it comes to other cultures. 


So we made our way over to the correct building which was a challenge in itself.

Once we arrived we headed straight in and (sadly) didn't even take a moment to figure out how it all worked. Seeing a big room with lots of booths to our left, we started exploring in that direction. We saw booth after booth of really cool wares from countries like Australia, Kazakhstan, Zambia, and Colombia---just to name a few. I even geeked out over the Mexico table because I could actually buy REAL salsa...not that crap they try to pass as salsa in this country. However, we noticed that maybe the event was a little mis-advertised by our new friends. We didn't really see any food to be had like was described. Bummer. We galavanted around looking at all the handmade authentic goods for a while before deciding to leave due to our hunger level and the apparent lack of real sustenance at the bazaar. Plus, we needed to pick up our friend Amanda at the train station relatively soon.

The country...not my homeland.

That's when my friend Paul and I realized that there was an ENTIRE downstairs section we didn't notice upon arrival. If the upstairs section was about the size of my middle school's double gym, the downstairs section was the size of a(n American) football field semi-seperated into two areas. I was pumped. I ran off and got some delicious Korean food first while Paul waited in line for food from Eritrea. Now remember, we needed to pick up our friend. I was so concerned that she would either not want to come back here in such a rush or that it would be closed by the time we returned, that it made it a little tough to leave.

Thankfully, Amanda being the rockstar she is was totally on board. We hauled it back over there after a quick stop to drop off Amanda's bags and made it in time.

I then proceeded to enjoy cuisine from the following countries:

Azerbaijan, Poland, The Netherlands, Indonesia, Mexico, Armenia, Hungary, and the USA (I know...what a cop out!). Combine that with South Korea from earlier and that makes 9 countries in a matter of a couple hours. Yum!


Top three (tough decision):


3. Pot sticker type things from Korea
2. Cous-cous concoction from Armenia


 and the winner

1. Yummy Indonesian chicken satay and rice...my whole mouth just filled with saliva just thinking about it. Mmmmmm!

(Food from Indonesia beer from Holland)

We ended up back upstairs after the people downstairs ran out of food (we were there till the bitter end) to take pictures with people in their countries traditional costumes. 

Zambia

Kazakhstan...Best traditional clothing in my opinion.

Ukraine

The Netherlands

The best thing about this was that those little kids would get so silly/scared whenever the people on stilts walked toward them. It became a game. Adorable!

Absolutely one of my favorite days. Next year I will totally look up when this is and make the trip to Vienna again.

Let's do a little compare and contrast...shall we?

 Where I live

Where I am going in a week

Gott sei Dank!

-minus the fact that the latter doesn't have skiing.