ABroad In Austria: Even the palms are different in Austria!

Here it comes, the weekly blog post . . . I'm on a roll! Although, not sure two weeks in a row can be counted as a "roll" but whatever, its happening! This week had a few firsts. First real trip to the grocery store with recipe(paella) in hand. First Palm Sunday in Austria. First time "playing" American football with the kids. First hint that I might be teaching American History for ESL students next year. (stay tuned on that one, its not definite, should know this week.) You get the picture.

First, let me say, I do miss grocery stores at home. Not only do I miss the opportunity to shop 24 hours a day, like that's even necessary, but also the amazing variety available. Sure, "fresh" seafood in Ohio may sound a bit sketchy if you think too long about it, but at least its an option thats not going to send you to bankruptcy court! 10 shrimp were going to run me 19.99 euros. Thats about $28. To be generous they even toss in the giant wooden stick that the shrimp are skewered by, or weighted down by. Also, I drove to all ends of Salzburg just to find some saffron.

The weather has been beautiful and so to psych myself up for my run I thought playing football with Louie and the kids would be fun. Fun, sure, but discriminatory as well. The boys wanted nothing to do with us girls, figures. Also, playing on moss does not provide the most favorable conditions. The ground moves when anyone jumps, and thank to the Austrian mole population there are huge hidden soft spots about every 3 feet. Good times.

As a cultural addition to this post today is Palm Sunday. I ventured downtown to the Dom for Mass, only arriving 30 minutes late. Not bad I suppose when you consider I got there 30 minutes before normal Mass time. I figure its the effort that counts, and I was still there for another hour and a half since this is notoriously the longest Mass of the year. The Austrian tradition is to bring Palmbuschen to mass to have them blessed. They are bunches of 7 different weeds, and festive decorations that symbolize some things, though to be honest, my google search came up empty on what they are actually meant to symbolize. They don't hand out palms at Mass like at home, and the small branches most people carry look more like olive branches if you ask me. Leading up to this week the main bridge in town was also decorated with very large buschen, quite pretty for spring.

I spent the day in town, studying Calculus for my credentialing exam in July. The weather was beautiful and the trees and flowers are blooming like crazy so it was as pleasant as Calculus can be. That's all for this week. Happy Easter!