Celia Heidbrier graduated from Baylor University in May 2012 with a BA in German. She was selected for a prestigious English Teaching Assistantship in Austria, and is now spending a full academic year teaching English in Deutschlandsberg, a small Austrian town of around 9,000 people. We asked Celia to check in from time to time and let us know what her experience has been like. This is the second in her series of blog posts for us.
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Greetings again! Today, I thought I’d talk about the domestic and culinary environment here in Austria.
I have a nice, quiet apartment (everyone here calls it a “flat,” though) in a suburb. My building looks like a house, but it’s actually three separate living units. On the ground floor is a couple with two little kids, and I’m on the upper floor along with another couple. We have a schedule posted by the front door that says which household is in charge of what chore for the week — such as cleaning the staircase, shoveling the snow and mowing the lawn.
Before I came here, I had never shoveled snow! I was a bit unlucky, too, because we’ve had an unusually long and snowy winter here (as you can see from my photos that accompany this post). I lost count of how many times it has snowed between December and May. I am happy, though, to see wildflowers such as bright purple crocuses, little yellow roses and daisies blossom. They’re still fighting the cold, though!
I keep four trash cans in my kitchen — ones for biological waste, paper, plastic, and everything else. It is easiest to keep the trash separate before taking it outside and putting it in the respective bins. There is a town schedule saying when biological waste will be picked up, when paper will be picked up, etc. Trash pickup is not as frequent as at home; it comes less than once a week.
Another chore (yes, chore) is grocery shopping. There are a few stores to choose from — I usually go to one called Merkur because it has the best quality, the most variety, and it is the most organized. Its layout resembles that of an American supermarket. There are also some discount stores near me, but I never find everything I’m looking for, and as I have to walk everywhere (no public transportation within this small town), I’d rather not bother.
What’s interesting about one store, Hofer, is that many of its packaged products have instructions or ingredients listed in three different languages — German, Hungarian and Slovenian. Also, many stores — almost all — use a system called the Eurolock for their shopping carts. Shopping carts are outside the store, and they are all locked together by small cables from the back of the handles of each cart. I have to have a coin ready — a 50-cent piece or a single or double Euro will work. There is a small, horizontal slot on the front of the handle in which to place the coin. The coin pushes out the cable, and the cart becomes free. If I’m not buying much, it’s better to bring a little basket.
I also have to bring my own bags. There are no baggers. At the checkout, I have to take everything out of the cart and place it on the conveyor belt (same as at home). After an item has been scanned (even before I’ve paid) I must quickly put the groceries back into the grocery cart, as there’s very little space behind the scanner. Next, I pay and leave the checkout counter and go to the wall where there’s a longer counter. This is where I, once again, take my groceries out of the cart and finally bag them. I go outside and stick the shopping cart back in place and get my Euro (or whatever) back.
Speaking of food, stereotypical items such as Wiener Schnitzel, cabbage, pickles and sausage can be easily found in stores, restaurants and Imbissstände (snack stands). There are lots of breads and meats available. Hard-boiled eggs are also abundant. What surprises me the most are the salads.
A very important specialty is Kürbiskernöl, which means “pumpkin seed oil.” This is green oil which tastes like peanut oil, and West Styria is very proud of its pumpkins. This is the featured dressing of most salads in the region. The featured lettuce is Vogerlsalat, which we (apparently) call “corn lettuce.” It’s bright green and has a very pretty shape — somehow shaped like a club or a spade. And lastly, there are Käferbohnen, meaning “beetle beans.” These are mildly sweet red beans, and they are as big as beetles.
Put these three things together, add some boiled scalloped potatoes and cooked green beans, and voila! You have a restaurant-style salad. Often when I go to salad bars, I find that everything is already in its own sauce or dressing — for example, tomato wedges in pumpkin seed oil, cucumber slices in ranch dressing, potato slices in cream, pickled red cabbage, lettuce in pumpkin seed oil — so it can be a bit intimidating to put a salad together. Somehow, if I’m careful, I can pick tasty combinations.
Next time, I’ll talk about even more tasty combinations and some other stereotypical, but pleasant things.
That’s all for now. Goodbye!
Celia