Austrian Snow for a Kiwi

I have mentioned in one of my earlier post, one of my best friends lives in New Zealand. She spent half a year as an exchange student at my old school and she loved it here. Especially snow had taken a toll on her (it was winter time during her exchange). What to us seemed normal growing up in Austria was strange and fascinating to her.

While Christmas is linked with snow for us, for her it meant sitting together with friends at the beach. While we, when we were younger, spent our Christmas breaks building snowmen or sleigh riding, she went hiking, swimming or sunbathing. This is why, during her stay in Austria, we, meaning my friends and I, used ever spare time and snow to relive our childhood memories with snow for her, our Kiwi friend to whom this all was new and so wonderful. I will never forget how proud she was of her first snowman and how she laughed while trying to catch snowflakes with her tongue.

She went back to New Zealand and she's been missing snow and winter in Austria ever since. Therefor, last winter, I decided to send her snow. Okay, I have to confess not real snow but instant snow. I got it from the internet and hoped she would like it aaaaaaand she did. She tried it out as soon as she had it and built a tiny snowman. Although it isn't quite like the snow we have, it's something. The really good thing about the instant snow is that it's not too cold, you can let it snow even during the hottest summer and it's reusable. So let it snow, let it snow, let it snow - whenever you want. ;)

Hobbit

One of the last books I read was "The Hobbit" by J.R.R.Tolkien. Mr. Tolkien originally wrote made up the story for his children and because they liked it so much, he decided to publish it. It was released in 1937 and tells the story of the hobbit Bilbo Beggins and an unexpected journey.

Bilbo is a typical hobbit meaning he is set in his own ways. He hates unexpected things or leaving his nice hobbit hole - his home. However, one day the wizard Gandalf the Grey shows up at his place and is very soon been followed by 13 dwarfs. Their plan is to go on an adventure, a journey with the old dwarf kingdom as their final stop. A long time ago, their ancestors had to leave their kingdom as a dragon took it over and robbed them not only from their home but also from their treasures. The plan of the group of dwarves with the help of Bilbo is to win back the kingdom as well as all their ancestors' gold. At first Bilbo is not very fond of the idea of having to leave his comfortable home and of going on an adventure. However, after a night of eating and drinking with Gandalf and the dwarves he decides, against all his hobbit nature and instincts, to join them - and so, his biggest journey begins.

I loved the book. From the first page on you start falling in love not only with Bilbo but with the whole fantasy world made up by Tolkien. It's written in a very charming way and you can clearly see it has been originally made up for kids. The language is simple and very pictorial as you can easily see the characters and the lands in your mind's eye.

Although the book has been adapted to a movie but to me the book is way better. I generally prefer the book to the film and in this case it was no different. So should you be into fantasy novels and into "Lord of the Rings" ("The Hobbit" is actually the prequel to "LotR") I can only highly recommend "The Hobbit". :)

Oobleck

Have you ever heard of "Oobleck" or "Ooze"? No? I didn't know about it for a long time either. However, a couple  of summers ago I worked in a science camp for kids in Canada and there I first heard of it. It is one of the non-newtonian fluids, meaning it can be both solid and liquid. You can most easily make it at home as all needed is water and starch. When you mix it in the right ration (1 cup of water with 1.5 to 2 cups of starch) you get a gooey fluid also called "Oobleck" or "Ooze".

At first it looks liquid but as soon as you punch it or ably force or strength to it it becomes solid. This is due to the fact that, with the impulse, the starch molecules close around the water and it becomes solid. However, as soon as the impulse vanishes again the fluid turns back into liquid.

It is a very simple experiment but it is a lot of fun as you can do some nice tricks with it. One of these tricks is putting it on a subwoofer and making it dance this way. You can even run over it as long as you just kick the fluid hard enough. Below you will find some videos that demonstrating this effect.

I hope you enjoyed the videos and try it out yourselves. If you do, let me know how it worked out. :)

Greek Salad

Many might know the problem: It is hot like hell, you are hungry but don't know what to eat as is has to be refreshing and light to fit the weather. Today was one of these days and I've decided to make my favourite summer food. A Greek Salad.

It really is as simple as it is delicious. All you need is feta cheese, olives, tomatoes, a cucumber, peppers, olive oil, vinegar and oregano. Those are the main ingredients but feel free to add or use whatever you long for. In general, I'd say the more colorful the better. :)
Chop all of them in small pieces and put them in a large salad bowl. Season it with a mixture of olive oil, vinegar (my favourite is balsamic vinegar) and oregano. Serve it with fresh bread and viola your fast, summer food or snack is done. Enjoy your meal or how they say in Greece, "καλή όρεξη!"

The true story of our trip to Croatia!

Many of you might already have read Shirin’s or Alex’ blog post about our trip to Croatia and our unexpected encounter with Fiona at a car stop. However, it grieves me to say that both of these posts have been nothing but lies. Both were too shy to face the ugly truth. Today, I want to tell you the real story of our trip.

Although my friends claim that it was all a coincidence, the true story begins last semester. Back then, Shirin, Lisa, Alex and I were faced with a major problem – passing our English classes. That’s why we came up with a plan, both desperate and genius. We invited Fiona to a trip to Croatia. We met up really early last Saturday and started our adventure with great music (Lady Gaga, Pink, etc.) and Fiona on board. The car ride itself was hilarious and we soon realized that our plan to improve our English grade was working. During the following days we enjoyed the beach, good food and the sun. All was nice and we had a fun time but when we returned to Graz, Alex and Shirin were embarrassed by our teacher’s-pet-trip and quickly came up with a different, very unlikely story which they shamelessly spread via Blogger.

Now you all know the truth and I am pretty sure our plan worked out and we will get through our English classes without any kind of trouble. And for all those of you who doubt my side of the story, the true one, here are some pictures to prove how much fun we had.

Sky Night - Game of Thrones

Many of you have probably heard of "Game of Thrones" before. It is one of the most successful TV series nowadays and is based of the books of the series "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin. The book series consists of so far five books (two more are supposed to follow - God knows when) and each book equals one season of the TV series. Only a short while ago the 3rd season has been aired in the States and next week it will also start in Austria, on Sky. To promote this Sky launched a "Game of Thrones - Sky Night". The "Sky Night" took place in the KIZ Royal Cinema and Sky in cooperation with HBO showed the first two Episodes of the new season. In English of course. So Emina and I decided to go there, as we are both really into "Game of Throne". Not only was the movie absolutely free, they had also decorated the cinema, there was a promotion guy dressed as a monk and they had quizzes and prizes to win. Some people even came in costumes. Believe it or not, one guy wore an armour. All in all, I have to say I had a blast and the preview made me really curious about the 3rd season. :)

Cookie Monster

My brother is currently in his final year of school. Last week he had his written final exams and he was nervous especially about his maths exam. So as a lucky charm I decided to make him some cupcakes. But I wanted to make him some special ones and as he likes the Cookie Monster, I choose to try out a Cookie Monster cupcake recipe. The result was great and my brother loved them, so here is the recipe should you want to try them out yourself. :)
First make some basic muffins. After letting them cool down make the butter cream. Butter cream is basically nothing but butter and loads of sugar. Then add blue food coloring to get the nice fur color of the Cookie Monster. With a piping bag pipe on the blue butter cream on the muffins.

For the eyes you normally use white marshmallows but as I was not able to get some I used "Haribo Frösche". I cut of their heads to get them into a nice eye shape. With molten chocolate fix chocolate drops on them. Put the finished eyes on the cupcakes.

The last step is to break regular chocolate chip cookies into half and stick them on the cupcakes to make the cupcakes look like the Cookie Monster is about to eat a cookie. Aaaaaand voila, the Cookie Monster cupcakes are ready to be eaten. Enjoy. :D