Let the Cooking Begin!

Well hello there!

It's been quite awhile so how about a quick catch-me-up?

Biggest event - I graduated from Truman! Wooo
Second biggest event  - One of my brothers graduated basic training for the Navy! Wooo
Third biggest event - I have a job bussing! Wooo

   Now I'm just chilling at home until August when I will (Lord willing) go to a graduate school for a Masters in Social Work.  Until then, I'm working, playing with the dogs, being uh...decently active, and get this, cooking!

That's right, this little chica is finally learning to cook with the best of'em.  Or at least...I'm learning not to burn everything.  Almost.  I learned just yesterday that you can actually burn butter....who knew??

If any of you happen to enjoy pinterest.com I would highly encourage you to check out the food pins.  I found a recipe for Red Lobster quality cheddar garlic biscuits.  They were great.  And in case you want to know how to make those delicious little morsels, you're in luck.  Here's the recipe!


      Enjoy!!

1 pack buttermilk biscuit mix (I used Jiffy, about 1 1/2cups)
1 1/2cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used mozzarella cheese, cheddar would probably be better)
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oregano
3/4 tsp garlic salt

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray cooking sheet with non-stick spray. (Or coat with a little bit of oil)

2. Mix biscuit mix and milk together in bowl then mix in the cheese. It should be a sticky-ish kind of dough.

3. Using spoon, drop lumps of dough onto cookie sheets 1.5in. Biscuit dough doesn't expand much, so make your drops pretty much the size you want the biscuits to be.  Bake for 10min.

4. In a bowl, melt butter and mix with oregano and garlic salt. (I learned that butter can burn!  Don't put it in the microwave for too long!)

5. When the timer goes off, take them out and brush with butter mixture and bake 5min at 400F and another 5-6min at 350F. (I didn't add the last 5-6 minutes and they turned out fine.)
 Take those puppies out, serve immediately, and enjoy the tasty morsels! 


Next time I'm posting German Cucumber salad! Yuummm

 Let me know if you use this, I'd love to hear how it turns out!

Love

Me

Welcome Back to My Victorian Lifestyle

Sorry for the extra-extended delay.  Life caught up with me after my trip to Europe, then school happened, and school has been happening since.

Today I would like to re-begin my blogging by introducing you to my baby.  He's almost a year old now and he has gotten so big!  He's gotten used to feeding and being cleaned.  Travel used to be an issue also, but he's adapted to that as well.  He's gotten sick a few times too; those were some uphill battles for sure.

So here he is, the star of this post.

He's super photogenic.  Really, he followed the camera around.

Meet Kupfer (Koop-fehr).  He is my beloved little betta fish.  Kupfer means "copper" in German and he's the only betta I have ever seen with these colorings.

I got him last November and he's been my little companion since then.  Here are some pictures from last year and this year.  He's done quite a bit of changing, some good some bad.

(Is it sad that I love a fish so much??)

This is the beginning of what is called a
"Bubble Nest".   Bettas make them when
 water conditions are prime, they are happy,
and it is a sign that a male betta would be
 ready to have/take care of babies.

This is from last year.
 His fins are pretty and long and
vanity is getting to him I think.

If you can see, the tips of his fin are red.  This is the onset of fin rot, a bacterial infection that eats away at bettas' tails.  He has dealt with this at least 5 times in the past year.  What used to be long lovely tail fins are a lot shorter now. 

Before Fin Rot, when I first got him.
Like I said, photogenic little booger. 

After fin rot.  He's also a LOT bigger now.
Little piglet. 

Hee. Cute ain't he?

 Now that you have met him, let me tell you a little more about him.  Bettas are Siamese fighting fish and they are EXTREMELY territorial.  Don't put two in the same bowl/tank together, they will fight, injuries ensue, and you most likely will have one less betta.  Kupfer is decently docile and doesn't flare up at me too often.  He does, however, like to bite my finger, jump out of his water when I feed him (not out of the bowl though, no worries), play tag with me (honestly), and be pet (honestly).

Many people don't think that fish are cutsie, interactive pets, but many fish become conditioned to expect feeding when they see their human come into the room, or their feeding light turned on.  Since mine is used to his water being changed once a week, he is also extremely used to my fingers and hands being in his water often (only after I have thoroughly cleaned my hands).  That is why he is ok with me petting him as well as brave enough to try and attack my finger and eat me.

All in all, I love my fish and so do my residents.  They enjoy watching him be fed, and to be honest, I think he enjoys showing off.  I'll probably post some more on him later and include some tips on keeping bettas happy, because now that I'm back in the states, I need some new material to post on here.  Expect fish related things, knitting related things, maybe some baking or SA related things as well.  It'll be a hodge-podge of things, after all, my life is a hodge-podge of things.

Welcome back to a Victorian Lifestyle.

Fertig mit Europa

It's hot.  I forgot how hot Iowa gets.... Wow.  I mean, wow.  Okay, anyway, on to the final installment of my Europe trip.  My journey home.

I had gotten back from Zürich and was now happily in Salzburg.  It was Monday night, and I was supposed to leave from Munich on Thursday.  Most of Tuesday I spent at the house, sleeping and getting over being sick.  Something about Europe apparently does not agree with me because that was the second time I'd been sick in a 6 week span. So Tuesday passed, and then Wednesday I was feeling so much better and I had planned to walk around town, so I did just that.  I spent my last day walking around more of Salzburg than I think I had the whole time I was there.  I went farther north than I'd been yet, and farther east.  Salzburg even gave me a beautiful day to enjoy.  The morning and afternoon spent, I went back to the house having successfully spent all of my Euros that I didn't want to keep and having acquired some more souvenirs.  Guess what then happened?  Yep, it started raining.  Once again, Salzburg was sad to see me go.  I can't quite recall though, but either that night or a night before, it hailed again.  BIG hail.  The weather apparently had a scheme brewing....

The next morning. being my departure day, I was up at 3:00 a.m.  Showered and packed, I went to catch the earliest bus to the train station - 5:27 a.m. (or something absurdly early like that).  I waited...and then waited...after a short waiting break, I waited some more....all the while begging and pleading with God to please send a bus my way.  Here's the deal, I had to catch my train at 6:32 a.m. to get in to Munich around 9 a.m. to go through customs and be at my gate in time for my flight which left at noon.  What I wasn't aware of at the time is that for US Citizens flying back to the states, you are asked to be at your gate an hour before departure time...soooo 11 a.m.  Goody.  So I wait and pray some more and then a guy comes along.  It's about 6 o'clock now.  I asked him to make sure that the buses were running today, and he said "yes", but that it was a bank holiday, so that meant it would run on the Sunday schedule.  The next bus would come in about 5 minutes.  Ok...at least the bus was coming.  Sure enough, the bus came around the corner (I've never been so happy to see a bus in my entire life and I don't like I will ever be again), I loaded my suitcases, caught the next transfer bus, and made it to the train station in time. Win!  

I went straight to where my train would be coming in and sat down, but it got continually closer to my departure time and no train was to be seen.  Then an announcer voice comes over the speakers and all can catch are the words "Train", "No", "Munich", "Bus"..............heh, say what?  I asked a lady near me and she informed me that apparently the delightful hail the night before had taken out the power lines for the trains all the way to Rosenheim which was on my way to Munich, and that they were going to try and take us by bus.  20 some people with all their luggage, by bus.  Well, that was fine for the people who didn't have a plane to catch, but for myself and another older gentleman, that wasn't really an option.  He had a flight leaving at 11:15 a.m. so he needed to get there quickly also.   In the process of all this happening, somehow my mom either called me, or I called her, and we talked over what the options were and the only option that ended up being available was taxi....all the way to Munich.  Ok, yes, it was going to be expensive, but let's assume that I missed my train shall we?  So let's say the trains were working later that night so I got on the train to Munich.  Alright, I get to Munich but all the flights to the US are full for the next few days (My mom had found that out), so I have to stay in a hotel for at least one night.  That would be at least 80 Euro which is approximately $120.  Then, I get an airplane ticket, but since they are all pretty much booked, it ends up costing, we'll say, $3000, which was about what my mom had found out.  I would gladly pay the $550 dollars to get to Munich and catch my original flight than pay around 3,000....so taxi was the plan.  I offered to split the taxi ride with the guy who also needed to go to Munich to catch his flight but he was in such a huff'n'puff about it, that he refused, confident that if he could just get ahold of the airport, they would get him a change in flight that wouldn't cost him anything, that this wasn't his fault, blah blah, how could he be expected to pay for this, blah blah, the phones won't work here, 500 dollars?!? that was crazy to pay, blah blah and so on... Ok, whatever you say buddy, I'm catching my flight.

After some issue with payment method, I finally had my luggage in the trunk, my self in the car, and a way to get to Munich, a way to get to the US.  I had a pleasant conversation with the taxi driver on the way and at one point he asked me if driving fast bothered me, it doesn't thankfully, because what should have taken around 2 and a half hours took about 1 and a half or so.  He even took me straight to my terminal.  I found my way through the airport, went through at least 5 different forms of security check, and got into my gate around 10:40 a.m. with time to spare.  Sure enough, the flights were booked and completely full, but the flight was pleasant, the interchange at Philadelphia uneventful, and then I was in Chicago, riding down an escalator to see my parents standing there, waiting for me.  I was home (almost).  We found my suitcases easily enough (thank goodness for bright, florescent pick duct tape), loaded up into the car, and set off towards Burlington. 

I have to admit, that since being home I have found adjusting to be a little difficult.  It was easy to adapt to a lifestyle that was always in motion, always with something new to see and do, and always in German.  Not that my life here isn't exciting, but it isn't as active, and it certainly isn't in German.  I find myself missing the language so much and with little to no opportunity to practice it.  It is so wonderfully good to be home, but at  the same time, there will always be a part of me that feels a little homesick for Austria.  Aber, für jetzt bin ich fertig mit Europa....aber nür für jetzt...(But for now I am finished with Europe....but only for now.)

Victoria

Zic Zac and Zürich!

I'm currently sitting at my computer, waiting for my album to load onto Snapfish.com so that I can order prints of pictures. Then with that done, I can begin my next adventure which is perhaps almost as expensive as traveling abroad, but perhaps a tad more time intensive...scrapbooking. My grandparents and parents bought me a scrapbook and the materials I need so that I can have a hard copy of my memories.  It will be a wonderful thing when it's done I'm sure (I hope).  Also, this waiting allows me the perfect opportunity to write the next section in my adventure towards home.  I had left Venice and was now on my way to Zürich, Switzerland.  This was on June 19th.

We arrived in Zürich around 5 p.m. and the first thing that instantly secured my heart to Switzerland, was the fact that I was back in a German speaking country (that and it has amazing chocolate...).  I had missed German so much while in Venice (even though it was only one day) and going back to a German speaking country felt like going home in a way.  Then add a beautiful lake view, fresh air, friendly people, gorgeous mountains in the distance, and free ketchup, and I'm sold.    Zürich really took my breath away (well, I mean, by this point I was still feeling ill and breathing was a little difficult through a stuffed up nose anyway).  The first order of business was to find our hotel room.  See, usually when traveling through countries in Europe, a person stays at what is called a Hostel. It is like a hotel (just take away an "s"), but much cheaper and not quite so luxurious (depending on where you go).  Rooms are set up so you can share a room with three other people, or 7 other people, or even 15 other people.  That's how it stays so affordable for travelers (who, let's face it, have no money usually).  Unfortunately for us, all the hostels were booked for that night, so I booked a room in a cheap hotel for the night using the internet on my phone.  We eventually find our way to the hotel, Zic Zac Rock Hotel.  Oh my.  Each room, is themed, with a famous person.  For example, there is the Prince room, or the Bon Jovi room, and then of course there was our room....the Bob Marley room.  Apparently, in my hastiness, I had requested a smoking room...apparently in my hastiness I had also booked the room for the 24th of June....which was 5 days later...The two gentlemen at the desk were nice enough to allow me to switch the room reservation to the current day, but did not do so without laughing at me a little first.  

We explored the hotel a little, and then I opted to shower and sleep since I was not feeling well.  We called it a night and prepared to explore Zürich the next day.  I woke up feeling quite a bit worse, probably because I was in a Bob Marley themed room...and the air was not the freshest...but none the less, we ventured out and found that God had blessed us with a beautifully gorgeous day.  The air outside thankfully, was crisp and fresh and clean, and the city, amazing.  We walked around all day, going into shops, buying souvenirs, sitting near the lake and lunching in a grand park.  We visited a few churches and did a few touristy things, but not much otherwise...I was content to simply be in Zürich and enjoy the general beauty.  Honestly, out of all the places I went to in Europe, Zürich is my second favorite city (after Salzburg naturally), and I would love to go back.  The people are nice and very helpful, and the city is industrialized, but not in a dirty, smoggy sort of way.  It was a very pleasant city with old buildings mixed in with new buildings and shopping streets with all varieties of stores and people.  I wish I had more to tell you, but with me being sick and us only having a day, all we really did was walk around.  Our train was leaving at 6 something in the evening to take us back to Salzburg so we headed to the train station.

We sat for a while and a train pulled into our gate about 40 minutes before ours was supposed to leave, and it didn't have Salzburg as its destination, so we sat some more til that one would leave and ours would come.  Well then it got to be about our departure time and the train was still there, in our gate.  Quite confusing.  I then heard over the intercom that it was the last call for the train to board and we looked at each other, then looked at the train, jumped up, grabbed our things, and flew to the nearest door of what we now understood to be our train.  What I didn't fully realize at the time is that not all trains list every single stop...and some minor stops are left off and it is to be understood by the supposed all-knowing traveler, where his or her stop is.  Thankfully, I asked someone on the train and he alleviated my fears by saying that yes, the train did in fact go to Salzburg.  Happy day.

Sure enough, we pulled into Salzburg around 10:00 p.m., we grabbed a bite to eat at McDonald's, then I caught the very last bus going to my house that night.  It felt like going home.  It was going home.  And next time, I'll write about my second homecoming...Back to the US I go (but not without trouble of course)!!

Victoria

Auf Wiedersehen Italien! Hallo Der Schweiz!

 Ich bin so faul!! (I am so lazy!!)  It seems that without something to do every minute of my day, I procrastinate the simple things such as writing on here and working on pictures and such.  I apologize for having not written. Well, I shall remedy this problem right now!

Venedig - Venice


I don't know how many of you know this, but train companies  have this really cool option called "Night Trains".  Pretty self-explanatory.  You ride a train...at night...makes sense, right?  Well, there's more.  These night trains have sleeping compartments, with beds, and they also serve you breakfast in the morning, with coffee.  Happy Day!  So Anna and I met at the train station around midnight and then after waiting an hour or so, got situated on our train in our beds.  Now, I normally sleep pretty well in vehicles because of the movement and the bumps, but add a bed to the equation, and I'm a happy camper.  In the morning (around 6:00 am) they woke us up and asked whether we wanted coffee or tea with our breakfast and then brought each of us our food and drinks.  Approximately two hours later, we arrived in Venedig (Venice) and got off the train.  Our first mission: find a bathroom.  We found a bathroom.  Second mission: Find the exact change needed to get INTO said bathroom and USE it...I love Europe, but that is one thing I will not miss - having to pay to use the restrooms.  After freshening up a bit, we walked out of the train station to find an absolutely breathtaking site.  Down the stairs to what I guess you would call a street, you see the river/canal in front of you, with boats and people and buildings.  Something similar to the picture.


We stayed in Venice for only one day and had a train ride at 6:00 am the next morning that was to shuttle us off to Zürich, so we planned on walking around the city, hopefully taking a gondola ride, simply enjoying the city and the sites, and then waiting around at the train station until the next morning (in my head, it made no sense to try and find a hostel to go to bed at 11:00 pm, and wake up at 4:00 am to get ready and catch the train...so we stayed up all night, maybe not the smartest decision, but it worked).  We encountered some interesting people throughout the day, some who were very pleasant, and others who were not..so..pleasant... For those of you who have been following along, you may recall an incident in Salzburg when a guy asked me a ton of questions, wanted my phone number and started to follow me on his bike and I might have lied and told him I had family in Salzburg and that I didn't have a phone or facebook?  Well, that scenario pretty much repeated itself in Venice, only this time, I was from Austria, my travel buddy was my sister, and neither of us spoke very much English.  The things you'll learn about yourself....  


Needless to say, Venice is gorgeous.  The city is a winding maze of confusing streets crowded with people and canals crowded with boats and gondolas.  Every corner turned presents a new breathtaking, unexpected surprise.  The buildings are old and mysterious and there are so many little shops nestled into any little space available.  Then, take into consideration that the buildings are hugged right against the canals which are crossed by quaint little bridges.  I actually got to go on a gondola ride through many of those little canals.  It was wonderful!  The drivers are amazing too. They steer those boats like it's nobody's business!  Now so far, I've painted a picture for you that's quite pretty and nice...but I feel it only fair that I paint the other side for you as well.  Venice is crowded, smells like dingy water and old cigarette smoke mixed with old alcohol, and the streets are so confusing as there is no grid formation.  Now I admit that since I had started getting sick that day and walking around with a heavy backpack isn't a super duper pleasant experience, my opinion of the city might have been negatively affected.  The city is beautiful, and if any of you ever get a chance to see it, I would recommend it, but as for me, one day was enough. 


Well, after a lot of walking, some shopping, eating, and more walking, 6:00 am eventually rolled around and we got on the train (we got to sit first class by the way),   and headed off to our next destination.  Auf Wiedersehen Italien!  Hallo der Schweiz!  (Goodbye Italy, Hello Switzerland!)

Victoria    

"Auf Wiedersehen, Salzburg" und "Hallo, Venedig!"

Well hello there!  It's been a while hasn't it?  Travelling made posting difficult and then after getting back into the states, I was thrown back into my normal hectic, whirlwind of a life, so it's been easy to procrastinate this very important post.  But now it has arrived.  There is a lot to tell, so let the telling begin.  (Since so much has happened, I'm going to section off the events into separate posts, so they aren't as long.)

Auf Wiedersehen - Goodbye

 My last post was almost two weeks ago.  On Wednesday, classes had ended and then Thursday was the Kindergarten party, the final concert with the school, and then the farewell party at the school.  I had spent the morning with my guest family, then had lunch with my school peeps, then went back to the house for the Kindergarten party.  The kid's party was great and all the kids sang adorable little songs in German that I couldn't understand at all.  I had to leave early, however, in order to get dressed (all fancy-schmancy) to go to the final concert for the school.  So sure enough, I ducked out, went back to the house, dolled up, and headed back into town.  One problem - I didn't know where the concert was being held....hmm.  Option one - go to the school first and check to see if there was something posted there.  Sounded good.  I almost got there when I was presented with option two -  sneakily follow the two people that I thought just came from the school and that I thought were fellow students and that I thought were heading to the concert.  Thankfully I am a ninja, so this was not a problem.  After a ways, I called out to one of them and sure enough, he turned around (leave it to me to follow people halfway across town without knowing for sure if I should be following them or not). We walked the rest of the way to the concert together, and the concert proved to be wonderfully entertaining.  Afterwards, we headed back to the school where we enjoyed cake, snacks, and a bit of champagne.  Some people unfortunately, enjoyed a bit too much champagne, and a few of my friends and I ducked out to go, where else, but McDonalds.  There we had an awesome conversation about how God had worked in our lives throughout the trip and shared our testimonies.  It was a wonderful way to spend the evening.
 
  Then came Friday.  I'll be honest with you all, Friday was a horrible day for me.  I do perfectly fine with saying "goodbye" to people that I know I'll see again, but when I don't know if I'll see them...I get a tad...emotional.  I first had to say goodbye to the people at school, which wasn't terrible, but then again, those weren't the "goodbye's" I was dreading.  The Geistberger's were going on vacation and were leaving at 6 o'clock that night.  The waterworks started about as soon as I stepped back inside the house, and that was at 3:30.  It made it worse when Laura, the sweetheart, said this, "Du und deine Familie sollen hier leben und arbeiten (You and your family should live and work here)" and then when Lisa would ask me, "Du fliegst mit? (You are flying with us?)".  I played with Lisa and Laura for awhile and then eventually that time rolled around.  It was about 5:30 p.m. and Lisa came and sat in my lap and wanted me to read her the two kids books she had in English.  It had become our regular thing, most evenings, before or after supper, she would sit in my lap and we would go through the book and she would learn some English words (or at least, she'd repeat them after me).  I managed the books decently well, with only a few cracks in my voice here or there.  Then came 6 o'clock, "goodbye's" were said, we wished each other well with the promise of having stories to talk about on facebook, and then they were gone.

   I went back into the house which was now the quietest it had probably ever been and after a little while, I began to prepare for travelling.  The evening afforded little time to be sad because at 1 am in the morning, I would be getting on a night train and heading to my next destination.  I packed my things, slept, showered, took the bus to the train station, met my travel buddy, then boarded the train.  It was the last "goodbye" of the day:

  "Auf Wiedersehen, Salzburg" und "Hallo, Venedig!" ( "Goodbye, Salzburg" and "Hello, Venice!")

*In an announcer voice*  Tune in next time for "Adventures in Venice!" as well as, "Zic Zac and Zurich!"

Nur Zwei Tage

Maahh!  I apologize for not having posted in such a long time but the end of my school session has been quite crazy lately.  Last time I ended with my post about Vienna.  The rest of last week went pretty smoothly with not a lot of big things going on.  Friday though, I left with two other girls to see Prague in the Czech Republic.  Prague is huge.  I thought Vienna was big.  Wow, hello Prague.  The thing about Prague is, they don't speak German....the language is Czech.  And the thing about Czech is, it is in no way similar to either German or English. Heh heh.  I learned the best phrase you would ever need, and phonetically it goes like this:  MLOO-vee-teh AHN-gleet-skee? It means, "Do you speak  English?"  When they said "no", I would ask if they spoke German, and over half of the time that's how the conversation would end up...in German. That or the opposite would happen; they would be better at English than German but I would try to talk to them in German on accident.
    As far as the city is concerned, it's very pretty, has a lot of history, a lot of beautiful buildings, a lot of graffiti, dirty air that always smells like smoke or alcohol, and tourist attractions that are never free.  Overall, Prague was not my favorite, but then again, I had Salzburg to compare it to, and what can compare to Salzburg??  We also had some issues with our hostel and with transportation.  See, we'd planned on staying in Prague from Friday til Monday, and catching our train on Monday at 13:00.  Then, Surprise!!!  The transportation workers want to strike on Monday!  Great.....  We went to the train station and two of the workers said, "yes...it is definitely happening" then the third said, "Nah, we don't know yet for sure.  Come back tonight or tomorrow morning and check."  Ok.  I can handle that.
    We then headed out to do the things we'd planned for that day and the last on the list was a Jazz Boat. So cool!  They take you on a boat on the river at night and you get a live jazz performance and dinner.  Then you get to see the sunset and then the night all lit up at night.  It was my favorite part of Prague.   After the Jazz Boat we went back to the train station, and Surprise again!  The strike was off. : )     No striking for you!  I was overjoyed because that meant that I wouldn't miss out on another day in Salzburg (which I was missing quite a bit) and the day with my Host family.  But please don't get too excited, we still had issues riding back. Oh, and did I forget to mention that on the way to Prague, the trains were so full that we did not get seats?  We either stood in hallways or sat near the bathrooms.  Thankfully on our way back that only happened once.  Instead, our connecting train to Munich was late, so we missed the Munich to Salzburg train.  That put us about 2 hours behind.  Finally we got back to Salzburg and I apologize to anyone who really loves Prague, but I never intend to go back.
      So now, my last week!  I had two tests on Wednesday and now I'm finished with classes.  Yesterday evening was the farewell party with the Geistberger's and I might have cried...quite a bit.  The funny part was that when I first started crying, I asked for a moment and went up to my room.  When I came back down, they told me that Lisa was so sad for me, that she wanted to coddle me and make me feel better.  Ha ha.  Little sweetheart.  Now it is Thursday.  I have a Kindergarten party for Laura, then the students have a concert and then there is a Farewell party at the school later.  Then tomorrow is farewell day.  I have begun to pack my suitcase and it doesn't feel real.  I can hardly believe that already, ich habe nur zwei mehr Tage (I have only two more days).

I probably won't be able to post at all until I am back in the states because I will be travelling some from Saturday til Thursday....so...until then!!!!

Victoria  (Or as Lisa says, Victoree...the "a" hasn't happened yet, but it is a step up from  "Vih tohr")

Also, here are some pictures.  Sorry for the lack of labels.