Hello Friends and Family!
So I've fallen into the no-update-for-weeks rut, but my lack of timeliness has left me w
ith a bunch of fun events to chronicle!Firstly, since the end of October, the lovely Klagenfurtians have been adorning our downtown area with Christmas spirit, culminating in the "Chriskindlmarkt" that has taken over the square where the Lindwurm (dragony thing in the center) resides. The square is full of adorable little log huts, selling anything that your Christmas heart could desire. This also adds a fun night-life factor, because from the early evening to 11 or midnight, the vendors offer yummy hot spiced wine, beer and ciders! Lina introduced Kristina and I to the cider, and we warmed ourselves after an evening practice.
Last weekend we played a match in Zilina, Slovakia, which is a lovely 8-hour bus ride away
from Klagenfurt. After an unfortunate block move, Kristina ended up with a sprained ankle before warm-ups even ended, so we didn't really start the match out on a good note. We took the first set but dropped the next 3, and got back on the bus for a somber post-loss ride home.Last week flew by, and we had some great weather that I tried to capture in pictures of downtown. Klagenfurt is a beautiful city as-is, but the Christmas lights and the smell of roasted chestnuts make it even more picturesque!
Friday brought a surprise in the form of Lauren, Kristina's friend from Canada who has been Euro-tripping for the last 3 weeks. She's come into our lives as a third roommate, and we're loving it!
On Saturday we played the team from Zilina again, at home this time. After a morning serve and pass practice, we enjoyed a delicious meal of Kärntner Nudel with our local f
riend Matthias, who 
helped us pick the best flavors at the market downtown. The pregame meal set us up for success, because with Kristina playing again and an awesome team effort, we managed to pull out our first win in 7 weeks, and we beat Zilina 3-0!Saturday night we met the volleyball boys downtown for the parade of Krampus (scary devil people that come after the bad children at Christmas time in Austria), and Lauren and I took the opportunity to grab a few snapshots with them...
After a fun night of dancing on Saturday, Lauren, Kristina and I woke up early to start cooking our Thanksgiving feast. This picture captures how great we were feeling on such little sleep while chopping onions, and I hope everyone appreciated the pain we were in while preparing the food that was consumed so rapidly later that night...
We had invited over the 7 other North Americans in town (one American on the basketball team, 5 Canadians and an American on the men's volleyball team) and had put out an open invite to some other friends in town, so we knew that we were cooking for a crowd. Add that to the fact that our kitchen is just big enough for 2 miniature peop
le to squeeze in, and also that the Billa does not offer the 17 options for every item like the neighborhood Safeway does, and we were definitely facing a challenge.. Fortunately, the three of us combined to work some magic, and everything turned out great!On the menu: Mashed potatoes, rosemary roasted potatoes, sweet potato casserole (do we like potatoes much??), stuffing, macaroni and cheese, gravy, pork chops, salad, sweet potato pie and apple crumble with ice cream. We ate ourselves silly (at one point I had to go lie down fo
r fear that I might explode) and thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving Klagenfurt style!We spent Monday recovering from the feast, and Tuesday brought another eventful German lesson. Today we had a Euro-Cup match against a team from the Azores (island chain off the coast of Portugal), and ended up losing in 4 sets. The exciting part is that we are headed to play them at their home next Tuesday! We leave on Sunday night for Munich, head from there to Lisbon, then take a boat a third of the way to the East Coast to arrive at the tiny island where we're playing!
I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving back home, and that you all felt just as gluttonous as I did! I miss you all and would love to hear updates :) (acmaylo@gmail.com!)
XOXO
Anna
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