My favourite dish

Today I want to show you how to cook my favourite dish, lecsò, which is a Hungarian vegetable sauce.

I usually cook intuitionally, which means I do not normally weigh or measure anything, so the weights and measures I tell you are only an estimation.

For two servings you will need:

• 2 tomatoes or approx. 10 cherry tomatoes
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 onion
• other vegetables, if you like, such as mais or courgette
• paprika
• curry powder
• vinegar
• salt
• pepper
• oil

Heat a splash of oil and chop the onions, then fry them. In the meantime, cut all the vegetables into small chunks. First add the tomatoes, then the bell pepper. Stir for a while. The tomatoes should lose some of their water and give the lecsò its saucy texture. If not, you can add a splash of water. Then add the courgette, mais or other vegetables. Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes. Make sure to check every now and then if there is enough water in the pot, otherwise add a splash. Only now should you season the lecsò. Add two teaspoons paprika, half a teaspoon curry powder and one tablespoon vinegar. If you like hot food, you can also add a pinch of ground ginger or chili powder. Season with salt and pepper and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. It is best served with rice or pasta.

I love this dish because it is simple and can be prepared in a matter of minutes. This way, I can eat a decent and healthy lunch even when I do not have much time. Due to its simplicity you can try countless variations. For example, in autumn, when tomatoes and bell peppers are not in season anymore, I like to use chunks of pumpkin and add cumin in addition to the other spices.

strolling through a food paradise

Whenever I am on holiday, there is one place I never miss out on: market halls.

They are maybe not the most touristy or special places, but that is why I like them so much. As soon as you enter a market hall, an eclectic mix of smells welcomes you. It is a pleasure to look at all the fresh, local food - and try free samples where possible. There is usually also a small cafe or restaurant where I like to stop by to watch the bustling crowd while enjoying a freshly brewed coffee or meal.

piirakka

The largest and most impressive market hall I have been to is the one in the harbour of Helsinki. There is a big section dedicated to fish - obviously, as fish is always present in the Scandinavian cuisine. If you ever happen to be there, make sure to try a piirakka. It is a traditional Finnish pastry made out of rye dough filled with rice pudding or mashed potatoes. It can be eaten as a warm or cold snack.

I also visited a market hall in Oulu, a town in the north of Finland. It is smaller than the one in Helsinki and mainly dedicated to fish and meat, but they also sell hand-made souvenirs. It is located next to the sea, so on a warm day you can eat whatever you bought at the market sitting at the small harbour. When I was there, however, it was too cold and windy and we hurried back home to prepare the fish we had bought as soon as possible. It was the best grilled salmon I have ever eaten, by the way. Fish just does not taste the same here at home, where it is not cooked within a few hours after it has been caught.

I definitely had the best time at a market in Florence, though. It is called Mercato Sant'Ambrogio and there are mainly locals because tourists usually go to the central market. I was in Florence because I did a language course there, and we went to the market on our last day as part of a final quiz. Each group got a sheet with questions, and our task was to interview the Italian customers and salespeople to find out what we needed to know. For example, we had to ask for prices or find out what kind of food a certain word meant. It was sometimes tricky, but a fun way of learning new words and overcoming the reluctance to speak a foreign language in public.

"To Berlin, please!"

An adventurous journey, for free: sounds like (almost) every person's dream, doesn't it?

Well, all the lucky ones who were chosen to take part in the "Can you make it"-challenge will get exactly that! The goal of this challenge is to make it from a certain starting point - one of four cities in Europe - to the finish line in Berlin in a matter of seven days. 

Piece of cake, you will think - but of course there is a catch. The participants cannot use any money, including credit cards, nor can they have a personal mobile phone. They only get a few cans of energy drink which they can try to trade. They have to rely on luck, hospitality and their negotiating powers in order to get food, a place to sleep and - most importantly - a ride to their next checkpoint. The participating groups cannot just choose any route they want, but they have to pass six checkpoints on the way, where additional challenges are waiting for them. If the participants master them successfully, they earn more energy drink that can be traded for other goods.

All participants are travelling in groups of three and have to stay together at all times. There are several other rules that must be obeyed, otherwise they will be disqualified. If participants are sure that they will not reach Berlin on time, they can always give up and travel home - but seriously, who would admit defeat and not keep fighting until the very last minute?

As far as I have read from the homepage, there is not just one winner. Everyone who manages to arrive in Berlin on time is a winner, and on top of the unique experience they have had they are invited to an awesome party :-)

This year there is also a group from the University of Graz who will take part in the challenge. I am going to follow their adventures online for the next week. Their starting point will be London. I am especially curious how they are going to make it across the sea!

The application for the next challenge probably won't start until next winter, but who knows, maybe you will see me and two of my friends in next year's challenge, trying to make it from one place to another only relying on luck and our charm!

House swap letter

Our last piece of  homework was much more effort - this time, we not only had to write a single paragraph, but connect several of them together to a letter. Unfortunately, longer writing tasks also mean more potential mistakes. Our teacher only underlined ten sentences which needed some improvement but did not comment on them.

Honestly, I was quite desperate at first, because I had little clue whether it was the grammar that was wrong or whether there were only logical and idiomatic problems. After reading my letter over and over for an hour on my bus ride home, I had an idea of what could be the problems and how I could improve my text. Just after I had typed the correction, I found out that there are teacher's suggestions after all! I was glad to find out that most of the improvement ideas were similar to what I had come up with myself.

The way our homework was corrected this time definitely made me reflect on my written work and my expressions even more than usually. I was glad that there were suggestions provided, though, because I could identify what was unclear in some sentences but found no way to express myself better and needed inspiration.

Dear Christine,

Thank you for your letter with all the details about your house and area. I appreciated the information about public transport in Brussels, but I was wondering if it is easy to get around by bike? If so, where can I hire one? Also, I am planning to spend a day or two in Amsterdam. I would be grateful if you could tell me the fastest way to get there and whether I need to book the tickets in advance. Apart from that, I don't have any questions at the moment, so, as promised, here is everything you need to know about my place.

As soon as you exit the train station, you will find yourselves in an open space from where the busses depart. Look for the stop on the far left side of that space, where busses number 58 and 63 leave. You can take either one of these busses, but you need to have a valid ticket. You can buy single tickets or ones that are valid for 24 hours from the bus driver. If you plan to use public transport regularly, however, I suggest you buy a weekly ticket from one of the vending machines at the train station. Get off the bus after six stops. The name of the stop is 'Wormgasse'. Stops are usually announced in the busses and additionally displayed on small screens in the bus. When you get off the bus, you will see a light yellow building across the street. Even though my flat is in this building and you can see a door on the front side, you need to go down the side street to the right of the building and use the green door there in order to get in.

I have arranged to leave the keys with a friend, who will wait for you in front of the building to show you the way to my flat, which is on the second floor. There is a lift you can use, though I consider it rather useless as it only stops on the floors with an uneven number and therefore not on the second floor.

I think the rest is fairly self-explanatory. I have left notes wherever you may need help. The only thing I should warn you about is that you absolutely must close the blinds whenever the sun is shining. Otherwise, my southward-facing flat becomes a sauna.

If you want to buy ingredients in order to prepare your own meals or just want to buy snacks, there is a SPAR supermarket around the corner. Simply follow the small street where the entrance to the apartment complex is – it is impossible to miss. If you want to try traditional Austrian food, I can recommend having lunch at ‘Landhauskeller’ in the heart of Graz. Altnernatively, there is the ‘Ristorante Paradiso’, which is great for fans of the Italian cuisine. It is a little difficult to find because it is located in the inner courtyard of the department store ‘Kastner & Öhler’, but their handmade pasta is definitely worth the effort.

I could tell from your letter that you are already well informed about the sights you are planning to see in Graz. If the weather in sunny you might also want to consider a trip outside of Graz, for example to the ‘Schöckl’, a mountain north of the city. Bus number 250 will bring you to St. Radegund, a village at the foot of the hill. From there you can either hike to the top or opt for the more convenient ascent - the cable car. The mountain’s plateau is great for short walks and there are activities for children such as a summer toboggan run. If you want to enjoy a breath-taking view and a typical Austrian dessert, ‘Kaiserschmarren’, try to find a vacant table on the terrace of the ‘Stubenberghaus’.

I think that is it for now. If you have any further questions, you can contact me any time.

Best regards,

Sarah 

The worst cook I know

Here comes the first correction of a piece of homework from this semester. The heading I chose was "The worst cook I know".

When it comes to cooking, my father fails to follow even the simplest instructions. In spite of the

 directions given on the package, he once confused the ratio of water and rice. The result was slightly burned, yet still crispy rice grains which added an unbearably smoked flavour to our lunch. Another time he wanted to surprise my mother and me with pasta and savoury home-made tomato sauce for lunch. Unfortunately, we came home later than expected. By then, the pasta had been boiling for over an hour. Needless to say, we were surprised, if more by its texture than by my father‘s kind gesture. Once my mother let him prepare dessert, hoping that he could not fail hopelessly this time – but my father proved us wrong. He is usually rather absent-minded and therefore seasoned the dessert with salt instead of sugar. Since this last incident he has only been allowed to microwave food, which has not caused any problems – so far.

The paragaph I had written was no entirely bad, but I had only two supporting points, which made it too short. After giving some thought to some of the disastrous meals my dad has cooked, I have added a third supporting point. Also, I had not used many new words in my original paragraph. I tried to add several adjectives and sub-clauses, but still I feel like I did not manage to use as many new words as others did.

Music

As you might (or might not) know, I am going to spend the whole summer break in the UK this year. For this reason I am currently trying to put together a summer playlist. Music is very important for me whenever I go abroad because it makes spending hours on planes, trains and busses less boring. Also I will connect it to memories of the places I have been, so whenever I listen to a holiday playlist later on, I will be taken back to this place and the feelings that are connected with it.

I wanted to take this chance and introduce you to some bands whose songs will be part of my playlist.

First of all, there are The Naked and Famous. They are a band from New Zealand that has only released two albums so far. I think it is difficult to define music by certain labels, but if I had to, I would say theirs is synthpop or indie pop. Many of you will know their songs Young Blood or Punching in a Dream from their first album, Passive Me, Aggressive You. Here is a video from their new album, In Rolling Waves, which I will put onto my playlist:

By the way, I am looking forward to seeing them live in June! :-)

The second band on my playlist are Crystal Fighters. When I saw them live at a music festival in 2011, I did not like them at all - actually I thought they were just a group of drug addicts that make crappy music. However, a while ago a friend re-introduced me to them and I started to like their new album, Cave Rave. The video is for their song At Home, which is not on their new album, but still on my playlist because it is wonderful and dreamy.

One band, or rather collaboration, that deserves more attention in my opinion is Volcano Choir. I called it a collaboration because it consists of the members of an instrumental band called Collections of Colonies of Bees and Justin Vernon from the band Bon Iver as a singer. I especially like their songs Comrade, Byegone and Alaskans. Altough, if you decide to listen to Comrade, promise me to listen to the whole song. I did not like the beginning when I heard it for the first time either and was about to skip the song when the refrain started and got me caught.

A band that never ceases to amaze me is Alcest. Every album they release sounds so different from the last one, yet they never fully abandon their typical dreamy style. I love Away from their newest album, Shelter. It is one of the few songs with English lyrics they have. Their lead singer is French, so obviously the lyrics are usually French too. Promise me to listen to Tir Nan Og, which is by far their most brilliant song. You cannot deny that it makes you feel as if you were riding a unicorn through a haunted forest! As far as I know, though, the lyrics are based on an old Irish tale and are in Gaelic.

I think I have given you enough to listen to for a while, but maybe I will let you know more about the bands and singers I like at a later stage.

English is in my feet

Well, technically, a language cannot be in your feet. If anywhere, it is located in your brain - that is, unless you let children draw language portraits.

Every language portrait starts with a simple silhouette of the human body. Children are now encouraged to colour them, with each colour representing one of the languages they know. They should also write comments or short texts explaining which languages they described and why they can be found in certain body parts. The idea behind language portraits is to make children think about the languages and cultures that influence them, and to show them that diversity is important. They should be proud of knowing more than one language instead of having the feeling that one of their languages is "bad" or "unwanted".

The descriptions (collected by Krumm, 2003) are insightful and sometimes heartwarming. One child, for example, wrote "German is in my head because it is the language my thoughts are in." Another one, however, said the reason for English being in his head is that he has to think a lot about it when speaking it.

I wanted to post my own language portrait at this point, but it is difficult, if not impossible, to draw one freely after all that I've read about them. Maybe I will let the topic rest for a while and add my own language portrait later. What would your portraits look like, though?

Wherever the languages you know are located, you cannot deny that they are a part of you and define who you are. I think Pentti Saarikoski put it best:

”Suomen kieli 

on minulle ikkuna ja talo

minä asun tässä kielessä

Se on minun ihoni.” 

It can be roughly translated as:

"The (Finnish) language

is for me like a window and a house

I live in this language

it is my skin."