My favourite food blog

The blog is called “Always order dessert” and it’s written by a woman named Alejandra Ramos. She was studying in America but she needed a break and decided to move to Florence, Italy. There she enrolled at a professional culinary institute. Today she lives in New York with her husband. Alejandra works as a full-time food writer, recipe developer, and culinary instructor. Sometimes she makes guest appearances in television cookery shows and dreams to of one day hosting her own TV show. She named the blog Always Order Dessert because she was going through such difficult times before she could establish her cooking carrier. Despite her frustrations, she never gave up and always tried to find the sweetness in her life.

Alejandra Ramos’ blog is very professional. She mainly concentrates on desserts, but she also creates recipes for pasta, bread, salads, cocktails, and other snacks.

Why I really liked her blog is the reason that she seems to be so passionate about her work. No matter how hard she had to struggle to survive, she never lost her fervour. Moreover, a lot of her dishes look more like art than food, e.g. her Irish Rainbow Cookies for St. Patrick's Day.

I have tried out one of her recipes which is a kind of éclair. I have decided for it, because it was one of her easier dishes. There was a step-by-step introduction with a lot of pictures! Here is the result:

And the Erasmus Nomination goes to...

A few weeks ago I received the message that I was nominated for Erasmus. This means that I’m going to spend the summer semester in Italy at a university in Milan! I am so excited about these news and I can’t think of anything else now.

One year ago I couldn’t imagine applying for Erasmus, because I was so timid and had absolutely no self-confidence. However, things have changed a lot since I had attended university – I have changed. I get the feeling that I grew a lot. After all these baby-steps in the last two year, I’m now ready to take this big step!

This would be the first time, I travel abroad without any help and I’m wondering if I will be able to handle this challenge…

Happy birthday, tube!

Due to our latest discussions in English I found out that the majority of us have been to London. When I travelled there in business school, I was immediately fascinated by the city. It was Christmas time and on the very first day we went to the Oxford Street. I remember my friends and me just standing and staring at this breath-taking Christmas decoration.

London seems to a lot of people not very spectacular, because of all the other places where they have been, but I connect so many beautiful memories with this city.

In January the 150^th anniversary of the beginning of the London Underground takes place. This and because of the fact that we are currently discussing the topic “places” in English class, I’m thinking a lot of the travel to London these days. …and because I went there with my best friend who is in Philadelphia as an au-pair, I’m missing her so much.

2012: the end of 12 months/366 days/8784 hours/...

Today is the 363^rd day of the year which means that we only have three days left until 2013 starts. When it comes to the end of a year and New Year’s Eve isn’t far away anymore, people tend to draw a kind of conclusion from the whole year. And so I do! I decided to create a personal end-of-year review and I proudly present:

My 2012 favourites

Music and movies
Looking back to the year 2012 a lot of songs remind me of special moments. When I was driving home in my car after I have finished the oral Matura and I was listening to “Little talks” by Of Monsters and Men. Whenever I hear this song now, I have to think of that euphoria I felt during that time. Or “Somebody that I used to know” by Gotye…so true…
I also have to mention the Gangnam Style, because it’s so controversial. The moment when I saw this video the first time, I can’t do anything but laugh, because it was so hilarious and awkward! However, as soon as I went out with friend and the Gangnam Style was played, we all tried to do that dance. Even if we made a fool of ourselves!
It seemed to me as if I had waited centuries for it. Finally the day came when the second part of “Breaking Dawn” was released. :) Other blockbusters I really liked were “James Bond: Skyfall”, “Ted” and “Step up 4: Miami Heat”

Fashion
In 2012 a new term was created: co lour blocking which means combining clothes and accessories of different loud colours. Other trends: the revival of wedge heels and jumpsuits (yesss!) and plaits in all its variants.

 
Academic career
Now it is incredible that I attended business college a few months ago… Since I have gone to university a lot of things have changed – I have changed. I often really miss my family and friends in Carinthia, but I’m convinced that I made the right decision to come to Graz and study Transkulturelle Kommunikation.

Word of the year 
The official Austrian word of the year is “Rettungsgasse”, although it doesn’t work in 60 % of cases.
My personal word of the year 2012 is “CHANGE”. For a very long period, shifts meant to me nothing but worsening. I had a big fear of change because I never can prepare for or control them. It took me a long time to realize that progress is linked with change. I never will develop myself when I don’t accept change. That’s what I learnt in 2012.

The pronunciation manual

Studying vocabs isn’t one of my favourite tasks in English. It’s much easier for me to learn new words from a text than from a vocabulary list. This is boring and I’m easily distracted by …everything. And when I finally can memorize a few words, I have to cope with the next problem: the pronunciation. As you can remember we had to rhyme for our first progress check and for doing this it’s very important to know how to pronounce it. Lately I was searching the internet for some help and I what I’ve found were a lot of speaking programmes, quizzes, practise videos and a lot of other stuff you wouldn’t imagine. My favourite website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/



As always when surfing in the internet a lot of information turned out to be rubbish! There are videos on YouTube which are called “The pronunciation manual” and they learn you how to pronounce English words wrongly on purpose :D.

and...

"The Italian man who went to Malta"

PLEASE WATCH THEM! They're so hilarious! :)

Christmas all over the world

In my Italian class we are currently discussing feast days and one of these is Christmas. Now I know how people celebrate that day in Italy and in America, but I am also interested in other countries traditions and so I made some research!

… in China
In China only a few people are Christians and because of this it is very often only celebrated in the big cities. There you can find nearly the same traditions as in Europe or America: lights and other decorations on the streets and in department shops, Christmas carols and in some houses there are Christmas trees decorated with paper flowers, paper lanterns or paper chains. A special custom on Christmas Eve is to present your family and friends apples, because the Chinese word for “Christmas Eve” and “apple” sounds similar!

… in the Netherlands
The name Santa Clause comes from the Scandinavian “Sinterklaas”. In the Netherlands children leave their shoes out on 5^th December to be filled by Sinterklaas who brings the presents. The kids also put carrots into their shoes for Sinterklaas’s horse. They are told that only the good ones receive presents, but bad children will get hunted by Zwarte Piet (Black Peter). There is also a Dutch tradition which is similar to an Austrian/a German: at school pupils write their names on a piece of paper and then put it in a hat. Now everyone has to pick one paper and make a surprise present for the student. On Christmas Eve, Dutch Children believe that Santa Claus, (who is also called 'Christmas man' to avoid confusion with Sinterklaas!) comes from Lapland in Finland to deliver more presents!

… in Italy 
The Italian children have to wait until 6^th January, which is called “Epifania”, for their presents. According to the traditions, the presents are delivered by an ugly witch called “Befana” who flies on a broom. She slides down the chimney, and fills stockings and shoes with good things for good children and leaves coal for children who are bad!

The fear of rejection

No matter how self-confident somebody is when it comes to telling the person you fancy (we discussed this word today in our English lesson;  “fancy is the state of having a crush on somebody and one step before stalking”) about your feelings. Especially during the teenage years we have to deal with this problem a lot. You spend hours, days, WEEKS to organize that great day when the time is right to ask him or her to go on a date with you. I think everybody has at some time or another experienced this kind of this threatening situation with all these exciting emotions.  A guy named Jia Jing who lives in America has started a self-therapy which he calls “Rejection Therapy” to overcome the fear of being refused. He is an entrepreneur and wants to become as successful as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg etc. All these visionaries have strong character traits and with his therapy Jia Jing wants to acquire them.
His plan is to express crazy wishes to his fellow men for 100 days and with each “no” he receives he becomes more conscious. You can even follow his process on his own blog! Although he decided on a lot of funky exercises
 The problem is that is proposal more or less failed already at the third day when he went into a doughnut-shop called “Krispy Kreme” in Texas. There Jia Jing asked the employee – her name is Jacky – for a specialized doughnut. He wants her to link five doughnuts together and make them look like the Olympic Symbol. Instead of being declined and getting laughed at, Jacky asked him to wait and after a quarter of an hour she finally came with a doughnut creation that looks like the Olympic Symbol!
Here is the link to his blog if you want to follow his amazing intention (by this time it's his 14th day): http://www.entresting.com/blog/

Gingerbread rocks!

At the end of English lessons Teresa sometimes tells me what she is going to cook for dinner today. While explaining all the different meals to me I’m just staring at hear and thinking “What is she talking about?!” The only thing that I can do in such a situation is nodding and smiling. Don’t get me wrong! I’m favourably impressed by her. My skills in cooking are restricted to ham and eggs and … yeah that’s it. During university I eat at the Mensa, at a restaurant at the Jakominiplatz or I go to Un

 Teresa, I don’t know what you are thinking about me - “A 19 year old girl that can’t even cook?!”-  but now I tell you a secret about me which might blow your mind! You won’t believe it. It’s my supernatural talent. Nearly an obsession. Baking GINGERBREAD!
 Last year I got the recipe from my best friend. I have altered it a little bit and finally created the perfect gingerbread-recipe. No kidding! I’m not exaggerating. It is mind-bogglingly good. During baking I always listen to Christmas songs and switch on the Christmas illumination and with this first baking-session my Yuletide begins. When I have one of my super-creative days I also decorate the biscuits with food colouring and sugar or chocolate icing.
Unfortunately, I can’t share my special recipe with you. When everybody is in possession of it, baking gingerbread won’t be my talent anymore and then I’m again just that freaky girl who isn’t able to cook! Please bear with me.

The key to success

In approximately one month is New Year’s Eve. According to a tradition you make your resolutions with a lot of enthusiasm. But… what is the situation at the end of January? Did you stick to any of your intentions? Or think of your everyday life at university: Is it difficult for you to meet deadlines or start early enough learning for an ex

When we attended the primary school or the secondary modern school your teachers were always caring about you. They wanted you to write a good mark and so they tried to motivate you. But now we all go to university and things have changed a lot. It’s up to you to spur yourself on to work hard and give your best. However, self-motivation gets kind of impossible when you believe that you won’t reach your goals. In this phase you even start blaming others for your neglect concerning studying.
How do you get motivated? Is the decision to actually start learning sufficient? No, motivation is more like a process that grows with every goal you achieved and decreases through your failure.
Motivation only isn’t enough. There are two other key words which are inevitable for being successful: time management and discipline. Time management helps you to get an overview of the topics of your upcoming exams. Especially when you have a lot to learn a timetable with fixed learning units help you to get on top of the situation. You don’t have to be a genius for organization. Do you the famous authoress Vera Birkenbihl? She has written a thousand books about passing exams, time organisation and so on. Often we don’t connect positive thoughts with the expression “discipline”. It means self-control. You need to abandon certain practices you like in order to reach an aim.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic formula that tells you how to avoid any future fiascos. Have faith in yourself and don’t let all your bad experiences bring you down.

Halloween is coming soon...

My best friend stays in Philadelphia for one year as an au-pair. We nearly chat everyday whenever we have time and in her last message she told me that she has to decorate her host family’s house today because of Halloween. The whole state is going crazy because of it. A few days ago she went to the supermarket and found ravioli filled with pumpkin, bread made of pumpkin - even pretzels made of pumpkin! And her neighbours seem to have an unspoken contest which house is the one with the most striking decoration! Next week she is going to buy costumes for the children and a lot of sweets and on Halloween she will go to an au-pair party in an old spooky house.

The perks of beeing a wallflower

I just started to read the final chapter of „The perks of being a wallflower“ by Stephen Chbosky. Fantastic book. It really affected me and it got everything you need: love, friendship, humour and also drama.

To the content: A freshman called Charlie is writing letters to an anonymous friend and describing his life at high school which becomes a lot more exciting when Charlie makes friends with two seniors. I really recommend the book because it’s very easy to read. A lot of terms are explained at the last pages.
And for all those who have an aversion towards reading: The book was made into a film and will be released this year in November, starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson (!!!) and Ezra Miller.
Check out the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5rh7O4IDc0

“And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”