Mátyás Király Halloween Party

I helped organize my school's very first Halloween party this year. The kids dressed up, bobbed for apples, made toilet paper mummies, and the older kids stayed for a dance party.

The biggest surprise was when Jon and I showed up dressed up as a Jack-o-lantern and a ladybug because no one knew that you could dress up as anything for Halloween. Everyone, including my colleagues, asked us, "Why aren't you scary?!" Everyone else was a witch, ghost, vampire, or dead. It was funny to find out what little details of American culture had caught on and which ones had slipped through the cracks. I guess that's why we are here!

Pumpkin Carving Party

Jon demonstrates how to carve a pumpkin

Peter carves his first pumpkin

Tomi and Monica-Sophie

Laura shows off our homemade caramel apples

A lovely walk home from school

Doromb Festival

yurt with with exhibition of Alex Horsch's instrument collection

Alex Horsch gives the opening concert inside the yurt

Jon tries out a Balinese enggung during a workshop

More Budapest

Summer Vacation 2010: Vienna

Summer Vacation 2010: Mountain Hike

Since we arrived in Austria the weather has been very strange, shifting from cold and rainy to sunny and warm every few days. So when a sunny day finally came around again we knew we had to make the most of it. We decided to spend an afternoon hiking up one of the surrounding mountains, the Zwölferhorn.

View of St. Gilgen at the start of our hike

Lake Wolfgang

At this point I had to stop and record the wonderful sounds around us. We had recently passed a farm house where someone had just started playing accordion. Meanwhile the cows grazed in the pasture beside us.

At the edge of the pasture stood a water trough fed by fresh mountain water. It was so picturesque we decided to have our picnic lunch right there.

We were close to the top, but we decided to start our descent back into town.

So close!

One thing we have learned about mountain climate is that it changes very quickly. So when we looked up and saw dark clouds moving in, we decided not to risk getting caught in the storm.

pretty purple mountain flower

Thankfully we arrived back in St. Gilgen safe, sound, tired, and dry.