Your house is better than my house

We haven’t done anything too exciting in the last few days.  Jordan had the day off yesterday and we were going to drive to Magdalensberg, a mountain top about 20 minutes from here, but it was foggy and we got lost (no surprise there).  We are hoping to go one afternoon when it is a little bit nicer outside, then again, apparently it is always sunny on top of the mountain.  Maybe on Thursday we will go check it out after practice.

I bought a gingerbread house kit from Ikea and sadly all it came with was the gingerbread.  No icing, no candy decorations, I was not impressed… "kit" should include the works, no?  I went to the grocery store down the road in search of icing and ended up buying some weird lemon stuff.  It was not easy to make this icing, nor was it easy to use.  I don’t think lemon and gingerbread will taste great together, but who knows, maybe one night after the bar it will be a delicious snack!

The "gingerbread only" kit

The front

The side and back

My sister Stef also made a gingerbread house that came with the "the works" (gingerbread, icing, and candy).  She wins for the best one, your house is way better than my house... her icicles really put it over the top!  Not to mention it will probably taste a lot better.

The front

The side view

I am going to get a tree soon (Jordan promised after Dec. 1 we could get one).  I even removed a table from beside the couch so we have a space for it (I’m a bit anxious).  The stockings are hung behind the couch, a weird place but there was an ugly picture back there and already two hooks, so I thought I may as well.  It's getting pretty christmasy in here haha

I got a little carried away with this in Microsoft paint

Oh, the other day we did go to a cafe for lunch, coffee, and dessert.  It was delicious!

mmmmmm cheesecake!

Like I said, not too much going on right now, but hopefully I will have some new pictures to add soon!  I’m hoping we make it up that mountain and have a lot of photo ops (sorry Jordan, I know you are camera shy).

How Rude!

I just got back from grocery shopping with Jordan and every time we go it ends poorly.  Today was no different.  Some of the people that work at the grocery store are SO RUDE.  I over use the word rude, but it is the only way to describe this experience. 

Very Stephanie Tanner of me

First of all the woman who was checking us out was ordering us to put one of those grocery sticks back in its place.  Of course she was using an unhappy tone and speaking in German so I just smiled like I knew what she was saying and put it back.   Putting the customer to work… thanks lady.  I was still in a good mood at this point.

Grocery sticks

Secondly, once it was our turn at the front of the line the woman tried to scan all items as quickly as possible and fire them off the end of the mini ledge they have at the end of the conveyer.  Is this really necessary?  There is no one behind us in line… are you trying to break a Guinness world record for fastest grocery scanning?  I had groceries all over the floor at my feet, and was starting to get a little angry… they do this EVERY time.  I have no idea why they do not have a place for the groceries to go after they scan them but I guess they expect you to throw them right back in your cart and sort them after your done paying. 

Not the best example...
There looks to be a place for groceries to go after they are scanned

Thirdly, not that this should bother me (but because I am already in a bad mood due to their extremely poor sense of customer service), the checkout ladies SIT in a comfy chair all day while they do this.  This is NOT a difficult job.  Smiles are free, they have McDonald’s here, they should know that!  Seriously though, I try to be friendly at all times and a smile never hurts anyone.

Lastly, to top off the wonderful checkout experience, they did not take credit card.  I just don’t get how everyone here carries cash (though it is probably the smartest way to handle personal finances).  They had a little machine that looked as though they accepted credit card but it must have only been for local bank cards.  Anyways, Jordan showed the lady the card, and instead of just saying no (or nicht, which we also would have understood), she decided to rant about god only knows what (probably how much she hated us).  The groceries came to €34 and we had €30.  I had to dig in my purse for a handful of change and took my sweet a** time counting every penny.  Sorry lady, we aren’t done with you yet!

Not only have we had bad service while grocery shopping but also in the mall.  The other day I got kicked out of H&M 10 minutes before close and the lady did not even want to let me go find Jordan and tell him I was leaving.  She wanted me out of there that bad!  I have worked retail, I know it’s not the greatest job, not to mention I would never stay a second past closing time (as a former employee I hate when people do this, also rude).  I just wonder how in the world a business is supposed to sell anything if the customers are angry every time they walk into a store because of a poor shopping experience they had there previously.  Very North American of me to feel this way I’m sure.  I guess people here are not concerned with shopping experience and/or I’m too high maintenance.

This looks to be a nice transaction

The lady at the grocery store around the corner from us is so sweet, she smiles and isn’t trying to break any scanning records.  We will have to shop there more often because I am getting way too worked up about shopping at these other places!  Good thing I don’t have any Christmas shopping to do this year J

I love it here and would not change this experience for anything.  It is eye opening to see the differences from back home and exciting to explore new places.  At the end of the day I will take the little bad with all good and do my best to enjoy every second I have here.

Auf Wiedersehen

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

The Christmas market opened in Klagenfurt this past weekend!  The sounds, smells, and sights are all so festive.  Jordan and I tried Gluhwein for the first time.  It is a hot red wine mixed with cinnamon sticks, vanilla, cloves, citrus, and sugar.  It is very popular in German speaking countries and apparently can get you pretty tipsy while you are trying to keep warm on a cold winter’s night.  I did not mind the taste of it, and I think it is something I could learn to enjoy, but Jordan HATED it.  So much that I ended up drinking both of ours.  Thanks Jordan haha

Gluhwein at the market

We walked around the market after practice yesterday and checked everything out.  We definitely need to go back and pick up some sweets and a souvenir Christmas ornament (thank you Karolyn for the idea).

The beautiful lights downtown

Christmas tree at the market

It is getting so cold here.  I was not prepared for a cold winter when we moved here from California and I am coming to the realization that I NEED to add a big warm jacket to my wardrobe.  As of right now, I am doing A LOT of layering and I am getting by, but today I went on a bike ride for 3 hours and was frozen by the time I got home.  I have biked into the city a couple times since we moved here and it is great exercise.  It is a 45 min bike ride each way and there is a great path that runs along the river.  The path is very busy with walkers and bikers so I must be a wimp being so cold.  Today a woman who looked 85 rode past me and did not look cold at all.  Hopefully a new jacket will make everything better.  I found this one at Zara, and although I would love a Canada Goose, this will do the trick.  Black is my go to colour but I already have a black warm coat at home so I need to switch it up and justify this purchase as much as I can... I dont own a warm beige jaket.

Need this

Tonight a couple of the girls were at my place to watch the guy’s away game.  I was so nice to have some people over as this will be rare.  As I mentioned above, I live about a 15 min drive outside of downtown, and all but myself and one other girl lives in the city.  The area I live in is a hot spot in the summer, but no place to visit once it’s cold.  It makes more sense for the two of us to drive into the city then it does for the rest of the girls to drive to the lake, so I’m glad I got to be host for a night.  It is great that they televise some of the away games here but unfortunately the team lost.

On a happier note they did win their game Friday night and the crowd was wild!  Got to love the fans… the entertainment factor goes up 100% when everyone is on their feet clapping and shouting.  Every hockey fan should experience this kind of crowd!

The crazy fans

The winners circle

It is another busy week of hockey and I am getting anxious to put up a Christmas tree.  Hopefully I can convince Jordan by the weekend.  I am seeing more and more pictures from home of trees so it’s about time.  I need a bit of "home" in my life.  Missing another Sunday dinner at Grams.

My Thoughts on Movember

This post is 17 days overdue but Jordan just jumped on the Movember bandwagon.  It is very surprising that he just decided as he is always looking for a reason to grow a moustache.   If anyone is not familiar with Movember (which I’m sure everyone is), men grow moustaches for the month of November to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer.  Pretty simple!  Problem is Jordan always wants to grow a moustache... 

The only moustache I approve of

Summer 2011

Wheeling 2009

Poor me right?!?!  I have to put up with this thing at random.  Jordan is stubborn and refueses to shave it.  SO GROSS.  I do not want to offend any permanent moustacher’s, my dad did have one from the age of 18-45, but they are not my thing.

I wish this picture was clearer haha...
and I know its hard to look past the hair!

This is how my dad looked for about 25 years
He looks younger now then he did then

The Movember webpage is great and there are many ways that you can help out.  There is official Movember merchandise that you can purchase, you can sign up for your own page and have people make donations in your name, or you can donate to others.  OR you can just grow a moustache and when people laugh at you, you can use the excuse, “I have this on my face to raise awareness for prostate cancer…donate.”  Here is the link and a few pics of my favourite merchandise...www.movember.com

Even Snoop Dogg is into it

Love these!

Happy Movember to all! Men, grow your moustaches proudly!

I know many women are looking forward to December 1^st...

But at the end of the day it is for a good cause and the ONLY time I approve 

I Love Graz

Yesterday Jordan had a day off and we took a road trip to Graz.  It is only an hour and a half away from here and it was a beautiful day to hit the road.  Oh and before I forget… I drove there!  Well, almost all the way there.  I’m still not the greatest driver so we stopped a little bit outside of town and Jordan took over.  Thank goodness because we did not know where we were going and had to turn around a few times before finding a place to park.

Graz was a beautiful city.  I loved all the shopping and beautiful architecture.  I’m so glad it did not take us long to find the downtown shopping area and that we had all day to walk around.  It was a cold day but we warmed up by going into several stores and getting a few cappuccinos throughout the day.  We also had street-meat for lunch, almost like being back in Toronto!  It was a busy food vendor area and we were starving so we figured we would try it out.  After lunch we went into a department store that I LOVED.  It was called K&O and it was so pretty inside.  They had a beautiful Christmas tree that stood about 50ft tall in the centre of the store and a “living tableau” at the front entrance.  The tableau consisted of a couple sitting at a table having what looked like a delicious meal and being served by their female butler.  I wish my job was to sit inside a beautiful store and eat good food!  Of course it would be a little awkward to have tons of shoppers staring… but who cares!  Getting paid to eat good food and look pretty, I would be down for that.

Beautiful Staircase in the background (we did not climb them)

Lunch! Curry-Wurst and Hot Dog

The food vendors

A one-peice men's track suit from H&M?!?!

Beautiful City!

The Living Tableau

For the most part I do not take a lot of pictures, but since we have come over here (Europe) I want to take as many pictures as I can.  Jordan, on the other hand, has never seen a need for pictures and unfortunately it seems like he never will.  My family has so many photo albums and home videos that I am so grateful to have.  I LOVE looking back at old pictures.  I could sit around all day at my house and look through old photo albums (not that I did this on a regular basis, but it could definitely keep me entertained for a day).  If Jordan does not have a change of heart about this picture taking issue then I can see it being a major problem.  Oh and when I say major problem, I mean a problem for him, because I’m not going to stop.  When are we going to get these opportunities again!!!  I want to have something to look back on for the rest of my life.  So Jordan, if you’re reading this, learn to love it because it’s not going to stop J

A christmas gift for Jordan

While I am on the topic of pictures… I deleted all the pictures from my camera last night by accident.  I was soooooo angry.  Fortunately, the majority of the pictures that were on my camera were already saved on my computer.   Big thanks to my friends on facebook who let me know there is a way to recover these deleted pictures!!!  I went online and found a website that did it for free and was amazed that I was able to recover some of them.  I am sure if I used the website that charged $25 for recovery that I probably would have saved them all, but seeing as how most of them were already on my computer I settled for the free version.  Danke! Danke! Danke!  Good to know this is possible.

We left Graz just as it was getting dark as I needed to get home for another night out with the girls! Sarah you are a great host!  We had several drinks, played a few games, and then hit the town for some bar hopping.  The girls here are all so nice and so much fun, not to mention it’s so nice to have a big group of us!  This is a big change from California where I was the only girlfriend on the team that was living there.  Another great thing about the hockey here is that the guy’s furthest game is only a five hour drive away, and back-to-back games are rare, if they even exist at all?  This means never having to stay alone, another big change from the hockey in Cali.

Before I wrap this up I want to give a shout out to my Gram who has been reading!  Love you gram.  Miss you and roast beef dinners at your house on Sunday nights with the family.   Wish I was there with you all tonight and can’t wait to see you again soon.  Liebe dich (love you in German).

Gram and me at Disney

xoxo

Crazy Hockey and a Couple Days Off

I went to Jordan’s first game here last week and the hockey was so different!  I have watched hockey my whole life but honestly I do not pay close attention.  Truth be told, people watching can be much more entertaining than most games.  I only really watch Jordan anyways…

Aside from the ice being much bigger, and the game looking a lot less rough, the crowd was crazy!  It was a sold out arena – which apparently is the norm for the majority of teams in this league- and the fans were chanting the whole time.  It was so noisy and exciting compared to a bunch of people just sitting around sporting jerseys and eating hotdogs (or even worse people sitting in suits updating their status to “at the leaf game” as if the leafs are important HA).  Sorry that was a bit rude but for the most part it’s true.   I am not a Leaf fan.  I am only a fan of whatever team Jordan is on haha.  Enough hockey talk.

This week we were able to enjoy a couple days off.  Monday we went for a nice bike ride around where we live.  We are right on the lake, and had not yet explored, so we took out some bikes we have at the apartment and just hit the road with no directions…the usual.  There is a nice bike path around the lake and I’m sure this place is great in the summer.  A lot of the lake front restaurants and cafés have closed down for the winter.  There is also a nice beach, which again, would be really nice if it were summer. 

Yesterday we put a bunch of cities in a hat and drove to the one that was pulled.  It ended up being Rijeka, Croatia.  Well we only partially did our homework and bought a highway pass for Austria.  We did not realize that you also needed one for Slovenia (we thout it was a toll road like Croatia).  The day was great but ended horribly with a €150 ticket.  We were just about back to Austria when the DARS pulled us over and were rude, arrogant, and told us there was no way we were getting off (show some compassion people, we would have paid if we had known!!!!).  There were six people that pulled us over.  One wrote a ticket, the other five stood around smoking...i'm no expert in economics but hiring six people to do the job of one?!?!  

Anyways, my message to everyone is do not go to Slovenia, not that anyone would be planning a trip there anyways right?!?!  I will never be going back.  I hold a grudge.  I will drive around the whole country if I have to just to get to my final destination.  I won’t even contribute to their economy by filling up at one of their gas stations.  I was THAT angry.  Other than the day ending on a bad note, we enjoyed our day exploring Rijeka.  We had a nice lunch and cappuccino at a café and Croatia was much less expensive than here.  I even got two stamps on my passport (Slovenia & Croatia).  I will be going back to Croatia, Zagreb is on my list of places to visit.

Jordan has Saturday off as well and we are probably just going to stay close to home. ..if he is not too hung-over Saturday morning than we are going to Graz for the day. Our highway pass for Austria lasts 10 days so we may as well get some use out of it.

Auf wiedersehen!

Willkommen in Klagenfurt

It has been an extremely busy first week in Austria.  We arrived here last Thursday evening and after 24 hours of travel we were met by the team’s GM and newspapers as we walked out of baggage claim.  It was totally unexpected coming from the ECHL where news coverage is rare!  I stepped out of the way so Jordan could get his picture taken but was quickly put back into the frame by the photographer.  I was surprised they wanted me in them, and tried to sneak out after each individual shot.  The guy even put my arms around Jordan to show that I loved him haha… I guess he was not feeling the love with the first couple shots.  I was not in the mood for a photo-shoot.   The next day this was on the front page of the sports.

After we left the airport we were taken to our new home in Krumpendorf.  It is a pretty little town, about 10 minutes outside the city, and right on the lake.  We were introduced to Petra (the owner of the apartments), who showed us three different rooms we could choose from.  I let Jordan pick.  The first two we were shown were bigger and on the third floor, but he chose the last one on the second floor because “it had a nicer TV and fewer stairs to carry up our luggage.”  Great decision making seeing as how we can’t even watch the TV (other than the BBC and music video channel) as it is all in German.   Other than being a bit outside the city the apartment has everything we need and comfortable beds!

The TV

Jordan came home from practice Friday morning and informed me we were going to a gala.  Every girl likes to be surprised with an event a few hours before it starts, right?!  I was excited for the opportunity to meet some people, but was very unsure of the dress code.   Jordan told me that the other wives going were wearing a dirndl (a traditional Austrian dress) and that really threw me off!  Unfortunately, I did not have time to go out and buy one of these outfits, so I already knew that I was not going to fit in at this event.  The event took place at a beautiful casino and EVERYONE was in traditional Austrian attire.  The night was also filled with Austrian music (a lot of accordion) and dancing (more like spinning in circles with your partner on the dance floor).  It was definitely a culture shock on night two.

Wishing I had a Drindl

The boys (Jordan received this jacket when we arrived)

Monday I received a call from one of the girls on the team who asked if I would like to join them for a night out celebrating Halloween.  They weren’t dressing up as Halloween is not really celebrated here (it should be though because the day after is a holiday!!).  The girls picked me up and we went to Lisa’s apartment to pre-drink.  The place was beautiful!  She was such a great host.  All the girls here are so nice!  After she served some food we played “Looping Louie”, a game for five year olds that can get pretty out of hand when played by adults with alcohol.  “Louie” fly’s around in circles, and if you do not tap a little lever to make him hop over your coins, he knocks them off.  Whoever loses all their coins first must drink a shot.  The game is for four players so whoever is not drinking places a bet with one of the others.  If they lose… you drink with them.  Let’s just say more than enough shots were taken and the North American girls were asking for breaks haha

Girls Night

Looping Louie!!!

Shots

After “Louie” we made our way to several clubs.  All of them seemed hidden and were entered through a dark curtain.  They were about the size of my apartment and extremely smoky…another culture shock!  We danced, we sang, we had an amazing time, and at the end of the night my wonderful boyfriend came into town to pick me up.  The girls are planning on round two tomorrow!  I’m hoping my “Looping Louie” skills are better.

My driving skills are coming along.  Today I drove into town all on my own and even filled up with gas.  I only stalled twice (once in the middle of the biggest intersection of the city), and got lost on my way home (which was terrifying because I was stuck on a highway and it was getting dark out fast).  I will try again tomorrow and should be a pro in no time, knock on wood.

Jordan has a week-long break coming up (so weird).  North American hockey doesn’t get breaks (except the All Star break which is two days)!!!  He has a couple events going on during the week and the team practices a few of the days but other than that we have time to travel around!!  We are either going to Venice, Zagreb, or Rijeka for a night.I think I’m going to make an executive decision as to where we are going.

Zagreb

Venice



Rijeka

That’s all for now!!!  Watching Jordan’s game online and catching up on American TV.

Oh and there is a great website I found that teaches other languages for free.  I have just started the intro to German.  I have a really hard time pronouncing the words.  www.busuu.com

Gute Nacht! XOXO