Submitted by Sarah Buchler on the 2017 winter session program in Austria and Hungary sponsored by the College of Education and Human Development…
Entering our third week abroad, I could hardly believe we were already halfway through our program! Time was flying by, but I was excited to see what else Hungary had in store for us. Speaking of Hungary, today we all got very HUNGRY and participated in a traditional Hungarian cooking class! We worked with a top chef school in Budapest and split into six small groups to make six different dishes, all typical Hungarian cuisine. Two groups made our starting dishes, a typical Hungarian beef goulash soup and a green pea soup for the vegetarians. The two main dishes consisted of meatballs with potato gravy and mushroom paprikash over pasta. For dessert, we had two different types of strudels, an apple and a poppyseed, along with a favorite Hungarian dessert, Somloi Galuska, that consisted of a raisin chocolate cake. At the end, we had a table covered with food of all types, and we dug in along with our instructors, who even ate some of our food which reassured us that our meal was delicious! It was great to participate in the Hungarian food culture, since food and dining is such a large part of society in European countries. We were able to see how cooking in Hungary is a familiar and fun experience, where you can enjoy time with your friends while preparing a delicious meal for later. We also got to taste typical and popular native dishes, and let me tell you, there was paprika in EVERY main meal! The Hungarians love their spices! At the end of our meal, we were all full and satisfied, and were even more so when we were told all of our leftovers would be going to the homeless people of Budapest. It was great to know we had a fun time filling our bellies with food, and some others less fortunate than us also were able to have some warm dinner on a cold night.
This past week, I also got the chance to travel with two other girls back to Austria, but to the Western side near the Alps, where the hills are alive with The Sound of Music…that’s right, I got to go to Salzburg, Austria for the weekend, where The Sound of Music was set and filmed in! It was such a great experience to see a much smaller city with a very rich culture. The center city of Salzburg is best known for its extremely well preserved and old baroque style buildings, and we even got to tour one of the best preserved medieval fortresses in all of Europe, Hohensalzburg Fortress overlooking the beautiful city. Overall, it was a great week in Europe, and I cannot wait to have one more fantastic week before I head back stateside!
