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For Chef Frank Lima, an instructor with the New York Restaurant School of The Art Institutes, food is poetry and poetry is food. Chef Lima is not only a former White House assistant chef during the Kennedy Administration, but a first runner-up for Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. As Chef Lima explains it, "Poetry and cooking are so similar -- they're both about feeling and aesthetics." The two are so intertwined, in fact, that Chef Lima named his cream of roasted red pepper soup Creme Kukhla Moo ("my doll" in Greek).

Is being an expat all about attitude, and if so, does this have an immense influence on expat children and how they perceive their situation in this new environment? If as adults we have doubts about settling in a new country, how do you think our children are feeling?

Historically, during Fasching the lower classes were allowed to wear costumes and masks and to mimic aristocracy and heads of church and state without fear of retribution for mockery. When things got out of hand, the custom was forbidden, for a while anyway.

Minopolis is a unique theme park – a 6,000 square meters child size city.  Children can pretend to slip into the skins of grownups or “prepare” themselves for their dream jobs. So whether your child’s dream job is to be an engine driver, a doctor, a journalist, or a fireman – Minopolis is a fascinating place for exciting role play and instructive adventures.

Surprised by the news of his recent death in late 1897, Mark Twain, the great American humorist, responded with humor, telling Viennese journalists that "The report of my death (is) grossly exaggerated". Evidently, the New York World telegraphed a Viennese journalist to verify Twain's status: "If Mark Twain very ill, 500 words, if dead 1,000".*

The duration of the Fasching period varies according to national and local traditions. Fasching in Austria begins on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the moment the new (Heuriger) wine becomes old (alt), 'Heurige' wine, is the most recent vintage normally offered for consumption by the grower in his/her wine bar and is officially released on this day.

While you can try Austria's dry, spicy, food-loving white wines, fashionable reds, and decadent dessert wines at leading restaurants around the world, there is no better place to get an in-depth view of Austria's dynamic, trendy wine scene than in its cosmopolitan capital.

The Vienna Babies Club is a support network for expat women living in and around Vienna who are pregnant or have small children. Whether you have been here for four weeks, four months, or four years, you will find others in the same situation as you: mothers (and some fathers) from abroad living in Vienna, possibly very far from home.

Krav Maga is a simple, effective self defense system that emphasizes instinctive movements, practical techniques, and realistic training scenarios. A combination of a strenuous fitness program and modern self-defense techniques more aggressive than judo or karate the popularity of the Israeli martial arts technique is growing fast throughout the world and here in Vienna.

It is an old Austrian and European tradition. Every day of the year is someone's Name Day. In some places, including parts of Germany and in Eastern Orthodox countries, your name day may be more important than your actual birthday! By definition Nameday is the the feast day of a saint whose name one bears. But in our more modern world each first name is assigned to one day of the calendar, based not only on religious traditions, but also historical events, birthday of a famous person who had the same first name, or on other facts.

Heimito von Doderer seems to personify the classic image of the writer. He never earned his living through a "prosaic" profession but struggled for many unsuccessful and difficult years in his chosen vocation before finally, and somewhat late in the day, achieving a breakthrough with his epic novel Die Strudlhofstiege ("The Strudlhof Steps").

For those of you choosing to fully integrate your families in the Austrian life and educate your children in German, or for the VIC Austrian, Swiss or German families, please, allow me to introduce you to a fine school (Gymnasium) in the Embassy quarter of the 4th District.  It is a private Austrian School that provides an excellent co-ed education taught in the German language within a five day school week. It is an Episcopal School with a large Catholic attendance and provides religious studies in both these disciplines, however any and all children are welcome at the school and the mix of students is international.