Tag Archives: Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days – Brazil

BRAZIL 

South America
Capital: Brasilia
Language(s): Portuguese
Predominant Religion(s): Christianity

 

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Brazilians are known to be very welcoming and hospitable.
  • Generally, Brazilians like to be close to other people. It is common for them to touch and hug other people when talking to them or being around them.
  • Brazilians are very caring. They are generally quite laid back, but they can be strict when needed.

FUN FACTS:

  • When Brazilians turn 15, they usually have a big party or a big trip – it’s an important age for Brazilians.
  • Brazilians have countless religions. They are very relaxed about mixing religions.
  • Brazil has the most successful national soccer team. So far, they have won five FIFA World Cups.

Learn more:

USEFUL PHRASES:

  • How are you?       Tudo bem?
  • Fine, thanks.       Bem, obrigada.
  • My name is…       Meu nome é…
  • Nice to meet you.       Prazer em conhecê-lo.
  • Thank you.       Obrigada.

Around the World in 80 Days – Russki Salat

Russki Salat

Russian salads contain cooked vegetables and often include cooked meat, poultry, or fish. The salad dressing is simply oil and vinegar.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup diced cooked meat (ham, beef, turkey, or your favorite)
  • 2 cups cooked, peeled and diced beets
  • 2 cups cooked, peeled and diced potatoes
  • 1 cup cooked beans (your favorite)
  • 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
  • 1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
  • 3 hard boiled eggs, sliced
  • 6 small sweet pickles, chopped
  • Oil and Vinegar for dressing

Instructions

  1. Mix all ingredients in a large salad bowl.
  2. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let each guest prepare his or her own dressing.

Around the world in 80 Days – Bosnia & Herzegovina

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 

Central/Southern Europe
Capital: Sarajevo
Languages: Bosnian, Croatian & Serbian
Predominant Religion(s): Islam / Roman Catholic

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Bosnian people describe themselves as sociable and hospitable, as well as curious and direct.
  • Family, work, sports, music, entertainment, children, local cultural events, good restaurants, and the weather are always good topics to talk about with Bosnians when meeting or speaking to them for the first time.
  • Bosnians are very proud of their heritage and culture and they love a sense of community. They are also very respectful of their elders.

FUN FACTS:

  • Bosnian coffee is one of the strongest coffees in the world and Bosnians love drinking coffee!
  • Bosnians love their unique wedding traditions, which includes the wedding party tooting their horns all the way to the venue and the bride serving coffee to her guests.
  • The name “Bosnia” comes from an Indo-European word Bosana, which means water, which is perfect as the country is covered with beautiful lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and a strip of the Adriatic Sea.
  • For more info on Bosnia & Herzogvina, click here!

USEFUL PHRASES:

  • How are you?       Kako si ti?
  • Fine, thanks.       Dobro, hvala.
  • My name is…       Moje ime je
  • Nice to meet you!       Drago mi je!
  • Thank you.       Hvala.

Photos by: Monika {flickr}; Dino Husejnovic {flickr}

Around the World in 80 Days Kielbasa Penne Dish – Poland

Kielbasa Penne Dish – Poland

Ingredients:

2 pounds of Polska kielbasa 

1 white onion

1 tbsp of white sugar

1 1/2 cups of sour cream

1 box of penne pasta

1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

Little bit of oil of your liking (olive oil, canola oil)

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit

Make penne pasta (remember to salt water slightly) in the big pot, strain, put back in a the same, big pot.

Prepare big pan with olive oil or canola oil

Cut up Polska kielbasa and cut again to make half moons, put in a pan with cut up onion and cook until goldenish brownish color.

Lower the temperature and add sugar to caramelize a bit, stir and add sour cream, stir again until well blended.

Add salt and pepper as preferred.

Put everything in the big pot with pasta and stir well.

Add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and stir well.

Put everything in oven dish, add the rest of shredded cheese on top.

Put in the oven for around 10 minutes for the cheddar to melt.

Done!

Around the World in 80 Days – Bolivia

BOLIVIA

Western Central South America 
Capital: Sucre
Languages: Spanish
Predominant Religion(s): Christianity
(Roman Catholic)

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS:

 

  • Bolivian people describe themselves as friendly and hard working.
  • Bolivia people have strong family ties.
  • Traditions and culture are very important values for young people.

FUN FACTS:

  • The amazing “Cristo de la Concordia” statue in Cochabamba city is the biggest in the world; it was built in memory of Papa Juan Pablo II.
  • The green lake located in Potosi city at the foot of Licancabur, one of the largest active volcanoes, is one of the most wonderful lakes in the world. The green color is due to high levels of magnesium in the water.
  • The slowest flowering plant in the world comes from Bolivia. The “Puya Raimundi” is a very strange and unusual plant. Discovered in 1870, the flower only appears when the plant is 80 to 150 years old. Check out this video to see the Puya Raimundi plants.

USEFUL PHRASES:

  • How are you?             Como estás?
  • Fine, thanks.               Bien, gracias.
  • My name is…             Mi nombre es…
  • Nice to meet you!        Mucho gusto!
  • Thank you.                  Gracias.

For more info on Bolivia, check out the APIA Culture Quest site.

Photo by: MollySVH {flickr} Cristo de la Concordia overlooking Luguna Alalay in Cochabamba

Around the World in 80 Days – German Bread

Day five of our Around the World in 80 Days series bring us to Germany and their love for bread!

Did you know that Germany has more bakeries and Germany eat more varieties of bread than most other countries (probably even with France for number of bakeries though)?
Many au pairs struggle initially with American bread as it is quite different for them. For example, American breads are sweet in comparison. For more discussion on the variety of favorite breads in Germany, visit  German Foods
“According to the bread register of the German Institute for Bread (of course there is such a thing), there are now more than 3,200 officially recognized types of bread in the country. And German bread culture was officially added by UNESCO to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2015.”
For the history of bread in Germany and its cultural relevance visit CNN Travel’s link for the full article.
Photo by Jim Rhodes {flickr}

Around the World in 80 Days – Melktert from South Africa

Melktert – South Africa

Melktert(or Milk Tart) is a Afrikaner dessert consisting of a sweet pastry crust containing a custard filling made from milk, flour, sugar and eggs. The ratio of milk to eggs is higher than in a traditional Portuguese custard tart or Chinese egg tart, resulting in a lighter texture and a stronger milk flavor.

Crust

1 Egg

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 pound butter

1 teaspoon of baking powder

5 drops of vanilla

Beat egg and sugar until the sugar is not visible.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Add butter and lastly the vanilla.

Mix everything together

Press it into a tart pan

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min.

Rest of dough can be frozen for later.

 

Filling

2 tablespoons butter and 2 cups milk

Boil it with a pinch of salt.

In separate bowl, mix

2 tablespoons Corn Starch

4 tablespoons of sugar

1 beaten egg

Add it to the milk mixture

Cook it (for a little while) until a little stiff and toss in the crust.

Recipe by Danielle, an au pair from South Africa

 

Around the World in 80 Days: Kartoffelsalat German Potato Salad Recipe

Day Two of our Around the World in 80 Days series bring us to Germany to learn a recipe for German Potato Salad. There are several different versions of German Potato Salad, just like there are in America. This recipe calls for apples!

Potato Salad (‘Kartoffelsalat’)  

  • 800g (28 oz.) cooked potatos
  • 2 onions
  • 100g (3.5 oz.) pickled cucumbers
  • 3 hard boiled eggs
  • 6 tbsp. mayonnaise
  • 3 tbsp. liquid of the pickled cucumbers
  • 1 tbsp. mustard
  • Salt, Pepper
  • Optional: 1 apple

Wash potatoes, peel and cook them for about 20-25 minutes until they are fully cooked. Drain them, let them cool and cut them into slices or cubes (whatever you prefer).

Then, peel the onions and also cut them into cubes. Cut the pickled cucumbers, the hard boiled eggs (and the apple) in slices.

Mix the mayonnaise, the liquid of the pickled cucumbers and the mustard and mix it carefully with all the other ingredients. Salt and pepper and wait for at least 30 minutes until you serve it.

Recipe provided by German au pairs in Southern Maryland

Around the World in 80 Days – A Cultural Exploration!

Around the World in 80 Days!!

Summer break has officially arrived in Southern Maryland. Over the next 80 days (ending on Labor Day), we’ll discuss different cultural things each day! From general country info to cultural norms to recipes and more!!

Let’s focus on global awareness and share some cultural experiences! Most importantly, share your culture with your host family. Incorporate games, books, songs, language, foods, etc into your host family’s lives. Cooking a dish from your home country is a great way to share. Discuss similar traditions and ones unique to your family or culture.

First up, let’s learn about Argentina!

ARGENTINA

South America
Capital: Buenos Aires
Languages: Spanish
Predominant Religion(s): Christianity
(Roman Catholic)

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS:

  • Independent, mature, responsible, trustworthy.
  • Open to share their ideas or thoughts.
  • Open minded, flexible, ready to have a good experience abroad.

FUN FACTS:

  • Young people in Argentina love technology – they can’t understand how their grandparents survived without cell phones!
  • Argentine beef is famous around the world, so naturally Argentineans love barbeques!
  • The Argentine city of Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world!

USEFUL PHRASES:

  • How are you?      Como estas?
  • Fine, thanks.       Bien, gracias.
  • My name is…       Mi nombre es…
  • Nice to meet you.     Encantada de conocerte.
  • Thank you.           Gracias.

There are twenty languages spoken in Argentina, most of them by small groups of indigenous people. The primary language in the country is Spanish.

Try some Spanish language activities. This site includes an on-line English-Spanish picture dictionary and an on-line Spanish-English dictionary, as well as information, quizzes and pictures to color.

This website is available in both English and Spanish. There are activities to download, stories to listen to, and much more!

Do you know any words in English that came from Spanish words? You can find the answer to this question and many other facts about our world at Infoplease.

Recipe:

Argentine Mashed Potato Pie

Ingredients –

  • 6-8 potatoes
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 onion
  • 1 red pepper
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 2-3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup green pitted olives
  • shredded cheese
  • 1 can tomato sauce
  • paprika, salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Peel and boil the potatoes until done.
  2. Boil eggs for 15 min.
  3. Halve, peel and chop onion and pepper.
  4. Sauté onion and pepper until tender.Add beef to onion and brown well.
  5. Add paprika, salt and pepper.
  6. Add tomato sauce to beef, stir, and remove from heat.
  7. Add eggs, olives to beef mixture.
  8. Mash potatoes, add butter, milk and salt.
  9. Use half mashed potatoes to line a lasagna pan or other large baking pan.
  10. Pour in beef mixture.
  11. Top with remaining mashed potatoes.
  12. Sprinkle with shredded cheese on top.
  13. Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes.

Submitted by Betiana Turteltaub, au pair in Villanova, Pennsylvania, 2004-2005

Photo: Jesus Dehesa {flickr}

Around the World in 80 Days – United Kingdom

UNITED KINGDOM

Western Europe
Capitals: England – London; Scotland – Edinburgh; Wales – Cardiff; Northern Ireland – Belfast
Languages: English
Predominant Religion(s): Christianity (Church of England, Roman Catholic) – most other religions are represented

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS:

  • British people often describe themselves as reserved, but in fact they are quite funny and have a witty sense of humor!
  • The UK  is a very multi-cultural society and subsequently Brits are open minded to all beliefs and traditions.
  • It’s true that people from the UK love talking about the weather, preferably whilst drinking tea!

FUN FACTS:

  • In the UK, if you reach your 100th birthday, you get a personalized card from Her Majesty  the Queen!
  • The estimated population of the UK is over 64 million; 84% of this population live in England.
  • The UK is slightly smaller than the U.S. State of Oregon.  It is just under half the size of France and 30 times smaller than Australia.

Photo by: Sophia Baik {flickr}