Sorry for the delay!

Hi All, Sorry about the delay! I have been writing some blog notes from home on word and will now copy and paste into here. I found a new street to explore with a McDonalds= Free WIFI :) The city is so densely populated that there are many neighborhood shopping areas with grocery, bus/tram stops, shopping etc... This is a nice small one about 15 minutes walk from our flat. Went to Crossfit this am and will join up now. I feel better and better each time I sweat at a Crossfit! :)

Pictures are from Schonbrun Grounds/Palace/Glorietta (top of Glorietta and view of part of Vienna), a beautiful rainbow brightest and fullest we have ever seen, and first day of school (very rainy!) Can't figure out how to delete the duplicate - sorry! :)
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So last I posted was Wednesday 9/1… I will post some stuff I wrote from a few days before that and something new too

Sunday 9/5

**Warning*** Long stories, I have to catch people up. Sorry if too detailed (just skim) but my Mom wants details :)!
So I didn’t break it to the kids that in the States they would have had no school tomorrow (Labor Day Monday) At this point, I don’t think they care as they both are enjoying school. Evan said today, I can’t wait to get back to school to see my friends. That made me feel good after weeks of worry about him!

To catch up… after I posted on Wednesday Eric popped by with our cell phones – YEAH! I can’t remember if I told you before, but cell phones and service here are VERY VERY CHEAP… about the only thing that is inexpensive here so we’ll take it! I actually got an IPHONE – hurray! I really love it and can see why people get one. I feel much more ‘in touch’ being able to check email or Facebook when I want…but can’t type long blogs or emails from it! :) Our internet is supposed to come on Wednesday so that will be a good day too. It will be right up there with the day our stuff arrives on the boat! (Estimated date of arrival: end of September) We also decided to get Evan a cell phone being that it was $0 and very little euro per month… even more importantly, not knowing anyone to help out with kids, it makes me feel so much better that he can find me if need be. We live very close to soccer fields where he practices so I can cross him on the bigger street and then send him down to the park by himself… feeling better he has a cell phone in case he needs me. He was pleased as punch to say the least and we explained that this would NEVER have happened in the States, but things are different here for sure!

Rest of the week went well… Evan had his first violin lesson on Thursday and he LOVED it. He will take ½ hour lesson every Thursday until he is ‘caught up’ enough to join the strings class at school. At AIS, in 2nd grade all children learn violin, viola, chello and bass. After this they can continue on with one if they would like. So from 2nd grade through high school you can be in orchestra, band etc.. Very great opportunity for the kids right now.

Julia is still happy and doing well at school too. We had open house at the school on Thursday night. Different than we are used to, kids can’t come. So… took them to my friend Kara’s house who has an 8th grader and her 4th grader. They watched a movie, played etc.. Open house was nice, they have presentations from the ‘specials’ teachers and then you can go to your kids classrooms for presentations and Q&A. We also went to the German teachers talk …. The kids are really enjoying their German classes too.

I was able to hit Crossfit Vienna twice last week. The owner/trainer is very nice and well qualified. The few people I met were nice too. It will be great for my German as they all speak German and I love that. They speak English if they have to with me, but I told them to just keep speaking German too please. I start classes at the UN in a few weeks. I will take them M, W, F for about 50 minutes… it is a big commitment as I have to go all the way to the UN for them (and back) and it is quite a commute, but I really want to do them.

Friday morning brought a few moans about “we wish we were still in Tri-Cities”…after inquiring a bit I figured out it was because they wanted early release Fridays again! In our old school, they kids were done with school at 1:15 on Fridays!
One of Evan’s friend’s Moms (Mary Kay) was kind enough to take me to the 1st district to show me a good lunch spot and then drive me to the commissary to do a bit ‘bigger’ shopping and then drive me back! The UN has a commissary that has food, toiletries, wine, alcohol, a few clothes, make up, perfume, etc.. at cheaper prices . It also has some “American” stuff you can’t find in grocery stores here. Things like Doritos, refried beans, minute brown rice, taco shells…. Also their meat is much cheaper than the grocery. Anyway, what a treat to hang out with a nice woman and also buy more groceries than my rollie bag can hold!! :)

We had Evan’s soccer again, but didn’t find out if he ‘made the team’. It would help if I could understand what this coach was saying, but basically he shrugged his shoulders and said come back again next week. I guess we’ll find out this coming Friday. I would be very surprised if he didn’t make the team. I am a bit nervous as his two buddies from school that he really likes are on the team and I think it would be a bit crushing at this point.

We went home to change and then take the bus and Strassebahn (tram) downtown to meet up with Eric. We decided if we are in town, Fridays the kids and I will meet Eric down in the 1st district (inner city area) for exploration/dinner etc… We went to the Rathaus which translates to the Courthouse. This is one of the buildings which you would see in a picture of Vienna – huge, beautiful, etc.. During August and until September 12th EVERY night they show something on this GIGANTIC screen … concerts, operas, ballets, etc… and then there are a TON of food/drink booths from restaurants all over Vienna. We had the BEST food and then had fun watching the LA philharmonic orchestra for a few minutes. The watching part didn’t last long with the kids as it isn’t exactly exciting for the kiddos and they were getting tired. Eric and I thought about his Mom in Kansas City, Jane…boy she would absolutely LOVE to be sitting there in that beautiful setting listening to spectacular music like that. She is a pianist!

On Saturday(yesterday) we spent the morning getting are flat a bit more organized, finishing IKEA assemblies and cleaning. We then headed to the Back to School picnic at AIS. This was fun and casual event with the kids playing on the playground, food, some booths etc… Two funny things to note from this event – one was the sign on the door to the gym saying “no alcohol can be served to anyone under 18”… this would not be seen at the PTO back to school events in the states! There is always beer and wine everywhere! Also, they were giving ‘rides’ up in the firetruck basket and raising it up in the air really high! I took pictures and will send them soon. It cracked me up… this kind of stuff would not happen in the States – I think probably due to all the lawsuits etc…

We then headed to one of the big shopping streets to get a microwave, DVD player and some groceries. We also purchased a movie and then came home and had movie night. It was SO fun! We watched Nanny McPhee Returns, which was really cute. Mom – the kids talked about you and Nanny McBee McPhee and we were all laughing!

This morning (Sunday) we each took a turn working out and then headed out to catch a train to Melk, Austria. It is about 1 ½ hour train ride to a small town West of Wien (Vienna) along on the Danube. Annette if you are reading this – you probably stopped in Melk on your cruise, right? There is a beautiful HUGE Abby/Monastery that dates back to 1089. There are still monks that live there and there is also a public school that they run now with over 800 kids ages 10-18. There are beautiful gardens, a spectacular church and a palace like structure around it. We walked the grounds, ate our lunch on the Danube and took a nice guided tour of the Monastery. The tour was a bit much for Julia, but it only lasted about an hour and she was a trooper. A few minutes into it Evan said “I thought we took the English tour” and we did but she had such a heavy Austrian accent it was hard to understand her. Anyway, we had a blast and it is so great to just pick a spot one evening and then hit the trains the next day. So easy to travel here.





This was an older post from Monday 8/28....

So I braved the grocery store again. The bigger markets are similar to Albertsons or Jewel, but quite a bit smaller. My fridge is small so I can only get a few things at a time so a trip every 2 days or so looks to be the norm here. Everything is in German (obviously) so it isn’t easy to read labels or even figure out what something is. I decided to make the Italian Sausage pepper thing I make (Mom’s recipe)… Eric likes this one and I am hoping to get back in his good graces after my temper tantrum at the park yesterday. :) Anyway, they don’t have Italian Sausage per say, but this is the sausage capital of the world isn’t it? So, I picked out some other sausage looking thing – I am just hoping it isn’t horse or something like that! I looked up the word in my handy dandy dictionary, but it wasn’t in there. Perhaps that is a bad sign??

So no one gives out bags here… actually Vienna is very environmentally friendly and I am not sure if that is driven by Austria law. There are recycling cans everywhere and even trash cans almost everywhere have a paper spot and trash spot. So, you bring you own bags everywhere… which I don’t mind at all. I mentioned my rolley bag… yes, I look like an old lady. But until we get a car, it is a necessity that I can pull my groceries home (up a hill) about 15 minute walk. You can also buy a bag at the store if you need to…fairly cheap.

I am getting to where I know how to get quite a few places on my own, but still carry my map of course. I still love the public transportation part of things here, I think it is really fun. Tonia is probably not surprised as I roped her into a public bus ride with our kids on MLK day one year!  It is so easy and fun to get around this city – once you get in the outskirts you have to figure out bus, tram, lines etc.. Eric takes a bus and 2 subways to get to work – about 25-30 minutes…not bad. When his bike arrives he would like to commute via bike a bit.


Love to all! I am going to try to attach some pictures too. Anyone have any good ways to share pictures easily over the internet.... we have a lot :)!