Who would have thought?

Who would have thought buying pillows could be so difficult??!! It is the simple things in life that we take for granted!! :)

We sign our lease in the morning and although we have air mattresses to sleep on, we need a few pillows. We found there are MANY sizes and varieties of polsters (pillows) in Austria .... who the heck knows why this is?! Anyway... we finally figured out which was most 'standard' as to not make the pillowcases a price where we would have to sell one of the children to work as a slave in the store.

We also hit the greatest grocery store we have seen - a Merker - yeah! It had awesome real food stations being cooked there....like mini restaurants...we ate dinner there!! We also purchased some cleaning supplies to hit our flat before we move in Thursday morning. Again, it took us many minutes to figure out what you would usually just grab and go with at Target. Sometimes this is fun, sometimes not! It was hilarious watching Eric carry a bucket full of cleaning supplies and a mop home on the subway back to our hotel. I really should have taken a picture! (I was carrying pillows!!)

My final shopping story of the day was when Eric was trying to purchase something at a sports store and I was outside the doors with Julia. I was watching Eric attempt to use a debit card of sorts (they do NOT do credit cards or checks here at all) for the 1st time and he was having trouble. Well the girl at the Kasse (cash register :)) was snickering with her little friend. Well, Jenny from the block/Wife Bear came out and I had had enough for the day... so, I marched in and said something like "I hope someday you are transplanted to some foreign country where you know no one, don't speak or read the language, and you receive no help at all from anyone!!" Okay, I was just venting there saying what I wished I could say (in German too!!)...but instead I did say something like "I hope if you are ever transplanted somewhere that people are nicer to you and don't snicker at you"... but I said it kinda soft and I don't even think she heard me! :)

We had Newcomer Orientation at AIS today and we got to see the school. It was very impressive and I think the kids were cautiously optimistic. They both met another new face in their grade (one from CA and one from here in Vienna)...so hopefully that will help with first days. Julia is nervous - but I think she would be at WB too... she is going to be one tired cookie in the afternoons! They have some amazing after school activities programs that they are both excited about. Everything from sports to painting to karate to photography.... that will be fun for them to decide what they want to sign up for. They fed us all a nice BBQ lunch and we had fun. I met a few nice Moms (even got one email :)!!)... so that was nice too.

Eric joined a softball team through work so he plays tomorrow night. I think the kids and I will go and watch too. We should be sleeping in our new digs on Thursday night. The bad part is that we could be weeks before we get internet....so we may be a little more out of touch. (read that as: Jenn is going to go insane but will have to find hotspots in Vienna to blog at least a few times! hee hee) We are working on something that may work in the meantime as we don't want to be out of touch for too long!

Just remembered... Evan was going to tell his funny zoo story! Well, we will have to do that in the am... 10:30 here and I am the only one up waiting for laundry to be finished. I figure I will do all the laundry I can while the hotel is paying for it!!

Hope all of your back to school preparations are going well!

Miss you all!