Happy Birthday

Evan just told me the "BEST" thing happened at class today. It was the first birthday of the class and they sang to the girl in German and English. Then any other kids with a different native tongue could sing happy birthday... get this, they heard it in: Hebrew, Korean, French, Dutch, Swedish, and Russion. Isn't this cool?! Those are the stories that make all the pain of moving feel a bit better! :)

So, our stuff arrived on Monday - SO FUN! We actually were pleased with how much we brought/didn't bring - I think we didn't overpack and bring too much, which is great. We still have a lot of unpacking to do and organizing to figure out (no closets is quite difficult)...but all is really great. They were done by noon and we had unpacked most boxes by 3pm. A lot to be put away still...but most unpacked. Eric directed the guys to keep the garage stuff down in the garage, which was very helpful so we didn't have to haul things back down the 3 flights of stairs.

Julia was THRILLED to have her 'stuff'...she just loves her craft stuff, school playing stuff, doll clothes, her bed, blankets, etc... SO CUTE! Evan has had a soccer ball and his bed, seemingly all he needs. :) But he was still excited to see some of his memorabilia that he packed.

Eric and I layed in a real bed for the first time in about 7 weeks! He bounced up and down and said "LOOK, I'm moving and you aren't!" You know when you are on an air matress and if one person rolls the other persons moves too - it sucks! Needless to say we have been sleeping MUCH better.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, we will probably get our car on Friday or Saturday. Aside from the school commute, I do love public transportation - but I am PUMPED for the car.

A 'normal' Mommy busy day like today was made extremely crazy without a car. Julia's teacher is leaving on maternity leave today so we had a baby shower for her with the kids. For some dumb reason I volunteered to bring "American cupcakes" (which people love here -- you know - duncan hines box ones with canned frosting that I get at the commissary)

So on Monday I am digging through the kitchen boxes to find my cupcake tin and liners. Then Tuesday I decide I should really try to find sprinkles (not so easy in Vienna :)) So of course it is raining this morning... off we go DOWN the hill for 10 minutes, 15 min on public bus and 10 minutes up the hill to school....carrying box of cupcakes with foil on it. Did I mention that I had to make a stop off of the bus yesterday at the grocery store to find a flat carrying box for the cupcakes!

Of course I have to bring my 3 tiered cupcake holder from crate and barrel too - right?! Who would display cupcakes in a box?! hee hee

So after I drop off cupcakes I take 50 minutes of bus and subway to get to my crossfit gym because along with my muffin tin I unpacked my scale. Holy crap!

So I shower there after the workout and take a tram and subway to the UN for my German class. I then race out of there and hail a cab to the kids school so I could get there by the baby shower. (2 subways and a bus would have had me at the school too late)

I then take Evan down the hill and on the bus after school to soccer practice. Julia stays at school for gymnastics. I then hop back on the bus to pick Julia up and then we get back on the bus to pick up Evan. Then the final walk up the hill back to our place.

All I can say is that even with the scale, after that day, I ate the last three cupcakes that were left here!

Did I tell you I was excited about a car? :)

Love to all, Jenn

Big Day Tomorrow!

I sure hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Ours is wrapping up as it is 10:25pm on Sunday night. The house is quiet and we are all ready for the movers to show up in the morning with our sea shipment. I cannot even remember what is coming and what was left at this point it seems like a blur. I do know we are excited to receive our beds, more clothes/shoes and more kitchen stuff. Oh, and the couches :)!! The kids are excited about their scooters and bikes. It will be like Christmas... and then the unpacking for days begins. I think our organizational skills will have to come out as we have very little space here and NO closets.

We had a nice last 1/2 of the week (since we posted last)... the weather in Vienna was spectacular. Friday night we went out to dinner with a family that has been here a few years. Eric has been playing tennis with Scott (he is also working at the IAEA) and Joseph is in Evan's class and one of his favorite friends right now. They also have a 7th grade daughter and Mom Mary Kay is great. They are wrapping up their time here and will be leaving this summer. One interesting thing about living here -- there are a lot of people moving in and out... posts like we have and a ton of embassy/state department people. It is definitely odd in some ways. Anyway, we went to a KILLER Italian restaurant ... the food was OUTSTANDING and the building itself was amazing. We will go back there often and know that if you come visit, you will go there too!

Saturday brought on a haircut for Evan. He was just going to get a trim, but the lady did NOT listen to our requests and cut quite a bit off. (yes, she understood English just fine!) It is a nice cut, but NOT what he wanted. I felt bad for him as I would consider him and I a bit "fragile" right now :). But he handled it like a champ and life went on.

He had to miss his violin lesson on TH so the teacher invited us to her house on Saturday to have the lesson in her studio there. It was fun to see a new part of town and great to see his lesson. Eric was able to 'accompany' him on the piano playing 2 songs. Mrs. Murray has been so excited for that to happen and even had them sort of act like it was a show in preparation for the recital in Dec/Jan. SOOO cute! I posted video on FB if you are a Facebooker it is worth the watch. She is a very accomplished violinist and an extremely talented teacher. She is so passionate, caring and talented, we are sooo thrilled we were able to get into her classes. Evan is enjoying it a lot.

I may have told you this before, but Julia will start in 2nd grade. All the kids at AIS learn 4 string instruments in 2nd grade... and then can pick one to continue with if they would like. That is something fun to look forward to!

In the afternoon we split up and Julia and I did a little girl time and shopping. She had a few stores she wanted to check out and we also got a nice big glass of heisse schokolade milch (hot chocolate) :) The boys went to the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology. It was a good one and we will go back again so Jules and I can see it.

Today was windy and rainy! It was the kind of weather that you just want to stay in bed under the covers! We did our Saturday chores on Sunday and then went downtown to the Hofburg and went into the Sisi Museum. This is where the Emperess Elisabeth and Emperer Franz Joseph Hofburg lived. They call it the Sisi (Elisabeth) Apartments. They have a ton of the china, stemware, etc... on display and then you walk through the 20 or so rooms of the "apartments" in the castle. It was very cool!

Next Saturday they do a "Night at the Museum" thing here where all the museums are free and open until like 2am. I hear it is a good night to pick 5 or 6 and just go in them and do a quick look to decide which ones you want to go back to (and pay to get into) someday. We will have to get a game plan for this night as the kids don't really LOVE most museums :)!

Tonight the kids watched Home Alone and I went to work out. (These pastries and breads are killing me!)

Eric is taking the day off tomorrow to help with the movers. Yeah!

Hope you all have a great week!

A bit normal?

So maybe things are becoming a bit normal as I haven't been on to blog in a few days. Not too much going on but I will fill in a few things.

First, funny story. So, you know how Evan loves to try his German, right? (so cute and great) Well, we were buying a bakery product of some sort for them to share and the nice man asked if they liked in and Evan said "Ich Liebe Dich" which is I LOVE YOU! instead of "Ich Liebe Dies" which is I LOVE IT/THIS! We were all laughing really hard!! There are Backarei's (Bakeries) everywhere... they love their bread and pastries and cafe/tee (tea).

Julia started gymnastics this week for her after school activity - she loved it today. She is preparing to lose her teacher for a few months as she leaves on maternity leave next week. The sub is a long time 1st grade teacher so it should hopefully work out well.

Evan went to tryouts on Monday and Tuesday for another club. He made the team, which is great...but we decided not to do this team. What??!! You are probably saying... well, the team was about 28 kids and 1 coach (AHHHH) and it was apparent that Evan would not be playing very much quality soccer so he chose to stay with the nice French coach for practices and not compete for a few months. It isn't the BEST case scenario, but the best we can do right now. It has been a long process and I think not a great one all in all, but I don't think we could have done anything differently in the end. They did play a 'friendly match' today which Evan could play in so that was fun. I am thrilled as it is 2 days per week instead of 3 and the location is much better!! :)

My Mom and Dad are coming to visit in November and we are all thrilled and can't wait. I am excited to show them around and to just 'hang out' too. The weather won't be great, but we'll just bundle up!!

I missed my German class today because I got all the way there (almost) and forgot my badge to get into the UN buildings. Bummer! I tried to make lemondade out of lemons so I walked around the inner city... I LOVE walking around all the old cobblestone streets and happening upon tons of shops etc... SO FUN! It was BEAUTIFUL today and I even layed down for a few minutes on the lawn looking up at one of the gorgeous museums in the Museum Quartier.

I am liking it here a lot and meeting some great people that I am sure will become great friends. I do miss what is familiar to me and things that I loved on a 'daily basis.' in WA... my friends, crossfit TNT, runs with Mia, Target :) I guess I will eventually feel familiar here and have new 'routines' etc... I am hoping when the boat shipment arrives on Monday (YEAH!), this will also help this process for the kids and I.

Back Soon.........

Sound of Music

We downloaded The Sound of Music last night and we will have our showing tonight with the kids. They haven't seen it yet - at least they don't remember. I think the three of us saw it a few years ago, but no one really remembers. My SIL Christy will think this is sacreligious! :)

We had a nice night out on Friday... another restaurant in the inner city, this one Thai. We decided to start a little list with our ratings so we remember everything. I think we'll have Evan do this in a spreadsheet... provided we can convince him to do this after all the hounding we have to do for his nightly homework!

We headed out early Sat. morning to Puchberg am Shneeburg (I don't know if I am spelling this correctly!!) which is about 1.5 hours from here via train. We then took a cog train (The Salamander) up the highest mountain in the lower austrian alps (about 6,000 feet) We did a nice hike, met and talked to some nice families (from Wien and Munich) and then headed back down the cog and had a nice German dinner. We then headed back to Vienna and home about 9pm. Great day!

Today we caught up on some boring chores and then headed to a park. More pick up soccer for Evan...geez you can get great soccer in any park at any time here - so fun for him (and Eric played some today too!) Julia loves all the sandpits and ziplines here! The weather was beautiful both days. Sundays are a bit different here, can't remember if I told you. But all stores and most restaurants are closed on Sundays due to Austrian law. This makes for no errands, etc... so families are out in full force on Sundays at parks everywhere. At first this annoyed me... hard to make sure you have all the groceries you need for Sunday :), but now it is such a great thing as it really forces you to have a completely uninteruppted family day each Sunday.

We stopped by another club called Post today too and talked to the U11 coach. He said come on out tomorrow (monday) - so we will go and check that one out. Everyone was VERY nice and the location was fine for us, so hopefully it will be some good coaching and soccer. Someone was translating for us while we talked to the clubs president (old dude) Stay tuned...

The cutest part about today was when Eric walked up to Julia and I playing in the big sandbox and Julia said to Eric "Kannen ich spielen mit du?" Can I play with you?

She is picking up German nicely but is much more tentative to try it. I am so impressed with her on a daily basis...especially with regards to this transition.

Th hills are alive with the sound of music!!!

Hope you all had a nice weekend!!

TGIF tomorrow

So glad it is Friday tomorrow, no more hounding Evan to do homework for a few nights! :)

Not much earth shattering going on. Big news here was that my crockpot arrived at the Post. Okay, pathetic, but I was so excited! I didn't bring my crockpot (my cherished kitchen tool!!) because the voltage etc.. is different. BUT apparently they don't use crockpots here?! Who would have thought it!! Anyway, figured out I could purchase one on line from Amazon UK and it would be at least the right voltage so I only need an adapter (for the plug) vs. a transformer to transform the voltage. (this is what we have to use for our chargers etc..) Anyway, it arrived at the Post and I picked it up and had to carry this mongo box up the hill to our flat. Through the park... I wanted to tell every Austrian I saw what it was and how their lives could change if they ordered one. My friend Kara and I are convinced we could make bank here selling crockpots. Hmmmmm.....

Our shipment is delayed and we don't have a delivery date yet. I am still hoping for by Oct 1st... maybe late next week or early the next? We hope to know next week.

Evan loves violin and today asked if one of his friends could come to their 'concert' that they will have. I said Sure, which one? He said someone from the Tri-Cities. Anyone? Anyone? :)

We ordered our Tiguan on Wednesday - it will be great! I have to admit, I am so excited to get the car and stop this public commute in the am and pm. It is 30 minutes each way and I have to do it 4x per day. It isn't awful, but I am looking forward to cutting that down to a 10 min. drive at the most. There are 2 hills - one up and one down each way. So, I will have to cut down on my gelato consumption when we get the car. :)

Eric is playing a double header softball game tonight. They have a fun time and I am glad he gets to get out and hang out with some dudes. I think I told you the team name is Slug and Chug, so you can figure out what they like to do.

I think we will head out of town for an overnight on Sat - Sunday. Eric has some mountain town picked out. We will need to check the weather as it wouldn't be fun to go to a hiking place with bad weather.

Have a great weekend!

Funny Story at End is PG-13

Tried to add the slide show of pictures through Picasa on the right...lots of pictures but if you are really bored one day you can view some!

Big news today is that is looks like our boat shipment may be delivered one week from this Wednesday!! I will believe it when it passes customs and all looks good, but something to hope for! I don't even know what it will feel like to have 'stuff' It is funny how quickly we got used to living with bare necessities. I know Eric and I are looking forward to getting off this air matress!

German class was fun yesterday, I am really looking forward to it. I just made myself flashcards for the 100 most commonly used words in German, I have plenty of bus and subway time to look at these. Eric was supposed to take it at the same time but due to increased enrollment they opened up another session. The new time worked better for his work schedule and I could not switch as I have to be back to pick up kiddos, so we will have all the days covered with our German classes, we can share information and can also meet for quick lunches more so that is good.

We also test drove a few cars. We are down to the Volkswagon Tiguan or the Volkwagon Golf Plus. The Tiguan is much more 'fun', more space, better looking, probably better in snow, etc... but more money (of course). The Golf plus is the affordable utilitarian way to go. We are trying to decide! Looks like we will have wheels in about a month. Again, funny how you get used to no car. I hadn't driven a car in over a month prior to yesterday! I actually enjoy public transportation (aside from 4 times a day to school), and will most likely still use it when getting into the inner districts - but to and from school we will drive the car.

The kids are doing well. Julia broke my heart last night as she was sobbing at bedtime because she "misses my friends, my dog, my grandma, my papa, my uncle kirk, my cherish, my grandjan, my gramps, my ya ya, and everyone else ...but especially my dog" It was so cute and sad to hear her begin to list everyone and then kind of get tired of listing and just say everyone and then especially my dog. She was easily calmed down and she hasn't really done that yet, so I think it was 'healthy'. She had talked to one of her bestest buddies Ryan on the phone, so I think that started her head spinning. Ryan and Julia love to dance on their boat so I told her we would skype and turn on tunes and they could dance together via webcam! (Tracey, get ready for that!! :))

We have sent out some emails about Evan's soccer and we have a temporary solution, so all is working out okay. The U10 coach (a very very nice and capable coach) went to the U11 coach (without us asking him to!) and actually told him he thought it was riduculous that he cut Evan because he was "too short and too small" - Nochello said "What does that have to do with anything in soccer!" Anyway, the U11 coach ended up saying he would take Evan back but wasn't nice about it and we all decided this was not a good move. So.. until we can find another club (if we can), Evan will be practicing and getting great coaching from Oliviea Nochello the U10 coach. He just can't play in matches with him because he is too old by 15 days.

I will end with a very funny story... if you are with kids or are a kid - don't read this :) although we told Evan and all had a great laugh. This will be more funny if I could tell it in person, but try to imagine it verbally.

At German class yesterday we were working on vorname (first name) and familiename (last name), introductions etc... So the teacher said "Was ist ihr familiename?" to one guy. This is What is your last name? The man said "Meine familiename ist Dick" (my last name is Dick) The german teacher than says "Das ist Herr Dick"... (Translated: That is Mr. Dick) - Herr is Mr. and sounds like Hair" I must be the only sicko in the class cuz I could barely contain myself. I kept thinking "thank God Eric isn't here as we would have LOST it laughing!"

Tschoss! (said "choos" for Bye!)

A great day for a bike ride....

Hi All,

We have had a very nice weekend of fun and nice weather. Saturday we did some chores around the apartment and then headed to the park by our house for a few hours. Eric and I do a 'pseudo crossfit' workout and the kids play at the park. We also played some table tennis. All the parks have permanent ping pong tables so that is fun.

Headed down to one of the shopping areas then to do a few returns, pick up a few more clothing items for the kids and also a refridgerator! I have been living a few weeks with a very very small fridge and it is a huge pain :)!! It is even small to "European" standards!! :) So, we purchased another fridge that is a little bigger and we put it in our 'extra room'/den. We couldn't 'replace' the fridge in the kitchen as it is wedged into a small spot and we can't fit anything bigger.

So... Eric and the new fridge took a cab home and the kids and I did public as usual. We popped some popcorn and watched a movie the finish the night.

Today we rented bikes and explored the river paths, the downtown area and Prater Park. The Prater here is unbelievable... a HUGE park miles wide by miles long. It has everything from a huge amusement park to a skate park, bowling alleys, field hockey, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, kids play parks, bmx bike trails, wooded areas... it is so cool! We explored a bit on bike but will spend many days there I am sure.

Evan seems to be doing well with his set back. He is asking questions and we are trying hard to contact people to find out where else he could possibly play. It doesn't seem there is a ton between serious Austrian Club leagues and recreational once per week soccer fun that doesn't include games. But we are still hunting.... there has to be something!

I am listening to Evan play violin in the background. It is nice to hear! Twinkle Twinkle in the background!

We hope you are having a nice weekend!

Jenn

Rough Day....

Had a rough day yesterday, after practicing for 2 weeks on this Austrian Club soccer team that Evan figured he would be on, the coach told Eric and Evan that he "is too short, too young and he has too many kids on his team already so he can't join the team". Unfortunately he also has being American going against him too. They are not very interested in putting in time on Americans in this situation. Also, Evan's age is a huge disadvantage...the cut off here is Dec 31st...which means he has to play with the 'older kids' by 15 days. He was the youngest out there and was the smallest, but not the worst by any means. He is definitely holding his own in skillwork/footwork.

He handled it very well. I was very glad I wasn't there and Eric was as I think I would have told that guy where I thought he should go. (Mama Bear!) Anyway, we will begin researching other options now. I am very proud at the way that Evan is handling this big disappointment and his first "cut" from a team....but I am worried he is not really showing his emotions and burying them a bit. Maybe not?

To make matters worse, his two good buddies at school are on the team. We are encouraging him to spread his wings a bit with friends at school too.

We went out to an Aussie Pub to drown our sorrows in Beer, Almdudler (German Sprite) and Crocodile steak and fries. (Julia and I had burgers!) Oh, and more gelato of course!

Anyway, please keep us in your prayers. This is a big set back for a little boy that has gone through a TON in 4 weeks. Not to mention his parents who are aching for him knowing how sucky it feels to be cut. :(

Love to all...

Internet Yeah!!!

Well the big day was yesterday - the Telecom Austria guy arrived and we now have Austrian TV channels, an Austrian home phone number and INTERNET - YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He didn't speak very much English but was very kind as we muddled through trying to communicate. After he ran around for 30 minutes he came in and said "No Telephone Line!" I almost started crying!! Long story short, he found what he needed and we are hooked up. He was also trying to show me how to turn the heat on in this place - it was HEIT (cold!) here yesterday!

It was so great to get hooked up yesterday as it was my wonderful friend Tracey's 40th birthday so I got to phone her via our VOIP phone and talk to her. A real gift to me on her b-day! :) We have a 509 (Washington state) number so if you ever want to call - please do! 509-723-2717. The time change is kind of a pain, but it will be great. I also got to talk to my sister today - what was so nice as I haven't heard her voice. It sure is nice to reconnect with voices too!

Took a nice long 2 hour hike in the Weiner Wald yesterday with my friend Kara. It was pouring rain and cold but we had planned to hike and figured we better just go. It was actually fun and beautiful. It is a very large forested area with trails everywhere for hiking, biking etc... Waterfalls, lizards, trees, creeks, etc... The kids school is right up against the Weiner World as Kara calls it... western edge of Vienna.

Another newbie, Ulreka from Sweden, invited a few of us over to her house for coffee this morning. It was so nice- we sat and talked for over 3 hours! Karina from Denmark was there and Elizabeth from New York City (living in japan the last 12 years though). We had so much fun and it is so great to learn about all the different countries. Apparently the public school system in the scandenavian countries is horrendous and after telling us about it I was so thankful for this school and for our schools in America (or at least Richland Public School!:)) Amazing.

My new New York/Japan friend took me to the Commissary this afternoon too - always a treat to get some groceries with a car! :)

The weather turned very nice this afternoon so we hit the park after dinner where Evan got in a pick up game of soccer (of course!) and Julia plays in the sand and at the park with anyone that is there... so cute!

Evan had his 2nd violin lesson today and his teacher was so proud of him as he can play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star already. So cool! I posted a video of him on Facebook practicing his scales and we all laughed so hard cuz Tonia (who is watching our dog Mia) said that Mia was howling the whole way through the video! Apparently the sound is a little high for her ears! (she does this with sirens too!)

Eric has tomorrow off so we are taking the kids to school and we are going to have a long hike and then go to one of the Heurigans... I am spelling this wrong but basically there are a lot of 'wineries' around here that have smallrestaurants and make their own wine and have the grapes on their properties. We are planning to hit one for lunch tomorrow after we hike!

That is all for now.......

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! :)
__________________________________________________________________________

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 :)!

Hi All,

At Eric's work using computers, trying to get our cell phones figured out and maybe even having lunch with Eric - yeah!

All is good here... the rain stopped and the sun is out - yeah! I found a cute kids consignment store this morning - clothing is very expensive here so that was a bit cheaper. I will be asking anyone that comes to visit to bring us Target shoes and clothes!! (Mom, that is you in November!! :))

Evan had his first soccer on Monday with the Austrian club... the coach doesn't speak much English. (did I tell you all this already??!) He has a friend on the team already that was helping to translate a bit. The coach said to us Ï'll watch him this week and let you know if he makes it on Friday. I said to Evan..> Game on!

Julia is good too. We went to a fun brew pub type place last night with another PNNL person who just moved here too and her two kids (16 and 18)... what nice kids and we all had fun!

THere is a HUGE art festival in the gigantic park by our house this weekend - should be fun! Also, kids have back to school picnic on Saturday and Evan should have a game too. Fun times.

Miss everyone, I have a post on my laptop that I will post tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to my lovey dovey niece Olivia - we love you!!!!!!!