Update

Hello!

Eric had a hernia surgery last Wednesday and he is doing really well. The surgeon fixed it orthoscopically which helps his recovery time. He is walking well now and back at work. The hospital experience was interesting -- tested our German language skills (luckily most spoke English when necessary!) and gave us a glimpse into socialized medicine in a public hospital. We could have waited a few weeks for the surgery and been in a private hospital, but Eric wanted to do the surgery quicker as he was in a lot of pain and unable to run etc... You know him, not high maintenance and has a great attitude - so he though the hospital experience was a nice glimpse into Austria life. (I thought it was gross!:))

He was back home after a night in the hospital (and fainting on me once after going to the bathroom - turns out I cannot hold up a 6'6" man by myself!) and a few quiet days on the couch. He was doing well enough to take our 2 kids and my running friend's two kids downtown to watch us run the 1/2 Marathon on Sunday morning. I am so thankful that Eric could do that as we loved seeing them and it was a fantastic morning.

The race was fun and a well run HUGE (over 33,000 runners!) spectacle. The weather was beautiful and I felt great the entire run. Good to check that off my list. Ida and I are enjoying the training - keeping us motivated and 'sane' so we will continue to look at future things to train for. I still have a thorn in my side to check a full marathon off my bucket list - but not sure I want to invest that much time to be honest. I'll think it over a bit. I'm thinking Destination Marathon sounds like a blast -- saw one Nice to Cannes on the French Riveria - wouldn't that be fun?!!

The kids are doing great. Julia's latest funniest story is on Sunday. Believe it or not, people just strip down and change after the race wherever they are. After seeing like 6 naked men Julia says "Boy, we sure have seen a lot of worldwide tallywackers since moving here!" I about died laughing.

Evan has a field trip tomorrow to the Natural History Museum, The Parliment and the Globe Museum. So glad he gets to do these things. Unfortunately I don't think the school does a great job tying in all the cultural things that are possible in Vienna to their curriculum much. Seems like the field trips are 'after thoughts' and depend on how hard the teachers want to work. Julia hasn't even gone on one yet this year. Another thing I would love to see improved at the school. Big news from 4th grade too... the AIS 4th Grade was asked to sing at the Hofburg Palace (the main residence of the Hapsburg royal family for 100's of years) for the opening ceremonies for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Science and Technology 2011 Conference. Parents cannot attend (doesn't that SUCK) but they are trying to set up a live feed for us to watch it via our computers. I am going to see of Eric can go 'for work' so he can see them!

We leave on Friday morning for Turkey. I have been trying to arrange last minute details, but I still have more to work on. It is fun though! We will be seeing Istanbul and Cappadocia and we are all really excited. Count on a blog after our return! :)