They're Here--Woche 32

We've been waiting for a week and they finally arrived!  Grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie Caryn made it here safely on Thursday afternoon.  They were a little delayed because of traffic through Vienna, construction on the way, and there was that little incident where they drove through the pedestrian zone only part of the park.  We should have been filming because it was the kind of thing that only happens in car chases in movies.  Well, that and foreign countries.  Dad assured me that the sign said, "No dogs, no bikes, no rollerblades, no horses, but it didn't say, no cars."  And his trusty navigator didn't tell him otherwise.

Dane had his physical fitness testing in PE this week.  He did so/so in the sit and reach (because he's related to his mother) and managed a really good short jump (it was supposed to be a long jump),
BUT, he shattered the 7th grade school record for pushups.  He was able to do 90 amazing pushups, it was glorious. 

Friday morning, I took everyone to my craft store.  We were looking for one of a kind souvenirs.  It took us a few hours, but we finally sorted through enough stuff to find some good things.  Just as we were heading home to grab a late lunch, we were driving along and BLAM!  There was such a jolt in the car that I felt like I had hit the curb--really hard.  However, I was still in the middle of the lane.  A short time later, Caryn noticed weird sounds coming from her side of the car.  I pulled over and discovered we had a flat tire.  We pull out all of the stuff to fix the tire.  There was not a spare tire.  Instead of tools and a spare, the car had a patch kit with an inflatable pump that runs off the 12 volt plug in the car.  Dad got the kit all out of the packaging, figured out how to use it, got it plugged in, when we looked at the tire.  The tire was completely exploded.  The patch kit would not work on this.  So, I discovered that I had forgotten my phone that morning.  Luckily, Dad had some foreign minutes on his phone.  I called Dan, who was at work, with no car.  Since we were two villages away from Vienna, and had only driven there, I had no idea how to get home on public transportation.  After we figured out that we needed a tow truck, I called the roadside assistance number.  We got it all worked out that a towing company would call and let me know how long they would be.  I finally got a call and we were told that we would only have another 30 minutes before he was able to get there.  We waited patiently (Danyon was sleeping).  The tow truck guy did not speak English, but we got it all figured out.  We had to have him call a taxi to fit all of us in.  He drove us out to the nearest dealership--it was 30 minutes away--it was the closest still open at 4:00pm on a Friday.  We got to the dealership and the tow truck driver was so good to us to make sure that we got everything we needed and that the service center had the right size tire in stock.  We were blessed to have it all work out and the company could get it fixed right away.  About half an hour later, we had a brand new tire and were finally on our way home!  Mom, Dad, Caryn, and even Danyon were all on their best behavior through the whole thing.  They took it all in stride.  We eventually made it back home, in time for dinner.

I ended up having to go to the church to teach the Relief Society activity that night.  We were sewing pumpkins.  The night went fairly well.  All but one were able to finish their pumpkins that night.  It made for a later evening and more stressful day than I had planned, but it all ended well.

While I was gone, everyone was getting ready for dinner.  Deagan was at the stove when it was time for the blessing on the food.  He folded his arms and laid them on the stove top for the prayer.  Almost instantly, he realized his mistake as the burner was very hot, having just cooked the soup for dinner.  He ended up burning a good part of his arm.  It didn't appear to be as bad as Danyon's, but he had a fun wound to show for it.

Saturday turned out to be a better day.  We started with the Brunnenmarkt.  We wandered down the street and took our time looking at everything.  We stopped for Turkish crepes, ice cream, and, of course, the bakery.  For lunch, we picked up duram, and falafel.  We headed to Mariahilferstrasse.  This is the largest shopping street in Vienna.  We walked around a bit, but the biggest find was the Drindls we found on an awesome sale.  We picked up a few of these dresses for less money than we could have bought fabric.  We spend some time in the dressing room trying to figure out the right size and the right dress.  I wanted to try a pair of lederhosen.  I grabbed a couple of sizes.  I headed to an empty changing room.  I closed the curtain, hung the pants, hung up my purse, and started to kick off my shoes--only to discover that I was not alone.  I got one shoe off and was trying to get the other shoe off, when I discovered a huge (and by huge, I mean HUGE), spider hanging on for dear life to my toe.  I just had one thin sock layer separating me from the sharpened fangs of the killer spider.  Without even a scream of fright, I very carefully, frantically, tried to launch that spider as far away as possible.  It wasn't working, as the spider just hung on tighter.  I danced around the dressing room trying to get the spider off my sock so I could stomp on it with my one shoe--all before he bit me.  Finally I got him off my sock and I was able to finish the job--all without cries, screams, or any sound at all--except the crunch of his body.  But, then I had spider guts right in the middle of the floor.  It made it very difficult to straddle body parts while trying on pants.  I hurried as fast as I could and got out of there!

That night, we went over to our piece of Greece, the Athene restaurant.  We had a really big dinner and really enjoyed it!!  We ate to our heart's content and then ate some more.  We got home and were pleased to find that the kids hadn't burned down the house while we were gone.  They got to enjoy their pizza and movies at home.  So far, we have had fun with everyone here.  It is good to have family around!

Bittersweet--Woche 31

The highlights or lowlights for the week:

This is the home Dane stayed in

Dane had his first soccer games this weekend.  They have only had two practices so far.  His first games were in Frankfurt.  He got to miss a whole day of school and take the six hour train ride to Frankfurt.  His first game started about 10 minutes after their journey, so they had no time to warm up and they were pretty groggy and stiff.  Needless to say, they lost that game.  The players are farmed out to school families to stay the night, to defray hotel costs.  Dane stayed with a family from the Netherlands.  He enjoyed his time with them.  Saturday morning, they played their second game.  They were more prepared for this game, but just couldn't quite finish and never got the ball into the net.  The other team got lucky twice, so they won.  Dane had a great time and is loving feeling like part of a team.  Since he practices with the school twice a week, has a German lesson, a music lesson, and is still on a local soccer club, things are still proving to be difficult.  He is still trying to decide if he can keep it all together.

The train must have been moving really
fast to get the picture this blurry

Deagan was informed this week that after 7 months of playing with a local Austrian soccer club, he was number 13 on a team of 12.  We were very frustrated at the timing of this, as we are now too late to get him into another soccer club, and too late to sign him up for any after school activities through the school.  Deagan got a new coach at the beginning of the school year.  He is Turkish and speaks a little German.  Deagan and I have had a hard time communicating with him.  So, on the same day that Deagan was cut, there was a new kid, a friend of one of the teammates, who speaks German and happens to be Turkish.  He made the team after one practice and Deagan was cut.  We can't help that with experience with 3 different Austrian clubs and 2 different sports, we feel that we are being treated very much like second class citizens because of the language barrier--particularly the American accent, who don't deserve to be on the Austrian teams.  It's true that our kids are not the best players on the ice or field, but they certainly contribute to their teams.  The coaches here have one goal and that is to win games.  They seem to not be concerned with developing any players.  They are only interested in the skills that you have at the given moment--they care little about potential, or what they can make of a team.  To be a coach at an Austrian sport club has prestige and you must win games to progress in your coaching career.  Considering that kids have chosen their sport at the age of 3 and practice 4 1/2- 5 hours a week year round, I find this to be a truly unrealistic way to develop children.  To end my ranting, with the exception of skiing, how many truly good Austrian athletes do you know?  Arnold Schwartzeneger excluded, as well.

While out driving we found this sign.
  It says:  Vienna has culture.  We found
 it ironic that they placed it right next to the other sign.

On a happier note, Dyllan is adjusting to school very well.  She got 98% on her first math test, which is her hardest subject.  She goes to a swimming class once a week, through the after school activities program.  She has had one class, and loved it.  They are learning proper strokes and perfecting them.  She gets a full hour of swimming laps once a week.  She loved the first week.

Dan and I tried a new restaurant this weekend.  One of Dan's co-workers suggested we go to a Serbian restaurant.  We enjoyed the restaurant and we enjoyed getting to know Dan's co-worker and her husband better.  The portions were big and we couldn't finish our meals.  We learned that my birthday and Yanina's are one day apart.  So, we've got plans to get together again sometime in October to celebrate!






The apple harvest is in full swing here.  The stores are selling Gala apples (my favorite variety besides Honey crisp and Fuji) all for 1.29/kg.  To better compete, one store was selling the apples with a free basket.  We loved the baskets, so we picked up two!  I think we can use 20 lbs of apples before they go bad, but at any rate, we have baskets that are worth 20 Euro or more, if I bought them in a local store--for free!  We also discovered this week why were having so much trouble with the grocery sales.  We get the flyers in the mail.  We write down the stuff we want to buy.  We get to the stores, on the dates the flyers suggest, and we can't find the meat or the price we were looking for.  This has happened to us several times.  Well, on Friday, Dan went to the store first thing, on the first day to hit a specific meat sale.  He got to the store to find what he was looking for, but there were only 2 of them in the store.  So, stores advertise a sale price to get you in the store, but have very few inventory of the actual sale items.

Another fantastic find we had this week.  We stopped in a Tracht store (traditional Austrian clothing), just to see what they had.  Usually these stores have very cool things, at very high prices.  However, we found some shoes for Dan at an unreal price!  This was awesome, as Dan had a new pair of dress shoes on his shopping list.  They are all leather, came with a shoe horn, and the ones with laces all came with an extra set of laces, all for 19 Euro a pair.  Since Dan was planning on spending at least 60-80 on one pair, he decided to buy a couple of pairs.  He took them to the register and he got a few dirty looks from the cashier, who couldn't figure out why you would need 2 pairs of the same shoe.  Dan really wanted one of the other laced wing-tips as well, but didn't have the heart after the looks he got.  He made me go back in the store and buy the other pair.  The lady recognized me (we're hard to miss with all our kids) and certainly gave me a few glares of my own, at buying, yet another pair.  However, at that price, Dan got 3 pairs for the price of one, and will be set with dress shoes for a long time!!!

And last, but certainly, not least, Crafting has begun again!!!  This week, I pulled out my tub of incomplete crafting projects.  I have been able to finish 3 projects this week.  I owe this to Dane being able to get himself to and from all his activities on his own, and Dyllan and Deagan having fewer practices to get to.  I have gotten the craft bug again, and actually have some time to do it!!  Just in time for Halloween, but Deagan (who wasn't thrilled about his s'more costume last year) insisted that we buy him a cheap skeleton costume from the store yesterday.  I told him I could make a cooler one, but he wanted nothing to do with it.  He said something about not being able to fit through doorways, or sit at his desk properly, when mom makes them.  Dyllan can't wait for me to make her a ketchup bottle costume this year.  I haven't decided what Danyon will be--could be a hot dog, mustard, or something.  I guess that depends if Dane is dressing up too.

Do you know where your child is?--Woche 30

We were down in numbers this week.  Dan traveled to Antwerp and was gone for most of the week.  Dane had his class trip and was gone from Wednesday to Friday night.  For his trip, he went to St. Johann and stayed at a Jugendhotel.  From what I gather, it is kind of like a youth hostel, where they have several activities that the kids can do like ropes courses, swimming, and zip lines.  The school plans their yearly overnight trips at the beginning of the school year because there is so much turn over in the school from year to year.  Having the trip at the beginning enables all of the new kids and all of the old kids whose friends moved out, to get to know each other and create bonds of friendship before the school year really starts.  Another way the school enables more team building is by not allowing any parents to attend this trip.  There are strictly no parents or cell phones allowed.  All of the chaperones are the teachers and school staff.  Dane really enjoyed the trip this year.  He still had a couple of friends from last year and was able to make a couple of new friends too.

Deagan got to pick his instrument to play and he got to bring it home.  He is going to play the viola!  He is very excited.  They have learned how to hold it properly and how to take care of it.  During the next couple of weeks, they have to earn their bows and their rosin.  Deagan has practiced and practiced holding his viola.  He has just started to learn to pluck the strings to get to know the sounds and notes.

Dan had his business run this week.  He returned home from Antwerp on Thursday night and headed straight to the start line for his race.  He was running a 4.1K race.  He was on a team, and the three of them would use their combined time to place.  Dan was able to run his in 18:49.  He came in 2nd in the men's group for all of Lilly and Elanco.  His team mates were not as fast, and his team ended up coming in second to last.  Dan was proud of his run (as he has not run for a couple of years since the doctors told him not to run anymore) and was glad he met his goal. 

Deagan got to have a fun experience this week.  I dropped him off at soccer practice on Friday afternoon.  Dyllan and I parked the car and then went to watch.  We were informed that we were not allowed to watch this practice.  We were told that the coach would be back at the gate in 2 hours with a ticket.  I would need to take the ticket and then head into the stadium to pick up Deagan.  Well, we waited for 2 hours, then we waited by the gate.  And we waited and waited and waited.  At 6:30, I finally gave up and texted the coach.  He called me back, but the coach does not speak any English and we couldn't communicate very well over the phone.  He finally handed the phone to Deagan.  I talked to Deagan and asked him if he was finished.  His response, "I don't know"  When will you be done? "I don't know."  Where are you? "I don't know."  So, finally, I told him that I needed to leave to go pick up Dane, but that Dan was there and would meet him by the gate.  Deagan said he would go over to the gate and meet him there.  Fifteen minutes later, Deagan was still not there.  We found out that there was a professional game going on that night.  Dan bought a ticket and headed into the stadium.  Just as he got into the stadium, he saw Deagan on the field with a professional player.  Deagan's whole team was able to run out onto the field with the professional players at the beginning of the game.  It would have been a lot more fun, if we knew what was going on.  Dan finally found Deagan and they watched the half of the game together before I came back to pick them up. 

Saturday morning, Dan and I were able to go for a run along the Danube.  We loved having the time together and being able to visit.  There weren't too many people out on a beautiful morning.  The biggest hazard of running in the early morning is avoiding all of the huge slugs out on the trail and dodging the homeless crowd and smell under all the bridges and by all the subway stops.  We have decided from now on, that all runs will go north along the river out of the city instead of into the city.  We passed by a lot of graffiti that we don't normally get to see when you drive by.  Here is a sample of some of the quality stuff around town. 







The kids had the annual kick off BBQ at the school on Saturday morning.  They had food and tons of activities for the kids to do.  We played for awhile then we headed back home.  Deagan enjoyed the face painting, as he got to be a vampire.  Dane played soccer and Dyllan played with Danyon and had fun exploring the fire engine.  As this is our second BBQ, we realized that arriving on time just meant that you had to wait for the food.  Coming late guaranteed immediate gastronomic satisfaction and a shorter line.  It pays to be a veteran at these things.  We also broke down and bought some school sweatshirts.  The school is always asking for money, and we found this to be a way to donate to the school but not just handing out cash for who knows what.  You would think that the very steep admission fees of more than 20,000 Euro/kid/year would be enough.  Allynn has vowed, however, that if they promise to use her money for a parking lot that parents can park in, she would be a platinum sponsor!  This makes Dan very nervous, but come on, what are the chances they are going to tear up the brand new outdoor classroom to make way for a safer, more convenient way of picking up our children without blocking all surrounding roads.

The Artis Theater

Dan and I headed out to a movie on Saturday night without Danyon.  We thought it might be interesting to mention how they do movies at one of the English movie theaters in town.  The movie started at 6:00pm.  We were at the box office at 5:40.  We bought our tickets and then headed to concessions.  We bought our popcorn which is reasonably priced.  We can get a large bucket of popcorn, 2 drinks, and a bag of candy for under 10 Euro.  (The other theater across town was priced at over 20 for just the popcorn).  We headed to our theater.  The door was closed, but, after opening it, we found no one inside.  So we went in, and found our seats (we have assigned seats at this theater).  Right at 6:00pm, the doors opened, and a lady told us something in German, of which we only caught the last bit:  have fun.  Then people started coming into the theater.  From what I gather, we were not supposed to come into the theater until the doors were opened.  I guess when the movie starts at 6:00, it means that the doors open at 6:00.  The previews do not last long--there were only 2.  The theater was far from being full.  Out of 250 seats, only about 30 of them were taken, but since they were assigned seats, we were all lumped together towards the middle.  I felt a little cramped in space, especially since there were so many open seats around the theater, but we were all stuffed together.  Making out in the back of the theater would not be an option here!  We had a great time and were glad to spend time together.