Willkommenes Haus nach Österreich -Woche 8

The week started off very slow.  I spent my days still unpacking boxes and trying to get the house set up.  It took a lot of time, but most everything is now unpacked and put away.  We still have tons of empty boxes for the company to come and pick up, but the house is really feeling more like home.  We have most of the pictures hung, some of the curtains hung, and all the furniture is in the right spot.  Things are really starting to take shape here.  There are still some odds and ends that need to be finished up, but all in all, it looks pretty good.  We still have quite a bit of electrical work to do.  Dan is having a hard time finding all the time to put the light fixtures in.  To make it easier on him, I asked an electrician to give me an estimate for putting all the light fixtures in.  The quote came back at 2,500 Euro.  It sure is a blessing that Dan can do some electrical work himself.  We will just have to have patience and let Dan get it done as he has time.

The stores around here are getting ready for Easter.  I did find one egg dying kit.  It cost 7 Euros and it didn’t look like the kits from home.  I don’t think that dying your own eggs is very popular here.  All the grocery stores and open markets sell eggs that are already dyed bright colors.  I don’t know if they are hard boiled or not—we didn’t buy any.  They do have baskets, candy and toys, but not as hyped as home.  One thing that they have here is an Osterlamm.  It is a pound cake made from cast iron “lamb” molds.  They dust it with powdered sugar to be woolly white and tie a red bow around the neck.  It is a traditional Easter dessert, symbolic, I’m sure.  They sell them by the dozens. 

On Sunday, we were heading off to church, just in time to be on time, when we turned out of our driveway.  Ahead of us, coming up the street, was a parade of people from the church at the end of the road.  The priest and the whole congregation were coming up the street carrying pussy willows.  They carried these instead of palm frons.  We were told that these are easier to come by here, that they are a sign of Spring and new life, and that the priest would have blessed them before their march.  They were singing a hymn, being led by the priest who had a microphone and portable speakers.  It was neat to watch them and listen.  We recognized the tune of the hymn, but they were singing in German, so it was hard to decipher if we knew the same words.  It was also a great opportunity to teach the children about all the events that happened in the life of Christ from the Triumphal Entry all the way up to the Resurrection.  It was worth being late for church to experience that.

On Friday, Dan had the day off work.  The kids still had to go to school.  Dan and I packed bags for everyone and we headed to the school, as Deagan had a “How-To” Expo.  Each of the kids in kindergarten had written a book about how to do something.  Deagan’s was “How to Make an Apple Pie”—which was interesting to me because I don’t think that I’ve ever made an apple pie—lots of other pies, lots of apple desserts, but never an apple pie.  Thanks to the Murphys (our neighbors in Indiana), though, for delivering such tasty apple pies regularly, Deagan was obviously not deprived and must have learned his skills from them.  The kindergarten kids had to read their books to the whole class and parents.  Each of the books were “published” and will be in the school library for other children to check out. 

After the expo, we picked up the rest of the kids and whisked them away to the airport.  It was a huge surprise.  No one knew that we were going on a trip.  They were all very excited and hard to contain on the way to the airport.  As a special treat, Dan stopped at a McDonalds for the kids to have a snack before getting on the plane.  We only go to McDonalds during their “Monopoly” season, and they do it here in Vienna, as well.  It was weird ordering nuggets in half German, half English, but it was nice to have a little taste of home.

Still Unpacking . . . -Woche 7

Schonbrunn Palace

Austria, particularly Vienna, is known for its special seasonal markets.  They are especially famous for their Christmas markets.  We learned that in addition to Christmas markets, they have Easter markets as well.  So, we bundled up the kids and headed for the "most romantic and well known Easter market in Vienna."  The Schonbrunn Palace is home to one of the many Easter markets.  This palace is probably the most well know palace in Austria.  It houses several things, among them being:  the oldest Baroque zoo in the world, beautiful gardens, a marionette theatre, art workshops, a labyrinth, several museums, as well as the tour of the palace itself.  The markets are similar to other open markets.  There are booths set up on the grounds with people selling their wares.  The Easter markets have Easter eggs, made of several different things.  There are eggs from all over Europe.  They have Russian hand painted eggs, Polish glass eggs, Austrian ceramic eggs, and Romanian beaded eggs, etc.  They sell cuisine from all different parts of Austria.  They have booths of wooden and tin toys.  The kids had a great time spending some money they got from Grandma Baker for Valentine's Day.  They each picked out a toy.  I picked out some ceramic eggs, and some glass Christmas decorations.  The morning was very cold and windy and we were all frozen by the time we went around the booths twice, to make sure we didn't miss anything and to make sure we found the best prices on what we picked out.  We were glad to get back to the car to warm up.  This will be a great place for an extended visit in a few weeks once things warm up.

 

We decided to go to the Brunnemarkt again, to get some good bread from our favorite Backerei.  We also bought several groceries (produce and cheese) as we walked down the street.  When we arrived at the Backerei we looked everything over and started picking out some new items we hadn't tried before.  We had done well that day, communicating in German, and getting everything we asked for.  Dane and Dyllan were talking and pointing to different items that they wanted.  Dane got a little too close to some doughnut type things and Dyllan said to him, "Rookee proach"--which means, "Hands off"--in Russian.  Dan, trying to control the children, at the same time as ordering his bread, got a little flustered and asked for "shest" (six, in Russian) doughnut things.  The owner of the shop then started speaking Russian to Dan.  Dan, feeling much more confident in this language, chatted with the owner.  He asked Dan why he spoke Russian, and why the kids did.  Dan corrected him and said that the kids only spoke a couple of words.  But, the man (originally from the Ukraine) already felt a connection and exchanged one loaf of bread in our bag for a better, fresher loaf.  We thought it very exciting that, at least Dan can communicate in our favorite bakery.  We're headed back on Saturday.  Dyllan is already becoming a bread snob.  She doesn't like regular (sandwich bread) anymore.  She likes the fresh buns made in the bakeries to eat her lunch sandwiches on.  "Couldn't we get a whole loaf of buns, instead?", she asked.  I will have to get a second job when we come back to North America to support our high-end specialty bread needs.

We are still in the middle of the unpacking.  We have worked everyday to try to get things settled.  We have boxes and paper everywhere.  I'm still trying to find places to put everything.  We've gotten most of the boxes unpacked now--it's just finding and creating new places to put it.  We have only unpacked a couple of boxes that are of no use to us--and only one box of trash (so far). 

I was invited over to Natalie's house to celebrate a birthday (she is in our ward).  It was good to get out and visit with other women.  They were all English speakers, so I didn't practice my German.  But, it's a start to making new friends here.  I even met a new sister in our ward who is half Somoan so we had a good visit as she got to know Danyon and little better.  Her kids go to the same school as ours and she lives close to us so we'll have to connect with them in the coming weeks.

When Dan came back from a trip in January he brought home some chocolate from the United Arab Emirates.  It took us a while to find it among all our stuff here.  But we found it and decided to give it a try.  It was our first experience with anything made from camel's milk.  I have to admit, I like it better than things made with goat's milk.  It is not as strong--at least in chocolate.  The kids didn't seem to notice a difference so maybe a trip to Dubai of Abu Daubi is in our future.  Just not between June and August (115+ degrees on most days).  You can get arrested for public displays of affection there too so no hand holding while in country.  We'll just have to act like an old couple that doesn't like each other much.

Area around Bolu, Turkey

Dan spent most of his work week in Turkey this week.  He flew into the capital of Turkey--Ankara and then drove to see customers.  He got to see a lot of the countryside then flew out of Istanbul on Thursday evening.  He enjoyed the Turkish people, though he couldn't even begin to speak the language.  He really liked the area around Bolu as it reminded him a lot of the foothills in Southern Alberta where he grew up.  Biggest difference was a mosque on every corner instead of a church.  He experienced several of the local dishes including raw lamb, mutton, some Turkish Delight, and other fine desserts.  He brought home some chocolate from a famous chocolate factory in Turkey.  It is chocolate-covered peanut brittle type squares only made with pistachios instead of peanuts, and thicker than brittle and with less of the candy, more of the nuts.  He also brought a marmalade home called gum marmalade.  It is made from the sap of pine trees.  It tastes very woody.  When we were kids, people gave us quizzical looks when we went around Yosemite smelling all the pine trees for the vanilla scent.  Well, now I'm eating the trees.  It seems to be an acquired taste, but it isn't bad.  I haven't tried it on bread, yet, so I don't know if I've given it a fair trial.  I will certainly be eating it on snob bread to improve the experience.  Of course, the chocolate needs no explanation.  It's always good.

Dan never felt unsafe while he was in Turkey, but it was an interesting week there.  One of the main terrorist groups is in the middle of negotiations on a peace fire with the Turkish government and some of their fringe members were trying to cause the talks to break down.  While he was in Ankara there was a fight that broke out at one of the trade union buildings (Dan could see the building from his hotel) that ended in automatic weapon fire and several injured.  Then about 2 hours after Dan checked out of his hotel, there was a bombing at one of the government buildings that was just a couple minutes walk from where he was staying.  If that wasn't enough, on his drive to Istanbul there was an earthquake in the Black Sea that gave a good shake to Istanbul followed by two more bombings, one, successful at a government building and the other was defused before it went off.  At least he was kind enough to call me on all occasions and let me know that he was alright.  Not that I would have known about them as the German language news and I don't connect very often.

Not to worry, we are pretty sure that things will have settled down by the time that we head to Antalya, Turkey with the kids for spring break next Friday.  It is a long way from Ankara and Istanbul and we are looking forward to a great time.

Home Sweet Home-Woche 6

Back of the Upper Belvedere.  Behind us is the Lower Belvedere



Front of the Upper Belvedere

We just kept on celebrating Dane's birthday!!  What better way to celebrate than by heading to the palace?  We took the kids to the Belvedere.  It has two parts to it:  the Upper and the Lower Belvedere.  The landscaped gardens in the middle should be stunning in the summer.  The grounds were incredible.  We could see tulips starting to grow surrounding the front pool.  In a couple of weeks, it will be beautiful. I can just imagine Cinderella pulling up in her pumpkin carriage. The palaces are now art galleries open to the public.  We saw originals of Monet and Van Gogh.  They had an Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt, featured.  One of his famous paintings is The Kiss.  He used gold leaf in his paintings which give them a neat look.  Deagan's description of his works:  "A lot of the people forgot to put on their clothes."  The lower Belvedere houses other works of art and the Orangerie (this is a fancy name for a conservatory or greenhouse) has a modern art gallery which currently has the works of Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  Even the stables have been converted into a gallery.  That one was closed, though, so we didn't get to go in that one.  The upper Belvedere itself is a work of art, as it was originally built to be a garden home.  It is very bright and was once open to the outdoors.  It has since been closed in, as the prince wanted to live there in the summer (the lower Belvedere was too small and not grandiose enough for him--must've been for us as well, as we don't have any pictures of it).  One of the rooms (the Marble Hall) has a huge ceiling mural.  You can look for it online.  It is an illusionist painting and actually has no columns or statutory in it at all.  They are all painted.  It is pretty cool.  Pictures are not allowed anywhere inside the buildings, and since we have an entourage of 4 children, the workers kept a close eye on us and followed us everywhere, so that none of the art was damaged by the kids.  We spent a few hours taking it all in.  The kids were okay with it for awhile, but they got bored.  It was difficult to explain to them that we had seen billions of dollars worth of art that day.  Just one of Klimt's paintings sold for $135 million! (It must be all the gold he used).

Front of the Upper Belvedere

Later that afternoon, we went to the Naschmarkt.  It is another open market.  It is the biggest and most well known in Vienna.  It is also very touristy with higher prices than the Brunnenmarkt.  Most of it is little cafes and restaurants.  I think it would take you months to try them all, even if you went out to eat every day.  We still managed to find some dried fruits and pistachios.  We found ground cumin (actually, there were probably 50-60 different spices--lots of curries, but we only bought the cumin).  And my favorite was the fresh flat bread (pita) with humus and olives--all kinds.  There was even one that was black, shriveled, and had pieces of salt, as big as kosher salt, in them.  Those were not my favorite, but the others were wonderful!  The kids are enjoying trying all the new things here.  They are getting more adventurous in their trying--not necessarily their liking.  I have to admit though, there was one cheese that Dan bought, that was worse than the turtle liver we tried.  I didn't think that there could be anything worse than turtle liver.  It was an Austrian cheese called Alm Kaise.  We love the Almdudler, so we thought we would love the cheese.  This cheese, though, smelled like stinky feet as you opened it.  I tried to hold my breath as I put it in, but the flavor was even worse.  As I tasted it, the only description I could find was that it tasted just like the smell of 2-week old dirty diapers and it rushed through your nose the same way: just as if you opened the diaper pale and the smell whooshes over you.  Even the very strong stomached Dan (who has never met a cheese he couldn't eat), tasted a small piece, wrapped the entire block back up, and threw it away.  He didn't make the kids try that one, although I thought we should keep it around and use it as a substitute for time out.  I bet that none of the kids would act up, if they knew the cheese was coming out.  The kids were pretty tired and starving after the market, and it started to rain, so we headed home to sample our finds.

Sunday we continued celebrating with cake.  Dan made a Mississippi Mud cake for Dane.  We put candles on it, and he got to finally make his birthday wish.  No telling what that might have been. 

Dan and I each got new callings at church.  He is a councilor in the Young Men's Presidency.  He gets to work with the youth again.  He is excited.  I was called to be the Primary Secretary.  I think that will be pretty cool, as I get to spend time with the kids, but I don't have to plan a lesson every Sunday!  It is a calling that works well while you have a baby.

German lessons continued this week.  Both Dan and I are understanding more, and speaking a little better.  It will still take awhile before we get it, though.

This was 1/3 of all our stuff

This is our driveway.  Our apartment is down the stairs

And for the big news this week:  WE GOT OUR STUFF!!!!!  All of our things were trucked in on Tuesday.  Dan was, of course, out of town for this big moment.  He thinks that moving is a piece of cake.  He doesn't understand why I get stressed out over a move.  Maybe if he were actually here to experience it, he would understand.  Luckily, the movers were good, and they got it all stuffed inside the house.  They even put together all the big furniture--which was a blessing because I didn't have a clue as to how to put some of it together.  Some of it, I didn't even recognize as ours, until it was put together.  They would have unpacked the boxes, but I wasn't ready to find places for all the stuff inside.  As it was, the 5 member crew was here at 9:30 and didn't finish until just after 5:00.  My visiting teachers came by and helped unpack and visited for a couple of hours.  It was nice to have someone here, while I ran to the bus stop and back to pick up the kids.  My friend, Shaura, brought pizza for dinner.  It was so nice to not have to worry about dinner that night.  After everyone left, I sat down on the couch, just to feel the comforts of our own stuff.  I enjoyed the sink into the couch.  The rental furniture was not particularly soft.  We made all the beds--we found most of the boxes of bedding--we're still short a couple of dust ruffles and bedspreads.  We got to sleep in our own beds for the first time in 44 days.  I have to admit, it was close to being worth more than a Klimt painting!


The rest of the week was pretty slow, as I spent all day unpacking boxes and unpacking some more.  Deagan stayed home from school a couple of days, with a virus in his eye.  Nothing too serious, as he is back in school today, but it did slow the unpacking a bit.  Dan rolled in on Thursday night.  Just in time to have the main floor set up, and the upper floor set up.  There's only the basement and the bedrooms to finish.  The house is starting to take shape, and by next week, I should have pictures on the walls and things pretty much set up. If you're thinking of coming for a visit, we're ready anytime now!

Mein ball ist auf dem Hoff!--Woche 5

We had so much fun last weekend.  We took the kids downtown to city hall.  Despite getting semi-lost (the GPS took us to Stadt Halle, which is a direct translation of city hall, but it is where you go to concerts.  It is not the official "city hall").  The official city hall has an outdoor ice skating rink.  It was a beautiful day and we spent some time skating in front of a beautiful building.  It would have been more romantic without the kids, but it was still a lot of fun.  Not only do they have a big rink in the front of the building, but they have trails of ice all around the front park and around the fountains.  It was neat.  Dan said that in the summer, they truck in tons of sand, and it becomes a beach. 

Danyon is feeling much better, this week, and is back to his usual self.  He enjoyed the day, even though he didn't get to skate.  There is only one more weekend to skate and the ice was already pretty slushy.  There are several food stands to buy anything from roasted chesnuts, to crepes, to kebabs, to burgers and potato wedges.  You can rent lockers and spend the entire day there.  Right across the street is "die Burg"--The national theater in Austria.  Three of Mozart's operas premiered here as well as Beethoveen's 1st Symphony.  (The building was mostly destroyed in bombing and fire during the war, but was obviously restored).

Die Burg

Yummy warm fries!

After a morning of skating, we were famished.  We wanted to explore downtown some more, but we needed lunch.  Dan has free parking at his office and there are several restaurants near by, so we decided to head toward his office.  The GPS got us into a little trouble on the way--again.  We ended up right in the middle of downtown, on a road that is only for taxis and emergency vehicles.  Luckily, our car is big enough and we had enough people in it that we looked like a taxi.  Thus, we were able to dodge all police officers until we were able to get off that street and turned around.  After that brush with the law, Dan was eager to get into his garage with the door shut.  We made it safely there and headed to a pizza place for lunch.  It was voted the best pizza in Vienna (six years ago).  Despite the long time since the award, it was still very yummy.  If you put enough fresh garlic on anything, it's good!  Since we were parked so close to a grocery store, we decided to pick up a few groceries before heading back into the downtown.  Half way through the shopping, Dan realized that he left his pass to get back into the garage in the car.  We were locked out.  He tried calling several of his colleagues, but none were answering their phones on a Saturday afternoon (can't blame them).  After trying all the people he could think of, and after banging on the door several times, with no answer, we decided to take public transport home.  Luckily, Dan is familiar with the transport near his office, so we didn't have any problems finding our way home.  Not having a car is not a big problem, but we had tickets to a talent show at the kids' school that night.  We were bringing lemon bars.  So, back to public transport for the hour long trip to the school.  We all made it there, and even the lemon bars (Dane was in charge of them) made it fairly intact.  The talent show was fun for the kids.  It ended after 9:00 and we had a long trip home.  It was a big day for the kids and Deagan fell asleep on the ride home.  With late night transport though, we made it home in 40 minutes.  That was a record.  The busses don't have to stop at all the stops if no one is there and no one is getting off.  The trolleys and subways have to stop at all stops.

 

We had to take public transport to church.  We had to leave early, but it was a beautiful morning.  We missed one subway, and ended up 10 minutes late for church.  Dan was able to finally get someone from work to meet him at the office to free his car--which we would have left until Monday, if we didn't need it Sunday afternoon.

 

We had a surprise this week.  I got a call from one of Dan's third cousins.  She and her family are living outside a village in Hungary.  We talked for about 10 minutes and she invited us over for dinner on Sunday.  We were happy to accept the invitation and thought Sunday dinner in Hungary sounded great!  We left right after church so that we could see the countryside as we drove.  We didn't know what to expect at the border.  We slowed down for a man with a flashlight and he waved us on.  Apparently, that was the border.  And it was the same returning to Austria.  We didn't even have to open our windows.  Hungary is beautiful.  The skyline of all the villages is made up of trees and church steeples.  It's cool.  Dan's cousins, Lisa and Laslo, have 5 children who are close to our kids ages.  They had so much fun together.  We had a wonderful evening and are planning to get together again.  We'll invite them to Vienna after we get our furniture.

Dane had his first experience asking for something from a real German speaking person.  He accidentally kicked his ball over the fence into the Beethoven House yard.  The door has no bell and it was not open.  The next day, we looked up how to ask for a ball back--"Mien ball ist auf dem Hoff", and Dane went over to get his ball.  He did a great job and the guy understood what he said!  Dan and I were a little put out as no one ever seems to understand what we try to say in German.  It is kind of surreal that Dane lost his ball in Beethoven's back yard.  It is fun having that next door.  I might regret it in summer when there are more tourists, but for now they are under control. 

 

I did hear some Beethoven music playing in the yard yesterday and it was nice to hear.  Some tourists were more interested in looking over the fence into our yard, to see what was next door than looking at the Beethoven house.  The kids had a nice visit with some Japanese tourists over the fence.  I guess that puts sunbathing in the nude by the pool out for summer.  Dan was hoping that I would at least go topless, like all the rest of the Europeans.  Well, now, there's really no chance--at least during visiting hours.  I told the kids to get some dirty clothes and some bandages for their arms and go sit out there, holding out their cans for change.  I can only imagine how many people we'll have banging on our door during our BBQs, as there two heurigen (local restaurants) on the other side of us.  People will mistake our yummy smells for restaurant food.  Maybe Dan should open shop.  We just have to get some good beef here.  He's already suggested that I should take pictures for people at the Beethoven house and then print them quick while they are exploring, frame them in a decopage frame made with Beethoven sheet music and have them ready when they leave--all for a meager 50Euro.  Maybe when I speak enough German, I'll have the courage to ask if I can do it.

 

We are finally permanent residents of Austria!--well, most of us.  We had appointments to go down to the office to pick up our residency cards.  Dan, Allynn, Deagan, and Danyon all got theirs!  Dane and Dyllan needed to have fingerprints taken and they will get theirs next week sometime.  It was an exciting day for the kids, as we pulled them out of school for the morning to go get our cards. 

 

We spent the rest of the week preparing for Dane's birthday.  The school does not have the same restrictions on homemade food as the schools in Indiana do and we can send in treats for birthdays.  I decided to make brownies for Dane's class, as I don't have cupcake tins yet.  Everything was a go, until Dane came home from school and said he needed a vanilla option too, because a kid in his class does not like chocolate.  I told Dane to take a sucker to school for that kid;  As it took me most of the day to make one pan of brownies--they were the layered kind with mint and chocolate frosting.  It was a daring move for me, as I have tried unsuccessfully to make these brownies about five times, all of which didn't turn out as expected.  I figured this time I had a tried and true recipe.  I used the BYU Mint Brownie recipe from the BYU magazine.  Maybe I have broken the curse.

The brownies were a big hit at Dane's school.  Except that because they don't sell powdered sugar in large amounts (they might have it at the Metro which is a warehouse store like Sams, but we haven't been over there yet), the filling and frosting were a bit gritty.  Dan thought that they were still pretty tasty.  Dane thought that the little crunches tasted like little peppermint candy bits crushed up in it. 

As I didn't have any cake pans, they don't sell frosting or cake mixes, and my 9 x 13 had brownies in it, I didn't make Dane a cake this year.  Instead, after Dan got home, we went out to dinner.  Dane has really wanted to travel to Greece.  There happens to be a Greek restaurant, Athene, 2 blocks away.  We walked up, and had a great time.  The food was excellent, the wait staff was incredible (especially for Viennese standards).  They didn't ignore the children.  They acknowledged them, gave them suckers, and played with Danyon.  They even held Danyon while I put on my jacket.  We came home and Dane got to open his presents.  He was thrilled with his new Lego.  He had all sorts of new candy to try, and he had no problem agreeing to share the new Wii U with his siblings.  Our old Wii is not compatible over here, but we're hopeful that the games will be.  It seemed like a weird birthday, not having traditional cake and ice cream, or friends or extended family around to celebrate with, but I think it turned out okay.  We're going in to downtown today and will stop at a Cafe Konditerei, where they sell all kinds of sweet confections, and Dane can pick out a cake.

Kids with their new favorite drink:  Almdudler



Game On!-Woche 4

One month already!  I can hardly believe it!  This week started out not so good.  Dane was sick, Danyon got sick (both ends--all over Allynn--twice), and she dislocated one joint in her toe (falling down the stairs in the morning, getting a bottle for Danyon).  And, we were dumped on with snow - another 12 inches in 24 hours!  Despite the sickies, we doped them up with Tylenol (this we brought from home.  We haven't ventured into an Apotheke, yet), and we went with a family in our ward, the Meltons, to the Spielebox.  It is an extension of the Vienna public library, that has tables set up, and shelf after shelf of board games and puzzles.  You can play them there, or you can check them out.  We tried to stick with games that we were already familiar with, as all the instructions are in German.  It was a perfect activity to do while the snow fell.

Then we ventured out to get some lunch at the Brunnenmarkt.  It is an open market that has stands of produce and meat.  The prices on meat were much cheaper than the grocery store.  The produce was about the same, but the selection was much better.  We found persimmons and huge pomegranates.  Dan couldn't resist the lamb chops and the cheese shop.  He was a little hesitant at the cheese shop because it can be difficult to understand the pricing signs (difficult for us).  But, he still came away with a nice chili-Gouda.  There are also carts and stands that sell food, ready to eat.  There are several open markets in Vienna, this one seems to be predominantly Turkish.  We found a backerei that has brick ovens with open fires and they make their bread on the large tables behind the sales counter.  I cringed when the owner picked out our bread with his not so clean hands, stuffed it in the bag, took our money, and then went to grab the next persons bread, all without washing his hands.  Department of Health, where are you?  It turned out that the bread was good enough that it didn't matter.  We'll be back.  We tried a huge assortment of breads (potato-stuffed, feta cheese-stuffed, pretzels, flat bread, and some awfully good baklava (pistachio and regular).  We tried other delicacies at the market as well.  We had a falafel sandwich, and other things that were kind of like a flat, homemade thick tortillas stuffed with spinach, garlic, and feta.  Dane ventured out and  tried one with spicy ground pork.  We spent the rest of the day visiting with the Meltons at our house.  It was a fun day.  The kids couldn't believe that we didn't make it to the IKEA.  They were heartbroken, they said, as they jumped for joy.

The rest of the week went pretty slow.  The kids were back in school and Danyon was too sick to take out in the cold.  Dan had meetings out of town and was gone for three days.  Getting Danyon to the bus stop was a chore some mornings.  Tuesday morning, I got the kids up, and helped them get ready for school.  They were not being very helpful, in that no one wanted to help anyone else make their lunch.  At the last minute, I ended up making Dane and Deagan's lunch, as Dyllan was already finished.  I finished just in time to head out the door to the bus.  Just then, Danyon coughed so hard that he puked all over himself.  I had to clean him up as fast as I could.  We finally got him dressed in his warm outfit, and were out the door.  We ran down the street to the bus stop.  Dyllan was even running with her cello on her back.  When we turned the corner, with one block left to go, we could see that the bus was already at the stop.  I thought for sure that we were going to miss it, and I had no car to get them to school.  They were going to be late because it takes so long to get there on public transport.  We ran down the street and waved our hands in the air.  By some miracle, the bus saw us and waited.  We arrived and the kids boarded the bus.  After Deagan got on, the chaperone on the bus came down the stairs and said, "Please be here 5 minutes ahead of time", at which I would have had a really good come back, if I had not been out of breath.  So I just smiled at him with a snarl under my breath.  (As a side note, the bus is not free here.  It costs about 8 Euros a day per kid to ride to and from the school.  I think with three kids missing, it was worth waiting a couple of minutes in order to get paid that day.  And as another note, Thursday, another kid missed the bus, and on Friday, even another kid missed the bus.  He is not supposed to get to the stop until 7:30, but he has been leaving the stop at 7:26 for most of the mornings this week--yes, 4 minutes makes a huge difference when there is puke involved.)

We had our first experience with the health system here.  By Wednesday, Danyon was still not feeling much better.  His fever had broken, but he was not eating, which we all know, means he was not himself.  Thurday morning, we found a doctor (by recommendation) that could speak English.  We made an appointment for Danyon that evening.  When I called, it was the actual doctor that answered the phone.  I was excited because he had evening appointments.  Also, it was a chance to get the whole family to meet him.  So we waited for Dan to get home from work, and we drove to the doctor's office.  It was in an apartment building.  We walked up the stairs, and the doctor opened the door and greeted us.  He brought us back into a room that was decorated with old toys.  He even had an old carousel with marionettes in it.  It was very cool.  As it turned out, Danyon had actually been eating all day and was feeling much better.  He was still raspy though, and the doctor confirmed that his lungs were clear.  He gave us a prescription for some cream to help with his eczema.  That will be our first journey to the Apotheteke.  The doctor then informed us that he was on call "24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and here is my card with my office number and my cell number.  Please call if you need me.  Also, I can come to your house, if it is needed."  We paid him, and left.  It was quite a different experience than what we were used to.  Another thing to add to our list of things we will miss about Austria - a doctor who makes house calls and is willing to spend more than 30 seconds with you, and to top it all off a lot cheaper than the US even without insurance.

We did have some respite this week.  A dear lady in the ward, the primary president, stopped by one night and had three boxes of toys for the kids to play with.  She also brought some towels and a couple of baby blankets.  (She saw Deagan fighting to get Danyon's blanket on Sunday at church, and figured we were short on blankets).  She brought over books for me to read, if I had extra time.  One of the blankets and toy was a gift to the baby.  Also the next day, she took time off work and volunteered to drive me around to any stores that I might want to go to.  She gave me a tour of a neighborhood with Euro (dollar) stores and other stores that were slightly cheaper than the ones in our district.  She also drove me to a second-hand shop, and to the store where she gets pet supplies and does her grocery shopping.  It was a fun day, and she was very helpful.

Dane's primary teacher had given him a European candy that he absolutely loved a couple of Sundays ago.  He has been begging me for 2 weeks to get some.  I've looked, but have not been able to find it in the store yet.  When I was together with the primary president I asked her where I might be able to find them.  She told me to try Billa or a couple of other stores.  To Dane's disappointment, we didn't have time to stop at one that day, although he did get to go to Ikea (frowns all around).  When I was with the primary president I had accidentally left Danyon's jacket in the car.  While we were at Ikea she came by the flat to return the jacket.  With it, she brought a box of the candy that Dane had wanted so badly.  We found the coat and the candy stuffed behind a bush at the entry to our complex.  She made the kids' day!!

While I was shopping with the primary president she convinced me that I needed to buy a rolling cart for my shopping.  The next day, I decided to try it out.  I was going to ride the bus to the Q19 (shopping mall with the grocery store in it.)  I wasn't sure how I was going to manage a stroller and a cart, so I tried it out at home first.  I discovered that I can't manage both.  I decided to forget the stroller and just take the cart.  After all, I would only have to carry Danyon for 2 blocks until I got to the bus stop.  Everything went great (except that Dan told me the wrong price for a bus fare, so I had to hold up the bus for a bit trying to find the exact change.)  We safely arrived at the grocery store.  I put Danyon and my rolling cart into the shopping cart.  We finished our list and made sure that everything would fit in my roller cart.  Then we headed back to the bus stop.  What I failed to realize is that in order to get on the bus, I had to be able to lift my cart, while holding the baby.  I almost didn't make it.  It's a good thing that I used to lift weights, because I had my cart full and to lift it with one hand, without spilling all its contents, took a lot of strength.  When I got to my stop to get off, an elderly lady stepped up to help me, as she saw the trouble I had getting on, she took the cart and lifted it down to the ground, but she about fell out of the bus because of the weight.  I thanked her profusely and hiked the rest of the way home.  I can't wait for my baby backpack to come.  It will be so much easier if I have two hands and don't have a 25 lb. baby in my arms.


"Well in Whoville they say, the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day".  I don't know who's heart grew, but we certainly felt like the Whos.  Our air shipment, the smaller shipment that came by plane that had some more of our essentials arrived on Friday.  They brought back our baby stuff, they brought back our clothes, they brought back our plates and they brought back our bowls.  We even got hockey sticks and guitars to play under the Vienesse stars.  So they didn't bring everything back, but it is a start!!  It is amazing how much a drawer full of silverware can brighten your day.  And even with the arrival of more toys for each of the kids, they still had the most fun with the cardboard boxes.

Trying New Things-Woche 3

We got furniture!!!!!  The rental company delivered a couch, love seats, lamps, dressers, beds, nightstands and clothes racks.  We have moved out of suitcases!  The house feels more like home already.  It is so nice to have somewhere to sit after dinner.  The beds are wonderful!  With all the furniture in it, the house seems smaller, but it is nicer to have things--even if it isn't ours.  Our air shipment should be arriving by the end of February and the sea shipment is scheduled to arrive in Germany at the end of February.  It then has to clear customs, get on some trucks, and then arrive in Vienna.  They don't know how long that will take.  I am really hoping that a month from now, we will be completely settled with all our stuff and our pictures on the walls.  We did buy a rug for the boys' room.  We have seen all sorts of rugs here at the IKEA.  They have cow hide rugs, mock bear skin rugs, sheep skin rugs, camel hair rugs, and this rug.  We're not sure what it is (possibly Mongolian goat), but everyone in the family seems to be enjoying it.  My favorite rugs were the camel hair rugs from Turkey.  They were soft and thick and you had to have a thick wallet to go with them.  Even at Ikea they started at 1000Euro ($1300) a piece.  Maybe Dan can pick one up for cheaper in Turkey when he travels to Istanbul for meetings in April.

The other great news of the week is that our neighbours no longer have to feast their eyes on our bottoms.  We have graced the city of Vienna with the addition of curtains to a couple of rooms in our house.  We finally were able to purchase a curtain for the boys bathroom and curtains for our bedroom.  The landlady had permanent curtain tracks installed throughout the house so that makes it pretty easy to hang curtains, but pretty hard to do window treatments.  We figure since all the walls are white and have to be returned to white when we leave, maybe floor to ceiling curtains to add colour is going to be easier than painting and re-painting.  We hope to get the remainder of the curtains in place over the next couple of weeks (Ikea here we come - AGAIN!  We should own stock in that place by now).

This week was ski week for the kids.  Every school age kid in Austria gets a whole week off of school sometime in February to go skiing.  Most of the schools have organized trips, for 5th grade and older students, that leave on Sunday and don't come back until Friday or Saturday.  We figured it was a little early for our crew to head off in the Austrian Alps without parental supervision, but the kids did enjoy their break from school.  They spent a couple of days helping me around the house and being bored.  They didn't seem to be acting as kind to one another as they usually are, so I decided it was because they had nothing to do but bug one another.  We planned a trip to Toys R Us (although I'm boycotting it in Indianapolis).  Dane and I checked the hours online, found the address, and by the time Dan got home, we ate dinner and were ready to head out.  We got to the store to find that it was closed.  The hours posted online were not the hours posted on the door (another strike against Toys R Us).  So, with disappointed kids we tried to find another store open.  The only thing we could find open past 19:30 (they use military time here) was a gas station convenience store.  We drowned our sorrows in ice cream and chocolate.

Wednesday, we couldn't stand it any longer and finally decided "when in Rome, do as the Romans".  So Dan took a couple of days off work and we started the morning with a surprise for the kids.  We loaded them up with all their snow gear, and off we went.  We headed for the mountains.  It was our first time on the actual autobahn.  At times, we were going around 150 km/hour (95 mph) and were getting passed like we were standing still.  Dan says our Austrian version of a mini-van starts to get a little loose at 150 so that was fast enough for us.  There seems to be a lot of tunnels here in the city of Vienna and on the highway.  The kids try to hold their breath through the tunnels, but one of them that we pass through regularly is 1 min. 40 seconds long.  Dan and I have tried it, but not made it yet.  Dan's pretty sure he could make it, but figures it would be irresponsible to pass out while driving.  We both break at just over 1 minute.  I tried to get some pictures of the scenery as we went, but all of them were taken while on the freeway, so the quality is not great.  We did find some castle ruins on the top of a very pointy mountain.  Just as I went to take the picture, another guard rail was added to the freeway, so I couldn't see the ruins very well.  I had to hold the camera up at the top of the car, point and click.  The blurry stuff is the castle.  We drove for about an hour and then we arrived at the Stuhleck Skischule at Spital am Semmering. 

The castle goes all the way to the edges of the mountain it is built on

And then, we went skiing.  The kids and I had never been skiing before so we all got lessons.  The three kids were put together with one teacher.  I got private lessons (I guess they didn't want me to feel incompetent next to the kids).  We had all day lessons (it was really only 2 hours in the  morning and 2 hours after lunch), but it was enough.  Everyone loved it.  I was sore after my first day.  By lunchtime, I was ready to graduate from the bunny hill to the beginner routes.  By the end of the day, I was okay on the Familien route.  We all had some mishaps here and there (I think that all four of us managed to fall at some point while getting on the lifts.)  I think that I only fell 5 times total, but my instructor managed to tell me that I fell "just like a cat".  I'm not sure what he meant by that--I'm sure the translation did not come through well--as his first language is German.  But at any rate, I only used 5 of the 9 lives. 

Dyllan, Dane, and way out in front, Deagan

Dan got to hold Danyon all day.  Danyon loved it, but Dan's arms were about to fall off by the end of the day.  He was just as sore as the rest of us.  We found a shopping mall on the way home and had some very good Thai food.  There was also a Toys R Us, and . . . it was open!  We ran in and each of the kids got to pick out a new toy to play with until the others arrive.  Dan picked out a movie, making sure it was also in English.  He picked the movie "Brave", but here it is called "Merida".  We noted that several movies had different titles.  I'm guessing there are copyright reasons or something.







Deagan, kid from Lebanon, Dane, Dyllan, Instructor

The next day, we got up and drove to the mountains again.  The kids went back to ski school for the day and Dan got to go skiing for the first time in 20 years, while I held Danyon.  Thursday was much colder in the afternoon.  No one seemed to notice except for Danyon and I.  Dan skied every route they had (except 1--but he didn't realize that he missed it until after we got home).  He was pretty proud of himself and figured skiing is just like riding a bike.  He claims he only fell once all day, but had a close call or two.  My guess is that since he is still walking that he is probably telling the truth.  I don't think he'd bounce back from a good fall as quick as he did two decades ago.  The kids also graduated up to the Familien lift after lunch on the second day.  They really enjoyed it.  They can't wait to go again.  Dan is already hoping to spend several more weekends in the mountains skiing.  The good news is that his knees were sore, but not too much more than any other day.  The rest of his body was more sore.  I wish that I had gotten to ski the second day, just to solidify it with my muscles, but I will wait for the next trip, I suppose.  With my instructor, I never had to actually leave the lift on my own.  He always pushed me away from the lift at the top.  I'm not sure I know how to actually get off the lift by myself.  But, all that doesn't matter--we can honestly say that we have all skied the Austrian Alps (except Danyon, who at best, can say that he ate some snow in the Austrian Alps.)

At the end of the second day of ski school Dan met up with the kids and they still had an hour left before the lifts closed, so they got to do a few runs together.  The first  time up the mountain the kids were so excited to not have an instructor, and to show what they could do, that Deagan immediately got off the lift, turned his skis straight down hill and never slowed down until Dan finally caught up to him about 50 feet from the lift and yelled at him.  I think it was something like, "if you ever want to do this again you better get in control" (okay, I am sure it was more colourful than that, but not completely appropriate for the blog).  Deagan promptly stopped, surprising Dan as he was sure he was completely out of control and was preparing to tackle him before he took some innocent bystander out.

Along the way

Dan had to go back to work on Friday, so life was back to normal (despite the begging from the children to go back to the mountains).  We spent a pretty relaxed day at home on the couch, watching it snow, as Dan spent a very hectic day at the office, doing presentations and getting caught up.  It is probably a good thing we stayed home from the mountains anyway.  It started snowing as we were driving home from the ski hill on Thursday afternoon and hasn't stopped as of Saturday morning.  Great for skiing, but the driving could have been a little treacherous.  I know Dan had some trouble going into work on Friday and most of his peers were pretty late getting to work because of some slipping and sliding.