Moving...

Well we have officially moved in to our new apartment! It’s beautiful and the land lady was so efficient when furnishing it! She even got us a brand new washing machine, so now we don’t have to pay €1.60 for every load of wash we do! There’s no room for a dryer so we’ve got to hang our clothes to dry, super old school, but no big deal. The big highlights of the new place? Well we have an oven for one, so now we can make a much larger variety of food, that aren’t limited to microwave or stove top. Next week since I won’t be working much I plan on making lots of Christmas goodies in that new oven. The second big highlight is our new larger bed! For months in our old “dorm room” Ben and I were sharing a single bed, which was not comfortable, but our only option. Now we have a queen sized bed and are sleeping much better.

Other than moving, Ben and I have spent this past week trying to prepare for Christmas, which I can’t believe is next weekend, meaning my family will be here soon to visit and I can’t WAIT to see them all! Yesterday Ben and I did most of our Christmas shopping at the Christkindl Markt as quickly as we could since it was pouring down rain, but it’s nice to have most of our presents bought, and now wrapped in our little corner of our new apartment. We also were able to buy a Christmas tree this weekend at the Naschtmarkt, just a little thing but it makes it feel a little more Christmasy here.

Some other interesting news. While walking around our new neighborhood here, I came across a Sensory Integration Therapy studio just 2 buildings down from our new apartment building. It obviously caught my eye, so I googled the place and saw that the woman in charge lived and worked in Southern California for part of her professional career, so I’m planning on sending an e-mail to her soon to see if there’s any possible volunteer opportunities at the studio for me. Even cleaning the therapy equipment would be awesome, it would give me something to do on days off from nannying and it would be something nice to put on the resume. So I will most certainly keep everyone updated on that.

Otherwise things here are going well, Ben’s been enjoying his research, but has been taking a break this last week with moving and everything. He plans on trying to get as much research done next week as possible so he will be available to do all the fun stuff with my family once they get here, but he will probably still have to work a little over the holidays. I guess a grad students work is never done…am I really ready for that? Haha. Keep us in prayer  and I will write again soon!

Lots of Love!

-Katie

Birthday Bash

Well last Thursday on December 1^st was my birthday, and I am now 23 years young. It was nice to celebrate my birthday in a little different way this year, and I had a really good time.

Since my birthday was on a Thursday I didn’t have to Nanny, which was nice. However, on Wednesday while nannying, Mom came home and quickly send me and Silvia out of the kitchen for a few minutes. She had bought a little (delicious) cake from a bakery near her work, and stuck a candle in it. Mom and Silvia sang Happy Birthday to me then I ate me little cake and talked with the Mom for a little while before I headed back home. They also got me a small box of Viennese chocolates, which I have already finished because they were that good!

Through out the week, I had been receiving things in the mail, like cards a package from my aunt and uncle with some warm clothes, but I had been waiting for my package from my parents to come which had a nice wool coat, boots, and other birthday goodies. On Thursday I went out to the Christmas Market to look around and buy a few things, and on my way home I checked our mail, and the Post Man was heading out with 2 big boxes. He saw me opening our mail box and realized that I was the person the packages were for, so he stopped me really quickly and handed me my big birthday boxes! I quickly ran upstairs to open them and was so excited to have all this nice warm clothes that my Mom had sent me, and it arrived on my birthday!

For the rest of the afternoon I just hung out at home, watching TV and started getting ready for the opera that evening. I got to Skype with both my parents really quickly before I headed out to the opera-which was awesome of them since they got up at like 5:30 am to Skype with me on my birthday. I got all dressed up put on my nice warm coat and ventured out to meet Ben and the opera.

When I got there we quickly got a Kasekrainer for lunch, then waited, and waited, and waited to get our standing room ticket for “La Boheme”. We got there early enough so we had great spots. Despite the “know it all American” students we were sitting next to, we had a great time and “La Boheme” was beautiful. Breath-taking sets, beautiful songs, and an overall awesome atmosphere.

Friday was pretty relaxed, as well as most of Saturday, but on Saturday evening we went to a local English Theatre to see “God of Carnage” starring Cristoph Waltz, who was born and raised in Vienna, so it was a fitting film. Also, it was hilarious. After the movie we went for food at a Pizza joint down the street to complete our evening.

Now it’s Monday, and back to starting a new week, but in a week from Thursday we will be moving to our bigger apartment! We can’t wait because we will have so much more space, including a bigger bed and kitchen. We are so excited! 

Getting our Permits!

First things first, we finally got our Residency Permits last week!! Praise the Lord, and thank you to all who were praying for us! We were getting close to the “over staying our welcome” time period, but thankfully we went in to pick them up last week, with no complications and are now legally allowed to stay here until September of 2012 (although we are still planning on coming home in June of 2012). Once again thank you to all who prayed for us!

Other great news, Ben and I along with some Fulbright people all went to a Vienna Capitals hockey game last Sunday! We had such a blast, and it really made me realize how much I miss hockey! Ben and I have been able to watch football games now and then, but hockey games are typically on at like 2:00 am here, so we haven’t been able to really watch any games. A few interesting differences:

-The rink is wider, which is kind of cool                                                                                      

-The jerseys are covered in sponsor logos, which kind of detracts from the team name.

-The glass is much lower, and the nets don’t go as far around. In the first 5 minutes of the game a puck went flying up in to the crowd and was about 20 yards away from us. This just means you really have to pay attention!

-They don’t really enforce the “don’t leave your seat or walk to your seat until the play is over” rule, I know this because the teenage girl sitting in front of me got up approximately 8 times during play to get up go get something, come back, leave again…it was quite frustrating.

Even though there are some differences we still had a great time and the Capitals won 2-1, so we can’t wait to go to another game while here.

Ben and I have been trying to go to the Christmas Market’s as much as we can, to soak in the Christmas spirit, hear the music being played, smell and eat the delicious food, and my favorite part-window shopping! Yes, just window shopping, I don’t want to buy any Christmas presents until we move.

Other good news, we will be moving on Dec. 15^th! I can’t wait to move to an actual apartment with a larger bed, an oven, etc. but this just means that we have to pack up all our stuff again and bring it to our new place via public transit. Don’t get me wrong, I love the public transit system here, but I can imagine it will be difficult to not have a car and to move all our junk. We’ll just pray for a smooth transition.

Otherwise, not much to report, we had a great time at the Fulbright Thanksgiving potluck, and it was nice to celebrate with such nice people. We missed our family, of course, but at least we got to celebrate with others. Thanks to everyone who made our Thanksgiving abroad so special =). 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well this past week has been pretty eventful. Besides the normal nannying for myself and archival work for Ben we had a few interesting things to do this past week. First off, it’s been getting really chilly so I’ve had to go shopping to buy a few more accessories to keep me warm. On Tuesday Ben and I went to the Ambassador Reception at the U.S. Ambassador to Austria’s house. Apparently every year the Ambassador has a Reception for all the U.S. and Austrian Fulbright students. It was a very fancy affair, so we both dressed up and braced the cold to venture over there. It was a lovely event, with free champagne and wine along with delicious appetizers and finger foods. Didn’t get to speak much with the Ambassador, just when we entered, otherwise we socialized with the Fulbright gang and of course the Ambassador’s German Shepard who was greeting all the guests and searching for crumbs. After we were all kicked out the Fulbright gang headed to a pub to keep the party going, so needless to say over the whole night we had lots to drink and were very merry.

The other big thing that happened this week? The Christkindl Markt’s opened around Vienna! For those who don’t know about the Christkindl Markt’s they are beautifully decorated Christmas Markets in multiple locations through out the city of Vienna. The main one is at the Rathaus-Vienna’s City Hall building. The market’s have yummy food, punsch, and lots of booths with plenty of Christmas stuff to buy, decorations, presents, snow globes, candles, and more. I’ve already been to the Christmas Market’s around town 3 times this week, but am proud to say that I have yet to buy anything. I’ve got to look around more and see what Christmas presents I want to buy for everyone.

We’re really getting settled here, but still dearly miss our friends and family back home. We are looking forward to the days that we will have some visitors from back home!

A few upcoming events we’re looking forward to:

-The Fulbright gang is going to a Vienna Capitals hockey game this Sunday!

-Thanksgiving! Obviously the Austrians do not celebrate Thanksgiving but we are planning on participating in a Thanksgiving potluck, which should be delicious and fun.

-My birthday! My 23^rd birthday will be on Dec. 1^st and we will be attending the opera to see “La Boheme” maybe go out for dinner, but mostly the opera.

-Getting our Residency permits! We should be getting them sometime this week, please pray for no complications!

What I miss....

It’s already November and we’ve been in Vienna for over 6 weeks now. I can’t believe how quickly time is passing! Well first I have to get some of the unfortunate issues in place. Unfortunately due to complications back in California we STILL haven’t been able to turn in all the paperwork needed to apply for Residency. This is becoming a potentially bad situation, because we don’t know how long it will take for the residency paperwork to go through, and worst case scenario I’ll have to leave in December because I didn’t get my residency. Please keep us in your prayers while we continue with the process of applying for residency.

Other than issues with paperwork, our time here has been going well. I’ve been having a fun time with the family I nanny doing different things each day, and overall just loving getting to know the very nice family that I am working with. Yesterday was Halloween and for the after school English course we had a little Halloween party complete with sweets (I’m still recovering from all the sugar I had yesterday).

Last week was pretty calm, but Ben and I did get to see another opera, “Fidelo” by Beethoven. It was really awesome, and had such amazing music! Besides the amazing music, the sets and costumes were so elaborate and were breath taking. I mean they had a working drawbridge on stage in the final act, quite impressive.

Today was a holiday in Austria so since most things were closed we decided to go a little out of the city limits to walk through the woods to see all the changing colors of the leaves. It was pretty chilly but overall a great time. After our walk through the woods we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch, it was delicious and it was nice to have something a little more close to restaurants that are in America.

Recently, since we’ve been gone now for over 6 weeks, I’ve been starting to get a little home sick. So I’ve started a little list of the things that I miss most:

1.       My Family (Mommy, Daddy, brothers, Aunts, Uncles, cousins-I miss them all so much!)

2.       My Murray boy. Every week when I Skype with my parents I get to see him, but he doesn’t understand what’s going on so it’s not as fun as I would hope. Vienna is so dog friendly, and I see dogs everywhere, and whenever I see a beagle I get a little choked up thinking about my spoiled little Murray.

3.       My friends- Mainly Chelsea haha. When walking around town and something makes me laugh, I’ll immediately tell Ben, but sometimes he doesn’t get the joke, so it’s times like those that make me miss my friend because I know she would laugh along with me =)

4.       Starbucks-Yes they have Starbucks here, but to be honest now that I’ve had real Austrian coffee, I know that it is of much better quality. However, as the holiday season begins I really start missing the special holiday Starbucks drinks (Peppermint White Mocha) in the red Christmas cups. I basically miss when I could get a Starbucks and blend in as opposed to here where having a Starbucks makes me stand out.

5.       Food-Knowing how picky I am about food, I didn’t think I would enjoy much of the new food here, but thankfully I’m really enjoying trying to new food here. However, I do miss certain types of food from back home. In-N-Out for example, and good ‘ol fashioned Mexican food. There’s only 2 Mexican Restaurants here in Vienna (and apparently one is a gay bar-don’t ask me how I know that), I haven’t tried the Mexican food yet, but I’m excited to try it.

6.       American TV- I’m enjoying trying to learn German by watching the Simpsons, or old Nickelodeon cartoons in German, but sometimes I just wish I could watch one of my trashy reality shows and relax. Besides television shows, I greatly miss watching the Sharks! All the games are on in the middle of the night here (like around 3 am) so I have yet to listen/watch a game, and I feel like I’m having hockey with drawls =(

7.       Text messaging- ‘nuff said. I can’t just shoot a text to someone when I have something to say to them.

8.       ABC- When I left my job at ABC I was super excited for this new adventure, and thought it would be a nice time for a break. Even though, I truly am enjoying the break, I really miss my kids, and I want to know if they are still progressing the way they were when I left. I hope they remember me, because when I get back I’d love to come by and visit all of them.

9.       Target/Walmart-Yes I know this makes me sound like a cheap ‘Murican, but I really do miss the convenience and price of these shops. We were only able to pack so much when we came here, and now that it’s getting really cold, I need to go shopping. But instead of being able to go to just one store and find a bunch of stuff for cheap, I have to go to a bunch of different stores trying to find things that fit.

10.   Church Family- I like to think that I have a few church families. Cambrian Park Church, RBCR, and the Esswein family church. I miss being able to go to church on Sunday and chat with the people I see to catch up. I miss feeling like part of the family. While here we’ve gone to a few churches, but they aren’t as intimate where everyone knows everyone. I would love to find a church to get involved in here, so make sure you continue to pray for us to find a consistent church while here.

From Oct. 23rd...

(I wrote this blog on Oct. 23rd, but forgot to post it until now! whoops!)

This past week we got to do a lot of fun stuff that you have to do while living in Vienna. Firstly on Tuesday I went shopping to try to get some warmer clothes and a little more fashionable clothes-everyone here seems to be very fashionable so I’ve been looking around seeing what’s “in” and I was able to go shopping to get some more clothes that will help me fit in to the culture around me haha. That was fun, and thankfully most of the clothes I found had their US size as well as their European size, since they’re different. After spending the day shopping I went home got out some of my new clothes and got dressed up to meet Ben downtown to go to the Opera to see “La Traviata”.

We just did standing room at the Opera because it’s only 4 Euro a person, but you can’t buy your tickets ahead of time, so Ben got there earlier than I to wait outside. I got there in JUST enough time before they started letting people in, so we waited for about an hour and half before we were allowed into the Opera Hall, and we quickly lined up with the rest of the Standing Room folk, to wait to be ushered into our spots. Thankfully, we had really nice spots, so we marked our spots then walked around the Opera House and took pictures before it started. We had a great time and at the intermission got a coffee in the lobby, after the intermission a few people had left so we had a little more stretching room which was nice. When it was over we quickly got our jackets from the coat check and since we were starving we walked across the street for some good old American Subway for dinner. Overall, it was a great experience and we’d like to do the Opera again when possible. I also really enjoyed the story of “La Traviata”, the only thing I didn’t like was that they made it more of a “modern version”. Obviously the music was all the same, but the costumes and acting parts of it were all modern, and I would have enjoyed seeing the more traditional version, but we still enjoyed it.

Otherwise the week was pretty laid back. I worked an extra day this week and we ended up going to an indoor swim hall on Thursday which was a lot of fun. They had a water slide, a “whirlpool” section and most of all the water was nice and warm (which was great since it was so cold outside!). However, it was interesting to see how different our culture is from the European culture when it comes to even in little things, like how they run a pool. First off there was just one giant locker room to keep your stuff and to change meaning men and women used this huge locker room to change. There were a few stalls (which I used to change in to my swimsuit) but otherwise there were a lot of men, women, and kids running around naked and getting changed. Very interesting. Also, with the water slide, if that was in a pool in America there would be lifeguards at the top telling you when to go and exactly how to lay down when going down the slide, but not here. They just had a light above the slide that would change from red to green when you could go down the slide, and you could go backwards, forwards upside down etc. they seem to be must more trusting of people here, and don’t patronize them with having a lifeguard there having to explain to you how to go down a slide.

This weekend was also fairly laid back since I have had a cold since Friday and haven’t been feeling super great. However, we did get to do some fun stuff. Yesterday we had a “Sigmund Freud Day” by going to the famous Doctor’s old residence and museum here in Vienna. I really enjoyed the museum much more than I thought I would. We all hear about Freud’s sexual theories and his “Id” “Ego” and “Superego”, but the museum wasn’t as devoted to his specific works, it was more of a memorial to an extremely brilliant individual and his family. Most of the things we saw were orginial manuscripts of his works, pictures of his family and friends and a few items here and there that belonged to Sigmund Freud. They also had focused on the tragedy surrounding Freud and his family. Since he was a Jew living in Austria during WWII, he and his family had to flee to London to avoid being put into Concentration Camps. Most of Freud’s sisters were taken away to concentration camps where they died. They also discussed the fact that the SS had mad many visits to his home (the home that we were in for the museum) mainly looking for gold, money and other valuables to steal from him. It really was quite an interesting to learn more and more about his life as a person and an individual how he loved his family and seemed to have a great sense of humor as opposed to just focusing on his seemingly odd sexual theories. The other thing at the museum that intrigued me was the room devoted to Anna Freud (Sigmund’s youngest daughter) who also became a psychiatrist, but her work revolved around child development and such. They talked about how she opened a daycare in Vienna for under privileged kids, but it only stayed open for a year before she had to shut it down and flee to London with her parents to escape the Nazis. They even had some of her original typed notes for observations at this daycare, talking about how these kids started associating her with food because every day when they arrived she was sitting by the window with an apple or orange that she would share with the kids. Just some interesting little tid-bits that I learned while at the museum.

After spending the afternoon at the Freud museum, we went down the street to Café Landtmann which was Freud’s favorite place to go for coffee and food, which is right across from the University where he taught. He would apparently sit here and do his writings while sipping coffee. It is an extremely expensive restaurant so Ben and I just had coffee there to say that we’ve been there haha. But it was very good coffee and we sat in a booth and talked sipping our coffee before we left for our next little journey.

Since we were out we decided to take a trip to the hotel where my parents were thinking of staying when they come to visit so we checked out the rooms and were able to figure out how close it was to the U-Bahn station and downtown. After our “research trip” we went to our favorite cheap pizzeria for a delicious late lunch/ early dinner, then headed home.

Now it’s Sunday and everything is closed, since I’ve been sick I slept in too late to go to the church service we were thinking about. So today I think we will just be staying inside, relaxing, staying warm, trying to get over this cold and planning out what we want to do next in this wonderful city =)

Salzburg in a Day

Man these past two days have been a whirlwind, and it started yesterday morning. I left early for nannying because the girl I nanny was getting out of school early, so I had to meet her at their flat early. I gave myself plenty of time because it was raining and I wanted to go get a coffee before I headed over. So I took the train to an “Anker” which is like a bakery here that sells coffee as well. I ordered my mélange, and looked in my wallet. I could have SWORN I had a €5 note, but alas I had nothing but change. I tried to gather up the change I had and it still wasn’t enough so I had tell the lady “oops, I can’t pay for that drink you just made me, bye.” Super embarrassing. So I then walked to the U-bahn station and waited for the train I needed. I sat and read my book, and when the train came I quickly got on, but of course by the next stop I had realized I left my brand new “I Love Vienna” umbrella (literally brand new, I had bought it 3 days earlier) at the seat where I was waiting for the train. Since I had time I quickly got on the train back to the station I was at not 10 minutes ago, but it was too late. My umbrella was gone =(! I looked everywhere, asked the information desk if someone had turned in an umbrella, but it was gone. Needless to say, I was super bummed.

But things always get better, and I quickly got back on the train to go nanny. I got there a little late because I wasted time looking for my umbrella, but still got there. We hung out for about an hour before I started heating up lunch, which was delicious. After that she did her homework while I got the stuff ready to make “Chocolate Chunk Cookies” (Apparently they don’t sell chocolate chips in Austria-so instead I got some chocolate Milka bars and cut them up into chunks). We made chocolate chunk cookies, which was interesting using the metric system to bake as well as using “vanilla” in power form vs. liquid form like back home, but I added just a teaspoon of water to make the mixing a little easier and it worked perfectly. The cookies were super delicious and the girl loved them too, so we had a good time making them. After cookies, we played games and cleaned up the flat because Mom was coming home from a business trip in a few hours, once mom got home the subject turned to me loosing my umbrella and they very sweetly gave me one of their many umbrellas, joking with me and how I’m from California and am not used to this much rain thus having to carry around an umbrella. After I left nannying I quickly went home to meet Ben since we were taking a 3 hour train that evening to Salzburg so we could spend today in Salzburg then take a train back this evening. We got on the train (which was super comfortable and much cooler than flying haha) and at about 10:00 pm we were in Salzburg.

Once we got to Salzburg we didn’t have a hotel room set up, so we tried the hotels right next to the Bahnhoff (train station), but they were full. So we walked a few blocks to another hotel we had seen in our “Austria” travel book, but it was closed. Awesome. By this time we are just both so tired, and want to find a place to sleep so we will be well rested for our day in Salzburg, so we walked another few blocks, and thank the Lord we found a Holiday Inn (which was in a nice area too-right next to a Porsche dealership). We checked in for the night and went straight to sleep.

The next morning we woke up early and got ready for the day, figured out what exactly we wanted to do and in what order we wanted to do them in. Of course it was raining so the morning was pretty uncomfortable, but we worked through it. We quickly stopped for some coffee then headed on in to town. Our first (quick) stop was Mozart’s house that he lived in for his later childhood, the building had been bombed in WWII and then had been rebuilt. We took a few pictures then continued walking to the house where Mozart was actually born (nothing had been re-done in this building) so we did the museum here. It was amazing to see all the paintings, relics, and actual drafts of Mozart’s music written in his own hand writing. I learned a lot about Mozart and his family and it was a really neat museum, not only did we learn a lot, but it also kept us out of the rain for a while!

After the Mozart Museum, we headed up the hill towards the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which was built by the Arch Bishop so people the Clergy could escape when the Emperor was fighting with the Pope. We got the ticket that allowed us to go to all the museums with in the fortress as well as do the Audio Tour and walk around. First we went to the little marionette museum, then we saw some really cool weapons, torture tools, a really elaborate stove, as well as other relics that were used there. The audio tour was neat and we saw the “torture chamber”, which was really misleading because apparently it was basically just the dungeon room where they kept the prisoners and executed the ones found guilty, but no actual “torture” went on there. The coolest thing about the fortress was the beautiful view, since it sits on top of a hill, it over looks the entire city of Salzburg. When we first arrived there was a lot of fog so we couldn’t see very far, but as the day passed it cleared up and we got some really beautiful pictures.

We spent a majority of our day exploring the Fortress, so after we left we just walked around the town, went to a few churches and walked through the Schloss Mirabell garden. Since we had about an hour and half before our train home was going to leave we had dinner at the Stigelbräu Biergarten. “Stigel” is the Salzburg beer so we of course had to have one while there, Ben had the traditional and I had the citric flavored one. After dinner we went to the train station, got back on the train and made the 2 and a half hour journey home.

Now we are catching up on our e-mails and Facebook, and for me writing this blog and uploading our pictures on to Facebook.

Residency and housing

Man, it seems like forever since I wrote in my blog! Ben and I have been busy with lots of stuff going on. We more recently came across some issues with our residency permits, but thankfully things have been going well with the paperwork that we need. We still (unfortunately) haven’t been able to turn our residency applications in yet because of these paperwork issues, but we are working on it, and hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we are able to submit everything. One of the things that we might have to change because of our residency is housing (where we currently live is not situated to have a married couple), so keep us in our prayers while we look for new housing, and other possible options. Also, that if we are able to find another option that Ben is not “locked in” in his current housing. Even though some things have been rough and stressful, we trust in the Lord who brought us here, and we know that He has a plan and we just have to let him show us what it is.

Other than housing items, life has been going well. Ben was finally able to start his archival work and seems to be enjoying it. Since the books he’s working with are so old, he has a bunch of white linen gloves that he has to use when looking at them as not to mess up the print and such. Today he came home and said he was able to find a lot of good stuff to work with so that’s great. I know he’s been stressed worrying about all this paperwork, but it’s good that he is still able to be able to focus on the reason why he is here, his research.

For me, nannying has been going well. Yesterday was the second day for the English class, and the Mom wasn’t there because she was on a business trip. She got a “substitute” to take over for the class, and I was mainly just there to help, but I was still able to help the kids. When I arrived at the church where the class is taking place I saw the substitute standing outside in the rain, so we quickly went inside and started talking. She joked with me saying that she easily recognized me as the person she was looking for (since the Mom had told her about me) since I was the one walking around in the rain in capri pants-the Mom obviously told her I’m from California (haha) and obviously I need to buy better clothes for this type of weather. During class the kids did work sheets with basic greetings, then filled out a sheet about them, their eye color, hair color, name, family, hobbies, etc. Since I know very little German, it was quite funny to see the kids acting out their hobbies (like swimming and gymnastics) so I could then tell them what it is in English and how to spell it. Otherwise, nannying has been pretty calm. I go there around lunch time, heat up lunch, we eat, she will do her homework, and we will play games. Fun and simple.

During the week, Ben and I have stayed in town and have just explored. Last week we walked a few blocks down and found a really busy part of down town, which we didn’t think we were really close enough to. So we spent the day looking at shops and walking around. For the past few weekends, Ben and I have gone a little outside the city going more into the forests surrounding Vienna. This past weekend we went to Hermesvilla outside of town, which was another palace built by the emperor for his wife, who apparently didn’t much like the city life. This was their “getaway” house complete with huge stables, and obviously forest ground. When we went it was raining a lot so we looked around as much as we could with out getting too wet, then we went inside the palace to visit the museum there. We went through the house and we were able to see relics that had been in the palace when the emperor and empress still lived there. I wish I would have been able to take pictures, because it was so neat! The palace was huge and had amazing elaborate furniture; it would have been really neat to be able to live in such a place. Overall, a pretty good weekend.

For the most part, Ben and I during the week have been staying in town doing our work stuff, but this week (tomorrow evening) we will be taking a train to Salzburg to stay the night and spend Thursday roaming the city. We want to go to the factory where they make the Mozart chocolate, possibly do the Mozart museum and overall just explore outside of Vienna. As soon as we get back I will write another blog describing our first real experience out of the city.

Whew...

Man these past few weeks have been busy! Ben and I have been working on trying to get all our residency papers together, which is proving to be quite a hassle with a lot of complications with getting all our documents “authenticicized” and junk. But we still have been able to do quite a few fun things.

Mainly last Thursday we spent the afternoon at a Beer Tent in downtown Vienna. I didn’t realize that Vienna also does Oktoberfest celebrations, so instead of taking a 5 hour train ride to Munich and then back the same night, we decided to go to the festivities right here in Vienna. We ordered a liter of beer each along with pretzels, fries, sausages, and apple strudel to top it all off. We had a great time eating, drinking, listening to the music and overall enjoying the atmosphere. Then on Thursday evening we went to an Organ concert at a neo-gothic church downtown. Before it started we went to a café for some coffee, then after talking and hanging out for a while we headed over to the church. The organ concert was interesting, it is quite an instrument. The acoustics in the church were made for this kind of music so it was interesting to hear how it sounds in the church. We listened to a few more popular pieces (none of which I had heard) then the musician played his own piece, which was much more whimsical than the other pieces played.

During the weekend we really just hung out around town and walked around more. On Sunday we went to the outskirts of Vienna where the forests are. We got to a look out point and were able to see the whole city of Vienna, which was beautiful. Then we walked around in the forest a little, and headed home, stopping at a café along the way of course.

On Monday, I started the English class with my nanny family, and overall things went really smoothly. Since it was the first class, it was mainly a lot of coloring and learning in which countries English is considered the “Mother Tongue”. The kids seem to know some English but not a whole lot, and of course when I was introduced as “Katie from California” some of the boys started snickering saying “Hi Katy Perry. Hehe.” Such clever 10 year old boys… after the class was over and the kids all got picked up the mom said “I think we deserve some coffee,” so we went to a café (I just got hot chocolate) and ordered a yummy dessert to all share. While we ate and drank we continued to talk about the differences in America vs. here and I told the girl how we will have to make some American Chocolate Chip Cookies soon =)

Palaces, Gardens, and Bones--Oh My!

This past week has been so busy! On Thursday, I went with Ben to his orientation and learned a lot about Viennese culture in many different ways, so that was really neat. After that we had a pretty relaxed evening.

On Friday I was nannying, and it was my first day with just the daughter and myself. I was nervous about being just with her, but her English was great and we were able to talk a lot and play games as well. She showed me all her favorite singers on youtube (like Selena Gomez for one haha), and we had lunch then she went off to her Jui-Jitso classes and I went home. Not a bad Friday if you ask me!

This weekend was really busy for Ben and I since the weekends are our days to explore the city and do our “touristy” things. Since the weather was so nice on Saturday we went to the Schonbrunn Palace and walked around the property. It was absolutely beautiful with an enormous garden and sculptures through out. We didn’t get to go inside to do the tour, but we will do that eventually. We then walked up the property to the old “hunting property” for the Kaiser’s family. It was quite a steep walk up the hill, but when we got there we had a beautiful aerial view of the garden as well as the palace and the rest of the city of Vienna (pictures on my facebook!). After the walking around the massive garden in Schonbrunn we took the U-Bahn to St. Stephan’s Cathedral where we got to walk around inside the old Gothic Church. It was another gorgeous sight! The high ceilings, the stained glass, the architecture and pews we’re all just breath taking. While we were there, Ben noticed that there was a tour of the “Catacombs” which is basically a “burial ground”. Yes we did a tour underneath the church where people are buried. First we went to the room where the bishops of the church were laid to rest. Their coffins we’re in little cages and the cages were labeled by the bishop that inhabited them. After that we went to the room where the founders of the University of Wien had been laid to rest, although these coffins we’re not in cages, these coffins were right in front of us. Around the coffins we’re embalmed parts of previous Emperor’s of Austria in jars, which were also in little cages, but oh it gets better. Then we got to look into a room full of bones of people who died in the plague. A room filled with actual human bones, it was…interesting to say the least.

Since our Saturday was so eventful, on Sunday we just decided to go to church. Ben had come across a church in downtown Vienna that did an English service, and it catered to many different denominations. Their service seemed to lean a little more on the Lutheran side, so it was nice to experience something a little different.  We got to hear an organ playing for the music and hymnals which was neat, and also for the Communion at the end of the service they offered real wine or grape juice. I took the wine, just to try having an “old fashioned communion”, but I thought it was neat that they offered wine for Communion! Just the way Jesus did it!

So that brings us to Monday. I worked again today which was nice and the Mom and I mostly discussed some scheduling (what days/hours will she need me, etc.), but we also discussed a lot about the English Class we will be teaching together on Mondays for some of the kids from the daughters school. We discussed lesson plans, and other ideas. I’m super excited to start helping teach the English Class, and hopefully it won’t be too difficult since most of the kids have no starting knowledge of the language.  Then on my way home the U-bahn got stuck for like 10-15 minutes (of course only 1 stop away from my exit), but still overall it’s been a good past few days!

Also a few other “pros” and “cons” that I’ve noticed:

PRO: In restaurants you have much more freedom to do what you want. First off, when you walk into a café you basically just sit yourself. Find a comfortable place and take a seat, unlike in the U.S. where you have to wait for someone to seat you. I’ve made the mistake a few times of going in to a café and standing while I wait for someone to tell me where to sit, then they look at me like I’m crazy and I have to ask where I should sit. Once you sit you basically order what to eat and what to drink, and the waiter or waitress leaves you alone. The other day I went to dinner by myself while Ben went to hang out with some people he met at the Fulbright Orientation, and I sat at my booth, drank my wine and ate my dinner slowly while I read my book and I was left alone to do my own thing. It was very nice and relaxing!

CON: People here just blatantly cut in line. I can’t count how many times I’ve been in line to get on the U-Bahn and a person just walks right up and steps in front of me. Ok this may not sound like it’s a big deal, but it’s happened so many times! Like at the airport we were in line at the information desk to ask about getting a taxi, and out of nowhere some guy just runs up to the counter while Ben was walking to the counter. I’ve also seen people clearly take seats on the U-Bahn when someone was obviously walking towards that seat. One of the annoying things that bugs that crap out of me.  

New things in Vienna!

I got to meet up with my nannying family again today, except today it was just the Dad and the daughter. I was on time today (yay!) and I meet up with the daughter at the bottom floor of their flat building. I introduced myself to the father when we got to their flat and the father started cooking lunch. His English wasn’t as good as the mother’s but it was still good and I was able to understand most of what he was saying. Especially when he asked if I liked “fish” as he pulled out a bunch of fish from the fridge to make for lunch. For those who know me well, you know I HATE fish. I hate all seafood, but I was not about to get into that with a stranger, in his own home, in a different country, so I said “sure, I’ll eat fish”. I immediately thought, “oh man, what have I gotten myself into?!” haha. We talked and got to know each other while he began cooking lunch and the daughter did her homework.

The father made a fish and noodles dish along with a salad and some bread. I ate almost all of my lunch (it was obviously very filling since we had a lot!). But still, I was proud of myself for eating fish for lunch =P. Also, during lunch the father offered me wine with my dish. I have never been offered wine in the middle of the day before (also while “technically” working!) and of course, I wasn’t going to be rude, so I accepted! Also, the father continued to explain that it was his family’s homemade wine and it was very good. Another reason why I’m enjoying this country =P

When lunch was over, the father said that he was going to also make some Apfel Strudel from scratch with apple’s from their own personal garden! While we waited for him to make the Apfel Strudel, the daughter and I played games like “Monopoly” and “Guess Who?” and thankfully the rules for those games are pretty much the same in every country. When the Strudel was done, we all sat down to eat, the adults with tea and the daughter with hot chocolate. It was a really great day, and it just makes me feel better about living here because I’m more easily able to get around town and I’m just feeling much more comfortable here.

Meeting my Nanny Family

I just got home from my meeting with the family I will be nannying for. I was really nervous, mainly because I’m still getting used to the transportation system and didn’t know exactly how long it would be to get to where I needed to be. I was a little late because I just missed the bus I was supposed to take, but otherwise the meeting went well. The mom and I went to the grocery store really quickly to pick up some food for lunch, then we drove to their home, where the mom showed me around the house before the daughter arrived home from school. I talked mostly with the mom, while she cooked a large and delicious lunch and we talked about how the schedule will be for me coming over to help with homework and English for the daughter. The mom also stated how she will be teaching a beginning English class, and wants me to help her teach it on Mondays.

It was nice getting to know the mom and daughter that I will be working with today, and I will be seeing them again tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow I won’t be late because I know more about where I am going and how long it will take me. I can’t wait to get into a rhythm here and start getting used to everything.

Since I’m here a few pro’s and con’s I’ve noticed over the past few days:

Pro: Dogs are allowed everywhere! I’ve seen so many people bringing their dogs on the subway, into restaurants and shops, it’s amazing! Obviously, they are well behaved dogs, so Murray wouldn’t necessarily fit that description, but it’s still really neat!

Con: Everything on TV is in German, ok understandable. However, I’ve tried to go to hulu, Netflix (to use my dad’s account), and other websites like bravotv.com or mtv.com to see if I can watch their shows online, but I can not. So I’m stuck with German television, what ever is on BBC or a limited collection of South Park episodes when Ben’s computer is available.

Day 1

After catching up on our sleep for about 11 hours, we were off to the downtown area of Vienna. We took the train to the U-bahn (underground subway) and the U-bahn to Stephanplatz. We walked around the St. Stephan’s Cathedral, which was undergoing a “cleaning” on one side, but was still a beautiful building. We continued to walk around down town and looked through our guide book to find a café where we could eat lunch, Ben picked one out and we were on our way. When we arrived at the Café Frauenhuber, it was very quiet and we took our seat. Ben started telling me about the history of that café, and explained that this was a café where Mozart had performed concerts! We were sitting in the café where over 200 years ago, Mozart was playing for the guests! That was pretty exciting to know, so Ben and I sat and ordered coffee (which was delicious by the way, and came with little chocolates) Ben ordered soup and salad, where I ordered a more Austrian dish of Lentils with Bacon and White Bread Dumplings (I can’t remember the name of the dish “auf Deutsch”), but it was all delicious! Then when we left the waiter gave us a pamphlet, and we read more of the history of the café, and apparently it was also the place where Mozart made his last public appearance as a pianist. Very cool.

After our lunch we walked around the city some more going through the Hofeburg Complex, which used to be the Kaiser’s Palace. We “oohed” and “awed” and the beauty of the buildings that made up the beautiful palace, then we did the Schatskammer museum where we saw the Royal Jewels, robes, and other famous Christian relics like the “Holy Lance”-the spear that is believed the be the spear that pierced Jesus’s side while on the cross. Pretty neat stuff if you ask me.

For the rest of the day we really just walked around finding other things to do. Example, we found a few Starbucks in Vienna, so of course I had to stop and get something! I got a caramel frappacino took some pictures, then we walked around some more. Since we’re going to be living here we also took advantage of the U-bahn and basically just rode around for a little while, trying to familiarize ourselves with the stops and everything. We went back to downtown Vienna, and wanted something quick, easy and cheap for dinner, so what did we have? McDonald’s of course! Just to say that we’ve had McDonald’s in Vienna, and it wasn’t too bad. After that we took the train back to our hotel room and have been relaxing for most of the evening. Not a bad first full day here if you ask me!

Our day of travel!

*Note: I wrote this yesterday, but haven't had time to post until today!*

We started our journey to Vienna today, and already have lots to share about our travels. Ben and I left my parent’s house yesterday evening to stay with Ben’s parents so we would be closer to the airport on the day we leave. Chelsea came to pick us up to drive us up to Redwood City, and it took about 30 minutes to say “Bye” to my brother and Dad, hugging them and kissing them over and over, continually reminding myself that I would see them again soon, and trying to hold back the tears (my mom was going to see us off at the airport the next day). Since it took so long to say “good bye”, we were late to all our meetings that evening to see people before we left. We put all our stuff in Chelsea’s truck and both Ben and I got in the car. As Chelsea started to get into the car Murray came running across the street and jumped right into the huge truck (I still can’t believe he made that jump!). He clearly knew that something was going on and that Ben and I would be leaving. We took him back out of the car and he had the saddest look on his cute little Beagle face. The cute little Beagle face that I will miss dearly. Once Murray was back inside, we left San Jose and were on our first leg of our long journey.

That night Ben and I met up with some family and friends for dinner and dessert, to chat and say our “good-byes”, then finally headed to his parents’ house for the evening. We both went to bed fairly early since it had been a long day, and we had another long day ahead of us. We woke up fairly early after a pretty good night’s rest (considering we were moving out of the country the next day). Ben’s family started making a wonderful breakfast, and my mother and friend Chelsea were on their way up to share with us our last breakfast in America (for a while). Once the arrived we all ate, talked and just overall enjoyed each other’s company. Since we had some time after breakfast my mom, Chelsea and I all went to the mall to do some window shopping, we were back by 12 and were quickly on our way to the airport. My mother, Ben’s mother and Chelsea all stayed with us through the check in line, and right before we went in through security, we all said our tearful goodbyes, remembering that we will be seeing each other again, and trusting that God will be watching us all through this wonderful adventure.

We walked over to the security line (thankfully ours, was not the ridiculously long one!), waited patiently, then when we got to the front of the line the TSA agent wouldn’t let me through! My passport had the name “Kathryn” while my ticket said “Katie” and apparently you can’t have nicknames on your boarding pass. Awesome. So then they asked if I had any other ID that had the name “Katie” on it. So I looked through my wallet and found my old Washoe County Sheriff’s Card when I worked in Reno that had the name “Katie” and a picture of me. However, it had my maiden name on it “Bonsall”, so then I had to find ANOTHER form of ID (my old driver’s license) to show them that “Bonsall” is in fact my maiden name, and I am who I say I am. Also, just to top it off, I had to be scanned when I went through security.

Our flight was long, but we landed in Dusseldorf for our transfer of planes and I was able to get my first stamp in my passport before we continued on our trip for the last leg of our journey. When we arrived in Vienna only an hour and half later, we got our 3 bags of luggage quickly then grabbed a taxi to take us to our hotel. The trip to the hotel was interesting, first off when we told the driver where we were staying he started swearing and got really angry (apparently he was mad because our hotel was so close). Then he drove like 80 mph the whole trip there, that was a weird feeling being on a road with no speed limit! We finally arrived at our hotel then went in to town to do a little walking around and got a quick dinner with some gelato, then took the train back to our hotel to get some well needed rest. Overall, we had a great day of traveling and are glad that we are finally here!

Before we leave...

The day is quickly coming upon us. Ben and I leave for Vienna, Austria on September 16^th! We still have so much to do before we leave, so it really hasn’t sunk in yet that we’re leaving. Firstly, we have to pack up everything in our apartment, divide our stuff into “garage sale items”, throw-aways, storage items, and what we’re bringing with us.

We will be leaving the Southern California area, on September 9^th and we will be having a going-away party on Sunday the 11^th in San Jose to see our family and friends together one last time before we head out of the country.

Before we left I wanted to do a short blog to make a list of all the things we would like to do while we’re over there:

-Oktoberfest in Munich

-DisneyWorld in Paris

-Drink coffee in the café when Mozart wrote some of his musical pieces

-Go to Venice in Italy

-Perfect the German that I do know, and obviously learn more!

- (In Spring 2012) Go visit Kimmy in London and sight see. Specifically get my picture at the train station in front of platform 9 ¾ =P

- Try many different types of European foods

-Sight see throughout Vienna, visit the castles, historic buildings, etc.

-Make every day a new adventure!

I can’t wait to go on this amazing trip with the man I call my husband and my best friend. This will be the experience of a life-time and I can’t wait to do all the things on my list and more!  We’re off on another adventure!

-Katie