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!