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 =).