The destination...

Vienna is similar to many big cities in many ways...busy, crowded, narrow, under construction, but this particular big city is often considered the most beautiful in the world.  It is amazing to be here and see the age in every building or pass castles as you drive around.  We haven't done any sightseeing yet and have been focused closer to home this week.  Next week we will certainly venture to the Inner City (Innere Stadt) where most of the tourist attractions are located.  For now, we live in the western-most suburb (District 13, there are 24 total), quite close to a large woods (Wiener Wald) that marks the edge of the city.  The city is hilly, although technically we are not in the Alps.  Our apartment is most of the way up an incline.  It is surprisingly quiet.  And since we are at the end of the building, we look out on a little side yard that seems to never be used.



The first floor, corner apartment is ours.

From the street, you go down some stairs and this is the outside door to the building

This is looking up the hill from our building door.



Standing outside of our apartment, looking down the hill toward the downtown of our neighborhood (Ober St. Veit)

Our apartment is quite charming.  We have a kitchen with a built-in eating area, with more cupboards than most.  There is a smaller bedroom and a larger one.  The living room is large and we have separated it into a living area and a working space.  The balcony is enclosed and we haven't really used it much yet.  And there is a spiral staircase into the basement, which is finished into another room, which we will probably also set up as a bedroom.  The bathroom is of good size and the toilette is a separate room, as is typical here.  There are lots of mirrors and enough storage.  We feel very lucky.

Standing just inside the front door is the hallway.  The first door to the left is the bathroom.  The second is the kitchen and the third is Matthew's bedroom.  Straight ahead is the large bedroom.  The first door on the right is the toilette and the second is the living room.  All the rooms have doors on them.  Austrians wear "house shoes" inside so the street shoes go on the rack.

 

At the doorway to the living room, the left side is the sitting / TV area and the right is our working area.  Currently there are only 2 computers set up.  We will be getting an additional couch, chair and table for this room soon.

The living room opens out onto an enclosed balcony (Loggia).  The windows open completely.  There are few bugs, so no screens.  Austrians spend much more time outdoors and love to be in and near nature. 

Standing at the entrance to the balcony and looking back into the living room.  The spiral staircase goes to the lower level and the door goes back into the main hallway.

This is Matthew's room.  He likes small spaces.

This is the big bedroom.  Carissa is currently sleeping here with us as she has been a bit nervous to be on her own quite yet.  Eventually Craig and I will probably move into the basement and this will be her room.  We will be getting a bed for her soon.

The bathroom has a nice shower and good lighting.

 

The kitchen opens to a hallway with a counter.  Then the main section opens onto the appliances, counter and eating area.  The refrigerator is "hidden" as a cabinet, the washing machine is in the kitchen (which is typical) and there is enough cupboard space for us!  Most homes do not have clothes dryers and everything is hung on a line.

 

The toilette is a very small room, and has a storage cupboard next to it.

 The spiral staircase leads to a finished lower level.  There is a patio outside.  We will probably use this room for a bedroom.

 At our apartment door, you descend half a flight to get to the (locked) outer door.  There is a bell for a visitor to ring and then we can buzz the door open to let them in.

  If you look close enough, you'll see the first box is labeled "Zirbel" and we have already received mail (from our landlord).

Wednesday we spent settling in and exploring the neighborhood.  The place has been unoccupied for several years so we chased away the resident spiders (not scary ones - small bodies with thin, spindly legs that are not at all intimidating) and needed to clean the place, especially the floors (even after mopping three times, our feet would be black after walking around).  Our friends had an internet stick which allowed us to check in with our families and do some basic jobs (like this blog).  If you know us at all, you know that we were unpacked and everything in its place in about 24 hours. 

We spent Thursday shopping.  On Thursday the stores in the shopping area stay open until 9 so this was our big chance!   We went to IKEA (pronounced ee-KAY-ah here) as well as the largest grocery store in town and another department store.  We bought pillows, dishes, pans, hangers, and lots of food.  It was so great to have our friend Angela help with all of this - it made it so much faster.  (We even went to McDonald's for dinner!)  I'm holding the Prosecco!

The results of Thursday's shopping

Friday was bank day - getting an account.  We had 3 days to register in the neighborhood, which we did on Thursday and this form is necessary for everything else.  So we were able to get a bank account and register for internet service.  (This all sounds so efficient but usually takes at least two trips and a fair amount of walking.)  We also have been working on cell phones:  I have my new phone (brought from America) which now works. Carissa has an old phone from our friends, and Matthew and Craig are working on getting theirs.  But we have at least two so we can keep in touch.

Saturday is furniture day:  our friends have friends who have some extra things they are willing to let us use (single bed, table, couch, and a desk) so that will help a bit (there was only one single and one king bed when we arrived).  In a few weeks, our landlord will arrive with another king sized bed (called a "double bed" here.  Strangely enough, they don't make sheets this size so you use a couple of single size sheets!)

And that brings us to the present.  The big stress left is schools.  We will be going to the local school on Monday with hopes they will accept the kids.  Apparently this is very much up to the local principal and we hope he'll be in a good mood.  There are many factors:  whether they have room, whether they look at non-German speaking kids as an asset or a liability, whether their coffee was cold that morning.  Since it's the best match for the kids (it has a math/science track for Matthew where he won't have to try to learn 4 languages at once, only 2- German and Latin) we hope it will work.  If not, we go to plan B, which is another school a bit further away.  And of course, Craig will need to get to his office next week, and I'll need to get my work computer up and running as well. 

Now for some curiosities: (1) All the light fixtures here are very cool. Europeans in general like very modern things. (2) Everything comes in small sizes, from groceries to cars to apartments.  The largest size of flour is 1 kg (two pounds).  The largest milk is 1/4 gallon (1 liter)  The main exception is that the chocolate and the beer come in large sizes.  This place has their priorities after all.  (3) Because of the premium of space, most buildings, cupboards, closets, etc. are tall and narrow.  Those of you who are height-challenged would have a more difficult time than us.  (4) The normal size of pillows is a large square, roughly twice the size of the ones we use.  Gotta get some new pillow cases. (5)  It's almost impossible to find anything, apart from Tupperware-style storage, made of plastic.  Everything here is glass and wood.  (6).  They recycle diligently.  Our apartment complex has containers for paper, compost (kitchen and yard) and garbage.  Every neighborhood has bins for plastic containers and glass.  They collect the milk and juice boxes every two weeks from the door.  Aluminum (rarely seen) is returned for deposit. (7) Houses are plaster and it's a challenge to hang pictures on the walls without damaging the plaster.  So far, masking tape seems to work the best.  Sticky tack doesn't work at all.

I find I am more unsettled at this time and more frequently wondering what we are doing here.  The week before we left I was quite melancholy, already missing my girlfriends, Alex and Dominic, and our families.  Since arriving, I have felt a bit discouraged, questioning our sanity of undertaking this endeavor. I have perhaps put too much pressure on myself to learn German and as a result, am reluctant to try.  The efforts of daily life take much more out of me.  I've had to eat more gluten than I can really tolerate, which surely doesn't help and has made me fatigued as well. (Gluten free options are limited; Craig's vegan diet may be even more of a challenge.)  Our friend, Christof, has reminded me to be patient with myself and has been able to accurately anticipate my emotional ups and downs so his empathy is appreciated.  I know in time this will all level out.  We are so lucky to be able to do something like this.

Carissa is missing her friends.  She was able to Skype with her best friend Kaylee on Wednesday and will again this weekend.  Matthew is trying very hard but is worried, I think.  The idea of getting lost or confused at school weighs heavily on his mind. Craig, as always, is our stability in the storm.  He and I have handled the division of labor quite well:  he is doing forms, offices, accounts, phones, and all the walking that goes with that. I am handling cleaning and supplies and kids and sleeping.  I am trying hard  not to second guess all the decisions and it's best if I am unaware of all the costs of things as this is the point where it seems like hundreds of euros fly out the door every day.

Oh, just found out that the dishwasher doesn't work.  Haven't tried the washing machine yet.
I will write with next week's adventures soon.  Write me all the details of your lives too!

 

The journey....

First, it's Pittsburgh or bust....

The trip to Pittsburgh on Sunday (August 18) was easy as we all are familiar with the route.  Carnegie Mellon had a good system in place for moving all the new students into their rooms and Dominic had his belongings in his dorm almost instantly (and we didn't have to carry anything!).  We spent time unpacking, exploring, going to a "tasting lunch" with many of the campus and local restaurants providing food for students to try, last minute shopping, listening to the president's address (he is a first year too), having a nice dinner, and saying goodbye.  Dominic is having a great week of freshman orientation with lots of activities and meeting others.  His roommate Michael is from Taiwan and seems very friendly.  He starts his classes on Monday, August 26.  After meeting with his advisors, he determined he already has 1.5 years of credit so is beginning an honors program, with a dual major in math and computer science.  He is taking a very heavy load since he anticipates that a few classes will have some material that he has already seen.  No failure to launch here!  This kid is crazy smart.



Loaded van; will travel





Moving into 3rd floor Stever Hall



Checking in





Stever House 3rd floor hallway

 

                                                       The lounge outside of his room.



At "the wall"; a campus institution

Who's moving in?


                                                                                                         Hey Alex:  Bubble tea!!

   Dad and son in front of the dorm.                                              Mom even got a hug goodbye.

                                                                                                               (but not on film).

   Dinner at LuLu's Noodles. 

                                                                                                 


Then it's back to BG and the next journey:  Vienna or bust.....

We spent the day on Monday, August 19, finalizing all the packing...unfortunately it was not ideal.  We ran out of room!  Packing for an entire year with growing kids is an art, not science.   In hindsight, I should have packed all the essential clothing, leaving an "extra" 20% out in case we had room.  Since I did not have time to repack everything, the newer bath towels, a few kitchen things, and other miscellaneous items were left behind.  At the time I worried about this, but as with most things, in a few days it did not matter.



Smashed into the back seat








Loading the Odyssey in BG



 Checking in at the Detroit Airport              

 

We left home at 4 pm on Monday, August 19.  We arrived at the Detroit airport in plenty of time, thinking we needed to arrive 2 hours ahead since we were flying internationally.  However, the first flight was to O'Hare so the extra time was unnecessary, but turned out to be helpful since we had 7 large boxes and 1 large suitcase to check.  We were the first in line to check in!  We also had 2 full-size carry-on's each (and an extra one for good measure).  It was far too much to carry but we wanted to put the heavy things with us so that no box would weigh over 50 lbs..  It was handled smoothly- every box was between 47 and 49.5 pounds - and we managed to negotiate security with 5 laptops, 2 I-Pads, medicines, shoes, jackets, etc. in good time.  We even got compliments from other passengers about how well we did!

 

The flight to O'Hare was quick, a little puddle-jumper where they had to gate-check a few of our carry-on's since the plane was so small.  It was good for the kids to get their wings on this short flight and they were ready for all of the things to come. 

We took a tram to the international terminal of O'Hare.  LOT Airlines (Polish Air) was very busy but fortunately we did not have to wait in line since we did not have bags to check and we just needed our boarding passes.  They did check one of our carry-on's as it was too heavy.  While this was helpful, it was our only bag with wheels, which we had used to carry a few other bags so we now needed to really carry all the other bags.  We finally made it, going through security again, and to the gate for Warsaw.  Very few of the other passengers had American passports.  We were in a lovely 787 Dreamliner plane with lots of room.

We had dinner (gf for me, vegan for Craig, regular for the kids) and settled in for movies and sleep.  Sleep was harder to come by.  We arrived in Warsaw around 10 am local time to a very modern airport - roomy with lots of glass and steel.  We went through immigration which was a  puzzle: they checked our passports and asked why we didn't have a VISA, I told them that as a visiting researcher & family, we will apply when we arrive.  Despite clearly disagreeing that we didn't need one, she stamped them and we moved on.  She asked no further questions at all.  And then, despite having no chance to leave the secure area, we had to go through security again for now a 3rd time!  We were a bit short on time so this was irritating, especially as there seemed to be no reason.  After our wait, the agent managed to find a large sewing scissors that I had accidentally packed in my carry-on with my mini-sewing kit and nonchalantly tossed it in the garbage. When I expressed my disappointment, he merely said, "you can buy another one".  That made me really mad.  Of course, Craig in his calm way congratulated the agent on being the first one to find it since we had gone through the x-ray 3 times. 

We jumped on a quick flight to Vienna, where all our cardboard boxes arrived intact (although clearly the worse for the wear) but our one regular suitcase was missing!  I went to the lost and found to file a claim.  Since I was standing a few feet from where I should (although no one was in line when I arrived), the agent made me walk all the way around again to be in the right spot, at which point there were others in line.  No more agents came to the counter with this influx of people so I had to wait for every business class passenger that arrived, another who arrived after me, and then for my turn.  Welcome to Austria where they love rules, restrictions, forms, and titles.  I completed the form so they could deliver our missing bag and we went out to our ride.  As far as I could tell, no customs; we would certainly seem to be likely candidates with all of our luggage.  Our friends were waiting with cheers and a welcome sign and had arranged for a taxi for our luggage and took us directly to our apartment, for which they had already picked up the key.  They are wonderful!

[Since they feature prominently, let me tell you about the Sauke family:  we met them at church when we both lived in Salzburg in 2004-5.  They were good friends to us there:  explaining things, showing us new places, and taking us on adventures.  At the time, Christof worked for Proctor and Gamble in the perfume division and traveled quite a bit. He's had several other positions since then which have required extensive, world-wide travel.  He now is an independent consultant to help companies manage change and move into international markets. Angela stays at home with the girls: Anne and Charlotte.  They moved to Vienna 6 years ago and have been a huge help while we have been preparing to move: giving us advice, making contacts, even looking at potential apartments.  Anne is 16 and has just returned from 6 months in Canada and Charlotte is 14.  Both attend a private school here, called St. Ursula, and are very sweet.  The whole family speaks very good English.]

Anne helping us unload our boxes from the taxi.

Anne carrying bags into our new home.

 

The girls helped us load at the airport, unload at the apartment, answered questions and unbeknownst to us, they had stocked the fridge, had towels, flowers, gifts and other necessities.  It was just amazing.  As we unpacked, they brought soup and bread from their home and we shared our first meal in our new home.  Our suitcase was delivered from the airport.  Then we collapsed into bed.

 

We had made it.  

 

How To Keep In Touch

In Austria, the address number and apartment number follow the street name.  On the last line, first you list the zip code (this also specifies that we are in district 13), then the city (called Wien everywhere but America), then the country (called Austria everywhere but in Austria).

Familie Zirbel
Einsiedeleigasse 14C  1
1130 Wien, Österreich

In California, the apartment complex is listed first, then the street and apt number, then the city, state and zip.  You may notice a pattern.

Alex Zirbel
Mountain View, CA
     let us know if you want a street address

At Carnegie Mellon University, students are assigned a 'student mail code' which designates their mailbox.  The last lines of the address are for CMU as a whole, located in Pittsburgh.

Dominic Zirbel
Pittsburgh, PA  15213
     let us know if you want a street address

It finally looks like it is really going to happen.

At the end of June, we signed a lease to rent our home to three lovely girls who are in the end stages of their time at BGSU. Khloe, Haley, and Sam will be living in their first "real" home, and are looking forward to moving outside of the student area of town. Haley will move in on Aug 1, but the others not until Aug. 20.

That is because we bought one-way tickets to Europe.  We fly, fly away on Aug. 19, first to Chicago, then to Warsaw, and finally to Vienna. And a whole new experience begins. But before we get there, there is much to do here.

We began many months ago after we confirmed with Craig's colleague at the University of Vienna that all was set for us to come. His colleague at the University of Vienna, Evo, is in the chemistry department, and does the same research as Craig and his colleague here in their lab. It's called Bioinformatics, and has to do with RNA sequencing. On our last sabbatical to Salzburg, there was no one directly in his area, so this time, he looks forward to a good collaboration and publications.

Having done this 8 years ago, we were somewhat prepared for what comes after the decision to go. Only taking two of the kids (and no newborn), this trip will be much different, and much easier to prepare for. Which isn't to say it's easy.

As you can imagine, there is much paperwork involved in moving to a different country. This process is a very different animal to taking a vacation to Europe. In Vienna, as in most cities in Europe, you must apply for a "residency permit." Not only is it the law, but you need this document for almost everything. To obtain this essential form, one needs to provide birth certificates, marriage certificates, police background checks, copies of passports, copies of passport-style pictures, financial documents showing you can support yourselves, statement of employment from both current and future employers, statement confirming you have health insurance, and documentation of your flight home. Of course, these need to be in German and notarized.

So, after beginning to assemble documents, and renting our house, the next task was finding an apartment to rent in Vienna. We spent months scouring every web-site we could find. There are many obstacles to finding a place. Rental contracts are long-term, usually at least 3-5 years. This is, in principle, to protect the renter. In order to rent an apartment, you must almost always go through a real estate agent. These folks charge the tenants a commission, even though they are engaged by the landlord. This can be anywhere from 1 to 3 months rent, which can range from $1,000 to over $4,000 per month. Since you must pay this fee every time you move, you can imagine that people don't move very often; a longer-term lease protects the tenants from being forced out of their apartment. In addition, for many rentals, there is a form of rent control so once you are in, you pay the same rent as long as you live there. If you stay a long time, you gradually have more and more of a bargain. For all these reasons, turn-over of apartments is slow, limiting the apartments available. If you want a shorter-term lease, you must go through the agent to see if the landlord would agree to a shorter length. In either case, you can give notice after one year (and not a moment before!), and then must stay another 3 months to allow the landlord time to find new renters.

We found a nice apartment in the suburbs where the landlord agreed to rent for only 1 year (he is American but living in the west part of Austria), without the additional three months. With commission and other fees and utilities, this was about 1,600 euros/month ($2100/month), a real bargain by Viennese standards. It was partly furnished and had a balcony, two bedrooms with a large closet that could be used as a bedroom, and in a residential suburb.

While in the final negotiations, we made one last trip through all our websites and found one new one:  an orchestral conductor and his family were spending the next year in Florida and looking for tenants. Because of the 'rent control', they were allowed to rent the apartment for only the cost of the rent and not make a profit, to preventing it from becoming a permanaent rental. Therefore we found a lovely, fully-furnished apartment, quite close to all the tourist attractions downtown, with no commission to pay for only 1,000 euros/month. The timing was perfect. We quickly arranged a skype tour and spent 2 hours on the phone with this lovely couple. During the course of the conversation, it turned out they have a car that they will consider signing over to us to use and then we sign it back to them when they return. Amazing. We couldn't believe our good luck.  Within a few days, however, they wrote a discouraging email, as the building had changed owners and the new owner strictly forbade sub-letting.  That was a deflating day.  Craig quickly resumed frantically emailing real estate agents.  Incredibly enough, the original apartment was still available and we signed the forms as soon as we got them.

Since this happened recently, we haven't found schools for the kids.  According to our friends there, there are some good schools nearby. The schools themselves or the administrtion are not working during the summer so we may have just a few days to find a school and make the arrangements.  It is at their discretion whether to accept our kids for the year, but we are hopeful.

In the meantime, there is 2 years of maintenance to do on the house, just the usual chores and jobs that you mostly put off. In addition, everyone must visit the dentist and all doctors and get any prescriptions written and filled that may be needed during the year. Belongings need to be sorted for Goodwill, store in BG, or taken along. Two of our bedrooms will just store our things so we will gradually pack things away and move extra furniture in there.

I've taken a brief respite and am visiting Alex and my sister in California.  It's too early to pack many things and I hadn't seen Alex's new neighborhood so we have done many things together.  I explored the Pier's, we have had many wonderful meals in nice places, went to the Redwood forest, saw his office, did some swimming,   I've also gotten to see some friends from our Princeton days, which was a special treat.  I will now spend a few days at my sisters before heading home and into the chaos.

Then it will be packing and packing, last evenings with friends, and all the endless details.  Stay tuned for the next episode of our adventure.  I will be posting pictures so you can all experience this with us.  And if at all possible, come to visit so you can experience it with us in person!

Prologue

A little background for those who aren't up to speed on our recent happenings:

We are alive and well and have now been living in Bowling Green for 17 years.  Craig continues to enjoy his job and he is active both in his department and university-wide.  He has worked for the last several years with a colleague on research in biochemistry, teaching mostly graduate courses and on committees at BGSU to try to increase engagement of the students on campus.  I have been working part-time from home, doing text analysis for a research company, which is challenging and helpful with college expenses for the boys. I look at customer responses to surveys from banks, car dealers, and other retail places to categorize what customers are saying about their recent sales or service experience. If you've ever filled out a survey on the bottom of your receipt, I may be seeing what you wrote!  The kids, as always, are growing like weeds.

More immediately, and the reason for this blog, is that we are going on sabbatical for the 2013-14 school year to Vienna, Austria.  Eight years ago we took our first sabbatical, spending the year in Salzburg, Austria, where BGSU has an exchange program.  With four young children, including an 8-month old, we embarked with more than a bit of trepidation but no lack of enthusiasm.  It took 6 months to prepare for this journey.

We had a wonderful time, despite some difficult moments.  The older two boys became fluent and we all enjoyed the traveling and made some good friends.  And now we have a chance to go again.  With Alex settled in CA, and Dominic about to begin his freshman year at Carnegie Mellon University, we will be experiencing this as a family of 4.  The boys will come at Christmas.  We have fewer anxieties but just as much enthusiasm.  We are looking forward very much to the year ahead.

In June, Alex moved to Mountain View, CA where he is now working for Addepar.  This is a start-up tech company that writes software for wealth management companies.  He loves the people and is happily learning the work.  He is thoroughly enjoying the area, weather, activities and events.  He found an apartment very close to work which allows him to get a bonus each month for employees that live within a mile of the office.  He is not suffering much;  the company provides food all day and caters in meals; there is a nap room, ping pong area, fitness area, and a place to drop off your laundry.  All of these are part of the perks.  I guess they figure if you can do all those things while  at work, there is no reason to go home.  He's had much to do, but in general he works a 8 -9 hour day.  He bought our Prius and he is quite glad to have a car.  He is learning life lessons about moving, insurance, taxes, buying furniture, traveling, etc and is handling it all beautifully.

Dominic is quite encouraged by Alex's fate since he is starting on the same path. He graduated as valedictorian from St. John's Jesuit High School in May. He was the career leader in wins on the chess team and enjoyed a very challenging schedule. He begins at Carnegie Mellon in August and is very ready to go. He has been working at a local software company (Agile Oasis Technology) this summer as well as doing some contract programming. He will study computer science and math but hasn't finalized his schedule yet. Since he worked the last summer in the same lab as Alex, he is pretty familiar with the place and will be quite comfortable. Craig's parents will remain in BG and will provide a home base for him. Both boys will come visit at Christmas time.

Matthew will begin his high school career in German, most likely at a local, public, German-speaking school. All four of us have been studying German this summer with varied rates of success.  Matthew doesn't enjoy this much but we hope he will appreciate it later. He will likely have to study several languages in school which will be quite a challenge for him.  He just got his braces off, finished his paper route (which he's had for several years and has amassed quite a fortune), is getting his last allergy shots and growing inches each day.  He loves to read, play computer and board games, and swim.  He grew 4 1/2 inches during the last school year and won't be shorter than me for much longer!

Carissa is going to be in 5th grade and is into all things social.  She continues to throw endless parties and play dates, chooses her clothes carefully, and doesn't keep her room neat. She is still inseparable from her best friend, Kaylee and they spend all their time together. She is learning the German, seemingly without effort. Neither of the two younger kids seem to have any trepidation about going, probably because they know we'll be coming back in only a year.

We all spend a lot of time with Craig's parents, working in the yard, reading, cooking (Craig is vegan, and I am gluten-free, and the kids are trying to figure out what to eat), and now with packing, sorting and shopping for what we need.  Our home is looking odd these days!