Happy Mardi Gras!  Here, it is "Pancake Tuesday!"  At the hotel we are staying at this week, we celebrated Festival last night (Mon) and had our pancakes ("Kaiserschmarrn").  Here are some of the more outlandish shots:

        

But I am getting ahead of myself.  Let me back up to my last post:

I am a bit behind the pace for another chapter of Viennese life; I am often a day late and an euro short these days! As usual, life here is a series of ups and downs and although I've been editing out too many of the downs, it's not as much fun to write about those!  That said, I've been feeling the stress again lately, although am beginning to improve now. [You can't take any routine for granted.] Frustrations can be intense.  [I actually broke down crying on our 5th visit to the same government office.]  These experiences abroad, although very valuable, are not easy.  [Most especially for the mom, whom usually has the most to juggle. And even more especially when I have an uncanny inability to orient myself when coming up from the U-Bahn.  My sense of direction is usually quite good.]  I would still recommend it despite the hardships because the benefits are so worth it.  It is neither vacation, easy travel, nor to be done lightly.  But the appreciation of the variety and beauty in the world is immense.

Our typical day probably looks a lot the same as many of you (if you have kids).  Get up early, get the kids fed and off to school. Our kids ride their scooters down the hill and jump in the car with one of Carissa's classmates.  They have a full range of classes, each 50 minutes long.  The length of their days varies. Mondays they are not home until 5:00 (due to their extra class for non-native speakers), Tuesday and Wednesday by 2:30, Carissa is home earlier on Thursday and Matthew starts late on Fridays.  In the end, they spend about the same number of hours in school as most American kids. Unfortunately, their school is not a very challenging one and neither child has much homework. Craig jumps on the train and rides to the office, about 50 min.  He listens to German on his phone, or works with an old fashion paper and pencil, so it is not lost time.  He is home between 6 and 7. He works from home often and some days has late-afternoon/early-evening phone calls because of the time differences to areas of the US.  I am up and out doing my own "jobs":  I volunteer in a food pantry on Monday mornings (which also helps me practice my German), go to German conversation class on Tuesday, for coffee with English speaking friends on some Wednesdays, have an informal German class with my friend Angela on Thursday, and catch my breath on Friday.  On Thursday evening, you will probably find Matthew at chess and Carissa at basketball (she and her friend Zora are the only girls in the class).  Otherwise, perhaps like yours, my kids spend too much time on the computer. Carissa still likes crafts and Matthew still enjoys climbing trees.  We still have to clean the house, do laundry, shop for groceries, run errands, do laundry, coordinate school field trips, keep up with the letters and emails, shop for groceries, maintain relationships, do dishes, shop for groceries, etc. Granted, many of these things take longer to do here, and they are in a different language, and we don't have a car, but we are managing. And sometimes, even thriving!

A warm day at the park - panoramic view

Our activity on the weekends may look different because of the diversity of activities around here (something Bowling Green could never be accused of).  We are also cramming several years of vacations and experiences into one year; we are definitely always aware of the time flying by.   We go for hikes or walks, occasionally to a museum or the zoo, parks or churches, keep track of special events like festivals and seasonal events, etc.  My international women's group provides all sorts of activities and I do many of those. They also provide couple events so Craig gets more socializing too.

That is a big change for Craig here - the socializing within his institute.  Everyone - grad students, adjuncts, professors, staff - come early and stay late.  No one eats in their office; they go to the lunch room and often even cook together.  As far as he can tell, they are each other's social group, almost entirely.  We wonder about the few that have families.

On a particularly nice day, we couldn't talk the kids into joining us at the zoo so we went by ourselves!

 

My German continues to come along.  One thing I've finally understood, is that no matter how much you study, you need time to adjust to speaking and hearing the language.  That part can't be rushed.  So after six months, I've had a bit more time and conversations slowly get easier.

Because of all the above, we are rarely lacking in activity or things to report.  As I review my last posts, I realize that I write a long blog!  I apologize if I've worn any of you out.  And here I go again!

As in most places, January is the coldest month.  It was typically in the 20's and 30's, with very little sunshine.  I spent the last two weeks of it in a much more hospitable place: Naples, Florida with my parents. It turns out that there is no place warm (as defined by me as 'sunny and above 60 degrees' anywhere in Europe!).  I was able to spend time with my folks, helping, visiting, swimming, walking, and with lots of conversation.  My mom and I had a great weekend with some of my dad's siblings about 2 hours north in Bradenton, Florida while we were there.  My folks have some medical issues as time goes by and I was able to help them plan a strategy for addressing them.  And more importantly, was able to reassure them of my love and support and to enjoy their company.

Meanwhile, Carissa's class met on a weekend to go ice skating.  They have a very nice outdoor rink in front of the city hall.

Ice skating t at the Wiener Icetraum

There are pathways to the big ice areas

Carissa, her friend Julie, and Craig after skating

I returned from Florida to a quiet house as Craig and the kids were skiing with a group from Carissa's class. They stayed at an awesome kids-friendly resort, that is used primarily to host school groups.  Besides skiing, they have indoor sand volleyball, discos, climbing rooms, theater, etc.  They kids enjoyed it, although they had to ski with a group at all times, and that got old.  Craig took off with Matthew on Tuesday so he could ski at his own pace.  They joined up with some other teenagers.  On the last slope of the last run, Craig fell and hurt his wrist.  They were afraid the carpal bone was broken so they casted it and told him to return in 2 weeks.  No more skiing for him that week.

It would be the right hand!

Beautiful view; Carissa on far left in polka dots

Warming up in an ice igloo

Self controlled roller coasters are fun, too.

At the top.

Matthew in his room, getting set to ski

We will now take a break from your regularly scheduled blog post for a message from the Austrian cultural society.....

You've probably all heard stories about incredibly long, complicated German words, and they certainly do have a penchant for appending all adjectives to a noun.  However, the language is also surprisingly literal in a very fun way when you are learning.  Pronunciation is easier: what you see, you say.  But here are some fun "Austrian-isms":

Staubzucker - "dust sugar" - powdered sugar

Zahnspringen - "teeth slides" - braces 

Handschuhe - "hand shoes" - gloves

Krankenhaus - "sick house" - hospital

Erdapfel - "earth apple" - potato

There are no yards, only 'gardens'; when you are in a building, you are in a 'house';  there are few telephones, only 'handys'; there are no blankets on the beds, only 'duvets'; when you graduate with a doctorate or masters, the term 'Doktor' or 'Magistra' becomes an actual part of your name.  (I told you they love titles here!) There is no 'coffee', there are dozens of kinds. Woe to you if you order "coffee".

Back to our regularly scheduled post:

Luckily for Craig, although those two weeks in a cast were difficult, the followup x-rays showed no healing, thus no break.  It is still sore and healing slowly, but much better than before.

Before the cast came off, however, his institute went away for a week retreat in Bled, Slovenia with other similar labs in Europe.  Much of the time is spent on unscheduled time working together with about 4 hours/day for talks and presentations.  They would often cook together and one night Craig got volunteered to cook vegan for all 80 attendees!

Island on Lake Bled

48 zucchini, 150 potatoes,  22 lbs. of onions, 14 lbs. peas, etc.

Hotel and Meeting place in Bled

The weather was foggy for the whole trip, so he could only see the mountains on the last day, and a previous ice storm had made some hiking trails impassable.  Since half the food budget was for alcohol, not all was lost.

While he was gone, the kids and I had a tour of the Museum for Applied Art.  The building was lovely; the art was....well....unique and interesting.

We are now west of Salzburg to a small town called Kössen, to ski from Monday to Thursday of this week. Our landlord is letting us borrow his van and we met up with our German friends here at the hotel.  They are in a group that makes this an annual event.  Winter in Europe has been warmer than normal, so snow, even in the mountains, is not ideal.  That does not keep the 5 year-olds, nor the 65-year-olds, from flying by me! The next blog will post pictures.

Future posts will also include fun details about our friend Jeffrey visiting in March, an Easter cruise to celebrate our friend Cornelia's 50th (Nice, France - Tunis, Tunesia - near Rome, Italy) over Easter weekend, going to Madrid for a tennis tournament and hosting Craig's parents in May.  The weather is warmer, so more hiking is in the future.  I know midwesterners won't want to hear it, but we are in the 40's and even 50's most days, so it is comfortable, especially when the sun is out.

For us, we have a few more days of "winter" while we hit the slopes.  Then, it's back to Vienna and springtime. Happy spring to you all and best wishes for wonderful weather!

Maria