March. Marz. Mars's month - the Roman god of war. March was the original beginning of the year, and the time for the resumption of war.
March has been another month for the (scrap) books. Just a few weeks ago, we started the month by going skiing again ....
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| My skiers! Visibility: 5 meters |
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| The hotel where we stayed |
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| A cute little chapel I stumbled upon while walking. |
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| View of the main slope from the bottom. |
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| At this point, I called it a day. |
He was able to go back to skis for 2 days and had a wonderful time. Carissa skied for 3 days and is more daring than me or Matthew. Craig skied for 2 days quite happily and used the next two days to work in our hotel room (it was a good compromise). I spent the first day remembering what to do and enjoyed the other days, after totally overdoing it on the first day. On my second day skiing, I had more fun, laid in the sauna, took a nap, and suddenly found myself with moderately bad pain in my left wrist. Despite some home treatment, it was still painful the next day and I was advised not to ski. Turns out I sprained my left wrist and right thumb ("skier's thumb") at some point during the day, but I have no recollection of a specific fall that resulted in any pain. I do fall a lot so it is quite reasonable that I injured myself any number of times! This is quite possibly my last time skiing since we just don't live in a place that allows us to do it often enough to make it easier!
In my defense, there are a number of turns where the outside edge is a sheer drop off, with no gate, fence or warning. If I got too close, I just sat down (fell) to be sure I wouldn't go over! I was more confident and I did work on going faster on my second day. |
| "Our Germans" who invited us to join their group vacation: Cornelia and Sven Bohn. |
While on this trip, we also had the most unusual Ash Wednesday buffet ever. Remembering that this is a Catholic country, we expected a fish bonanza. The options were meat, dairy, meat and perhaps a small piece of fish. Besides rolls, there was actually nothing that Craig could/would eat. He made a quick trip to our room and brought back some fruit and other food for himself. It was a tough place to be vegan but the restaurant did provide a 'vegan plate' on the last few nights. Vegetables! With a lovely fried egg set in the middle......oops.
[I didn't want to start a war in March (or any other time), so I needed to wait until a few days of warm temperatures finally got to the Midwest before I could publish our weather history! Still, my friends in the Midwest may want to skip the next section....]
The weather in Vienna is very different than the western, mountainous part of the country. It has been a fabulous warm and early spring in Austria, but especially here. By the end of February, the sun had returned on a regular basis, flowers were blooming, birds were singing and it was usually in the 60's. It definitely added a spring to my step! After three months of essentially no sunshine, it was a welcome change. Most yards have tiny scattered yellow or white flowers.
The coffee shops have put their tables and chairs out on the sidewalks. (They normally don't do this until May. Last year, there was snow on Easter). I feel some progress in my German (or perhaps just more of a sense of abandon to just jump in). I've been working on my drawing a bit more (amazing what lessons and videos you can find on google and youtube).
I've taken to sitting outside in the sun when I can and reading in the afternoons and using more time to relax. Drying laundry is again completed in a few hours rather than 1 1/2 days. Now by March's end, has currently be averaging around 70' most days. Everything feels joyful.
Again, an interruption for some random, interesting observations:
Our basic TV service gives us about 35 channels. There is CNN in English, one in Turkish, sometimes one in French, and the rest usually in German. They love their sports here so we got to see lots of the Olympics (although not so many of the Americans competing). Programs often start at a quarter past the hour. One interesting thing is that many stations announce that their commercials are coming with a tone and the word "Werbung". These commercial breaks can last up to 15 minutes, so it's good to have some warning! Some of our more embarrassing exports are "Storage Wars", "Biggest Loser" and "QVC". Some of these are American shows that are dubbed and some are Austrian versions. I have also seen on one station that they show some of my favorite episodes of "Little House on the Prairie" from when I was a kid!
A few more interesting language notes:
Schlafanzug - sleep suit - pajamas
Armbanduhr - arm band o'clock - watch
Regenbogen - rain arch - umbrella
Our kids get along usually but of course can have their moments. They've taken to calling themselves "the bickering buds" (ie, buddies).
Usually, you cannot find white eggs in the stores. A few start to appear this time of year, but I've heard the shells are very weak so decorating eggs, much less trying to empty them to paint the shells, is a real challenge.
Back to our regularly scheduled spring activities.....
Our friend from Ohio, Jeffrey Pellegrino was able to spend some time with us before he attended a workshop in England. I fear that we ran him ragged, but he never complains and seemed to enjoy his time!
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| Hard to get a lot of speed with the big guys on |
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| Craig and Jeffrey in front of the Parliament building. The back of Athena is behind them. |
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| No need for a ladder when you have hills! |
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| One side jumps and the other tries to stay on. Coordinating is hard. |
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| With the owner of the Museum of Young Art, in the Palais Schonborn (not to be confused with Schonbrun) |
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| The only stallions I know who live in a palace - the Lipizzaners |
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Jeffrey also helped at the weekly food pantry that I volunteer with every Monday morning. We typically give food to 150-180 clients, who pay about $5 to participate. The director buys fruits and vegetables and the rest is donated.
We also made another weekend trip to Salzburg. We took a bike ride and met friends in the park to teach them baseball! Our time there is always too short. What can I say; it's one of our favorite places!  | ||||||
| Craig pitching to the new recruits |
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| Put me in coach, I'm ready to play! |
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| My Salzburg girls! Eva, Mirjana, Helga, Lydia |
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| Craig with our former landlord Franz Steger |
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| Paul up to bat.....with Niki pitching.....swing batter, batter! |
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| Matthew with his new/old friend Thomas chasing a frisbee |
And now April has arrived and Easter is coming soon. We have a couple of (relatively) quieter weeks now before Easter. I've been helping at the church again, making crafts for their Easter market this weekend. The next few weekends host several Easter Markets around Vienna, which I've heard are really nice. This weekend is also a bike festival, during which some of the world's best mountain bike jumpers do some amazing tricks, so we'll try to see some of that. Next weekend is the Styrian Village Festival which is all about wine, food and music culture in Austria. If we're not too tired, we may try to take that in. The kids have the week before Easter off as well as Easter Monday and Tuesday,when we will be on and in, the Mediterranean. They have many more school holidays this term (Easter, May Day, Pentecost - called Whit Sunday here - Ascension, etc.) which is good since school goes through the end of June.
Our May will be full with going to the Madrid Tennis Tournament in Madrid (meeting my brother and his wife) and having Craig's parents here. June and July are open, so plan your trip!
Happiest spring to you all. In a few short months (around July 25) we will be back in the states and we look forward to seeing everyone then! My parents will be celebrating their 50th anniversary this year and there will be a big party in August. And then a new academic year. Life moves fast and is anything but dull.
