The money I borrowed to buy furniture and survive the first month

The view from my balcony

Nothing like a good old fashioned drying rack

Tried to make cookies...

Carrie's birthday is today so we had a little dinner. Whitney and I were in charge of the dessert: cookies and ice cream. What can go wrong with cookies you say? Let me fill you in.

First of all...there are no chocolate chips. You have to buy a chocolate bar and cut your own.


I know you think these look normal, but...


really, there is no brown sugar so I just substituted granulated. I know they say you can add molasses as part of a substitute, but I couldn't find any molasses in Spar. And the vanilla is totally different. It kind of looks like the raw sugar in the brown packets you can find some places. So needless to say...they didn't taste like I'm used to. My friends were very kind in saying they were good...but they were really sugary and crunchy...I guess I'll have to find a new favorite cookie recipe...one without brown sugar and vanilla.

The First Day

My first day went well. Great compared to the last two years. Afterall, how bad can it be...I've only got 8 kids (the ninth is coming in October). I've got a couple of squirrely boys, but they'll be fine. I didn't exactly run out of things for them to do, they just seemed tired of working so I let them play the last half hour of the day.

I didn't sign up for this!

VCS is remodeling...it was supposed to be done by the time school started. So there was a mad rush to get some work done this past weekend. This is Leslie and me scraping old thick paint off the walls. It was kind of fun when it peeled off in large pieces.

36 Hours

School starts in less than two days. So far I have about an hour planned...I guess I should think about that a little more... But here's where my nine students will find me the first day.

Whitney's Birthday

Yesterday was my roomie's birthday. She's 18...not really. She wanted to celebrate by watching Ella Fitzgerald at the Rathaus. So a group of us got some gelato and walked to the Rathaus only to find they had changed the schedule to some German movie. Since Leslie's the only one who actually understands German we opted to walk around the area a little. We stopped by the Volksgarten and passed by the Hofburg palace, some Roman ruins and the Graben on the way back to the U-bahn station. It may not be what she had in mind, but it seems like a nice way to spend a birthday evening.

We Have Internet!!

Of course there's no wireless router yet...so I've got to share a usb cord with my roommmate...and sit on the floor...but finally on line and able to check email whenever I want!!!

Making Tortillas...kinda

I wasn't sure that I could survive two years in Austria without tortillas and when I found a free tortilla maker I thought I'd give making them a shot. Well, the tortilla maker runs on US voltage so I figured it would at least be good for flattening the dough until I get a transformer. Maybe my dough was too think or maybe I'll jsut have to do it the old fashioned way with a broom handle...

The last ones weren't as bad...but I had to mush them out by hand.

The Size of an European Refrigerator

I guess it's not that bad...food has less preservatives and therefore doesn't store as long so one doesn't need that much space.

The box that made it over

Some good things: cookbook, pictures of sisters, black and white prints, puzzles, Desiring God...

Best IKEA find

Five hangers for 99 cents

Welcome to Vienna Box

It's got all the necessities: cornflakes, tp, and IKEA magazine. What more could you want?

The Evolution of Sleeping in Vienna

Days 1-7
Days 7-10

Days 10-??

McDonald's

Yes its true. We've made a trip (or two) to McDonald's.

Vienna Orientation

Monday-Thursday 9:00am-12:00pm

We’ve covered topics such as:
-Visa forms for Austria
-Internet, cable and cell phones
-Rental Contracts/Renter’s Insurance
-Registering with the American Embassy
-Which option for transferring cash from the US to our Austrian Bank Account has the least amount of fees
-Opening an Austrian Bank Account

There’s always a great snack (the yogurt here is amazing!) and sometimes extra time to spend on the internet :)

First Week Activities After Orientation

-Many trips to IKEA to buy and browse
-Lunch at the deli in the EuroSpar across the street
-Kebaps from the vendor on the other corner
-Rental Contract Signing Meetings (who knew one meeting could last three hours!!)
-Independent -trips to the Hofer (pronounced [as near as I can tell] hoe-fuh)

First U-bahn trip

Coming home from my surprise birthday dinner the Friday I arrived.

Saturday & Sunday

Saturday August 2, 2008

Naschmarkt

Daily food market and weekly fleamarket

Lunch: Kebaps

Picnic at the Schönnbrun Palace
This ended up being back at school because it started to rain.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Church in the morning, mini tour of our neighborhood and dinner at the Rathaus. Every summer there are many food vendors of various ethnicities that have booths open. Leslie and I shared Indian & Japanese. Also at the Rathaus is a nightly film festival. They stretch a large screen in front of the building and replay old concerts. Tonight’s concert: Leonard Bernstain conducting the New York Philharmonic playing pieces by Aaron Copeland, Gershwin, and Sousa. They played “Stars and Stripes Forever” which seemed pretty normal until I realized I was in Austria!

Traveling = Waiting

Phase One: Tom Bradley International Terminal

Phase Two: Terminal Seven-United Air Apparently even though my tickets were through Lufthansa, I was flying a United plane and the international terminal wasn’t the place for me…oops…I ended up getting a luggage cart after all.Checking in turned out to be a hassle. They still thought I was bringing my cats so it took about ten minutes to get checked in…after I had waited half an hour in the line.

Phase Three: Waiting at the Gate

Phase Four: Flying to London – 10 hours 30 minutes – Arriving 8:30ish London time Phase Five: Waiting at Terminal 2 in Heathrow I learned my lesson from LAX and found Austrian Airlines in Terminal Two. I wasn’t sure where to wait so I just found a flight to Vienna leaving @ 9:40. Too bad mine wasn’t until 12:55.

Phase Six: Waiting in Terminal Two Departure Lounge

Guess I wasn’t allowed to be waiting at the gate and needed to wait at the lounge to find out where my plane was departing. Of course I was too exhausted/antsy to read and just waited and waited. Finally, 25 minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave I found out which gate to go to.

Phase Seven: Waiting at the Gate

Phase Eight: Flying to Vienna – 2 hours?? – Arriving 4:30ish Vienna time
I don’t remember much about this flight. I woke up to eat and was OUT.

Phase Nine: All my luggage arrived!

Phase Ten: I found Ron!! We load up my stuff and head to the school.

I'm Here!!

I'm here...learning lots. I don't have my own internet so it will be a couple of days before I can catch you up.