An U-bahn

I'm working on a Thanksgiving post, but until then, I thought you could enjoy the ominousness of the U-bahn coming into the station.  Most trains just come into the station with a little wind and noise, but at this particular station for some reason you can hear it coming for a while.  To me it sounds and looks like something you'd see in a suspense movie because of the building of noise and light.

Children's Perceptions

One of my girls drew this picture for me today.  It's exactly what I'm wearing:  black pants, purple shirt and a black sweater on top.

Don't I look like an evil cartoon?

Vienna Scavenger Hunt

This past Saturday for their birthdays, Sandi and Liz put together a scavenger hunt around the city.  They split us into groups and sent us traipsing all over the city searching for random items.  Not only was it a scavenger hunt, but we also had to figure out all the items from riddles they had written.  Pretty amazing.  

This is the view from the Albertina Museum where Barbara braved huge crowds to get us a bag from the gift shop.  

They sent us clear out to the Schonbrun Palace to take a picture next to the Christmas tree.  It was a bit of a jaunt, but beautiful and well worth the time spent.

My team:  myself, Whitney and Barbara.  

This is to commemorate my first day in the snow for real, not as a vacationer. 

First Snowfall

Yesterday was the first snowfall of the season and also the first real snowfall of my life.  A couple of pictures walking down the street by VCS.

Before and After

Aren't these the greatest pictures ever?!

Our U.N. Trip

Today my class and Miss Schreffler's class had the opportunity to visit and sing at the United Nations building here in Vienna.  One of my student's mothers organized an event to help disabled children in other countries.  We were asked to sing/recite for part of the awareness program.  The program itself was held in the rotunda, the main entrance of the complex, that was filled with flags from many countries.  

Before performing we walked around and saw the rotunda from above and some important meeting rooms.  

The actual singing and reciting went well on the part of the kids.  Apparently we were only supposed to do our song at first and our poem later, but I didn't know that so we did it all at once.  Oops.  

Then I had about half an hour to practice my mean teacher looks before we were able to go visit the space center.  The students received stickers and were reminded that the space center is in the UN because outer space belongs to everyone, not just the individual countries who have sent people into space.

We even got matching t-shirts.  Isn't that a great shade of yellow?

I might have found a hot beverage I like

My throat was a little scratchy this morning so I decided I needed a dose of honey.  But I couldn't stomach a spoonful of honey so I opted to add it to tea.  The tea I chose was Erdbeere Himbeer.

When you add enough honey it basically tastes like hot Kool-aid.  Maybe that's why I like it.

First Care Package

Today to my delight I recieved the long awaited box from my family.  Inside was a tote bag, shirt and Kool-aid.  The shirt was a surprise, the others I knew about.  I'm really excited about my new shirt.  It's Guess so it's bound to be cool.

Dancing the Night Away

Yesterday Sara talked us into going to the Flying Funk Circus, in which one could check-in, board, and arrive in Funk Heaven all by 5am.  We got there early because the entry and beer were free until 9.  We ended up standing around awhile, intrigued by the looping movies and huge projected pictures on the wall, taking a few funny pictures ourselves until more people came and started dancing.  Don't worry...Leslie and I didn't dance, we watched like the good Baptists we are.

Happy Birthday Yun-A

Monday is Yun-A's birthday and to celebrate her mom sent cake, chips, juice and presents for the kids yesterday.  So we had a little party for her after lunch.  She passed out napkins, cups and cake plates and I took care of the cutting and pouring.  Fun was had by all.  

The boys loved their balloons.

She even brought me a present.  I love birthdays!

Da Vinci Exhibit

Last Saturday I visited an exhibit of some of Leonardo Di Vinci's machines.  They were wooden machines that were made from some of his drawings.  Many of them were working and available for us to manipulate.  One of the fun parts was that the machines were displayed in an old basement--great atmosphere.

This is a rather large version of the music box.  There are little tabs that cause the hammers to hit the bells.  Too bad the bells were so out of tune.

An early prototype for a helicopter.

A clock that ran based on a pendulum swinging around two opposite poles and causing about seven wheels to turn at various slow speeds.  We were enthralled.

Kindergarten Theology

I'm vaguely teaching my students about nouns and when I asked them to list people they mentioned God.  I was a little surprised, but accepted that answer.  What was even more interesting was that they wanted to write about Him over friends or family.  Here are some of their sentences.

Jesus is praying for people.

God is big.

God is talking to me.

I am with God.

Middle School Buddies

A couple of weeks ago Whitney and I hatched a plan to throw our classes together.  Today she brought her middle school Creative Writing students to our class today to meet their buddies.  The plan is for the older kids to write a story starring one of my primary kids and have the little ones have a hand in illustrating the stories.  I'll get more feedback tomorrow from my kids, but I know I enjoyed seeing the older students try to chat with the little ones.  

Hiking in the Alps

Well, technically the foothills of the Alps, but it sounds amazing doesn't it?  A couple from my church live in Mödling, which a little outside the city, and they invited us for lunch and a walk.  I enjoyed the fall colors and there was even a castle in the area.

My New Scarf

I made this last week -- what do you think?

My Newest Addition

This is my newest student.  He's been here for a couple of weeks already, I just had more pressing things to write about.  He's teeny tiny and really quiet.  But he seems pretty with it.  We'll see.

My Morning Greeting

In the midst of depositing jackets and backpacks, and pulling out daily folders one of my students cheerfully came up to me and said, "Obama won!  Obama won!"  He was so happy he was jumping up and down.  I found it quite interesting that a child the age of 5 in a country half way around the world knew about our presidential race and was exited about the outcome.  It really is a momentous event.

I found another BSF-er

So I've been going to this care group where we are reading books towards our ACSI credentialing.  A couple of the girls from our church have joined as well as a couple of people from the school.  One of the girls (from the church) was mentioning having taught a Bible Study.  Nothing new there, lots of people do.  She mentioned as an example studying a chapter of Romans and then clarified to say the first ten verses.  My interest was piqued.  Who does a study on ten verses for kids?  She mentioned having an aim for the evening...and when the words "discussion questions" came out of her mouth I knew for sure.  She was a children's leader!  I didn't get a chance to chat about the specifics, but believe me, it will come up again.

The Augarten

This past Saturday I had the day to myself so I decided to be adventurous and visit the Augarten.  It's the home of the Vienna Boys Choir and was a beautiful place to walk.  

There were lots of paths lined with trees.   

I got a little lost on the way home.  I exited a different way and took a left and came to a major street.  I didn't want to look like a tourist so I didn't consult my map.  I couldn't read the street signs so I opted to catch the U-bahn.  When I got home I found that if I had only continued half a block I would have figured out where I was.  And I was so close!  

Fall Festival

Last night was our Fall Festival at VCS.  It was a fun night.

I manned the ring toss for half an hour...not many visitors down in the basement.  

My students recited a poem for the program.

Here are some of their cute costumes (or lack thereof):