We're home!

Sorry for the silence. We owe you some wrap-ups about our fabulous last weeks in Vienna and a bit of news from Stateside, but in case you haven't heard from us yet, we wanted to let you know that we made it home safe and sound. The bags came, too. Our minor flight delays had more to do with weather than security concerns in London.

Loyd greeted us enthusiastically and now seems to think he was only away from the homestead for a long weekend rather than 5 months. It is awfully good to have a dog in our daily life again, even with the early morning walks.

More soon....

süsses Haupthaus

Home sweet home.

We're a bit busy with the Farewell to Austria tour just now. We have loads of photos on our cameras and we keep meaning to tell you about visitors from Germany, the 5-course (maybe six - there was a LOT of wine) dinner party Angelika threw for us, a trip to Bratislava.... There will even be one more tour guiding opportunity before we leave. My co-worker, Neil, will be flying through Vienna on his way to Kosovo so we'll show him around on our last day in town.

The thing is: with all these frantic "one more times" we haven't focused on the blogging. We promise to do a giant wrap-up post (or two) before we share the coming home culture shock. We have to turn in our modem tomorrow morning, though, so those posts will likely have be created "stateside." In the meantime, I have a little tour of our flat for you.

This has been home for nearly five months!

welcome
WC on the right, kitchen too
Lots of storage on the left, including Christmas decorations (no, not ours)

the kitchen may have more counterspace than ours,
but we won't miss the stove; the ignition gives us fits

The bathroom and our first DIY project
Remember this?

The washing machine in the bathroom
(drying happens on a rack in the bedroom, ironing in the living room)

Heading back out of the kitchen. Just past the clean dishes is the Wasserhahn.

our living room, with plenty of shelf space for hiding yarn

The dining room. Looks a lot like the living room, no?

our bedroom
If only we had closets like that in St. Paul!

I think Curt is itching to get back to yardwork (!) and I'm looking forward to bold paint colors instead of old-lady wallpaper, but this has been a great temporary home.

ein großartiger Tag heraus

A grand day out.

I'm doing a little bit of catching up here. It's been a busy few days. This post will focus on Saturday. The stories lack the dramatic finish of The Torte, Us and the Hair, but well, it's a glimpse at our (or my) daily life. That is why you're reading this, isn't it?

My hair got pretty long on this adventure of ours. Funny what not getting a trim for six months will do, huh? This is fine, but not great. And the weather has been very warm and a little sticky so it seemed that I was constantly pulling my hair into a ponytail. I was sick of it. So, I splurged and submitted an online request for an appointment at an Aveda-affiliated salon. The LA-born friseurin is on vacation all month, but I was offered an appointment with Alexander, for whom English would be no problem. I didn't want to show up looking terrible so I stole a dab of Curt's gel (I've been hating the Austrian "modeling paste" I tried to replace my American gel with). The long hair looked better than it had in months, but that didn't stop me!

it's below my shoulder, really

I left Curt and a classmate slaving over a Powerpoint presentation and ventured across town. I got to see the back side of the Anker Clock as I approached the salon. I like it even better from that angle. I was welcomed into the salon and happily found UK versions of fashion magazines available for my entertainment.

When Alexander was ready, he greeted me cheerfully, sat me in the chair, flipped the ends of my hair and exclaimed, "but I like this!" I convinced him that the daily ponytail was not a great solution and he seemed willing to do his part to rid me of a couple of inches. "So, go; sit; a girl will come and shampoo you. Then, we'll talk," he commanded.

I went. I sat. A girl came. She had me move to the chair in front of the adjustable height wash basin with the foam pad for my neck. She slid a small ottoman under my feet. She applied shampoo and massaged my scalp. She applied conditioner and massaged my scalp. She applied deep conditioner, combed it through and said, "ok. 5 minutes." I reclined with my hair in the sink for 10 minutes thinking that the only way this could be better was if I were on the Masai Mara and Robert Redford had been standing over the wash basin.

I was sent back to Alexander's station feeling quite relaxed. He was a little nervous to cut too much. I wanted to give him freedom to style (and get me out of my rut); he wanted to give me a style I knew worked for me (as if I have a clue). At last, he seemed to have a plan and started clipping away. I was amazed how much hair fell to the floor. snip, snip, snip. He offered to dry it out straight, but understood that since I'll never have the patience to do that, he should style it more naturally. I ended up feeling "refreshed" (his term), but there was no radical departure from the way I wear my hair most of the time. I guess I should appreciate the confirmation that my usual works on my face.

see? shorter!

I left the salon at noon, to the sounds of music pouring out of the Anker Clock and lots of tourists gazing at its dancing figurines. I watched for a minute or two and headed to the center of town. I braved the dressing rooms at H&M and bought a dress for Tuesday night's party (next post, I promise). I found a tiny French bistro and had a snazzy baguette sandwich for lunch. Then, I made my way to the Volksgarten.

Yes, it was World Wide Knit in Public Day! So, I grabbed my giant ball of Wollmeise lace yarn, 2/3 complete stole (more on that with the post about Tuesday's party) and met up with a bunch of strangers who knit. No need for shyness among knitters. The organizer, Yarnbird, speaks English and made me feel welcome right away. Rita, a spinner/felter/knitter speaks English (and six other languages) and invited me to a couple of knitting groups. Sure, it's our last (and busiest) three weeks of the semester, but I may try to get to a couple of the meetings anyway. She also requested my help with a double decrease stitch, reputed to be common in the US. I was able to help and she didn't mind having to twist a couple of stitches because I wasn't sure how to executed it on her combination knitting fabric as it was. Well, that was enough to start off a nice friendship. I think she wants to teach me to spin, too!

Yarnbird made sure everyone had a yarn craft to enjoy.

After being told sitting on the grass is "verboten," some knitters moved to the sunny steps.
Others took to the benches.

Rita is second from the right, knitting all her spinning samples in to a TV cover (maybe).

One of the knitters brought enough mini Erbeerplunder (delicious Austrian strawberry pastries) for all to taste. Yarnbird's photos of WWKIP-Wien can be found here.

die Nachbarschaft

the neighborhood

At last, a little tour of our neighborhood.

A view of our block (our building on the far right, the bakery on the far left):
There are a lot of mosaics on buildings in Vienna. One of these days, I'll set out with my camera and photograph as many as I can find and post a collection for you.

Our home (our apt. is the two windows on the right, third from the bottom):
Here is the bakery that used to give Curt free pastries. We need to get him back on the appropriate schedule.

Here's the pedestrian passage we take to get to the bigger grocery store (especially while Billa was closed for expansion/renovation) and to the bank that has an outdoor ATM.

The grocery store:

A nice Heuriger. I enjoyed Emmentaler Brot here. Curt did not enjoy his bologna salad as much.

Back home, the view from our living room. I don't know how I managed to catch it with nice light, but nearly empty. The playground is usually packed with children and their parents.

And, because we've received some requests for pictures of us, here's Curt at the Gloriette, with Schloss Schonbrunn in the background. (Please forgive my lack of umlauts, etc. I haven't found the symbols through blogger, yet.)

Legitimate

As the previous post noted, we spent a great weekend in Prague and then a few days hosting my buddy Scott here in Vienna. While in Prague, I shot my previous few weeks of proper diet and jogging to hell in only a few short days. Half-liter beers for less than a couple of bucks seem to trump exercise any day of the week. The conversion rate to burn the calories of a ten-inch wurst and 1.5 liters of beer also appears to be 28 miles of walking.

But I digress. After only one short month, I had my first class last night. It seems as though it will be interesting but I did have to chuckle. Despite the class being taught in English and 400 exchange students at the school, the teacher was rather surprised the class was comprised almost totally of foreign students. With two hours of class after 30 days in country under my belt, I’m not one to rest on my laurels. I will attempt another class on Saturday. This schedule could get grueling. But I can now say I’m a student without completely laughing. Legitimacy: Phase 1.

Legitimacy: Phase 2. Our other big adventure today was the end of our black market cable. The cable company sent an employee to turn off our cable after we had previously “made a deal” with someone else. In all honesty (interesting choice of words on my part), we did not believe that the other guy would ever return to turn the cable back on. So, we agreed to have our cable kept on by paying a small fee and agreeing to the monthly charge. The shroud of guilt has been lifted off and I can hold my head up high again.

And the ability to hold my head up high is considerably easier with today’s haircut. A haircut in a foreign country is always a bit of adventure. The vocabulary is easy enough but descriptions can still lose something in translation. It is hard enough changing barbers in the U.S. The dread I experience in Austria when a barber is holding an electric clipper menacingly above my head and commandingly rather than questioningly stating: KURZ!! (short), is enough to make me consider the Allan Ginsberg look. Alas, it turned out okay and the woman cutting my hair was wonderful. However, she did not brush the hair when she was done and Heather could not stop chuckling with my initial wind tunnel look.

The other big adventure was preparing for the arrival of my brother and three teenage girls. Small apartment and six people. We needed to figure out bedding so Heather and I shopped strategically. Three exercise mats for the girls’ beds, two huge pillows to complement what we already have, and two very large wine glasses for me to adjust to hosting teenage girls. This may be just the wine talking but we really can’t wait for them to visit.

Berichtigung

I think that means "correction."

It turns out that my 1961 German-English Dictionary led me astray on my first vocabulary post, so I make no guarantees on this one. Be warned, my lessons may be the worst way to learn German.

I have been told, on good authority, that what was replaced in our kitchen was a "Wasser-hahn." Apparently, I should have looked up "water tap," a more British term rather than the American "faucet." I think Curt might have liked it better, though, if we'd had a Zapf-hahn installed, as that is a beer tap.

Zapf-Hahn

I'm trying out new vocabulary for my post titles as one of several ways to learn the local language. Today's term means faucet.

As Curt mentioned, we're settling in. I thought perhaps I would give you a photo introduction to our street and apartment, but I think that will wait a day or two.
On Monday, we discovered a leak under the kitchen sink. Curt asked our landlord to come and take a look and we ended up turning off the cold water to the sink for a couple of days. Today, the landlord brought a plumber and he worked away for about 2.5 hours. Curt had to go to the University for a bit so I was left to, well, be here. Finally, Herr Eder (the landlord) came in to tell me everything is ok. With some broken English, he showed me that everything under the sink is ok now and that we have a new faucet that can turn easily to fill either or both sides of the double basin sink. This is a big improvement for the hard twist we'd have to give the old one which apparently loosened the too short connector below.
Here is our new faucet:

Firmly Established??

Greetings from Vienna for those of you still checking in to see if we are posting.

Finally, we are reconnected with the rest of the world!! The internet technician came and installed service. So, no more lugging the laptop around town looking for wifi service. Another nice thing was that the installer did seem to fulfill every techno stereotype. The only thing missing was that he did not leave Dorito crumbs on the computer.

We have been in town for exactly two weeks now and are becoming acquainted with life in Vienna. Last week was familiarizing ourselves with the subway system and the Ikea knock-off store around the corner. One really gets familiar with the language when you can ask for a shower curtain and curtain rod. One really becomes quite familiar with cursing when you are a large man that must squat in a bathtub with a handheld shower fixture. Hence, the shower curtain was a necessity.

The upside to life in Vienna is the virtue of neighborhood life. There is quite an appreciation for walking. We have a bakery just a few doors down so fresh bread for us when we want it. Plus, I think the sales people find my accent funny so they give me a free pastry each time. My Pavlovian reaction is to buy bread more frequently than needed as I really like pastries. There are three grocery stores within just a few blocks so we go once or twice a week. I don't even really mind as opposed to the sense of dread with which I enter the Rainbow Foods mega store back home.

Due to an interesting class schedule format, I don't have classes yet. So, scheduling is now a rare occurence. We catch ourselves answering simply "Sure" when people ask us if we have time to do such and such. But that has really allowed us to explore the city. Which is good. And to also think about travelling. We believe that Prague is first up and will hopefully happen soon.

That is all for right now. Hope to hear from you all that are still checking in on the blog.

Cheers (we've been watching a lot of BBC)!!!!