Survival was a Success

This morning Katherine and I attempted to plan out some trips around Europe: what a disaster! We just weren’t on the same page. I’m not even sure what book her head was in... but she could have said the same for me. It was rather frustrating and made for a discouraging day.

Dinner was hosted by the Meservy’s, in the company of Spencer and Rachel; Natalie, Keith, and Ezra; and Parvis (an apprentice composer). It was a delight; however the conversation was, for a good portion of the meal, on one side of the table. I think that if people were sitting in different spots the conversation would have been more balance, and everyone would have been able to take part.

The evening was enjoyable but not quite enough to break the disappointment of this morning. Chalk today up as one of those days where survival was a success.

Vacation Planning

K:

Truth be told, this is not the first time I've sat down to do this. Eric and I have tried so many times to get it done, and I've done a little planning on my own while he's in classes, but this is the real deal.
He's in German class right now, so I'm at the school using free internet to blog some photos (which sorry you still can't see because I don't have all the ones I need yet) and to plan some trips. Planning real vacations are so much harder than dream ones. There is so much I want to see but now that it's real, time and money become important factors; not like when you plan a 2 month European tour that costs a fortunes and requires you to completely vacate reality to accomplish.
This is the night though, plans need to be made. Next week Eric has his first 3 day in a row (not including Sundays because we want to be home in Vienna for those. It was hard enough to find an English ward in our home city. We'll stick with it, thank you!). We plan to make those days our firs out of Austria trip. To somewhere close, either Budapest or Prague. We want to go tomorrow to buy the tickets and to talk to an agent to see the cheapest deals we can get with all the train travelling we'll be doing in the upcoming months. There is one pass in particular that we want to look into that give you unlimited train travel on the European rails, within a certain amount of time. It's called the Eurail Global Pass. So we need to have our dates and destinations planned to see what deal will be best for us. I'm excited, but it's a lot to do to squeeze it all in and see all we can.
We have a list of 10 countries with about 13 or 14 cities/sites we really want to see, and with my ridiculous organizational and scheduling abilities we might actually be able to work it out. I'm very excited about it!
This trip has been a dream of mine and Eric's for a long time. I've always wanted to visit Europe, as most people have. Eric has always wanted to study abroad with his wife in the first year or so that he's married. This is such a great opportunity for us and we are just so grateful to be here. We saved a lot of money and sacrificed a few things to get here, but now we are and planning these trips for real is incredible.
Our list of countries that we are going to be able to make it to includes:
Germany
Switzerland
Czech Republic
Hungary
Croatia
Italy
Spain
France
England
Ireland
If anyone knows great things to see or do in those spots somewhere, let me know. I would love to hear them. We have most cities planned already, but as far as Croatia and Switzerland go we're kind of at a loss.  
Back to planning, instead of blogging. Goodnight!

Wednesday Lunch

I came home from class today and Katherine had made me a delicious Four Cheese Pasta. It was quite a nice surprise to come home to. She stalled me a little bit by having me go to the grocery store before going home, and when I got there she was finishing her last touches on the fantastic lunch. Katherine is wonderful.

Second First Date in Vienna

One of the best first dates I’ve ever been on. Spencer and Rachel, and Katherine and I basically spent the day together: brunch at a bakery, a quick stop at a second hand shop, a visit to the nearest bike shop for off Spencer’s poor bike, a tour of Heber’s other apartment, and wrapping it up with gelato and lunch on a boat on the Danube.  It was quite a full day. Only Katherine and I had planned on going to the Danube and boating. It was fun to share our day with Spencer and Rachel.

Finally...

We found a few essentials today that we’ve kind of put off getting: a hair dryer (for Katherine of course), and an iron. Perhaps in a week or two we’ll get around to purchasing an ironing board.

K: 
I couldn't be happier about my new blow dryer. I broke mine the first couple days we were here, using the wrong kind of electricity adapter. It will be so nice to have dry, non staticy hair. 

Sunday September 25th

E:
Were we ever late for church. We felt horrible for not being on time, but we really just didn’t give ourselves enough time. it’s an hour trip, not a half hour. Oops. Katherine and I tried hard not to let our discouragement ruin church.  It’s hard—being here long enough to have known better, yet making the honest mistake of miss-judging the time to get to church.

Spencer and Rachel Steenblik just moved to Vienna like Katherine and I; they are recently married and Spencer is doing some school here. I for see the 4 of us doing plenty together; the two of them seem to be one of those couples ready to go do fun things.

This afternoon I was a wreck. I took one of those naps that seem to suck every ounce of energy out of you except for that which is needed to stay alive. That’s all I want to say on that. Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up with the power to do more than survive.

"You're deceptively thick. I got home and had to take two ibuprofen."
-Remarkable statements by Keith Morgan.

On the Court and In the Market

E:
I played basket ball with the young men and some of the leaders. It was good. Katherine went out with Natalie Morgan and little Ezra, while Keith was playing at basketball with us men... and boys. They went to some huge market. I’m guessing they had a good time as Katherine filled up the day with “Stories From The Market.”

K:
The some big market that Natalie and I went to was a little place called Naschmarkt. Some of you may or may not of heard of it. Don't feel bad if you haven't, because I hadn't before reading The Books. It's famous here though. On Saturday mornings they have a flee market set up at one end of it, as well as the rest of the market that is open every day. It was a ton of fun actually. I didn't get to see much of the flee market today, but I certainly plan on coming back again. Eric is right, I did enjoy my time out. I enjoyed Natalie's company (and Ezra's too). It was nice to talk with Natalie. She's been here a little longer than I have, and it was nice to get her advice on a few things. It was so nice to talk with here that I forgot to take my camera out the whole time I was there. My firs time to Naschmarkt and I took no pictures. I was sad, but I will certainly take some next time I'm there. Stay tunned for them, because this place is incredible. I loved every minute of the squishy aisles, the smells, the colours, the different languages being spoken...It was just great. You'll certainly be hearing from me again about it. Hopefully soon.Update: I forgot to mention another thing as well. The ending of this day was sad. We really want eventually to go on the big ferris wheel in Vienna, called the Wiener Riesenrad. This night we went over to the amusement park, called Prater, where the wheel is, but we didn't actually make it on the wheel tonight. The park is actually just like an amusement park you'd think of, but there is no entrance fee. You just pay per ride and game, so it's almost like a permanent midway. It was lots of fun to walk around and watch all the people on the rides. We walked for quite a bit watching roller coasters, bungie jumpers, water rides and go kart races. It was fun. The weather was also gorgeous so I got really hot in my sweater I wore, thinking I would need it. After about 30 or 40 minutes of wandering around, I looked down at my side, where I had hung my sweater over my purse, and it wasn't there anymore. It was gone! This is my very favourite sweater that I own. It fits perfectly. It's a nice colour of dark green that looks great, or at least that I love. And it has light brown suede elbow patches. I love this sweater. So I was pretty frantic and upset. We retraced our steps a few times, and then finally reality sunk in. There's no way I'm going to find it. Eric tried to comfort me, but I was tired and upset and I couldn't help it, I cried. Just a few burning tears that snuck out while I was trying really hard not to. I know it's just a sweater you say, but it's my favourite one and I'd come to grow a little attached to it. We asked a few people and the information desk, but nothing. It's definitely gone.
Anyway, I apologize for the lack of pictures today, but after this experience I was just not in the mood. I was pretty upset. I'll get some of the wheel at least when we go back to check for it one last time on Monday.

Every once in a while still, I'll go to get dressed in a certain outfit and I'll be reminded of this dreadful night when I wore this sweater, instead of a plain grey one that could easy have been replaced. I still miss it sometimes, and I really need to replace it. Good thing elbow patches seem to be in this season, or at least in Vienna!

Day One of Strategic Management

E:
German--not so much my thing. Strategic Management -- what a refreshment to be able to follow and understand what’s going on. My teacher is quite entertaining, a life saver for the fact that the class is almost a 4^th of a whole day... 5 hours.

During the lecture, the professor asked, “Who is Porsche’s competition?” He got responses like Ferrari and BMW. Since I spent a summer listening to CBC radio, I was able to apply my knowledge gained from The Age of Persuasion with Terry O’Reilly. “Louis Vuitton,” I responded, “Porsche competes with other luxury brands.” The demand isn’t transportation, but for a status item. It just happens to be a car. The professor loved the answer and proceeded on with that idea for a little while. I regained a portion confidence lost from the German classes earlier this week.

A quick note on the spiritual side: I prayed that I’d be able to get into a good group for the group work part of the course. The answer to my prayer came rather easily. Two of the native students came over to me and another exchange student, whom I was sitting next to, and asked if we wanted to be a group together. They seem to be the sort of students that will be good to work with, and our group happens to have both locals and exchange students. We also picked up one more exchange student at the end of class who will be good.

The Donau

K:
Today we just wandered, all over the place, for a long time. 
We wanted to go over and check out the Donau River (in the English: the Danube). We were told that there is lots to do over there. A place to rent some boats and a big mall and things. 
We started on the U6 train line, which is the one that runs near our house. We went up to near the top to the Neue Donau station. For those of you who don't know German, that mean New Danube (but I'm sure you could have figured that out). We got off on that station and there didn't seem to be much happening there. There was a little stip along the side of the river where some people I think were just sitting, I'm not sure that you can actually swim in this river. 

So we followed the bridge across the river and went for a little walk. We saw a few more things on the other side. It's really just a big park. It has bike trails, soccer fields, a playground, another field and some giant trampolines for children to jump on. They looked kind of fun I think, but there was only one little boy and his mom there today so we couldn't really tell how fun they were. There really weren't many people around, and definitely NO WHERE to get food (which is what Eric was really ready for).  
We'd heard from one of the Sister missionaries in our ward that there is a big mall on the other side of the river, near the top of the city. So we headed over to the other end. We went one station further on the U6 and took a tram over to the mall. It was fun, we wandered around the mall, in and out for stores for a little bit. Mainly in search of a place to stop and eat. We found a few little bakeries and a few meat counters. Nothing for a full meal. We searched for a while, with little luck. Here's where I start to get frustrated. When I get hungry and tired it's really no good. I slow right down, I'm easily agitated and my body gets sore fast. So all these started and Eric stopped me and asked what I wanted to eat and why I was getting upset. "I JUST WANT TO ORDER IN ENGLISH. I just want to understand what I'm eating and not have to guess all the time." On the verge of tears and a break down we found a map and decided to look that way instead of walking aimlessly some more. We found the category that we assumed meant food because it included things like Burger King, McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Finally some things I recognize! We headed towards these places, and on the way we found a few more. We stopped to look at the menus but they were still all in German. We found a buffet, which sounded promising because we could look at our own food and pick it out, but then the lady working there spoke NO ENGLISH and had to grab a girl walking by to translate for us. So finally it came to decision making time, which I'm not good at at the best of times. Now normally, back home in Canada, I would not choose McDonald's, I would not choose Burger King and I definitely would not choose KFC. This was a desperate time though. No matter where you go, there's no translation for Whopper, or for BigMac, or for Zinger. We settled on KFC because at least there I knew what meat I would be getting in my burger. You know what, I gotta say, NOT BAD! It's funny, the fast food restaurants here look really fancy. They're all new and none of them are dirty, but I didn't expect the food to be different. This chicken burger I had was enjoyable and I would maybe even consider it again. When in Rome...or Vienna.
After that adventure the mall started to close and we were bored of it anyway so we left and went down the U1 line to the Alte Donau station. This one's a little tricker, so I'll translate. Alte: Old. Donau: Danube. There really wasn't much happening over here either. I don't know yet if we've mentioned, but something about Vienna you should know is that the place basically shuts down around 6. When we got over there, there wasn't much to do, but there was some to see. We walked along the river and came across these sights, and took these pictures:

I'll have you know, I'm not looking for a good reason. This photo almost caused a little bicycle accident. We had it set on the self timmer and this poor little girl saw the camera right as she was about to pass and stopped really fast, then her brother bumped into her, and their dad came and tried to stop and they were all kind a little confused. I felt bad. 

My lovely husband posing for the picture. That's the male model coming out in him.

This is Eric poking spiders with a stick. He found these spiders up in the rafters that were HUGE so he, of course, had to grab a stick and try to get them all on the end of it, wrapped up in their webs. That's the little boy coming out in him.

It was a good day. Nice and relaxing. I love Vienna.

Day Two of German Class

E:
The teacher speaks only German, which is tricky, and the class is 3 hours. So near the end I start to feel like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs. All I’m hearing is waa wa waa wa... in an Austrian accent. I don’t know that I’ll ever learn German. I’m the only one in the class who knows only one language. I think that the kid from Lithuania knows 8 languages. I’ll keep at it and see what progress I can squeeze out of this class. It doesn’t count for credit and it’s free, so I’m not too worried about it.

Last couple things before classes start

K:

Today we needed to pay our power bill, before they cut us off. We weren't exactly sure what to do because the forms we got in the mail are ALL German. The other day when we were out shopping we saw a Wien Energie location, so we made our way over to Mariahilf Strasse today. We got there and didn't actually have to pay it yet, but the lady helped us fill out our forms properly and told us how to pay it at the end of the month. That was all we have planned for the day, so this is what we saw after. 

This is a really yummy pizza place we found. We were near here the other day (on Tuesday) and it smelled SO good, but we settled for Austrian McDonald's chicken nuggets because our curiosity got the best of us. This is the Della Cassa pizza we ordered today. It was good!

It was rainy today, so good thing we had our little umbrella. This is a 6euro umbrella we bought when we got stuck in the rain shopping in Der Graben after Stephansdom. 

Cool fun fact of today: Miriahilfstrasse (the shopping street from week one, and location of Wien Energie) links up with Museums Quartier (the place we took pictures of those GORGEOUS buildings on Tuesday the 13th). If we'd just walked 100m more either of those days we would have seen it, but we never did. Until this afternoon, we bumped into the pizza shop again and put the two together. It was fun. I feel like I'm getting to know the city a bit more, piece by piece. 

Anyway, so we wondered back into and around Museums Quartier for a little bit. We found this fun little yellow building and Eric just had to see what was inside. I bugged him at first, but I'm glad he did.

Everything in and around this building is yellow. The chairs, the tables the cabinets. Everything. It was cool. It's actually just a little promotional booth for one of the banks. They have iPads you can use in there and all kinds of free stuff. We talked to them for a few minutes about Vienna and they gave us some cool stuff like little subway maps, and light up pens, and a student planner...AND these drinks. We love them now. They're much like ginger ale, but BETTER. It's an Austrian specialty and we certainly enjoyed it. It's called Almdudler. We'll have to spend some time searching the super markets and restaurants for more of it before we leave. 

I love you little yellow umbrella.

Eric is right now in his very first class at school. German class!

Rainy Day

Sunday: Stake Conference and the Morgans

E: 
So I joined choir. With only one practice on Thursday, I joined the famous Vienna 4th ward choir in their grand performance today at stake conference. Joseph Smith’s First Prayer in English and then another song in German. I didn’t know exactly what I was singing, but I did get most of the pronunciation. At least I think.
For choir, I went on the adventurous trek to where stake conference was held early. I ran out the door with no spare time and at the same time I forgot my directions. It was almost an hour trip, with one essential transition for one train to another. Now first you need to understand that the subways here are huge. Sometimes multiple levels and many platforms; all of which are perfectly organized with clear German signs. For me it’s a maze.
I remembered my stop and then found a member that was boarding a train, however it was all at the last second that I figured everything out and didn’t get any time to purchase the extra ticket that I need. Guess what? You know that guy on polar express that comes around to punch the tickets... yep there was one of those fellows. I admit I was a bit frightened that he may throw me off the moving train or give me a huge fine or break my arm since I had no ready cash. The Lord must think that I’m a decent singer or something, because not only did I make it the stake conference without directions, the ticket master looked at my student pass and said ok.
Stake conference was good. These Austrian members sure are faithful.
The train ride home was less eventful. I even had the extra ticket that I needed and they didn’t check.
We joined (of course by invitation) a cute little white American family-- Natalie and Keith Morgan with their one year old son Ezra, for dinner tonight. They are super cool. We’re basically good friends. In the words of Master Jordan Pierson, you could say that this was our first date. And if the delicious curry and fantastic ginger cake could be any indication of the relationship's potential, we’re headed into a strong bond for life.

Ikea

Natalie told us the other day all about Ikea here. She told us "If you want a little taste of home, just head to Ikea. Everything is in German, and in Euros but it's all really the same." We went there today, and turns out she's right. Just the same as home, which is great because Eric and I have a special spot in our hearts for Ikea. You just can't beat a 50cent hot dog and $1 unlimited refills of lingonberry juice.

Just the same old hotdog and juice. 1 euro.

Just the same old meat balls and potatoes with gravy and lingonberry sauce

 

Just assuming this is the same old request to put your own dishes away so they can keep your prices down. Even in Austria this is what needs to be done. Everyone keep up the good work so we can always count on cheap and delicious Ikea meals wherever we go

Same old As-Is couches.

Same old Ikea with a couple of new things.

A soft serve ice cream machine. You buy the cone at the counter and they give you a token to use the machine and fill up your cone. Fun

Funny little security cameras at all the self serve machines. I promise we didn't steel anything! We just left with a cool ice cube tray and a new pillow, which we paid for!

Cool lockers to keep your stuff in while you spend way to much time wandering aimlessly in Ikea. You get the pick a pin number, lock it and then use that pin number to get back into it later. Cool!

Friday September 16th

K:

Today we needed to get some groceries so we decided to go back to that little market we found the other day and some things there. Also, I wanted that bag I found the other day.

I got the bag! Even better than that: we found great food for cheaper prices that the super markets and supported some local vendors and farmers. It was really fun to do and I felt really trendy and Europe-ish. It was great!

Thursday september 15th

K:
Today was a bit of a lazy day-ish. We didn't have any plans when we woke up so we looked through one of the books we got from the Morgans. Enjoying Vienna. Eric wanted to see what a second hand store would be like here in Vienna. The book told us about one set of stores called Humana. We looked up the locations and found one right near our house! Like a 10 minute walk. We set out to find it and when we did, it was closed. FOR GOOD. That was a bummer, but we wondered that street and found some other cute little shops to wonder in and out of. 
We also came across this funny scale on the side of the road. You can put coins in it to use it. This one we actually found beside a few dumpsters so we assume it's for weighing garbage, but then this evening we found one randomly over near the train station. Who knows what that one's for. Weird. 

We still wanted to see this second hand store though, so we went back home and looked up another location and headed to that one next. It was not too far from home, just the other way a little bit. We made it there not long before it closed, but we enjoyed looking at a few interesting things. Like any second hand store I'm sure it's hit or miss. This time was a little bit of a miss, but it was a fun one. 
Eric actually nearly bought this sweat shirt he's wearing, but I found this silly jacket that was exactly the same colours. It was a precious set. 

Then we wandered all around the streets and came across a little market. There are several outdoor markets around Vienna, but we weren't quite expecting to bump into this one. We walked through it, and it was fun to see. It was late in the day though so there wasn't much left to buy. I did find a fun duffle bag I kind of want to buy though. I searched for one the few days before we left home. I wanted one for a carry on on the plane, but also for weekend trips we plan to take around while we're here. I want to go back and get it. I also want to go back to the market to see the stands again on a day when they're full. 
From there we hurried over the the church for choir practice. Keith convinced Eric to join the choir for our ward. Apparently Keith used to be just about the only man who could carry a tune, but all of them just love to sing. He flattered Eric by complimenting his voice, and bam! he got himself an extra member. Eric then tried to convince me to join, but they're singing in Stake Conference on Sunday this week so I was scared to join on such short notice. Maybe I'll start going now and sing in future performances, when I have more practice. 
These are just the cute little Men and Woman signs on the bathrooms at the church. I've always been used to the typical Man and Woman stick figures that are basically universal in Canada. I assumed they were everywhere but here the sign for the direction to a bathroom is just WC and in the London airport it was just TOILETS. Anyway, I thought they were cute.

After choir, I was really hungry. We got on the tram at the church and rode it until we came to somewhere that looked good. We passed a few things like Subway, and a few little stands that were still open, and some cafe/bars and stuff. Then we passed this big set up that just looked spectacular and caught my attention with all the bright lights. 

I nudged Eric and we jumped off the tram to see what we could find here. Turns out it's actually a circus tent set up in front of this magnificent palace. I wish there was a way to capture just how beautiful it actually looked, but night pictures are so hard to get just right. This picture is taken a little bit off the road, right at the entrance to the circus. Behind me here though are a bunch of little carts set up with all kinds of different foods, eat looking and smelling as good as the next. Eric laughed at me while I made two whole rounds of the place before I chose what I wanted. I had to make sure I didn't miss anything, then see someone else eating it later and be jealous! That's the worst!
I finally worked up the courage first to share some bratwurst with Eric. It's basically a sausage, but it's some kind of Austrian specialty. It was pretty good actually. For whatever reason trying meats and milks in new places (even in new cities inside Canada) scares me. This was a big step for me, and I was brave. 

So I rewarded myself with a plain and delicious chocolate and vanilla crepe (which is what Eric guessed from the very beginning is what I would pick anyway). We shared that next and it was also DELICIOUS. 

We're in EUROPE! Life is good. New things are so fun and exciting. 
Also, we get to see gorgeous buildings like that one and this one just sittingeverywhere around us. What a beautiful day, and night!