A Little More Happily Ever After...

Real life posts are very important. They are important journal entries that we will enjoy looking back on, and it's important to include them. 

But this isn't normal real life for us. This is Europe. So enough real life for a little while. We're headed to Italy! Tonight we leave on an overnight train to Venice. Then we hit Verona, Rome, Pisa and Florence. 12 Days of Europe adventures, in the country Katherine is most excited for. Eric is excited too, but it's all Katherine has talked about since we got here and especially since we started planning last week. We are excited! Here's a glimpse of what we hope to see, to hold you over til we can update you on what actually goes on. A little more to add to our European fairytale, to give it a real good Happily Ever After. 

VENICE

 VERONA

ROME 

 PISA

FLORENCE

 

What a wonderful part of the world to celebrate Eric's birthday and our 6 month wedding anniversary. (Both coming up next week. Mark them on your calendars if you'd like.)

Languages

I have recently become really fascinated with language. It's really interesting to be in a place where I can't understand anything that goes on around me. I realize that I have always taken for granted my eavesdropping abilities, for one. A couple times lately Eric and I have been on the train overlooking some intense or riveting conversations, but we have no idea what they're actually saying. Yesterday we got in a elevator with a cute old couple and he laughed a little and muttered something in German, and I wanted so badly just to know what he said so that I could know if smiling and nodding was an appropriate response.

I'm sure a lot of you know what this is like, being in a place or just a situation where language becomes a barrier. It's so tricky sometimes. I don't expect all of Austria to turn themselves upside down and learn English, then change all the signs and library books and menus to English, but it would be really nice for me if they would.

It's fun though, trying to learn a new language. I've started to recognize some words or phrases and that's exciting when it happens. It's also really fun for me to notice patterns or to figure words out on my own. I filled out a form for something the other day and it was in a few different languages (German and English being a couple of them), and one of the slots said "city, stadt...and then a couple other words for city". I finally realized then that Stadt Park here in Vienna is City Park and that Stadt Halle must mean City Hall. It was really fun for me, and now I notice that word everywhere.

Another fun one: we were printing some things at Eric's school, where the computers are all in German, and the word for the Print button was Drucken. Then I was in a shop yesterday and saw that word on the door. It also means Push.

These are all really fun little things that get me learning and adapting to this German world I live in. But it just starts me thinking: how did I learn French? I went to school for French from grade 1-12. Half my classes every year were French, and I guess you could say I know French. But I've been thinking, what is it to know a language; to really know it? I mean there are some words that I just think "when did I learn what that word was in French"; or the young man who gave a talk in our ward today, "when did he learn that word in English".

On Monday night we had Spencer and Rachel over for dinner and Rachel shared with us a little message. First a short message on something specific that interests her, that none of us know anything about yet (philosophy), then one spiritual one as well. The philosophical one she shared with us, I can't really try to explain in this entry (so I Wikipedia'd it and you can learn more here if you're interested. I think it's super cool), but it was fascinating to me. Just a little bit about one person's perspective on different ways to learn and teach language, which I thought was cool.

I have decided that I think I want to learn some more German. There are a few things that maybe I would like to know how to say or to pronounce properly, but mostly I am interested in the recognition and repetition of words and phrases. I want to be able to recognize and apply important words, or maybe phrases. I am not claiming that I will know the launguage of German when I come home, so don't quiz me or anything. But I am going to take the chance I have here, to learn more about language itself, specifically applied to German. It's like a really fun and long word puzzle kind of. It should be interesting, and I'm actually kind of excited about it!

Catching Up

K:

We're finally "caught up" with the blog and things that have happened, but I really wish it hadn't worked out like this. I wish I'd actually gotten a chance to write every time I wanted to. The details just aren't the same when you're remembering them a week later. I really want to get better at it; at saying what happens when it happens. So much of the emotion and spirit of our day to day life here is lost when we have to just give a timeline update of what's happened two weeks ago or so. 

For example: this week we haven't been out to see much of Vienna, as far as sites and museums and stuff goes. In fact we made several plans to see the zoo, the giant wheel and the aquarium on different days this week, but it just didn't quite fit. Eric spends more time at school these days because his semester is finally getting going. Sometimes I miss him, sometimes it's nice to have the house to myself. But for better or worse, it definitely leaves me with more time on my hands. I have more time for real life, and we have less time for the fairytale version of this European adventure. 
This week's real life emotional struggle: school! For me actually, not for him (although he has had his fair share of struggles with the group work he's been doing for his classes). My struggle with school is different than his, because I'm not even in school. I LOVE being in school. I absolutely love to learn. I haven't been in school this year, I've been working and now I'm here! I didn't think I would get to go back until next fall either, but Eric and I have decided together that we'll just make it work for January; provided I can decide what I want to go back for. Hence, the struggle of the week for me. 
I was studying criminal justice and psychology before, and I think I would enjoy going back to that. I liked the classes I took the last semester, and the information is certainly interesting to me, but it does have it's downsides. Example: Eric finds it depressing. I can't really talk to him about school, or about work later, if he finds it all depressing. That's one con for criminal justice. 
There are other options I've been mulling over lately too though. Should I do a shorter course, maybe earn a certificate or a diploma that will have a more practical use in the future. Should I study a field that will be more helpful and applicable and easier to work in if I have kids someday. There are just so many choices that it's really wearing me out. I am so excited about school and going back, that I feel like I need to make this decision instantly, but I've found it's not an instant decision unfortunately. It's also not one Eric, or anyone else can make for me, like where we're gong to eat dinner tonight. I have to  make it, and I want to make it quickly. I want to be able to just know what I should do, like some people always have, but it hasn't been that easy of course.

So this is what I've really been doing lately. No pictures, no beautiful buildings, no zoo. It's just been me in this house and at the school working on lists and lists of options and of courses and of things in general that interest me. Today's task: lists of pros and cons. Eric told me this is something I just have to do, so that's what I'll be working on for the next hour or two or three or however long it takes to get it done, or for him to come home from school today.

Budapest, Hungary

Salzburg - Frankfurt - Heidelberg

This weekend we went on our first big trip. Rachel and Spencer have a cousin in Heidelberg, Germany. They spent the first month here biking around Europe, so they had all their stuff from home shipped to Heidelberg and this weekend we went with them to pick it up. They were going to take the train, but we all decided it'd be cheaper and more fun to all four rent a car and go.
We left Thursday and went to Salzburg, Austria. We spent the night there, and some time on Friday. We planned to see a couple of sights just outside of Salzburg on Friday, but quite honestly we got distracted shopping. We stopped just quickly at a shoe store next to a grocery store; to grab some breakfast and some warmer shoes for Rachel's poor cold wet feet. It was a pretty successful trip, but it did take up too much time. We didn't make it to the other sights, but we enjoyed a wet picnic lunch in a park in Salzburg. 

The park where we picnicked is actually a mini gold course, but completely deserted because of the weather growing increasingly crappy each day.

 

It had a great view though.

Shopping success. Delicious cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Shoes for Rachel. A 20euro rain jacket for me (which I have been looking for since the middle of the summer in Calgary)

A perfect fit and style and the last in the store. I love it when that happens!

Then we went to Frankfurt that night. We left in time, according to the GPS, to get there for 8o'clock to check into the temple housing, but it didn't factor for us the number of wrong turns we would take or times we were lost. We called and asked if they wouldn't mind waiting just a little longer for us, and they were kind to say yes. But when we got there, it was about 10o'clock so of course there was no one in site. It was a long process and a confusing situation but eventually we got into our room, and it was so nice to lay in bed! Saturday morning we did a session at the Temple and it was really nice. It was cool to hear everyone speaking German around us, but our session was actually in English. 

I love to see the temple.

That afternoon we left for Heidelberg, for Rachel and Spencer to finally get their stuff back. We spent that evening with Spencer's cousin and her family. They fed us a delicious meal, and we then played the world's longest Uno game with them. They had some funny rules for the game that just made it last forever. It was fun, but eventually it came down to cheating to make one of the kids win just so it could end. 

The next morning we actually got to spend some time seeing things in the town of Heidelberg, and it was really nice. The town is beautiful, and so much how I always pictured old town Germany to be. 

Our hotel was great. We all slept in one room (Eric and I got the bed, and Rachel and Spencer got the floor because they're much stronger than we are). It also had free breakfast, and a great view.

 

This is Jesuit chapel we saw, and I really liked it. It was all white and bright one the inside, which is unlike any other we've seen so far in Europe. It was really pretty. Then the service started, with the choir, and that made it even more enjoyable. 

The rest of Heidelberg was great. Then we went to Sacrament meeting (getting lost on the way, and missing the first ward and having to attend the second), and then we headed home to Vienna. 

Aww isn't he cute?...it was all just to avoid having to look into the sun.

FALL!

Eric driving on the Autobahn.