February Fun

February marks the beginning of visitors. We are excited to have a list of friends & family coming from now until summer. We started first with Sarah and Nikki. After a little confusion of the arrival day, Sarah arrived in Vienna just in time for an adventure to Venice for Carnival. We took the "Carnival" train which meant an overnight ride Friday, spend all day Saturday in Venice, then another overnight ride Saturday, bringing us back to Vienna on Sunday morning. We had two cabin sleeping cars for the 7 of us, and the train came complete with a Saloon Car and Disco Car-it never fails, no matter how far removed you may feel, you can never escape the Macarena!

Once in Venice, the colors and artistic beauty of Carnival costumes were abundant. One-by-one we selected and bought masks to celebrate the occasion. We walked along the cobble streets and over bridges and took in the sights. The people dressed in extravagant costumes were exquisite-they assumed serious roles and posed for the cameras. Most of the festivities took place in San Marco square and the day was filled with celebration and ended with shows and dancing. We had so much fun walking into squares playing music where we stopped everything and danced. The train rides were also a blast, filled with games and eats and drinks.

The day we returned from Venice, Nikki arrived! It was so great having both Sarah and Nikki here during my February ski week. We spent the first 3 days touring around Vienna-went to a couple museums, ice-skating at the Rathaus, quiz-night at Johnnys, and of course eating and drinking. Then we were off to the mountains in the Salzburg area. We stayed at a guest house in Altenmarkt and skied gorgeous slopes at Zauchensee. We were blown away by the amount of mountains and ski resorts there are in this area

and we are already making plans to go back in the summer for rafting and canyon hiking.

One night in a nearby town called Flachau, we did about an hour hike up a steep and snowy mountain with unguarded cliffs and subtle turns. Our destination was a huge traditional

Austrian restaurant. There, we ate heavy and delicious food amongst other locals and visitors whom we became friends with as

the evening went on. After dinner, the best part of night was the sled ride back down the mountain. We saw the terrain during the sunset hike, but now it was dark and we only knew that it would be best to stay away from the edge.

The sleds were fast, really fast, and all we could do to slow down was dig our feet in the snow as best as we could. Once we got the hang of it, we eased off the breaks

and went for it. It was incredible and some of us were a little more out of control than others (Nikki :).

The day before Nikki had to head home, the girls took a Salzburg trip. We walked around the charming city, gave ourselves a small Sound of Music tour, and visited the Augustiner Brau-the brewhouse where monks have brewed beer since 1621-and they know what they're doing!

This February "ski week" has been non-stop fun filled with shenanigans. We miss Nikki and her excellent German and shopping talents and are still loving having Sarah here until the end of this week.

It's back to school and to "normal" life-although, I'm not sure how "normal" our lives have been lately.

2010....

let's say it has started off cold, very cold, and yet, amazing!

After returning to Vienna to "normal life," it was time to get back into the swing of things. I am loving my students and school, but Andrew has also been doing a good amount of substitute teaching. My assistant had to be out of work for over a week, so my students had both Mr. & Mrs. Leckie as their teachers-and they loved it! Aside from that, Andrew has been assisting in the elementary library and office and he's getting pretty good at doing Read Alouds with the classrooms, shelving books, and answering phones. He has also been busy coaching basketball and tutoring. Recently he has traveled with his team to Frankfurt and Budapest for tournaments. Even with his busy schedule, Andrew is still the chef and lunch maker in the family and still taking great care of me.

I started taking German classes at the University of Wien, so again I am a student at UW. Between teaching in English all day and having english speaking friends, I have not been able to embrace the German language. In hopes to prevent the blank-stare-look I often have when asked something in German, I hope to learn some survival phrases besides my ability to order food and drinks at restaurants. I have also started a running group with some friends and it's been nice to meet other people with similar interests. Andrew and I are going to do the Vienna half-marathon in April and I signed up for the Berlin full. Berlin has always been a dream marathon of mine. Recently for my birthday, I traveled an hour to Sopron, Hungary with 5 other girl friends to go to Wabi spa. The spas in Hungary are pretty extravagant and are very reasonably priced. I was able to get my hair cut, a facial, massage and my train ride there and back for less than it would cost for just a hair cut in Vienna. Thanks Georgia for my birthday present-a trip to the spa!! We made a fun trip out of it and know that we are going to make this a habit.

Last night we went to the IAEA Ball at the Hofburg Palace. This is a ball put on each year by the UN and what an event it was. With 5,000 attendees and the such an elegant venue as the Hofburg Palace, it was quite the spectacle. We were surrounded by ball gowns and tuxedos, while moving from ballroom to ballroom in a palace that holds an incredible history. We got to watch as the debutantes performed for the first time and watched entertainment from around the world. There were around 8 different dance rooms to go to playing a variety of music and dance styles. The balls stays open until around 4 or 5 in the morning and as we left around 3 am, we watched the older people out-party us for the night. In the winter around Vienna it is ball season and it blows my mind when I see people still dressed in ball attire at 9:00 as I am meeting my running group in the morning. The Viennese love their balls...

This upcoming weekend starts our stretch of visitors coming between now and May. We have 12 confirmed guests coming before the summer and possibly more! Next week is ski week and we have a break from school. This Friday Sarah Affolter gets here and we leave for Carnival in Venice. Sunday Nikki is here and we'll all explore Vienna and then make our way to Satlzburg and get in a little skiing.

Until next time...