“Die Osterhasen”

Posted on March 16, 2013 by admin

The Easter markets opened today in Vienna. Unlike the Christmas markets, which are plentiful and sprinkled throughout the city, there are only two major Easter markets in Vienna each year (that I know of, at least). One of these, the Altwiener Ostermarkt is on the Freyung, which is very close to our house (on the block directly across the street from our house).

We love the Easter markets. Not only are they fun and festive, with yummy treats and intricate, beautifully beaded and hand painted eggs, but their arrival informally marks our Viennese anniversary.

Our first spring here, Easter was later, in April, and one of the first fun, Viennese things we did after our arrival was to visit the very Easter market that is now across the street from our house. (We were living elsewhere at the time, which kind of makes it a fun coincidence that we once visited what would become our neighborhood, back before we knew it would be.)

I look forward to the markets each spring. We take the kids and wander through, sampling treats and window shopping. The amazing eggs are wonderful to admire (although I constantly worry about knocking over an entire display). And, tucked at the back of this market, there is always a stall where the bunnies live — just two or three, hanging out (usually sleeping or snacking). The kids can stop by and visit with the bunnies, watching them do their bunny thing.

Today, when we visited the bunny stall (the bunnies this year are HUGE), B was entranced. He stood and watched the bunnies — one slept while the other hopped around and had a snack. He turned to me, after a few minutes, and said, “You know, at school, I learned that these are called ‘Osterhasen’ in German.”

I think that is so cool. (I didn’t know that.) Watching B enjoy the Osterhasen, and remembering back to our first Easter market trip, nearly two years ago, I’m pretty amazed at how far we’ve come. Two years ago, we barely got through a visit like that, and it was far more stressful to do it. Now it feels like a familiar tradition, and we kind of even understand what’s going on.

Vorschule, here we come

Posted on March 15, 2013 by admin

In Austria, the year of education immediately prior to primary school is called Vorschule (preschool) and the years preceding that are called Kindergarten, opposite of what they’re called in the US. Also, while the “official” start to Vorschule happens the September before first grade, the preliminary evaluations and the first structured lessons begin in March of that year, since nearly all Austrian children seem to attend Kindergarten.

So, for B, that means now.

As with everything else from his school experience, this is new to us. We had no idea that the more formal part of his education was about to begin. We went to an informational meeting at his school last night, expecting to hear only about things for next September, and were surprised to hear about the evaluations that are set to begin in the next few weeks.

I don’t know much about kindergarten in the US, and even less about Vorschule in Austria, but it seems to me that they focus on different things. I have the impression that American kids entering kindergarten are supposed to already be started on reading and writing, able to count and recognize numbers, and capable of dressing themselves . . . so we’ve been watching B’s progress and encouraging him to develop these skills. Although the kids in Austria will be evaluated on things like motor coordination, emotional maturity and math skills, the vast majority of the emphasis in Vorschule appears to be on language development. Really, almost entirely. As the principal said last night, “Without language, we cannot have any learning”. (But, of course, she said it in German. What’s more amazing is that I understood her.)

And, while B’s verbal and math skills are impressive, and his drawings get more detailed every day, the emphasis for his upcoming evaluations will be on language skills — vocabulary, sentence structure, prepositions, reading comprehension (when the teacher does the reading) and verb conjugation . . . all in German.

So, my first thought was to worry. Actually, my first reaction was to freak out with stress. Especially because I can’t even help him. His German is equivalent to mine (if not better), and my “help” would probably hinder more than improve his skills. But, I don’t need to worry. First, we were happy to find out that there is a whole separate evaluation track for kids who are learning German as a second language. Secondly . . . when we get back to the States, is anyone going to hold his problems constructing proper German sentences against him?

Since it’s “school”, it’s hard for me to not get worked up about it and instantly focus on how to improve his evaluation. The overachieving perfectionist in me really wants to come out. But, there’s no need. He’s getting the education that he needs just by getting up every morning and going to school. He’s learning that he can do hard things. He’s learning to share, play well with others, take turns and ask when he doesn’t understand something. He’s learning a whole new cultural perspective. And he’s learning some German, too. It’s *all* important and significant, and every day that he spends in the Austrian school system teaches him major life skills. He’ll have his evaluation done, and the teachers know already that it will identify which areas he needs to work on. Great! And then they’ll work on improving those things. What is there for me to get worked up about?

But the thing is, back in the US, I would have. I would already be putting inadvertent pressure on him to succeed in a way that works for me. Being here, and having to step back, gives me so much more appreciation for the system. I have to trust and respect his teachers for their patience and expertise, for it’s perfectly clear that they are taking on a job that I could not do. I hate to admit it, but I recognize that I might not have had the same willingness to trust in them, nor the same awareness of the need for me to stay out of it, if we were at home. And an evaluation of “needs to improve”, in any area, would probably have put me on defensive mode instead of open acceptance, which is what I’ll most likely react with here. But isn’t that what school is for? Improving? So why should that bother me?

As part of the meeting last night, we got to go through and do some of the activities B will be doing soon. We did a rhyming game, a matching game, saw how they do “reading” comprehension, built stories with pictures, and worked on our prepositions. And, as B will do, we did it all in German. It was actually pretty fun, and just about at our skill level. We learned quite a few things. And after an hour or so of intently listening to German, trying to pull out relevant information and formulate intelligent questions, we were exhausted.

I’m kind of jealous, though. I think I need Vorschule. If I spent an hour each day playing those games, I’d be awesome at German. Both Dan & I felt like we learned a lot last night — not just about the Austrian system, but some new German, too.

So, here we are. B is about to start a new chapter of his academic career, and I’m already learning lessons about relaxing and accepting the process without obsessing over my natural desire for perfection.

In short, I think that Benjamin isn’t the only one getting an education here.

Really, really old

Posted on March 14, 2013 by admin

I’m an American. We count things as “old” when they’ve been around for 200 years, and “really old” when they existed when our country was just a conglomeration of colonies.

In Vienna, I am surrounded by things that are “really old”, or even, my new classification of “really, really old” which pretty much accounts for stuff old enough to not quite make sense to my brain. (Like, for example, the building I live in, which has been around since at least the 16th century.)

There are also plenty of new things in Vienna, like the Starbucks that just went in on the next block, about 1 minute from my front door. I’m excited about it, and I stopped in yesterday to check it out. On my way home, I noticed a sign outside of the restaurant next door, pointed directly at the new Starbucks:

And I had to laugh. Yep — really, really old.

For whom the bell tolls

Posted on March 13, 2013 by admin

Vienna has a lot of churches (the saying is that there is one for every day of the year). And those churches have bells, and the bells are rung a lot. It’s actually one of my favorite parts of living in Vienna — hearing those bells ring every day. We’ve gotten accustomed to the regular schedule of church bells — many ring at noon every day, one nearby church rings at 5:45 each evening, another (a little further away) at 7:00. And then, on Sundays and on the major church holidays, there are extra bells, before and after the church services. (We’ve gotten so used to the “regular” schedule that I always notice when there are more than usual.)

And then, this evening, shortly after 7:00, the bells started — all over the city, from all of the churches — and they didn’t stop. They kept ringing, and ringing. After about 10 minutes, Jo and I noticed and commented. About 10 minutes later, we figured out what they were celebrating — there must have been a new pope elected. The bells in Vienna rang for over half an hour, celebrating the selection of the new pope.

Living in this city, where the music of the many church bells has become commonplace (if no less magical), it seems perfectly appropriate to have learned about the election of a new pope by hearing the bells chime with such enthusiasm. The news spread from the Vatican to Vienna and then to the people by the sound of the bells. It is a moment of my history here that I don’t think I will ever forget.

Living in the present

Posted on March 12, 2013 by admin

“My name is Emily. I live in Vienna. I have two children. I come from the USA. I like to travel, read, ride horses and dance. I go to the cafe and sit outside. Good morning. Good evening. Thank you. Please. You’re welcome. Goodbye.”

Until now, that’s the rough equivalent of most of my spoken German. Most notably, up until yesterday, I had no way of speaking in anything other than the present tense, which has, at times, caused a fair bit of confusion for whoever is unfortunate enough to have to attempt to decipher my rough attempts to communicate. I recently had a very circuitous and confusing conversation with one of Benjamin’s teachers. She was asking me to pay a fee for a field trip that’d I’d already paid to the other teacher, but I couldn’t say anything other than “I am paying”, at which point she looked at me expectantly. I finally thought to add, “I am paying yesterday”, but that seemed to confuse things more because she thoughts i was trying to say, “I will pay tomorrow” and just butchering it. We finally had to resort to bringing in an English speaking teacher to clarify. (I also don’t have the future tense, which means I always end up saying roughly, “Benjamin is not at school in two weeks because we are on holiday.” But that’s ok — it seems to work.)

It seems like kind of a silly thing, but I am really quite excited about starting to add a past tense to my repertoire. 80% of the time, I get by just fine with broken, present tense German and a lot of patience from the people around me. But it’s nice to be learning how to say things (a little bit more) properly.

Thoughts on Italy

Posted on March 11, 2013 by admin

After every trip we go on, I come back and talk all about how much I loved it. And I worry, a bit, that I’m writing too much about something that’s now in the past, but, at the same time, I recognize that the only way I’m ever going to capture what I really felt about a place is while it’s still fresh in my mind.

In other words, bear with me, because I’m going to write some more about our recent trip to Italy, and try to summarize some of what we learned about travelling there (specifically with small kids).

First of all, we loved Italy. Although I don’t think it would get the award for “most favorite destination so far” (which would go to Northern Ireland), it would definitely be in a heated three-way battle for second place (with the Newlands Valley in England and Normandy). We really, truly, loved Italy.

Why was it so great? Lots of reasons. The food was amazing. (Our favorite restaurant in Rome was “Da Francesco” near Piazza Navona and we “discovered” a great gelato place in Venice.) We got to experience some astounding and ancient monuments that pictures can’t capture and stories don’t describe in enough detail. And the people were wonderful. More than anywhere else we’ve travelled, the Italian people really wanted to communicate and connect. They weren’t bothered by our complete lack of Italian (outside of “per favore”, “grazie”, “prego” and “il conto”) and were enthusiastic about, rather than frustrated by, our attempts to communicate in a melange of Spanish, German, French and English. They really do talk with their hands, and spoken Italian always sounds either seductive (most of the time) or very angry. And then, we had a Roman cab driver come back to look for us when he discovered my sister’s phone in his cab, even though it was out of his way and it had been almost an hour since he’d dropped us off. I don’t think we were unsuccessful at communicating a single time in Italy, even when we didn’t have a common language, and I don’t think there was a single person we talked to for more than a moment who didn’t end up feeling like a new friend. It was fantastic to feel that kind of warmth from so many people, especially as a clueless tourist.

But, aside from falling in love with Italy (which is a cliché I was happy to have come true), we did learn a lot on our trip. From the perspective of travelling with little ones, Rome was more kid friendly and stroller friendly than I expected. I anticipated issues with getting the stroller around the ancient sites, but it honestly wasn’t (too) much of a problem. There were some stairs, and lots of hills, and trying to get the stroller through/across the massive paving stones at the Forum was frustrating at times. But, in general, getting around in Rome was pretty easy with the stroller, and the kids were warmly welcomed everywhere. (Because of our hotel location, we didn’t use public transportation — we got around by walking and in cabs — so I can’t speak to the ease of using a stroller on Rome’s Metro or bus system.)

By contrast, Vatican City was NOT particularly stroller friendly. Although I was glad that we had the stroller for the tour of the Vatican museum, because B slept through a lot of it, it was really difficult to manage the MANY stairs along the route. There are elevators, but the security guards will stop some stroller-pushers from using them while allowing others through. Early in the museum, we got access to all of the elevators, and later on, we were denied. It really seemed to depend on who was standing there (they are all guarded) when we arrived. If I had it to do over again, I’d skip the stroller and just hit the high notes of the museum (my favorite part was the Raphael rooms, just before the Sistine Chapel).

Rome has a reputation (much like Paris) for being “crimey” — being infested with pickpockets and purse snatchers. And maybe it is, but we didn’t see it. We felt comfortable walking through the touristy areas of Rome during the day and at night, and never got into a situation that made us uncomfortable. (We were much more aware of the criminal element in Paris than in Rome.) However, there are some very persistent trinket vendors at the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps who were annoying (and, as they worked in large groups, may have had ulterior motives). We were very firm in our dismissal, and they kept their distance. (They were actually much more of a nuisance at San Marco in Venice.) The only place I saw anything that made me uncomfortable from a crime sense was at the Roma Termini station while we were waiting for our train to Venice. There was a group of young women standing around watching the passers-by a little too intently. They would meet up, talk amongst themselves and then split up to wander around among the passengers and reconvene elsewhere a few minutes later. They had no luggage, and didn’t seem to be waiting for anyone. There was a group of young men around who seemed to be operating in a similar fashion. I didn’t see anything untoward happening, but the combination of the looks they were giving the crowd, plus their actions, ensured that I kept an eye on them the whole time. But really, we didn’t have any trouble. (Actually, on our entire trip, the place I got the worst vibe in terms of crime was San Marco square at night. During the warmer months, I know this area is popular with dancers and diners, but in early March, the cafes close up early and the only people left seem to be a few wandering tourists and quite a few others watching them from the shadows of the columns. We didn’t stay long.)

We really loved Rome. But I’m glad we went there first, because I truly fell in love with Venice. Venice was just amazing. I wasn’t able to truly appreciate the way it would feel to be in a city without cars whose streets are canals and winding alleyways. Venice is beautiful and romantic. While Rome feels like visiting the world’s largest open-air museum, Venice is like actually stepping back in time. And . . . I know that’s what EVERYONE says about Venice and you still probably won’t really get it until you go. It’s just something that has to be experienced.

In Venice, the public transportation was excellent. We used the water bus, but didn’t use any taxi service in Venice. The water bus is quite expensive per trip, but very functional, and you get a lovely (unguided) tour, too. It was a little confusing, in terms of where to put the stroller, but we figured it out and had a couple of very nice trips.

Other than the water buses, though, Venice is NOT very stroller friendly. At all. The streets are really very narrow, and all deliveries done to shops and restaurants are done by guys pushing big hand trucks. They know where they’re going and how to get there and you have to get out of their way — and the stroller causes a traffic jam which makes everything harder for everyone. On top of that, each canal crossing is a bridge, and nearly all of the bridges have stone steps up one side and down the other. Not impossible with the stroller, but it makes it more like a litter than a stroller, much of the time. I was a little disappointed about not being able to use the stroller more, because I’d been having nightmares about the kids falling into the canals, and I was hoping to strap them into the stroller for security. I didn’t really need to be overly worried. Although it certainly would have been possible for the kids to jump in a canal if they’d wanted to, unbarriered openings to the water were less common than I’d expected, and enforcing a “you have to hold hands” rule worked just fine. Although we barely used the stroller, we really didn’t miss it much.

In Venice, we stayed right in the heart of the city (about 3 minutes walk, at Liam speed, from St. Mark’s square). Venice is so much just about BEING there, rather than about doing anything in particular, that if I had it to do over again, I would stay in the same place. Venice changes throughout the day — bustling in the morning, relaxed in the afternoon, and seemingly deserted at night — that it’s nice to be able to experience it all. Besides, all of our favorite Venetian food stops (including Gelato Fantasy and the tasty chain pasta place we found) were centrally located, too. One of the things that made the trip work really well was letting the boys run for a while, each morning, at San Marco. It was a great, big, open area, with puddles to jump in and pigeons to chase, and having some time to run and be free put them in a much better state to put up with our wanderings for the rest of the day. Being at San Marco and walking to the top of the Rialto Bridge to enjoy the amazing view were my favorite activities in Venice, and I’m also really glad we did the gondola ride. It was classic and romantic, and was also a beautiful way to see the city.

In fact, just about the only thing I didn’t like about our trip was the overnight train ride home from Venice to Vienna. It was just too much for Liam, at the end of a long day and the end of a busy week, and we all suffered for it.

It was an amazing trip, and another great chapter in our adventure. We fell in love with Italy. And, as with all of our favorite destinations, I’m already fantasizing about our next visit.

Fun with Daylight Saving Time

Posted on March 10, 2013 by admin

We have Daylight Saving Time here, too, as does the US and various other parts of the world that like to be confusing, but the change happens at a different time than it does in the US. Honestly, I barely do a decent job of remembering to convert the time difference on a normal basis — my family at home may not realize how close I come, regularly, to waking them in the middle of the night with a text message. When the Daylight Saving Time change happens, I have an awful time keeping up with it.

The year, because of the way the month of March falls across the days of the week, the time changed in the US last night, while our time here won’t change until the last day of the month, three weeks from now. The US changes on the 2nd weekend of the month, and Austria changes on the *last* weekend of the month. Last year, there were only four Sundays in March, but this year, there are five, so there’s an extra week in between. (Talk about complicated! Since Daylight Saving Time is an arbitrary concept, though, I probably shouldn’t be surprised.) I have the hardest time keeping track, during this limbo period, of how much we’re “off” from home, causing me to miss Skype appointments and send messages out at inappropriate times more often. Every time before, I’ve only had to keep track for a week or two, but this time, it’s a whole three weeks. Apologies in advance to everyone I contact back at home over the next few weeks!

Paying taxes abroad

Posted on March 9, 2013 by admin

I’m good at math and good at following directions. That, plus a philosophical willingness to pay my taxes (somewhat tempered by the fact that I don’t live in the US and don’t participate in, or benefit from, very many US citizen services these days — with notable exceptions of important things like the State Department) means that paying my taxes ought not be too terribly onerous.

But I don’t care who you are, it’s still not the way anyone wants to spend a couple of Saturday mornings.

I sat down this morning with my good friend, Turbo Tax. After a failed attempt at having our taxes done professionally last year, I had to rush to do them on my own (with help from Turbo Tax) at the very last minute. That was pretty rough. Combining Turbo Tax’s guidance with the supporting information provided by the IAEA was a little complicated, but seems to have gotten me through without any major failures (so far). But, still, it was pretty complex. Our taxes for 2011 involved living in two countries, plus two states within the US, and the sale of our home. It was the most complicated return we’ve done so far.

This year, things are a lot simpler. We don’t own anything. We’ve lived abroad for over and year and it encompassed the entire year of 2012, so we don’t have to prove anything about our residency (although we do have to document the dates of each trip we made to the US) and, since we aren’t eligible for most deductions, for the first time in over a decade we don’t need to itemize. It’s really pretty straightforward, once you get past the whole living abroad issue. I think I paid my dues last year in terms of tax complication. (And, of course, I’m sure I’ll have to do it again when we move home, and we won’t have the benefit of support from the IAEA at that point. But that is a problem for another tax year.)

So, it’s not too bad this year, by comparison. But it’s still kind of complicated, and it’s complicated in ways I’m not used to. The things we have to look up and the supporting documents we need to collect are almost entirely different than they were in the US, so, although I thought was pretty well prepared when I sat down this morning, it turns out that I wasn’t. And, after 2 hours of sifting through options on Turbo Tax (which I don’t mean to malign at all, because it’s incredibly helpful, and without it, I’d probably be left sobbing and fail an audit) I’m not much closer to completion than when I started. But I do have a handy list of a dozen documents I need to find, which is at least a place to start.

To summarize, doing my taxes is not fun. And I don’t get out of it, even though I moved out of the country. (Bummer.) At least one more Saturday morning will probably be dedicated to sorting everything out. But, all things considered, it could be worse. This is nothing compared to what I had to deal with last year. I think I’ll focus on how grateful I am for that.

Playing catch up

Posted on March 8, 2013 by admin

We left for our vacation in Italy on Friday, February 22 around 6 in the evening. We took the overnight train, arrived in Rome on Saturday morning, left for Venice on Wednesday afternoon, left Venice late in the evening on Saturday the 2nd of March and arrived back in Vienna the following morning. We were on vacation for about 8 1/2 days, which was time well spent. We’ve been back for about 5 days, and I’m just now starting to catch up.

I’m just *starting* to catch up. Meaning that I’ve opened the mail we accrued when we left, washed a few loads of laundry (although the pile is still large enough that it tipped over and covered half the bathroom floor this morning), almost caught up posting blogs and emailing and backing up pictures, and, today, for the first time since we’ve been back, I was fairly certain I knew what day it was, all day long. By Monday, we’ll probably be pretty much back on a normal schedule, and life will get back to business as usual.

Considering that I also started doing laundry and packing 2 entire weeks before we left on our trip, at this point I’ve devoted much more time to executing the details of the trip and organizing everything afterwards than we actually spent on vacation. (And that doesn’t include the time it took to actually plan the trip, find the hotels, buy the train tickets, etc.)

I’m sharing this, not to complain, but to acknowledge that travelling (and even more so with kids) is a ton of work. I think it’s easy to get caught up in the fun, and forget to mention how much work goes into making a family vacation happen. I think it’s one of those things that we (all, collectively) think should be easier than it is. And it just isn’t. It’s a lot of work. And there isn’t a way around that (at least, not that I’ve found). And I just want to put that out there, along with the highlight reel of idyllic pictures of cruising the Grand Canal in a gondola, and the stories of how great the food was and how well the kids behaved. Even though we travel (a lot) and I think we’ve gotten pretty good at making the whole thing work, from reservations to packing to scheduling to actually enjoying the trip, there is just so much effort that goes into doing it. And I don’t want to paint an overly rosy picture and give the impression that, when it’s hard, something is wrong.

As a parent (especially one that stays home with the kids), vacation is just doing your normal job, off of your schedule and without all of your stuff. Dan usually says that after a vacation, he goes back to work to recuperate from the intensity of our trip. It’s a completely different concept of “vacation” than we once had. Now that I’m used to it, and that’s what I expect, it’s really wonderful, but it isn’t the same as sitting on the beach sipping margaritas (which, now that I think about it, I’m not sure I’ve ever did while I had the chance).

It is hard. I’m exhausted. I need a vacation to recover from our vacation. It was totally, completely, 100% worth it, but it’ll still be a few days before we really get back to normal around here.

Outside seating!

Posted on March 7, 2013 by admin

I’ve always loved being outside. I don’t mind the weather — getting cold or wet doesn’t bother me. I don’t even mind the summer heat if I’m outside and can stay out of the sun. When I was in middle school and high school and my friends and I would get bored, I always suggested going for a walk. (Which also partly explains why I have so few interestingly wild stories from that era.)

So I wait, all winter. During the coldest and darkest months of the year, I still get out a fair bit, but winter takes away one of my favorite pieces of European living — sitting in a sidewalk cafe. Going out for a cup of coffee is a treat anytime of year, but getting to enjoy it on the sidewalks of a grand Viennese square, reading a good book and watching the horse-drawn carriages go by is especially sweet. And going out to eat, especially with the kids, is much more relaxed and enjoyable under the stars, where volume matters less and there’s always a place for them to get down and play.

I don’t really know if I can adequately convey how much enjoyment I get from sitting in the open air, enjoying Vienna and soaking every bit of it in. It is one of my favorite parts of living here. I like it way more than is probably reasonable. I think it’s fantastic and wonderful and it brings together so many things I like at the same time — being outside, drinking coffee, relaxing, great people-watching opportunities and getting to really BE in Europe (because the inside of cafes are pretty much the same anywhere).

And now, my long, indoor, winter hibernation is ending. The cafes are spilling out onto the sidewalks again, the street side tables are out, the umbrellas are going up. Vienna is preparing for spring, and I am so happy to be able to enjoy the city in this way again.

A Mommy Abroad

Our big adventure, as a family of three.

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