Author Archives: admin

Family style

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20130225-002123.jpgWe had a fantastic day today in Rome. After a much needed rest, we got out into the city to visit the Colosseum, which was amazing and massive and ancient and wonderful. It is the oldest thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s a little hard to impart the significance of that to a 4 year old and a 2 year old. It’s also hard, we discovered, to explain the purpose of the Colosseum to young kids without traumatizing them with gory details. (B understands that there were lions somehow involved.) They appreciated the steps and the cobblestones and enjoyed wandering around a bit, though.

20130225-002400.jpgAfter exhausting ourselves and the boys’ patience, we had a relatively uninteresting lunch and then discovered what is (most likely) the best pastry shop in Rome. We were looking for gelato for the boys (because they will eat ice cream in any weather — including chilly and drizzly, like today) and stumbled across this perfect little confection shop (called Cristalli di Zucchero, located behind the Forum).

20130225-002418.jpgIt was so lovely. Between us, we had a selection of bite-sized cakes, a few macaroons, a cannoli, a profiterole and a cappuccino. They were all heavenly. It was quite a lucky find.

And then, this evening, we went out and “discovered” (similarly to how Columbus discovered America) our new favorite Roman restaurant (Da Francesco near Piazza Navona). We ate a wonderful assortment of pizza and pasta, all beautifully made, and Benjamin charmed our waiter by ordering a second pistachio tiramisu for dessert.

156We shared everything. When my family goes out to eat, we always do. We contemplate the menu, vote for our favorites, choose a selection, and enjoy them together. We have the best time, and we all debate our favorites. We can basically turn any restaurant meal into a family style affair. I love it. I’d rather eat with my family than with anyone else.

20130225-002550.jpgSo, today, we had a wonderful day. We saw some of ancient Rome, we ate some fantastic food, and we had a great time. So far, Italy is absolutely excellent.

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Sleeper train to Rome

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So we’re here, on the first part of our Italian adventure. To get here, we took the overnight “sleeper” train yesterday from Vienna to Rome. It was quite an adventure in itself.

20130223-174619.jpgWe had a terrible time getting ourselves and all of our stuff onto the train. (The train was a bit late, it was very cold and windy, and we created a major roadblock getting the stroller on board.) Once we got ourselves all loaded into the compartment, it wasn’t much better. At first, we couldn’t figure out where to put any of our things or how anything was supposed to be set up. But eventually, Jo climbed up to the top of the highest bunk bed and we got most of our things stowed away up top. It was a bit crowded, slightly uncomfortable and a little claustrophobic, but cozy and fun — kind of like camping.

After a few hours of socializing in our tightly packed quarters (through most of which Jo hung out in the top bunk and the boys mostly watched videos and played iPad games), we decided to set up for bed.

20130223-174736.jpgIt took forever. Getting everything arranged, figuring out how to set up all of the beds (and then realizing that there were no options at that point other than laying down or standing up) and getting the boys and ourselves ready for bed all were more complicated and took longer than we expected. By the time we all got in to bed (around 11) we were completely exhausted.

The kids were AMAZING. Through the initial stress of getting situated, plus the hours of confinement, and on through the endless-seeming evening of “getting ready for bed”, they were pleasant, happy and enthusiastic. Then they snuggled down in theirs bunks like experts.

Sleeping was tough. The beds were kind of cozy (if not very big) but the fear of falling out of bed, exacerbated by the sometimes abrupt braking of the train, kept the adults up for a while. B slept soundly, but Liam (who shared a bed with Dan) was restless. We all eventually got some rest though, and I ended up being more comfortable than I expected to be.

20130223-174750.jpgWe truly had no idea what it was going to be like before we set off. It was kind of weird, but it worked out pretty well, really. Of course, it was made a bit more challenging by the fact that we ended up nearly 2 hours behind schedule (and then ended up getting to Rome earlier than we’d been told we would, which created an intense scramble at the end).

Our 16 hour train saga seems to have been well worth it though. We’re here now, in Rome, listening to the rain and the birds and the bells ringing at the Vatican. We had an amazing lunch (the food really is as good as we’d heard) and we’re looking forward to the rest of our visit to Rome. The train journey was just the beginning of this piece of our adventure.

iPhone magic

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My iPhone has learned to do magic, and I think it is going to entirely change my experience here.

Back when it came out, I was really excited about the Word Lens app.  Using a smart phone’s built-in camera, the app will translate printed text in real-time on your phone screen.  You can point it at just about any text and have it pop up the translated text superimposed over the original image (it even does a decent job of mimicking the font).  Suddenly, you find you’re looking at English instead of whatever was printed in the first place.

It’s absolutely amazing, and, to my mind, it’s pretty much indistinguishable from magic.  (In fact, if it turns out that it IS magic, it would probably make more sense to me.)  It’s like having a translation dictionary in your pocket, except that you don’t have to spend the time looking up the word or phrase you’re looking for — the app does it for you.  It’s like (for fellow Doctor Who fans) having been a passenger on the TARDIS and having all text suddenly appear to be in English.  Jo compared it to having a babblefish (a la Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) for your eyes.  I think it’s basically magic.

When it first came out, it was only available in English/Spanish translation.  That was just about the same time we moved to Austria, so although I found it amazing, I didn’t have much use for it.  Since then, though (and unbeknownst to me), they added French and Italian translation.  And, just recently, German.

So now, in addition to actually learning German (which I really am trying to do) I have the ability to point my phone at text I don’t understand and suddenly “see” what it means.  Signs, menus and newspaper headlines are all going to be much more accessible.  I tried it today on some papers that B brought home from school, and instead of spending an hour puzzling it out with the help of Google translate, I spent 10 minutes reading through the pages in sections with the help of my phone.  I think it’s absolutely fantastic, and it’s going to be a pretty amazing tool when I’m in need of understanding something (which is frequently).

And, since it also does Italian translation, I went ahead and downloaded that one, too, since we’re leaving for Rome this evening and we don’t speak any Italian.  I’m fairly certain that it’s going to be a significant help, and will certainly give us more confidence being abroad in a culture where we can barely communicate.  (Other than that, we’re pretty much counting on the fact that we speak, collectively, a little Spanish, French and German and that we’ll be able to make it work.  Which may or may not actually be the case.)

But it’s kind of amazing to have a super powerful real-time pocket translator.  We live in the future.

Mina is here!

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20130221-150201.jpgMina is here!

First thing this morning, before the boys were even up, I left the house and went to the airport to pick up Mina. She’s arrived! She’s here! She had a safe trans-Atlantic journey and now she’s here with us again in Vienna.

I am so happy to see her.  I am thrilled to have her here and to get to talk to her in person. It’s wonderful!

20130221-150325.jpgAnd the kids are so excited to be with her, too. Liam ran up, shouting, “Mina!” when she arrived, and Benjamin pretty much skipped the whole way home from school and made up a song in the elevator on the way upstairs because he was so excited.

Yay!!!!! Mina is here! We are so glad!

Even introverted mommies need a social life

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I try not to spend time on self-pity — not just in terms of writing, but, more importantly, in terms of what I allow to inhabit space in my mind.  I try to focus on what I have (which is a lot) instead of what I don’t.  But, the truth is that living abroad can sometimes be an incredibly lonely experience.

Of course, I have my family.  My children are wonderful, but I’m the mom, and they’re the kids, and they aren’t here to be my companions.  I have Dan, but he’s out of the house for about 55 hours each week, and the vast majority of the rest of the time is taken up by wall-to-wall parenting and sleep (if we’re lucky).  Jo is here, which has been wonderful in terms of giving me tons of opportunities for adult conversation, but in the hours where she isn’t cooking or watching Liam so I can get something done, she takes advantage of the opportunity (as she should) to explore the city unencumbered by kids, to rest and catch up with people at home, and even, on occasion, to be social with new friends.

The schedule of managing the household, keeping both kids on their schedules and getting B back and forth to school each day, plus having only made a few friends here (and they are almost all moms, and are balancing busy schedules themselves) means that I have almost no social interaction outside of my (not quite) weekly dates with Dan.  I go out on my own, twice a week, for an hour each time, but always alone.  I have coffee alone.  I go for walks alone.  I go ice skating alone.

And it’s been getting to me.

I am missing my friends at home very badly.  I am missing play dates with other mom friends, dinner get-togethers with friends with kids, weekend days spent with my family, afternoons at the barn, and, most of all, girl nights where I could hang out with a friend or two or seven, and just be me, instead of being me-as-a-mom.

A few days ago, I met up with a friend of mine for a run.  She had her little one (Liam’s age) with her and I had Liam with me (B was at school).  We’d been trying to arrange to meet up for a run for weeks, but stuff kept getting in the way — the weather was awful, Liam was sick, her son was sick, Liam was sick again, it snowed again.  But, finally, we had a day when everyone was healthy and the weather was agreeable, so we met up and went running for an hour.

It was fantastic.  It was just what I needed.  I hadn’t seen them in months, and it was so nice to chat (besides, she runs faster that I do, so it was also inspiring for my running speed).  It was lovely to see them again, and it was great to just have a little friend time.

I think it’s pretty well expected that someone in my situation — a stay-at-home mom, in a new country, where I don’t speak the language — would feel this way from time to time.  So it’s not a surprise.  But still, sometimes, it isn’t fun.  I’m starting to understand why people who had been through relocations like this strongly encouraged me to get involved in “mom groups” when I arrived . . . which I didn’t do, because they really aren’t my thing.  But it’s been hard to make friends on my own, and, more importantly, to make strong connections in this environment of having so little common ground with many of the people who I meet, and not being able to communicate well, even if I did.

As a basically introverted person, I’m not overly bothered by not having a lot of social connection . . . most of the time.  Most of the time, I find my solitary hours peaceful and centering, rather than lonely.  But sometimes, it’s really nice to have some friend time.

Almost a marathon

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A few weeks ago, I thought I would try to see if I could walk/run/hike a marathon’s worth of miles each week. Since then, I’ve been making an effort and keeping track, but I hadn’t yet come close until last week.  I still didn’t quite make it, but I did cover over 24 miles last week.

I did some walking, a very little bit of running, and even about 5 miles worth of ice skating.  I’ve found that most weeks, I walk about 6 miles without making any particular effort — taking B to school, going shopping, going to my German lesson — which leaves me just over 20 miles to accrue some other way.  That works out to nearly 3 additional miles that I need to get in each day.  I didn’t quite make it last week, but almost.  (I should have recorded the distance we covered on the dance floor at the ball!)

I’m working on it.  I’m getting there.  I’m going to keep at it, and see where it takes me.  I wonder how far we’ll walk in Italy?

More on skating

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034After our overly crowded experience at the Wiener Eistraum few weeks ago, we’ve experimented a bit with various times and days to try to find the best time to skate with the kids.  So far, the weekend evenings are great!  They are much less crowded, and thus easier and more fun, than the daytimes during the weekend.  (We haven’t yet gotten over there in the day during the week, but with the number of kids I’ve seen walking in that direction with skates, I’d guess it’s pretty busy.)  With a fraction of the number of kids in the evenings (more like 10), and a slightly older average age, there is plenty of space to have fun, and lots of practice penguins.  Both of my boys have had a better and more relaxed time on our more recent visits.  (As a note, the children’s area becomes a 073curling rink on weekday evenings, so there’s no children’s area after 4 on weekdays.)

I’ve gone back a few extra times as well — once more with Dan as a date night, and once on my own.  We’re really enjoying it.  It’s a great way to enjoy wintertime Vienna, and it’s a fun way to get outside with the kids this time of year.  Next, I just have to convince Liam that the ice isn’t for eating . . .

A ball at the palace (again)

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028Last year, we went to the IAEA Ball, at the Hofburg palace.  It was phenomenally cool, and the setting was gorgeous and fabulous and opulent.  On the other hand, I had a terrible time finding a dress, I wasn’t able to get my hair to behave, and I ripped my already frustrating dress in the first five minutes after we arrived.  And although it might sound ridiculous to let anything get in the way of enjoying a ball at the palace, all of that really dampened my spirits about the evening and the experience (although I did, ultimately, end up having a pretty good time).

What a difference a year makes!  Yesterday, we went to the IAEA Ball again, and this year, we had a blast.  After the frustration of dress shopping from last year, I planned ahead and bought a dress online from the US.  (I figured, correctly, that even buying a dress over the computer and not getting to see it or try it on before I purchased it would be LESS of a hassle than finding a dress here.)  It was a good choice.  I got a great dress for a fraction of what it would have cost here and got it successfully altered.  Just being able to look forward to having an appropriate, flattering dress to wear changed my entire outlook on the evening.  Instead of being discouraged and deflated, I was excited and enthusiastic.  I was able to do my hair (on the first try!) in a new, functional style that I really loved, and did my makeup in just a few minutes so that I ended up feeling pretty and put together.  And then, the kids were happy and relaxed to be staying with Jo and watching a movie while we went out.  We started our evening a little later this year, so we were home to do dinner and bath with the kids before we went out.  When we were all together and ready to leave, everyone was happy.  It was a great way to start the evening!

030We arrived at the palace for the ball, and hit our first (and only) real snag of the evening.  Dan had to switch out his ornately tied tie for a bow tie (which, apparently, is part of the required dress for the palace) which he had to buy on site.  We chalked it up to getting an extra souvenir and got on with enjoying our evening.

058We did a little dancing on a floor that was every bit as crowded and insane as last year, got our picture taken, walked around to survey the palace in all of its splendor (the chandeliers are particularly remarkable) and chatted with some friends and coworkers of Dan’s.  We made it back to the main ballroom just in time for the quadrille — a large, complex, semi-organized group dance that one of Dan’s collegues aptly explained this way: “There are long lines of too many people.  It’s like square dancing.  They give instruction, although not quite enough, and then the music keeps getting faster.”  Which is, in fact, exactly what it’s like.  It was tremendous fun to watch, but it went on for quite a while and, given the lack of appropriate seating in the main ballroom, I eventually just 043gave in and sat down on the marble steps to watch.  There was something fantastically inappropriate, and yet perfectly indulgent about sitting on the floor, in a ball gown, in a palace, listening to an exquisite orchestra frantically playing manic quadrille music for several hundred partially intoxicated revellers who had no hope of keeping up.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself (and I started a trend — I was the first to sit on the steps in my finery, but many others quickly followed)

051After that, the crowds thinned out somewhat, and Dan and I got to do some dancing ourselves.  We danced until it was late, we were tired, and my feet wouldn’t take any more.  We came home to sweet kids who had been asleep for hours and a happy (if tired) babysitter.  We had a great, magical evening.  It was everything that a ball at the palace ought to be.

Andiamo a Italia

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This time next week, we’ll be in Italy.  We will have taken our overnight train (for better or for worse — I’m a bit concerned that the kids won’t sleep, and therefore, neither will anyone else), arrived in Rome, dropped of our bags and begun our Italian vacation.  It’s kind of amazing.  I love this part of planning the trip.  Between washing dozens of loads of laundry, mastering the spatial relations of various suitcase options, talking with the kids to give them appropriate expectations of the next few weeks, poring over guide books about the different places we’re going to see, confirming hotel reservations, arranging travel connections, and packing (which feels like it takes weeks), I am suddenly hit with the realization that, in a few short days, we’re actually going to BE on our trip, exploring a new place, experiencing new things.  It’s very easy for me to lose sight of that when I’m wading through the details of trip planning (partly because there are so many details).

So, today, I’m really excited.  It’s finally *real* to me that we’re going to be IN ITALY in a week.  We’re going to be eating pizza, pasta, risotto and gelato, drinking hot chocolate and (I’m certain) enjoying many other delightful things.  We’re going to visit Rome, Vatican City, and Venice.  (We’re going to be in Rome, and Vatican City, during the last week of Pope Benedict’s papacy — which is something we couldn’t have expected or planned for, but it’s kind of amazing.)  We’re going to see the Coliseum, the Forum, Trevi fountain and St. Mark’s Square.  We’re going to be amongst thousands of years of history (although, having lived in Vienna for almost 2 years, that’s less shocking and impressive to me than it once would have been).

And, best of all, we’re going to do it, all together as a family and alongside Jo and Mina!  I’m very excited for this next piece of our adventure!  Molto Bene!  Andiamo!

Living the dream

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I saw a video the other day, currently making the rounds on Facebook, that quoted Alan Watts.  It was an audio recording over a variety of pretty, generic images, but the basic point was, don’t chase what will make money, because all that will lead to is the chase of more money.  Instead, do what you love, what you’re passionate about, what you would fill your time with if money were no object.  It’s a great, philosophical snippet, and (I think) pretty wise.  Watching the video, I reflected on my life and situation . . . and I realized that I have the incredibly good fortune to be doing precisely what I want to be doing.  I am living the life I would live if money were no object.  And that’s pretty amazing.

If I became independently wealthy tomorrow, I would do 3 things differently.  I would fly home more often — I would never let more than a couple of months go by without visiting home and being with my family and friends.  I would consider moving my horses here from the US, and in the case that it wasn’t a good idea (for their health or sanity) I would find a way to ride here in Vienna.  I would go out to eat more often, and I would give Jo free rein to make whatever she wanted when she cooks.  But that’s pretty much it.

I am incredibly lucky and I think it’s pretty great.  Even given infinite resources, I’d still live in Austria.  I’d still have B in his current kindergarten, and I’d still have Liam home with me.  I’d live where I live, I’d still choose not to have a car, and (other than going home more often and/or flying my family over to visit) I’d travel to the same places we travel to, and in much the same way.  (Ok, if money were really no issue, I guess I’d fly first class.)

How cool is that?!?  I’m living the life I’d like to be living.  Right now.  That doesn’t (at all) mean that my life is perfect, but having that realization gives me great perspective.  When Liam’s 2 minute “time out” turns into a 40 minute ordeal, when Benjamin’s chocolate milk ends up all over the floor, when my alarm goes off after a night of not-so-restful broken sleep, when I can’t seem to find the time to exercise, shower and clean the house all in the same day, it helps me to remember that, even with all of the craziness that this life entails sometimes, this is the life that I would choose, given any option.  I choose it knowing that it involves difficult moments, sleepless nights and seemingly unending frustrations.  I truly wouldn’t have it any other way.  This is exactly what I want to be doing, and I get to do it, every single day.  It just doesn’t get any better than that.