First off, I’m going to brag a little: I think I may be the world’s best packer. When we laid out all of the things we needed to bring with us on this trip, I thought there was no way we were going to get away with only packing two suitcases and a backpack . . . but we did. It’s impossible to really pack light with kids, and winter weather makes it harder (snow pants, wool socks, long underwear, hats, gloves, mittens, etc., times two) but we got away with only a little luggage.
Category Archives: Adventure in Vienna
Adventures, and failures, in dress making
5
Earlier this evening, I had my first (of two) fittings for the dress I’m having made for the ball. It’s a pretty color. The skirt is quite full, so I shouldn’t have any trouble dancing comfortably. My arms will be covered. I’m sure it will fit me quite well. I am confident that it is of a style appropriate to attending a ball.
Those are the only nice things I have to say about it.
It seems that nearly everything, from the silhouette of the dress to the length of the arms to the cut of the back — even the time of the appointment — was miscommunicated in the great game of multi-language telephone played between myself, the shop clerk and the seamstress. The shop assistant kept saying things like, “I thought she was going to . . . ” and I kept saying, “Me too”. I think that I understood the shop assistant just fine — it seems that most of the breakdown of communication was between her and the seamstress, who did not, it seems, understand what I was going for. In many ways, the dress is the complete opposite of what I asked for, and I think several of my “not”s must have been lost in translation (as in, “I would NOT like it to have an empire waist, and I would NOT like there to be a horizontal seam across the middle of the dress”).
Sigh. I’m frustrated, disappointed, and I feel pretty dumb. I’ve just invested a great deal of money in a dress that will be much less flattering than several of the less expensive options I tried on at the dress shops. It’s hard, because I don’t feel good about my current weight, or how I look these days, so putting on a dress that I was hoping would be lovely, and is instead frumpy and unflattering, is no fun. It dims my enthusiasm about going to the ball, which, although understandable, is really kind of silly. Yes, it would be great to have a gorgeous dress and feel beautiful, but I’m going to a *ball* at the *palace*, and what I’m wearing need not be the focus of the evening. I’m trying to keep myself focused on the wonderful time we’re going to have, and on being grateful for the fact that I even have this problem to worry about in the first place.
Both the seamstress and the shop assistant seemed confident that they’ll be able to rectify my issues at the next fitting. I am not holding my breath. But maybe they will pull off a miracle. Maybe. If not, my options are to reject the dress (I have no idea how that would go over in Vienna, but I may try it anyway, although I do accept partial responsibility for the failure of communication — I’m the one in a German speaking country without the ability to speak the language) but then I’d have to scurry around to try and find something else that will work (and which would probably need to be altered), or I can accept it in whatever state it’s in at the next fitting next week and make the most of it.
At this point, perhaps I’ve now mentally set the bar so low that when I see it again next week, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I doubt it, but I’ll hope.
Direct sunlight
Until yesterday, we hadn’t had any direct sunlight in our apartment for months. Given that we have windows that face all four sides of our building, that’s pretty impressive. What surprises me is that I hadn’t noticed that the sunlight was gone until it came back — I think I had attributed the darkness to the cloudy, overcast and rainy days we’ve had lately. But it was more than that — the angle of the sun had actually dipped so low that the sun didn’t crest the side of the building on our south-facing side until it had passed beyond the point that it could shine in our windows. And the afternoon sun, which in the summer overwhelmed, overheated and dazzled us, can’t make it in to our west facing windows because the angle has changed so much that it’s completely obscured by a neighboring building.
Yesterday morning, I was playing cars with Liam on the floor and I was being persistently blinded, and slightly irritated by, all the light that was streaming into our south facing window in our living room. After a few minutes of repositioning ourselves around the living room, the sunlight went away — hidden again behind the wall across our courtyard. Only then, after it was gone, did I realize that all that brightness would be back with us to stay, every morning, from now until November.
I like the winter, with the cold, the wind and especially the snow. But I’m glad to have the sun back. I didn’t realize how much I had missed it. I can’t help having my spirits lifted by its return, and with it, the promise of longer, brighter days soon to come.
Benjamin’s first mountains
Later this week, we’re taking our first multi-day trip outside of Vienna, to Innsbruck. Innsbruck is in western Austria, 5 hours from Vienna by train, in the Alps (and probably most famous for twice hosting the Winter Olympics). We’re all very excited about seeing the mountainous part of Austria, and about getting to (hopefully) play in some significant snow.
Shoe shopping
For reasons I may never understand, our movers decided that nearly every pair of shoes I own should go to storage, rather than coming here to Vienna. Only about 6 pairs of my shoes made it to Vienna — and that includes a pair of snow boots. Although this would have been an emergency for a lot of women, I managed to get through my first 9 months here with only one shoe purchase, but with the ball coming up next week, I need a pair of shoes that isn’t snow boots or sandals.
Calle family movie night
I love Fridays. I like to do special things on Fridays to mark the beginning of the weekend: on the way home from school, Benjamin is allowed to pick out a treat to have with his lunch; we try and do something special or easy (or both) for dinner; I go easy on the housework (even easier than the other days). But I’m always happy to add something new to our repertoire.
Inscription
Every evening, after bath time and before bed, we have story time. Dan & I take turns reading to the kids — Liam usually only makes it through one or two stories, but Benjamin always gets four (unless he can convince us to do a few extra). I love it when it’s my turn to do stories. I love reading to them, seeing them learn and enjoy the stories, and I really enjoy many of the stories themselves — we have some really good ones, and a lot of them are favorites of ours from when we were little.
Making a dress, a comedy in three languages
I have 17 days until the ball, and, as yet, no fairy godmother has surfaced to wave a wand and create a gown made just for me (although, that might be one of those things that you have to wait until the actual last minute, not almost the last minute, and your bird-made gown might first have to be destroyed by your evil step-sisters, of which I have none, so I may never know). I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands (not literally) and have a dress made.
Benjamin visits the ER
First, let me say that everything turns out ok in this story.
Yesterday evening, just before story time, I was feeding Liam and I heard the sounds of “hide & seek” coming from the bathroom (where toothbrushing was supposed to be happening . . . and I imagine it did actually happen at some point). Benjamin isn’t 100% clear on hide & seek yet — he seems to manage to both hide and seek each time, but he really likes it. I heard both Dan and Benjamin count to 10, and then lots of giggling and “I found you!” followed by a serious “thud” and a cry. Not the I-need-to-think-about-how-bad-this-hurts cry, but the instantaneous, frightened, pained scream.
Uh-oh.
I heard Dan bustling about, lots of “It’s ok” and “Let me see” (neither of which made me feel any better) and a moment later, Dan and Benjamin showed up in the living room, with Benjamin crying and covering his face. Dan wasn’t getting much of anywhere trying to get a look at the injury, so I took a look while Dan went to get some ice. I was worried about his teeth and his lips, but once I got a look, he was already getting a bruise on the bridge of his nose, which he said hurt. Apparently, upon “finding” Dan, he turned around to run and celebrate, and didn’t quite negotiate the transition from the tile of the bathroom floor to the wood of the hallway. His feet went right out from under him and he landed flat on his face. Dan thought he’d managed to get his hands under himself in time, but apparently not — within a few minutes, the bruising was worse, his nose was swollen, and he was starting to get a black eye on the left side. He did let us put some ice on it (but not for long).
Dan called the doctor and left a message, and while we waited for an answer, B wiped his nose and came away with a very small amount of blood. So small that I almost didn’t believe it, but it was there. Time for the ER.
At this point, Liam was in bed asleep, so I stayed with him, and we bundled Benjamin up to head to the hospital with Dan. According to our pediatrician, the children’s hospital is great during the day, but not well equipped at night, so they went to the regular hospital (which, as it turns out, is the largest hospital in Europe — pretty cool to have that a 17 minute strassenbahn ride away). Once they found out exactly where to be (another one of those challenges of living in a foreign country) they only had to wait 5 minutes to be seen, and they were taken back almost immediately for an x-ray. Benjamin was a champ. He was cooperative, quiet and happy (extra impressive because they didn’t even leave the house until almost 11:00).
As it turns out, his nose is just fine — only a bruise. They got home just barely 2 hours after they left, and over half an hour of that was travel time. It’s always best to avoid the ER at the hospital, but our family’s first experience with the emergency department (actually, I think they ended up at the “accident” department, which is different) was definitely as positive as possible.
We were all exhausted today — B stayed home from school, I tried not to obsess about my poor baby who had to have an x-ray and I wasn’t even there, Dan went to work and tried to pass his final in his German class, Liam was unaffected, but happy to have B home. Everyone is ok, and other than Benjamin being wary of me washing his nose today, life is pretty much back to normal. Just how I like it.
Playing in the snow
We woke up this morning to our first snowfall in Vienna of any real significance. By the time Benjamin got up, there was more than a dusting on the rooftops, and our terrace, which is pretty sheltered, but not enclosed, almost had a covering. Our rosemary, basil and cilantro plants (or rather, the pots the plants lived in when it was summer) had about an inch in each, as did the table where they sit.
Benjamin was thrilled. He wanted to make a snowman. So, after he was dressed for school, boots and all, he and I went out onto the terrace to make a (very small) snowman on our table. He insisted we give it a “beak” (nose) and arms (we used dried basil and rosemary stalks), but he really wanted the eyes to be made of snow, so they were a bit hard to see. Given what we had to work with, it was a pretty good snowman. Liam and I cuddled up in the living room and Dan and Benjamin headed off to work and school.
The snow fell all morning, but the temperature was just at the freezing mark, where sometimes the snow accumulates on what it lands on, and sometimes it seems to turn to water and melt what’s there. When Benjamin got home, he checked on our snowman, which had fallen over (I went out and fixed it) and he told me all about the snowman he had made at school.
At first, I thought he and Dan had made a snowman on the way home from school. But, no, he and his classmates made the snowman while they played outside in the garden. It was surprising to me that the kids went outside to play in the wet, cold, slippery snow — I don’t know whether that’s typical at home. I’m very glad I bundled him up in his big coat, warmest hat and snow boots this morning, but I’m even more glad that they did go outside to play in the snow. What a great, fun opportunity to take — to go out and frolic in the snow when you’re 3 years old, with your 3 and 4 year old friends, and to build a big snowman, all together.
I was a little sad, this morning, that I didn’t get to keep B home today to have a snow day. I was really hoping that his friends at school, and his teachers, would be as excited that it was snowing as he was. It sounds like they were. And I’m so glad I didn’t keep him home with Liam and I today (we didn’t do anything exciting) — I wouldn’t have wanted him to miss his chance to play in the snow with his friends, and build a big snowman, with a carrot for a nose and everything.