Field trip worries

Posted on May 16, 2013 by admin

I’m a mom. That’s basically like being a professional worrier. On days like today, when B’s class is on a day-long field trip to the zoo, I worry extra. He’s only 4, and although he’s now done these trips many times, it’s a lot for me to imagine my little guy taking a bus and two U-bahns with his kindergarten class. And then, he’ll be out for 8 hours, well supervised, but without me (just the potty implications for a little guy who prefers to “go” at home are worrisome). And then there’s the same trek back to school. I was thinking about him all day, and trying not to obsess (unsuccessfully, although Liam did keep me pretty busy all on his own).

I worry that he could (in no kind of sane or logical order of likelihood or severity, much like they come into my head) wander off, get left behind, be abducted (the mind of a mommy is harsh place, full of unlikely worst case scenarios), get hurt, have a potty accident (or two or three), get sunburned, not get enough to eat or drink, feel left out, get overly tired, not understand what’s going on, not be understood when he needs to say something, and, because this is Austria and there is definitely a “don’t be stupid”/personal responsibility mentality here, I also can’t entirely put aside a (hopefully unfounded) fear that he’s going to climb into the lion enclosure or attempt to go swimming with the hippos (seriously, I fixated on the hippo thing for a good 20 minutes earlier when Liam was napping).

In short, there was no way I was going to feel better until Dan texted me to tell me that he had safely picked him up, and I didn’t feel completely ok until I gave him a big hug and kiss myself. As it turns out, none of the things I was worried about came to pass (not even a potty accident!). He had a great day at the zoo, had lunch and two snacks (that was a highlight) and enjoyed seeing the reindeer most of all. All my worry was wasted energy — all was well (and there was nothing I could have done if it wasn’t). Still, it won’t stop me from being exactly the same way next time. It’s just how it is.

If wishes were cars

Posted on May 10, 2013 by admin

It doesn’t happen often, but every so often I wish I had a car. Today was one of those days.

After 2 days of Liam having a high fever (controlled only barely by regular medication) and general misery and sleeplessness (not controlled by anything) I got in touch with his pediatrician last night. She suggested I bring him in this afternoon, mostly to rule out an ear infection, particularly in light of it being Friday and the pharmacies being mostly closed over the weekend.

Facing a half hour tram ride with a sick kid is daunting. I could take the stroller, dealing with the hassle and inconvenience of it, especially in case I encountered an old style tram, and taking the major risk that he’d fall asleep and miss any chance of a good nap later. Or, I could go without, possibly necessitating carrying him the entire way to and from the tram, and not giving me the chance to strap him down securely if he decided to throw a fit. Either way, he was likely to be miserable and fussy, and I was almost guaranteed to arrive at the appointment (and then later at home) entirely worn out.

I fantasized about having a car. About walking downstairs, strapping him safely into his car seat, climbing in the front and making the 15 minute drive in comfort and privacy. About not having to worry if he screamed or fell asleep, or if the tram was crowded and I had to hold a limp, miserable, kicking and screaming Liam in my arms while holding a handrail and attempting not to lose my balance.

I wanted a car. I wanted it more in that moment than I have in the 2 years I’ve lived in Vienna. I could completely imagine making the journey and not arriving sweaty, frazzled and exhausted. I imagined air conditioning and a cd changer. I imagined leaving the diaper bag in the car and only taking in the necessities. I imagined saying, “Sure! Bring whatever toys you want!” and not having to retrieve said items from under the seat behind me at every stop. I imagined drive-through pharmacies and drive-through Starbucks and drive-through places that make lunch. I imagined simplicity and peace.

But, alas, no car. I opted to go without the stroller, because our new one is just too big to work on the old style trams, and that’s not a challenge (or a delay) I felt like taking on today. We had a peaceful trip to the doctor (no ear infection!), and our trip home was less hellish than I had feared (although I did up standing, with a tired, cranky boy, part of the way home — thank you, citizens of Vienna). We did it. We made it. We really did ok. But a car would have been nice today.

Tag der Arbeit

Posted on May 2, 2013 by admin

We get different holidays here. No Thanksgiving. No Martin Luther King Day. No Presidents’ Day or Columbus Day (although I don’t think I’ve ever actually gotten either of those last two off of work). No Fourth of July. But, of course, we get other holidays — St. Stephen’s Day (the patron saint of Vienna, also, conveniently, the day after Christmas), Austria Day (similar to America’s July 4th), a smorgasbord of religious holidays (Good Friday, Easter Monday and Whit Monday for the Christians, a few of the Eid holidays for the Muslims) and May Day/Worker’s Day/Labor Day.

It’s a little weird “celebrating” a socialist holiday, coming from a country where the term socialism is so vilified (though we Americans have our own Labor Day in September, we just don’t think of it in the same way). Regardless, I’m not going to complain about a day off in the most beautiful time of year here. We intended to spend the day outdoors, enjoying May in Vienna. We gave Liam the option of choosing our activity for the day (since B got to choose on Sunday) and he chose, surprisingly, to stay home.

So we did. Per his request, we watched a movie (with popcorn), we played video games, we played hide & seek, we raced trucks all over the house, we watched tv and we had macaroni & cheese for dinner. It was lots of fun and very restorative. We had a great day.

I’m also using May Day as an ironic, if unintentional, opportunity to change some things about my blogging habits. We have been here more than two years — beyond our initially intended stay. With very few exceptions, I have blogged nearly every day that we’ve been here. I was determined to be religious about it to avoid only writing on the days that I felt most inspired to write — usually the best days. I wanted my chronicle of our travels and adventures to be honest, and I felt that for it to be truly honest, I had to require myself to write, every day, regardless of how much I wanted to or how easily the words came. And I think I’ve done that — I think I’ve accurately captured the thrills, the failures, the struggles, the homesickness, the occasional boredom and the personal discoveries that this journey has brought about.

And so, I think I’ve kept my promise to myself. I promised myself 2 years of daily records, and I’ve done that.

I’m not going to stop writing. I love recording the myriad details of this adventure. I love that these little nuances will be memorialized for the future, for myself, for the boys. I love that I’ve been able to be a help to others taking on this immense challenge by giving them a window into the reality of this process. I will continue to write, to record, to capture, to share.

But maybe not every day. So yesterday, I marked Workers’ Day by not writing. My blog was silent for the first time since my intentional Christmas holiday. It’s a liberty I’m going to allow myself more and more going forward. I hope to keep the honesty just as vivid, but allow myself more space to breathe, to rest, and to enjoy our last year here.

Kinder Eggs

Posted on April 23, 2013 by admin

Of all of the sweets available here in Austria, I think the boys have become most fond of Kinder Eggs (as long as you don’t count gelato, which is definitely their favorite). For those who aren’t familiar with them, a Kinder Egg is a chocolate egg (about the size of a real egg) wrapped in foil, and inside the hollow egg is a plastic capsule that contains a toy. The toy is (by necessity) usually something very small, and found at random — there isn’t anything on the outside to indicate what kind of toy is inside — it could be a small race car, a figurine, a glider, a magnifying glass . . . I’m actually quite impressed at the variety of things we find in there. (Many of the toys come disassembled and need to be put together out of rather small parts. This is part of the reason for their ban in the US — in addition to a law from the 1930s forbidding any toy to be embedded inside of candy.)

The boys love them. The chocolate is reasonably good, but the combination of chocolate and toy surprise is irresistible to my kids. They have become the most common choice when they kids get to select their own treats from the store. Benjamin commonly asks for them in both English and German (“Kinder Eier”) which causes me to suspect that they are also probably a topic of conversation at school.

Last night, after dinner (and Kinder Eggs), we were talking with the boys about our friends who will be visiting from the US in a few weeks, along with their 3 year old daughter. The boys were discussing which toys they think she’ll like the best, and after hypothesizing that the race cars, trains and bikes will probably be her favorites, Benjamin said, “I know! I think she’ll like the Kinder Eggs the best! Do you think she likes Kinder Eggs?” to which I replied that I wasn’t sure she’d ever had one, because they don’t have Kinder Eggs in the US. Benjamin’s jaw dropped, and he said, with some awe, “Wow. Austria really DOES have some pretty good stuff.”

Orange juice

Posted on April 13, 2013 by admin

I suspect that the way I eat has been permanently changed by my time here in Austria. The things I eat, the way I shop, the way I think about food have all been affected by seeing the things I eat through a different lens. Food here is simpler, in general. The produce section at the grocery store is smaller, with fewer varieties of things. But the food is more likely to be organic and at least relatively local, and the selection is guaranteed to be more seasonal. There are about 3 varieties of chips at our closest grocery store (which is in our building) and the soda aisle, while sizable, is stocked equally with varieties of sparkling waters and fruit-juice flavored beverages.

Austrians, of course, also have their specialties. I worry I’ll never be able to eat another donut after being spoiled by the Krapfen here. Potato salad from elsewhere is unlikely to measure up. My standards for hot dogs/sausages have been raised. And my travels beyond Austria mean that I’ll never eat spaghetti, a chocolate croissant, or a ham and cheese sandwich, with the same indifference again.

And then there’s the orange juice. It’s not exactly something that’s synonymous with Austria or the Alps, but the orange juice we drink here — all of it — is fresh squeezed. Our corner grocery store has an orange-juice squeezing machine (almost all grocery stores do) and that’s how we get ours. (After a few months of drinking this fresh-squeezed awesomeness, and wondering where it had been all my life, I looked up information on the manufacturing process of typical store-bought orange juice, and I learned a lot. And now I know why it’s not nearly as good.) Of course, the lack of homogenization means that sometimes, we get a bottle that isn’t super lovely — it’s a little sour, or overly sweet — but even that has become comforting, because it actually tastes like oranges. (Hint: in general, it’s not as good when the oranges are out of season. What a concept.)

Today, several of us (myself, Benjamin and Liam) are a bit under the weather, with spring sniffles and sore throats (it figures, on the first decent spring weekend we’ve had) and we stocked up on orange juice. I’ve already enjoyed a couple of bottles today, and I don’t think the loveliness of it will ever cease to impress me. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to the processed stuff. I’ve been completely spoiled.

Daylight in the north

Posted on April 12, 2013 by admin

I understand that a lot of people don’t like Daylight Saving Time. Its purpose is rather antiquated, it makes life a bit more complicated, the adjustment period is a pain . . . I even read an article, a few weeks ago, that said heart attacks are more common in the week following the time change. I get it. I, too, have always been of the mindset that we’re going to have a certain number of daylight hours, who cares what time of day they happen?

Living in Vienna, though, I care. I care because my kids are already approaching 6:00 a.m. wake up times, and it’s still April. By June, it’ll be full on daylight here just after 4:30 in the morning. We have blackout curtains in the boys’ room, which help, but the curtains don’t silence the birds or stop little bit of light coming in around the door and window. If not for Daylight Saving Time, my kids would be waking up now just after 5:00 a.m., and the sun would be up just after 3:30 in the morning in June.

Say what you like about Daylight Saving Time, but I’ll take my sunshine at 9:00 p.m. (which I actually find quite lovely) over 4:00 a.m. anytime (well, particularly in June). Living at a more northerly latitude has given me a whole new appreciation for it.

Single file

Posted on April 8, 2013 by admin

Each culture has its own sense of propriety. So many of the norms I accepted, not just without consideration, but even without even noticing them, are different here. As a general trend, Austrians are more orderly than Americans — quieter, more neatly dressed, more punctual, more respectful of old people and children, more likely to dispose of their trash correctly and less inclined to destroy or deface property. It makes for a very civilized experience. I love it.

But, for all of this organization and civility, they don’t do other things we might expect — they don’t like to wait in lines. While every other cultural characteristic would lead me to believe that they would queue up patiently, it’s really not the case. Waiting in line here and expecting that to pay off when it’s my “turn” is an exercise in futility and frustration. Everyone tries to move up, and a proper line is rarely formed at all — it’s usually just a group milling about, with the most assertive being served first. They really don’t like to wait for anything — encountering a wait at a restaurant is pretty much unheard of. If people arrive, and the restaurant is full, they just go elsewhere.

This same holds true for walking down the sidewalk. On a narrow sidewalk, Americans would tend to walk single file, or to at least fall in to a line when approached from the opposite direction. Austrians walk right alongside the other people they are with, and they don’t line up for anyone (they will walk the oncoming person into the street, rather than go single file — even someone with a stroller or a child). It’s kind of a strange quirk, given how much order and efficiency I see everywhere else.

I’m not critiquing. They’re allowed to have their cultural nuances, of course. Although I find it a little frustrating, from my American perspective, it’s certainly only one odd characteristic out of many fine cultural expectations here. (And certainly, I catch myself doing all kinds of things that are strange or rude by Austrian standards. All the time. It’s pretty much my main activity here.) In general, I find Austria to be a lovely place to live, and the general order and efficiency really appeal to me. That’s how my mind works, too. But although I’m learning to forego the line, just like everyone else here, I still don’t really mind waiting my turn. And since I really do like walking on the sidewalk, I’m going to have to figure that one out, too, I think.

Alpine toys!

Posted on April 7, 2013 by admin

A couple of weeks ago, when we were in Salzburg, we stopped by a little town near our hotel for dinner. On the way back to our car, Benjamin and Liam froze, wide-eyed and completely captivated by a window display of a toy store. As a parent of a 4 year old and a 2 year old, this is nothing new. I was preparing to round them up and herd them back down the sidewalk when I took a closer look at the display.

It was an entire window display scene of Playmobil dolls and toys, all very clearly set in the Alps. And it was fantastically cool.

There were mountain cable cars, perfect little Alpine homes and restaurants, mountain climbers, mountain rescue helicopters, hikers (with the type of walking sticks I’ve only ever seen in this part of Europe), cows with wreaths of flowers, and dolls in dirndls and lederhosen. They all looked just so perfectly Austrian. I’d never really seen anything quite like it. I was as enthralled and giggly as the boys, gazing at the display and discovering tiny details.

After getting home and doing some research, I came to find out that Playmobil is a German company (which I didn’t know, because I was familiar with them in the US, and had never seen any toys which particularly gave away their origins) and that they usually release their toys first in this part of Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc.). Then some (but not all) types are released in the rest of the world, including in the US. So, although I’m skeptical that these Alpine toys will ever be released in the US, if they ever are, it won’t be until next year at the earliest.

I’m kind of glad that the shop wasn’t open, because I suspect I would have gone in and gone on a little Austrian toy shopping binge that probably wasn’t necessary. I do think, though, that the boys may receive a few of these for their birthdays, or maybe for Christmas, this year. I think they’re fantastically cute, and I think they’ll probably be a great way of helping the kids hold on to some of the memories of their experiences here. (And, at the very least, Mommy wants to play!)

Bagpipes and Sousa — St. Patrick’s Day in Vienna

Posted on March 17, 2013 by admin

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! As an American of Irish descent, I feel a bit of extra pride in my Irish heritage on March 17. I don’t really celebrate the holiday so much, though, other than doing my best to make sure that my one green shirt is clean so I can wear it.

Like so many things, the American perception of St. Patrick’s Day is something I probably never would have taken particular note of if I’d never lived abroad. As much as the truly Irish may mock the green beer and general confusion about the distinction between a shamrock and 4-leaf clover, Americans do a pretty fine job of honoring the Irish each March. (Which makes sense, because whether or not we recognize it the rest of the year, there is a lot of Irish influence in the US.)

Things here in Vienna are a bit different. There’s very little distinction made between Irish and Scottish things, so you see a lot of crossover. And then, there’s just kind of general feeling of revelry, with not so much thought put into the relevance of it. For example, the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Vienna yesterday did go by the Irish abbey (although the name of the abbey itself translates to “Scottish abbey” thanks to an old naming convention), but it featured bagpipes, kilts (both mostly Scottish) and lots of John Philip Sousa marches (he was from the US, and I can’t find any connection to Ireland or Austria). It’s fun, festive and celebratory, so I certainly don’t hold the strange hodge-podge of cultural references against anyone, but it gives me a little appreciation for how (surprisingly) culturally aware the American celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day are.

However the festivities happen, it’s a day to enjoy Irish heritage, which, for me, means lots of thoughts about my family, my heritage, and my favorite place in the world to visit. This is my first St. Patrick’s Day since having actually been to Ireland, so the images it brings to mind, this time, are truly my own, and that much more special than ever before.

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!

A Mommy Abroad

Our big adventure, as a family of three.

Tag Archives: differences