Welcome to Vienna!

Hello All!

It's official...I'm living in Vienna!  After arriving on a very HOT Monday morning I've spent the last week with new and returning staff members focusing completely and totally on learning how to live in Vienna.  Learning how to ride the Uban and get to Ikea...conquering the feat of grocery shopping...sitting in silent confusion as we are helped with the legal paperwork...and MUCH more!!

My roomate Sarah and I are currently staying in a temporary apartment while we are waiting for the renovations to be completed at our place.  As such we are living in an internet free world for the next month or two which is weird but kind of refreshing.  The secret is going to places that have free wireless :-).

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here's a few of the things that I've learned this week...

I've learned how to take the Uban (underground train) to get nearly anywhere in the city!
It's really clean and easy to understand.  The whole thing's like the honor system though...
You buy your ticket for a day, week, month, or year and 9 times out of ten no one ever checks it!
If they do it's a fine though

We took a walking tour of the downtown area of Vienna to familiarize ourselves with where
we're living!  I learned that it's nearly impossible to catch Sarah NOT making a weird face.
Here she is showing us her Roman soldier face.  It's very intimidating.

Downtown Vienna is very beautiful and you can walk basically anywhere.
Farmer's markets, Christmas markets, and Easter markets often fill the streets with activity

Dogs are REALLY popular in Austria!  You can take them into the mall, and onto the Ubahn
You almost never hear them bark but you best get used to seeing them ALL over!  Even in restaurants!
True story they like them more than kids...

You can make yourself feel right at home by adding personal touches even in a temporary rooming situation!

For a fun shopping experience and lots of cheap produce you can go to naschmarkt and pick up things!
This picture isn't taken by me...it was SOOOO crowded (on Saturday) that there was no way to take out my camera...
I DID however order 2 lemons completely in german :-).  

if you are polite and nicely explain that you don't know German many Austrians are still
happy  to talk to you!  And sometimes they even ask to take a picture with your
toothbrush!

And finally your toilet will always be in it's own separate room.

I could go on for hours sharing all about what I'm learning but for now this is a start!  Next week is new staff orientation and then I'll be hard at work transforming my classroom!  Prayers for my future kids and their families and for my transition are greatly appreciated.  Can't wait to stay regularly in touch as soon as I have a permanent internet connection :-)

Love!

Amy

Vienna or Bust!

Hello All!

Did you ever have one of those moments that you have been planning for and thinking about for so long...that when it actually happens you don't even know what to do with yourself?  That's how I'm feeling today because today is THE DAY!  I'm en route to Vienna and the beginning of this new chapter as we "speak" and I don't even know what to say about it.  It's a very surreal feeling :-).

This week was all about packing and family time.  If you follow me on facebook you know that I have been somewhat ridiculously agonizing about my suitcases and what stays and goes.  So I finally caved and checked three suitcases (one of them is overweight - poor baggage guys).  The interesting thing is that I'm not even 100% sure what is in all of them.  My father (the proud scoutmaster) made it his personal mission to pack as many things as possible into each suitcase in some kind of an awesome quest to be the world's ultimate packer.  When I opened one suitcase and found a tiny stuffed aardvark and t-rex I knew that we'd both gone bannanas.  His argument for keeping them both was that they made friends and couldn't be seperated and I may really need a stuffed aardvark someday so wouldn't I feel silly if I took them out?  Hmmm hard to argue with crazy logic I suppose (love you dad!).

As we speak I'm in the midst of the airport adventure.  First transfer was to Chicago - next I'll be headed to London.  Stupidest thing so far?  Hmmm probably the fact that their is no food in the international terminal but there's copious amounts of cigarettes and alcohal to purchase.  To this I wonder...what's the bigger threat level here?  People eating McDonald's or people packing away the Whiskey and Vodka on an empty stomach?  I'm sure someone can probably explain the logic of this to me but I'm not sure I'll believe them!

I've been amusing myself thus far taking stupid pictures of the toothbrush and company chilling in the airport with me.  If you don't understand the toothbrush's significance you'll have to look back at my old photos from Europe.  Best. Traveling Companion. Ever.   Attempts to post pictures of their awesomeness failing miserably.  Pictures aren't uploading well here.  Apologies :-(


Hopefully if all is good I'll be arriving in Vienna at 1:10pm Austrian time on Monday where I will be greeted and ushered off into a week full of orientation to living and getting around in Vienna.  It looks like it'll be a couple of weeks before I have wireless set up at the apartment I'll be living in so no promises on regular updates until things settle down.  In the meantime some prayer requests below.

Prayer Requests:
* Continued safe travel!
* Energy and focus as I make the transition to a new culture and ministry
* Luggage that arrives safely! (and in the right place)
* The hearts and minds of the families that I will be meeting, creativity and energy for teaching
* Adaptability
* Still praying in 44% of my monthly support!

Love you all!!!!!
-Amy