november? really?

I wrote the first half of this ten days ago. As life here gets more complicated, it's harder to sit down and pound out exactly what's going on in my planner and in my head.

The last few weeks have been an absolute blur--so much has happened that I can't believe it's only been three weeks since I was in Spain on Fall Break. I suppose this means I don't feel like my life is some sort of strange vacation anymore. I have definitely put down roots here in Vienna--how do I know?

• Someone just called to see what I'm up to for dinner
  
• I borrowed food from a neighbor the other day
  
• I have something concrete going on each day of the week
  
• I've hosted guests in my house
  
• I babysat last Thursday evening

The more I build a life here, though, the less connected I feel to relationships and places back in the states. I will never know what to do with this trade-off, particularly given that I'm supposed to be back in the US in just six months.

So that's how I'm doing--not entirely sure when I zoom out and think too hard about it, but well in general.


My goodness, there's so much to tell you. I suppose I'll resort to some bulleted highlights (that often become paragraphs) yet again...not sure what order to put all of this in, so just read what you want until you get tired of it.

• I found pumpkin. Rather, it found me--Houston, my Vanderbilt friend who came to visit wth his sister and her classmates, brought me three 29 ounce cans of Libby's 100% pumpkin. I've used one and sometimes open up my kitchen cabinet to make sure the other two are still there. What a great week I had with these folks. Best part (well, there were many best parts) was a trip up to the Vienna Woods on the outskirts of the city. Vineyards, hiking, and great views...what else do you need?

• Both before and after Fall Break (10/10-19), I enjoyed spending time with my new friend Elizabeth. Elizabeth works for Wake Forest as an international admissions counselor; she's in month two of a three-month tour of Europe, and in the spring she'll spend another three months in Asia. She contacts international schools and travels to a new country every few days to speak to students about Wake Forest--a great opportunity, but totally crazy (she rarely sleeps in the same bed twice). She used the Flow House as a base for speaking to students in Austria and the Czech Republic. We really enjoyed talking about our time in Europe and life in general (she's thinking about doing the Wake Counseling program), and decided it would be fun to hang out again. So, I'll head to London next weekend to share her Wake Forest-sponsored hotel room and see the city (as well as a Vanderbilt and another Wake Forest friend) for a few days!

• Two of the students found a big pumpkin for 14 euro, and we carved it a few days before Halloween. I tried my hand at roasting pumpkin seeds and had success with a cinnamon seasoning I found online. Below are Megan, Sophie (our Wake professor's daughter), and Katie with the pumpkin:

• Halloween weekend was spent with forty middle and high schoolers and seven other leaders around my age for our church's annual youth retreat. I was involved with some of the planning (and a lot of the baking!) for this weekend, and once again was thankful for all the summers I spent as a camp counselor at Summer's Best. I had a small group of four ninth grade girls, and loved getting to know them a bit as well as listening to them struggle with questions of faith (two of my girls considered themselves to be Christians, one had dropped out of her Catholic confirmation class, and one had been raised in a Muslim family). Terry Kole, who's been like a surrogate mom/great friend to me here, was mostly in charge of things; she pays incredible attention to details and as a result the kids were treated to a ridiculous amount of baked goods, excellent presenters and music, afternoon workshops (drama, cartooning, sports, photography, etc.)...basically a non-stop amazing weekend. My dear friend Kristi put together a great video using footage from the weekend. You'll see me eating cupcake crumbs toward the end...classic. Watch it here if you'd like to...she did a GREAT job.
  

Leaders from top left: Bill and Laurie Matthewson (they live down the street and I babysit their four kids often), Petrina (friend from Tanzania who's lived in Vienna for the last ten years), Kristen (American but grew up in Vienna), Kristi (see below), me, Peter (from here but sounds American; he heads up the youth group stuff and our whole church teases him because they think he looks like Barack Obama), Patrick (student at University of Illinois who's studying here this fall; his roommate goes to Vanderbilt!), and Em (from South Africa and working here as an au pair). The couple standing on the right is Scarlett and George Tice; they live in Ireland now but lived in Vienna during the last eight years. And sweet Terry is the blonde sitting below them.

• Have I told you about Kristi? What a blessing she's been to me during the short time I've known her! Kristi and her husband Jeremy are from a little town near Nashville, and she studied at Belmont while I was at Vanderbilt (Belmont's a great school located just down the street from Vandy...Kim and I used to walk through it all the time). She graduated in '04, got married soon after that, and last year an absolutely incredible turn of events led them to Vienna where Jeremy has become the only American to play for the world-renowned Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (the best orchestra in Vienna and some say in the world...!). He plays the trombone. Jeremy and Kristi are expecting their first BABY sometime around Christmas! Anyway. You'll hear lots about Kristi in months to come, I'm sure (last night we went out to dinner near Shonbrunn and then back to her apartment for hot chocolate). She updates her blog a lot more consistently than I do these days, and it's especially fun to go back and read some of her entries from when they were adjusting to life in Vienna -- http://theviennawilsons.net/.

• Last weekend, the students and I visited Cracow, Poland on our third and last university-sponsored trip. What a great city--I'll get some pictures up in a few hours and write a little more about our time there at some point (I know I always say that...this time I'll try to do it). This picture is right after I asked them to make Renaissance arches (Megan down in the corner there thought I said something about hearts and wasn't sure what was going on):

• London this weekend, and GREECE the weekend after that! The students and I are going to Athens and Santorini for our long Thanksgiving weekend, and we're getting really excited about it. I have spent many hours researching hostels, hotels, ferries, and other logistical and touristy things for the trip (I am busy around here, but I don't have to do papers and reading like they do...). Most things are worked out at this point but so much shuts down at the end of October that it's difficult to know exactly what will be available to us once we get there. Somehow, I think we'll be okay. :)

• I continue to cook dinners twice a week for Jane and Bill (a busy American couple who live right across from the Rathaus!). As I described when I first moved here, grocery shopping can be quite an adventure around here, but I've got a pretty good gameplan for my cooking days. Just skip down to the next bullet if you don't really care. Here's what I do--first, I walk (about 15 minutes) down to the BioMarkt, one of Vienna's best organic grocery stores. Recipe (and index card with food translations) in hand, I usually can find at least two or three things I need here. For the rest, it's on to EuroSpar (twice as big as my local Spar Gourmet, it boasts a greater selection and better consistency but still doesn't compare to an American grocery store). A tramline just down the street from EuroSpar can take me to InterSpar (the MOTHER of all grocery stores in Vienna. I was there yesterday and just wandered for ten minutes before I even put anything in my basket!) if I am still missing something for the meal, but so far I've not had to play that card while cooking for Jane. Then, it's back home for as much advance prep as I can do (chopping vegetables, that sort of thing). I pack up my groceries and prepared food in a cute shopping bag, and hop on the bus to go down to Jane's house. The bus drops me off about five minutes from her condominium, so I enjoy a leisurely walk through a fun part of town (stopping at a butcher along the way if my meal requires a special kind of meat) and buzz her to be let in. Once dinner is well on its way, I let Jane know what she needs to do to complete it ("Here's some fresh oregano; when Bill gets home, just throw that in the soup and you can serve it 3 minutes later!") and am on my way with reimbursement for my groceries, a generous reward for my time, and often a fun coupon or set of tickets she doesn't think she'll be able to use. So much fun, not to mention how lucky I am to be able to have someone else pay for my kitchen experiments! I've been cooking (well, baking) for the students quite a bit as well. Kurt especially liked this carrot cake with melted chocolate on top.

• Hmmm, what else. I got a haircut yesterday. Despite the fact that I live in a country where I can't converse well with people, I decided to have the stylist cut bangs for the first time since I grew out my bowlcut in fourth grade. Armed with a recent picture of Reese Witherspoon, I gave her my best "das ist gut," and let her go to town. Not really...she spoke pretty good English, actually. But, as she was explaining that she was going to cut my bangs a little shorter than Reese's picture dicated, she literally paused, frowned, and used the phrase "well, it is difficult to say in English. But it is best." "Okay," I said. And it was fine. Now, my bangs look almost like they did when I was three. But more Euro.