International Dot Day

Tomorrow, September 15th, is International Dot Day.  Being that it is Saturday, the school is celebrating today.  You may ask, huh?  What is International Dot Day? That is what I said.  So here is what I have learned:

Dot day celebrates creativity by encouraging children to make their "mark".  It started 5 years ago to celebrate the publication of The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, a Massachusetts based author.  The story follows Vashti, who does not believe that she can draw.  Her art teacher encourages her to make a mark on her paper, which she does by drawing a dot.  The story is depicted in this short You Tube clip:

So this week has been filled with activities encouraging kids to be creative using a dot.  Thing 1 had to write about being a dot while Thing 2 drew pictures with dots. But the major point is that you cannot leave your mark if you don't try.  Great message, especially for Thing 1 who is reluctant to try anything that he thinks he can't do.

Today they were encouraged to wear clothing with dots.  Thing 2 was not a problem, but Thing 1 has no clothing with dots.  So we improvised by placing blue sticker dots all over his sleeve. Thing 2 then decided to place stickers dots on her cheeks.  This is how they went to school this morning:

And other than the funny looks from their Austrian counterparts, they made their mark:-)

Driving in Vienna

Please note that I did not say Austria. I will stick to Vienna's city limits for now since I know that driving on Austria's highways is similar to driving on US highways.

We received our vehicle last week.  The Cat drove it home and it sat there until this week when we had a few functions at the school and decided to drive because the bus that goes up that way only comes around every hour.

Driving in Vienna is far from similar. Don't get me wrong. Roads are far superior to what we found in Warsaw. But, in retrospect, driving in Warsaw was far easier even with no stop signs, triple lane U turns, traffic circles (which I think are awesome), the common practice of jumping medians when traffic wasn't moving fast enough and my favorite - parking on sidewalks! Rules seemed to be guidelines.  Not following them did not get you in much trouble. In 3 years, I never got a ticket in Warsaw nor did I get into an accident. It was lawlessness at its finest.

In Vienna, things are different. For one, there are too many rules and, unlike Warsaw, they are enforced. The most important one is do not speed. This is not a difficult concept unless you consider that most speed limits are between 30-40 kilometers which is between 15 and 25 miles per hour! With those speeds, you may be inclined to push a bit further in that pedal. Don't. The Austrians have rigged speed cameras throughout the city that are obstructed from view. Sometimes they are out in the open, but they blend into their surroundings so well that if you don't pay attention, you may just miss them as you speed by.  Diplomatic plates may help you in the sense that the polizei may decide not to stop you because they know the interaction will be just as frustrating for them as it will be for you (language barrier and all). But, the cameras don't care. So you may be speeding along thinking nothing of it since no one is in front or in back of you and a few weeks later, you receive a ticket in the mail, or like some unfortunate acquaintances, several tickets. Oh, and with diplomatic plates, the tickets get sent to the Embassy so everyone knows you got a ticket.

Parking can also be a challenge.  There are plenty of parking garages in some areas that are free.  These are great because there are signs pointing you in their direction that indicate how many free spaces are at each garage. Inside the garages, each parking space has a little green light (free) or red light (taken) above the space.  No more wandering down each aisle hoping to find a spot.  But as you move away from the inner city to the outlying districts, there may only be street parking.  We have a parking garage underneath our house, but while our CRV fits, it is a tight fit.  Therefore, we will only be parking there when it snows.  In our district, it is not required that you buy a parkscheine (parking voucher) to park on the street. The problem is that some districts require while others don't and its a bit of a guessing game to figure out if you need to use one. These parkscheines are purchased at the local tobacco (Tabak) stores for minutes to up to 4 hours. You place them on your windshield after circling the date and time you are leaving your car. Don't circle the date or time or place on the windshield an you get an automatic ticket. Some people buy a bunch at a time and just keep them handy.  When in doubt, put it on your windshield.

Back to driving....the most troublesome aspect of driving here has to do with the trams.  Vehicular traffic and tram traffic share certain roads, usually the main ones.  So you are not only trying to look out for the cars around you, but also for the trams, the cyclists and the pedestrians.  Crosswalks at tram or bus stops are throughout the city and drivers are expected to stop if anyone is waiting to enter a crosswalk.  

The other curious aspect of driving around here is that besides traffic lights, there are hardly any stop signs.  Instead, there are yield signs at intersections.  If no one is coming, you don't have to stop.  This is the same concept as traffic circles, which at one time scared me to death.  I now embrace them because they keep the flow of traffic going.

I remember going to New York City with friends when I was 20 years old (some of you may remember joining me).  We drove there from DC and we also drove all over the city.  I was the driver. Despite, the massive traffic and the notoriety of NY drivers, I was not nervous about driving in NYC. In Warsaw, I don't recall being nervous about it either.  But, perhaps, since I am a bit older, with my fully developed frontal lobe, I see this as riskier than it once was.  I am pretty sure this is the reason that auto insurance rates drop once you turn 25. 

This week, I stuck to the streets where only buses travel because this is what I am used to.  I know one day, the Cat will call me to say that we have packages at the Embassy and I will have to wander into the Gürtel. Until then, I will take the excellent public transportation the city has to offer and keep the car and myself in one piece.

Grüß Gott, Frau Magister!

This week, the Cat and I started German language training.  It is an opportunity offered by the Embassy at all posts to help us foreigners ease more into our host country's culture.  So, not only do you learn the language but culture as well.  

Today, part of the lesson focused on formal and informal greetings and goodbyes.  Guten tag, guten morgen (morning), guten abend (evening), auf wiedersehen are some common ways to formally greet or say good bye to someone.  However, more commonly in Austria, you hear grüß Gott for a greeting, auf wiederschauen for an in person good bye and auf wiederhören if you are saying goodbye over the phone. Luckily, I'm taking notes! There are also rules in regards to which greetings you use with friends vs people you don't know vs elders.  For friends, you can say "Hallo" for hello or "Tschüss" for bye. For strangers, you would stick to the more formal greetings listed above. Also, it is not proper to tell someone older than you that they can call you by name, but an elder can tell you to call them by their name only instead of "Frau or Herr so and so." 

Since we were on the topic of greetings, I brought up titles.  Last night I was on the TMobile Austria site and was changing our address from our temp housing to current address  They had an option for title, but it wasn't Mr, Mrs, Miss, Master, or Dr. in the drop down.  There were at least a hundred titles to choose from.  I had already heard about this custom, but didn't quite understand it because it makes no sense to us Americans and possibly many other foreigners.  

Titles are a form of hierarchy here in the same way as you go from enlisted to General in the the US Army. The higher your title the more respect you are given.   In the United States, it is common to call someone who has earned a PhD or MD a doctor when addressing them.  But you never hear someone addressed by their other degrees or profession.  If you are a university professor and happen to be have a masters degree, you would be greeted, for example, as "Herr/Frau Professor Magister so and so".  If you have a double masters degree, that is acknowledge by saying "Frau Professor Magister Magister."  If you have more than one profession say, for example, you are a pharmacist with a doctorate degree and you teach at the university level, you would be addressed as "Herr/Frau Doktor Pharmazeut, Professor so and so."

My professor is from Germany and she shared that when she moved to Austria she did not understand it either because this is not done in Germany.  She has been told that since Austrians never had a noble class, they wanted to have something to show societal status.  I have also heard that they take pride in their accomplishments and want them acknowledged.  For foreigners, it will seem that they are showing off, but, to them, this is the way they do things.  

My professor encouraged me to use the title Magister (master's degree) in my name because she states that locals will treat you better if they know you hold a master's degree.  Therefore, you may now refer to me as "Frau Magister Soziale Arbeiter, Mother of All Things":-)  

Back to Schule

Seems like forever since my last post! The things returned to school last week after what seemed like an endless summer - to me, anyway.  What do expats do about school when they are away from home?  That depends, but most of us USA expats send our kids to one of the many international school options unless your kids happen to be fluent in the language of your host country. Austrian schools, in case you're wondering, start on September 3rd.

Here in Vienna, there are many more choices than there were in Warsaw.  I attribute this to the large United Nations prescence here as well as other international organizations like the IAEA.  There is the American International School, The Vienna International School, The Danube School, The British School, the Lycée Français de Vienne, the Vienna Elementary School, the International Christian School, Mayflower Christian Academy and, for the more musically inclined middle/high schoolers, the Amadeus International School of Music. 

Parents seem to send their kids to the one where most of their coworkers send their kids. Preference is given to diplomats.  The Embassy allows us to choose.  The tab is paid by the Embassy or parent employer.  This is an amazing opportunity to send your children to a private school that is paid for by someone else.  Bus transportation via PostBus to and from is also paid by the Embassy.

Most of these schools are large compounds that house K-12 on a sprawling campus.  Some, like the one Thing 1 attended in Warsaw, are very modern, state of the art new facilities.  The school the kids are attending in Vienna is not as impressive on the outside compared to the one in Warsaw, but once you're in inside and see what is available you realize that opportunity within the walls far exceeds the exterior presentation.  

Our school is on top of a hill in the 19th district bordering the Vienna Woods.  Not having a car, we hoofed it up there for orientation.  Being that the school is built in to the hill, there are lots of stairs to climb just to get to class.  My children were not amused.  Thanks to all my incline walking, I did not have much of a problem.  However, the heat is what was broke me.  

Why heat?  Because like every other place in Vienna, the school is NOT air conditioned.  So, while walking up all those stairs is not a problem, your increased hear rate will prompt you to break a sweat with no remedy for cooling off.  The school opens all windows and some rooms like the music and computer rooms are air conditioned because temp control is required.  Unfortunately, the few days have brought us temperatures in the 90's which can make it unbearable.  I attended a PTA meeting last week in a room that was not air conditioned and packed with parents.  Thankfully I, and many others, had something to fan themselves or we would have passed out.  Everyone keeps saying that the cool weather will arrive in a few weeks and stay through June 2013. There is truth to this as today the mercury is not getting far above 65 degrees. Relief is in sight!

The school is divided up into elementary, middle and high school.  For the purposes of this entry, I am focusing on the elementary school.  The school covers pre-K to 5th grade.  In addition to the regular curriculum of reading, writing and arithmetic, students are expected to take German up to five times per week, play a musical instrument (beginning in 2nd grade), take art, music, computers and PE up to three times per week. They also go to the library once per week and have character building lessons with the school counselor on a rotation. There are classrooms for German, art, general music, instrumental music, an upper and lower gym, soccer pitch, a sports hall and a theater.

After school activities are also incorporated into the school.  These are paid by the parents and include martial arts, basketball, gymnastics, choir, guitar, swimming, arts/ceramics, theater arts, yoga, dance, and even digital photography.  Sign ups took place Wednesday and it was like getting concert tickets. We managed to secure 4 days of after school activities for both kids and will be paying about $1230 USD for four months worth of activities for two kids. To compare, last year, we paid $3500 for one semester for Thing 1's martial arts after school program.

The Parent Teacher Forum (PTF) is the school's version of the PTA/PTO we have in the USA.  Besides meetings that are held in a really hot room, they sponsor activities throughout the year for both parents and families.   The school itself also sponsors certain activities like UN Day in October and the Ski Trip during winter break in February.

Speaking of breaks....there are lots of breaks here.  There is autumn break (1 week) in October, Thanksgiving Break (same as USA), Christmas Break (3 weeks), Winter Break in February (1 week), and Spring Break (1 week).  This does not include all the Austrian holidays, state and religious ones, when school is closed.  The kids get a ridiculous amount of vacation with ample opportunity for travel. 

Finally one of the better aspects is the communication between the school and parents.  The school is in many ways more technologically advanced than our experience back home.  They have a presence on Facebook and Twitter.  They have an iPhone app where you can check on bus status, news, and find phone numbers for whomever you wish to contact regarding the school. 

Each grade has a website which is further broken down by teacher. The sites include units of study on each subject matter and lets parents know what the kids are learning in class.  There is also a section on homework.  The kids bring homework home, but it is also posted online.  There is no excuse for failing to complete homework.  Each teacher has a blog forum where parents can post questions and discuss topics related to the class or their kids.  There is a section for announcements, online and other student resources as well as a contact form where you can communicate with the teacher.  Parent-teacher communication is done online with the exception of any requested conferences.

Thing 1 will be given his own laptop next week which he is going to be using at home and at school.  He is expected to bring it to school daily, fully charged and will be taking it to his different classes.  The laptops are issued, updated and maintained by the school.  Hence the 350 Euro refundable deposit we had to make back in May. They will be given to us at Back to School Night next week.

But, the best thing I could have hoped for was the reaction from my kids when they came home the first day.  Thing 2 cried a bit when I dropped her off the first day, but if you know her, it was mostly drama that she soon got over.  She was all smiles when she got home. Both kids were sharing the words they learned in German class and what specials they had that day.  But, Thing 1, made my heart sing.

As many of you know from my random Facebook postings, we struggled watching the treatment that Thing 1 received from his peers when he entered his local public school almost 4 years ago.  He was teased for the stutter he had (which disappeared within a few months of being back in the US), then it was for not being athletic or being the youngest and smallest, etc.  It hurt to watch him want to have a friend so much but being rejected when he tried.  Eventually, he made some friends, but I don't think he ever forgot how it felt to be rejected and he stopped trying to approach kids unless they were new in school (he knew what that felt like).

My biggest concern for him was whether or not he would come out of his shell and be a bit more outgoing with other kids. Well, my concerns were eased rather quickly.  He came home telling me that he was sitting at lunch by himself and another 5th grade boy said "Hi, are you new? Do you want to come sit with us and be friends?" And like that, his entire confidence changed.  He has been doing his homework and reading without me even having to remind him.  It's almost as if he was having such a rough time socially the last couple of years that he had given up on school both socially and academically. Now he is riding the bus (which is chaperoned) and has friends on the bus and at school.  He is even trying new foods and signed up for ball sports (never interested him before).

Thing 2 will thrive in any environment. Thing 1 thrives in this one.  This environment celebrates differences rather than the schools at home where being the "same" is celebrated and being different gets you laughed at, teased or threatened.  If we are blessed with the opportunity to do a lateral assignment after this, we are going to go for it, if only to help get Thing 1 through his adolescence with as much self esteem as possible.

It looks to be a great school year!

The House: The Good, Bad and the Ugly (not so much ugly)

We moved into our new home last week and have been busy finding a place for everything.  While the house is larger than I expected (not larger than Poland, however),  storage space is an issue.  We spent the latter part of last week and the weekend trying to make everything fit.  We were only able to clear the bedrooms and hallways.  The living room is scattered with an mix of entertainment options and decor along with furniture the Embassy needs to remove. This includes the queen size bed my husband dismantled to make room for our king size bed.  We just could not go three years without our sleep number bed ;-)

The house is really four stacked apartments, each two stories.  Ours is one of the top two stories. Our front door neighbor is also our landlord even though anything that goes on with the house needs to go through the Embassy.  Our neighbors downstairs are Australians working at the UN. All the neighbors have small children which will make the noise coming from my children the least of their problems. There is a chocolate lab that belongs to one of the Aussies that has made good friends with our Sneetch (our dog in Seuss terms). They love to play in the yard.  

The top floor of our house was given to the kids and there is a guest room up there as well.  We gave the kids the larger rooms as they have way too much junk to fit into the smaller room.  Thing 2's bedroom is next to the guest room and Thing 1's is at the other end of the hall.  Thing 2's bedroom also has a balcony/terrace. We brought our patio chairs and they will remain there for the next 3 years unused because Rapunzel's tower is blocking entry to the balcony.  This is a good thing if you know Thing 2 personally.  In between, there are two bathrooms. One is for your toileting needs and the other is for your bathing and showering needs.  This kind of helps in the "she's hogging the bathroom" department.  The flooring in the bedrooms is wood while the hallway, stairs  and bathrooms have a grayish marble tile.  

Proceeding downstairs is our bedroom adjacent to the master bathroom.  In Europe, the master bath is not located within the master bedroom.  It is more like a master suite that could easily be another room. Our master bathroom is also our laundry room as the washer and dryer are stacked in a corner.  It is different, but not an entirely bad idea since most people remove their clothing to shower or bathe. The appliances are front loading which was new to me and I can now tell you that I will never buy a front loading washer or dryer.  Not having owned one, I was unaware about leaving the door open after a wash and removing wet clothing immediately after washing.  The stench that emanated from that thing when I went to do another load was horrible. Ewww! So imagine my surprise when I googled "bad smell in dryer" and got a ton of links about how common this problem is with front loaders!  I had to bleach it and that cleared it up, but jeez! The instruction manual didn't even mention it!

Moving right along is the hallway that contains the toileting bathroom which leads to the kitchen room.  It is a room, not a space. A very small room at that and the only part of the house that I wish I could change.  To give you an idea, the master bath suite is bigger than the kitchen.  Since the roof slants all over the house, it makes it feel even smaller.  The living/dining great room is next to the kitchen/hallway and is sizable. The furniture is standard issue Embassy furnishings although I am glad that the couch colors changed from our last post.

One thing I do like about this house are the windows. There are floor to ceiling windows in the living room and our master bedroom and large windows for the kids bedrooms. I also love the European windows that can open up like a door, or, with the turn of the handle, be set up to open slightly at the top.  On a hot day you can open the window completely and on a cold one just slightly for ventilation.  This is very important because the one thing after the kitchen that I hate is that there is no central air conditioning.   To say that I was not happy when we arrived is an understatement.

The Embassy provides these portable units that work well but are cumbersome in the sense that they have a hose to filter the hot air from the house.  It needs to be placed outside through a window because otherwise it blows the hot air right back in.  This is problematic because the hose is too short to fit over the slightly opened window which means the window needs to be opened like a door to accommodate this hose.  There are no screens on the windows which means that insects can freely seek solace from the heat in your house.  After killing several wasps/bees, the Cat fixed this by tying twine to the handle and a part of the frame and place the curtains over the hose/window to keep the insects out.  The portable units make it much more comfortable and make me happier. I can say I have even had to shut them off at times because it gets too cold.  

Along these lines, we noticed that there is not a radiator in sight. I'm glad about this, not only because I hate heat, but because radiators gather dust and cobwebs and are a pain to clean.  We had them in Poland so I was happy to see none in our new place.  But, what to do about heating...well, heating comes in through the floor.  If you have ever lived in a cold climate and placed your feet on a tiled or wood floor in the winter, you probably would feel a very cold floor.  Not here.  The floor is what gets heated and since heat rises, voila - instant heating.

Overall, we are pleased with our new place.  When you take into account that we have no mortgage, rent or utilities to speak of, I can take the small kitchen and less than desirable a/c unit. The only instance where a person can get free housing is on section 8 and what they get for free is a fraction of what we have and usually not as nice.  And they still have to pay utilities!

Taking Care of Business

After 34 days without a mobile phone, we were finally able to secure cell phone service through T-Mobile in Austria.  It is amazing how difficult it was to secure phone service. It was not as difficult in Poland because an organization within the Embassy secured the phones and accounts for us and paid our bill.  We just had to pay them back.  No such organization exists here.

In order to obtain phone service, we had 1) obtain legitimization cards, 2) obtain a letter from the Embassy confirming our address in Austria, and 3) open a bank account. The easiest part of this process was the proof of address letter.  Everything else took a month's time.

The legitimization cards are cards given to each member of the family basically confirming that you are a member or family member of someone in the diplomatic corp or international organization.  The cards are in German have a picture of the card bearer.  It is like a residency permit.  We each have one now.

Opening the bank account was not as time consuming.  Lucky for us, a branch of Bank Austria is located within the Embassy.  Everything here is done by bank transfer. There is no check writing in Europe. Whenever you receive a bill, the bank account number, routing number and other numbers associated with the biller are included on the bill.  You then can either pay online or go to the bank and fill out a slip transferring fund to the biller.  I do prefer this to check writing because checks sometimes take time to clear where with the bank transfer, once you submit the slip, the money is deducted from your account immediately. 

With those three items along with our passports, we were able to walk into T-mobile and walk out with a new phone and two micro sim cards for our iPhones purchased in the USA. Now we just need to go back to T-Mobile to get them to change the voice mail language to English but that is a minor glitch.

On a more surprising note, I learned a few things this week regarding our Vonage phone service and iMessage. 

We have had Vonage VOIP service since 2006 when we moved to Warsaw.  It was very convenient to have a US phone number that we or anyone could call free of charge with the exception of our monthly fixed bill.  Yesterday, I was in the app store and searched for Vonage.  There was an app that is like Skype.  So I downloaded it.  It asked me to enter my mobile phone number.  Instead of entering my mobile phone number, I took a chance and entered our Vonage home phone number.  It asked to confirm the number by text message but also gave the option to request a call.  So I opted for that and entered the code given to me by phone.  I then called my mother's cell phone in the USA free of charge. This means that I can call anyone now when I'm out and about from my cell phone as if I was in the US with a US number. 

In regards to iMessage, I was alerted to the fact that if you use iMessage selecting someone's email address rather than their phone, you can send and receive text messages for free.  So for those of you who know my email (check Facebook for that information) and have an iPhone, you can text me as if I never left the USA.

Things continue to look up....can't wait to move to our new and permanent place next week!

Expat Tech

Life for the average expat affiliated with the USG is pretty sweet in 2012.  Not only are you provided for (rent & utilities are paid up for the next three years) and given privileges like VAT refunds, Armed Forces Network (AFN) and commissary shopping privileges at military bases, but there are other perks today that just 15 years ago were not available.

Let's look at these separately....

Telephone

There was a time about 15 years ago and beyond when the only way to reach your loved ones was via snail mail (beginning of civilization), long distance phone call (1876 - present) and email (1990's- present). That all changed with the internet.  On our first post to Warsaw in 2006, we brought with us Vonage VOIP Phone Services.  For the same cost of a landline (about $35/month), we could now call and receive calls at no additional cost from caller to recipient and vice versa.  Vonage gives you an US phone number so that no matter where you place the call, your US phone number will show up on the recipient's caller ID as if you lived a few houses down from them.  Other than having to keep track of the time difference, keeping in touch was never that easy.  To further advance this technology, Skype came along and with the new Skype app for iPhone and iPad, you can now receive or make calls wherever you have a wi-fi connection.  You can even see who you are talking to with video chat. Forget Back to the Future - we're living it now!

The Internet

Email has been around since the 1990's for the general public.  While it was a great phenomena at the time, Facebook is what has revolutionized social contact in the information age.  While it emerged in 2006, I did not join that bandwagon until early 2008 after trying MySpace and not enjoying it much. It has changed how you keep in touch with people and has helped us reconnect with people from our past that would otherwise have been lost to the passing of time.

The internet keeps you abreast of everything that is going on the world via news media sites and online newspapers.  It's how I figure out what is going on in Austria and the USA at the same time. 

It also makes purchasing US items so much easier.  Most places don't ship internationally and if they do, it cost you an arm and a leg.  However, if you're with the USG there is a US based address that is associated with your post.  This is also available to expats from other countries now as well via Access USA (this one may cost more shipping wise).  So you basically use your personal or USG provided US address as your "ship to" address.  If you shop online, you can order whatever you want (except liquids) and have it shipped to that address.  It usually arrives in 7-10 business days.  We use Netgrocer to purchase items not available to us in Europe (except frozen/liquid products) and Amazon.com (with Prime) for everything else. It's easier to order this way than to have to go to a military base every few months to stock up. 

Television

AFN has been providing radio and TV broadcasts since World War II.  TV started to expand in the 1970's and today there are about 8 channels providing programming to those of us overseas.  While nice to have, it is limited programming that is usually behind the US schedule (with the exception of the news channels).  When you are living overseas, you cannot "legally" view television programs from the United States.  If you try to pull something up from ABC, NBC, HBO or Netflix, etc or if you tried to download content from iTunes, we would get a message saying that programming is not available outside the USA. 

While in Warsaw, we got around this by using a software that gave us a ghost IP address, meaning that it would make other sites think that we were accessing it from San Fransisco.  But internet access in Poland was very slow and downloading a show could take hours.  Flash forward to today...

The virtual private network (VPN) makes home entertainment ever so easy.  Like the ghost IP address, you log on to the network, choose what US city you wish to serve as your IP address, and voila!  Instant programming from all the above mentioned networks and more on computer, iPad or iPhone! Obviously, you sometimes need accounts to view Netflix or premium cable, but with the help of family who generously provided their usernames and passwords for certain cable networks, we will never lack for programming.  Further, if you have a TV with HDMI, you can hook up your computer to the TV and watch whatever program that is on your screen on the big screen.  The best thing about it is that you watch when you want to watch and you don't have to worry about having a DVR because everything is available on cyberspace.

So while some things still remain difficult (i.e. language barrier), life for the expat is far easier in these times and it can only get easier.

For more on how much technology has changed just in the three years from arriving/departing the US, see this older post.

Medical Care in Vienna

Today we completed the medical office orientation. Every Embassy has a medical unit staffed with either a doctor, nurse practitioner, nurse and psychiatrist or any combination of these professionals. At our post, there is a doctor, NP, two RN's and a regional psychiatrist that covers several other posts in addition to Vienna.

The Austrian version of 911 is 144 (ambulance) 122 (fire department) and 133 (police). It is not an all in one number. Further our telephone numbers are unlisted so we were taught that if we call in an emergency to any of these numbers, our number will not show up on caller id. Therefore, when personnel answer the phone, the first thing they will ask is for your address. Ambulance teams include a doctor and a paramedic and depending on your emergency, they will stabilize you and take you to the nearest hospital with available beds. Therefore, you don't get to choose which hospital you go to.

We were given these pink cards in English and German and were told that should we end up at the hospital over a weekend, we are to present those cards to the registration people who are instructed to coordinate through the Embassy for care and payment. Unlike our hospital tour in Poland, there is no organized tour of hospitals here because when they tried to organize one, they had very poor attendance. I remember our Warsaw tour and the van was full.

The nearest hospital to us is Allgemeines Krankenhaus (hospital). I love the names for some of the places here. I guess hospitalized people are "cranky". Within this hospital, there are departments just like in the States. The website offers some information in English.  I was quite pleased to learn that the neuro ophthalmologist Thing 1 was referred to for treatment of his intracranial hypertension is fluent in English and has a neuro ophthalmology (neuroophthalmologische) clinic Monday through Friday from 8am-3pm.  The hospital is a university hospital which mean a teaching/research hospital.  I like this only because teaching/research hospitals usually are involved in cutting edge research and are up to date on the latest technologies and procedures. The neuro-ophthalmologist we were referred to is part of the hospital's attending staff and a professor at the Medical University of Vienna. The reason I know all this without having stepped foot into the doctor's office is that their website is in English and German. Two blocks from the main hospital is the Sankt Anna Kinderspital which is part of the main hospital. Their website is in German, but thanks to Google Translate I can have the entire thing translated into English. 

In addition to his need for a neuro-ophthalmologist, Thing 1 needs to start orthodontic treatment ASAP.  For this, we were referred to an orthodontist who is fluent in English and even has an English version of her website. The booklet provided by the medical office also listed specialists from cardiologists to veterinarians with a notation of their fluency in English.  The majority of these physicians trained either in the US or UK so about 80% are fluent or native English speakers. 

Before leaving the States, we had to obtain medical clearances.  Thing 1's condition had been diagnosed 2 months prior and we were put through the wringer to obtain clearances.  They expressed concern about treatment not being available and being subpar.  They questioned what we would do if he needed medivac.  Meanwhile, our neuro-ophthalmologist in the States did not understand the hoopla over this and had to send multiple letters to these people stating that he just needs monitoring.  Well, that medical clearance team was, how should I put it....full of shit! We were told today that they actually medivac people from other posts in Africa/Asia because the medical care is excellent. 

We received our first of three tick borne encephalitis (TBE) vaccines today.  Because of our proximity to the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods) and since we have a dog, it was recommended. We were also given flouride tablets to use sparingly with the kids because the water (which is potable and tastes great compared to the Polish tap water and Orlando, Florida water, per Thing 1) does not contain flouride. 

We were encouraged to visit the hospital just to become familiar with it just in case, which I plan to do when I feel the need for Starbucks - one is located within the hospital:-) Needless to say, I hope we never need to use the facility.

Living in Vienna

In writing over the last few weeks, I noted that there are lots of things I am leaving out mostly because living in Europe is no longer new to us.  I was looking over our posts from our early days in Warsaw and noticed that I had completely forgotten to share what it was like the first time around.  You can read about it yourself if you wish, but what follows is a bit about what is similar and/or different between Vienna and Warsaw (in case anyone is looking for a follow on post).

Around the House

From 2006, Warsaw...

"Some interesting differences we noted right away had to do with the light switches and doors. The light switch is on the outside of the bathroom and other common areas, rather than inside, yet they are located inside for the bedrooms. When you think about it, that makes more sense than having them inside a room. Further, some doors open out while others open in. That was not as bad as the light switches. I have spent the last few days confused reaching for a light switch inside the bathroom.

Toilets are also different. For one, they have flush control so that you don't use up as much water. They also seem to not have much water in them as a rule. Only when you flush does the bowl fill up."

No changes in the above.

One thing I never mentioned that people sometimes ask about is US appliances.  We left our major appliances in our house in Virginia, but we did bring some minor appliances/items like our television sets, Blu-Ray/DVD players,  the Wii, our computers, iPads and iPhones.  We run these items off transformers that are provided to us.  I want to say that if your appliance runs at 2000+watts you use a transformer.  This is not to be confused with a converter plug.  Converter plugs work with a hair dryer for example, but don't try to plug up a 110v appliance (coffeemakers, conventional ovens, etc) because you will blow it up.  This happened to me with a conventional oven when I was in Warsaw. The Wii runs off a wall transformer just fine.  The computers are an interesting comparison.  We own PCs and Macs.  The PCs usually require a transformer or a wall transformer. But it was the Macs that impressed me.  Apple sells converter plugs for their Macs.  If you take your Mac (or iPhone) charger, you will note that you can remove the 110v plug and replace it with a 220v.  That has by far been the easiest appliance conversion ever! This was news to me because I didn't have a Mac back in 2006.

Language

In Polish, one greets others by saying "dzien dobry" which means good day or good morning.  In German, most people think "guten tag" works, but that is not how people greet each other here.  And if you greet someone with guten tag, they will know you are a tourist.  The proper greeting here is "grüß gott" (pronounced gruss gott).  It literally mean "greet God" which makes no sense, but very well then.  

Most people under 40 (like in Poland) speak English quite well.  But I would say it is more true here than it was in Poland.  We have been able to find an English speaking person everywhere we have been (even at the grocery store).  

However, like in Poland, I am certain that German will be helpful once we venture out of Vienna into other areas of Austria. 

One of the things that I find happening to me when I try to say "yes" or "no" or I try to ask for a number of items is that I find my mind automatically shifting into Polish and I will respond in Polish.  I don't know why it happens, but I remember the same thing happening when we returned to the States in 2008. I can only to compare it to how I can speak Spanglish without giving it much thought while non native speakers stare and say "huh?" On the plus side, it confirms that I really did learn Polish:-)

German classes start in September and I can't wait to add German to my list of spoken languages. 

Shopping

No major difference in shopping between the two countries except for the fact that everything is closed on Sundays and Vienna is still primarily a cash based society.  It really is hit or miss.  For example, we went to the grocery store for the first time and were able to pay with our US debit/credit card.  But this past weekend, at the same store, the transaction was denied.  We just went to the ATM where the card worked just fine and withdrew cash to pay.  But places like the U-Bahn or the movie theater, you can pay with your card just fine. I don't particularly like this because I rarely carry cash and now I have to have some on me at all times just in case.  

Another common aspect at grocery stores is the that cashiers sit at the register and all they do is scan your items.  You have to pack them yourself (quickly) and you better bring bags because they do not supply plastic or paper bags (see my Recycling post).   At the stores here, there is a staging area past the register.  You basically dump all your purchases back in the cart and then you can take your time to pack things in that area.

VAT or Value Added Tax is alive and well in Austria as it was in Poland.  It is what makes things more expensive here.  The Embassy reimburses us for VAT like they did in Poland, but a change here is that you can either itemize or take a lump sum of 330 Euro per quarter.  To itemize, you need every receipt. So far we have not been keeping track, but even with a lump sum, we get about $400 per quarter. The quarter ends in September so I will start keeping track then to see what's best. 

Banking

We never had a Polish bank account when we lived in Warsaw. Looking back, we probably should have gotten one because I'm sure we paid lots in foreign transaction fees. In Austria, we need to open an account. The bank account in Europe is how you pay your bills. You don't send a check. Whenever you get a bill here, a bank account number for the biller is provided. You basically have to do a wire transfer from your account to the biller not unlike many of the web bill pay programs at US banks. Many people just go to the bank and fill out their little forms to have the bank transfer funds from their account to the biller's account. You can pay online, but you still need the biller's account information. Without a bank account, we are unable to get mobile phones. To get a bank account, you need your legitimacy card (like a residency card). So three weeks into this we don't have mobile service on our phones. Luckily, the Embassy gave the Cat an ancient Nokia phone which we carry around for emergencies only because they do little else.

Driving

This is what I wrote about Warsaw:

"Driving here is scary. The roads here are awful and I hear that in Warsaw it is better than driving in other more rural areas. Some roads are still dirt roads. Cars squeeze tightly next to each other. They tailgate and cut in front of cars kind of like they do in the USA only the driving resembles that of a NYC cab driver. If driving is scary, walking is even more daunting. You have to be very careful when you turn a corner because cars turn very fast and may not notice you are standing at the curb or walking up the street. Other than this, it is pretty safe to walk around the city."

No change here either except that I find the Austrians to be even more aggressive than their Polish counterparts. You also have to look out for the Straßenbahn (street car/tram) that do not stop. We were told that a teach at the American school was killed by a street car 2 years ago because she looked one way to cross but failed to see the street car coming.

The police here ticket you for everything. I have heard that since there is virtually not major crime (with the exception of non-violent break ins), they have an exorbitant amount of time on their hands. Yet even with all that time, they won't pull you over. There are cameras everywhere. Your ticket(s) get sent to you at home. The Embassy is going to be sponsoring a "driving" seminar in September that I plan to attend.

Gas is quite expensive. Last week, I saw 1.43 Euro per liter or 5.72 Euro per gallon. In USD terms, that's $6.97 per gallon! And you thought prices were bad in the States! So to fill my 15 gallon tank, it will run me $104.55 in USD. We are given a gas card here that give us a nice discount on gas. Gas gets charged to card and the Embassy sends us a bill.

To break that down into real life terms, when I was in Virginia, I filled up every week and at the highest prices, I paid about $52 per week or $208 per month. If I purchase the annual transportation pass at 365 Euro/$444.50, I can travel on the bus, streetcar, or U-Bahn, unlimited for no more than $37 USD PER MONTH.

Quite frankly, in Poland, you needed to drive most places because transportation was sketchy. Here, I would not mind using public transportation for the next three years and using the car for the autobahns out of town.

The Expat Community

This is where Warsaw and Vienna appear to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Vienna, unlike Warsaw, is a Tri-Mission, meaning, there are three separate Embassies here with three different ambassadors. There is our main Embassy, the UNVIE (UN Mission), and the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operaiton in Europe). The community here is extra large and not as tight knit as Warsaw. Last week, there were three 4th of July parties here and everyone from each mission was invited to each. Personally, as of right now, I enjoyed the community in Warsaw because it was much easier to get to know people. This posting is impersonal which can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. In Warsaw, socialization happened in people's home over food, coffee and/or several bottles of wine and/or beer. Here, there is so much to see and do that you are pretty much on your own. The Embassy does plan certain events and tours, but, from what I hear, they are poorly attended because there is so much more going on elsewhere. I think the school may be a better place to meet people.

Overall, things are looking up around here. Even the temperatures have dropped into the 60's for daytime highs and 50's for nighttime lows. I don't have any sweaters, but I'll take it over the summer heat any day.

Recycling: An Austrian Past Time (so it seems)

Today was a ho-hum day and in the aftermath of yesterday's air freight hoopla, I decided to continue unpacking, cleaning and tidying up around the house.  Things 1 and 2 were on their best behavior thoroughly enjoying the fruits of their airfreight.  No sibling fighting today.

I put in a load of laundry and set about to create boxes for recycling.  Back in the States (Virginia), we received a toter for recycling.  We could fill it with any item that could be recycled and the recycling company would sort out the mess at their facility.

This is so NOT true in Austria!  Austrian's are obsessed about their recycling.  They have 6 different types of recycling totes that are color coded either outside your home or in the case of bottles and trash on what seems to be every other street corner.  There is a container for paper that has a red lid, one for plastic wrap/packaging with a yellow lid, one for clear glass with a gray lid, one for colored glass with a green lid, one for metal/tin/aluminum with a blue lid and one for biodegradable waste with a brown lid. 

On the off set, this is no big deal and it is good for the environment.  However, from what I hear, if you but a recyclable item in regular waste by mistake and the trash collectors find it, they will try to figure out where it came from and they could fine you for improper recycling.  Crazy!

I took some of the cardboard boxes that I shipped to myself and labeled them for all the different types of waste so we can then take them to the recycling totes when they are full.  Now I must supervise the Things so they don't mess with my system!

Learning the ropes

It's been one week and I feel.... like breaking into a Barenaked Ladies song!  But really, this week has been largely uneventful with the exception of Wednesdays trip to the Schönbrunn Tiergarten (Zoo) and today's trip to the Donauturm (Danube Tower).

I actually preferred visiting this country as a tourist 5 years ago because someone made my bed, washed our linens and towels, cleaned our hotel room and I had no laundry to do.  Here I have to do it myself (until I find a maid).  I tried to get most of these things out of the way during the week so that our weekends are free to do whatever we want.  The nice thing is that the kids stay out of my hair because they know that if they start fighting or driving me nuts, they will be put to work. 

I also restarted my workouts this week which has been painful.  I was only able to pull of 3 days even though I did spend another too walking for hours.  I'll call it an even 4 days.  Moral of the story: It's much harder to get back on track than it was to derail.  I'm shooting for 4-5 days next week.

I feel like we spent the week trying to figure out things and observing.  So far, I have learned:

• It's really hot in July in Vienna. People smell and some people smell more than others.
  
• Newer trams and buses do have air conditioning.  You just need to find them.
  
• Transportation tickets are on the honor system.  Plain clothes police do check tickets but they are few and far between.  Tickets can be purchased on the tram for about 20 cents (Euro) extra than if you buy them from a ticket machine at the UBahn.  You can also buy them at any Tabak (tobacco) store.  These are everywhere, but they are closed Saturday and Sunday.  You stamp your ticket when you start a journey.  There are no turnstiles keeping you from transport if you don't stamp it, but it you get caught you have to pay a hefty fine. If you need to stop and there is no one waiting at the bus stop, press the stop button or the driver will skip your stop.
  
• Everything seems to be on the honor system.  Newspapers are left out for sale outside shops at the request of 2 euro and people deposit their coins and take their paper.
  
• Dogs can ride the buses, trams and the U-bahn, but need to be leashed and muzzled.  They are allowed in most places that do not sell food or do not have other live animals (i.e. the zoo).  Perhaps zoo staff think that free dogs will upset the caged animals.  Outdoor cafe's are ok.  They seem to love their dogs more than they like children.
  
• Most businesses close early and/or are closed on Saturdays and Sundays.  Starbucks closes at 7pm every night.  As we walked to the store today, many businesses were already closed with many closing at noon on Saturdays.  I hate to think what it will be like when the holidays hit.
  
• Having a car is really helpful.  We walked about 7/10 of a mile to the store with our empty shopping bags which was fine, but coming back was a royal pain.
  
• German is helpful, but rather unnecessary.  Even the old woman on the bus today spoke English.  I think it helps to try to speak it, but most service industry personnel speak it quite well.
  
• Austrians are quite xenophobic and their current target group are the Turkish.  There is a history there with the Habsburgs trying to stop the threat of the Ottoman Empire, but I don't know if these old wounds continue to stir this pot. The Turkish actually provide great customer service as one of our friends theorized because they are treated so poorly by other Austrians.  They go out of their way to be kind, are quite friendly and the Döner kebabs are the bomb!
  
• Austria is a neutral country due to a post WWII agreement they signed in order to have Allied Forces turn their country back over to them.  They cannot take sides in any conflict.
  
• Vienna is not Warsaw.  People do not park on the sidewalk here and while they seem to drive recklessly, rules are followed and they yield to pedestrians even if there is no crosswalk.  No triple u-turn threat here!
  
• This post is not Warsaw! Warsaw was considered a "hardship" post even though I never experienced any hardship there.  This is not a hardship post yet everything seems to be more difficult.  We still don't have cell phone service and have been getting by on Skype.  In order to get phone service, we need to open up a bank account (something we did not have to do in Poland).  In order to open an account, we need a proof of residency which we cannot get until we attend a security briefing which is held on Wednesdays and this past Wednesday was a holiday.  This means that we have to go this Wednesday and then initiate the process for this residency card following that briefing.  This could take a long time because Austria's bureaucracy far supersedes the USG. Apparently, getting our air freight requires us to complete some checklist and it is taking far longer to do this than it did in Warsaw.  The kids are bored at home without their toys so the best thing to do is keep them outside in the heat so they forget.
  
• There are lots of American products (or products available in the USA) available here.  To name a few, they have Pringles, Oreos, Pepperidge Farm, Haagen Daz, Ben and Jerry's,  Phildelphia Cream Cheese (in many varieties), Coke, Laughing Cow Cheese, Capri Sun, Krispies, Starbucks (iced coffee sold in stores) Palmolive, Listerine, Colgate, Nivea, Garnier Fructis, Pantene and many more. Most of it is junk, but its available and my kids are thrilled.
  
• Certain German words like Einfahrt (entrance), Ausfahrt (exit) and gasse (lane) are very entertaining to children.  I feel for the poor German teacher this fall and expect to get a call from the principal's office at some point.

So there you have it.  I'm sure there is far more to learn about this city and this country so I will expand on some of these things as we learn more.  Until next time...

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

I knew there was a reason that I never spent summers in Europe and the reason why I won't be spending summers here if I can help it.  It is HOT!

It's summer and it's hot everywhere north of the equator, but European summers have to be the worst I have ever experienced, perhaps right up there with summers anywhere but the USA.  Why?  Even though air conditioning has been around since World War I, Europeans, and people in other countries in general, just don't look at it as a revered convenience.  If they did, they would have air conditioning everywhere.

We have air conditioning units in our house because the USG knows better. It's just everywhere else that's a problem.  The buses and trams and U-Bahns have no air conditioning. They open the windows which is fine while you're in motion.  Then, you get off at your stop, and lets say you are going to the grocery store (or anywhere).  There is no air conditioning there either.  So you shower and dress to leave your home and then you need another shower when you get back.

Today, we ventured out to the Schönbrunn Tiergarten (Zoo).  We chose today because the high was 86 today which is the coolest it has been all week.  And still it was hot, but thankfully there was a breeze.

Europe in the summer is overrated.  Wait until fall or early spring or splurge and visit during the holidays!  You will be far more comfortable than we are now.

Oh the places we'll go.....if we could ever figure out how to get there!

We spent the last two days getting organized and getting past the jet lag.  We are still largely out of whack sleeping in until 11am or further if we let ourselves.  Today, I woke up at 11am and got everyone up.  We had to venture out to figure out transportation. But where to go?

It was unbelievably hot outside.  Disney in June did not even compare to how hot it has been since we arrived.  Doing something outdoors for more than an hour was not going to work for me or the kids.  Last night we found the Wiener Linien site which is surprisingly in English.  But, right now, we don't have cell phone/data service with the exception of Wi-Fi.  The Cat, however, found this nifty iPhone app called AnachB.at.  It is the real time transportation information for Vienna and it's in English. 

We decided to take the Things to see The Amazing Spiderman at the Haydn Kino, an English language cinema (Kino) that has been around since 1914.  I had already researched it while in the states and we were plesantly surprised to see that films that were not even out in the USA were playing here. We punched in the locations into the app, snapped screen shots and we were on our way.

It took us about an hour to travel 30 minutes, but it was more due to our disorientation than the efficiency of Vienna Transportation.  Transportation here is a combination of buses, trams and U-bahns (subway/metro) that run like a well oiled machine.  Most stops have electronic up to the minute bus or tram info as do the U-bahn (see below). 

We took a tram and a bus and a train today, but they were pretty quick.  It was trying to figure out where to walk that was a bit confusing because the app tells you to go north or south and I have no idea which is which at this moment.  But we made it to the Neubaugasse stop and to the kino 35 minutes before show time.  So we explored and these are the things we saw:

By the end of our brief tour we had coffee in hand and had seen several chains familiar to us from both the US and Europe.  The familiar, a piece of home even if I don't shop there (i.e. Forever 21).  By the end of our visit to Starbucks, I had a map with every Starbucks in Vienna on hand!

The kino's first showing for the day was at 1430/230pm. We made our way back to the area and were surprised to see not just Americans, but people of other nationalities waiting to see the film.  The theater was not like the ones we are accustomed (stadium seating and an all you can eat free for all), but the seats were comfortable and they sold popcorn, nachos, sodas, water, candy and Haribo (the gummies of choice in Europe). Here are some pics of what it looks like:

But the most intersting find today was this one:

I stared at this guy trying to figure out what exactly he (and his friend) had on their earlobe.  Friends, these guys have holes in their ears and that ring forms to the whole in their lobe!  WTF moment of the day! I've seen alot of weird in my life, but I have never seen this. 

Our little adventure today served its purpose: to allow Thing 1 (my xenophobe, the anxious one) that Vienna has much to offer that is familiar to him.  I think he was comforted by hearing other speaking English at Starbucks and at the kino.  I figure that if I can balance the familiar with the unfamiliar, it will help him adjust.

Here's hoping that tomorrow I get a SIM card for my phone so I can use a real time GPS to figure out where the hell we are! Until then...

Around the neighborhood

We woke up this morning well rested.  The Things slept way past us until about 10am.  Shocking! I may have to move them back and forth through time zones to keep this up. 

After breakfast, our sponsor picked us up for a tour of the neighborhood. He showed us some routes around the neighborhood.  We drove up to the kids' future school which on the outside does not compare to the buildings of the American School of Warsaw.  It is supposedly a very good school so I will wait until August to write about that.

We drove to our permanent house just to see where it is.  There are many heurigers in the area.   These wine taverns are surrounded by their own vineyards and serve their own wine along with food.  There are several in walking distance from our permanent residence. I look forward to checking them out. 

Our main destination today is the supermarket.  Yesterday, we only bought a few basics to get us through the day.  Today was major shopping time.  Our sponsor took us to Merkurmarkt which he states is similar to a US Supermarket. It is similar because the aisles are set up similarly.  Luckily this is not the first time we've been to a foreign market. 

For those who are unaware or have not read my 2006 posts,  all the carts are locked and you can only access a shopping cart here if you deposit a Euro. If you bring the cart back and pop it into the lock, you get your Euro back.  This helps to ensure there are no stray carts.  On a side note, this whole process trained me well as when I returned to the US, I found it hard to leave a cart lying around anywhere and started returning them to the receptacles.

Produce must be weighed and labeled before you check out, a lesson learned from Warsaw.  You don't just bag your produce and head to checkout or you get sent back.  They have these machines with touch screens where you select what produce you are buying and you put it on machine (a scale) which then delivers a label for you to place on the bag.

I was still familiar with many of the products available here.  The Cat was having a free for all in the bakery and had to be told to put things back.  It was like a kid at the candy store. Thing 1 found what he wanted: Kinder products.  If you have ever traveled overseas you may have noticed these sweets cleverly aimed at children made by the same company that brought us Nutella.  The Kinder eggs are the most popular for the kids and consist of a hollow milk chocolate egg with a toy in a plastic canister inside the egg.  They are banned in the US because of some law that says you are not allowed to have inedible objects contained in edible ones.  I guess someone must have tried to eat the toy.  He picked the Pingui which is like a candy bar with some milk like content in between the chocolate layers.  he loved them when he was 5 and nothing has changed. 

Many of the products available in the US are available here.  But while the advertising or packaging looks the same, some products get a name change.  For example, Cinnamon Toast Crunch is called Cini Minis here.  The Cat was happy to see that Ben and Jerry's is sold here, but he had met his quota for junk for the day. 

Checkout overseas is no different.  You get charged for plastic bags if you need them and you have to bag your groceries.  Cashiers sit rather than stand and their mission is to run every item through as fast as possible.  No one can possibly bag that quickly.  So what people do is throw the items back into their carts and bag them in a counter area they set up.  I didn't like it then and I don't like it now.  And as I write this, I came up with an idea.  Next time, I will just leave my bags in the car and take my unbagged groceries to the car to bag them there.  

My gripes about today's experience was with the staff at the supermarket.  The floors were pretty filthy and they have these large floor scrubber that they use to clean the floor.  The thing is that they choose to clean their filthy floors while a ton of people are shopping and they are not that courteous.  The Austrian cashier also was quite nasty with me when she asked for a type of newspaper and I did not know what she was talking about (there were several to choose from).  She then spoke to me in English and I got her the right paper.  I seriously need to sign up for German because the only newspaper I'm familiar with is Der Spiegel.

We returned home for a late lunch and got started cleaning this place.  The place was full of dust and cobwebs.  Guess its been empty for a while.  We all kept sneezing.  The smell of Ajax now permeates the house and it is a most welcome scent ever.  And for dinner, we are making Wiener Schnitzel. 

Tomorrow we explore!

The Adventure Begins

It all seems somewhat surreal at the moment.  This entire month has been a whirlwind of packing, sleeping in hotels, saying goodbye to so many friends and family, and vacation with family, all culminating in this move to another country.  It's odd because the last time we did this, there was so much to get used to.  Not in this instance!

We arrived at Dulles Airport around noon even though our flight was at 5:30pm.  We had 6 suitcases, a carry on, 4 backpacks, a Sneetch in a bag, two Things, the Cat and myself, the Mother of all Things. But all the stuff was not the reason for our early arrival. 

Despite all the hoops we had to jump to secure our beloved old Sneetch's flight with us, the airline could not confirm whether or not he could join us.  This had the Cat in a panic until we got to the ticket counter.  I took the calmer approach knowing that in the end everything will work out (those diplomatic passports are useful in these instances). 

I can't blame the Cat.  He was worried the entire month of June because United Airlines/Austrian Airlines kept giving him the run around.  Top that with having to spend an additional $200 to get the health certificate for our Sneetch and then having to a rent a car (ours was being shipped) to drive to Richmond the day prior because apparently the USDA in each state now has to certify the animal for transport.  Our Sneetch has traveled all over the world with us and this is the first time we have had to jump through such hoops. 

Temperatures also started to warm up in Virginia and I already knew it was hot in Vienna so we opted to get a mesh pet carrier and also bring the hard top kennel with us in case they did not have room in the cabin or cargo. We got lucky and were able to have him fly with us in the cabin.  While we waited or our flight, he entertained our kids and other children who were bored waiting for their flights.  He did not make a peep on board.  I think he was just happy he was coming with us.

The flight on Austrian Airlines was largely uneventful with the exception of being overly hot in the cabin.  We wore jeans thinking American planes with their individual a/c's shooting at you but this plane had no such thing.  So we were hot and I spent quite some time fanning myself with the safety instructions as if I were having a hot flash.

Thing 2 was the most excited of our group.  She had not been in a plane since she was 3 and asking every question you could imagine.  She had us dizzy with all the questions.  When we were taking off, she threw her hands in the air and let out a "whoo hoo" as if we were on a rollercoaster because, according to her, that is what it felt like.  The kids were separated by me to avoid any issues.  They played on their iPads, watched some shows and eventually they both went to sleep for a few hours.  The Cat stayed up and I only managed to get about 2 hours of sleep.  I listened to operas the entire time as read through Fifty Shades Freed.  Not quite done, but almost there. 

We arrived in Vienna at the ungodly hour of 2:20am EST/8:20am CET. Our sponsor had the Embassy van that was able to accommodate all of us and our stuff.  We took about a 30 minute drive from the airport. The last time we were here we explored the city by subway.  Driving allows more observations.  For example, the Blue Danube may have been blue back when Strauss wrote his waltz but today it is brown.  Or the fact that Vienna has actual highways instead of the one way roads we were subjected to while in Poland.  There is lots of grafitti, but most of it looks like it is supposed to be there and was reminiscent of the East Side Gallery (the remainder of the Berlin Wall) in Berlin. Otherwise, it was a nice ride through our new city with a nice view of the Alps in the distance.

We are currently in temporary lodging while we wait for our home to be ready to move in.  The townhome provided in the interim is quite spacious for European standards.  Three bedrooms, two of them as large are the master bedroom we had back home, two baths, a living area, kitchen, dining area and laundry room.  The community has a playground and tennis and basketball court and is surrounded by lush trees.  The Sneetch had a ball once he was released from his bag.

We were provided with a lodging kit which is two huge boxes of necessary kitchen, bed and bath items brand new that are ours to keep and do what we wish.  We will likely keep them stored until it is time to leave. By the time we had a moment to sit, it was lunch time (CET time) and the kids were ravenous. 

We have no car until late August so walking will have to do. We walked over to a Pizzeria about 4 minutes from home and had lunch.  The place was a hole in the wall restaurant, but the food was good.  We refueled with pasta an pizza before heading next door to the Billa mini-supermarket to pick up the basics for the next 24 hours before our sponsor takes us on our trip to the bigger supermarket tomorrow.  The kids were pleased to find products from home and Thing 1 was reacquainted with the products he remembered from Poland. 

We returned home to shower and relax as we were all very tired.  The Cat and the Sneetch passed out first, followed by myself.  During the next 2 hours, I am not sure what Thing 1 & Thing 2 were up to, but I heard them running all over the place.  Thing 1 managed to put together a Lego set he got at Legoland last week and before I woke Thing 1 said Thing 2 had just passed out moments before. Soon the Cat was up and we got back to the arduous task of unpacking. 

That my friends was day one.  Very different from going on vacation and venturing out to sight see.  The basics need to be procured first and we need to orient ourselves a bit before getting to the good stuff.  The best part was that there was some familiarity (the furniture was the same as we had in Warsaw) and some things we were already aware of like light switches located prior to entering a room rather than in the room, etc.  Overall, it was exactly what I expected for day one.

Nickelodeon Suites Resort: A Review

We broke with tradition and decided to stay at the Nickelodeon Suites hotel on our recent Orlando adventure instead of staying with the tried and true Disney Resorts. You live, you learn.

Let me start by saying that the Nickelodeon Suites hotel is awash with false advertising.  Before we decided to book, we checked their website and talked to some people who said there was "so much to do there,  you may not want to leave the hotel." I don't know what these people did there, because we really did not understand what the "so much" stood for.

Yes, there was a water park.  It looks fancier on the TV commercials and website, but it consists of four slides, low level water area for young kids and deeper pool area for older kids and adults. Every couple of hours they have teams compete to get slimed. Honestly, I have been to water parks in Virginia and Florida that provided more. The other thing I have to say about this water park is that if you are going just for the water park feature and you are planning days at the theme parks, don't bother. We only used the water park one day and it was cut short because it was a bit chilly due to the tropical storm. In their defense, the water was kept warm.

What else? Well there is this area called "the Mall". It consists of the Nicktoons Cafe, a food court (serving Subway, UNO's Pizza, Burgers, hot dogs, etc), a shop and convenience store, Studio Nick and a 4D Theater. The food left much to be desired.  I'm not saying it was bad, but there just was not any variety. Maybe it's just me but the thought of eating pizza etc, over and over for 7 days does not appeal to me. The NickToons Cafe featured character meals with Nickelodeon characters. New this summer was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle character dinner. It was an Italian buffet and this appealed to the kids since 3 out of 4 of the kids in our group are in martial arts. Each kid got a ninja turtle mask which they thought was cool. I cannot speak for the character breakfast.  I do know that they had different characters show up for pictures. I saw Squidworth and Patrick  from Spongebob Squarepants. None of our kids took pictures with them because we were barely at the hotel. Also, I know that if you plan to go to Universal Studios, you can take pictures with the Nickelodeon characters there.

Studio Nick was where they held the Double Dare show and some other nightly entertainment.  We went to the Double Dare show being a favorite childhood show for the parents and the kids really liked it.  But again their advertising is misleading. They make you think you need reservations, but we walked in about 10 minutes late and there was plenty of seating. There were also other shows to take in, but they cost $40-$60 per person.  For that, we could take the family to Disney Quest and know that expenditure would be worth it.

The 4D theater shows about 6 different 4D movies throughout the day. Each movie is $6.95 or you can buy a wristband for unlimited films for $12.95. It sounds like a great deal and we considered it, but we didn't do it.  We got to thinking that if you spend the entire day at the theme parks, you get back to the hotel exhausted and the last thing you want to do is catch a 4D film. There's just is no time for that. Our kids did play at the arcade multiple times and enjoyed it.

The hotel itself? In my opinion, they took condos, painted them in Nickelodeon Colors and slapped character pictures and character statues throughout the hotel and added a water park.  This does not compare to the thought and process placed into the Disney hotels and their landscape. The suites were spacious, but they felt worn and while it was not dirty per say, it felt that way. The suites are either 1-3 bedrooms. The 2 & 3 bedroom suites come with a king size bed in 1-2 of the rooms with a kids room being themed with Spongebob or the Rugrats and containing bunk beds. The bunks were hard as a rock. Our kids complained about that. Each suite has a kitchenette with a sink, microwave and 3 foot refrigerator.  Disney has a new hotel that just opened called the Art of Animation that features the same set up. I have not been, but something tells me that it will be better than this hotel.

Last but not least, let me mention the crowd.  On several occasions, I just sat in the food court observing.  I am not fitting everyone into this category, but there was a fair share of lower class folks here than I have seen at other resorts. By this I mean, I would not let my kids play with or associate with these other families' kids.  One night, my brother had to go scour the area because someone somewhere was having a party in their room at 1 am and we could hear everything coming from their suite. They are probably annoying neighbors in their hometowns too. And it was not the night that the Heat won the championship - that would have been excused:-)

Overall, I am not going to say it was the worst experience, but it was certainly not the best. If you have never been to a Disney Resort or the Gaylord Palms, you may have a different experience. But once you have been to either of these other resorts, all others pale by comparison and you are bound to be somewhat disappointed.

Disclaimer: This is only my opinion based on my experience.  Feel free to experience it for yourself and make up you own mind. 

LEGOLAND Florida: A review

We finally got a LEGOLAND Theme Park on the east coast, and having a LEGO fan among us, we decided to included on our Orlando vacation.We have experience with LEGOLAND Deutschland so we have something to compare to.

LEGOLAND Florida is situated on the site of the Cypress Gardens Theme Park that graced Winter Haven, FL with its presence since the 1930's. I went there with my parents circa 1980 and some of the carnival rides that were once there are still there mixed in with the new LEGO theme rides. The park is located about 45 minutes southwest of Disney World. Like its German counterpart it is small and can easily be done in 6-8 hours. Your feet will still hurt but little legs can easily do this park.

Most rides except perhaps one can be enjoyed by children as young as 3 although 4 and 40 inches tall is probably best. My nephew is 4 years old and was able to ride everything with us. The best age for this park in my opinion is 4-10 years old, maybe some preteens depending on maturity level. Teenagers would be bored easily here.

Every ride has an adjacent play zone for kids to build while parents hold their place in line. However, being that this park is new, the lines are minimal. The longest wait was about 15 minutes which is nothing compared to the 60+ minute waits at other Orlando parks.

There are a few coasters and even a wooden coaster held over from the Cypress Gardens park that occupied his space since the 1930's. The coasters have their peaks and valleys but no loops or upside down shenanigans that scare children.

There is a Mini Land at all LEGO Theme parks. The scenes they create are quite remarkable and based on the parks' location This one focused primarily on scenes from Florida including a replica of the Miami Skyline, Little Havana (with a sign on a restaurant that says Versigh - it's an actual restaurant and the correct spelling is Versailles), Key West (with motorized speedboats and sharks), Panama City and Tampa. There are also replicas of the Kennedy Space Center and the Daytona Speedway (with motorized race cars). Non Florida shout outs go to Las Vegas, Hollywood, New York City and our nearest hometown, Washington DC down to the remote control Tourmobile buses an the Iwo Jima Memorial. It's fascinating to wonder how long it took them to put these replicas together. The kids enjoyed it as much as the adults.

There are also several shows which may extend your park stay beyond the hours listed above. The kids enjoyed a well produced 4D movie called Spellbreaker which we also saw at the German park. The ski show from the old park is still there rebooted for the new millennium with a LEGO theme.
New this summer is a water park adjacent to the main park for $12 additional ticket dollars. We have a water park at the hotel so we did not go to this one.

Overall, children in the age ranges I listed will enjoy this park. As a parent, the parks' low crowds, shaded areas and no lines was refreshing after spending a few hours in the crowded Hogsmeade village of Islands of Adventure yesterday. Our park experience was cut short due to lightning that shut down rides, but I can't say we missed much because we had been to the German park and it is quite similar.

I only have two disclaimers. The first is for anyone who has gone to any other theme park. This is not Disney or Universal. The pace is slower and, depending on where you are in your weeklong vacation, it may be a welcome break. At $75 per ticket, I did find it overpriced, but we had coupons for free kids tickets with an adult purchase. If you have a LEGO fan in your midst, sign up for the free magazine online or scour the Internet for coupons.

Disclaimer number two applies for your LEGO fans 8 and up. My LEGO fan's (Thing 1, age 9 3/4) only reason for coming was the vast selection of LEGO's available for purchase at the BIG Store. Had I known this, I would have saved myself $150 and taken him to the LEGO Store at Downtown Disney. Kids younger than 8 will have a ball without the store.

Happy brick building!