Heart beats head... Vienna it is!

So much to write and so little time... lots has happened in the last couple weeks. I went to Portugal, I was planning on uploading some pictures, but since my computer crashed last night and I lost everything, that will never happen. Ugh. I'm choosing to ignore that for now. Backing up? What does that mean? I'm so mad at myself I could scream.

Let's see the short version of Portugal trip, flew in, went down to the Algarve. It was a crazy drive, it was pouring down rain, kind of dark and the windshield wipers didn't work. Reminded me a bit of driving in my old civic in the gorge with all the crazy truck drivers. We stayed in a great place in Lagos, which is this really cute, cobblestone, lit up for Christmas type of place. I kept saying, oh, it's so cute, it reminds me of Europe. Oh, right, I'm in Europe. We did our own personal wine tour, which basically went a little like this... let's get a glass of wine and a little snack at a bunch of places, aren't we responsible to be eating too? That happened one time, the first place. The second place didn't have nachos, so we gave up on the idea entirely and had two or three drinks before we moved on to martinis. Hilarious. The marathon was great. I was a bit disappointed with my time, it was 5 minutes from my goal time, but I "should" be happy because I have had bronchitis forever and was still getting over it. We went to a few different small towns around Lisbon, walked around, it was cold and beautiful! I also loved being able to just be outside and walk, even though it was cold. I spent the last day in Lisbon at this mall, shocking, trying to buy stuff for Everest base camp. Which, by the way, I'm totally not prepared for.

While all this was going on, I was also interviewing via skype for two different middle school counseling positions. One at an awesome school in Beijing and one at a school in Vienna. I don't know nearly as much about the school in Vienna, but after lots of debate and stressing out and endless conversations with patient friends and family, I decided to take the position in Vienna. I am so excited to be moving to Europe next year! It was my original goal, but I didn't think I would be able to find a school in Europe that paid enough to live comfortably and still travel, but I think I did... we'll see! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! In addition to being really happy about having a new job, I also am leaving for Everest Base Camp in three days, I can't believe it's here! I am so looking forward to it, but feel completely unprepared. I've been online trying to figure out exactly what to bring, and what type of insurance to buy and if I can or can't get Diamox there... it seems like I should be more organized, but it's just so hard! It seems like every night last week there was something really fun going on that I didn't want to miss out on... same thing this week, holiday get togethers, work Christmas party, (which for once an event not at Double Decker...), just lots of really fun stuff, but too much! We have one more day of school left and then we're on break. I keep hearing about all the snow and everything at home and really wish I was there! Next year... although... the Christmas markets look pretty amazing in Vienna!