Busy...

I can't quite keep up with life right now. I'm running around trying to do about a zillion more things than what I have time to do. I rented a car tonight so I can pick Andrew up at the airport in the morning and as I was driving back into town I was using all my best justification skills to try to figure out a way that I could buy a car... it's completely NOT in my budget and unnecessary, but I sure want one! I was thinking about possibly buying a vespa or something like it in the spring, then I could at least get to/from work without having to sit on gross dirty cloth bus seats. Speaking of budget... our school gives us the option to work with a financial advisor, according to him, I could be out of debt, including the stupid student loans, in less than five years. It makes NO sense to me, but now there's a plan. So, well see how that goes... 

Soccer has been great. The kids are cute and we just decided to have a HUGE team and not do any cuts, which will be interesting when I have 20+ kids and only me for practices. I guess I'll just have to become super strict and organized. Wait, that's already how I am with middle schoolers... 

I can't wait for Andrew to get here tomorrow, I work all day and then we fly out at night to go to Poznan, Poland for the weekend. Fun! I get to add a country to the places I've been...

So, we live here...

Another great day... but before I get to that... We had our first day with kids on Thursday, it went great! Class sizes seem small, most around 15 kids, teachers seemed relaxed, kids happy. Ahhh, such a great environment! Friday was good too, it's nice to start getting back into work and have a job that I actually really care about. I knew I was unhappy the last couple of years, but now that I am away from it and in a school that is so awesome, I can really see how draining it was and how much it affected my whole life. I almost feel like a different person. 

I looked at a few apartments on Friday night, I loved one of the places, but am not sure about the location. It's fine for getting to work, there's definitely some bars and restaurants that look fun within walking distance, but then again... it's right near the Gurtel, great for public transport and if you need a prostitute, they're right there too... So, we'll see. I'm going to see 3 other places on Monday. One of them is in the perfect location and seems like it would be great, but the kitchen is "old" and I'm not real sure what that means. I'd really like to get a place but am actually a little scared to move out of Steph's place, I'm really worried I'll be lonely and also that all of a sudden I'll realize that I live here, this is my life, and that might freak me out. 

Saturday was relaxing, just spent the day debating the big issues in life, should I go to Hawaii for Christmas? Cut my hair? You know, the important things. Then we ended up having this crazy night out. We hadn't really gone out in Vienna yet, so we made plans to meet up with one of Steph's friends (note to self, don't agree to meet someone at a U bahn station... you must be more specific) and had a drink at some bar. Then we went and tried to find this bar that some friends were at and a guy from school was playing in a band, but we couldn't find it. Probably because I wrote down the wrong number address... and we ended up at this little Mexican bar. The bartender decided he wanted to be our new best friend and the best way to do that is to give us endless free shots and samples of all the mixed drinks he was making. We were not loving Luis this morning! When we left the bar I insisted that I knew how to get home. Well, I was totally wrong. We ended up very far away from home at a McDonald's eating ice cream and french fries... we took a taxi home. 

Sunday was hilarious. We woke up and were just laughing about the previous night. Clearly my two drink limit was forgotten. Our neighbor, Chris, knocked on our door and invited us to go sailing. We ended up throwing on some clothes and had an awesome day. First we grabbed some pizza and ate it on a park bench, then we sailed, then drinks on a pier and then we wandered back to the area where I thought I lost my phone the night before, and we found it! Yeah! So, back to the sailing part... I would not say I'd make a great sailor. I had no idea what I was doing and was convinced that I was about to be knocked out at any moment, or do something wrong and tip the boat. When we got back to the apartment, Steph was laughing and said something about how I didn't speak the whole time. Well, no, I was concentrating on not killing us. After we sailed for about an hour, we went and grabbed a drink at this great little place and sat on a pier with our feet in the water and just relaxed. It was great! While we were sitting on the bench eating lunch in front of this beautiful church Steph just said,  so, we live here now....

and, I couldn't be happier!

Teacher Union

So, now that I'm finally at a school that I probably won't need a union, I have one. Last year, when I desperately needed one, nope, nothing... The committee members offered to take out all the new staff memberst today. Did I mention it lasted about an hour and a half and it was at the closest heurigen and they bought us lunch and drinks? How are we expected to work after a few glasses of wine/beer/etc.? And, to make it even more interesting, I have a "coaches meeting" at the same place in about 15 minutes. How is it possible that during the work day I'm going to exceed my general 2 drink daily limit... what I'd like to do is go to sleep, in fact I'm a bit worried that might be exactly what happens at the table... or on the bus. Ha!

Sometimes you just have to give up...

I'm currently supposed to be at an all staff start of the year potluck, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I just couldn't get there... Well, actually it's entirely my fault, I left the house without a map, the phone number to the place I was going, and just got ridiculously hot wandering around looking for the bus stop and after about 40 minutes of that, I just decided that even if I eventually found the bus stop and made it to the thing, I'd be in such a bad mood I would be no fun. Not the best first impression for all the new people I have to meet. But, I suppose not showing up isn't any better. Whatever, now I'm back home and can have some time to get things done. I'm feeling a bit anti-social anyways. I'm really tired of all the planned get togethers and getting to know new people and introducing yourself and where you're from and how did I like Dubai, and did you have to cover up, did you learn Arabic, and on and on. Oh, and I'm not any better, I feel like I'm practically interrogating people when I ask them about their lives too... Ugh. Part of me just wants to fast forward 3 or 4 weeks. 

Work has been amazing. Every day I keep waiting for someone to yell at me, or make me feel bad about something,  give me some completely random task, or just say or do something designed to intimidate me, but so far nothing even remotely close to that has happened. Instead, everyone has been great. I feel like this job is going to be a ton of work and lots of outside school hours, but I feel like I'm ready to actually work as a counselor again. I decided to coach soccer, which I've never done before, but should be fun. Between soccer, the fall trip, October break and this assessment conference I have to attend, it seems like my life is pretty much planned out through mid-November, then it's Thanksgiving, my mom's here for a little over two weeks and then Christmas Break. I have a feeling time is just going to fly by! I'm really excited to have seasons again and I can't wait for the Christmas markets, I remember really enjoying them when I went in Germany. 

Still no luck with the apartment search. I am staying with my friend Steph who also moved here from Dubai. I love where she lives, both the apartment and the location, so now I think my standards are a bit too high. I want exactly this... I've figured out a few things, there is no way I can live in a studio apartment and it has to be bigger than 50 square meters, I would actually prefer at least 60. Location is really important too. I have been looking on this website, it's all in German, so I have to go through, do the search, figure out where it is on this map and then look at the pictures and if I like it, copy and paste the information into Babelfish and then figure out what it says. It takes about 10 minutes to look at one apartment. It's such a process, and it's just annoying and expensive. They have all these first and last month rent, deposit, realtor fees and a zillion other things, so in the end I somehow need to have close to 6000 Euros to get into some of these apartments. That is ridiculous! I'm trying not to get too stressed about it, but I know I'll feel better if I could just find a place. 

Each week I am slowly adding in different things that I need to be doing in hopes that I don't completely overwhelm myself. Two weeks ago I started with work, then added in the gym last week and now this week I'm adding in my German CD's/lessons at home. I wanted to take a class, but I think I'll have to wait until I figure out what my schedule is with soccer and everything else. It's hilarious when we try to speak German, people look at us like we're crazy and they have no idea what we are saying. We just keep trying, sitting there with our little German phrasebooks... it's actually pretty hilarious. I keep thinking I'll have to eventually pick it up!

Dubai vs. Vienna

Well, not that they are competing, but there are definitely some differences that are hilarious. First of all, I joined a Wellness Lifestyle Center, or something like that, which is code for "I pay too much for the gym." and while we were on the tour we looked into the sauna and saw a completely naked guy. Uh, no thanks! Then, after I went to spinning we decided to shower at the gym and everyone was just running around naked and sitting on the furniture and I was freaking out and trying to just stare straight ahead with complete tunnel vision. While, in Dubai there was a sign that said "Nudity is not permitted". I think I was a bit more comfortable in that setting! Earlier in the week we were out to dinner at this really cute Italian brick oven pizza place that is right down the street and instead of it being unlicensed, there was a family having dinner with a bottle of whiskey on the table, the mom and dad were drinking that while the teenage son was drinking HUGE beers. Oh, did I mention the waiter and the guy making the pizzas were also drinking tall glasses of whiskey on ice that were big enough to look like ice tea. Prost! I'm not sure if it would be considered a point for or against Vienna... but I have MASSIVE blisters covering my heels because I think I've walked somewhere around a million miles in the last couple of weeks, it is unreal! 

Work started today, should be interesting! Tomorrow we have a city tour and dinner at the Rathous, I also am going to look at another apartment. I have had zero luck so far, but just got an e-mail from one of the places that I looked at that says the mom, who is making the final decision, wants to talk to me. I'm not sure there's a better renter than me, one person, female, non-smoker, no pets... Ugh. I hope I get it.

Dubai? Vienna? Hood River?

Where do I want to be? That is the question. Driving into Hood River this summer, I wanted to move back home, walking around the cobblestone streets and seeing the beautiful old buildings make me excited about living in Vienna, then sitting in Lime Tree drinking a latte, eating carrot cake and spending the weekend with Andrew makes Dubai seem like the only place I want to live. So, where does that leave me? Well, not too hard to figure out I guess, my job is in Vienna, so I guess that´s what wins for now...

I just flew back to Vienna from a long weekend in Dubai. I was so happy to see Andrew, we didn´t do much. We went and saw The Hangover and I don´t think I stopped laughing for more than 5 minutes through the whole movie and I think we spent the next three days talking about it. Hilarious. It was so ugly, there was some sort of dust storm somewhere and the air was just hazy and sandy and well, just awful. Every time I would get close to the front door and ready to walk out I found myself taking a deep breath and preparing myself for both the heat and the humidity. Blah. I definitely don´t miss that part of Dubai at all! So, I sold my car to Andrew and the whole thing is just falling apart, since he´s bought it he´s had to put in a new fuel pump, it currently needs to go in because it just shuts off while the car is driving (apparently the brakes don´t work that well when that happens) and then when we got in the car yesterday and he went to change gears, the gear shift thing just completely fell apart in his hand. Nice. I don´t feel terrible about that at all. Really, the car was perfect when I had it... must be something he´s doing. Ha!