Announcing my newest nephew!

Caleb Michael

was born today at 4:59am.

He weighs 7 pounds and 3 ounces and

is 20.25 inches long.

Congrats to my sister and her husband!

If only she had listened! *wail*

Wanna hear about a complicated situation? I was going to apply for a job in Germany at an international study organization because they had a position open for a Program Coordinator of High School Exchange (US). Perfect right? I mean, I have direct experience in high school (hee hee) and have proven experience working with high school aged kids effectively, so I thought, why not? The only catch was that I don't have any written letters from former employers saying how awesome I am, which are considered part of an application here. They're called Zeugnisse and it would be strange to send an application without any. So I asked my supervising teacher from last year to write me one during the second week in March. I've waited and waited and waited and have pestered her and so on about it. Finally today I get an email from her saying she sent the Zeugnis directly to the company, which you AREN'T supposed to do because I should send it with my application. She should know this as an Austrian who grew up and obviously found a job using this process! And I told her NOT to send the letter directly to them, but rather to send it to me and she sent it to them anyway! And the job hasn't been listed on the website for a couple weeks now, which means I missed the chance to apply but now have to email them and explain why they're going to be getting this letter about a random person from whom they have no application! Drat!

I wish she had just listened to me...and I wish she had sent the stupid letter to me five weeks ago so I could have applied for the damn job like I wanted to.

Double drat!

A packed weekend

I had a really good weekend! Friday night I went out for delicious sushi with Becky, a British assistant that I've become pretty good friends with over the last six weeks or so. Afterward we met my friend Gareth and his visitors for a drink at a pub. The guys went out dancing afterward but I didn't accompany them...I was wearing tennis shoes and would never have gotten in the door, plus I wasn't so keen on paying 10 EUR to get it.

Saturday I went with Becky and some others to Amstetten, where Jung lives (you'll remember him from the post about the ball) and watched him play American football with a local team. Random right? Why are the Austrians playing American football anyway? The strangest part about it was that the referees made all their calls in English! The first time there was a flag and the ref spoke English, I had to do a double take. It was great weather, so we sat out on the red track in the sun and drank our cold beers and pretended we were in high school again. Well, except for the beer. That evening we went to a "Tent Festival" which was literally that...a gigantic tent in the middle of some field behind a shed next to the railroad tracks, which we walked along to get there. It was totally Arlington Days times 10...there were probably 500 or more people in the tent at any given time. A surprisingly good cover band was playing crowd pleasers, so we danced and mixed with the locals. I got to eat one half of a rotisserie chicken, done just how I like it. We went back to Amstetten around 2am and I went to bed while the others went out. I was sober and just couldn't do it anymore! Plus I had to get up the next day and go to lunch at a teacher's house on the other side of Vienna, which turned out to be a really good time as well! This teacher, Andrea, had invited Elodie, the French assistant, and me to come out for dinner and it turned out that we were sort of crashing their family Easter dinner, which they had postponed by a week so that everyone could be there. It was really sweet of Andrea to invite me at all because we don't actually teach any lessons together--she only teaches French and we all know I wouldn't be of any use in there! When we got there we hunted eggs with their three sons and their girlfriends...both Elodie and I had a "nest" with our names on them! We got chocolates and gift certificates. Sweet huh? Then we ate a fantastic meal and chatted with the family, after which we headed out into the surrounding hills and hiked around as a big group. It had stormed just after we finished our egg hunt (with lightning and thunder, which doesn't happen very often in Austria, so I was excited), but then cleared up again just as we wanted to go walking around. So the lot of us traipsed through the surrounding fields and up hills, where we got a decent view of the surrounding area. We were only 20 kilometers outside Vienna but you'd have never know it...there was no sign of the city anywhere, which was refreshing. Afterward we went back to their place and joined the enormous bees on the terrace and had some wine. We have plans to go on another "family" outing with them at the end of May. Next time we'll go to a giant lake south of Vienna and rent bikes to ride around the thing, stopping in the traditional wine taverns along the route. Should be good!

The Barcelona report hasn't been written yet. Sorry I'm taking so long about it...I'll try to get it up here by the end of the week, hopefully with more pictures!

A dose of joy

I've just gotten back home after seeing Konrad and Co. play at Chelsea tonight. Konrad is a friend of mine from New York who is on a short European tour with Walter and Drew, who together make up The Silos. I have been so looking forward to seeing them...the last time I saw them play was in Salzburg last March. So tonight I beat them there and was waiting for Konrad when he came in the door. It was SOOOO good to see him and have that piece of New York right there in tangible form. My face got tired of smiling, which is the first time that has happened in a long, long time. As they played I could imagine that I was in New York, which brought such a sense of joy. This is definitely going in the "Book of Good Things", which I coincidentally started on March 7th, 2005, which was the day that Konrad played in Salzburg. I feel like I've come full circle without even knowing I was doing it. Hurrah!

Kari in Gaudi-land

In Park Güell, Barcelona

Andy's visit--Day One

My guest arrived in Vienna in one piece this morning. He had his first train ride and his first subway ride! We spent a big chunk of the day walking around the first district, astounded by the gorgeous architecture and sunny weather. We knocked two museums off the list--the Mozart House and the Belvedere Gallery, where Andy discovered Klimt. Afterward we went to Reumannplatz to test out the competitor's ice cream (my favorite parlor is Zanoni & Zanoni) at Tichy and had to wait in line for nearly half an hour to get our ice cream! Andy ate his cone like a three year old...we had to use the rest of my bottled water to wash his hands (when I said three year old, I meant it literally). We sat down on a bench to enjoy our sugar and were shit on by a bird. Both of us hit by the same bird! Then the guy on the neighboring bench was shit on and we decided to move on. I guess now we know why that bench was unoccupied when all the others were taken.

We're back at the apartment resting our tired legs and feet, but will head out for dinner shortly. I intend to introduce Andy to Austrian potato salad and pumpkin seed oil--his day of firsts isn't over yet!

38:09

Check out that time! That's my official time from the seven kilometer race I ran this morning, which is quite a bit faster than my goal of 40 minues. I averaged 5:27 per kilometer, which is satisfying. While training I was usually hovering around 6:30/km.

The entire race experience was enjoyable, save for the teeny tiny finish chute, which was blocked when two people ran side by side. I could have finished in less than 38 minutes if I hadn't been hampered by slower finishers in the chute. The general atmosphere was pleasant, helped by the ever sunnier-becoming weather (why can't I think of the appropriate way to express that in English? That is translated directly from German--"das immer sonniger werdene Wetter". I welcome suggestions on the formation of that sentence in the comments section), and the route was simple.

I spent a while today sitting out on my balcony, first brunching after the race and later reading. The sun was intense and I definitely got some color, which makes me happy. There is something about being tan that lends one the appearance of health and vitality (look at the Kennedy/Nixon television debates), although I know that it is actually quite unhealthy to tan. But don't you agree that sun-kissed people look better than pasty white people? Of course I'm not talking about the people that visit the tanning booth daily and are so dark that the crooks of their elbows look dirty. I'm talking about the people who gradually brown even though they apply 15 SPF sunscreen daily. Those people are attractive.

I finally saw Farmer Franz at choir practice today, after a long time of not having seen him in church. Farmer Franz is an Austrian, probably somewhere between 30-40 who owns a small farm by Linz and works for the Ministry of Agriculture in Vienna. Ever since he told me he owns a farm, I've been wanting to ask him if I can come on down and play farm girl for a day, helping him build fence or whatever else he wants me to do, but I haven't seen him for ages and haven't been able to ask! So I was quite pleased to see him today and I told him I really want to come to his farm and help him out for a day, which he said could be arranged! Yippee! I tell you, building fence is definitely my favorite farm task. It fulfills my need for tangible results at the end of a day's work. I intend to hound Farmer Franz until he sets a date when I can come out. Watch out Austrian farmland, here I come!