Dan and Em's Blog

It was a chilly, rainy (on and off) day in Vienna today.  We were out apartment hunting, and we really felt not having a car.  The public transportation here is phenomenal, but there’s just something so easy about having a car.  We’re not “good” at being car-less yet, so there’s a lot to think about and plan for.

Here in Vienna, lots of people don’t have cars.  But they also aren’t living out of 5 suitcases.  They have great little buntings and rain covers for their strollers.  They have umbrellas.  They have boots.  They have raincoats.  We have some of those things (not very many).  It wasn’t a bad day, just a challenge.

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We’ve been here less than a week (one week ago, we were on the plane and on our way here) and I’m already noticing a difference in my ability to communicate.  Obviously, I’m in a country where I don’t speak the native language, so I’m stifled in my ability to communicate in German.  That’ll be true until my vocabulary extends beyond the half-dozen words I know (which are almost all for kinds of food).  But I’m shocked to find that it’s effected my ability to talk to people in English, too.  My English is broken.  I’m sure it’s not irreparable, but I’m definitely having trouble using it.

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Today was probably our busiest day so far:  we looked at two apartment possibilities in different parts of town, Dan went by his new work to get some of the paperwork started and out of the way, we went shopping for non-food grocery items (which here you don’t buy at the grocery store), we went to the bakery (one of my new favorite places) for a loaf of bread and we had the cleaning lady come by.  And that was all before dinner, and in addition to the normal activity of life in a new place with two little ones.  Whew!

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We’re looking for a more permanent home here in Vienna.  The place we’re in right now is only ours until the 16th (this coming weekend).  It’s a bit of a daunting task:  trying to find a place that will be good for us, fun for the kids, enough room to make us comfortable, not too expensive, in a good neighborhood, a reasonable commute to Dan’s new job and close to grocery shopping/pharmacy/bakery/market/train/tram because we don’t have a car here.  And we don’t really know what we’re doing because we moved here less than a week ago.  We don’t really have an educated idea of exactly where we want to be, and we don’t have an idea of what is reasonable to expect from places or from landlords.  It’s a challenge!

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There are lots of things that I know I’m good at.  But today I gained appreciation for something that it turns out I was good at, but didn’t realize.  I used to be really good at grocery shopping.  I could go in, take an efficient route through the store, shop for the best deal, manage the self-checkout line and get out quickly — with Benjamin or Liam, and usually without a meltdown from any of us.  I never really realized that this was something to be proud of until I learned something else today:  I am NOT as good at grocery shopping in Austria.

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Our adventure today took us to the Viennese equivalent of Tysons Corner mall.  It’s just outside the city, about the same number and style of shops, and even had many of the same shops.  Ironic, of course, that we’d move to Europe to go to a mall nearly identical to one that was blocks away from where were living, but we were in search of new phones, and that is where the search took us.  (It was to no avail on that front, but that is not the purpose of this story.)

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So today, some observations.

First, allow me a moment of American ridiculousness:  Busch Gardens has gotten so many things right.  Seriously, walking through the little cobblestoned streets of Vienna today, I kept thinking of Busch Gardens and how the way they depict the winding alleyways and tiny shops in a way that’s really quite accurate.  More trees at Busch Gardens, though.

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So, our adventure begins.  I’m going to try to write a little, every day, about what we’re experiencing, but I’ll keep it short today and blame the jet lag.

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