a time for roots & a time for wings: BOOM! It's 2013

New Year in Vienna means lots of fireworks. Everywhere. Being shot off by everyone.

I rang it the new year standing outside with a bunch of friends, drinking some sparkling wine, laughing, taking photos, and I even got in a traditional Viennese New Year's waltz. But there was a bit that happened leading up to that point and also some pretty cool stuff that happened afterwards too.

Our New Year's Eve party started getting pretty exciting a few weeks before it actually happened. It started when Natalie, Liz, and I started brainstorming ideas, themes, food, and all the other factors making up a good party. This all happened sort of spontaneously when we were just sitting at a cafe. We even got out some good 'ol fashioned pen and paper to keep track of our brilliance! Plus we even thought of a sweet idea for another party...which I cannot wait for, so I really hope it happens.

Well, then things sort of got switched around a bit and our party then became part of the worship night that the Chapel had scheduled. A few days before New Year's Eve, some of the YAG started realizing that this worship night was probably only going to be attended by YAG people...so why not just combine it and our party to make one awesome New Year's Eve event? Brilliant. So we started with a nice sit-down meal, followed by about 2 hours of worship, followed by some crazy dancing and finally ringing in 2013! There were fireworks going off all over the place; it was crazy cool! It was also really loud. We all stayed outside for a bit to watch the fireworks and then went back in. We danced some more and played a really cool game of Charades!

This was probably one of the coolest New Year's Eves I've had in a while. It was great to spend a good portion of it worshiping God for all that He did the throughout the year. It put the last twelve months and the commencement of another year in the right perspective: God has worked and will continue to work all things for our good and we are to trust Him with all of our tomorrows. A new year is like a clean slate; I mean, we get to use brand new calendars with no marks in them! How exciting! I'm not sure what the rest of this year will hold. The first half of it will be filled with my continued adventure as an au pair, but the second half is one of the biggest question marks of my whole life thus far.

The first day of 2013 consisted of going to bed around 5:00am and waking up around 7:00. Then from about 8:00-2:00pm a friend and I sat in the cold holding a couple's place in line to get a very specific work visa. Why, you may ask? Well, they were paying us ten Euros and hour, and well, why not? These people we were helping were friends of a couple from the chapel, that was recruiting "sitters" the Sunday before. It was such and interesting, not to mention really cold, experience. A lot of the people there were missionaries of some sort, so we got to hear some really cool stories while we waited. The visa is for people working in Vienna but who's wages or "support" comes from their home country; only 60 of these visas are issued each year. The office opened at 8:00am on the 2nd, but these people (and more to come) wanted the best possible chances of actually obtaining one of these treasured forms, so why not wait a full 24hrs outside in the cold. There was one person's chair set up with a blanket and a cardboard sign saying that he'd been there since 3 something in the morning!! Crazy! One of the guys waiting was number 61 last year, and so unfortunately did not get a visa. So here he was for round two. I hope he got one... Several of the people were from the USA and so that was pretty cool too.Wow...I'll never forget that day. At 2pm, when our replacements came, two other hearty YAGers, the man paid us, but said we deserved more than 60 Euros, so he gave us 80! Happy New Year! I really hope everything worked out for all those guys.

Anyway, the rest of the day I spent trying to warm up...it took a lot longer than expected. Also, considering the fact that I was running on about 2 hours of sleep...I was quite zombie like, but it was so so worth it.

I had the girls a couple of days that week, and we had a lot of fun. We made puppets out of old tights and built our first fort in my room. I brought my laptop in and I introduced them to this British kids' show, "The Worst Witch." They loved it, and I must admit, I quite enjoy it as well. For any of you that are interested, just look it up on YouTube ;)

Ahh... And now everyone has been back to work and school for two weeks, well, this is the start of the second week anyway. I miss the bit of vacation, but getting back to a regular routine is good too.