April is not Fooling

That's right. April is not fooling me. It may seem like it's still winter outside, which makes me think it's still January or something, which would mean my time here is not running out as fast. Ha. Joke's on you, fourth month of the year. I know better. Three months; that's a quarter of a year; that's all the more time I have here.

I got home to Hollabrunn this evening after spending a whole 8 days in Vienna staying with one of the sweetest people I've met here and two little dogs. It was a great "spring break" even though it was snowy, cold, and rainy. I did not have any exact plans, so I was content to take each day as it came- snow, rain, or shine. I relaxed, watched movies, watched Suits, baked really yummy things, played with two rambunctious little pooches, and finally saw a couple awesome museums. I can't even remember the last time I had been into the city on a weekday, so it was nice to actually be able to go into a store or two if I wanted since everything is closed on Sundays. I went to the city library for a couple hours one day to read, which was nice. It sort of made me miss college, something I didn't think I'd say while being here, but alas, 'tis true.

The next day we went to explore two of Vienna's Easter markets. Although there were not as many of them dotting the map as there were Christmas markets, they were just as exciting and fun and sweet smelling. Not to mention there were what seemed like millions of brilliantly decorated eggs for sale. Real eggs, with all the insides blown out, decorated with the utmost craftsmanship and creativity!

I probably spent a good half of an hour meandering through the crates. I could have spent a  fortune on those things!

After we visited the markets, I left to find my way the the Natural History Museum, which I was pretty stoked for. Like I said, I haven't really been in the center of the city for a while, not to mention in the daytime, so I stopped a long the way a couple of times just to looked around. The Rathaus is such a work of art. 

The Burg Theater right across the street from the Rathaus

The Rathaus

So then I made it to the museum. The Art and Natural History museums are right next to each other with a little park thing in between them. The buildings are actually mirror images of each other too. How cool. I visited the Natural History Museum, and I soaked up every minute of it. It was the first time I've ever been to a museum by myself before, and I must say, it was more than pleasant. No one was there to drag me along or complain about being bored and wanting to go. I took my time, read descriptions, and did my best to absorb some new knowledge. Plus, I saw the BodyWorld exhibit for the first time. Oh my word, it was awesome and definitely worth the extra 7 EUR. I even bought the book, which tells all about plastination and is also a little mini anatomy text book. I was there for about three and a half hours, but could have stayed for five. I saw fossils, stones, gems, dinosaurs, birds, whales, sharks, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, and what an 7 week old embryo looks like, fingers included!! Ahh, and so so much more! It was so cool. Fun fact: technically they are not called saber tooth tigers; they're called saber tooth cats. Learning is fun :)

Art History

This one moved!!

woolly rhinoceros 

giant Irish elk

saber tooth cats

the dome

I just had to

Later that evening we baked the yummy things! Plus, what makes it even more of a feat, we didn't have any actual measuring cups. We used a juice glass as our "cup" measure...and then just sort of based everything off of that. And there may have been a couple times when I added a dash of this and a pinch of that just for good measure. In the end everything turned out fantastic and immensely pleased my over excited sweet tooth.

Cinnamon coffee cake

Chocolate chip cookies :D

Indulging :)

On Good Friday I took a trip to the Belvedere, a museum and one of the famous residences of Vienna. The artwork was beautiful and I got told off for taking photographs. To be honest, I didn't see the no photos sign. Oh well. My favorite pieces were all from the impressionism and realism periods. Both the style and content appealed more to my eyes than the others. And Klimt, while he certainly is something, but he's not my favorite; I'd take Monet over him any day.

Upper Belvedere

The gardens looking out to the lower Belvedere and the rest of Vienna

We had a Good Friday service that evening at which I was in charge of the music. Everything went smoothly, except by the end of it my voice was dead. We sang a lot of hymns, which were lovely, but also a bit long and repetitive at times. Since hymns are a bit tricky to play on guitar, I decided to just stand and sing with the keyboard and violin played behind me, which turned out to be a good choice. Then I Saturday was probably one of my favorite days here in Austria. It was fun, super chill, involved playing and listening to music, shopping, jokes, laughing, and hanging out with lots of awesome people. The same goes for Easter Sunday. I led worship at church for this service as well. Even though I didn't really feel nervous leading up to it, when we started the first song, I could tell my adrenaline was pumping. I love celebrating the Resurrection, so I was already excited about that, but then adding being up front with the praise team for some reason gave me a little extra boost. But, as always, the Holy Spirit was at work; everything calmed down and settled into place, and it was a great time of worship and celebration. And then it just kept getting better. Following the service, we did my favorite combination of things: ate food, watched a movie, chatted, and stayed out late. Honestly, it's so simple, but it's so great and, I believe, one of the best ways to deepen relationships. Cheers to getting one of the last U-bahns and making it home :)

I thought about going to another museum on Monday, but I was too tired and felt like being lazy. So Galya and I watched two episodes of Suits and relaxed. I left Vienna feeling refreshed and wishing I could stay longer, but at the same time excited to see my family in Hollabrunn. I made it on the train; however, exiting the train was my problem this time. When I got to the door at my stop, it wouldn't open. The door opens by touched this "button" which isn't really a button. It's flat and has a sensor that is supposed to open the door! Gah! Well, it must have looked or it was not working, and the train pulled away with me still on it. No one had come by to check my ticket, and I was just praying that they wouldn't come now. I had no idea how long it would be until the next stop as I'd never been on the other side of Hollabrunn before. Luckily it was only about five minutes. I called my family, but they were unable to assist me; then I called the only other person who could possibly have picked me up. He didn't answer. Then I asked the kid with silver nail polish (ha) if he spoke English (he did) and if he could tell me when the next train to Hollabrunn was. Nearly two hours. Ha. How lovely. So I read a chapter of my book, which was quite nice actually, and that took me about an hour. Then my phone rings and it's the only other person calling me back!!! 

"Oh yeah, I'm on my way to Hollabrunn, I can just come pick you up."

Thank you, Stefan. Thanks for laughing at and with me and for making me laugh at myself too. I hope you enjoyed the cookies as your payment and thank you! ;)

And now it's back to life here. No matter what the job, the first couple days back to work are a little awkward and tiresome, so hopefully everything settles back in nicely, which I have no doubt that it will.

Until the next time,

~Sarah

Psych

The weather had started exhibiting more spring-like attributes, but then it decided it wanted to play a trick. Psych! It is still winter. It snowed today with a fury! The wind was fierce, and the flakes were gigantic. I think I'm going to call it Indian Winter, like Indian Summer in the Midwest.

Mmm...what else have I been up to lately? 

Cerca...end of February- Noa, the first friend from my Vienna crew to come visit me in Hollabruun, and I went walking in the forest. One of the paths leads out to this point; she stopped to take a picture, so I did too. 

And I guess since it just snowed again today, it still looks like this, if not with even more snow cover...

Classic night at Da Vinci's with Mikal. Alm Weiss and Nimm2's and cards :)

At least we filled it with something... ha.

A couple of weeks ago Mikal and I had fun in the kitchen...

Stuffed Pizza Rolls (thank you Pinterest)

Lookin' good!

I was busy with these sweet little lemon cream cheese cookies. It was my first time making them, and they turned out great. Perfect lemon biscuit to have with tea ;)

These were absolute heaven.

The more recent past:

This past weekend I stayed overnight in Vienna, which I haven't done for quite sometime. The past month or so my weekend routine has been such: finish work around six on Friday and then watch the Freitags Film (Friday movie) with my family, then go to bed early-ish. Chill Saturday and hangout with Mikal in the evening. Chill Sunday and then go into Vienna for church and then home again in the evening. Such is life; I have quite enjoyed this new-ish routine. I feel as though it balances out my time here with all the people that I want to spend it with. For the past couple months though now, I've noticed my attachments here starting to deepen. When I go to Vienna, even if just for church on Sunday afternoon, I feel the desire to be in Hollabrunn spending time with my great Austrian family. And then sometimes when I'm in Hollabrunn, I feel the desire to be in Vienna with the friends I've come to know and admire so much and who also feel like a family. I do not think a single trip to Vienna goes by without me or one of my friends making a statement to the tune of, "Why does Hollabrunn have to be so far from Vienna?!?!" And even if no one says it, I know at least I think it. Balance. So simple, but yet so complex. I will say this though, it is nice to know that I feel comfortable and at home in  two different cities with two different families in this beautiful country.

On Saturday, I met with a few friends in Vienna, and we went to and Charlie P's Irish Pub in (preliminary) honor of St. Patrick's day. It was brilliant and I was a ball of pure contentment and satisfaction. My Irish burger with jalapenos and chips and Magner's Cider tasted precisely like home. After we left the pub, we went to Noa's to help her move her start moving her stuff from her current au pair job to her next one!!! Exciting times!!!

Liz, Ben, Noa, and my foot!

For once I am NOT the one with a cumbersome load. I was helping though- I carried a really lightweight duffel bag ;)

From there we headed to the Haus der Musik (House of Music) where we heard the lovely gospel choir from Lubbock Christian University perform. It was a small audience in an small intimate space, but it was great. They sang beautifully; I knew I would have shivers during most of the performance because they opened with a song that I sang back in my choir days. As soon as they started singing, it was all I could do not to sing along. The program was split up into psalms, hymns, and spirituals, several of which I had also sung before or at least recognized. I think I have resolved to join some sort of choir when I get home. I miss it so sooo much!! 

After the concert, we went to iCafe, which is a cafe that is set up and run by a couple of local churches in the effort to reach Uni Wien's international students. The YAG helps out with it, and this past Saturday was my first time attending. Oh my word, it was so awesome! There was a worship band playing for most of the night, there was amazing (free!) food and drinks, and then someone got up and gave a brief testimony and prompted a good topic of discussion. Just a quick note about the food- there was this great chili con carne with two huge bowls of shredded cheddar cheese sitting next to it. Just in case I haven't mentioned it before, cheddar cheese is not as popular here, and when Liz and I saw the bowl of orangey goodness, we couldn't help but embrace over it- the first and perhaps not the last hug over the sight of cheddar cheese. I met a few new people from the other church, and I cannot wait to go again and hopefully get to chat with a few more international students attending the university. When I first heard that YAG was going to play a significant part in getting it going every weekend, I got really excited and sort of emotional as well. Thinking about international students and remembering the time in Dundee when I was one...well, let's just say it brought back a lot of great and unforgettable times. Naturally I wanted to help out and be a part of this as much as possible, and so for that reason I'm sort of annoyed at myself for not being there to help out sooner... Alas, now I know what I had missed, and so now I hope it will take more to keep me from going again :)

Well, that's all I really feel like saying for now. Something else pretty cool happened on Sunday too, but my  and my eyeballs need a break from this screen. 

Until the next time, which will be soon, I hope.

~Sarah