Welcome to Vienna!

For Fall Break this year (October) my parents came for a week long visit.  On Sunday I picked them up at the airport and we made our way to Salzburg, Austria.  In Salzburg we visited a Salt Mine and went on the Sound of Music tour (my third time, but that's another story).  On Tuesday we drove to Hallstatt, Austria for a few hours and enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery and quaint village.  If you are ever in Austria, I would definitely recommend visiting this town!  The next day we drove over to Graz, Austria and spent the day exploring the old town.  Even though it rained on Wednesday and Thursday, we still had a wonderful time together exploring different parts of Austria.  On Thursday we drove back into Vienna..  My parents were able to spend the rest of their time visiting my school, meeting my friends, playing with my students, and enjoying part of my life here.  Even though they were supposed to leave on Monday, they ended up staying until Tuesday (gotta love airline strikes).  This meant I was able to celebrate my mom's birthday with her!  We went out for a traditional Austrian meal and spent the evening talking and simply enjoying being together.  Early Tuesday morning I walked them to the Schnellbahn station (train) and away they went to the airport.  It was a lot of fun having both of them here and letting my dad see my new life for the first time.  Hopefully they'll come back again soon!

Salzburg

Fire Station in Hallstatt

Hallstatt

Graz

Vienna

Mine Tour near Salzburg

Very Sad ... Washing Machine Troubles

So ... my washing machine/dryer decided to break one weekend in October.  Thankfully I had help (thanks Nels) and the right tools (thanks Dad) to fix it.  All is well again! (Aren't you impressed with my abilities to take the broken part apart and wait for help?!?)

Under Nightfall, Visiting the Museums

Every year in October Vienna has an evening dedicated to museums.  It's called the Long Night of the Museums.  People are able to purchase a ticket and go into over 80 different museums throughout the city.  This year I went with friends and we visited 7 museums in a few hours.  Here's my ratings for each museum:

1. National Library-thumbs up ... I wish my library looked like this!
2. Albertina-thumbs up ... Rather cool art museum with lots of paintings.
3. Globe Museum-thumbs up ... Who knew there could be so many different kinds of globes?
4. Paper Museum-thumbs down ... BORING!!!
5. Old Instrument Museum-thumbs up ... It was really interesting to see how musical instruments have evolved over the years.
6. Jewish Museum-thumbs in the middle ... The "cool" part wasn't open until later in the evening, but the rest of it was rather boring.
7. Ancient Roman Museum-thumbs up ... If my feet weren't killing me, then I would have loved this museum!

The Long Night of the Museums

National Library

Albertina ... one of the few pictures I took before someone told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the museum (I promise that I looked for signs, there weren't any!)

My Museum Buddies :)

Globe Museum

Globe Museum

Old Instrument Museum

Jewish Museum

The Surprise Weekend in Salzburg

For my friend Carrie's 30th birthday we surprised her with a weekend away to Salzburg, Austria.  On Friday afternoon, we picked up our car rental and began driving to Salzburg.  Carrie had no idea where we were going ... success!  After stopping in a small Austrian town along the way for some dinner (it was YUMMY), we finally arrived at our hostel in the evening.  The next day we all went on the Sound of Music Tour (my second time on the tour) and then explored the old town of Salzburg.  It was fun to see all the old buildings and spend time with my friends.  Unfortunately, I also developed a migraine in the afternoon (thankfully it went away by Sunday morning).  On Sunday we drove to the border of German and Austria to a little town that is "famous" for having the Silent Night Church.  This was the church were the silent night was first played.  The entire church can fit about 15 people comfortably (20 people smushed).  It was TINY!  After seeing the church and picking out some Christmas gifts in the gift shop, we drove to a beautiful lake in Germany for some lunch and relaxation.  Since school was supposed to start on Tuesday, we ended up cutting our trip a little bit short and returning to Vienna just before dinner on Sunday night.  All in all it was a fun way to celebrate a 30th birthday!

Off to Salzburg with the birthday girl in a Mini!

Happy Birthday Carrie!

The Silent Night Church

Smiling Faces in 5th Grade

Welcome to 5th Grade!

Ready or Not, Here they Are!

There's nothing quite like the excitement felt on the first day of school!

School Poem

Author Unknown

Today I hurry off to school, 

To work and learn and play 

I'm in a brand new grade this year. 

What a happy day!!!!! 

Meet the new teacher!

Quite a Size Difference

This year, since I'm teaching 5th grade, I've moved to a MUCH bigger classroom.  Compared to last year, my classroom size has doubled!!!  It's amazing what you can do in a bigger classroom.

Passing on the Baton

Life for teachers at ICSV is kind of like a relay race.  You're all a part of the same team, with the same goal (to bring others to Christ), but not everyone runs the race at the same time.  Every year new team members get added as others leave.  This year we have added 4 new American staff members to our team and a handful of other international staff members from the Vienna area.  They are "taking over the baton"  from those who previously carried it.  Please pray that God will use these new "baton carriers" in ways they never thought possible.

Dahl family, Becca, and Jessica