First days in Vienna

So it has been awhile since we have had the opportunity to update the blog…and as I sit here typing, I realize that I’m not exactly sure when I will be able to post what I am writing to the actual site….

I figure I should give you a rundown the last 2 days in Vienna (our first days in the city!). I’ll try to chunk it down into bite-sized chapters…I hope you enjoy!

Departure from LAX, and flight to London

Had a pretty easy time getting our baggage checked and then going through security…in between the two, we were able to meet up with Amanda Howard and had a chance to sit down and talk with here and her family as we waited. I’ve included some pictures of us waiting in the terminal…

The flight was uneventful; little bit of turbulence, decent meal, movies galore, and minimal sleep. I was able to sleep a little, but Justin didn’t sleep until we were about 7 hours into the flight, and that was after a little mini-freak out session (his legs were hurting him and cramping).


Arrival in London, and flight to Vienna

The approach into London was amazing. We had a fantastic aerial view of the city, so of course, I snapped some pictures to share with you…and here they are:

We arrived in London a couple of minutes early and had to make our way to a shuttle for the next terminal and had to go through security again. It was very quick, which meant we had about 2.5 hours to kill. Most of it was spent sitting in a daze watching the flight board waiting for our gate numbers to be announced. That long awaited announcement finally made it to the board and we headed off. We met up with the Overby family, who had been in London for close to 6 hours. We boarded yet another shuttle bus to take us to the plane. Again, the flight was uneventful and I snapped the following pictures of our first views of the Danau (Danube) River and the city of Wien (Vienna).

Arrival in Vienna, End of day 1 (eventually)

We landed in Vienna only to be informed that we would board yet another bus to take us to the terminal…after going through passport control, and collecting all twenty something bags belonging to our group, we headed out to the waiting area where we were met by the greatest welcoming committee ever! (see pictures)

After getting all our bags into the awaiting vans, we headed to the school where we met some more of the staff and had the opportunity to send out our arrival announcements via facebook and email. We were then informed that we would be heading to our flat! This was a pretty big surprise to us…we figured it would be a day or two before this would happen. Instead, we spent our first night in Vienna in our new home. What a wonderful surprise! I will post pictures once things are settled a bit, but we have a nice 2 bed/2 bath on the top floor of the apartment building with a nice view towards the city center/Vienna skyline and also towards the outskirts of Vienna. Our building is a short (20 min) walk to the school and all essential shopping is across the street. We also have 3 other staff families from the school either on our floor, or the floor below.

After unloading all of our luggage, we walked with our assigned “buddy”, Chad, to a nearby Pizza/Ice Cream restaurant for dinner. Finally, after wonderful hour or so of eating good pizza and getting to know Chad, we headed back home to sleep…

Day 2 – decisions, decisions…heavy lifting…BBQ

We woke up bright and early in order to head out with one of our neighbors (Judy) for the walk to school. Today we walked to the nearest U-Bahn station and rode to the next stop. We think that we’re gonna avoid using the U-Bahn for our commute simply because the walk is relatively short (and it means we can avoid purchasing the 1 year public transport past for EURO 450/person).

We got to school and had a fairly leisurely morning training session. Much of our time was spent waiting as we all met with the interim director to receive our cash advances. We then learned about our Handy (cell phones) options. It is much cheaper here, but again, we are going to try to go with one of the cheapest options possible and go with the prepaid plan.

We had lunch in the cafeteria and then I headed out with some of the other teachers in order to move some furniture down from one apartment and get it to another. This involved a couple of bookshelves going down from the 2nd floor (which, inexplicably, is 4 flights of stairs up). To add to the fun, many of the lifts here are the size of small broom closets. The one in our apartment building has a MAX occupancy of 4!

After driving around the city, and carrying more furniture than I expected up more flights of stairs than I though possible, we made it back to or flat just in time to get back to the U-Bahn station for a ride down to the Klein’s flat for a BBQ dinner (coincidently in the same building where I had just helped to deliver some furniture).

Again, we had a great time of fellowship, meeting another new staff couple and welcoming the Schra family who just arrived tonight.

Hopefully this post wasn’t too long for all of you.

We miss you all and appreciate continued prayers as we go through the coming days.