Yeah for Dinner Parties!

Sandi Joy and I made tacos and invited the Averys and Pitottis over for dinner. Ron and Judy are our neighbors (Judy finds all the apartments for new staff members at the school) and Nels and Sandi graciously welcomed Sandi Joy and I to stay with them until our apartment was ready in August. Good food and conversation made this a wonderful first dinner party in our home.

Here is Nels when he first arrived, expressing his excitement at the meal to come and showing off his new houseshoes. It is customary in Austria to remove your shoes when you come into a home and wear houseshoes on your feet.

Home Sweet Home

Here's the view of my new home from the outside of the apartment building. Sandi Joy and I live on the top floor. You can see our apartment windows in the upper left corner of this picture.

Here's the view of our neighborhood from the kitchen window. You can see the tall buildings of downtown Vienna in the distance and the hills surrounding Vienna beyond that. Sandi Joy and I have a small breakfast nook built into our kitchen just below this window, so we often enjoy this view when we eat meals there.

This is the inside view of the kitchen. The washing machine is located right next to the dishwasher. It is fairly common in Austrian homes and apartments to find the washing machine in the kitchen.

This is the living room, with large windows/doors that let in plenty of light and air.

No home tour would be complete without a view of the bathroom. In European fashion, the toilet is located in its own room (the watercloset) and the shower and sink are found in this room.

Kahlenberg Hike

These brave friends agreed to go hiking with me at Kahlenberg on Sunday afternoon of Labor Day Weekend. We took the u-bahn and then a bus up into the hills around Vienna. We chose to hike the red path and enjoyed picturesque views as we wound our way down through the hills. Halfway through, we lost the red path and chose not to finish the "straight back up" portion of the hike with the stroller. Instead, we caught a bus and ended our excursion with a picnic supper at a Viennese park. It was refreshing to get out of the city and spend a few hours enjoying the outdoors together.

Indoor Recess

Last week was very rainy (I joke that we're in the rainy season now) and we spent many recess periods indoors. The students found creative ways to take a break from their studies and had a lot of fun. Here Timothy, Samantha, and Maika test their coordination in a round of group juggling.