Wien Stammtisch

We have been really having a great time living at our house here in the 10th district. From here, you can take the U1, subway to pretty much anywhere in the city, with a transfer or two. Things have been generally cold, but we have seen snow fall every few days, and sometimes when I am waiting for the subway, the snow falls onto the tracks at the street level station and it's very pretty. I have certainly getting into the hubbub of daily city life, which is fun, running for the bus and every time you come out of the subway stations, you are in a different part of town, and some of the stations open into big streets with beautifully decorated buildings and cobblestone streets, it is all a very unique feeling.

The good news is that I have gotten a second job at a kindergarten, and now my work week has been filled up! I was very surprised that here in Vienna the demand for native English speakers as teachers for your children is huge. Perhaps it is the lack of native English speakers without the papers to work here.

Last Friday we went to the Wien Stammtisch at Cafe Benno, a few blocks from the Alserstraße stop on the U6. "Stammtisch" is a German term for "Regular's Table". The Vienna couchsurfing group put together their Stammtisch on the 11th of every month. There are 6,500 members in the Vienna couchsurfing group, so you might imagine that quite a few people were going to show up. Stefan, the couchsurfer who set it up, reserved the entire downstairs of the bar. When we showed up at 10pm, there were at least 120 people there, all couchsurfers! Everyone had name tags, so I got a name tag, .5l of beer, and headed to the back room to make some friends. At first I met up with Massi, and Italian guy started the sustainability group here in Vienna. At the time he was running the "Free Box", a table covered with free stuff that the 120 or so people had brought that they did not need. Then I ran into a guy from Vienna who had traveled through the USA, and had actually traversed through Idaho from Boise to Coeur d'Alene, what a small world! I met up with an American guy that had just gone through the process of getting his residence permit here and gave us some tips for Laina's. The event grew and there were so many people in the bar, i couldn't believe it, and before I knew it, it was 2 and the bar was closing. They practically had to push out all the couchsurfers. It was a great time. The public transportation runs 24/7 on the weekend, so we were able to get home by 3 for a good nights rest.

Other News: Laina just got her paperwork in for her residence permit, so she may be able to work in 4-5 months! We are chugging along with our school work, and Laina got her health insurance trough my work! We're still looking for a place to live, and having a hard time because we're a couple and most people don't want two people instead of one. I went two five different interviews, got 4 job offers, and now I am working in two jobs!

Ah, Vienna!

We've been settling in pretty well, working our way through the job interviews and visiting different flats. Vienna's been pretty cold lately, down to -6 C! I have been going to the school and last Tuesday I taught my first English class solo! Pretty much all of our time until last Tuesday was spent split between Starbucks and Oma's house, and playing Bauernschnappsen (an Austrian card game) over slivovitz until late.

We moved into a flat, only temporary, in the 10th Bizerk, in south Vienna. We're having a great time, we have three roommates, Elizabeth, Kay(its his room we're subletting), and Shawna. From our house, we're only a block from the grocery store, and 2 blocks from the Turkish grocery store. If you don't know, Vienna has a huge international population, many people from eastern Europe, especially Turkey. Walking down the streets here, you most certainly will see a Doner Kebap stand on almost every corner. and in the stand you'll see a big rotating meat slab in which the server will slice you off delicious shreds of lamb or chicken. It's not healthy, but you can buy them for 2.50 euros, and they can feed two.

We spent Australia day with a big group of couchsurfers at a local Australian pub in the inner stadt(city). We had a great time together, and what diversity! There were people from Spain, Mexico, Uruguay, Australia(of course), Canada, and Germany. We had a fun time chatting over Cooper sparkling ales, and talking about the in's and out's of Austrian paperwork, and what it takes for Laina to get her residence permit (green card).

School has been crazy, as you may or may not know we are taking classes online from George Mason University, which we are really enjoying. We are trying to find a balance of time, since they are graduate classes, and require a lot of reading and intelligently written papers. I think we'll get by. All in all things are going well, and we are really looking forward to this weekend, they say it'll be 50 on Sunday, and it is free museum day in Vienna! Sweet!

p.s. The photo is of Stephansdom, a giant cathedral right in the center of the inner stadt. It's super old, it was completed in 1160.

Vienna

After an amazing week touring through England, we left for Vienna. We arrived at night, and by some stroke of luck managed to mumble the correct words in a very rusty German to the bus driver, and got a ride from the airport to the Westbahnhof, right by my grandmother, Oma’s, house. We spent the next few days touring the inner-stadt (city center), hanging out with Oma, and I had an interview for a position as an English teacher, at a small private English center. After a few days, and a few class observations, I got the job! Great!
Vienna is a beautiful city. The building are all very magnificent, old and rich with history. Even outside the center of the city you will find plenty of buildings that you can’t help but stare at in awe. The Schönbrunn, a castle further away from the center, is an absolutely fabulous area to spend an afternoon walking around. There are gigantic gardens, a huge hill overlooking the city, countless statues, and an epic statues scene of Neptune and the Tritons overlooking a fountain. The whole area is so ornate and well manicured, you can’t not think you are back in time, and walking around as if you were from the 17th century.
We are absolutely loving it here, and as things calm down, expect more blogs especially about some very important thing I need to catch up on!

Baja Camping @ El Salto

6/8/2010

San Diego, California

We got up early, before the Las Vegas heat hit and sped down the highway straight to Loma Linda, California. When we arrived ], Jim was outside his apartment and showed us where we could park. After warm greetings we spent some time swimming in the hot tub and lounging around the apartment. We all went out to a nice dinner with Jim's old time friend. We headed out to Palm Springs to visit Shiela, Jim's friend, for the day. We had a great time picking lemons, going to the mexican market and eating some delicious food. On Sunday Jim took us down to San Diego, our new home!

We spent our first week at my great Uncle Jerry and Aunt Yoshi's house. We had a fantastic turkey dinner our first night, and I got to re-meet all of my extended family out here in San Diego.

Our first weekend in San Diego, we got invited to a Couch Surfing camping trip in El Salto, a small campground about 1 hour south of the border. Octavio (a couchsurfer) told us that he would pick us up on the other side of the border, at McDonalds. We jumped on the trolly, took it all the way to San Ysidro/Int'l Border, and crossed on foot. Back inf Mexico! It felt great, street tacos, loud "Banda" music, fantastic! We waited for Octavio at the McD's and then headed down with him to his house to wait for a friend. While we were staying at his house, we got to talk to his mom, who turned out to have a cake baking/ decorating hobbie on the competetive label. Laina and her hit it off immediately, rattling off in spanish different ideas they both have, and how they can make their cakes.

Eventually, we left and headed down to El Salto, a pretty drive down the northern Baja. With minimal directions, we finnaly made it, and arrived at the camping site with about 10 couchsurfers already there. Everyone greeted us warmly, and we all got comfortable and started sharing stories. As the sun started setting many more couchsurfers showed up, at one point, i believe we had 30 people around my "asado-style" fire, with a spot to drag out hot coals, so we could cook while continuing to keep a fire going. The party went late into the night, with multiple rounds of food cooked on the grill, and some really good conversation.

Morning brought a hot sun, and a fun group around the now cold fireplace. We somehow continued the vigor of the conversation last night, and once everyone was ready we headed into the canyon and the water fall. Hiking into the canyon was beautiful. the rock was black and smooth as polished stones. The hiking was ideal for the barefoot. There was so much to climb too, all the rocks were steep with many cracks and ledges for foot holds. When we finally got to the waterfall, you could climb down almost 150 feet on these rocks into it. Our big group was almost all barefoot, and we brought a drum. Some were singing, others playing drum beats, some climbing, others swimming, and that was how we spent the remainder of the morning. Once back in camp, everyone was hungry. We packed up, and then headed to a little town "La Mision" which was holding a festival that weekend. We walking in, watched some of the folkloric dances, and then to the food stand. Prices were great, as we expected ,and we got an assortment of delicious homemade mexican food.After this quick stop, we headed further south, to Ensenada, home of delicious "Mariscos" Seafood, in all different forms, and all delicious. We had such a great time, a big table for 18 or so people, we all ordered different things, and everyone shared. On the way back home, we made a quick stop in Tijuana, which turned out to be a really long stop.

After giving Carolina a call, she told us there was a big movie presentation in town that night and we should all go and see it. Once we figured out how to get to her house, and then making the necessary home calls, we went over to her place to change clothes and then we hit the road again to see the movie. When we were in the parking lot, it dawned on me, that I had no idea what the movie was about. Carolina said the movie was for the bicentennial 2010, 200 years of Mexican Independence. The Mexican government was funding a nation wide showing of a documentary/national pride movie, that weekend, and we all got to see it.

The movie starts 20,000 b.c., in tropical yucatan, showing all the nature flourishing, and so on. It is done in an interesting style, not quite cartoon, and not quite real footage. Eventually the time scale moves up to the different cultures of native mexicans, Toltecs, Mayans, and then to the Aztecs, where there is a model Tenochtitlan, and the huge pyramids, and sun stone. Then comes the huge bolt of lightning, and the date: 1519. The year Hernan Cortes first landed on the shore of Mexico. From there the screen became darker and grey, with many violent scenes, and louder music. After this, there was footage showing the formation of New Spain, and the different stages of growth. Then there was a lot about the rebellion against the Spanish, and in 1810, the independence of Mexico. Another interesting part was shortly after, where there was a silhouette of Mexico, with the states of California, New Mexico and Texas breaking off and the mexican flag falling to the ground. Then more footage of the beginings of the formation of Mexico, and the begining of music, art and culture. The winning of the world cup, protests in Mexico city, Frida Kahlo and more. Once these scenes ended, there was a very dramatic singing of "Mexico Lindo y Querido" by a very famous Ranchero singer, which brought many spectators to tears.

The next morning, we woke up and shared a delicious breakfast Carolina had made us (we couchsurfed with her and her family). We then headed back to the US, and waited in line at the border crossing for 2 1/2 hours!!

Red Rocks

5/20/2010

Las Vegas, NV

We skipped town last Friday, after a 6 week stretch of subbing and packing in Boise. Right now we are on our way to San Diego, our prospective new home, with a few stops along the way.

The first stop on our road trip was Pocatello, Idaho. We are going to Laina's aunts house, where we will cast our wedding rings. We made the drive in a little over 3 hours, driving across the south of Idaho and following the Snake River for most of the way. We had good weather, made good time and arrived before sunset. It was really nice to see Beany and George again, and we quickly got to business in the studio downstairs, sorting gold and getting the torch ready. Beany had already made us our wax molds of the rings that we saw a week earlier, and then made a plaster cast of those molds, which she had in the kiln the morning before we arrived. With the mold ready, we heated the gold up with a torch until it was liquid, and then set the centrifuge to send the gold into the cast. Once the gold went into the cast, we dropped it into water to cool, and then broke apart the cast to see the rings! They were beautiful!

We left the next morning and headed to Capitol Reef National Park, drove south through Salt Lake City, and continued all the way down to the red rock landscape so typical of southern Utah. Getting into Capitol Reef was amazing, huge red cliffs on both sides of the highway, and as far as you can see on the horizon. Our first night, we set up camp in the Fruita campground, and then took a short hike up the reef and enjoyed some red wine during a spectacular red sunset. We made some friends in the campground, heated up some chili and potatoes on the fire. The next day we drove aound the scenic route, hiked grand wash, some other narrows, and then went to see Capitol Dome. After another cold night camping, we jumped in the car and headed to Bryce Canyon.

Driving to Bryce Canyon, we drove through some fantastic scenery. One part of it, "The Devil's Backbone" had a road on a ridge, with drop-off's on both sides at least 300 feet. We continued over a 10,000 foot summit pass, and then down into Bryce territory. Bryce Canyon National Park is at 8100 feet, and is spectacular. It looks somewhat like a coral reef, thousands of pillars and spires, all with similar striations giving it an eerie blurry look. From the park, you look down into the canyon, from many different vistas, and paths. We only stayed in the park for 2 hours, because we wanted to camp at the lower elevation, hence warmer, Zion National Park.

Arriving into Zion, I couldn't stop saying how incredible the views were. We entered from the west entrance, and from the first 200m my jaw was slack from the sights. The beginning of the park was amazing, you are driving on top of and in the slickrock. Once you drive through this area, you see the checkered slickrock hills, and they are so close you cannot see anything else. Then you go through a mile-long tunnel and when you come out on the other side, the whole canyon opens up in front of you. You can see across, down and far away, the canyon is huge, majestic and red. We got a campground, spent a fantastic night with our fellow campers, Texans and Portlanders, and then toured the park for the whole next day. Our last night in Zion we camped outside the park, at a BLM campsite. I jammed with a mandolin player from Fort Collins, CO, and chatted late into the night with a couple from Steamboat. The next morning we headed Las Vegas way, stopping in a failed attempt to swim in lake mead, and then got stuck in construction for a double failure! We finally did get into Las Vegas and met up with our CS host, Mark. After much needed showers, we headed to the strip for food and fun. After a few 99 cent beers, and Chipotle, we started our tour of the casinos. We saw them all! We were most impressed by the Venetian and Bellagio. I decided the bathroom in the Bellagio was the opposite of the bathroom at the bus terminal in La Paz, Bolivia. After a long night of much walking, we wound up back home for some chatting and much needed sleep.

Waiting for Spring

It's May 2nd, and waking up to 40 degree weather with 70% humidity is not my favorite weather in "Mid-Spring". Every morning I run my little starter trays to the back patio with bare feet stinging on the brisk, and sometimes wet tiles. They have been growing well, the tiny cherry tomatoes definitely doing the best, the long romaine and asian greens also growing well. The basil didn't make it, I don't know why, they sprouted, and didn't grow much past that stage.
Our last few weeks have been something in between pandemonium and productive busyness. Our pre-marriage counseling classes have hit the mid-point and now we are heading towards the last two weeks of classes. The wedding planning have gotten a little ridiculous, we have a four page, double-sided list with approximately 500 things we need to do between now and the wedding. We are also trying to pack up to leave Boise by May 14th, so we can get down to California. All of this while subbing full time in the Boise school system.
Subbing this spring has been sort of a roller coaster of work, some jobs being duck soup, and others leave me practically exhausted. Some jobs: Band teacher, Orchestra are really easy, and sometimes incredibly boring (when the band is out at a concert and you have 2 or more periods without students). On the other hand, most of my jobs are rather difficult, and require lots of classroom management, and some old-fashioned discipline. For example, I had taken the job "detention monitor" Thinking it would be cake. It wasn't. Long story short, the principal got involved and took the student away.
My favorite jobs are the full classroom 1st graders. Reading to them, teaching spelling, cutting and pasting, recess... 1st grade is the best. If you can quiet a whole class by threatening to not give them a shiny star sticker, sign me up. Besides that, 1st grade also offers students that have better behavior then kindergardeners, and are still so small and fun that you don't get burned out like with middle-schoolers.
Laina is having her wedding shower this morning. She is very excited, and has been spending the morning in anticipation. I am not invited.

Four Layer Wedding Cake

4/18/2010
Boise, Idaho

So we've been back in Idaho for almost a month now. Once we got back we started immediately working on our endless list of things to do for the wedding. Other then that, we've been subbing, gardening and going to a premarital counselor.

Gardening has been a blast, I have four starter trays inside, I am growing 2 types of lettuce, chiles from Oaxaca, tiny cherry tomatoes, and spinach. Outside I have green onions, broccoli, strawberries, basil and purple sage. I am really excited to watch the garden grow as the weather warms up here.

Subbing has been great too, I've taught everything from high school band to 4th grade classroom. We hope to keep subbing the rest of our time in Boise to make some money to make the move to California.

We have also been going to a premarital counselor out in Eagle (~25 min drive). The class has been interesting and valuable. We are going through some books, quizzes, and worksheets, and a lot of discussion.

Here in Boise there is a small couchsurfing (CS) community that is actually very warm and friendly. We started going to the monthly potlucks, whenever we are in town. The old CS ambassador, Abby, used to host them, and now Dan, who owns that house, he has started hosting them with his CSer roommates. On saturday, we decided to bring our trial wedding cake the party, and share it with fellow CSers. Laina made a five layer wedding cake a little while before we headed down to mexico, and subsequently froze it and let it sit while we were traveling, with hopes to return and make a giant cake. Our big question was, "where in the world are going to find the 80+ people it takes to finish this cake?". After we got back we decided CS was a good solution to having many, many people indulge on it. We joined up with Dan's potluck, and announced it to everyone, and told them to come ready to eat cake. The day of the party Laina got really sick, and she was not able to frost the cake, let alone be 20 feet from the bathroom. So I frosted the whole cake for her (how sweet...literally) which really ended up being an all day thing, the kitchen is still dirty. After the frosting I added tulip petals, red and yellow and a big shell to the top. It was ready to go to the party. I showed up about an hour into the party, so everyone could be salivating as this 20 pound monstrosity made its way to the den of Dan's house. As it turned out, Everyone was hungry for cake, it was only on display for 5 minutes and then disassembled and cut up. A CSer name Kyme came up to me and asked if I knew how to cut a wedding cake, I didn't, so she helped. Kyme is a semi-pro wedding cake baker and experienced at serving them. After a minute or two I was wound u pin conversation with a couple from Tahoe city, where the wedding will be, and then I was sitting down on a couch while Kyme had totally taken over serving the cake. She seemed very happy, and in her "zone", so I let her finish serving the cake. I also spent a large portion of the evening out at the bonfire in the backyard chatting about CS and sharing stories. In the end, about half of the cake was eaten, Which was actually a lot of cake. We split up the left overs, and headed home for the evening.