Family and Fall

Just a real quick post about the latest here. Silja thankfully recovered quite quickly, and Bjarni was able to change his return flight and came back five days before planned (relief!). He was celebrated with balloons, strawberry cake, and two happy family members who had missed him, upon his return.

Having our little unit complete again and not dealing with all that dissertation craziness, things are returning to normal, which is GREAT! I am currently trying to catch up on my studies, preparing for next week's exam, while the other two are having a laid back time; I came back the other afternoon to a completely quiet apartment. I suppose jetlag goes well with a little one, who is still a little more tired than usual after being sick.

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On a different note fall in Vienna is looking its most beautiful at the moment. Despite the gloomy weather all the different colors are absolutely stunning.

That's it for now. Happy Weekend!

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Frauen Power

I came across the Frauen Power tea in a store recently, and bought it sort of jokingly to be prepared for two weeks home alone, while Bjarni is in LA. We got another week to go, and it's gone pretty smooth thus far, except today Silja is sick. Again. Ugh! This is the 3rd time in two months. Last time was otitis, and now it seems like some virus is being passed around in Kindergarten. Poor little kid! She's been tied to my hip today. We tried to make a collage with the free stickers you now get at the local grocery store, when I ran out of other hip- and fever friendly things to do. It turned out to be a project more for the mommy though (who nevertheless got into it..)

When not ill, she is currently busy finding and trying on her cousins' pink shoes that have been handed down to her. They almost fit now. I hope she's into pink shoes again tomorrow; otherwise I definitely need more Frauen Power.

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Dr. Vilhjalmsson

After five years and a LOT of hard work, Bjarni defended his dissertation at USC yesterday. Because of our move to Austria he has not and will not participate in the university's commencement ceremony, which is a darn shame, but if he would it would look something like this.

(This is actually our good friend Rehana a couple of years back, which explains the sort of long hair on Bjarni...)

Two weeks of single parenting, preparing for an oral exam and doing thesis related fieldwork all at once is not giving me much time to reflect on this mile stone in his and our lives, but it has been a strange turning point in our lives for the past couple of years and I feel strange not to address that briefly now that this "chapter" comes to an end.

It was the PhD that made me leave my home country and embark on a life style abroad, which I have grown to appreciate immensely. Moving to the US additionally resulted in us getting married way sooner than I would otherwise have anticipated. Obviously a PhD is a document and a title, which is the fruit of Bjarni's hard labor -- and I'm truly amazed by the effort and commitment it has taken on his part -- and I suppose in addition to that, on a more personal level, it has been a process of lots of very big decisions between the two of us, and managing new lives in US and Austria having mainly each other to rely on. And so I'm a woman with a lot more experience and insight (and possibly a few grey hairs?) thanks to this fancy new title of my husband.

I remember when I in 2006 got my passport back from the American embassy in Denmark with a visa valid till 2011, and that seemed so far away in the future. Well, here we are now. Closing this chapter and starting a new one.

Cheers to my clever and admiringly ambitious husband!

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Lately (according to my phone)

Sometimes at night when we take a break from working/studying, we end up searching for apartments in Boston. Mostly to get a feel for the different neighborhoods, and what apartments in our price range look like. Bjarni can get subsumed in Google maps/Google Earth, and have to show me bike trails, playgrounds, distances from here to there and what not. Three minutes into the map explorations I'm lost, and start doing other things, like playing around with my phone and Instagram (pretending I'm still paying attention..). Although I'm not the most dedicated person to examine and prepare for a new place in that way, it's kind of crazy how one can prepare. We can for example find an apartment ad online with an address, go to Google street view and "walk down" the street to see how the surroundings look like in that particular area, although we are practically sitting on the other side of the world. Pretty neat, I think.

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Today was proof-reading of Bjarni's dissertation and tending to a kid with fever. Again. She was put to bed tonight fever-free, so fingers crossed, it'll stay that way tonight and tomorrow.

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Silja. In Motion.

I was filming Silja a little bit throughout the day yesterday, initially to show my sister Helle her walking around, but got a little carried away when I was sitting with all the little pieces at the computer, and decided to combine them all, so that our families in both Denmark and Iceland can get a feel for her current state of being, since it's going so super fast. So here she is, 14 months and on a constant move.

http://vimeo.com/29927467

(Music by Mae: A melody, a memory)

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Impromptu Picnic

Bjarni's dissertation writing mode has gone into its final week of craziness. Oh, and are we all counting down for this to be done with now. For a while we have been on a tight and calculated schedule of you-take-the-kid-so-I-can-get-this-done and vice versa, leaving very limited time for all of us to do something together. So when Bjarni called yesterday, to see if we should pick up Silja together that was a sure yes from my side, and resulted in an impromptu picnic on our way home, on her little napping blanket, we were bringing home to wash. Half an hour together by the Donau Kanal with cakes and a happy kid and I think we are good to go for this last week. Bring it on!

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