Break

When completely stuck in the writing mode, it's good to be dragged outside to see the winter sun, go on the big swing at the play ground and eat cake, and remember it's just a long university paper after all and not something the entire world depend on. Now I'm back, ouzo in hand (not a big fan though), and ready with the outline for a rearranged final chapter. As oppose to earlier today I can see an end to this. Yay.

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Moving Schizophrenia

As we are getting closer to leaving and things slowly fall into place I get into this standard moving schizophrenia mode. I say standard because I know this is a completely normal reaction to a move (of course it's called something else), and I have tried it before, and I know all will work out in the end. It's just a phase...

Nevertheless this is the time - for me at least - of fluctuating between feeling invigorated and optimistic about new beginnings, a fresh start, and new adventures in one moment and sad and nostalgic the next about leaving behind the safe base we have built up here over the last two and half years.

We cannot take all our stuff with us when we move, it's simply just to expensive and honestly a lot of the stuff are not even worth shipping all that way. So, we will bring all our personal belongings, but we will leave behind almost all our furniture. The other day we got an email from the owners of the apartment saying they would like to buy it all: tables, chairs, TV, bed, couch, closets. Everything! Do you know how much trouble that saves us?! It basically means we can just pack everything else up in boxes, scrub the place down and when the time comes,

just get up and leave like were we just going to run to the super market and be back five minutes later. But it also means that we are literary leaving our home behind us. Things we have carefully selected even before we moved in together, and things that for us have a history. So while I can't wait to get a new sofa, because the one we have is totally uncomfortable and I've been dying to replace it for a loong time, it is still the sofa we bought, when we got out first apartment together. To cut the ties to these material things all at once suddenly feels more difficult than anticipated, although I know that a lot would slowly be replaced if we were to stay put. Now it's like ripping of a band-aid all at once -- rhiiipp -- and then plunge into a whole new start - along with a crib and boxes full of clothes, and books, and toys and all that other moveable stuff that lucky also has a history and significance for us.

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Busy, but

when they call from day care and ask you to come and pick up a little one, who is sitting with a red swollen eye (allergic reaction?), you of course don't care about the abstract meta-theoretical texts you are reading, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway. And when the little one wakes up after her nap, the swollen-ness gone, you of course suck the marrow out of that afternoon with apple/cinnamon buns, somersault in the bed and drawings of shoes (go) and cats (mao), which is all the little one cares about, when it comes to drawing.

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Just Busy

Dreikönigsfest

Well, turns out today is Epiphany, which in Austria is a public holiday: No work, no Kindergarten... A whole day off and a long weekend! Thank you. I realized it late last night, and was surprised how it was all of sudden weekend already. I will miss all these public holidays that are conveniently spread out over the year, when we leave Austria, but then there will be Memorial Day, Labor Day and so on.

We went for a sunny but freezing walk in the park, and came back for hot chocolate and house searching in Boston. We are in the middle of quite big logistic puzzle that requires long lists and a cool overview, and sweet Bjarni is so on top of it!

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Prosit Neujahr!

This was our first new year celebration in Vienna, and turns out we were pretty clueless on Austrian new year's traditions. We went for a walk in the city center at noon to find the city full of Silvester stalls, where the most prominent items were pigs in all shapes and sizes, apparently a symbol of fortune and wealth. We spent the evening at home, dressed to the best and lots of great food lined up; unfortunately I have been down with the flu since coming back from Denmark, which sadly made all the food and Bjarni's killer margaritas less appealing. I ended up back in my PJs under a blanket, where I could giggle at Silja, who woke up again before midnight from all the fire crackers, dancing around with Bjarni to DJ Ötzi (remember him?!) that was on the Austrian national channel. It's just not a proper new year's party without some dancing...

A happy and prosperous 2012 to you!

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