Frozen Morning

We were early for our visa interview at the US consulate this morning, and went for a walk in Stadt Park to kill time. Although the Siberian winter conditions have left Vienna, the city is still frozen. According to the weather forecast the weekend will bring sun and 6 (S I X) happy degrees.

We got the visas. Well, except from Silja, whose newly issued passport has been delayed from the Danish authorities. Hopefully it will get here soon though, so she can come along. Vienna is nice, but we don't want to leave her behind. Next on the to-do list is to find a rental van to take to Hamburg (and leave there) with all our stuff that will then be shipped to Boston. Oh, is it nice this endless to-do list is getting shorter.

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And so it begins

My christmas mood has steadily been building up over the past couple of weeks, and although it's a bit sooner than when I usually allow myself to start, I pulled the box with Christmas decorations out this weekend, and welcomed little nisser, angels and glitter to our home. And my Christmas happy self was very pleased to attend the Swedish Christmas bazaar this weekend, where we enjoyed Glögg and the Lucia procession with beautiful Swedish music in company with new Danish/German friends. (I love the Swedish language, and wish I was not so hopelessly bad in understanding it).

Happy first of advent.

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Colors

Today is a good day. I finished my oral exam (which involuntarily got postponed by a week), and can now focus on getting this thesis done. A splash of color to celebrate. These days I'm drinking a lot of coffee with the nicest, most interesting expats and listen to their stories of living in Vienna. It gives me a lot reflect upon in terms of our own current and future situation.

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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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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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Mundane Weekend

This weekend was a trip to the market, to the library, and to the park.

It was a brunch date with a friend and a beer late at night.

It was a mom who spelled her name in kids blocks and a dad, who put the teddies to sleep.

It was a husband writing dissertation, and a cooking-cleaning-baby-entertaining-not-enough-studying, but-its-okay-wife.

It was nothing in particular, but it was good!

Tomorrow is a holiday in Austria, so our weekend-mode continues.

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Uni Wien

University of Vienna has a beautiful old main building, which I only make my way to when picking up or returning books at the main library. It's worth a peek inside the old buildings even if one is not affiliated with the university. My own institute (Institut für Kultur- & Sozialanthropologie) is located in far less spectacular surroundings (typical for social sciences it seems), and even though I'm not there much at the moment, I am busy at home or at cafes around town, plotting out my master thesis - though I must admit it's not the easiest thing to keep focus on at the moment, when the majority of Vienna seems to be in vacation mode and the sun is shining.

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Easter Market

Pictures from last weekend, when we visited the Easter market at Freyung to check out the stalls with pretty and not-so-pretty Easter decorations, listen to a little bit of Schlager and to have a Curry Wurst & Bio Bier. I like like like the tradition with these seasonal markets in Austria, and the Easter markets beats in my opinion the Christmas markets, because the weather (the past two years when we have been here) has been sunny and warm over Easter, which makes it so nice to stroll around and take in what to me feels like a very Austrian atmosphere. Prost und frohe Ostern!

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Recharging

Because of Easter I currently got two wonderful weeks off from university. This morning when Silja and Bjarni had gone to Kindergarten/work, I left behind piles of laundry, a backlog of required readings and a bunch of other practicalities and ventured off to the 3rd district (to this great bakery/cafe) to eat breakfast, stare out the window and read my book, which has been collecting dust since courses started again. A little quiet moment just to myself, which felt oh so good.

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Instagram

A little dose of snapshots via (my latest obsession) instagram. Do you know it? So much easier I think than dragging around the big camera.

I'm going back to university today, and is actually looking forward to getting some intellectual input. Fingers crossed for a stress-free semester. Please.

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