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4/15/2007 12:00:00 PM
Austria
Our first 5 months in Vienna

The first 5 months in Austria

The first mild winter has passed, spring is in the air and you can read up on what we've been doing the first few month in our "old home" right here.

Haven't heard from us in a while...?! Well here is part 1 of our "Schmid's update", the second one will follow in a few days (really, it's written already!). For the non-readers there are three new photo albums with pictures of all our activities such as Christmas, Mardi Gras, boys school photos and visitors on the web www.lawur.com

GENERAL

We've been in Vienna since the end of November now, living in a 90m2 apartment in the same complex and only 2 houses up from my mom, where I had also lived once for 10 years. The two flats even have the same layout, very funny for me. We got this great deal through a friend of my moms and are incredibly happy and thankful to have had a living space from day one. Our families have done enormous work prior our arrival (the 80 year old lady who lived in it the last 40 years was an absolute packrat!) - emptying everything out, just keeping necessary furniture and things for us to live in, painted all the walls and cleaned the dirt from the last 30 years...We even were able to have breakfast the first morning, hang up pictures, fill cabinets, wash laundry, etc - pure luxury for us. The apartment is situated on the outskirts of Vienna and therefore the houses are not so tall and there is more nature around than right in the city. We also have a nice park right down the road, where the kids go almost every day. In the meanwhile we have slowly but surely adapted each room more to our taste and likening. with as little effort and money as possible. We also have a few more sleeping possibilities and hope to get some of you from far and near to visit us!

SOCIAL LIFE

One advantage of moving here definitely was that we already familiar with the area, have our family and "old" friends around. Due to our reports and yearly visits over the last 12 years everybody has been updated and we kept many of our contacts, which we can intensive again. Robert is only home on the weekends which are often filled with some home improvements, the boy's soccer games, etc. which doesn't leave too much time. Everybody else certainly has their plans as well, so therefore it takes some organization andpre-planning for some get-togethers with family and friends. My mom lives so close by that I get to see her often during the week, Robert's mom on the other hand lives 1 1/2 hours out of Vienna and due to her irregular schedule as an ER nurse it is difficult to find some time. Robert's father has been retired for a year now but still keeping busy. With him and Katharina we manage some spontaneous meetings and Ernst is a big help for me should I need a strong man for several errands and carrying stuff. Robert is also happy to see Werner (his brother) more often and we all are very excited to be around when he and Elli will get the newest family member in October! The boys are hoping it'll be a little boy cousin... :o)

VISITORS AND TRIPS

Only a week after our arrival we had our first visitor! Bonnie, our friend from San Diego took advantage of some free miles and came to visit. Julie and the boys (Phoenix and Griffin) unfortunately had to stay home, we missed them a lot! It was Advent time which is a big season in Austria and we visited many different Christmas markets, drinking hot cider and eating roasted chestnuts - yum! We also did a tour through the Schoenbrunn Castle (which we never had done either!), the Hundertwasser museum and enjoyed the few days together very much - as always they went by way too fast!

It looks like we'll be going to London this July also seeing our friends Fiona, Graham, Ella and Oscar from Australia! They are visiting his parents for a month, who live close to London, so perfect for us to combine with checking out Robert's place in Windsor. We hope that they will also manage to come to Austria, we are all so excited to see them again after 4 years! Our friend Melissa (Maura's daughter from Boulder Creek) and her boyfriend Adam will be coming on and off the month of July, again something to look forward to. Up until then and after it is might quiet around here so we hope that some of you will find their way to Vienna - we've got enough sleeping space!

Robert will not be able to take any vacation until fall so we'll be here all summer, hoping to have nice weather. This winter was really mild (it only snowed 2x for a day in Vienna!) and sometimes we actually would have liked some more of the white powder, at least the boys. They would have loved to build some more snowmen, have a snowball fight or go skiing more often. We spent 5 days in Salzburg over New Years with our friends Hemma and Christoph, who always come to visit from the US. It's been the second time we joined them there along with some of their friends - 5 families and 10 kids, a lot of fun! Sebastian also celebrated his 10th birthday there and was quite happy to have his buddy Lucas along. Benjamin unfortunately twisted his knee the first day and was not able to go out skiing again, what a bummer! But one thing is for sure - there will be another winter next year...

On our way back to Vienna we also stopped at our friend's Nina and Ritchie in Villach for 2 days. During our last visit in September 05 we did not get to see them all, so finally we met the latest family member Konstantin, now 15 months old! Philip and our boys had a blast once again and a "men" night out at a ice-hockey game on Sebastian's birthday, while Nina and I had a cozy night with hot cider and lots of talking. We hope to see them soon again either here or in Carinthya.

Well this was the first news of the last few months, a family report will follow soon and like I said you can check out pictures on the web already. Until soon, have a nice day, lots of hugs

Yours the 4 Schmids Niki, Robert, Sebastian, Benjamin and Matey

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