The hourglass, the soft tacos, and the mistake

I think that as my time in Europe is dwindling, the days and evenings I don't ever want to forget are occurring more frequently.  My time abroad always seems to be imbalanced.  The beginning is so open and slow.  I have so much time, but not enough people to fill it with.  Now that I've been lucky enough to have made such wonderful friends here, I'm scrambling to figure out how to spend as much time as I can with them.

My church has been so solid to me here.  Though the group is always shifting a little as people come and go (such is the nature of an international church), I've never felt without people who care about me in the city.

Last Sunday was an evening to rival my birthday (and that's big talk--it's hard to beat a surprise panda party).  Almost all of the YAGgers who are currently in Vienna were able to make it to an evening of Mexican food!  After church, we all headed upstairs to the church apartment to get cooking.  There were so many of us (and such a tiny kitchen area) that most of us just mingled and talked.  There were a couple of guitars laying around, so we even had our ambiance.

We ate delicious soft tacos, and kept the music going until late in the evening.  I was enjoying myself so much that I ended up taking the last train home and arriving to Hollabrunn at the most frigid hour of the night.

Which brings me to some other thoughts.  My dear friends, you can mark your calendars.  Because today, I am telling you that I've made a mistake.  There was a time when I was excited for winter, and said to the weather man, "Bring on the snow!"  But I take it all back now!  I was so, so wrong!  Make it go away!

I had to just stop and laugh at myself the other day.  You see, part of my morning ritual is to go and look at the thermometer after I eat my breakfast.  The last couple weeks, it's usually been between -15 and -7 C (which means 5-19 F).  Well on Monday, the thermometer told me it was 1 degree, and in my head, I actually got excited that it was "warming up!"  Just because the temperature was a positive number.  This Californian is very anxiously awaiting spring.

This is our garden.  I took this picture when I still liked snow.  Now imagine the sky a bright blue and sunshine.  That's what it looked like this morning.  In less than 2 minutes, the sky went dark, gusty winds started howling, and snow/hail started dumping.  Of course this was 10 minutes before I was to go pick up Elena from school.  This is what it looked like:

Not quite as picturesque.  I want the sun back.

And here's one last picture.  It's a peek at one of my February doodle pages in my journal.

Grace and peace,

Hilary

Toot toot

I just need to toot my horn really quickly.

This week, I made 36 bagels.  I wanted one, and I haven't made them in a few months, so I whipped up a batch on Thursday afternoon.  All 12 of them were gone by Friday night.  They were that good.  Since I enjoy making them (almost as much as I enjoy eating them), I thought I'd make some for snacking on at bible study Sunday.  But I couldn't make those bagels right under the noses of my Austrian family and then whisk all of them away to Vienna.  That would just be mean.  So I made 2 dozen more.

Cranberry sunflower seed, blueberry, chocolate chip, and apple cinnamon.  I'm making myself want another.  Mmmmmmm.

Let's see how long* this batch lasts...

Grace and peace,
Hilary

*Monday edit:  As of this morning, the bagels were toast (ha!).

Oh no! I'm turning into my mother!

I saw a poll the other day that kind of surprised me:

These days, 60% don't bother with thank you notes at all?



Grace and peace,
Hilary

Rabbit, rabbit.

Well, January just happened.  I knew time would start seeming to run faster, but this is a bit ridiculous.  Was New Year's really 4 weeks ago?

I am down to 5 months left in Austria.  Not sure how to feel about that.  I was talking to Andrea last night, and I have such mixed feelings about it.  There are some really exciting possibilities for next year to which I'm looking forward (more on that after they've been narrowed down).  But I find a knot in my stomach at the thought that in a few months, Sunday won't mean taking the train into Vienna, getting together with YAG before church, hanging out with the jr. high and high schoolers at youth group.  I won't be having dinner or coffee or wandering the streets of the city with my friends from all over the world.

I don't have anything very special to say today, but I do want to document some part of life for myself to look back on later.  And you ladies and gentlemen have been so encouraging to me to keep up my writing.  Since my last post a week and a half ago, there have been 141 blog views from friends in 10 different countries.  If that doesn't give me the fuel to keep writing, I don't know what will.  Thank you for that.  I love hearing back from you!  Here's what I've been up to lately.

A couple friends from church are part of a new organization to bring Christian bands to Vienna.  Andrea and I went to support those two.  I wasn't really expecting to enjoy the music, but I actually had a really good time!  The boys played for the first act, an artist named Skrypt.  Then Superstyler Sound System of Austria played, and Good Weather Forecast of Germany--their songs were really catchy, and all 3 groups were really good performers.

The pandas!!  I went to the "animal garden" at the Palace Schönbrunn, which is the oldest functioning zoo in the world.  It began as the imperial menagerie in 1752(!!!), making it 260 years old in May.  The African animals have lost their effect on me since my South African safari, but the sweet pandas could keep me captivated for days (also, the frozen ponds.  The Austrian and British friends I was with humored me and let me throw rocks at one for a good 5 minutes before dragging me on.  It was such a novelty to me!).

Baby Fu Hu putting on his lunch time show for me.

Like a little English tea sandwich: Caroline and Helene--Michi was kind 

enough to take the picture, so he's not in it.

Plane ticket home!  That's right, my friends.  This girl has finally booked a ticket back to the Golden State.  I bought my ticket a while ago to visit family in Boston, but now I've got my return date:  Massachusetts to California on July 18th!  Yeah, I think 13 1/2 months away from home is plenty long.

Wish me warmth, as I've been told tonight that we're expecting -4 degrees (F) this weekend.  HOW DOES IT EVEN GET THAT COLD??  I plan on barricading myself indoors on Saturday.  Let's hope I survive the journey to church on Sunday.

Grace and peace,
Hilary