Some sugar before bed

I had a little extra time with Kristina tonight, since Elena was in bed with some sort of bug.  Two highlights from my interactions with this little ball of energy:

Sitting together, eating dinner.  Kristina burps.
Me: "Kristina, what should you say now?"
Kristina: "Ummm..."
Me: "Excuse me."
Kristina: "Eks-svoo...eks-svoo...ummm..."
Me, laughing: "I guess you could stick with entschuldigung."
Kristina smiles: "Entschuldigung.  Sometimes must I big rulpsen."  [Translation: rulpsen=burp]
3 minutes later
Me: "Well, would you like a Zukerl [candy] or a Christmas cookie* for dessert tonight?"
Kristina, looking me straight in the eyes, very concentrated:  "Eks-YOOZ me!"

I'm so proud of her.

As I gave her a goodnight hug in her bed:
"Hilary, I love you more than one thousand diamonds."

Now if that doesn't make your heart melt, I don't know what will.

Grace and peace,
Hilary

*Yes, we still have Christmas cookies.

Vierundzwanzig

My goodness, I don't even know where to start here!  I turned 24 this weekend--there was so much hoopla that I'm not sure how I'm going to manage to keep this entry short enough to spare your eyes from melting at the computer screen glow.

Now it just so happens that the girls' grandfather and I share a birthday.  Since it was his 70th, there was a lovely little banquet in his honor.  It was held at a Heuriger just north of my town here.  There were old friends of Gerhard's and family present, some of whom I knew, and others I didn't.  I wasn't to be too nervous, though, as good ol' Onkel Erich was so kind as to introduce me to the unfamiliar ones...as his new girlfriend.

Our evening officially began with a spoof of a Catholic litany, with the caller saying things like, "If we eat too much and have too much wine..." and the guests responding/singing together with "please forgive us."  After some delicious wine, soup, and the main course, my girls recited a poem for Opa, as did a couple other guests...including Onkel Erich.

He opened with, "I know a person who..." and said lots of nice things, repeating that phrase throughout the poem.  He ended with "I know a person who...was born on the 15th of January, 1989, and her name is Hilary," as he pulled out a box of chocolates for me as everyone began to laugh.  I was so pleased and surprised (and I guess I'm nearing that certain time) that I didn't mind him calling me younger than I am.

Sunday morning brought another little surprise.  I got up, showered, and dressed, and when we all sat down to breakfast together, Elisabeth came out with a birthday cake for our breakfast!  The girls grabbed some gifts from the other table, and they sang for me before I blew out the candle.  It was so sweet of them and I wasn't expecting it.

Shortly after breakfast, I left for church.  Several of our young adults get together before church on Sundays and have a bible study over lunch.  Andrea was waiting for me with beautiful flowers, Jess came with a card and pizza, Seungwoo led everyone in another round of happy birthday on the guitar, Steph and Darryl had a little American birthday gift from their trip home over the holidays, and I got lots of birthday hugs all around.

After church, everyone disappeared before I could say goodbye!  So I left with Helen, my English friend, as we'd planned to have dinner at a little Italian place near our Austro-Brazilian friend Vic's house.  Well, we got lost--but it was lightly snowing, so we were plenty entertained!  Anyway, her friend had given her wrong directions, so we called Vic to see if he could help us.  When he didn't answer, Helen insisted we just go to his house since it was so close and see if we could look it up online.

I felt so awkward just showing up, and even more so when I saw his face at the door.  He uncomfortably explained that his dad was frustrated and he was helping him move stuff around, asked us to wait outside 5 minutes, and disappeared inside.  I tried my hardest to convince Helen to just leave and go find a new place and let Vic know not to worry, but he came out pretty quickly to bring us inside.  Helen kicked off her shoes and ran into the living room, asking me to come as well.

But I felt so strange there!  I was uncomfortable, didn't feel welcome, and just wanted to get to dinner quickly.  Besides, why should I take off my boots, scarf, hat, gloves and coat just to put them right back on?  It took her and Vic at least 2 or 3 minutes to convince me that I had to help her, and as I walked into the living room, the lights flipped on and all of my friends popped up with a "SURPRISE!"  (Don't worry--I still got my Italian...they had cooked a delicious dinner for everyone as well!)

I had been completely clueless.  I thought I'm a pretty observant and intuitive person, but they got me.  I couldn't believe it!  There were black and white streamers everywhere, panda balloons in every corner, lampshades turned into pandas, and even a panda cake, complete with green candy bamboo and chocolate covered pocky sticks for some extra bamboo shoots.

I felt so incredibly loved on my birthday.  I think my 24th year will be a milestone--there will be lots of change this year, and starting it off feeling like this is a fantastic way to do it.  Thank you to my wonderful friends, near and far, who make my life so exciting!

Grace and peace,

Hilary

P.S.  Enjoy a few more pictures, just because I loved my party so much:

I believe it's possible that I was shim-shamming with Kirstin and texting my Austrian family at the same time.  It's a new 24-year-old skill.

Delicious pasta dinner with great company.  I love how international my community is here.  Our party was made up of American, English, Kenyan, Romanian, Brazilian, Austrian, Filipino and South Korean friends.

Now I'm old enough that pictures of my candles make it look like my cake's on fire!

Eine Schlittenfahrt, fairytale scenery, and my first Austrian snow

As I write this, I'm sitting on the couch of the grandparents' flat in Sankt Gilgen am Wolfgangsee.  St. Gilgen is a fantastically storybook-worthy little village, snuggled on Wolfgang Lake at the base of a few mountains near Salzburg.  Through the window, I can see snow floating down at a slight angle.  I can see snow-covered rooftops, white-frosted evergreens, the sharp peaks of the mountains, and the lake, with a few lights shining from the other side.

This place is a winter wonderland!  I really feel like I'm being illustrated into a children's book, or on the set of an old Christmas movie.  We walked into the village to see a local tradition to welcome the new year, and I was in awe at the beautiful old buildings with so many details to the architecture, and holiday decorations in every window.  The small crowd of onlookers in thick coats, scarves, pom-pom hats, and gloves only reminded me more of the storybook village comparison in my head.

I'm completely smitten with this place.  If I were going to live in Austria for the rest of my life (don't worry Mom, that's not the plan!), I would definitely choose this area around Salzburg.  I've only seen it in the wintertime, but I've seen The Sound of Music enough times to know that it's just as beautiful in a different way in the spring.  The mountains and the evergreens remind me more of home than any other place I've seen on this continent.  Funny, isn't it, how I live in Europe, yet I think the most beautiful place here is the one that looks most like home?

I also had my first sledding experience!  I know, almost 24 years old and I'd never ridden on a sled.  Call my mother and tell her I was deprived.  Or just laugh at how slow we went but how excited we were anyway:

And then laugh at the snow-woman version of me.

I'll leave you with a couple excerpts from my journal from this week:

Thursday, 6. January

"…The great aunt and great uncle (who also have a flat just a few minutes' walk away) came over this afternoon and stayed for the evening.  

Onkel Erich is the Austrian version of Uncle Lloyd, alias Tickle Monster.  He's a broad-shouldered old man.  He's got a friendly smile, bright blue eyes, a protruding chin, and a silvery-white comb-over.  After dinner, I settled onto the couch with the girls and him as he read a story from Grimm Märchen [Grimm Fairytales]--it was Rumpelstilzchen, but his own, special, personalized version, evoking abundant giggles from us all.  I've officially decided: Old Austrian men will always have a very special place in my heart.  Especially if they're wearing Lederhosen."

Friday, 7. January

"…I'm looking after the girls, and we just pulled ourselves away from the window.  It's snowing again, and we just watched the snow plow clear the street to our apartment.  My first viewing of a snow plow in action!

I seriously feel like a child.  I've mentioned before how much more magical Christmas is with little ones around…well, now I'm the little one, entranced by the falling snowflakes, whether tiny specks or dime-sized clumps.  When the wind blows and they twirl and dance around the trees, it's nearly impossible to tear my wide eyes from the window.  Unless it's tea time.  Then I'm willing to concentrate long enough to add some milk and sugar before returning to my seat by the window and my winter entertainment."

Grace and peace,

Hilary

Here's another little glimpse of the mischievous Onkel Erich:

Explosions and colors

I found a sporadic bit of WiFi here in Salzburg!  I wanted to share this taste of my New Year's Eve with you before you get a full entry on my week here.  Keep in mind, this video does ABSOLUTELY NO justice to what I experienced.  Take your awe and multiply it by 100000000, and that's what I felt when I was taking this in.

From the 17th (and top) floor of a Studentenwohnheim in Vienna:

Not a New Year's post

What's that?  There are seriously less than 12 hours left of 2011?  That crept up really fast.  While New Year's Eve is typically a time where I think a lot about what's happened over the year, and while 2011 has been a year full of really memorable moments and a couple milestones (graduating from college, my first Mac [ha], moving back to Europe), I'm going to leave the reflections for later and gush as I tell you about my Christmas.

I was so pleasantly surprised at how cozy it felt.  I've been an ocean away from my family at Christmas before, and it's hard.  But if I couldn't have my family with me, I think this was the next best way to do it.

First, you should know that Santa does not visit Austrian children.  Saint Nicholas comes on the 6th of December to fill good children's boots with chocolate, oranges, and nuts, but he has nothing to do with Christmas.  In fact, outside of my room, there was not the smallest clue that Christmas was approaching until Christmas Eve.

This is because the Christkind (literally, "Christ child") brings all of the decorations and gifts together on the evening of the 24th.  So we locked the living room door on the 23rd, to give the Christkind plenty of time to transform our living room without peeking eyes.

On Christmas Eve (called Weihnachten), we dressed up for Kindermasse (children's mass), came home from church, ate a delicious salmon dinner, and awaited the bell that would be Christkind's signal to us that he's unlocked the living room door.  You should have seen the girls when that bell rang.  They burst into that room like nobody's business, and we walked in to find a beautifully decorated and lit tree, gifts surrounding it on all sides, a giant polar bear on the couch, and other little Christmas-y things scattered around the room.

Elena and Elisabeth took turns at the piano as we sang Christmas carols together.  You're welcome for only making you suffer through a minute of our singing.  ;)

We snapped a few pictures in front of the tree and got to work on the pile of gifts.

Shortly after, we headed around the corner to the grandparents', where Oma and Opa, the uncle and his girlfriend, and the aunt were waiting for Christkind to ring their bell, and when he did, I had a clear view of the girls' face, and it was as if any American kid had seen Santa, himself--they were beside themselves!

We headed to the living room, opened the door, and my breath was just taken away.  There stood a giant tree, grazing the ceiling, with beautiful ornaments, lights, and...CANDLES!  I've only seen this in books and movies, and it was the most beautifully decorated tree I can remember.  I was seriously in heaven for the next 20 minutes or so.  Opa, in his suit and tie, read the Christmas story from Luke as we all stood side-by-side, and then we sang several more German Christmas carols.  Oh, if I could do this every day, I don't think it would ever get old!

And then came the cookies.  A GIANT plate of them sat on the coffee table as everyone opened gifts.  At least 9 or 10 different types, and not the typical ginger snaps or sugar cookies.  These were beautiful.  Almond clusters, marzipan-covered macadamia nuts, chocolate-covered hazelnuts, coconut balls, lebkuchen, and others I don't know how to call.  We went through it in 40 minutes or so, and out came Oma with the plate re-loaded.  And then again.  And then, the next day, at lunch, we had a couple more platefuls!  I tell you, these crazy Austrians are baking for weeks to prepare for Christmas!

To cap the evening, I got to Skype with Gran, with Patti, Charlie, and my sister, and my Mom.  And the next day, I watched my parents, uncle, sisters and brother open their gifts via Skype, got to call Grandma Ditz, my German grandma who doesn't have internet, and call Grandpa (and, oops, make him cry), and Skype with my amazing Boston aunt, uncle, and cousins.  There is no other way to describe how I felt than full with happiness to the point of bursting.

Honestly, I ask myself:  is this really my life?  How did I manage to get to experience this beautiful Austrian celebration?  How did I get so lucky with such a family, who still fill me up even when I'm several time zones away?

I wish you all as many smiles as my face has shown lately.

Grace and peace,
Hilary

Precious stone, precious friend

You know, I have some fantastic friends.  Really, truly, world-class friends.  I'm going to take the opportunity presented to me by this blog to brag a little bit.  I would like you to meet Amber.

Doesn't she just look like a little bundle of fun?  That's just exactly what she is.  But she's a wise bundle of fun.  And a sneaky one, too.  She sees right through me, which is sometimes nice, and sometimes not nice.  I can go into a conversation with this girl, and whether I intended to tell her or not, she'll always know just which questions to ask.  Since I'm the world's worst liar, she really only has to look at my face to know the answer.

Something I love about her is that no matter what I'm talking to her about, I never feel like she's walking on eggshells.  She doesn't sugarcoat things, and she speaks her mind.

We Skyped on Tuesday.  We thought out loud together about how the transition out of the APU undergrad community has affected us.  How we really have been coddled for the last 4 years, with our friends close by, activities to attend any night of the week, and encouragement in our faith around every corner.  We talked about the future, where we hope to find ourselves in the next 12 months, what to expect, how to deal with disappointment and the required flexibility of this chapter of life.

We talked about so much more, but my point is, this girl helps me think.  Even though we could probably spend hours together just laughing and being ridiculous, I am never left in want after a conversation with her.

Here's to wonderful friends (and a couple of scary geese at Huntington Library)!

Grace and peace,
Hilary

Mailmen: an endangered species

"I pretend to work with one ear cocked for the sound of the post dropping in the box, and when I hear it, I scramble down the stairs, breathless for the next piece of the story."

-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

An American family at church learned about my free time and my endless appetite for a good book.  When I told them I'd read all of the English books I brought, all of the English books in my Austrian family's collection*, and had started on the German ones, they kindly offered to have me over after church to peruse their library.

I went last Sunday and was sent home with a bag of six English books.  Praise the Lord!  I finished the first one** on Tuesday (oops), and started another one right away.

This second one is called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  The thoughts of mine it's evoked are just as intriguing as the title is.  It's historical fiction and takes place just after World War II and the German occupancy of the (English) Channel Islands.  It's a collection of letters between members of said society, an author in London, and a couple of her friends.

Now I'm slightly mourning the extinction of good communication via post.  Don't get me all wrong--I am SO grateful for technology like Skype, where I can see my sweet sisters' faces and hear their voices.  But it gets me thinking about this generation's need for instant gratification.  Where has our patience gone?

These letters are long, with feelings and stories and questions and answers.  They were so meaty because they didn't have Facebook news feeds to keep friends caught up, or e-mails for a quick, time-sensetive question.

I can just imagine waiting several days for a reply.  When it would come, it would require more than a minute and a half to read.  I would examine the way each "h" and "s" loops and turns.  I think I would appreciate that the handwriting makes it even more personal...not just anybody could write that letter, only the friend who would sign it at the end.

I wish I had that.  It's not really possible, I suppose, as almost all of those with whom I love to keep in touch have a Facebook, which updates me on their lives whether I ask it to or not.  I mean, I do still use the post.  I love to write little notes and send postcards to friends, and I'll always answer you if you send me a letter.  But how exciting would it be to have that anticipation of the next one coming, knowing it was the only way to really maintain that relationship?

So...who wants to be my pen pal?  =)

Grace and peace,
Hilary

*barring War and Peace, but not for lack of trying.  I made it 20ish pages in before I feared an internal shutdown of the brain.
**It was called Blink, by Ted Dekker.  Incredible book!  I read it perhaps 5 or 6 years ago, but the second time was not any less thrilling.  If you can get your hands on it, read it now!

Photo from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2007/aug/20/week