November 2009

Guten Abend!!!

Well, it's been a very long time since I've written. Life, here in Austria as everywhere, gets busy and we let things go. Several of you have written to say that you miss hearing about my adventures and look forward to the next installment. So... here I am. I have just returned home from choir practice and it's a cold and rainy Sunday evening so I thought this would be the perfect time to sit and ponder the last five months.



June... School ended happy and quickly. It's always a bittersweet event here. As teachers we are exhausted and looking forward to a vacation, but at the same time sad, because many of our students and colleagues are leaving us for destinations across the globe and we are fairly certain that, despite best intentions, we will probably never see or hear from them again. However, life is about changes and about enjoying the people you have in your life for the time you are blessed enough to have them. A couple of days after school was out I hopped on a plane for Montenegro. For those of you, like me, who were unaware of what and where Montenegro is, I will fill you in. Montenegro is a small coastal country south of Croatia. It was once a part of the former Yugoslavia and is quickly becoming a popular tourist destination here in Europe. I can certainly see why. Two of my students are from Montenegro and their family owns a hotel in one of the seaside resort towns there. I stayed for a week and fell in love with the place. In many ways it reminds me of my beloved Mexico: simple, beautiful, quaint, culturally rich and unbelievably welcoming. I had the opportunity to sit on the beach, travel the coast, visit remote villages, meet wonderful and interesting locals and take a day trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I fully intend to go back and visit again one day and encourage anyone else who loves new destinations to do the same.



July... I spent the month of July in Denver with the intent of visiting family and friends. Unfortunately, somewhere between Montenegro, Vienna and Denver I picked up a nasty flu bug and ended up spending about three weeks of my visit to the US in bed under mommy's superb care. As awful as it was being sick, it was certainly nice to be in the tender loving care of mom and being home where I knew doctors and drugstores and the language with which to moan and groan. I did get the chance to see some people before I left, got a clean bill of health from those "now you are 50" exams and loaded up an extra suitcase full of things I couldn't live without.



August... I returned to Vienna to start the new school year. Prior to the start of school I decided I wanted something alive besides my plants and me. So, I bit the bullet and became a mom. Their names are Brad and Angelina and they are the song in my day, the wind in my wings and the seeds of my joy. No, I haven't lost my mind and adopted kids, I adopted two canaries. A friend named them since that was about the time Brad and Angelina were all over the news for their impending break-up and my two little winged friends seemed to peck and fight with each other for the first few days I had them. We decided that they were like Brad and Ang and it stuck. It's now been 2 months and the three of us have all settled in very nicely, are getting along well and enjoying life together.



September... Lots of fun fall activities. The first big adventure was a road trip with friends to the other side of Austria to an area called Tyrol for the annual CowFest. It is an annual festival that celebrates the moving of the cow herds from their summer pastures up in the Alps to their winter grazing spots down in the valleys. The town is decked out in flowers and decorations, the townsfolk all wear their traditional outfits, beer and bratwurst flow freely and the cows are decorated with flowers and such for a walk down mainstreet. Each small town has their own festival and we happened to be the only tourists in town for this one. It was amazing. Part of the tradition is that you are to be at the town square by 10am for your first beer and to be present for the first herd of cows. Well, not wanting to offend anyone's cultural sensitivities, we were there, beer in hand and cheering on Elsie and her friends. What a kick. We saw the cows, drank schnaaps, rode a gondola to the top of a mountain, hiked along a river, rolled down a hill and shopped at a mountain antique fair. That's what I call a great weekend.



October... A busy. busy month for Jodie. It started with an early Halloween celebration at school. Since we would be off for fall break the week of Halloween, the school PTA hosted their Halloween party a couple of weeks early. I volunteered, again to decorate my car and take part in the "Trunk of Treat" ritual. It's so much fun to see the kids experience something so fun and... for many of them, so new. The costumes are elaborate because the families have the money to go all out and the celebration in the gym is exciting. My favorite part is that the people with American military connections go to the commissary or PX and load up on American snacks and candy and sell them at the party. Cheetos and root beer. I was a very happy girl. Later in the month we celebrated United Nations Day. As I have said before, the second largest UN office in the world is here in Vienna and since our school has a very culturally diverse population (60 nationalities) it is a big deal. The kids all dress in their native attire and we have assemblies, entertainment, educational booths set up by parents and embassies and a pot-luck that is to die for. Each parent in the school makes a dish from their home country and shares it with their child's class. As a teacher, I "must" roam from room to room and sample what each of my students brought. I couldn't possibly hurt some poor little soul's feelings by not eating their mother's cooking!!! The day after UN day, my friend Erin and I hopped on a plane and headed our for Istanbul, Turkey for a week of R&R. It was AMAZING. We walked a zillion miles in this city of 18 million people, saw almost every sight their was to see, ate the most amazing food ever, took a cruise up the Bosphorus Straight and shopped everywhere we could. The people there were unbelievably kind and generous and were more than willing to share their culture with us and showed us a very good time. One of my students is from Istanbul and he and his family were there during that week so they sent a driver for us, met us at an amazing restaurant and treated us to dinner on the night of Republic Day (their 4th of July). It was a real treat.



November... November is only a few days old but already full of excitement. The city is gearing up for the start of the Christmas markets, lights are going up on the streets, Christmas concerts are being advertised and the air has turned snowy and crisp. I am adding to the preparations by taking part this year in a school tradition. Every two years the music department at our school gathers kids and staff together who are interested and we rehearse and perform a Christmas musical mass at one of the large churches here in town. This year we are performing a Haydn mass. It will be on December 5 and there will be about 100 staff and students singing and playing in the orchestra. We had our first full choir rehearsal with staff and students together today and it was amazing. We have some very, very talented kids and our music teachers are incredible. We have the opportunity to rehearse in two weeks for a full afternoon with the conductor of the Vienna Boys Choir who is coming to our school to offer a Master Class. This is an opportunity that the school offers and I intend to take full advantage.



Well, that about does it for the last five months. December and the new year are looking just as wonderful and full. I am going to Denver for Christmas and looking forward to seeing my family and friends. I do intend to stay healthy this visit though. My big news is that at the end of January my beautiful niece, Shawn, now 22, is going to come to Vienna to live with me for 6 months. She will be doing her college work online for that semester and is going to spend time here learning some German, traveling a bit and mostly making her Aunt Jodie very, very happy.



I wish you all a very happy, healthy and loving holiday season and look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible. It's fun to get messages, no matter how short or long, to hear about each of you and what life has been like for you too.



Auf Wiedersehn und Frohliche Weihnachten!!! Jodie