Hier At Last

Our welcoming party

Well, we made it. After an exhausting layover in London, we landed in Vienna about 6:00 p.m. Vienna time yesterday. We were greeted at the airport by the Vienna team and a couple members of the church (as well as what seemed to be a hundred kids). It was so great to see everyone and be welcomed in that way.

Our apartment street

Thankfully, they all recognized we had extreme cases of jet lag, so they took us straight to our temporary apartment. The team set us up with this extremely nice, fully-furnished, two-bedroom apartment to house us this first month while we look for a permanent place to live (unfortunately, this one is out of our budget). We settled in and pretty much went right to sleep.

Carson and Jake at Napolean’s

Today we picked up Tobias from the airport (more on him below), ate a delicious Austrian lunch with the team (I had Wienerschnitzel and Holly had asparagus cheese noodles), and ran some errands to pick up things we needed. Then Holly and I took a trip downtown to both the 1st District and Memory Lane. Since both of us have spent entire semesters in this city before, it was like coming home to come up the U-Bahn escalator at Stephansplatz and see the majestic Stephansdom towering over us. Everything was there: the smells of street food, the hordes of tourists, the living statues, the guys dressed up like Mozart and the intense sense of history. There’s nowhere else like it.

We got old favorites like Pizza Bizi and Zanoni & Zanoni’s gelato. On our way back to our apartment in the 22nd district, we stopped by the Donauinsel – an island in the middle of the Danube river – to watch the sunset. I’d never noticed the mountains just to the west of Vienna before, but they sure stuck out this time.

Zanoni’s at last

These next couple of days are full of mundane but necessary things: registering with the government, setting up a bank account, getting service for our phones and buying transportation passes. Once all that’s done we begin searching for a permanent apartment. We don’t know how long that will take, but hopefully as little time as possible. When that’s done, the real work can begin.

Keep following us here and on Facebook and Twitter (we do most of our updates on Twitter). Keep us in your prayers as we try to settle in and do all we can do become actual Austrians.

Donauinsel

Update on die Katze: Tobias the cat is here and fine. Because of some customs problems, he had to wait in London an extra night and came in on another plane this morning. We picked him up in the cargo area of the Wien Flughafen, next to huge pallets and towers of boxes and meowing enough that the whole warehouse could hear him. When he saw us, it was like a combination of relief and “Why the heck did you leave me in this cage and put me in cold and dark and loud places for two whole days??” He wasn’t happy. But he’s at the apartment now and getting settled in. He’s also not mad at us anymore.

Us as we speak

Until we move him again in just a couple of weeks. But we’re not telling him.

Nearly There

Our German school is right across from the Vienna Opera House.

We just wanted to quickly update you on some recent blessings we’ve had in regards to our fundraising. With less than three weeks until the move, it’s been amazing to see news of new funds or donations come in almost daily.

We learned recently that an anonymous connection to the Vienna church has agreed to pick up our bill for our German language classes. This in itself is a huge contribution, as good language classes aren’t cheap. We will be going to the Internationales Kulturinstitut (International Culture Institute), where we will spend four months this summer, five days a week and three hours a day, learning as much German as we can. This will hopefully prepare us sufficiently to enter the fall season with a sturdy knowledge of the language and the ability to communicate with the church and other locals. This gift to us is greatly appreciated and will have many positive repercussions, both for us and our work.

We also found out that, through their own volition, the 20-odd members of the Vienna church came together last Sunday to take up a collection for us. This was totally unexpected, especially since we don’t know them at all and they only know us through the Hensals’ and Haskews’ communications. We couldn’t be more grateful, and as we told the church through an email (with Josh Hensal’s translation), we already feel part of them. It’s amazing to see ordinary people, both in Vienna and back here in the States, pull together to help out someone like us.

Keep praying for us and our official leaving date: May 16th. We are now living at my parents’ house (which is fun for everyone) and have both finished our full-time jobs. These next couple of weeks will be for spending time with friends and family, fundraising and packing. It’s hard to believe that in three weeks, we’ll be spending our first Sunday in Vienna. We can’t wait!

The Art of Moving

Generally, I don’t have a hard time packing. When I moved from Atlanta to Edmond 5 years ago, it was clothes go in this tub, keepsakes in this tub, ending with Now where do we put the cello? Then of course there were the many moves from dorm room to dorm room, and from apartment to apartment, then apartment again once Will and I were married. In each of those instances I remember moving being an easy transition that didn’t give me a lot of anxiety or dread upon walking into wherever I was currently living.

But this move is different. For one thing, there are two of us to move, not just me, meaning there are way more possessions to sort through which has proven to be an interesting battle. I’m sentimental about some things, like my Beatles glasses and my little brother’s old baseball shirts or my Thin Man poster. I also have what I’ve affectionately labeled “The Will Box”, which includes nearly every keepsake that Will gave me before we were dating, while we were dating, and of course during our marriage (feel free to feel sick to your stomach). Will on the other hand is sentimental about everything he owns, like a wig he used for a costume and may need to use again someday, or every T-shirt he’s worn since the 6th grade because, somehow, each one holds a special amount of significance that only he understands.

The other moving difficulty I’ve taken issue with is that of simply starting too many things at once. I’ll wake up one morning with every intention of clearing out parts of the closet, yet two hours later I’ve somehow ended up in the living room organizing papers and creating junk vs. donation piles. Poor Will witnessed the worst of it when he came home for his lunch break a few days ago. He even struggled with opening the front door because of the piles of heavy bags stacked up against it. He squeezed through and there I was – trapped in the middle of the living room, surrounded by tubs, packing paper, Clorox wipes and who knows what else, with no way out. It was only then that I saw the mess I had created as I watched Will slowly scan the rest of the apartment. All he had to say was, “So… How’s the cleaning going?”, and I turned into a tiny overwhelmed child.

The moving process has been going a little bit smoother since that day, thankfully. We’ve sold a lot of furniture, and more is being sent out this week. On Thursday we’ll be saying goodbye to our sectional, kitchen shelf, and our washer and dryer. The place will be mostly empty after that, aside from the actual packing that we’ll begin working on pretty busily now that we only have a couple of weeks left in the apartment. Then it’s off to the in-laws for the remainder of our time here in Oklahoma. (Lucky you, Koois!)

Continue to pray for us these next couple of weeks as we move, say goodbye to friends and family and continue to fundraise. We have raised 40% so far (whoo!) which leaves us with 60% still to raise. If you think you can help us in any way, please contact us for more information. Also be praying for us as the time gets closer for us to start speaking German…all the time.