Decorating the Christmas Tree

Like I mentioned in the last post, the Chirstmas trees over here are a little bit different shape and the way they decorate them is a little bit different too. I think each person has there own way of decorating but I think I can make a generalizations. Usually a tree over here will have one color theme. So for example if the color you choose is red there most of the things you put on the tree will be red.
To decorate the trees over here they use balls, lights, and sometimes garland and tinsel (like we do), but here is where the similarities end. In addition or in place of lights every tree over here will have real candles that will be lit.
To keep with the fire theme many of the trees will be donned with sparklers that are lit at the same time as the candles - pyro anyone? (But I asked and the few different people I have talked to have said that there is really no worry of the tree going up and you dont hear any stories of that happening over here so I guess it is not that big of a risk - and they ususally only have the candles lit for a little while).
Aside from the live flame aspects of decorating the tree many of the other decorations are also different. In addition to balls many trees over here will have straw ornaments, as that is a traditional way to decorate the tree. And when you decorate the tree why would just put inedible ornaments on it? Pretty much every chocolate maker has chocolates shaped as bells, balls, or some other christmas shape that will either hang on the brach of the tree by itself or they attach a string to it so it can be hung.
Two of the more popular chocolates to hang on the tree are: a chocolate banana (or banana flavored chocolate pieces - I see alot of those in the stores) and chocolates shaped as umbrellas (I think becasue they are easy to hang on the tree with their little plastic handles)
You would think with all the edible stuff on the tree that candy canes might be a popular addition, but you would be wrong. I only saw candy canes in one place this year and it wasnt even a grocery store, or near other candy/chocolates. I havent seen any kids with cany canes nor have I seen anybody giving them as or with a present. Maybe the sharp point they get when you suck on them makes them too dangerous, but whatever the reason you wont find many candy canes in Austria.
The lighting of the tree -
Like us and Santa Claus, the kids get gifts from somebody special - the Christkind (Christchild). But the Christkind doesnt come down the Chimney during the night of the 25th. She comes on the evening of the 24th. Usually the kids are in another room playing or watching a movie - something to keep them busy - and a parent goes into the room where the Christkind will come. A special room
where the tree is and decorates it (as the kids cannot see this), puts chocolates on it, candles, ornaments, sparklers and of course puts the presents under the tree. Then they tell the kids to come wait outside the door to the room and the parent lights the candles and sparklers, opens the door and says the Christkind has come. This is the first time the children get to see the tree in all it glory as the Chrsitkind has decorated it and the presents that the Cristkind has brought. (Usually this is the time people open gifts to each other as well)
Even though the traditions are a little bit different I think we do many of the same things even if each culture has their own special twist. I do have to say being over is pretty cool though, as we get the chance to experience Christmas done in a little different way.

What will Santa be eating?

If you are curious as to what Santa gets all around the world - whether it is cookies or something else take a look at this article: http://bites.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/23/9657411-what-kids-around-the-world-feed-santa
Merry Christmas!

Christmas across the pond - Or at least in Austria

I thought I would write and let you know what it is like to have Christmas over here in Austria. Many things are similar but there are some things that are different.
Around Christmas time we really like to listen to Christmas music, it seems like it has the magical quality to get you into the "Christmas Spirit." Over here when you hear Christmas songs on the radio they are songs that we are used to from back home, and as far as I have heard they are all in English. But, if you search through the radio stations, both AM and FM, you wont find a station that plays just Christmas music. Trust me I have tried (3 times) - and to make sure I asked someone from here and they said no station would do that.
For Christmas trees - Christmas trees are popular as well, but the trees don't quite look like ours do; as the "Charlie Brown" looking tree is the tree of choice over here (well, maybe not so much the choice but the only one you can buy, unless you go the artificial route, which we have done the past three years). The decorating is also done a little bit differently. Instead of decorating your tree 3-4 weeks ahead of time when you put it up, many people decorate the tree on the 24th, when the Christkind (Christ Child) comes (the person who brings the gifts). So it is not just a surprise for the gifts you will receive but also what the tree will look like.
Another plant that is popular over here during Christmas time is the Pointsettia (or Weihnachtssterna - Christmas Star). This time of year you can find them in every store, and in some of the bigger stores in many different colors.

Snow?

Rain, rain go away
Come back as snow some other day.

Well, the countdown to Christmas is less than a week away and with the magical day drawing closer and closer we are still left without a white backdrop to celebrate with. Here the last weeks it has been quite warm - we got up into the mid 40's a couple days and it has consistently stayed above freezing. There has been a day or to where we have gotten some flurries but for the most part we have gotten a lot of rain. I feel like last year we had pretty much the same weather pattern, with lots and lots of moisture in December, the only difference between then and now is that the temperature was cold enough last year where everything that came down was snow. Granted it didn't stay for that long on the ground but there were many days where everything was white.
On Saturday we went to the city where Katy played basketball last year, about 25 minutes away, to watch a game. After the game was over and we went outside it was really snowing, and the big flakes too. The ones where if you stick your tongue out to catch one it feels like it takes up your whole mouth. (Myla even tried to catch one but her mouth wasn't big enough and instead of getting to taste her first snowflake it pretty much gave her a face-wash). But, even though the town isn't that far away, when we got back to Wels any hint of a snowflake was gone and everything coming down had completley turned back into rain. Not sure if it is maybe just warmer in the area where we are but as we drove to our basketball game yesterday you could see snow on many of the hillsides and fields, so not all of Austria is snow-free.
With a little luck and our fingers crossed we are hoping we will get a white Christmas this year (and maybe be able to show Myla how to build a snowman - as it is a little hard to make one out of water).

Letter to S.M.

Dear Sock Monster,
I am writing to to inform you that we are not happy with you. It is one thing to steal/eat the socks of two grown-ups (my wife and I), but to take the socks of a newborn is down right dirty; and it has not just happened once but rather 4 times already. We are not sure what you need these little feet warmers for but if you hang around the washing machine/dryer long enough (which is where we assume you do your dirty work) you should be able to find some loose change and head to one of the local stores and buy your own (granted there are no Walmarts over here but you should have plenty of choices to choose from). Maybe you steal them to wear yourself or eat them for meals, but we ask that you please leave our little girl alone.
Thanks for your understanding,
Unhappy sock wearer

Living in Austria - New Tires

A few weeks ago we had to take our car into the dealership (our car by the way is a Chevy Aveo this year) and have the tires switched. Here they have different tires for the winter and the summer. You cannot have summer tires on past a certain date (I think it is sometime in November) and if you get into an accident, whether or not it was caused by the tires you have or not, you will get a ticket. I am not quite sure why the switch is needed; if the winter tires are that much better in the snow and freezing conditions, or if it is maybe just something for the tire companies do/say to make more money. I know there are tires back home that are all season radials (and I guess all tires for that matter as we don't have to switch tires) and wonder how they would compare to the winter and summer tires here - if switching them out really does help or if it is more of a marketing genius on the part of someone over here (I know they did this in Germany too).

Regardless of the reason though - at least we can avoid the ticket for the wrong tires - which is always a plus!

Photos and Videos

Just a quick message to let you know that we have put up a lot more photos, and now some videos, on our Shutterfly share site - if you're so inclined. As we get caught up with getting our pictures off the camera and onto the computer I will be putting more on in the next coming days and weeks. Hope you enjoy

Living in Austria - Christmas Chocolates

Here in Austria they have been getting ready for Christmas for the past 3 or 4 weeks (or so). Every store that you go into has all their chocolates out and all of their advent calendars on sale. Here Advent calendars are really popular and you'd be hard pressed to find a store that didn't have any, let alone a good variety of the chocolate calendars. (Just to clarify - an advent calendar is a calendar that has 24/25 little chocolates hidden behind little doors. You get to open one door a day, one for each day of the month, until you get the big chocolate on Christmas Eve/Christmas). Over here they even have advent calendars where the door you open doesn't give you a chocolate, but rather a beer. You can get the calendar for one type of beer - Stiegl (Austria's big beer) or a variety of beers.
I don't know, but I would guess that a majority of people have an advent calendar at their place to feast on during the month of December.

Here in Austria though they are not just biased to humans, they take it one step further and make sure pets are taken care of too. The other day when we were in the store I saw these two advent calendars and couldn't help but chuckle. One especially for cats and one especially for dogs. Hey, dogs and cats should enjoy Christmas and the days leading up to it too, right?

Pictures

Just a quick note to let you know that if you are so inclined to see pictures of the little girl you can go to our shutterfly share site: http://joeykatysphotos.shutterfly.com/ and put in the password: joeyandkaty
I will try to update new pictures weekly or every 2 weeks. Hope you enjoy

Traveling little girl

Already in her short 8 weeks of life our little girl has been a busy little one out taking a couple different trips and seeing a lot of Austria. So far she has been to many of the basketball games, both home and away that we have had since she was born. Sometimes it can get very loud in the gym especially as fans are allowed to bring big drums in and bang on them during the game, so we got Myla some hearing protection - some ear phones. Katy says they work really well for her and she is able to sleep sometimes during the game (except when she is watching the game....or eating of course :) )
She has also been on a couple trips to see the country side. On one trip we took her on a train ride to the top of
one of the mountains-Schafberg (up 1700+ meters), while my mom was here. We knew it was going to be pretty cold so we put her in her snowsuit and I wore the baby carrier underneath my jacket - I think she stayed really warm (we took her out for the picture). It was really cool to be able to take her there and even though she probably didn't know what was going on, show her the wonderful view as we could see what seemed like all of Austria.
Another trip was to Salzburg with Katy's parents. We saw where Mozart was born, the castle on the hill, the big cathedral there and the different squares (gathering places) they have.
This time we wrapped her in a couple blankets and carried her. Again I think she stayed warm and it was nice to be able to take her around to some of the main sites.
Then she rode the train back to Salzburg a different day and went on the Sound of Music tour and saw all the sites from the movie. When she got home she had a smile on her face and told me the "hills are alive."
She does very well in the car, as I think a lot of kids do. Sometimes she cries a little but once the car gets moving she is usually able to drift off to sleep. And wherever we go we always try to allow plenty of extra time so if we need to stop to feed/change her (maybe a couple of times) we can do it and not feel rushed.
So far she has done really well with all the journeys we have gone on and I think in the coming weeks, months, and years she is going to be quite the well traveled baby.

Big and healthy

So we went to the doctor about 2 weeks ago for Myla's first appointment. The doc looked her over and was happy about how everything was going. When it came time to take measurements she was a little bigger than normal compared to babies her age, in both height and weight. She was in the 97th percentile in weight and in the 90-something percentile for height. The doc said she should be a little bit bigger than other babies her age otherwise she wouldn't take after her parents. :)

....back again

Hello...the last couple weeks have been very busy. Last week we had 2 games, both of which we won, but I haven't had a lot of time to get on here and make some posts, but I think I will be able to get back on track this next week.
I have to start by saying good luck to all the people heading out huntin this week(end). I know there will be plenty of years in the future I will be able to go, but I wish I could be hitting the woods with you. I guess I will have to live through all the stories, so I hope to hear some good ones.
Anyway, I figures since it was opening weekend I have to put a video on here of one of huntings best songs:
And I figure even though I cant be there I'll put my blaze orange mad bomber hat on that I brought over here and be there in spirit.

Amazing little girl

We had our little girl....Myla Christine on October 3rd. She just had her 5 week birthday today. The last 5 weeks have been great and she has gone from a sleepy baby to one who is more awake and smiley. We had my mom here 3 weeks and then Katys parents were here for 10 days, and the just left today.
Even though we had a baby half way across the world it was so nice to have some family come and visit and see our little girl.
If you have been around kids you probably know how fast they grow and get bigger and we can tell that in her 5 weeks of life, our little girl has already gotten longer and put on some weight (she has some cute "chipmunk" cheeks). Even though she has only been here a short time it seems hard to imagine that she wasn't always here. She just seems like she is right where she needs to be and right where she has always been. We both enjoy all the time we get to spend with her and are happy we get some time to spend all together.
If you care to see some photos of the little girl you can look on our shutterfly share site:
http://joeykatysphotos.shutterfly.com/ and enter the password: joeyandkaty
Hope you enjoy and all is well wherever you may be.

Its time

Just a quick post - at the hospital and Katy is having contractions and they are having her stay. Looks like our little one will be born today!!! :)

Changes - aside from the baby

The past week and a half has been very busy and full of changes. We completely cleaned the apartment and got it ready for whenever the baby decides to make its apperance. This past week was also filled with changes in basketball. Wednesday night we had our last pre-season and now we change
from the pre-season to the regular season (a much looked forward to change). But, last week we had the biggest basketball change so far. Management decided to make a coaching change and brought in a new coach on Monday. The last week and a half has been busy and intense trying to learn the new coaches philosophies, plays and how he wants us to play. Although there is always work to be done I think we have most of it down and are excited for our first game tomorrow. Check back next week to see how our first game went.
(Our new coach -
Pete Miller)

Having a baby in Austria - Differences Part II

Obviously when you have baby a stroller is a very important thing to have. It allows you to be able to take the baby with you where you want to go and helps you with the grocery store and carrying things you otherwise wouldn't be able to.
Here they do the stroller thing a little bit different. You dont get a stroller that fits the car seat you have, here you get a buggy. A buggy is like a stroller but it comes with a small bed/carrying case that can be removed and allows the baby to lay down in it like it is laying in a crib. The removeable bed allows you to easily carry the baby from the buggy to somewhere you might want to take it.
This past week we got our buggy - we got from someone who had it for thier kid and was looking to sell it.
It was nice we were able to get one from somebody as new buggys go for up to 900 Euros, you can get some cheaper ones but they can still cost quite a bit. For the most part the buggies are pretty expensive, but they convert from a bed or a place where your baby can lay and sleep into a stroller as the baby gets older, so I guess even though it is expensive you would have it for a long time. It is interesting to walk through some of the stores and the downtown area and see all the moms and dads pushing the buggies. At first it was a little different as we weren't used to it, but now that we are I think it will be a great thing and a great way to take our baby from place to place.

Having a baby in Austria - Differences Part I

With Katy's due date less than a week away - (October 1st, this coming Saturday) - I thought I would share some of the differences about having a baby in Austria.
We decided not to find out if it is going to be a boy or a girl and up to this point really dont know, so we are getting prepared for either a boy or a girl (nuetral clothes, names for both boy and girl).
One of the things that we are trying to prepare for if we have a boy is cirumcision. It may seem like an easy thing a no-brainer. But, over here its a little different, not quite as easy as if we were going to have the baby in Wisconsin. Here circumcision is a very uncommon thing. Most of the time if someone has it done it is beacause there is some sort of problem, and they dont get it done until later on down the road, as opposed to in the first few days of life. We have asked about getting it done as we want to get it done right away, but from what we have found out we are not sure if it will happen or not. We have to meet with the urologist this week and see if there is a way we can get it done within the first few days of life (if the doctor has even done it that early in the past) or if we would need to wait until the baby is 1 or 2 year old, like people have told us is a common age if a circumcision is needed.
Another thing we have talked about is maybe trying to talk a Rabbi and see if he could do it for us. We have been told that Jewish people get it done on the 8th day, or early in life and so maybe that it would be an option for us.
I guess we will find out more when we meet with the urologist on Friday, but its crazy that there is such a big cultural difference where they think it is strange here that we really want to get a cicucumcision and for us that they dont get it done and that is so hard to be able to get one right away.

Time for a diet??

We got our travel gear, or our sweatsuit that we will be wearing to the games a little while ago. When I pulled it out of the package and tried it on, it fit pretty well. But, when I looked at the tag I had to some self-reflecting. 5XL. What? If you were wearing 5XL clothes would you think you might be a little on the larger size? When I got my polo it was 4XL and I thought that was a little big, but 5XL? Maybe its time I start thinking about a diet or something. I think I work hard in practice, but maybe I should do a couple marathons during the day too.

Okay, so maybe its not that big of a difference to what I have back home. I guess the clothes over here are a little bit smaller in the way they are cut and made. The other guys were talking about it too, how their clothes were a little on "sounding pretty big" side, so I think I have nothing to worry about. If it looks right (and it does) I guess just go with it, even if it were to say 20XL, right?

It worked!

Last week on Thursday, Katy had the Cephalic Version to see if we could get the baby to flip from its naughty head up position to a head down one so she can think about having a 'normal' birth.
The procedure itself wasn't too complicated. She checked into the hospital in the morning because in Austria you have to stay overnight so they can do some checks on the baby's heart rate and a blood test to make sure everything is normal afterward.

On Wednesday we talked to the doctor who would be doing the procedure and he checked Katy's belly to see if the baby would be mobile or had a good chance of moving. He checked the bottom of Katy's belly real quick with his hand and an ultra-sound and said we would have a good chance of it working. So Thursday morning we were back. He started off by doing an ultrasound to make sure the baby was still head up - it was. Then he began to push of Katy's belly, but after 10-15 seconds he stopped and said that she needed to have the uteran relaxant. Since she already had an IV line in (they needed to draw blood when we first got there and kept it in just in case something went wrong and they needed to do an emergency c-section - the doc said in the 12 years he has been doing this procedure only 2-3 people out of the hundreds he has done needed to have an emergency c-section - mainly because something was drastically different with the fetal heart rate after the procedure or if there was a placenta abruption) they just put uteran relaxant into her arm that way. She said it made her feel very jittery and worked after about 30 seconds. As soon as it started working the doctor started pushing again. You could tell he was pushing very hard and it was uncomfortable for Katy (she did have a midwife standing right next to her helping her breathe and I think that might have taken some of her concentration for a little while). After 30 seconds he stopped and did an ultrasound to see where the head was and it had moved down a little ways. Then he went back to work pushing hard on her belly again. After a little while he just held his hand in one place and because he was pushing hard you could see a perfect outline of baby - straight up and down. A quick check with an ultrasound showed the baby's head was down and right where we were hoping it would be. We were so happy, especially as the whole procedure took all of about 2 minutes. Katy was a little nervous before-hand but said she got herself worked up for no reason.
To try and help the baby stay in place they rolled up two towels and put one on the left side of the baby and one on the right side and put a big wrap around her whole midsection to keep them in place. She spent the night in the hospital and after 3 EKG's to check the baby's heartbeat and a blood test she was able leave....with the baby the right way. So, instead of planning a c-section for the baby a week from Monday we need to be ready for the baby anytime now. Since the due date is October 1st it could come this week or maybe not for another 3-3.5 weeks.

Article from when I was in rehab

Here is a link to an article done here in Austria about the group/organization that did my rehab. It is translated using Google Translate so it might not be the best translation, but for the most part I think it is understandable.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.ooe-bezirksblicke.at/index.php/oberoesterreich/67-oberoesterreich/1434-rehamed-wels-130440-behandlungen-im-jahr-spitzensportler-basketballer-joe-werne-&ei=2A5lTs6MComBOuePqPgJ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.ooe-bezirksblicke.at%2Bjoe-werne%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4RNSN_enUS393AT393%26prmd%3Divns

Almost Time for the Baby

Well, we just had our latest doctor's appointment on Thursday and found out that our baby is comfortable sitting with its head up - breech. Normally at this time the baby is with its head down and getting ready for a normal birth, which in our case would be in about another month. Our little one decided that he/she wanted to make things interesting. We found out at the doctor that if the baby isn't in a head down position that we will need to schedule a c-section. For a c-section they recommend that you schedule it 1-2 weeks before your actual due date as they would rather you not go into labor so things can be more planned out. Right now Katy is 37 weeks pregnant and the baby is considered full term even though she isn't at her due date yet. So, we are trying to decide when, what week and day, would be the best to have the baby (as it could be in just over 2 weeks).
There is something they can do, called a cephalic version, to manually help try and move the baby. A doctor uses his hands and pushes on the stomach of the mother to help the baby turn and get into a head down position. This would enable the mother to have 'normal' birth. The doc said that this would be done in the hospital and Katy would be monitored with machines to make sure everything is going well for the baby. There are some risks to the placenta or umbilical cord, but with monitoring they would be able to see if there is a problem. I guess they have had some success, about 50%, with this and the doctor said we should talk it over and decide if it something that we want to do. I guess the procedure can take as little as 30 seconds, or it could take much longer. I've included a link to a YouTube video to give you an idea of what a cephalic version is like.
The doc said they have done hundreds of them at the hospital here in town and only a few times has there been something that has gone wrong where they needed to do an emergency c-section. Obviously you don't think anything will go wrong, but I guess we have learned to be prepared for anything (we would need to be ready for the baby when we went in for the cephalic version just in case) as we just assumed everything would go like it should and the baby would be head down awaiting its birth into the world at this time. So depending on what we decide to do, and I guess what the baby decides to do, we could have a baby in as little as two weeks or as late 4+ weeks.

Name Game Part II

The past couple weeks over here we have had fun listening to the different names (especially as we are in the process of trying to pick out a baby name). But, its not just because some of them are totally different than what we are used to back home (like the names I mentioned in the first Name Game post http://katyandjoey.blogspot.com/2011/08/name-game.html) but because of the pronunciation of some of the names. Although many may be the same or look the same as what we would see back home, some sound completely different.

Here are some examples:

Manny - pronounced MAH-nny
Markus - MAR-koos
Martin - MAR-teen
Joseph - YO-sef
Julian - YOU-lee-in
Simon - SEE-moan

Ruth - pronounced Root
Sarah - ZAH-rah
Anna - AH-nah
Katherine - KAH'T-a-reen-eh
Laura - LA-oo-ra
Judith - YOU-dith

1st game (pre-season)

This weekend we had our first pre-season game and for me it was the first game I have played in roughly 10 months. I have to say it was great to be able to get back on the floor and go up and down against another team. My knee did fairly well and I really didnt think about it much, maybe a time or two, but hardly at all. I put in a lot of work over the summer and it is nice to see that it is paying off. I still have a little ways to go, but it felt pretty good and worked just like it should. We had our second game on Sunday but I didnt play. My knee swelled up some after the game on Saturday night and was a little sore. Since it is just pre-season we thought it would be best to give it a rest and make sure something didnt happen to it (as a lot of injuries occur during fatigue). It was hard to watch and not play but I know it doesnt count until October so I think it was the best thing for me. Plus, we have 8 more preseason games in the next 2.5 weeks so I am sure I will have other games to get more reps. Our next games are on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. So check back soon to see how we did.

Name Game

With just over 30 days to go until our due date we are really looking at names and trying to narrow it down. While going through different names and different lists of names we are getting some names picked out, but now that we are back in Austria it has been fun to really listen to the different names and see how different some of them are from the ones we like and the ones we are used to hearing back home (at least from where we are from back home). We thought we would share some of the names that we have heard over here and how they are pronounced.

Girls/Ladies:
Birgit (pronounced Beer-git)
Sabine (sah-bean-eh)
Johana (Yo-ha-na)
Elfi (El-fee)
Sigrid (Cig-rid)
Lena (Lay-nah)
Astrid (Ah-strid)
Jutta (You-ta)

Boys/Men:
Ernst (pronounced Air'nst)
Romed (Ro-med)
Moritz (More-its)
Florian (Floor-ee-an)
Hannes (Ha-nes)
Bernd (Bear'nt)
Enis (Ee-nis)

Changing rooms?.....why?

A couple days ago we went to the pool as it was really hot out. It was nice to get in the cold refreshing water and get out of the heat for a little while.

When we went to the lake the other day I mentioned that there were a bunch of little kids running around with nothing but their brithday suits on. Here in Austria people in general are more free and that is something that is just ordinary. Well, when we were at the pool there was also a little kid running around without anything on, and as the day went on I'm sure there were would have been more kids running around like that, as there wasn't many people there early in the morning.
Well, the kids running around naked isn't real crazy I guess, but what about an adult? The pool has changing rooms but Im not sure if there are used that often or not. While we were hanging out in the pool I happened to see a guy, probably in his 40's, take off his clothes (all of them) and put his speedo on.
I kind of looked around wondering if others saw the same thing thinking that this was strange, but no one paid any attention to it like it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. People didnt have there iphones out nor did the cops jump out of the bushes for a public indecency arrest or ticket. Its just normal.
We feel pretty comfortable over here in Austria, but I am just not sure we would ever be that comfortable to drop trou in public and let the world in on our business.
But it was nice to go hang out at the pool for a little while.

Heat Wave

All summer long here in Austria there have been a few nice days but mostly it has been cooler and rainy. This plast week there has a been total change in weather. I think we must have brought the warm weather over with us when we came.
I guess all across Europe there is a big heat wave. Noramlly this wouldn't be a big deal but there doesn't seem too many air conditioners here and a couple of the guys live on upper floors of apartment buildings. Needless to say it is quite hot and the gym doesn't offer much relief, if any at all from the heat. But, I guess it could be worse, like 100+ days we had back home in July, and what doesn't hurt you only makes you stronger. Hopefully though in the next couple days it will cool down a little and we can get a little break from the heat.
Yesterday I dropped Katy off by the river close to the pool, and it was completely packed. There were cars all over the parking lot.
After sitting by the river for a little while Katy ended up going to the pool in the and said there were tons of people - she said it was a little confusing as it was in the early afternoon and it seemed like these people should be at work. But, when you have 5 weeks off for vacation (typical amount someone has for their job here in Austria) why not take a day off when its hot to go to the pool.

Cutting down the Mai-baum (May Tree)

This past weekend we got to see an Austrian Festival. We went with some friends back to one of their home villages and got to take part in a little town festival. We got there in the morning and there was a little tent area where people were selling some typical austrian food and there were some men playing some traditional Austria music on a chello and an accordian.

The idea around the festival was the cutting down of the "May tree." I dont really understand it but they put a tree up in the town in May (the tree is really tall - maybe 30 feet high - and there is no braches or bark on the first 25 feet, then at the top it looks like a little christmas tree. The tree or pole, below the christmas tree on top, is decorated with flags, different balls, and random things). The idea of of this festival, or the main part of it is the cutting of this tree. All day people eat, drink and listen to music and then at night (about 7:00) everyone gathers around and they cut the tree down.

I think the cutting of the tree signifies that the town will be prosperous (in the baby making area) for the coming year. I didn't quite understand it totally but we had a really good time and got to see a small Austrian mountain town tradition.

1st Week

The first week here was a good week. We got to see many people from last year and got to spend a little bit of time with some our friends. Katy and I both agree that even though we were home for 3, 3.5 months it feels like we never even left. We just sort of snuck right back into things here and it has been great coming back somewhere we feel comfortable.
When we got here on the first day we walked into out apartment and expected to find everything the way we left it. Not so...but in a good way. The lady who is in charge of the apartments this year really put a lot of work into our place and totally made it feel like a brand new place. She painted almost every wall, brought in a new table, changed the blinds on the windows, brought some news rugs in and decorated on of the walls with some paintings. We were so surprised when we walked in as we had no idea this had happened. The place has a totally different feel to it now - the atmosphere feels much lighter and brighter, and much more comfortable to be in.
The weather here is a little bit different than it was back home when we left. Back home it was shorts and t-shirt weather, here it is a little bit colder. If you go out in the morning or in the evening you need to have a long sleeve shirt or sweatshirt on or you will get a little chilly. We had a nice weekend this past weekend and the people here say that it was probably the last nice weekend (it got up to 82).
So I guess the tranisition to fall starts will start a little sooner here.
Speaking of this weekend, we went swimming with some friends on Sunday. The air was nice and warm but when you got in the water it was cold. We went swimming in a lake about an hour away from here, just at the base of some of the mountains. I think a lot of the water comes from the mountains and thats why it is so cold. It was a very pictuesque place and we spend half the day swimming, relaxing and playing games by the water. It was a blast. It was interesting when we were swimming to see the other people. Here things are a little bit more open or free (I guess you could say) and there were little kids all over the place who decided their swimsuit wasn't needed. Maybe up until 4 years old or so little kids were running around with nothing on. I guess its not that big of a deal, just a little out of the ordinary if you are not used to it. Oh, and I thought I might be out of place with my swim suit and find myself in a land of speedos, but a lot of the younger people have swimsuits or board shorts on. Who knows maybe if we get lucky enough to have another nice weekend and some time off from bball we can try to go again. (After swimming we stopped at a little place to eat and you can see behind Katy the lake where we went swimming).
As far as basektball goes last week was a good week. It was nice to get back and see the guys from last year again and to meet a couple new teamates. We oficially start practice next Monday and 2 more guys will come in this weekend but it was nice to get some basketball work in last week with the guys we did have.
Other than that all is well from the land of Lederhosen, bubbly water and Schnitzel. I think we are finally starting to adjust to the time difference and are starting to be able to sleep through the whole night.....a definite positive.
Check back next week to see how things are and until then hope all is well wherever you might be.

We made it

Well, we made it back safe and sound, although our trip almost didn't happen.
Our flight over here was in 2 parts. The first one was from Chicago to Philadelphia and that flight went without any problems. The second flight was from Philadelphia to Munich and this flight almost didnt happen. When we got on the plane in Philadelphia we got comfortable and situated like everyone else did. The stewardesses closed the doors and we were all set to go. Just before the pilot was getting ready to pull away from the gate he came over the intercom and told us that there was a good chance that Air Traffic Controllers in Germany were going to go on strike (meaning that the air space over Germany would not be open, meaning we wouldn't be able to fly into Munich)and that there would be an announcement in 10-15 minutes from the air traffic controllers in Germany. But for now the airline has told us that we cannot leave. So, we waited.
We kind of laughed a little about it, wondering what would have happened if we were half way over the ocean and the ruling came down that they were going to strike. Would we land in a different country - Italy, Austria, Netherlands - maybe we would have gotten a little holiday out of it :) - or would we turned around and came back.
Well, luckily for us the pilot came back on and said that they decided on four more weeks to try to come to an agreement, but for now the air space is open and we are free to take off.
So, other than that the trip back was good and we had some good friends pick us up at the airport and it was great to see them right away and catch up with them. Also, when we got back to Wels we got to see some familiar faces and friends and we both said it was nice to come back to a place where we know people and already feel comfortable, rather than coming in and not knowing anyone or really anything about the place we were coming to like we did last year.

Our Croatia Trip

2 weeks ago we took a little vacation to Croatia. We visited a couple different cities including Zagreb (the capital), Pula and the Plitvice Lakes.
We only stayed in Zagreb for one night as it was a stop in between where we really wanted to go at first, the Plitvice Lakes.
These lakes are a chain of lakes and waterfalls that vary from 2 meters in height to 30 meters in height. The lakes and falls are a national park and it took us about 5 hours to walk around the whole park. I am not sure if you can see it from some of the pictures we took (as it rained pretty much the whole time we were there) but the water was turquoise and so clear. The park also had a series of walkways, some on land and some man-made walkways that went over the water, some of which went right over some of the falls. It was so cool to be walking on the wooden walkway and look down through the cracks in the boards and see the water rush by only inches below.
After the national park we went to the Istrian peninsula and went to a city called Pula. This was an old roman city and still had roman buildings/artifacts there. We were able to see some old roman arches, a temple, and they also had a Colosseum. It was shaped like the one in Rome only not as big. This Colosseum was great though as you could go right down on the arena floor, where the gladiators would have been, and walk around. They also let you go under the stadium to where all the gladiators would have been before they went out for competition. Today it is like a very small museum where you can see things from the past but it was cool to be under the arena where the gladiators used to be.
Pula is also right on the coast and is why it used to be a very important roman city - it was a major port leading to the land to the north. Because it is on the coast there are quite a few beaches. And because it was high 70's, maybe even the low 80's we took advantage and visited a couple of them.
The beaches over there are a little bit different than most beaches you go to though. Over on the Istrian peninsula where Pula is the beaches are not sand but rather rocky beaches. When I saw rocky I am not talking about little pebbles I am talking about rocks that are about the size of your fist, smooth of course from all the water that has washed over them, but big none-the-less. Next to the beaches there were bigger rocks that you could lay and sit on and because we didn't have a mat or a couple towels to put under us we choose the bigger rocks as the little ones didn't look to comfy. Here we were able to get a little color and just relaxed. I tried to stick my toes in the water but after 2 minutes they came out red and almost frost bitten. It was cold. The lady next to us tried to go for a swim but she made it in to her knees and that was that.
Our trip to Croatia was great and we had a good time. We also really enjoyed taking the train through the different countries and seeing a different part of them than you would if you were driving on the roads. We would definitely recommend it to someone else.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Silly Beaster!!! Hope you are able to celebrate with family. Although we wont be able to celebrate Easter
with family back home we will get to celebrate it with great people over here and know we will be back in one week and look forward to seeing everyone again (looking forward to getting back...except for the snow...its been high 70s low 80s here for the last number of weeks. Weather-wise, its going to be hard to go from warm to cold, but if it means were heading home its all good).

That's all she wrote....

Tonight we played our last game of the season. We played very well in the first half and really looked good. We went into halftime with a lead, but in the third quarter they outscored us 27-6 and after that we just sort of went on a slide down hill. We made little runs in the 4th but it was never enough to tie the game or take the lead. In the end they beat us 75 to 80.
It was a tough fought game and everyone played hard but in the end we just couldn't overcome the change in momentum from the 3rd quarter. It was an up and down season and it stinks that it is over, but now I the preparations start for next year and I am looking forward to getting the chance to play again.
I guess if we look on the bright side...I get to play the next game. :)

Do or Die Time

Tonight we have our third playoff game as it mentions in the title it is do or die time - if we lose we are done. The first two playoff games were a struggle for us and we ended up losing both games, the first one by 12 (67-79) and the second one by 16 (79-63). Both games were on the road though and tonight we have a home game. Hopefully we will be able to use the energy in the gym to our advantage and make the best-of-5 series 1-2.
Both games we started off slow, or not as fast as the other team. They just couldn't seem to miss in the first half of both games. Last game they shot 80 some % in the first quarter. In both games we got done by 20 points and it is very hard to come back from that. We played well in the 2nd halves of each game, but 20 points is a large deficit to overcome. If we could just have two second halves I think we would be set. Hopefully tonight we can start well and then keep the pressure up for the rest of the game. If we win, our next game will be here in Wels on Thursday (as the series for us is 2 away games, 2 home games, and then the 5th game would be an away game) but if we lose we are out. So tonight, and the next 2 games, are very important to keep our season going and the next step in getting to the finals.
Wish us the best of luck and check back tomorrow to see how we did.

The Euro

Over here in a lot of the European countries the Euro is the money that you use and since Austria is part of the European Union they use the Euro as well. The Euro has bills and coins. The bills are in denominations of 500, 200, 100, 50, 20, 10 and 5. Each bill gets a little bigger in size as it gets bigger in worth. (for example: the 10 euro bill is bigger than the 5 euro bill, the 100 bill is a little bigger than the 50 euro bill and so on).
The coins are: a 2 euro coin, 1 euro coin, 50 cents, 20 cents, 10 cents, 5 cents, 2cents, and 1 cent (except for the 5-10 cent euro coins, each coin gets a little bigger as it gets bigger in value. 5 cent coin is bigger the 2 cent coin, 50 cent coin is bigger than 20 cent coin, and so on).
On the front of each coin is a common logo, but on the back of the coins, each country that belongs to the European Union and uses the Euro has their own design. Austria has a design that was different than the German one we saw a lot last year. Doesn't matter what the country logo is you can use the coins anywhere the Euro is accepted, probably much like our quarters in the states that have different state logos on them.

I know gas has been getting pretty expensive back home and thought I would take a look at what is over here.
Per liter it is about 1.40 euro.
Per gallon it would be 5.29 euro
(assuming 3.7854 liters to a gallon) and with the exchange rate, if I have done everything correctly, a gallon of gas over here would come to about $7.50 (US dollars).
Good thing we dont have to drive around that much here and the gym and workout facility is only a few minute drive from our place.