All Are Accounted For, Sir

This is the 4A gang this year at V.C.S. All are accounted

for, healthy, and ready for a great year:). Today was a

great day, and we're ready to roll!

New Year, New Kids, New Student Teacher

Above you see 6 of my 10 fourth graders this year, and our student teacher, Elizabeth. The first day of school she taught a lesson about maps and did an activity with the kids about where they are from. It was really great! She'll be a great addition to our classroom this fall. The kids are so far great, too. I'm going to need them to be a little louder, though! I'm used to a bunch of boys, so this is quite a change. Hopefully the missing four will arrive soon, too. Selyn has the chicken pox, Rina came today, and Adanna and Maryam are not coming until some payment issues have been resolved. So, my class is ever growing. It's fun to only have a few kids, though. They're so much fun to be around.
Just some background, here's the info from left to right:
Lydia, from Austria
Glory, from India
Elizabeth, from Canada and Sweden
Sophie, from Egypt and Austria
Noah, from the USA
Kevin, from India
Elizabeth, (student teacher) from the USA but lived in Peru and Ecuador for 16 years, so yes, she's fluent in Spanish. Wow.
That's all from fourth grade for now!

First Belly Shot

So, this is the 8 and a half week belly. I'm almost 10 weeks now. It's a little bigger now, but I'm still wearing my regular clothes. Lucky for me! I'll keep updating the photos...stay tuned!

A Picture can be worth MORE than a thousand words...

Well, we can't just leave it at that. :) We have a baby on the way and here are the facts:
The baby is due April 1st (that's not a joke).
We want to find out if it's a boy or a girl whenever the doctor can tell.
We don't have any names yet.
We're going to have the baby here in Vienna.
Anne hasn't been very sick.
Anne doesn't care if it's a boy or a girl, but Chris kinda wants a boy.

How's THAT for good news?!?!?!

New Kids on the Block

This might seem a bit overdue...

On August 1st, 9 new V.C.S. staff arrived in Vienna. They jumped off the plane and have hit the ground running, and just hearing about it takes me back to last year when we did the exact same thing. New apartment, new city, new furniture, new ways of doing EVERYTHING, new friends, new language, etc. You can imagine. But this year their transition has gone amazingly well, and they are all hanging in there. They are all really great, and seem like a really outgoing group. They already love hanging out together and with all of our staff. It's interesting now that we've been here a year. Everything that is new to the new staff isn't new to us anymore, and we're REALLY thankful. Coming back from the U.S. this summer was like going back to your sophomore year of college from a summer at home. We quickly resettled and now feel like we have both feet on solid ground and we know more what we're doing. It's a great feeling.

Too Much Talking!

No, not from my fourth graders, because they haven't arrived yet. I have been the one doing too much talking. Whew! This year, as most of you know, a girl from Trinity International University, Elizabeth, is doing her student teaching requirement in my class at V.C.S. She has been here two weeks now, and we have spent every waking teaching moment together. Wow, there is so much to explain to someone who hasn't taught before. She's eager, ambitious, and willing to take on new tasks, but it's taking all I have to plow through all this information that normally just stays inside my head.
Also this year, since the fourth grade class grew, there is another fourth grade teacher, Tricia. She's from Santa Barbara, CA, and is more experienced than me. Shouldn't she be having the student teacher? Go figure. Anyway, the three of us have been talking, talking, talking so much, and today I hit my limit! Yikes! I need to listen, listen, listen from now on.
So school starts on Thursday, and we have half days Thursday and Friday. The full deal begins on Monday. I'm really looking forward to this year with new students and a new atmosphere. Please pray that Elizabeth, Tricia, and I can develop a good relationship and that the transitions between me and Elizabeth teaching would go smoothly. Thanks!

So, this is us just after the wedding we went to yesterday. Behind us is the Hofburg - the winter palace of the Hapbsburg family that used to rule Austria for a long time. Pretty fancy schmancy, huh?

Austrian Wedding

Anne and I are going to the first wedding we've ever been to in Austria. There's not much time cause we have to get all spiffied up. It's going to be in downtown Vienna right next to the palace where the Hapsburgs lived - in a church that is something like 800 years old. Very cool :)

Later tonight, there is a cookout at school - a back to school party kind of thing. All of the staff will be back from the summer and we'll all get to hang out, officially welcome the new staff, and eat a roasted pig!! Some of the guys are really excited about that - cooking an entire pig on a special kind of grill for that. And......... some of the ladies aren't so excited :)

Just had an idea - I should take a couple pictures of my new office and post them. I haven't really decorated yet, but in time I will. It's been busy learning this new job but I really like it. Now I know my official title - Business Manager. I'm not part of the administration yet, so CFO wouldn't work.

We got 'em!!!!

There's this small but important thing that everyone has to apply for when they stay in Austria for more than 90 days. No, it's not college. And it's not a loan. It's a visa! Well, we applied in February and were told that visas weren't being given out, but since we are Americans they would just overlook us. Maybe a year or 2 or 3 later we could get a visa. That makes life difficult in a few different ways.
Well, we are now a part of the avalanche of people from VCS that are getting their visas. We just got ours today!! That's a great thing and an answer to prayer. There was even this large man just inside the main door of the building where we got our visas that greeted us and asked us what we needed and where to go. He was really nice - and you'd have to know the Austrian culture to know how TOTALLY STRANGE it was for him to do that. Customer service is just not very important here. Plus I've been to quite a few of these buildings and other similar places and there is NEVER someone at the door to help, let alone a friendly helpful one.

WOOOWZERS!!!

Oden

So this is our last night in Oden, Michigan. It's been a great 2 weeks here at the Schindler Cottage. We've gone water skiing, walking, swogging (swimming-jogging), riding wave runners, gone on boat trips, ran in a 5K in Mackinac City, ate tons of good food, slept in, watched a few movies, played bocce on the grass, played pier ball, built the Gynie Gate Bridge, went shopping, etc. The list just goes on and on. It's hard to explain how ultra cool this place is, but it just is.

It's kinda sad that we're leaving tomorrow, but we have a few things to take care of before we fly back to Vienna on Sunday. We arrive Monday morning and I might actually work half a day to keep myself awake. We'll see.
Gotta love jumping from one world/county/language to another.