Bratislava adventure!

Yesterday we took a journey to the neighboring capital city of Bratislava, Slovakia. Less then 40 miles separates Vienna and Bratislava to make them the two closest world capitals. The city center is only about an hour away so we jumped on a train in the morning and we were back before bed time.

Three of my students joined us as we explored the city, got lost a few times and almost lost one of the girls (oops), saw touristy things, and ate some Pizza Hut. It was a ton of fun spending time with these young adults, but bittersweet as 2 of the 3 will be leaving Vienna before August. Fortunately we'll be able to do a few more things with them in the coming days. For now, enjoy the pictures...

reading the tourist guide on the train to Bratislava explaining how we would all become a Bratislover...clever, huh.

enjoying the beautifully maintained tram stop...

focused on a game while waiting

on a Slovakian tram

the "new bridge" also known as the UFO bridge for its spaceship-like structure that houses an overpriced restaraunt

The girls waiting to cross a street

A shot of Justin and I attempting to imitate the statue at the top of this monument

a closeup of me looking like an idiot :)

the city center is a very cool collection of narrow streets and alleys

Slovakia hosted last months IIHF World Championships...these signs had cool little caricatures of each nations "mascot" interesting to see how different nations are perceived. Case in point in the next picture...

The US is seen as a bunch of Cowboys.
Crap.
This is what we have to overcome. :/

view of the castle from one of the many side alleys

and again

taking a break in some random courtyard with a fountain

the castle, again.

what a good student...even reading as she walks through a vacant lot.

on our way home after a long day

Adventures with Kramer

We had the great privilege of watching Kramer, a beautiful Golden Retriever that belongs to our friends the Stocketts. It was fun to be able to take him around the city and get a feel for the love that Austrians have for dogs.

Some memories...

     The first day we had Kramer we took him to Justin's baseball game. On our way to the game, we had two very elderly Austrians give a ton of attention to Kramer...and then we had a "conversation" telling each other about our Labrador Retrievers...his dead, ours in the States. Not sure how we understood each other as we were both very limited in each other's native language. But it worked.

     After the initial excitement of arriving at the field, he settled down and was a great entertainer to the many Austrians around. He made tons of new friends and enjoyed running around the baseball field after the game.

    We also experienced our Austrian neighbors running to open the gate to our apartment. It's amazing how much having a dog changes people's reactions. There have been times when we have been struggling with grocery bags and people will slow down so they don't have to open the gate, but if you have a dog they are very helpful and willing to open and hold the gate so you don't have to be inconvenienced.

     One night, Rebecca and I awoke to a whining Kramer...now, Kramer whining is a pretty regular thing :)...but he didn't come to either one of our sides when we called to him. He didn't come to our side, because his back side was stuck! He had somehow managed to get himself under the bed in a position where he just couldn't get up. I tried to slide him out but the only way to free him was for me to lift up the corner of the bed that he was stuck under. Of course, once he was freed he went right back to sleep. Don't worry, no dogs were harmed in the making of this story.

     We were warned by Jeff and Bethany that Kramer is a "momma's boy"...well, this apparently also applies to substitute mommas. This became very clear to us when Rebecca was in the restroom and she looked down to see that Kramer's entire tail had slipped in under the door. Very rarely could Rebecca move from one room to the next without Kramer following her.

Some pictures...

isn't he so cute?

On the bus 

Waiting for the Ubahn

Kramer had to have contact with one of us at all times while riding public...loss of contact ensures immediate whining

Kramer making friends and getting some love

waiting patiently for us to finish eating

Kramer is a really great dog and we definitely enjoyed hanging out with him for a couple of weeks...

Sunset in Vienna

From our balcony...

Hop on for a driving tour of Vienna!

A couple of weeks ago, Thomas Gardner and I decided to drive around in a borrowed automobile (thank you Wilsons!) with a video camera...the video below is the resulting footage (edited of course - we drove around for 2 hours) set to some classic European driving music. You'll see where we live and also some of the sites of downtown Vienna. For some reason I can't load the video direct to the blog, so please follow the link.

There are parts of the video that might cause motion sickness :)...so this is your warning. We had fun making the video...I hope you enjoy watching it!

Click here to watch the video

Championship weekend

This past weekend Justin had the opportunity to play in two championship games. On Saturday, he played with the Twins for the AIBC championship...and they lost 12-10 in a very exciting and close game.

The Wells came out to support Justin...and it was baby Noah's first baseball game!

Team photo while waiting for the trophies...bittersweet...

family shot

Justin and his friend Alex

 On Sunday, he played with the Lions in the Schülerliga Ost "Final Four" tournament. The lions beat The Diving Ducks from Wiener Neustadt in the semifinal in decisive fashion, 13-3. Sadly, in the championship game they lost 12-10 (again) to their rivals from Vienna, the Wanderers, in another very close game that needed extra innings.

Warming up

rain delay as we wait for the lighting and thunder to clear up

pitching

Justin taking a hack

Pig Roast!

We were invited to a graduation/commissioning party for one of my students. His father (a longtime missionary in Austria) roasted a pig. We had a great time eating roast pig, sharing memories (often embarrassing), and praying for Josef as he prepares to head out to New Zealand with YWAM. 

The cook with the cooked.

Josef being "roasted"

some fellow ICSV staffers

another picture of the pig. Delicious!

Last day of school and graduation

The last day of school at ICSV is a very relaxed day. The day begins with an awards assembly. After the assembly, the yearbooks are passed out and students spend the next couple hours signing the yearbooks and saying goodbye for the summer (in many cases, for longer). 

Awards assembly

me with some of my favorite students

signing yearbooks

ICSV's graduation ceremony was held the evening of the last day of school. It was a very nice evening celebrating the Senior class of 2012. 

End of the year class party - Class of 2012

We had an end of the year party for the class that we co-sponsor...the now Senior Class of ICSV; class of 2012. It was a long event (13:00-22:45) but it was well worth it. Swimming, bridge jumping, rib grilling, tearful goodbyes, school paper bonfire, and a return to school to hang out and watch a movie in my classroom. All in all a fantastic way to end the school year.

We were able to convince Justin to jump off the bridge

The very crowded bridge railing

Justin, Josh, and I decided to all go at the same time

Here's some video of the students jumping off the bridge 

grilling the ribs...delicious

Saying goodbye to the members of the class who are leaving ICSV

Lots of laughter from all the good memories...tears too.

Burning papers from the last school year.

Rebecca and I with our friends (and downstairs neighbors) the Wells