New Trip.

Well, another year has come and gone, and I've written diddly on this blog. There's just not so much to write about in Virginia, it seems. Or maybe I'm just a bit busy raising a preschooler. Whatever the reason, I'm here now.

Only I'm not here. I'm back in Vienna! We are back with 13 new kids this year. John is at the airport collecting 9 of them, and one I saw downstairs on my way out to get a new eye mask because I lost my super nice one on the plane. When a little voice says, "Are you sure you have everything?" heed it because I thought I was missing something but decided I was being paranoid, but in fact, it was the eye patch I'd misplaced after my 4 hour snooze on the plane.

Speaking of which, for this trip I came a bit prepared. I got a Travel Rest pillow that inflates and deflates really quickly, and it was really nice to have on this trip because while I couldn't lay down, I could lay in awkward positions that worked because my head was supported. The funny part was that while I took some melatonin to help me sleep, it was the bumpy turbulence that actually helped me get to sleep. Weird, huh? Now I guess I know why Luca always wanted to be rocked to sleep - he got it from me! So while I did sleep on the plane, we had to keep going yesterday to avoid falling asleep, and I actually took a 40 minute nap sometime in the afternoon while John worked. Last night, we fell asleep between 6:30 and 7, and then I woke up to loud neighbors at 10. Since they'd wakened me twice already, I was fed up, so I knocked on their door and asked them to keep it down. They closed their window, I closed mine and put in my ear plugs, and I didn't hear anything. We woke up around 6:22. John didn't sleep more than a few hours, but I did, and I feel pretty rested today.

Unfortunately, Vienna has proven a bit hostile to us so far. Yesterday we had gusts of 40 mph while we walked around the city. Today, the wind is still here, and RAIN has set in. It's so windy that you can't use an umbrella, and I put my hair back because of the wind, and my rain jacket's hood has a hard time staying up because of the clip. I can't win. I bet the students are going to be thrilled to arrive in this. And we'd planned to walk them around a little bit today. I don't know what we're going to do with them.

Room-wise, we are again at Hostel Ruthensteiner, and this time we picked a room with a double bed. While I was dubious we would both fit because our queen barely feels big enough sometimes, we had no problems sleeping last night. Luca would not fit in this bed at all, but I only scraped my toes against the wall once or twice in the middle of the night. And this room has its own bathroom, which is so very nice. While our neighbors could be better, I like this room a lot, and the staff remembers us from last year. If you are ever in Vienna, stay at this place. The sheets are clean, the staff is friendly, the breakfasts are tasty, and the beer is cheap.

Which brings me to food. Last year, I indulged in every single thing I wanted, and while my taste buds and stomach loved all that I shared with them, the scale went up. I have fought a whole year to get back down to where I was last year before the trip, and finally succeeded in dropping the last couple of pounds thanks to a stomach virus (not my preferred method, just so you know). This year, I am adopting a new strategy: at home, I rarely eat breakfast and instead opt for a snack at 10:30, then lunch and dinner. But here, breakfast is included in all of our rooms, so I will have a bit of breakfast, save my bread from breakfast for lunch and have that as a snack, and then have dinner and my sweets. This way, I get my schokolade kugels while I'm out (that's chocolate balls to you), and maybe my Heisse Liebe (Hot Love which is ice cream with hot raspberries and whipped cream), and perhaps the scale will not go up.

I'm also walking a ton, which I think I did last year, but that didn't help me. This year, I have a Fitbit. Yesterday's trek netted me 18,000+ steps. I'm off to a slow start today at 3100, but I have lots of steps in the hostel so I suppose I can get them that way to make it to 10k. The room is admittedly too small for much pacing.

Yesterday's dinner was a huhner kebap, which is chicken in something akin to a pita bread (but tastier to me), topped with lettuce, tomato, something like tzatziki sauce, and some paprika. I will live on this stuff in Graz because it is so good, but last night's was good too. Alas, I was too hungry that I forgot to take a picture for you, but rest assured, I will take pictures of my culinary delights. I took my camera out this morning to maybe grab some pictures of Vienna, but then decided I just wanted to get my eye mask and get out of the rain.

Well, the children should be here soon with all their luggage, and their room will not be ready, so they will probably leave their luggage in our room for the day, so I need to get our room ready for the onslaught. It's funny - we're here for a month, so most of us have big bags (at least that was the case last year). Ours weighed just 41 and 43 pounds, and some of that is due to books brought as presents for friends, but the bags are still bigger than what most people have for travel. A lot of people have duffels or small carry-on sized suitcases. Hoisting it up the stairs at the hostel made me wish I'd kept it at 36 pounds, but I'm happy for an extra pair of jeans now that the weather is cold and crappy.