Exploring my Ancestry

Two weeks ago, I decided on a whim that I should take a flight across the country and visit my Aunt Sue in San Jose. I had a couple days off, I could swing it. Aside from a few nightmarish flights, everything worked out well. We saw a local baseball game, devoured In-N-Out, and visited a cousin of mine in Carmel-by-the-Sea. She's a blogger too, and a pretty fantastic person (Hi Meagan)! 

My aunt also gave me a gift, an Ancestry DNA kit to give me information about my genetic identity and provides raw data as well for genetic testing purposes. I've already submitted my sample (spitting in a tube), and it'll be 6-8 weeks before I find out the results. The kit links with an ancestry.com account, so I've begun researching my family tree.

A sample map based on DNA testing kit results. My expectation for myself is European Jewish and Great Britain.

I've never been too curious about my family's history, on the one side it's been pretty thoroughly explored back to Wales and the Midwest and Sue has done a lot of the legwork for the Bradford. I'm super thankful for her work contacting family over the past few years. Wales is tough. If you know anything about the small country, you know two things: their towns are impossible to pronounce (no vowels!) and everyone is named some variation of John, Jones, William, Davies, and Evans. Please don't get me started on that part of the family. I'm distantly related to William Jones Williams and his son William J. Williams, but I don't dare go back much further.

The Laird side of the family has more dead ends. I'm still looking for my grandfather's father (is it more appropriate to say my father's grandfather? same person!) or any records about him. And on my grandmother's side, I only knew her parents' names and assumed they were Russian Jews. As a side note: Very late in my grandmother's life, she expressed that she and her parents spoke Yiddish, adding a layer of mystery to her origins.

Ultimately, the big discovery so far was that in a 1930 Census form, my great grandfather wrote his birth country. Austria. If you know me, you know that I'm infatuated with Austria and have lived there for about a year. Oddly, the 1920 Census form reflects a different story. Birthplace? New York. My feeling is that it wasn't so easy being an Austrian Jew who spoke Yiddish in the early 1940s. I hope I can dig up more information, because I recently discovered that great grandchildren of Austrian citizens can obtain citizenship. That's me! I'll post here when I find out more info... but at the rate I post, I could be a full citizen hopping around Schengen by then.

Jesus Christ I haven't posted in a while

So basically I had no idea that it has been so long since my last post (June?!  June!)

I apologize to whatever readers I have out there.  Quite a lot has happened since June.  Here are some updates:

I have still been writing for French Quarter Magazine
In total, I have published five articles since August 2014.  Not bad, if I say so myself.

I moved back to the US
Can't say my address is in France anymore, or even Austria.  I'm back home living with my parents, and I anticipate that happening for a long time (until my student loans are paid off).  Although I was accepted into a grad school program that spans France, Germany, and Turkey, I can't afford it at the moment and may have to postpone that particular dream.

I got a job, then got another job
This is something that has happened oxymoronically:  quickly over the course of a few months.  The short story is that I was offered a job by Company A, they rescinded the offer due to budget constraints, then I worked for Company B for a month in a totally unrelated field.  Additionally, I had to leave job B just Monday since Company A has made itself known again with an even better offer than before.

I'm into quilting
Oh man am I into quilting.  I'm buying new supplies weekly and have made 3 quilts since I came home in September.  I missed my sewing machine, but had never quilted before.  It's fun!  Want some pictures?  Here are some pictures.

So... yeah!  That's what I have going on in my life.  What's new with you all?

Here it is! My article on XOJane about being an Abused Au Pair

IT HAPPENED TO ME: I was an illegal Au Pair in Germany and it was a terrifying experience

Dumpster Date

Could you travel across the globe with a stranger?  What about with no baggage or plans?

Professor Jeff "Dumpster" Wilson has been on my radar for a few days now.  He teaches Environmental Science at Huston Tillotston University and is probably best known for, well, living in a dumpster. The recently divorced Dean has moved in a 33-square foot home outside the school to make a point.  We don't really need all that much space, water, or energy, among other things, insinuates the professor.

His article on XOJane was enlightening, and proof of a crazy idea blossoming into a pretty neat experiment.  Personally, I wouldn't do anything like this, at least not without a big sum of money as an incentive, but I'm impressed, and interested in seeing how this pans out.  The plot thickens when he meets his new girlfriend, on OkCupid no less, and she not only accepts him, she agrees to go on a three week long first date with him...in Eastern Europe.

She details her side of the story here, where things get really interesting.  They decide to bring nothing with them, except passports, credit cards, iPhones...and the clothes on their backs.  What in the world would compel someone in this day and age to do such an experiment, let alone with a stranger?  I think if I were to do this, I would start small.  Stay in the US.  Do an overnight trip, a weekend camping in the woods, anything but fly to a country where I don't speak the language or know anyone.  I just don't think I could be that brave.

The comments after the articles were the most surprising, however.  "Tramping" used to be all the rage in Kerouac's era, why are these people being denounced now, over 50 years later, for giving up luxuries that Gen Xers are constantly being berated for having?  Hipster is used as a derogatory term in the forum, but why?  Two people, eager to get to know one another and themselves, are doing something most people would never dare.  Is it jealousy that fuels the rage?  Not sure.  I feel like the majority of the reactions are based on these writers "doing it for attention."  But why should they be keeping it a secret?  This is their 15 minutes of fame, and they could have earned it by doing much, much more deplorable things, in my opinion.

Big Huge Announcement

Hey everyone,
Today is May 14th, a year ago I was spending my first day in Munich, Germany.  And today is the day I got an email from xoJane saying they want to publish it and pay me for it.  I guess it's time to tell you all what happened in the end.

I'll let you know when the story is up.
Bekka

Loïc's Visit

So if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, you might have noticed an influx of pictures featuring the one and only Loïc, my amazing French boyfriend.  Obviously we're long distance right now, so every time we visit one another it's a pretty big deal.  He arrived late on a Thursday evening and left Monday afternoon.  It was a very short "long" weekend so to speak.

For my birthday, the Lo got me a new laptop, especially for gaming since we're likely to be in an LDR for a bit longer.  Based on the sticker next to my keyboard, it's an MSi GE60, but I really don't know what that means, I let him take care of it since he's the expert.  Speaking of the keyboard, it's in  French layout.  That means, instead of the usual QWERTY setup, I'm looking at AZERTY and a multitude of other confusing mix-ups.  So, forgive me if there are typos in this post, I'm adapting to an entirely different system here! On the bright side, I finally can write umlauts!  It's such a pain in the ass to write things in German when you don't have shortcuts or umlauts on your keyboard.  I can also write all the French accents!  WOO! éèçà and this funny lookin guy § are all part of my daily use now.

Beyond Loïc's amazing gift, I of course cram-packed our weekend full of activities.

Friday was relaxing if I remember correctly; we picked up the kids and took the to the Technology Museum for a couple hours after enjoying an ice cream.  I think all of us were pretty worn out by the time we got back, but we were invited to dinner at our friend Paul's apartment with his girlfriend and fellow au pair Violet. They're a great couple to hang out with because Violet is also 23 and American and Paul is 24 and from Luxembourg.  They too are facing a potential long distance relationship and have been together for just two months less than Loïc and I.  They homemade turkey burgers and it was phenomenal.  We drank some champagne, radlers, and sampled liquor, so it was a good night overall.

Saturday should have been relaxing in theory, but that's not really something I believe in.  Our morning activity was watching the kidshop around on the trampoline for a while while my host father did some mountain biking, then we headed to the Naschmarkt.  I love the Naschmarkt and it's one of my favorite parts of Vienna.  It was a lot of fun to treat Loïc to his first heap falafel (we had them in Paris for at least 3x the price) and Almdüdler.

We had tickets to the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic) which is one of the best known groups of musicians in the world, and we scored 6th row tickets as a birthday present from my host parents.  This was the first "fancy" concert for both of us, and I don't know if we'll experience anything better in our lifetime.  We were probably the youngest people by 30 years in our tier of seating, and we seemed to also be underdressed.  We also got stares from said fancily-dressed old Austrian people because of our...non-mainstream piercings. We were just there to enjoy the music though, so it didn't matter to us what they thought.

And the music was...unbelievable.  We both remarked afterward that there were moments that almost moved us to tears, and watching the musicians feel the music was a special experience you can't have by buying a CD, or even sitting in the cheaper seats.  We heard Schubert, Schoenberg, and Saint-Saëns performed by three different sized groups.

Fun fact:  I have visited all the composers' gravesites, Schubert and Schoenberg on the Wednesday before Loïc arrived, and Saint-Saëns on a previous visit to Paris.

We ended the afternoon with a coffee at one of my favorite cafés, Phil, on Gumpendorferstrasse in Vienna.

Sunday was set aside for a visit to the Stift Kloster-Neuberg, just outside Vienna to the north.  It is a very old monastery/winery dating back to 1114.  It's a great place to spend an afternoon walking around, and we did two of four tours, the apartments and the wine tours respectively.  We had a tasting at the end of our wine tour, and bought my host parents a bottle of what we liked best.  Really a good day.

We arrived home and saw there would be a big family gathering at our house, but we were still enjoying our couple-time, so we skipped out and headed to one of Vienna's famous Heurigens instead, where we had more wine and a really lovely meal with lots of wild garlic, and we agreed it was one of our best meals together.

Monday was a lazy day of sitting around sleeping in (a whole weekend of staying up late and getting up early  takes a toll).  Then he flew away :(

But I'm flying to see him for eleven days on Saturday!!

Heathcare in Austria

Ok everyone, this is a gonna be a pretty short post, just because I need to express the huge difference I see in healthcare between my home, a suburb of DC, and Vienna, Austria.  Your results may vary, take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.

So I've been feeling under the weather pretty often lately, I'm concerned I have chronic sinusitis or something, but that's neither here nor there.  My host mother made an appointment for me at a specialist, and Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor.

Big Difference #1:  The appointment was set for Friday afternoon, and was made on Wednesday.  TWO DAYS.  Not many places in the US (that I'm aware of) can a new patient get an appointment that quickly.

I arrived at the appointment about five minutes early (BD2:  another no-no for a first time patient, usually you arrive early to a ton of forms) gave them my e-Card, which is my Austrian health insurance card that costs 50 Euros a month, and put my coat away.

BD3:  This doctor moves fast. While I was doing this, simply putting my coat away, I'm pretty sure the doctor saw two to three patients.  Then I sat down for probably two minutes, and my name was called.  I barely had any time to sit down before she sat me up on the examining chair to look at, yep, my ears, nose, and throat.  She spoke at a lightning fast pace (in German, natuerlich), and then said what I think was, "Ok. I don't see anything, but here's a prescription.  If things aren't better by Wednesday, come back."

Uh, ok.

So I went back out to reception, approximately 3.5 minutes after entering the exam room, and asked the receptionist if I needed to pay anything.  BD4: NOPE.  No copay, nothing.  She looked at me like I was crazy.  But what was I supposed to do, just walk out?!

Ok, that was easy.  Walk down to the pharmacy with my 100 euro bill in hand because god know's how much this will cost me.  I needed nose drops and pills.  Surely this would break the bank.  BD5:  NOPE.  Five euros sixty for the lot.

Jeez...European healthcare is nice.  It's almost like they want their population to be healthy.  Weird.

Things that make me happy (of the week)

Fun fact of the day:  When drinking a Weissbier, you clink glasses from the bottom to make a toast. This is so the beer doesn't foam up at the top if you're being a little too raucous.  

It's always nice to look on the bright side of life, so here are some things that made me smile this week.

• The US Will Have "Smart" Credit Cards by October 2015-  woo!  This is very exciting for someone who lives in Europe and can't use their credit card (despite having zero foreign transaction fees).  Basically, all European cards have a little chip in them that American cards don't.  This means, in short, a lot of Americans have a huge hassle when they want to pay for something by credit card in Europe, the machines simply can't read them.  Ever had the stress of buying a train ticket with hundreds of euros in cash because the machine won't accept your card? Yeah.  It sucks.
  
  EVEN BETTER:  This will make American cards way more secure.  "Half of the fraud occurs in the United States but only a quarter of the credit card use," Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.  We're clearly doing something wrong.  France has had this system since '92, and their fraud incidents went down 50% in '93, says the article.  Rad.
• The US beat the Soviets Russians in Olympic Ice Hockey 3-2 on Saturday.  Enough said.
• This gif is so good. 
  

LOOK AT MY ADORABLE NEPHEW I SKYPED WITH

THE END, have a great week :)

On Travel Tattoos

Warning:  Potentially offensive towards people I actually know in real life.  Sorry.

I'm pro-tattoos.  I'm pro-travel.  So why am I against travel themed-tattoos?  Well, to be fair, I'm only against a specific type.  The world map tattoo, colored in or otherwise marked, to indicate where the bearer has traveled.  At first, I thought this was a fantastic idea and I wanted it for myself, but now it has become a cliché (also, finally this awful French keyboard is coming in handy).

Recently I read an article on Laughing Squid about the above man, and the story is pretty self evident.  It's a great idea for a world traveller, but just as the article mentions he got the idea from someone else.  It isn't the first time I've heard of this particular tattoo idea either, nor will it be the last.  I'm sure if I wandered into almost any hostel in the world, I could find someone with dreams (or real ink) of this, or a similar, idea.  This tattoo has unfortunately become the infinity symbol, dreamcatcher, or anchor of the travel world, by which I mean it's overly done, and the most common thing you'll find on someone's body, if tattooed.  And yes, I do realiwe this incriminates me as unoriginal as well, I have an anchor tattoo on my ankle.

I'm interested to see how this trend plays out in my world travels.  I think it's very cool to show off where you've been and your life experiences through ink, but I also can't imagine how sad I would be if I started this tatto and then didn't get to fill it in as much as I would hope.  You'd have to be seriously committed to have the map you want, and I've only visited 8 countries.  The guy above has visited 40.

I like other travel tattoos, but I prefer them to be uniquely tailored to the wearer's experience.  For example, I know someone who has the coordinates of a spot that changed her life, along with the constellation that often guided her wilderness experience group.  That I find to be remarkable.  It's something maybe only a few people in the whole world can relate to, and has special meaning.

What are your views on travel tattoos? 

Bratislava for a Day

NOTE:  This post was supposed to be posted about a month ago.  I tried to upload pictures, it didn't work, and I gave up on the post.  Sorry that it's late!

Here's something you might not know about Vienna.  It's SUPER close to another European capital, Bratislava.  Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, (hey, not everyone knows this stuff!) and has a population of 460,000 according to Wikipedia.  Seriously, look how close these cities are:

Literally, they are about an hour away from one another by train.  For just 15 euros you can travel from Vienna to Bratislava and back with included use of the Slovakian capital's public transportation system.  It's a great deal, especially because things in Bratislava can be so much cheaper than in Vienna.  An example:

Ice skating in a public rink in Vienna (on a Saturday afternoon): 6 euros to skate, 6 euros to rent ice skates

In Bratislava (any time of day, on an admittedly smaller rink but less crowded day): 1 euro to skate for an hour and a half, 3 euros to rent skates.

I traveled with my good Au Pair friend Lucia, who is from East Slovakia.  Our ride was uneventful and the train was fairly empty in both directions.  I was lucky to have a native speaker, I don't know how I was going to get around the city otherwise!

Soon after getting off the bus that brought us more or less to the town center, we climbed to the top of the city to the Bratislava Castle (pictured below).  From there we could see the whole town- admittedly small.  Bratislava is cute in that the streets are narrow and seemingly very old, the architecture is interesting, and most of all, quiet.  I was surprised to arrive in a city that purportedly has a "gypsy problem" to only see one crazy homeless-looking guy at the train station.  My interest in gypsies is quite extensive, but I'll write about that another time.

We also saw St. Martin's Cathedral, which was nowhere near as impressive as those in Vienna.  I'm so spoiled by living here.

What I was most excited for in Bratislava was to try Halušky (Ha-loosh-key).  It's a traditional Slovakian Dish, similar to Gnocci (Wikipedia calls them potato dough lumps, mmm), with a soft sheep's cheese.  My friend thought I would hate it and I was out of my mind to want to try it.  But I liked it!  It tasted like cream cheese that had been left out on the counter a little too long, but warm like the sun had been beating down on it.  I could've probably eaten quite a bit, but I don't think my stomach would've liked it.  It also has bacon cubes to top it off.  What could be better?

Another typical Slovakian tradition, I'm told, is to drink tea with rum at lunch, or a shot of very strong liquor.  I don't necessarily believe that, as the waiter seem perplexed by our order, and I think we ended up having Jasmine tea with rum.  Mmm.  Not.

Written February 3rd:  Well...that's what I've got for Bratislava.  Not a bad place to go and get out of Vienna for a day, especially since the shops are 1. cheaper and 2. open on Sundays.  I'd like to see the city in the spring because it would certainly be more beautiful and fun to explore.

Happy New Year! 2013 in Review and a look ahead at 2014...

Happy New Year everyone!  Bonne Annee!  Froehliches Silvester! et cetera!

Clearly, the first thing I intend to do in 2014 is update my blog more often.  Good thing I have lots of content to write about!  I'm back in Vienna for those who knew I was away, and for those who didn't, a two week vacation in France for Christmas and New Year's with the love of my life was just what I needed.  I woke in Paris this morning at 5:45 and went by plane, train and automobile to be in my room in Vienna by 1pm.  Woo!

So, seeing as I love lists, you know what's about to happen
2013 IN REVIEW!!  YAY!


In 2013 I...

• Graduated James Madison University with a BA in International Affairs and Political Science with a minor in economics
• Studied Arabic, French, and German
• Celebrated my one year anniversary with Loic at the place where we had our first real date (ok that was in December but shh)
• Saw a ton of movies
• Traveled a little in Europe...Paris, Vienna, Munich, Budapest, Salzburg, French Alps, Bretagne (also France)

This is how the year went..

January - April:  USA

May and June: Munich

July: Paris

August: USA

September - December: Vienna

If you're keeping track, I spent five months in the US, approximately two months in Paris, six weeks in Munich (don't remind me...) and almost four months in Vienna.  I spent all major holidays in Europe.

This year will shape up to be quite similar I think.  Major news for those who skip the rest of this post:  I am extending my Vienna contract until late June.  Originally I was supposed to stay until March 1st, but it just makes more sense to stay.  

My personal goals for this year:

• Improve my French, German, and Arabic (I really hope the last one will work out- I miss Arabic so much and wasn't half bad at it)
• Continue my education...a European master's program seems to be in my future...more later
• Travel more
• Save more (yes, I realize this and the last point are conflicting)
• Cook more
• Spend more time outside
• Read more.  This one is super easy since Loic bought me a Kindle for Christmas!
• Meet more people and communicate better with old friends
• BLOG MORE, DAMMIT

Big decisions are in the future regarding me, Loic, education, and where I'll be living.  I don't know what will happen in 6ish months, but I'll try to keep my blog updated better.

Liebe Gruessen!

Bekka (or as the kids now call me...Becky)

When people ask me where I live...

I'm going to show them this map.  Or make my hands into a diamond shape and tell them there's a cut out part.  I think I can be forgiven for saying "I'm from DC" when you look at such a map.

Personal Finance Friday

Hey everyone, happy Friday!

Recently I entered the new world of student loan debt, a place that I, nor anyone in their right mind, actually wants to be.  I borrowed 18k from the government, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  I chose an in-state school and got in and out within four years, nothing too expensive.  Around the internet this week I've seen some ridiculous things.  First I saw an image on reddit that shows the ridiculous debt of the person the poster was marrying.  Almost 100k with some loans over 10% interest?  UGH, HOW AWFUL.  I'm sorry for showing you this.

THEN I found out that a person can be even MORE in debt.  Consider a four year private college and then four years of 70k per year medical school.  Jesus Christ.  Can you imagine such a thing?  Again, I am SO LUCKY that I got in and out of James Madison before they doubled the interest rates on student loans.  I just barely made it out alive.


So how am I handling my new "debt crisis?"  Well, I paid my first bill off okay.  I'm not earning much every month here being an Au Pair in Austria, but I don't spend much either.  I intend on paying off my loans as smartly as possible, "snowballing" (as the pros say) is my main goal.  That means paying off the smallest loans with the biggest interest rates as fast as possible.  I've got my eye on one of those loans right now, and it's going down in less than two years if I have anything to say about it.

In addition, I'm using this website called Tuition.io, reviewed here by one of my favorite websites, Lifehacker.  It doesn't really DO much, but it provides clear visuals to explain the reduction of my debt.  I had another option ready, Student Loan Hero, but that dumb thing costs $5 per month.  Who the hell do they think their market IS?  We're poor!

Not my loan

I hope you like it, if you're into that kind of thing.  I'm also looking at some other miscellaneous websites about personal finance...Here's a bunch 'o' links!

• Credit Card Churning - People apply for a ton of credit cards and use all their perks and then cancel them right before the annual fee kicks in.  I don't recommend this for the lighthearted, I don't even think I could do it myself unless I had real grown-up money.
• Wall Street Survivor - This is a game to help you learn how to invest and learn about finance... I really want to play it, but I think I'd need a free weekend to spare.  Seems cool, regardless.
• Mr. Money Mustache - Ok I know nothing about this website, I just saw it linked on the personal finance subreddit and bookmarked it immediately.  Apparently it has sound advice and good podcasts.  We'll see!
• The Motley Fool - I had weird deja vu when I followed the link to this site for the first time.  Oh right, the headquarters are located in my hometown!  How cool!  This is another learning website that has a good podcast...rest assured I'll be looking into this one as well. 

That's all I've got for you today, FINANCE LOVERS.  I hope this has has been educational or mildly entertaining!  

Cultural Observations: Vienna

I've been living in Vienna for seven weeks.  I feel like this is a good time to point out some of my observations of the lovely Viennese culture.

1.  Ketchup ain't free
I don't know why this is so strange to me.  Every time I go to McDonald's (which has been like, twice, don't judge me), I forget that important fact when I get my meal.  This means pulling out my wallet again and looking like a dummy while holding up the line.  Aggravating stuff.

2.  Bewegung
Bewegung is German for "movement," and it's something the family I live with likes to do after a big meal.  I don't understand this one either.  We've just eaten a gigantic meal, the last thing I want to do is go outside and hike around in the fresh air.  However, I am coming around to the idea of this one.

3.  Jack Wolfskin = North Face
Jack Wolfskin is the Austrian equivalent of the American North Face jacket brand.  You see them EVERYWHERE.  Just about ever traveller on the metro has one and they come in just about every color.  It's pretty interesting.

4.  "Wurscht"
Wurst, the proper pronunciation of the word above, as you may know means "sausage."  However, the Viennese dialect has integrated this word into their daily conversation to mean "I don't care/It doesn't matter to me."  Do you want to have chicken or steak for dinner?  It's sausage to me.  I love using this phrase but it certainly took a few weeks to remember how to say it properly.

5.  Vienna is clean
So clean that I have to italicize the word.  Loic visited from Paris, a well known "dirty" city and was astounded by the cleanliness of the streets.  Seriously, in the metro and on the ground, there is no trash.  It's amazing.  Also, it doesn't smell like pee everywhere like some cities *coughparis*.

More observations will come as I notice them,
bis dann!

Around the Internet

If you know me in person, you know I like to read a LOT of articles online.  I am a news junkie.  I use feedly (after Google Reader bit the dust), an RSS service that collects the recent posts of all my favorite blogs into one page for convenient reading.  I follow over 100 blogs and news sources, anything from world politics reports to recipes, and if I don't get through ~500 blurbs a day, it starts to add up.  I was away for the weekend and my current to-read (well, to look at and decide if I want to read the whole article) is over 2.500.  Yeah.  And I hate marking something as read if I haven't read it... There could be something interesting in there that I could miss!

But I digress.  I'm introducing a (hopefully weekly) list of articles that tickle my fancy and I want to share with someone.  Let's just do this.  If you're really interested in what I read, look at my media fingerprint.  This comes from an extension I have added to Google Chrome, it analyses the articles I read and then sends me biweekly suggestions of articles they think I'll like.  I've only had one email from them, but I think it is awesome so far.  The graph in the following link is especially cool.  Yay, data!

An interesting profile of the beloved brand Sriracha- Quartz.  They don't spend any money on advertising, so how is this sauce so damn famous?!

This video absolutely killed me.  "I am worried about my grade" embodies the laziest students in college who come in to office hours on literally the last day to try to fix their failing grade.  Ridiculous.

Why Young Americans Should Work Overseas- I keep reading articles like this and I'm often impressed by the facts laid out; the reasons are truly compelling.  Honestly, this article exaggerates the dearth of opportunities in the US- it makes it seem like there are literally zero jobs out there for those with degrees in humanities, not true.

Ok, that's all I have right now.  Enjoy!

Lange Nacht der Museen and LOIC'S VISIT

As my friends and family know, I am in a long distance relationship with an amazing guy named Loic.  He lives in Paris, working as a programmer for a game company.  For all those wondering, we met online.  I am not ashamed of this at all, because he's the best person I've ever met and continues to surprise me.  I'm lucky to have met him.

We first started talking in late November of 2012 and have been dating since December.  We first met in person in May of this year, shortly after I graduated and right before the beginning of the Munich catastrophe.  If you followed the Munich story, you know that I stayed with him for a month in Paris while I tried to figure out my visa situation. Unfortunately I had to return home to the US in August, and worked here for a month before we got to see each other.  Finally, after two months, we were reunited for a long weekend in Vienna.

Something only my close friends know about me:  I'm a planner.  I like to imagine things in the future and organize events as best as I can so I can effectively daydream about them.  Lists are one of my favorite things.  The Lange Nacht der Museen is literally translated:  The Long Night of Museums, and occurs all across Austria annually.  This year coincided with Loic's visit, October 5th.  129 Museums were open from 6pm-1am Saturday night, and that's only Vienna.  I paid about 11 euros for the opportunity to go to almost every exhibit in Vienna for seven hours.  Luckily, to maximize efficiency, I made a list.

We attended:

• Albertina:  To see Gottfried Helnwein's hyper-realistic portraits.  This stuff is fucking amazing.  Larger than Loic's Parsian apartment sized paintings- with every little hair individually painted in oil and acrylic on canvas.  See below for one of my favorites.  The picture here doesn't do it justice- you must see it in person.

(Just to give you an idea of the scale/realism of the damn thing)

• Staatsbibliothek Oesterreich:  The State Library of Austria.  Heralded as one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, these few rooms are truly breathtaking.  I took some pictures on my phone the previous time I was there, but again... you have to be there

• Heeresgeschichtliches Museum:  Military History Museum.  A ton of people forget that Austria-Hungary was one of the strongest empires in world history for over 600 years.  More to the point, the assassination of one of the royal family members was the spark that ignited the first world war.  Really mindblowing if you remember this.  We looked at Franz Ferdinand's car and tasted a popular Austrian dish called Kaiserschmarrn:  basically shredded pancakes with stewed plums.

Honestly I wish we could have done more last night.  We finished up around 11:30 and I just could not go on.  We had to make a few pit stops here and there, for water, wurst, and espresso to keep us awake.  You know, the important stuff.  I would certainly love to experience this night again, it's super cheap for an unimaginable list of world class museums, some with fun extras like the Kaiserschmarrn.  We really should've hit up the schnapps, chocolate, or coffee museums, each of which provided free samples.  Oh well.  Next time.

Brice and Salzburg

I know.  I'm a terrible blogger.  I'll keep it up for a few weeks then completely lose interest under the guise of being "too busy."  Lots of things have happened in the past month, and here's a rundown.

Most importantly...I HAVE A NEPHEW.  My sister had Brice Aiden Stalvey on September 21st, 2013.  I know he's family and everything, but this kid is adorable.  Not all weird looking like I was when I was born.

Everything seems to be going well over there in the states, mother and baby are both home and my nephew is already a week old.  It's crazy how time flies like that.   I don't really have much else to say about it at this point because the news I'm getting from home is pretty sparse, but I'm taking that as a good sign.



While all this was going on, I was in Salzburg for the day (after traveling to Linz with the family) with a dying phone that had no minutes and no internet connection.  Yeah.  Smart of me.  Honestly though, there was nothing I could do about it.  In any case, Salzburg was lovely and I met with an old friend of mine, Matej, from my exchange trip in 2009.  We had a nice breakfast together in the city and discussed all that had changed in the past four years.  When he left, I had the opportunity to explore the city and accomplish pretty much any sightseeing I wanted.  Did you know the inner city of  Salzburg is small enough to cover on foot within a day?  me neither.   I remember it being much bigger.
I'm glad I live in Vienna.  But that's an entirely different post altogether

Matej and I

View from Mirabell Gardens

Anyway, that's all I've got for right now- obviously I've got much more to write about, but it will come in the following weeks.

How I feel about living in Austria, told in a single comic.

Credit goes to Itchy Feet! basically the comic that defines my life.

Vienna Bound!

Hey everyone, it has been awhile, but I felt like I should update you all while I kill some time waiting for my flight!
That's right- I'm in the air again...for what seems like forever.

I'm at Ronald Reagan National Airport right now sitting in the American Airline's Admiral's Club.  Did you know you can buy a daylong pass for $50?  SO worth it for me once you see my schedule for the next day.  This means as many free (alcoholic drinks) as I want, snacks, WiFi, and I think I even saw a cheese plate go by a second ago!  WOOO.

So here's the plan.
DC to New York
New York to London
~7 hour layover~
London to Vienna

Then finally, once I'm in Vienna, I will meet with my new family and start my au pair adventure!  I have a lot of nervous feelings right now, but hopefully they will subside soon.

Bis dann!
Bekka

Munich Part 4: The Incident, Second Half

Gotta write these quick!

One Tuesday I came home from my German class (sidenote: I adored my German class.  I'm pretty sure it's the only thing that kept me sane while I was in Munich) to five children instead of three.  Okay... that's cool... I can handle a playdate as long as the mother was around too.  Until she wasn't.  As I caught her running out the door with the twins to a birthday party, I was told to watch the three six-year olds closely, not to leave them alone.  I didn't even know their names, if they had eaten, or if they would be picked up while I was there alone, and by whom.  I asked feebly when she would be returning; she just got in the car and drove away.

The rainy afternoon started innocently enough: they didn't want to play with me, but I had to keep an eye on them, so they spent a lot of time hiding around the house together while I pretended not to see them.  This eventually evolved into a game of hide and seek with me involved (yay! inclusion!) and we eventually settled down into the living room.

I tried to organize them into playing games, the visiting children (also twins, boy and girl) were very sweet and obedient and tried everything I offered.  We colored, played board games, and made paper airplanes and origami.  My own ward was disinterested in anything we were doing, and wanted to go outside to play.  He had been a brat all day to me, and I told him that since it was raining, we would be staying indoors that afternoon.  He ignored me, got his rainboots on, and went straight outside.  It's hard to wrangle three six-year olds into one room, even harder to deal with one who was being disobedient in front of his friends.  I told the other two not to follow his lead, and that I would be calling his father for his actions.  They watched me solemnly and warned their friend to be good, that the au pair had the phone in hand.  He ignored them.

I called the father, a reasonable man that everyone else in the family feared (this was another interesting dynamic that I had observed and said a lot about them, but that is another story).  I apologized profusely, I didn't want him to ever think I couldn't control a six year old.  He told me to put the kid on the phone, I held it up to his ear and the child said nothing.  I took the phone back, apologizing again.  I felt like a pile of poop.  I couldn't do anything right, his children had no respect for me.  I went back inside, he followed.  That was the end of that.

A snack and a couple hours later, the only real resident of the house was still being a jerk.  To me, to his friends, I don't know what was wrong, but I tried to stay positive and kept wondering when the mother would come home.  Then it happened.  The event I have been leading up to this throughout this whole story.

I was looking at a book and I look up to see this six year old waving a drawn three inch pocket knife in my face.  This was a knife I had confiscated earlier from his bed while I made it, I had decided it was too dangerous for him, and I gave it to his mother.  How he got it back I don't know.  I can only assume she returned it to him.  I was sitting and this thing was at eye level, less than two feet from my face.  He was thrusting it at me just beyond reach, but enough to scare the absolute shit out of me.  I put my hand up slowly to defend myself, and he continued.  I told him to stop, that what he was doing was dangerous, and to give me the knife.  I was terrified.  I had seen this kid do six year old things- ride a bike clumsily, fall down, and have undeveloped hand-eye coordination.  Not to mention him intentionally injuring me before.  I don't know how I got up and got the knife from him, but it involved a quiet calmness instilled by my fear.  I took it away and walked out of the room.

I told him I was calling his mother.  He threatened to do it first.  He took the phone while I looked for the only phone number I had- the father's number.
He mimed calling his mother.
"Mom?  Bekka hit me."

I was done there.