Uncle Patrick's Defensio

When Josie and I planned our trip out to Austria in May it was technically originally supposed to be for Patrick's PhD defensio, but that ended up being postponed until now...which is why I'm in Austria again. It's been a wonderful—and exhausting—week! Patrick had his first week at his new job and was busy preparing for his receptions (which we helped with) and Hadis had work and her studies as well, so Zoë and I were on our own for a few days to do touristy things, but it all worked out.

Friday was the big day!

Here's Patrick in his office, making some final changes to his presentation:

Mission completion: High five to Doha

One thing that Zoë really wanted to do in Vienna was to find the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award statue—the one that matches the one on the corniche in Doha. We knew it was on the grounds of the United Nations in Vienna, but we didn't really know what that meant.

I figured it would be somewhere public on the grounds of the UN, but I figured incorrectly...and thus we arrived at the UN woefully under prepared for a more formal visit. 

We had not purchased tickets in advance. We had not bring our passports with us. And we definitely had Uncle Patrick's keys with his Leatherman keychain (which made me worried about the airport level security we would ultimately need to go through). That felt like three big strikes against us.

Fortunately, I was able to buy tickets online for the next available tour, they would take my driver's license as ID (and Zoë wasn't required to provide ID because she's a child), and security didn't consider the puny pocketknife a threat. So, we made it inside and could see the hand across the courtyard:

Vienna, day 1: Some parts of the world experience autumn!

This little camel didn't make it into our post about the Abu Dhabi airport, but it's available to come home with anyone who wants it for the low, low price of $21000. 

Doha to Abu Dhabi

Zoë and I are in the Abu Dhabi airport, waiting for our connecting flight to Vienna! Compared to Doha, the Abu Dhabi airport seems both busy and little lackluster. No offense to Abu Dhabi, it's just that the Doha airport has a rainforest inside...so...that's kind of difficult to compete with. 

*****

We spent the morning homeschooling, dealing with a power outage, and then heading to our friends' house to do our art and history co-op lessons. We left the boys there for a sleepover. Zoë and Phoebe and I went to the library for Arabic storytime, and then Andrew popped over from campus to pick up Phoebe and take her home while Zoë and I hopped on the metro to go to the airport (Miriam stayed home and then went to the orthodontist). 

We arrived at the airport plenty early, so had a little bit of time to explore the airport. We saw the famous bear statue (which I actually think is a little bit creepy—there are better statues in the airport):

Conference and crystals

With General Conference this weekend, we weren't sure if we would be able to speak with Rachel since Saturday is her P-day, which, as Phoebe described it fairly accurately, is "the day that missionaries don't have to do any very much work and can just do things like laundry." It's also the day missionaries are allowed to write their correspondence and—in this day and age—call home. 

But she managed to arrange a time to call us between her breakfast and the beginning of conference, right around 5:00 for us. I had just taken the kids for a pre-conference stroll...

Sleep schedules

We've been in our apartment for two sleeps now—two sleeps that just happen to coincide with the weekend, which is always quite busy on Gewan Island, and has left us wondering when, precisely, anyone here sleeps. To be fair, while we can hear a distant hum of conversation coming from outside—where people are up and active until late in the evening!—on the first floor of our house, we cannot hear much at all from the second floor of our house (where the bedrooms are).

When I say "late in the evening," I mean that there are still families walking up (and running, depending on their age) up and down the Crystal Walk until 10...11...12...1 o'clock in the evening, which is pretty incredible considering school hours typically start at 7:00 am (I know this is the weekend, so we might see fewer children out on weekdays, but I don't know). 

Here's a picture from about 10:30 PM and you can see all the cafes are quite crowded:

Alexander, A Valiant Servant

We are busy getting settled in our new apartment, figuring out all the ins and outs of everything, unpacking, and so forth. 

The island itself has an electronic "access card" that we can use for island amenities, such as entering certain beaches, but also just for entering our block of apartments. Currently I think Andrew, Miriam, Benjamin, and I have that card.

There's also a separate app for our front door. We have a couple of actual keys (made of metal and everything) but we can open the door remotely as well. Andrew was getting that set up this morning before we left for church and he mentioned to the kids that "everyone down to Alex" should have access to the door from their phones/devices.

We didn't get everyone's devices set up with this app, however, because we had to leave for church.

Choir was pretty cool! We love meeting with the Tagalog Ward! 

Slow down! You're moving too fast...

Happy Last Day of September to all who celebrate!

In our family we apparently celebrate by...moving...because today was the day we moved out of the hotel (more or less) and into our apartment and today was the day that Rachel moved into the MTC (missionary training center).

What did you do to celebrate? (If you didn't move, it doesn't count.)

Andrew, Miriam, and I stayed up far too late packing up virtually everything in our hotel room and getting it ready to cart downstairs. Here's a shot Miriam took of our things in the hotel room:

Shifting and walking scientists

Shifting, as they call it here, is no joke! Moving across the city is certainly easier than trying to plan an international move...but there are still a lot of moving parts.

And I'm one of them!

I have maxed out my metro card three days running (each card is charged for a maximum of three rides per day—anything after that is free...and I have certainly been taking advantage of that this week). 

Yesterday Miriam and I carried big IKEA bags full of sheets and duvet inserts from the hotel to the apartment...while also dragging Phoebe along. It was...exhausting. 

And then today I packed up a big IKEA bag full of towels to take to the apartment (because we sure wished we'd have thought of bringing towels to the apartment yesterday). The towels were actually far lighter and much fluffier than the sheets and duvet inserts (which were packed rather tightly), so it felt much better to be carrying that through the metro. 

But then I also had on my backpack so I could do some work at the apartment (I have a proposal due tomorrow and a review due soon and homework due...all over the place). And the kids each had a backpack on. Only Phoebe didn't have a backpack—she carried her stuffed puppy Titus.

And still I wound up carrying her half the time. 

Moving In, Membership Station, and Personal Storytime

We got the keys to our apartment yesterday and to celebrate we went and got gelato. Both Benjamin and Alexander chose the black vanilla flavour (coloured with activated charcoal). It was rather horrifying to watch them eat it, but they said it tasted just fine (and, in fact, I think most of us sampled a little bit from their dishes).