Hello, Alia!! Well, your mom and Grandmama and I have just seen it. The...captions are so..........funny.....
Grandmama says to mention that we saw Minnehaha Falls before we took you back to A. College.
I hope to see you in Aug...IF possible.
GRE-AT BLOG!
Looks like fun! This was great, Alia, thanks. I will forward this to Laura so those cousins cn see what Andrea was up to while we stuffed ourselves at Andy's house. It's a weekend Andrea will remember.
Thanks for the great pictures & summary! Hi Alia,
Thanks for the great summary of Andrea and Grandma's visit--and the great pictures. Everyone is smiling. Looks like you guys had a great week--thanks for your and your mom's and John's hospitality. And congratulations on what I hear was a wonderful senior recital. Wish we could all have been there but I'm glad Andrea and Grandma could! Love Aunt Kathleen (and HI, Andrea!)
France That's interesting, because I have also heard that the waitresses/waiters in France are very unfriendly. That's cool that you found out otherwise.
Oh, and saying "por favor" on accident isn't RUDE, per se (in my opinion) - it shows that you were trying to use a language other than English, which is more of an effort than a lot of tourists will make.
Rude waitpeople? When we were getting ready to go to France, people told us to expect to be treated rudely because we were American. We did not find that to be the case. I don't remember any rude waiters or waitresses, although I was accidently rude to a waiter. We knew very little French, and when I was ordering I accidently added, "por favor." That, of course, is Spanish.
I looked up info on the Biohaus... http://www.waldseebiohaus.typepad.com/
Max might be interested in looking at this website. The architecture is quite interesting.
Unfortunately... waiters and waitresses who I've run across in Austria and Germany tend to be very unfriendly. It could have to do with the fact that I am American, and am maybe difficult to understand, or something. I've learned to realize that this sort of adds a charm to the restaurants, in a way :) It's easy to just laugh about it rather than take it personally.
I'm really excited to see Andrea and Grandmama. I told Andrea that I would help her start a travel blog if she wants. I have a digital camera, so you could read about her trip as she is here!
Gotta do the bean Now, Alia, you've put a bee in my bonnet, and I have to add "seeing the Bean" to my list of "must do's before I die." Shouldn't be hard to do with $40 RT tickets.
Snow days... Wow, your snow days are just continuing non-stop, it seems! That's such a good idea to cross-country ski across the green belt. I LOVE skiing; used to cross-country ski all the time.
So, when are the "kids" (I know, they are older than that!) supposed to start school again? I wonder how long it'll be postponed b/c of the snow.
Thanks again for the roses; they make our kitchen look ten times better.
Keep in touch - I'll look on google for some snow pictures of Colorado.
love, Alia
Welcome home and thanks Dear Alia, I'm glad to hear you're home safely. I know your family must be very glad to see you. Thank you for sharing your semester in Vienna with us. It's been great to see pictures of and read about so many of the places you've seen and things you've done.
If we had a blog going here in Fort Collins, it would be full of photos of SNOW these last two weeks. We've just dug out from not quite 3 feet that fell in two blizzards starting just before Christmas break. Max has been cross country skiing across the green belt and along the canal toward Greeley every day. We couldn't get out of the cul-de-sac for a couple of days after the first storm. Very wintery and festive!
Hope the rest of your winter break is fun and restful before you start up your spring semester.
Love,
Aunt Kathleen
Thank you :) Aww thanks Uncle John, that means a lot to know that people like you have been reading them.
By the way, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! on your graduation! Mom told me she had a lot of fun in Topeka. I'm hoping she took pictures. But it's 6:40 in the morning right now, so I'll ask her later ;)
Thank you Although I have not been commenting on your blogs, I have enjoyed seeing them. Thanks for putting me on your list. I'm glad that you got to have this experience.
What a great adventure Your time there will always remain a part of you. It will be something that you will always remember with joy. Because of this trip you will always be more cosmopolitan, accepting of others who are different than you are and able to attack new situations with great gusto. I am glad that I got to experience a small part of your experiences through your blog. Aunt Dianne
aww, I miss snow! Snow sounds beautiful right now! I love it. I am glad you got some.
Another thing that is lacking here, that Colorado has, is the Christmas lights on people's houses. I have not seen any of those; maybe later in the month. I am still not sure if that is a custom here or not!
Re who has snow, etc. Our 8 inches that Fort Collins got five days ago still hasn't melted! Cold but beautiful. (Streets got ploughed and are fine. I keep my bird feeder filled!) 25 degrees today, sunny. Right now (4:45 p.m. Sunday) sunset is starting, a few scattered puffy pink clouds. It'll be dark by 5:15, night zero to 10. No spectacular "Christmas market" here with all those amazing goodies, but now some homes have outdoor Christmas lights.
snow? Huh, where do you see snow??
I will have to look thru the pictures to see what you are mistaking as snow, because we unfortunately haven't gotten any for at least a month :( and even the stuff we had a month ago was barely anything at all.
Yay for Christmas markets! The markets are definitely like nothing I have ever experienced. I often see things like that in movies but not in real life! It is nice to be in a place where holidays still have some really traditional, cultural values that the community takes such pride in.
It seems here as though no matter what religion people are, just about everybody enjoys the markets, and the smells of the chestnuts, the lights on the streets, etc. It is a fun time of year to be in Vienna :)
Christmas Market -- fun! Thank you for sharing Vienna's Christmas market atmosphere (I can almost FEEL it!) and photos. A beautiful time to be there! The summer/spring Granddaddy worked there several times and I got to go join him the last time, my first day the Austrian engineer he worked with took him to meet my plane and gave me an afternoon tour of Vienna highlights. He made a point of showing me Schonbrunn Castle, said it was a highlight (May have told you.) Now it's fun to see your photo of it!!! And I loved the Opera House. Winter came this week, 8 inches of snow Tuesday overnight; still here, 0 to 20 degrees but sunny. Sunday Dec. 10 Uncle John will get his M.A. degree in Journalism at KU! Mom told me about your spring senior recital. I'll be there with bells on! You'll be enjoying Vienna's Christmas music! Love, G-mama
Great photos and description! It's even nice to see snow! We haven't had any in Mpls yet to speak of . . . though some other states are being pummeled this week, ha ha. I'm glad you can enjoy the market without feeling you have to buy stuff. Get in lots of Christmas spirit while you have a chance in Austria! Are there cool Christmassy choral events to attend in nearby churches, I wonder? ("Messiah" or something?) Keep up the good work being a human sponge, which is what you're supposed to do as a foreign student. LATER!
haha... No, don't worry - the cat was on our laps before the dinner. Although you know I'd have let him/her stay during the dinner... lol. I miss my kitties so much!
You're right, I see the resemblance to Lulu quite a bit!
Was that cat really sitting on people's laps at the table???? During Thanksgiving dinner??????? You know what I think about that! Well, anyway, it looks a lot like Lulu, bless her soul.
Andrea
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Hello, Alia!!
Well, your mom and Grandmama and I have just seen it. The...captions are so..........funny..... Grandmama says to mention that we saw Minnehaha Falls before we took you back to A. College. I hope to see you in Aug...IF possible. GRE-AT BLOG!