The Daily Stuff

           

Jakie: "Heloooo there, my adoring fans..."
Irene: "I'm coming for YOU."
Rosie: "Heh heh, we're normal! We're happy!"
Claire: "Please let this be a normal field-trip..."

     We arrived back in Trumau about a week ago, and since then have been finishing up (or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say beginning) the last minute school preparations. Today Rosie and I finally had some meetings over at the Schloss with various school officials, and now we have a slightly better idea of what we'll be doing this year academic-wise. It has been rather odd to be aware all this time, in the back of our minds, that we were going to be starting school here soon, while knowing next to nothing about it! As of today, however, Claire, Rachel, Jacinta and Irene have their schools squared away and ready to go, and Rosie and I have our stack of books, and all that's left to do (in my case anyway) is to actually get accepted to the school as a student so that I won't get kicked out of the country! So I've spent today writing an essay on a segment of Saint Athanasius' "On the Incarnation," and resisting the temptation to just copy and paste his work since he says it better than I do anyway. As Dad put it while we walked back from our successful, clarifying meetings and with arms full of our long-awaited books, "Well, there've been many confusions and random details and challenges, and probably more to come, but from "about to start packing up all our stuff to fly to Europe," I think we've come a long way!" Then he said, "Oh, Rosie, I'm about to go sign some papers saying that you have in fact graduated high school. You've graduated high school. Congratulations."
Rosie, mildly surprised: "Oh. Thank you."
Rosie says that this is what we call an "informal graduation ceremony."

Congratulations Rosie!

     A few days ago Rosie's new guitar arrived in the mail, and now I think it's staying in tune a little better than when it first arrived and she plays it as beautifully as ever. Irene's violin arrived today, and it looks grand although the bridge is bent and the strings aren't tuned (and look surprisingly difficult to tune...).

Can't wait to start playing
with you again, Irene!

Our expedition begins!

      Day before yesterday all of us girls (except Rosie, who stayed at home to draw the most adorable picture of Gianna) went on the search for ice-cream. We walked an hour along a train track to get to Traiskirchen, the town close by that has most of the grocery stores that we go to and, of course, ice-cream shops. We were originally going to walk along the road, but there is no place for pedestrians and it was stressful with so many cars. So we thought it would be LESS stressful to walk along a currently used train track for an hour! So we did. And it's true, it was lots of fun. We were very careful and alert of course, and right near the end we heard some whistling of a sort, saw some cars stopping ahead and decided to jump off the track down the slope a bit. A one car tram thingie whizzed by and I think we were all a little proud of our "narrow" escape.              

Eis officially GOT.

You know can't leave me now. 

Just before lift-off.

     Irene and I went for a walk yesterday to find a playground that Mom and I had discovered a few weeks ago, and we had fun playing on a neat zip-line. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it meant that I missed the first school meeting I was supposed to go to, for new students, but I've been discovering that playgrounds are important. And that European playgrounds are really fun. I did intend to get back in time, but Irene is very sneaky and used the old, "NO, don't go! You're already gonna be late anyway.... We'll never come back if we leave now..." As you can see, WHO could resist such persuasive arguments? Anyway, it didn't end up mattering much, and we timed it just right so that I got back in time to realize that it would simply be too awkward to walk in in the middle, so we went right back to the playground and the river near it and splashed around to our hearts' content.

Yay we're almost legal!

Except us two.  I don't think
we'll ever be legal.

     We had a successful trip to Baden to apply for Visas for everybody (except Rosie and I are too old to just be here as part of the family and have to be officially accepted as students so we can reapply as such, hence the rushed ITI application process), and we got to have a nice Kebap lunch in the warm rain afterward.
     All in all, all's going all well! However, there has been some sickness going around, and Mom's foot is pretty painful for her. She's trying not to walk on it, but she hasn't had much of a chance to rest it because of Mom-duties and the need for her German speaking capabilities in registering the girls. So prayers are appreciated!