Days 99-98

For anyone who's lived in a foreign country for any longer amount of time, lets say around a year or more... you know that it's not all butterflies and cupcakes all the time... Well, the cupcake part is kinda all the time for me. What I'm getting at is that life becomes “normal” at a certain point. You settle in, you have a routine, the excitement slowly fades. Now I have a routine and responsibility just like everyone else. Of course I haven't stopped exploring, learning or loving my surroundings like I did when I first arrived... I also have days when I struggle too, like when I had to learn a new language, adjust to a new lifestyle, make new friends and just feel the cramps of being an ausländer (foreigner). My hope with this blog is to show my friends and family some of the highlights of my life like skiing, day trips to go hiking or biking, and the delicious food... But I also want to show you the day-to-day stuff too. So if you were hoping for a super fabulous post about adventure, mystery and romance... check back in a few days. ;-)

The train must have been having a bad day too

The last 2 days have been pretty cold, windy and grey. We had a little taste of spring over the weekend but Monday morning was a rude reminder that it's still just the end of February. Today was even worse with rain and nasty grey clouds that seemed to say,“we're not going anywhere.” Needless to say, I've been feeling a lot like Alexander in the children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (I'm a teacher, don't judge... just read it). Alexander has one of those days that was unavoidably bad- gum stuck in his hair, tripped over his skateboard, didn't win a prize in his breakfast cereal box, teacher liked Albert Moyo's painting better, forgot the # 17 at counting time (who need's 17?), got pushed in the mud, shoe store didn't have his sneakers in the right color kind of day. Alexander decides he's going to move to Australia but in the end he learns that everyone has bad days... “even in Australia.”

I could probably write a children's book about the last 2 days that would put Alexander's to shame, because it's just been one of those, wake up late, run to the train only for it to be late, forget coffee at home, misspell basic words in front of classroom of students, burn tongue on tea, go to pay at Billa (supermarket) only to be 2 cents short, receive nasty glares kind of days. The thing I've come to realize is that even on the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days that I've had (yep... they exist even in Austria!) I can still look forward to the next day.

Now that we're all in a bad mood... I promise a more uplifting and adventuresome post for the weekend since I'll be spending it with the lovely Margaux in Copenhagen. Let's see what trouble we can find there ;-)