Holiday

I'm officially unemployed now. Yesterday I packed up my computer and left work around 1:00, knowing I could never go back into that building. It was kind of sad. On Tuesday, it felt like the last day of high school. Everybody was walking around hugging their friends goodbye and collecting email addresses. Of the finance divisions I know, the take rate on the buyout offer was somewhere near 50%. It was weird. Anyway, as I drove away, the song on my radio was a Greenday song- the first line I heard was, "This is the dawning of the rest of our lives, on holiday". I thought it was fitting.
So, what next? I've been talking to recruiters, and they've sent my resume out to a few companies. They say more companies will be hiring after the holidays, so, while I'll still be sending out resumes and looking for a job, I'll try not to stress about it too much until January. In the meantime I'll build an amazing gingerbread house, take up knitting again, catch up on this season of The Office, and try my hand at pastry making or candy making or something. If any of you hear of any finance openings, send them my way.

Even more Vienna!

1. Weihnachts Markt- All the big cities in Germany and Austria (and maybe Switzerland) have Weihnachts Markts (Christmas Markets). I hear about them at least three or four times a week. Apparently, they're a huge deal. The main center of town is filled with booths that look like the stables you'd see in a nativity set, where vendors sell Christmas ornaments, waffles, fried potatoes, spiced nuts, all sorts of cakes and pastries, and gluwein (a hot mulled wine)- oh, and also lots of beer. I'll be going home about a week before the Stuttgart WeihnachtsMarkt starts, and I was kind of upset to be missing out on it. My coworkers rave- they say Stuttgart's is one of the best around. Anyway, it turns out that Vienna's started the day I got there! I was so happy to catch it. It reminded me a lot of the Christmas town that happened in downtown Ogden every year. It was right in front of the city hall, and all the trees were decorated with huge ornaments, and there was a brass band playing waltzes and Christmas songs, and everybody was happy. It was a lot of fun.

2. Volksgarten- one of the first public parks in Stuttgart. It was filled with rose bushes. I can just imagine it would be amazing in the spring and summer.

3. My hotel room. The description of this hotel in the Rick Steve's guidebook says, "Its rooms are spacious". I went off that promise when I booked my room. For this picture, I stood as far from the bed as I could, crammed into the opposite corner. What do you say- spacious or what?

4. One of the three meetinghouses in Vienna. This was the closest to the city center, which made it good for catching my flight after church. I had just enough time to go to the three meetings, get to the train station, and go to the airport. Sacrament meeting was a primary program- it was fun hearing the primary songs in German (coincidentally, that was my second primary program in 7 weeks. More than I've seen in about 10 years). After sacrament meeting I asked the missionaries where Sunday School was, and it turns out sacrament meeting was the last hour of the block. I had missed everything else. And they told me there was an English branch meeting later that day in the same building. Bummer. Anyway, I got to the train station way early, which was good, because there was some kind of technical problem and the trains were all delayed. Of course, I didn't know this. I just stood on the platform for a long time wondering what the announcer was saying and why the train wasn't coming. Finally I asked a lady who looked like she was going to the airport also. She explained it to me and told me there might be a bus going to the airport. So I went outside and found a bus absolutely crammed with people. There was no breathing room. And it was a half hour ride (roughly) to the airport. Anyway, I finally got to the airport, only to find that my flight was delayed 2 hours. It was a nightmare of a travel day. But that's okay. Vienna was great!

And this time I did the food right. I got all the foods I wanted to try. Goulash soup, apple strudel, wienerschnitzel, sachertorte, and pumpkin cake. Good stuff!

Vienna 3

1. View of the city from Stephensdom Tower.

2. Street performers in Stephensplatz. This is these guys' full time job. Every hour they do one or two shows that last about 15 minutes. They do flips and spin on their heads and balance in all sorts of positions, and tell jokes all the while. They were fun to watch.

3. Stephensdom Cathedral

4. Stephensdom roof- this church is one of the few buildings that didn't get bombed during WWII. But at the end of the war, the roof caught fire. Within just a few years, it was completely rebuilt, with a tile mosaic roof. It's really pretty.

5. Inside Stephensdom

Vienna Part 2

These are all pictures of Schloss Schonbrunn, the summer house of the Hapsburgs, about 4 miles from the city center.

"If you start to take Vienna, take Vienna"- Napoleon

Here are a few pictures of Vienna. I'll try not to be too wordy this time, but seriously, this is me, so no promises! And blogger is being funny, so I hope I label these in the right order:

1. Vienna Parliament Building

2. The Manner Schnitten Store- full of all things Manner. I didn't buy anything, though. I still had a lot of walking to do that day and didn't want to load my backpack up with too much chocolate. I planned on going back later, but the I didn't. But I had no idea they made so much besides the original Manner Schnitten Bar.

3. Hundertwasser Haus- An apartment building designed to fight the ordinary. Even the road in front of the building was curvy and bumpy.

4. This street sign reminded me of a lot a family gatherings, campouts, etc.

5. The building where Beethoven lived and composed.

I'm Thankful For...

Since it's November, it's time for a thankful list (and these are not in any particular order):

I'm thankful...

for chocolate powder in the cereal bar at the hotel breakfast.

for a really great forest with good walking trails just a few minutes from my hotel.

for good friends.

that I have nothing bigger to worry about than choosing between a fat wad of cash and new car or keeping a good job.

for good tennis shoes.

for yogurt.

for family.

for warm weather.

for Relief Society.

for Skype.

that I wasn't in Michigan last weekend.

for good music.

for quiet Sunday afternoons.

for public transportation.

for Lake Michigan.

and much more...

Be warned- this is not an exciting post!

I wasn't going to post today, because I don't have a lot to say, but then I put in my Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young CD, and it just makes me feel all sentimental. So now I feel like writing something. A few weeks ago my RS president told me that one of the old dukes had seen Redwood trees in California (or maybe he just heard about them, because it was a couple hundred years ago, and I don't know if people travelled to California back then) and liked them so much that he had some imported to Stuttgart and planted in a little forest area near one of his palaces. This afternoon I decided to go find his redwoods. I didn't find them, but I did find a great place for trail walking. There was even more oxygen than cigarette smoke in the air, which is something of a rarity in Europe, so I might become a regular in this forest.
Now, for some random interesting things about Germany:
1. Unlike in America, where lunchtime consists of sneaking away from your desk just long enough to fill your water bottle, and then eating a peanut butter sandwich while working on spreadsheets, lunch is big deal in Germany. The whole office (there are about thirty of us) goes together. All the guys put on their suit coats (the only time of the day they wear them), and we sit together at a few tables in the cafeteria and talk about anything other than work.
2. People love to be outside. Even now, when it's fairly cold outside, everybody eats outside at all the cafes. The cafes keep lap blankets on all their seats so people can eat out. There's a little neighborhood park down the street from my hotel. On one end is a bocci ball court (lawn bowling). I've never seen it not in use. There are always four or five guys playing (sometimes old, sometimes young), and the wives sit on the side and talk. Across from this game, there's always somebody playing with their dog, and on the other end there are always several people with walkers and wheelchairs gathered for a chat.
3. (This one may be offensive to some of you, I don't know) Public defacation doesn't seem to be a problem. One day I was out walking on a dirt road. There were lots of people out walking (see interesting point 2). I came to a cross-ways and looked up the other trail, and somebody was doing a number 2. They weren't off the trail at all. They were just standing off to the side doing what they had to do. The next day I was walking home from the train station. It was dark, but there were lots of people about. One guy was standing off to the side of the sidewalk, just staring across a park. I tried to figure out what he was staring at, so I stared too as I walked past, and then I realized he was doing a number 1. Just out in the open for anybody to see. Weird!
4. I found out the drinking age here is 16! My coworkers were shocked when I told them it's 21 in America. One of them said, "What about for beer?" I answered, "21". Then another asked, still shocked, "what about for wine and champagne?" They just couldn't believe we have to wait so long to drink any alcohol. I couldn't believe they don't see a problem with letting kids start drinking at the same time they start driving.
5. Fashion here is gross. All the women (okay, maybe not all, but certainly more than half) wear jeans tight enough to be painted on, with knee-high boots over them. For work, the jeans become twill or tweed or whatever to dress it up, but it's the same idea. They all look like they're going out for a horse riding lesson or something. At least I'm not tempted to shop.
6. It doesn't seem right not to mention cabbage while I'm talking about Germany. They put cabbage in their kebabs here! I'm used to kebabs with hummus and peppers and maybe carrots and pickles. But I had one today with two different kinds of cabbage! It must be the national food or something. Some people in my ward told me a few weeks ago that they had gone to the travelling cabbage festival. It goes from town to town and celebrates the cabbage harvest. I can appreciate that.
So, if any of you managed to stay awake through all that, I'm done now. Maybe next time I'll have something real to blog about.