Babcia i Dziadek

Above Kitzbuhel



Picnic at Ellmi's

Maciek had a nice few days of bonding with Noah while I was in England, dragging him up and down mountains to hidden waterfalls and mountain bike riding with Noah in the kiddy seat over deadly terrain (not really Mum, keep breathing!).  For three days I don’t know what he ate but starvation was kept at bay by the arrival of Babcia and her Polish kitchen, and Dziadek.  These are Polish names for Nanna and Poppy, Nanny and Grandad, Oma and Opa etc!  Milly and I arrived back from England very late Thursday night and Dziadek had waited up, a nice surprise for Milly!  They’d brought with them a couple of little pressies for the kids, including a hand held fan, a ‘Cars’ one for Noah and a ‘Hello Kitty’ one for Milly.  Noah called it ‘wind’!  “I’ve got cars wind and Milly’s got Hello Kitty wind!!”

Hiking to the Chapel

Time for a rest

Babcia and Dziadek spent lots of time relaxing on the balcony, and even bought us an umbrella which they bodged to a post with a belt to block out the very bright, very hot morning sun.  We spent most days out and about visiting various places and riding gondolas and even got them out in the woods doing a bit of hiking.  They really enjoyed this as it brought them back to days strolling through the forest in Poland picking mushrooms, and they knew a lot about the flowers and leaves and what could and couldn’t be eaten and Babcia showed Milly how to make a flower crown.  One day we hiked to the Chapel in the woods, where we lit a candle and had a picnic, and to our surprise they were keen to keep going, up and up, to the Chapel in the cliff, a very tough, steep, and little bit scary climb!  We all had sticks to help us with the tricky bits (of which there were many) and me and Maciek were more than slightly worried about whether Babcia would make it or not!  I was even quite breathless and my legs were shaking so I can’t imagine how they felt but to our enormous surprise they did it!!  At the top Dziadek declared “That’s the first and the last time I am doing anything like that!” The way down was almost harder, a killer for the knees and quads!  But Babcia made it by singing tunes from The Sound of Music at the top of her lungs, which got a few smiles from fellow hikers passing by!

Tricky terrain!

We took the Gondola up to Ellmi’s and the Magical Wood again, tried to frighten Babcia by giving her no warning about the cackling witches but she wasn’t the least bit surprised!  Enjoyed a beer on our own thanks to our babysitters!  We took the gondola in Kitzbuhel for 360 spectacular views and a coffee with massive apple strudel swimming in vanilla sauce.  Dinner at the Grander Schupf (sorry no pics of Babcia coming down the slide to the loos!)  Maciek and I took advantage of our babysitter and went out to watch the sunset one evening, with a flask of tea and some cake!  And another morning went on a hike together to the waterfall, so nice without having to continuously encourage the little princess the whole time!!

Babcia and Dziadek left us a bit early to spend some time elsewhere before returning to Poland for the wedding.  I didn’t know what to do with myself after Babcia left, whipping up delicious meals out of odds and ends in the fridge!  And I was grateful that she used up the frozen chook that I hadn’t found time to cook!  I had to get used to using the dish washer again after Babcia insisted on washing everything by hand, but that wasn’t too hard!  Amelia and Noah loved having them around, another little bit of home to keep them going a few more weeks, but they wore poor Dziadek out!

First man to the top!  Never again!

It wasn’t a teary goodbye though, as it would only be a week till we would see them again in Poland!

Unfortunately we don’t have many photos, as most were taken with Dziadek’s camera which we intended to copy onto our computer, but when we realized he had over a thousand on there as he hadn’t emptied his card for over a year, we decided it was too hard!  Maybe Dziadek can email some and we can put some up later??

 

Trains, Planes, Automobiles, and Buses

St Editha's Church in Tamworth

I hadn’t realized that our trip to the UK coincided with the Olympics until a few weeks before we left.  I tried to get tickets to a gymnastics event (what else?) and re-arrange my travels to make it but it wasn’t to be.  At least I was in London while the Olympics were on, even if I was only passing through.




Milly in the Castle Grounds, I loved this growing up!

I decided to take Amelia with me to farewell our rellies before we go home and given my track record of panic attacks while driving in unfamiliar territory and in particular on exceptionally speedy motorways, I opted for the train!  We left home at 7am, Maciek drove us to the train station where we hopped on the train for the two hour journey to Munich.  Amelia had been so excited leading up to the trip and travelling on the trains so I was surprised when she complained she was bored, literally after 5 minutes!  Little did she know the hours of boredom ahead of her!  This time I made sure we got off at the correct station, and we boarded our plane with no problem (apart from Amelia being beeped at through security, poor thing, wonder if it was that 5 cent coin she swallowed last year?!)  Waiting for the plane to take off I noticed passengers leaving another Easyjet next to ours, and the last ones to alight were a huge family of Jewish people, dressed to the nine’s in their traditional black outfits with the top hats and the curly bits of hair hanging past their ears, all the little girls dressed identically.  They had loads of cabin luggage, proper little black suitcases round and rectangular, and they were rushing back and forth from the stairs to the shuttle bus to get every family member and every piece of luggage aboard!  It was like a scene from a movie!  I wonder where they were heading dressed up like that, and how comfortable would they have been on the flight?




Milly was entertained thanks to a Leapster leant by my friend Sam, but when we landed at Stansted there were huge queues at passport control, which had me worried because I hadn’t left much time to get the connecting train.  After 20 minutes of trying to explain to Milly what a passport was and why everyone needed one even babies, we made it to our train just in time.  Off in London, on the tube, off again, and back on to a long distance train, with one hiccup about our pre-paid tickets, we finally made it into Birmingham.  Last leg to Nanny P’s was a bus, we had an hour to wait, but met a nice couple at the bus stop and it was so lovely to be able to have a conversation with someone!  I loved being able to just walk up to porters on the platforms and ask for directions or help and not have any language barrier!  We arrived at Nanny P’s at 6pm, so a long day of travelling, lugging that suitcase from platform to platform and up and down carriages, all the while making sure Amelia was still with me and she hadn’t dropped her teddy!  But there was a lovely dinner waiting for us, a nice cup of English tea and lots of goodies!

Tea anyone?

Nanny P can’t walk far so we spent the next day tottering around the corner to the shops, and over the road to the pub for a carvery dinner, and had a visit from cousin Warren, Caron and Emily.  And I bought some Special Edition Mr Kiplings!  Yum!  Next morning we were off again to Tamworth, and Nanny saw us off in a taxi to the train station (hooray no bus!).  I felt very sad saying goodbye, knowing it might be a long time till I see her again, and Amelia must have known because she kept silent (very bizarre!!) all the way which was half an hour and let me have a little cry to myself!

Brooke and Caitlin getting fit!

Squirrels by the River Anker

This train was only a 15 minute journey and we were met at the other end by Uncle Stephen and Aunty Karen (or Uncle Septic and Aunty Seaweed as some of our closer family members know them, but we won’t go into that!!)  Amelia got her long awaited LaLaLoopsy doll as an early birthday present from Toys R Us (Wow! An actual TOY SHOP!), thanks to Steve and Karen, and we met up with cousins in the castle grounds and spent some time at the park until it started to rain (unusual for Britain at this time of year?) and visited Nanny and Grandad (Grandad Sharp, named by Amelia when she was nearly 2 due to his stubble, and so then Nanny became Nanny Smooth!) the same Nanny and Grandad who I called Nanny and Grandad Scamp when I was little (after their little dog!)  I bet they’ve forgotten what their real names are!  The next day we headed into town for a wander around the ‘old part’ and the castle.  It was a beautiful day, until it started raining (very strange?), and then it was off to the train station again, for the long trip down to the ‘seaside’ in Torquay.

Daisy and Milly

This time we had a long stretch before we had to change and Amelia was happy with her Leapster and colouring in and I actually got to READ A BOOK!  The journey from Exeter into Paignton was beautiful; the sea and the cliffs and seaside villages, the sun shining.  My cousin met us at the station but unfortunately her little girl Daisy had been ill, and was sitting in the car with a bucket under her chin, poor thing!  She was ill all night and most of the next day but woke on Monday bright and eager to play!  And that’s what Milly and Daisy did for the next 3 days from morning till night!  It was great for Amelia to be able to interact properly and they got along so well, apart from the few little squabbles, and reminded me and Lyndsey so much of ourselves when we were younger.  One tall and blonde and the other short and dark!  We organized a picnic in the park on the seafront as it was a warm sunny day but as soon as we arrived the sky turned grey and the rain began to fall (weird?) so we carried our massive picnic basket back to the car and visited Kents Cavern (caves) instead.  The tour guide was funny and I was in my element with stories of the stone age and fossils and bones!  I took the opportunity to enjoy a Devonshire Tea in the café, although I was told I was doing it the Cornish way, with the cream and jam the wrong way round!  Tuesday was pouring of rain (can’t get my head around that?) so a good day for shopping.  Didn’t know what to do with myself it’s been so long!  And Wednesday we finally got our picnic on the beach and even made it to the cinema to see The Lorax (recommend!)

Watching cartoons

Loved being surrounded by my own language again and being able to chat to random people here and there.  There was a point in the cinema where I was in the queue and trying to work out in my head how to ask for the price of a medium popcorn, and then I realized I didn’t have to, it was English!  Amelia had a brilliant time playing normally and being herself.  I had brilliant 8 or 9 hour sleeps in Aunty Val’s bed without Noah around to wake us up in the middle of a good dream!  And I even got to watch all the gymnastics events with English commentary thanks to Aunty Val and Uncle Len and their TiVo!

Thanks everyone for putting us up and putting up with us!  I hope it's not too long till we see you again.  And a special thanks to Uncle Len for pretending to be the Scooby Doo Monster chasing the girls up the stairs and causing ear piercing screams, from which I am still suffering partial deafness!

Another long journey back to Austria but we’d both missed Maciek and Noah and couldn’t wait for cuddles, and the other big surprise!  Babcia and Dziadek had arrived!

One for you Daryl, I think your Anchor looks a bit less dodgy!

Work's Out!!

Milly in the school garden

The week in the forest signaled the end of my time as kindergarten assistant and native speaker.  I did much more miming and grunting than native speaking, especially in the beginning anyway!  I got to know the kids in my own way and them me I suppose, as much as you can get to know someone without being able to communicate very well.  It had it’s ups and downs and many cases of the “what the’s??” but it was a fantastic experience with lots of laughs as well as frustrations, and giggles in the corridors with English Emma sharing our “what the??” stories!  Positive memories are of working with those kids who were super enthusiastic about learning English words; being able to share delicious organic freshly cooked meals everyday with the kids and marveling at how well they eat (not sure if it’s to do with the fact that they eat their main meal in the middle of the day compared to our kids getting used to eating vegemite sandwiches and fruit sticks for lunch, but 3 year olds eating plates of salad and vegetables and pretty much anything that was put in front of them, and it was all healthy stuff apart from the odd lasagna or pizza, was common);  making nature craft out of things found in the woods or the park; having Amelia and Noah there and being able to see them in the garden at playtime; the lovely songs we sang for each season, especially at Christmas and in winter, with the teacher playing guitar in the morning circle (even though I couldn’t understand them!); and the view from the classroom!  It didn’t feel like work to me.  It was stressful and difficult with the language sometimes and it was tiring doing so many hours but it just felt like something I did every day to fill in the morning.  And I still can’t believe I turned up in a foreign country, not being able to speak the language, and landed a job as nice as that, instead of having to do cleaning or something similar which is what I was expecting.  So for that I’m very grateful.

Maciek hard at work

Maciek finished two days after me.  His experience was different to mine, and a lot tougher.  Whereas I was surrounded by the same people every day enabling me to build on my language skills, with people who knew I couldn’t speak German and made allowances, Maciek worked in different places; hotels, hospitals, shops, peoples’ houses.  And being a tiler often worked alone or with one other, and encountered different people every day.  It was especially hard working in public places like the hospital with people walking by him all day stopping to ask questions or comment on his work.  The work was heavy and tough and the hours were long (and the pay was crap!)  But he gained a lot of respect for his colleagues for their highly skilled workmanship, and he has learnt lots from them which has given him a fresh outlook on his profession to take home with him.   As a thankyou and goodbye his boss arranged an outing for the team to the Hornpark, a high ropes climbing course through the trees, with dinner and drinks afterwards.  A really nice thing to do.  One of Macieks work mates told him “the boss must have really liked you as he’s never done that for anyone ever before!”  Quite a compliment then!  He started working 3 weeks after we arrived here, which is also unbelievable and something we are grateful for.  Without these jobs we would never have been able to stay here for as long as we have.

Ready for a climb (Maciek 4th from left)

Finishing work was a milestone on our countdown to returning home.  We knew once we’d finished work the following few weeks would fly by!  Still nearly a month behind on my posts but I’m slowly catching up now we’re on holidays.  I’m determined to be up to date by the time we head to Poland next week…..

Kindergarten Wald Woche

Bench full of car seats left to their own devices!

I didn’t have too much time to dwell on Noah’s last day at the krippe though as it was Wald Woche (Forest Week) for the Kindergarten group which included me, and true to Austrian form (as I’ve come to know it) everything was sorted at the last minute or left on a ‘play it by ear’ basis and we had 20 kids to fahrt to the forest at 8 o’clock in the morning every day for a whole week!  Parents chipped in with lifts and there was a lot of kinder seat swapping going on and shoving kids in wherever there was a spare seatbelt even if it was too big for them and it covered their faces!  (This type of thing would NEVER happen in the UK or Oz and English Emma and me were once again shaking our heads and laughing at the madness of it all!)  It’s very common here to see children sitting in the front seats, and even babies in their capsules, which apparently is ok as long as the air bag function is switched off.  Not something we’re used to seeing so a bit confronting.  Anyway by some miracle or another all children and teachers made it to the meeting spot in the forest, and after leaving a big pile of kids seats on a random bench in preparation for the fahrt back (really?  Is it ok to leave them there?  Kids car seats are expensive you know!), we proceeded into the forest for a picnic by a stream.  There didn’t seem to be any system or order and some kids sat and ate their picnic and others wandered off into the water with their clothes and shoes on and when I tried to find out what should be happening nobody seemed to know anything and if they did they didn’t tell me.  Something I’ve gotten used to but I soon became busy as I quickly found out that my job was the ‘Toilet in the Wild’ assistant for all three year olds needing numbers ones and twos, a first for me but nothing like being thrown in at the deep end! 

Flying Fox area

Milly testing her balance

We carried on trekking after the snack to the Flying Fox.  Some kids were playing on it, some were venturing around looking for blueberries, some were running around like cave men threatening each other with sticks (not talking twigs here, more like mini branches and some were a bit too pointy for my liking!) and then one of the teachers decided to count the children.  We’d only been there for an hour, seemed like a good time to do an initial head count!  I counted 23, someone else counted 24 and someone else counted 25.  Bit hard when they’re all running around like God knows what.  So how many are we meant to have?  No-one knew.  So we could have lost a couple of kids and no-one would have been wise to it.  Imagine the scenario when we returned to kindergarten for lunch.  Where’s Jonny?  Don’t know, did he even turn up this morning?  Did anyone fahrt Jonny to the forest? (Only it wouldn’t have been Jonny, it would have been Johannes, or Reinholdt).  After that one of the teachers actually wandered up to the area where the bunch of boys were playing Hunger Games, and discovered that there was a steep drop down into the river.  Don’t play there anymore then, even though you’ve been playing there for half hour anyway!  Perhaps the immediate environment should have been checked a bit earlier.  Mental note for next time.  Oh wait a minute, we don’t do mental notes! 

Building pebble towers with friend and Emma

(Sorry if it sounds a bit critical, it’s just that the difference between how things are dealt with here in contrast to home with regards to working with children is so vast that I’ve struggled to feel comfortable with a lot of things!  For example, the tree in the school garden that stands right next to a wooden fence, the kind of fence that has spikey wooden bits sticking up and no-one but me thinks it’s dangerous for the kids to climb it.  Taking the group out for an excursion to the playground or similar, walking through town and crossing big roads busy with trucks, without the parents knowing, never mind getting permission slips signed.  Taking the group to a parents house for a pool party, on the bus, again crossing busy roads. This was organized but half the kids couldn’t swim.  The ski instructor sharing one cup of orange punch between her whole group of coughing and sneezing kids.  The public footpath running right through a school’s playground.  No forms to fill out allowing an appointed person to collect a child from care.  A little girls aunty collected her one day, I had no clue who she was, never seen her before, neither had the other teachers, and the little girl looked a little confused, but no-one thought it was a big deal except me.  Not the end of the world, but wouldn’t be allowed at home from a teachers/child carers point of view.  Guess it’s just what you get used to.  But a lot of the time I found myself stressing about safety and cringing at things!  On the flip side life is much more simple.  A lot less paperwork.  A lot less thinking about do’s and don’t’s, you just do, and deal with the consequences if there are any (and then pass the buck! ;-))

Picking blueberries

That’s all beside the point.  The kids had a brilliant week running amok in the woods.  It was tiring but interesting and nice to be out of the classroom.  And at least I learned a thing or two about surviving in the wild, like carving a little man out of a piece of wood with my pocket knife; discovering there are thousands of blueberries in the woods so I’d never go hungry; and wiping children’s bottoms and working out how to cover up the evidence.  One time I covered it up with some massive leaves, surrounded it with big stones and laid two sticks across the top as a warning  ‘do not step here!!’  It looked more like a burial.  Which in a way I suppose it was.  Bear Grylls would have been proud.

Noah’s 3rd Birthday

Banana Cake number 1

Banana Cake number 2

All my presents

So far Noah has celebrated one birthday in Australia, one in France, and now one in Austria!  Wonder where his next one will be?!  It fell on Friday 13th July, but nothing bad happened!  It was very low key.  Not much in the way of toy shops here but we managed (or rather ‘the Birthday Bear’ managed) to get him a replica toy tractor the same as all the farmers use here, a toy rescue helicopter (doubles as a souvineer as it’s a proper Austrian one exactly like the ones we see flying around the mountains) and a puzzle.  I didn’t have time to make him a fancy cake and there’s nowhere to buy one so he ended up with a banana cake, tried to make it a little bit fancy by fashioning a number 3 on the top out of blueberries but it all went a bit squishy in the oven!  Nevermind, he still got to blow out his candles and it tasted nice!  During the day in the Kinderkrippe they had a little party for him and Amelia was allowed to join his group to celebrate his birthday.  I took in a cake (guess what?  Another banana cake – without the blueberries!) and some treats for the kids to eat.  And the teacher made him a crown which he wore for the rest of the day.  In the afternoon we invited a few friends over for cake and coffee, so he could have a play with some other little kiddlies on his birthday.

We can’t believe he is 3 already and he’s grown up so much in a year.  He is talking so much now although his pronunciation is a bit off and I do a fair bit of translating for people!  Two of the funniest words he says at the moment are “Parrot Shoot” (Parachute – we see them all the time with the paragliding) and “Fwy Fwop” (fly swat – there are so many bugs here and no flyscreens, so we have three fly swats in the house and Noah is becoming quite an expert!).  He also says “Glubs” (Gloves – which is funny as this is exactly what Amelia used to say!)  He is out of nappies most of the time, most credit goes to his teachers, but he refuses to call his new Toy Story underwear ‘pants or jocks’ but prefers to call them ‘Knickies’ like his sister!  He’s also been learning to ride a proper bike with peddles and thanks to the little run along one he had for his 2nd birthday he’s pretty good, just needs a bit more practice at starting and stopping, and avoiding parked cars and open garages!

Not long after his birthday came the wind down to the end of the school year, and my time as the kindergarten assistant.  Noah’s teachers, Anna and Ann-Katrin, in the krippe have been wonderful with him.  It really has been like a second home for him and he loves his little friends.  There are only about 6 of them on any given day and they are all very close.  Noah has had no trouble settling in with the language, due to his age I suppose and speaks German while he is there and understands everything said to him.  It’s funny because when I am in the garden with my group and Noah’s group are also outside he speaks to me in German which is a bit strange!  I suppose it’s what he associates with that environment.  During the last week Anna gave me a photo album she had made full of photos of Noah and his friends since he started in September.  She had hand decorated all the pages and also hand written notes and quotes to go with each photograph.  It was lovely, such a nice keepsake of our time here, and I said goodbye on the last day with a big lump in my throat and a few tears.

Counting at Kinderkrippe

Concentrating

Dressing up