First fun Saturday in Athens

This week-end, since the weather was once again sunny, we gave the "settling in" a break and went out a bit; on Saturday morning to Kifissia for coffee in a retro style bakery-come-café. I was thrilled to find this authentic place. Have a look!

At midday we went back home for lunch and William's nap (our midday break!) and then headed off to Attiko Parko, the zoo!

More on Sunday soon.

Happy William in the morning

    


Just before breakfast this morning - happy dancing and drawing William.

Kicked out of kindergarden

On Saturday the owner of Will's kindergarden sold it because she is leaving Greece. 

Yesterday as I was dozing on the sofa (still sick and feverish) she called to give me the news. 

The new school will not welcome the under 2,5 year olds and hence as of November 1st William will no longer have a kindergarden to go to unless we find him a spot somewhere else. 

I am furious shocked outraged but it does not help. The fact that we have a signed contract does not help. I am angry that William will have to make another change after having just adjusted to his new environment following our move from Vienna 3 weeks ago - this too does not help. 

Right now, a part from the strikes, the no sidewalks, the crazy unlawful driving and heaps of garbage everywhere this countries ways are pissing me off. But I guess I can count our blessings for we are all ok.

Today I will try to hunt down a free spot in another french speaking kindergarden. Fingers crossed please!!!

Emma's giant puzzle

The way you make me feel

William's face us exactly the way I feel at times... Only It's not acceptable for an adult to show it... Pity that, I could do that Waaaahhh !!! quite well I'm sure.

Today isn't going that great; 
Emma said she did not want to take the school bus and then asked when this holiday was going to be over. When I asked her what she meant she asked me "when are we going back to our other home in Wien?" ;-( 
There is an electricity outage today so I had to rush to get my car out if the garage bright and early (luckily the neighbor / landlord reminded me or I would have been stuck at home with Will all day!)
The electricity outage set the alarms beeping like mad.  
I left the garbage out front last night (not in a bin since we don't yet have one) and the cats tore it to bits meaning we were greeted by a carpet of garbage as we opened our front door this morning. Yuck!
The garbage men are apparently on strike. 
Another strike looming (truck drivers I think) as we have been told to fill up on petrol! The nearest shell station was packed and the queue was blocking road traffic this morning as I drove Will to Kindergarden.
As if having two kids in a foreign country wasn't stressful enough...

First week in Athens...

It's been an eventful first week.

On Monday, after a 30 minute sit-in in her kindergarten class and a 30 minute recess in the park, Emma decided she wanted to stay at kindergarten so we had to improvise a lunch box and leave her there. William's first morning at his was only a stop over of 10 minutes to apologize and reschedule. Yay! Emma! for being so brave and enthusiastic!

Emma holding her lunch box and Will - ready to head off to school

Then just as William and I were about to leave home to pick up Emma I managed to lock ourselves out on the second floor balcony!!! (the sliding door's handle flipped up and locked!). And of course no phone on me. Screaming at the top of my lungs I caught the attention of some workmen who called our neighbor who was just boarding a plane who called my husband who drove home like a mad man not knowing if William was with me or stuck alone inside. Phew! Then Steph picked up Emma and I had a drink.

Emma in her school (kindergarden) uniform and William with his lunch box

On Tuesday afternoon Emma told us she wanted to go to school with the school bus so for the first time on Wednesday she went to school and back in a yellow ISA school bus. So lovely and happy. Only thing is every morning she does not want to wear the "same again" (her uniform).

Her school Passport (contains notes from teachers to us since due to the school bus we don't see them everyday) says she has made friends and is very happy and participates in class. Indeed she has been singing new songs and has mentioned a little boy called Phillip...

In the meantime, Will has once again charmed all female presence at his kindergarden and has although he initially only had an hour, then breakfast and 2 hours play there, by Friday he had had lunch and a mid-day nap there too.

On Thursday we had a fuel leak in the house but luckily the smell alerted us in time and the workmen cleaned it all up and repaired it. Phew!

Technical problems such as no phone for me due to iPhone being blocked so we cannot use a different carrier than the one we had a contract with in Austria are proving quite difficult to resolve and I really do need a local number! Despite my best efforts to jailbreak the phone I had to give in and by a new phone in the end. Ugh.

The admin is absolutely mind boggling. Every day Emma brings back more paperwork with lots of forms to fill out and sign. I need to organize a health check and still decide whether or not we wish her to have tennis or swimming lessons although I would prefer something a bit less technical where she can just run and jump and use up some energy.

Once the children were more or less settled, the next priority was finding a cleaning lady (partially done now) and to finish unpacking boxes (also moving ahead...).

Ugh the dust (from the dirt road and the neighboring houses still being worked on) and the clean laundry are piling up. And whose brilliant idea was it to have a school uniform with a snow white top??!!

Over the week-end we discovered a couple of parks with lots of fun for kids.

Emma and Will driving together

Will held by Steph and Tata-yéyé on our was to have an ice-cream

How do we feel?
the kids seem to be doing great and the only things that seem to bother them are:
- that the house is on multiple levels and so a) we always seem far away if we are not right there b) it's a bit dangerous for distracted Emma and tiny Will as there are many stairs to fall down.
-the distances are greater than in Vienna and Mummy sometimes gets lost so we spent more time in the car (finding the park) than in the park.

As for us, well, since the kids are ok, we can now focus on the house and ourselves a bit. It's hard to believe we only left Vienna a week ago. It feels like forever. For us it's been a tough move - the first as a family of four - and despite being super organized and having head at hand there is only so much you can do with kids around. Still, all in all we are doing ok. We have Internet, heating, phone numbers and kids at kindergarden, a near by supermarket and a GPS on my mobile phone. We're sleeping and eating ok and most days it's sunny. Today I even had a neighbor and her kids over for a while and tomorrow I am going to a newcomers meeting organized by some francophone "oldies" .

First breakfast in our Athens home

Alive and (nearly) kicking in Athens

We made it! We are here, there are lots of boxes that still need unpacking but tonight we are spending our first night in Athens and in our new home - all four of us.

The movers were great and we had the precious help of G. (another one!) a Russian lady who cleans at our neighbors and who came over to help us. What a wonderful, quick, positive woman. And I got to practice my Russian!

As I write everyone is in bed and I am totally exhausted having unpacked and put away lots and lots but happy to be here.

Tomorrow we might go to the sea and take a break from "the move".

More news soon...

Nightie night!

Last post from Vienna (unless we come back?)

So this ia a quick update on the last post:

It's now nearly 10pm and the children are fast asleep. Their farewell parties went well, they both received t-shirts with their names on them and Emma also got a hand-made photo album with lots of children's quotes and drawings. Absolutely lovely.

Both the kids and I received a lot of love today. Lots of hugs and kisses, presents and kind words, happy wishes and compliments. I was able to say goodbye to everyone I intended to and we even managed a last ice-cream before coming back to the hotel!

I've been so busy trying to be positive for the kids and just so busy, I haven't yet felt too sad so far - only cried a bit once - I am still floating on all the love and functioning in efficiency mode so in a way, I can't quite fathom that we are about to leave all this behind... but I know that soon enough, in a week or two, maybe sooner, I will land and sadness and nostalgia will set in (along with frustration at a million new things not going smoothly).

All part of the (expat) life I guess. On the other hand, we would not have experienced lovely today if we were living here permanently. I wonder can one get addicted to this kind of life with arrivals and departures, intense reunions and good-byes and relatively short commitments? Oh but that's another subject... Nightie night!

Last everything in Vienna

Last coffees and lunches, last playdates, last Genusspfads at the market, last burgers at Orlando's, last Pilates class, last drop off at Kindergarden, last proseccos, last gathering of fond memories here...

Tonight is our last night in Vienna.
I'm now off to pic up the kids at Kindergarden here for the last time... (I hope their goodbye parties went well) then off to the park and perhaps a last ice-cream on Tuchlauben... Oh! So sad!!!

Our moving team

Jeeves please!

Emma had trouble getting her rain boots off yesterday and as soon as his own shoes were off, William jumped to help her. They thought their heartfelt grunts were hilarious as they took turns pulling on the boot. It was really a wonderful sight!

Sunday morning

Feeding the ducks

Aren't the park and pond gorgeous?!

the count-down has begun!

The countdown has started! This time next week the packers will be here! and this time in two weeks will be out last full day in Vienna and Emma will have her going away party at the kindergarden. Then on Saturday October 1st we fly off to Athens where Steph and our furniture will hopefully be waiting.

At times, I have a hard time really comprehending it all, and at others I just want to drink in all of Vienna while I still can.

It's hard thinking that my now home will no longer be my home in about 10 days. I know I go through a process of feeling slighty homeless and un-rooted before I can feel at home again in my new home.

Emma and I play a game where we list all that will be new and all that will be the same; new friends, news school, same Mummy, Daddy, William, Emma, new car, new house, same toys, same furniture... you get the picture. This is my attempt to prepare her for what is coming and so far she seems to be taking it well. In fact a couple of her kindergarden friends' Mums have told me that their son/daughter was very sad, crying, upset about Emma's departure and asked when they would see her again. Interestingly enough Emma has not yet had this reaction or question. I am not sure whether this is good or bad.

I asked her favorite kindergarden teacher to sound the waters with her to see what she was feeling and she told me that Emma was generally quite open about the move if apprehensive about the new kindergarden and friends.
Timing wise it's a shame for William too - he now feels so happy and at home in the kindergarden here. And it's lovely that they are both in the same one and can see each other at break time and when they are outside. In Greece, they will not be in the same Kindergarden at least for the first year.

I am glad that Emma and Will's aunt, Tata-yéyé, will be with us when we hit the ground in Greece to soften the blow and make it more fun and also that Emma has met some of the neighborhood children already. Hopefully this will soften the blow.
The "but when are we going home?" is the question I find the most daunting because I also find making a new home difficult.

Friday morning playing

Will's favorite kitchen cupboard

Still sleepy Emma and the lego doll house

Emma's improvised jam session

Here's the full session

Singing Emma

Dear So and So

Dear So an So handbag designer,
how is it that you have not yet figured out that making the inside of handbags black, dark grey or brown makes it IMPOSSIBLE to find anything! Please consider using bright pink, yellow, orange, green, silver or tobacco colored lining and do your clients a favor.
Thank-you,
me

***

Dear So and So packaging designer,
how about making it clearly visible on your packaging when the lotion is a body lotion and NOT a baby bath gel. Or when your butterkeks are "diät" instead of regular. Distinguishable packaging will not dilute your brand equity or image, only make your buyers and users happier instead of frustrated. Plus you might have an accurate idea of what product is actually being bought because we like it and not by accident.
Yours, with gratitude,
me.

***

Dear So and So (you probably won't recognize yourself),
When I say "no" or "not now" -although the reason might not be obvious to you, please respect my answer. You do not know it all. I am anything but unhelpful but I am not at your service either and I do have a life. Not being heard and respected is what makes helpful people become unhelpful.
Truly,
me

***

Dear Emma-sweetie,
When I insist you wear socks and long-sleeves in the morning it's because it's now 12° outside and your nose is sniffy. I know you like your summer dresses but it's no longer summer and it's too cold. Please understand I do not want to torture your arms and feet only keep you warm and healthy.
Love,
Mom


Dear Emma-chérie,
Could you please make an effort to dress in less than 45 minutes in the morning? We would then have more time to have breakfast together instead of me sitting through breakfast with Will and then rushing it with you (while trying to stop Will from climbing through windows/into the dryer/ dismantling furniture or emptying the bookshelf).
I hope you nevertheless have a happy day at school.
Love,
Mom

La rentrée or the moving blues

Today was the first day of school here (la rentrée in French means the start of the new academic year around which also marks the beginning of the French political season) administration and so there was absolutely NO parking spots to be had near the kindergarden.
Plus the actual street the kindergarden is on was absolutely blocked with traffic and an empty tram that could not move ahead due to a very badly parked SUV. Then the fire-brigade showed up and had to move it. We had to park a mile away and actually ended up walking a longer distance than if we had walked from home.
Anyway... what I wanted to write about was that it's the first day of school and there are little kids running around everywhere still slightly tanned, carrying new school bags, books, pencil cases and sprouting large smiles. Little groups of 16 year old boys and girls in shorts and large handbags. Umph. I am not nostalgic of being 16 even if I am nearing 40! It's just that I used to love the first days of school and buying all the new stationary stuff and catching up with friends and kids form school again.

And now -although my kids are not school kids yet- I am wondering whether we will be able to order the last CD of kindergarden pics and reading about parent evenings and kindergarden outings that will take place when we will be gone (to Greece) and all this will be going on here without us. Isnt' that weird? And I don't mean that in a we-are-the centre-of-the-world-how-can-it-all-go-on-without-us? way. Just that we have been to the parents evening every October for the past 3 years and now we won't. We will be in Greece. Probably trying to find a decent coffee and a parking space. And not understanding anything.

Ok, that was my grumpiness for today.

On the happy side, we had a lovely week-end visiting friends in their new house
and enjoying the Montmartre party at Turkenschanzpark (we usually miss this due to our habitual week in Croatia).


William had his first ever train ride and hot-dog (!!) and Emma got a new sun-dress which I love and jumped her heart out.



that's all for today!

Nearly stepped on some angels

Yesterday as I was walking down the street I came across some angels. No, really, angels at my feet.




I wondered who had placed them there and what their story was. In any case, it was kind of neat to come across them like that.