Hanging High with Pascal

I practice gymnastics about twice a week at a "Turnsaal" near Schoenbrunn in Wien. Pascal has come with me before, twice, and this time we went on my normal night, Thursday since Friday was a school holiday. He had lots of fun especially on the high bar. And for a little guy this high bar is really high!!! I helped him up the ladder the first couple of times, and now he can do it himself. He loves swinging, and then dropping into the pit. Without teaching Pascal anything, he also tried a full twist off the vault, and made it! He also likes chalking up his hands. He's the littlest guy in the gym, and everyone watches him with a smile.... especially his Papa!

Colliding Worlds

So one evening we are all sitting in the living room. Dean and I are reading “Die Zeit”. Anika and Pascal are just moping around. One very distinct feature about our -actually all - kids is that they cannot be simply bored by themselves. No, the need to go around advertising their boredom, rub it right in your face. But we parents need to be strong and set a good example by just sitting and enjoying a soundless activity. Anika gets it first and announces that she is going to sit down and read in the bible now, because she feels like it. (Although we are not in any way a religious family, I do like the fact that Anika is exposed to religion. She also attends religion lessons at her school, although she does not really have to.) After a while, this peaceful atmosphere of quiet reading is broken by fighting noises: swishing of invisible swords and the thumping sounds of fists hitting something scaly. Pascal is pretending to fight off aliens, concentrated fierceness on his face, eyes narrowed, his lips pulled into a sneer. I could swear Pascal can really see these creatures. And boy, I wouldn’t mess with him if I were a monster, space monkey or anything that cannot run away fast enough. Then, Dean, Anika and I look up from our reading at the same time and smile one of these little knowing smiles at each other, in silent agreement that we are witnessing just another moment of two worlds colliding. So this is why you cannot love these two children the same. Yes, you can love them equally but you need to love them in a different way.

Erste Schultag für Pascal!

Last week was Pascal's first week in school. Not kindergarten, school. His school is right around the corner from us, which is nice. The picture is taken outside our apartment on the way to his school. Pascal did well his first week. He didn't say much, but I guess that's good. On Wednesday he did however report that his school day was bad. I asked him why. "Someone hit me." A boy? "Yes." What's his name? "I don't know." And then Pascal ran happily down the hallway to play in his room. Hmmm. I guess it wasn't actually that big a deal? Anyways, Pascal does seem generally happy about school, for instance he said he was happy that he can go from room to room at will (at least in Hort, his after school care), unlike kindergarten where he always had to go together with the group.

It was a big first week, and Pascal is quickly filling in his new shoes as Schulkind!

Vespas and Italy

There is a reason Vespas are so popular in Italy. Many towns still have their medieval street plan intact. First came the carriages, and they widened, famously for instance, the roads in Paris to help the carriage traffic; then of course came the car. Vienna still has its tight cobblestone streets, designed for the carriage and not the automobile. Italy seems to have somehow avoided the modernization project for carriages, so the streets can be pathetically narrow. Hence the Vespa to zip around town. Practical really.

The photos are of Pascal in front of the cathedral in Sienna. BTW the cathedral is really a wedding cake sort of building. The ornamentation is great, but maybe a little thick, just like on a cake, the frosting looks good, but maybe it's just a little bit too much of a good thing. Funny the Italians are usually so more restraint in their architecture, as compared to the baroque stuff typical in Wien.

Cool, Eh!

Pascal insisted on wearing his spiderman sunglasses last Sunday. Wasn't even a little bit sunny. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of him next to the graffited stairs near our apartment. He gave me the Cool, serious look.

Pascal, just couldn't keep his cool together and had to smile. Thank goodness! Don't worry you're still the coolest guy in our family, Pascal!

Parkour Pascal (again)

I really don't know where he's getting this from, except for showing him a couple of youtube videos, Pascal has barely seen Parkour. I threw in a couple clips showing the typical Parkour moves Pascal is imitating. Maybe Parkour is just a natural movement kids are inclined to do?

Boys and their Toys

Pascal got a pirate ship for Christmas. It was something he really, really wanted for a long time: "Ich habe so lange darauf gewartet" sagt Pascal. The pirate ship is pretty neat, and is lots of fun to play with, even for bigger boys like me. We went to the old Bibliotech Saturday, and there above us on the ceiling mural was a picture of a man with a model ship. It reminded me of Pascal's ship. Boys and their toys, right? Many things never change.

Dangerous Dude

About a month ago we went out for the "Nacht des Museums", where all the museums are free and open until 11pm. We visited the Bibliotech, the Albertina, and the Ritter museum. There was a huge collection of knights armor. Many had strange, scary bird like helmets. Some were custom made for an obviously huge pot belly. One had a huge bulge in the nether regions. Anything to be scary.

While we were visiting the Ritter museum we watched a live display of swordsmanship. Pretty cool stuff, we learned about all the different types of swords and how they were designed for different kinds of fighting. The head swordsman (in red) was also pretty funny and merrily wallowed in the guts and gore of the sword fight.

Pascal was very impressed. Soon after we came home, Pascal got out a pair of Anika's boots, picked some kitchen knives from the drawer, and made ready for battle. The video is probably the last time we're going to let Pascal go at it like this - the little dude is DANGEROUS! I think we're going to have to get him a set of sturdy wooden swords, although the clink and clank of the metal knives clashing together does have its appeal.

Possibilities

Put together Pascal rambling on about "possibilities" and other things, with an old night walk we took in the innen stadt and set it to "Jigsaw" by Radiohead.

Pascalian Logic

So Pascal likes to be carried around on my shoulders when we are walking through the city. We call it "Hop-Hop". But Pascal is getting older and heavier and really he should walk on his own two feet. Of course Pascal resists and continues to prefer the shoulder high ride. Every time we go about the city I have to fight with him about if he should or shouldn't get "hop-hop". It's exhausting.

Yesterday Pascal's whining about "hop-hop" led him to completely forget that we were standing on a sidewalk next to a busy street. Complaining about "hop-hop" Pascal jumped in front of me and into the street full of traffic. I was really angry with him about this and I told him that today, and forever more he would no longer get "hop-hop".

Tonight after a day of no "hop-hop" Pascal told me, "I was bad yesterday, whined for "hop-hop", jumped in the street, etc. so that today I wouldn't get "hop-hop" and then you would be happy." "I was bad yesterday, so I could be good today." Hmmmm. There's something missing here. Seems like some pretty tricky revisionist history going on here. But you know what, I'll take it. I just hope Pascal won't actively start looking for bad things to do today, so that tomorrow will look better. I hope instead, his explanation is just his way of putting a story around things. Nonetheless I know Pascal will ask for "hop-hop" tomorrow, and we'll be back to square one again.

Pascal Talk Deutsch

Pascal is speaking more and more German. At the beginning he hated it when we talked to him in German, he would protest "No, talk...TALK!!!" meaning speak English not Deutsch. Now Pascal is mixing up the Talk mit der Deutsch. Here are some examples:

Telling him we have to stop watching a movie and get ready for bed: "Nein. Nicht fertig. Ich love das (the movie)"

Playing board games: "Du bist dran." "Ich bin's." "Wieder mal."

Basic pre-school phrases: "Ich bin Erste." "Bitte, bitte, bitte..."

I'm sure there's mehr, and I'll have more again soon to add to the list.

Little Bit Zipline Fun

We spent the afternoon after a rainy morning testing the limits of a zipline in the park down the street. We still have more work to do.

It could have just been a dream, but I swear I caught Pascal on film looking awful happy climbing up on a police motorcycle.

Anika and Papa Arrived in Wien

We made it. Good flight. The first week wasn't so great, a bit of cold rain after all that sun. I was a full of negative thoughts, and with the feeling that moving to Wien was a huge mistake. I felt that we left everything behind, but what's to be done now, etc.... But with a little sunshine and a nice walk through the innen stadt I started feeling much better.

Anika is doing really great. We have to adjust to a lot of new things, z.b. walking a lot, getting lost on bus routes, winding through crowds. Basically all those things you don't even notice or think about at home, you need to think about here 'cause everything is new and different. It's a little bit fun, but after a whole day of it, you definitely feel exhausted. Anika is a real trooper and doesn't complain.

We looked at a school for Anika, d.h. Astrid Lingren Schule (pipi langstrumf autor). Anika liked it and I had a nice helpful talk with the Frau Direktorin (principal). Ani is really excited to start school in a week or two.

We also finally got a really nice apartment (Magdalenenstrasse 6/ Top 8). Altbau, big rooms, high ceilings, wooden floors in fish bone pattern, nice large kitchen, good neighborhood. We get the keys 10 June (Wednesday), next week!! We get our sea shipment Friday. Tessa comes the following Monday, 15 June. We'll all get to move in together!!!

The video is from our walk in the Innen Stadt and includes a visit to the Schmetterling Haus. Crazy fountains.

P.S. There are all kinds of foreigners all over the city. You hear a lot of english, and eastern european languages on the street. The eastern europeans are really recognizable because they dress sooooo baaaaad! Cheap fabrics in some kind of disco style. A lot of english is spoken between foreigners of different languages because they hold english in common. I heard an Afrikan looking guy talk to his Austrian girlfriend in english with a whole lot of german words thrown in. I bet we'll end up speaking that way at home too ;)