Just 2.5 Weeks To Go!!!

Well today is Monday, July 23rd, 2007. We have this week that was until two weeks ago supposed to be school of break during half of which Mary is gone at a conference in the Schottentor Universität. Then one more week of vacation. Then the final 4 full days of us being here before we head back home! This week alone we’ll probably be going to at least two places outside of Wien for day trips, and next week rushing to get in as much as possible of our normal touristy expeditions as we can. As this trip is winding down it’s final 2.5 weeks we’re all thinking about all that we’ll enjoy about being back in our own space, but more so about all we’ll be missing from this place.

Oma is 84 years old, but even though she’ll likely live long enough for us to visit her one final time I doubt that we’ll want to, at least as a family. There have been many times recently where I can hardly stand being around Oma and by just seeing her out of the corner of my eye get super-agitated. Plus from the beginning of our time here it was clear, at least to me, that the 6 months here added up to about 8 3-week trips here. That meant that most of a decade of trips we could have potentially taken have just been used and due to that there’s 8-less trips we will take here. This added together with the way I especially have been feeing recently about Oma and us being here make it clear that we can’t stand another trip here. Also, if we did come here we’d have too many feelings for how it had been for 6 months and will hardly feel like we’re on vacation. I know that Oma would very much like it if we could come back for a last 3-week stay, but I’m afraid we just won’t have the physical and mental energy to do so. Therefore, it is clear to us just how much these 2.5 weeks will be our last here as a true and well-tied family.

That paragraph simply reflects on what and why we’ll be missing so much about being here. Throughout my life and Nathaniel’s as well this house sitting up here on Huchkagasse has been the standing house that we’ve had and always been welcome in. Now, partly due to us being here for 6 months and partly due to Oma’s old age we’re facing the last weeks of ever being in it again. That feeling makes us think deeply about what we’ve liked about this place and what we’ll most definitely be missing about when we leave it so soon on August 9th. The biggest thing we’ll miss about this house is Oma, however much she may get angry at us or us at her she is the oldest living relative any of us know and she’ll stay like that until her death and beyond. We’ll also miss the feel of this house, though it certainly is smaller than our house in St. Paul, it is the one (as I mentioned above) that has been a standing house since my birth and permanently parting with it this soon will be quite sad. Those are just the surface, but it’ll take hours for me to go any deeper. So this is the end of this topic for now and it’ll most likely come up again in the future, but who knows. Enjoy, Alex.