It was a year ago last Friday that we arrived in Wien for our 6-month stay there. I would’ve blogged on the topic then if I had thought about it, but, as you can tell, I didn’t think about it until today.

A year ago the two blog posts closest to today were about the journey to Ossteriech, and me apologizing for not blogging as much recently. I didn’t actually write a blog post on exactly today last year.

WOW, those first 6 months of 2007 that we spent in Ossteriech definitely felt like a larger portion of 2007 then the final 6 months (1.25 before, 5.75 after) that we spent here in the United States. That’s not a bad comment against the trip, but rather just a fact that is good to know. The pure reason for that involves us being much more comfortable here then we ever will be there. I genuinely enjoyed that first half of 2007 and looking back on it think and know that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that can’t, and never will, be matched up with another experience like that in my life.

After half a year (well, almost half a year) I still hold true to what I wrote on the airplane on the way back from Wein. Feel free to read those entries. Just click the next entry link (that is named with the entry’s title to read more of them, I linked to the first). These entries are still relevant in thoughts, but in reality it is slightly a different story today then was on August 9th, 2007.

So, this entry rightfully marks the 1 year since of us arriving in Ossteriech. Those 6 months are 6 months over, but will never leave the tips of our minds and center point of our family relationships amongst the 4 of us (as we spent all our time together in Wien). Don’t forget that you can always read the journal entries I wrote during those 6 months by simply looking at the posts under that category. Enjoy, Alex.

Well as of today we’re two months out from the end of that 6-month trip in Austria. Shockingly, today was also (legally) the first day of the second half of the first quarter because midterms were finalized yesterday and will be sent out tomorrow. In 2 weeks 10.5 Leopard is likely going to be leaping into the hands of all Apple fans. In 1.5 weeks is Nathaniel’s 10th birthday. Just thought that I’d add a few numbers to this marker of us being back from Austria. Enjoy, Alex.

Well, today is the exact 1-month mark of us being back from Wien. It’s been an interesting one too. I’ve enjoy every minute if it while still missing Oma. Oma’s called us to check-in every Saturday until this weekend, which happens to be the weekend that the Pope was in Austria. Now is the certain time to turn further away from the extremely nice and enjoyable 6 months and focus as much energy as possible on 10th Grade and all the work that will generate though it. I hope that all of you can enjoy these next weeks and months of hard work of the school year. Enjoy, Alex.

We’ve been home for a few days now and in some ways we feel more at home here again (though we still have to get over jet-lag). So it is now time to turn away from the root tension that was part of the last 6 moths and start to think only of the good memories of that time. Our house is now less empty and alien to us than it was when we first arrived back. So thanks Oma!! Thanks for giving us most of your house in return for us being able to keep you company and help you with daily tasks.

For those who may want to know: This “6-month Austria” category will remain here as a memory of the trip and as a way to quickly get back to the entries that directly concern/ mention it. In the future I may post blog posts under (or partly under) this category if they do connect up to it. Otherwise this is the final post in this category.

Enjoy, Alex.

We all got home safely yesterday at around 6:30 local St. Paul time. Amazingly the airlines didn’t lose any of our luggage and we managed to get out of the airport soon after we got to the baggage claims. Aside from the jet-lag and the need to unpack everything we’re all feeling quite glad for being back in our own house now. Enjoy, Alex.

I want to give a really big thanks to our house-sitter because though we haven’t yet seen if our house is still well (and the cats), we know that he was there all the time and did his best to keep the place functional. I have no doubt that he did his best at what we let him do these past 6 months. So I want to really thank him in this single blog post, Thanks!!, Alex.

I now feel both excitement that we’re actually over North America at the moment, and sadness that an entire 6 months could be gone so quickly. Despite all the nasty things I said and did I never wanted to be back at home until today. Part of me never even wanted to leave Vienna because of my love for Oma and for the fun history she can tell us about our family. We never got audio recordings of her stories into iTunes, and that’s sad, because future generations would love to hear them. Eric did photograph each photo of each album in Oma’s house, but even the comments about the photos are useless unless accompanied by full stories told in-person by someone who was there when the picture was taken. Only the 4 of us ever have gotten that ability to experience the full meaning of these 2,000+ pictures on iPhoto library DVD’s of our family’s heritage on Oma’s and Opa’s side. I feel sorry for my many relatives who won’t fully understand those pictures the way that I do.

I sincerely hope that the amazing number of memories stored inside ourselves, mentioned on our blogs, and shown in pictures in iPhoto stay alive throughout our lives and may they even seep into our descendants though written text and grandfather-to-grandson storytelling. I don’t want any of these memories to ever be lost forever.

I’m extremely thankful for the Vienna Woods. This comes from the fact that it was our one place of not just semi-relaxation, but also real great exercise. There is no equivalent to the Wiener Wald (Vienna Woods) in St. Paul, so it’ll be hard to get as much great exercise back home as it was in Wien. I really hope that we do find an adequate replacement (at least when it comes to the great exercise) in St. Paul that is relatively easy to get to.

I just want to publicly thank Oma for letting us invade her house so deeply leaving just two small spaces for her to still control. I’m sure Huschkagasse 9 will now feel quite empty for weeks to months now with us gone. I hope that at some time within Oma’s lifetime someone or something else can fill the empty space we’ve now left behind. I hope that the things we had to leave behind may help Oma to remember how nice our company was for those 6 months and that those may help fill some of the leftover empty space.