What have I been doing?

We've been back in Austria since mid-February now. We are really enjoying being back here and taking advantage of all that Vienna has to offer. We moved into our flat, which we initially felt was very tiny, two months ago and we have just finished putting it all together. We've got our furniture, kitchen and appliances, and everything else all set up. We bought quite a bit of stuff used or heavily discounted. Fundgrube (the scratch and dent section before checkout at Ikea) was my best friend for a while. I found quite a few good deals in there. We feel that for 2 months, we're doing pretty good since we started from scratch. We have all the big and small stuff. Most importantly, our flat feels spacious and we are so very comfortable here.
We really enjoy our neighborhood. We live close to tram lines and a subway station. We can easily walk to the inner district and to many surrounding areas. Our windows face a courtyard which means we have no street noise. Did I mention that we are now only 900 meters away from his parents compared with 9000km? It's really nice having his parents here. They've been a big help the past few months, especially since we had no where to stay while our flat was being renovated. All in all, we're quite content here.

Gotta love a giant closet underneath the loft bed!

Since moving back here, I've gotten my residence permit, been taking a German class and have been doing a lot of cooking. I mean A LOT. Let's start with the cooking. When we moved in, our kitchen was just an empty room with some outlets on the wall and a water hookup for the sink. That's it. No cupboards, no appliances, and no sink (to the dismay of some people!) We had to invest some money in all of that (although we got a break on the deposit). I found it great. This meant we could design our kitchen from the ground up and have things just the way we wanted them. So far, it's been working great. We have way more counter space than we thought we would have in that tiny room. For some reason, it feels bigger now than when it was empty. Since we have a proper kitchen, unlike in Singapore, it is much easier to cook. The selection of food here is also better and cheaper. The fruits and vegetables taste way better. The meat and dairy here is so delicious and did I mention cheaper? This probably comes down to the fact that the food in Austria comes from within Austria or very close by (for example Italy) and in Singapore the majority of it has to be imported, which takes its toll on freshness. This, combined with my excess free time, has equaled out to extra pounds around the waist.

It's also amazing how far along my German has come. It definitely helped, those first six weeks, when we were living with his parents. They don't speak much English at all so I was forced to speak German. My class also started back in the beginning of March. It's an intensive course at the University of Vienna. Thankfully the class is almost over; only 2 1/2 more weeks to go. I say thankfully because it is 5 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. Let's be honest, I'm losing my motivation. As long as I pass the exam at the end of the course, I'll be able to study at the University.

Enjoying a Wiener Melange while studying German.

I also applied for and received my residence permit. It was a little stressful at times but it's done for this year and we don't have to worry about it until next January. Nico had to do some hand holding there since the offices where you apply for residence permits/visas refuse to speak anything but German. We now know that married couples get to go to a special office that is down the street from us where you don't have to wait as long ( a bonus considering the main office is always busy and you have to wait forever). There is nothing on there website about this location and we only found out about it after going across town and waiting in line 30 minutes just to get a queue number. We weren't very pleased to be told we had to go all the way back to where we had just come from. So after submitting, we waited and waited and waited. We waited until one day, about 3 weeks before my 90 day visa would expire, I finally got the approval letter. Picking up the visa was also an experience in and of itself. We went back to the main office. We showed up 45 minutes before they opened and there were already a good 30 or so people queuing up by the front door. After they opened and we got to the right area to pick up my visa, something interesting happened. We knocked on the office we needed and the woman inside told us to come back later. So we sat in the waiting area for about 5 minutes until someone else knocked on her door. He went in and did his visa business and left. Nico and I just looked at each other wondering what was the point of queuing for a queue number to just have it completely ignored. We went and knocked on her door. She apologized and said she was having her coffee break. Mind you, they had just opened. It was 8:15 and they opened at 8:00. I'm still confused as to why someone would need a break after just starting the day. Either way, like I said, I'm thankful it's done until next year and hopefully I will be able to manage Austrian bureaucracy on my own next year.

My favorite museum in Vienna; The Natural History Museum

Besides all of that, we have been enjoying seeing old friends, visiting museums and just going on small day excursions with his parents on the weekends. Life is much simpler here, just the way we want it.