A Downtown Oasis

My Spirit Calling Card message yesterday morning was a beauty, especially considering I was about to meet a few more of my teachers and classmates as we worked together for 5 hours to set up the studio for this Saturday’s opening celebrations/exhibition.  Appreciating the emerging colours of our group dynamics as well as putting up all the gorgeous/powerful artwork and seeing the space take shape were indeed a big part of my day.

On my way to school in the morning, I walked on the left side of Burgasse instead of the right, which led to the Volksgarten instead of to the imperial palace.  Although 1/4 of the park was undergoing restoration, there was still enough greenery here to be satisfying for a downtown park. It will be a little oasis on my way to school.  I ended up spending an hour sitting on the marble bench near the statue of Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary (Sissi) listening to the three water fountains as the peaceful background to my German lessons on my iPhone.  It was the perfect spot until a few guided tours of about 40 people joined me, but only for a few minutes each.

I’m practicing my German a little every day, but both with the Polish maintenance folks at the Palace and a Slovak woman giving me directions on the street, it was easier to try and communicate in Czech.  Unfortunately, my Czech is all being jumbled up with my German and vice versa right now… oh well.

After leaving the school, one of my classmates from the United States, Donnalynne and I headed to the Danube Island to put our feet in the water and chat before heading back to town to find a place to eat near Stephanplatz –  we decided on a Greek Restaurant with live music – it was great except for the smoke, of course (have I mentioned that before?).  On our way back to the Underground, my eye caught this unusual window display of shirts.  We also came across a very lively parade of what seemed like Cubans because of the music… but not sure.

Donnalynne also got a place through the same international student housing agency, but because she started her process late in the game, ended up at the outskirts of town amongst car and tombstone dealerships.  I’m so glad I started early.  I just got an email yesterday that they can extend this room for January and then offer me another place at about the same distance from school on Tigergasse until June. I need to decide by September 30th.  I took advantage of an incredible Air Canada sale on right now and got an $813 ticket from Ottawa – Vienna- Ottawa after Christmas returning to Canada at the end of June … all this without knowing if I’ll be let back in the country.  I’m trying not to let all that stress me, but it does.  The school is still waiting for its accreditation and without that, I won’t be able to get a residence permit.  I emailed the embassy in Ottawa to see if we’re allowed 2 Class D visas in a row… and whether that could happen when I’m only in town for a week at Christmas time.  They only have 1 day of appointments open on December 24th.  This time I won’t be there for 3 weeks…  Once again, I’ll have to keep on trusting and manifesting and taking the financial risks. But I’m being guided to start on all that…

OK – enough for today – the sun is out and it’s supposed to rain all afternoon, so off to somewhere I go.