Henry, the Tooth Fairy and Exchange Rates

When you live someplace for a year, you realize you'll experience the yearly milestones once in your new home.  Our Austrian Christmas, our birthday's in Austria, etc.  But there are once-in-a-lifetime milestones too.  And Henry experienced one of those hear ... he lost his front tooth.  One of them now, but the other one is loose and sure to go soon (we so hope he'll lose the other one soon because there is nothing like a kid with both front teeth gone!).

Henry, show us that gap-toothed smile!

Anyway, to answer the question we had ... is there a tooth fairy in Austria.  Well, we don't have a lot of details, but it appears the answer is yes.  But the next question is what is the "going rate" for a tooth here?  It seems that it is $1 in the US.  So, we just assumed it is €1.  And our kids are savvy enough to know that €1 is better than $1 (about $1.40 to be precise).  So, suffice it to say that Grace was happy to realize that she now has a loose tooth too :-)

Russ

Why I'm Here ...

Some folks have asked, "so, why are you in Austria, anyway," and they seem to actually want to know more than, "I'm on sabbatical."  So, the below is part of something that was put together for the TUG magazine.  This should at least partially answer the question!

Jörg Oser (left) and Dirk Jodin welcome Russ to TUG.

Prof. Russell D. Meller, Ph.D., the James and Marie Hefley Professor of Logistics and Entrepreneurship at the University of Arkansas (United States), is spending this year at Graz University of Technology (TUG) as part of his university’s off-campus duty assignment (otherwise known as a “sabbatical”) program.  Dr. Meller will be collaborating with TUG faculty in the Institut für Technische Logistik as a visiting distinguished professor. 

While here he will be working on research in two areas.  The first is related to the Physical Internet (PI).  The PI is an open global logistics system, leveraging interconnected supply networks through a standard set of collaborative protocols, modular containers and smart interfaces for increased efficiency and sustainability.  His research team is investigating the logistics system gain efficiency that is possible with a PI, capitalizing on key data provided by fourteen PI thought leading organizations.  The project website is:  http://faculty.ineg.uark.edu/rmeller/web/CELDi-PI/index-PI.html.  Dr. Meller has existing collaborations on this topic with European colleagues and he says that he’s hoping to interest TUG colleagues in joining the efforts.  The mechanical engineering focus of this group makes them ideally suited to make a contribution to this initiative.

The second research topic is related to his work with SSI Schäfer Peem GmbH.  He will be working with engineers at Schäfer to develop a decision-support tool for system design.  Meller is an expert in logistics system analysis and design, and combined with the expertise of the Schäfer engineers in order fulfillment technology, they hope to produce a tool that will allow for the quick assessment of system design.  Meller placed a student at Schäfer last year to begin the process.

When asked why he chose TUG and Graz for his sabbatical appointment, he shared that he had a multitude of reasons to focus his sabbatical appointment application on TUG – and that most of them revolved around the above projects and how being at TUG would further the aims of the research.  But he also mentioned that the most compelling reason was the personal connection to Graz that he and his wife made while visiting in 2004.  They attended a conference hosted by TUG (Jörg Oser was the scientific leader and host of the conference) in the summer of 2004.  They very much enjoyed their time in Graz, Vienna and the Salzburg area.  They found the area beautiful and could see that the city had excellent character.  So, given that he and his wife had always wanted to live in a European city, Graz was considered right from the start of their sabbatical selection process.  And it was through the connection with Oser and then current institute leader Dirk Jodin that he connected with Schäfer, which sealed the deal.  Both TUG and Schäfer are providing monetary assistance to offset living expenses.

Dr. Meller arrived a week ago with his family (his wife and two children, ages 8 and 5) and says that they’ve settled in nicely thanks to the help of the TUG staff and some other members of the Graz community that he’s met during his prior visits to Graz.  He said that he has no regrets in making TUG the focal point of his sabbatical application and can still remember the day that he received official word from the Provost at the University of Arkansas that his application had been approved.  That was a very good day for Dr. Meller and TUG both.

Saturday at David's in the "Country"

Had a pleasant surprise at 10a this morning ... our friend David (we'll get to who he is in a second), invited us over to his place in the "country" for a "grill" this afternoon.  I'm putting "country" in quotes because he lives just a little bit outside of Graz (in Reinischkogel), but it really is rural (we could hear, what, goats, in the distance?) and a farmer next door was harvesting corn.  Anyway, it took maybe 15 minutes to get there and he was nice enough to drive us both ways (the highlight for Henry and maybe others was looking at the display in his Prius to see when we were using the engine vs. the battery, vs. charging the battery).

The "grill" turned out to be his mother's scalloped potatoes, a bean salad, a tomato and feta salad, corn on the cob, and two kinds of sausages (Wursts).  Everything but the wursts were either grown in his garden or picked up at the farmer's market.  And I had to say, the bean salad was the best I've ever had in my life and we decided that the scalloped potatoes were "for your health" food (that is, your body needs really yummy cheesy things sometimes :-)  Grace really liked one of the Wursts, but objected to the bacon they were wrapped in (I ate the bacon ... the things one has to do as a parent!).

As you can see, we played badminton (Federball, or "feather ball"), ate, were treated to a concert by Grace and Henry with original compositions for the piano, and played some more badminton.  It was just lovely.  As David was driving us back, we invited him up to share in a treat (Magnum ice cream bars -- the best!).

Oh, and how do we know David?  Well, back in May when we announced at church that we were going to be in Graz, Austria for a year, a couple we knew came up and said, "Graz? ... that's where my brother David sings in the Graz Opera."  That's right, we know about 100 people in the church and one of them has a brother that sings in the opera in the town in Graz (half-way across the world, where they sing in a language other than English).  Small world, huh?  Anyway, we had our friends and David over for dinner over the summer when he was visiting and he has adopted us ever since.  We hope that we can come up with some way to thank him for his generosity some day. We've really enjoyed getting to know him and -- this will be a first time ever saying this -- can't wait to go to the opera!

Russ

First (of many, I hope) European Work Trips

If you saw the prior post by Sue you might have wondered, "well, where was Russ while Sue was getting lost in the crowd of traditionally dressed Styrians?"  This post will answer that question!

One of the advantages of being in Europe for my sabbatical is the ability to visit with European colleagues. And for the past five days I've been in the south of France (always written that way vs. southern France for some reason) working with two colleagues on one of my main research areas these days, the Physical Internet (www.physicalinternetinitiative.org).  The three of us are part of many joint projects and proposals and we are also writing the first book in the area.

Anyway, I've hosted the past two meetings in the US, and this time it was Eric's turn to host.  Eric works at the über prestigious Mines ParisTech in Paris, but his family (actually, his wife's family) owns a castle in the south of France.  So, he hosted us at the castle!  (I swear, I am not allowed to disclose its location for fear that you will all descend on it and ruin the peaceful atmosphere!)

It's kind of a small castle, so some may think of it as a really super old "mountain house" in a medieval village that was restored 40 years ago.  His father-in-law rebuilt it, along with the 4-km (2.5 miles) access road, with a group of a dozen or so who bought crumbling castles/houses and restored them.  And, as you can see from the pics, it is set in the mountains among 10 or so other restored houses in their small village.  I had no idea how beautiful the area would be and I was blown away with side trips to canyons, mountains, etc.

One of the highlights of every day was lunch.  We had shopped on the way in (the nearest town was a half-hour drive each way) for bread from the bakery, cheese from the cheese shop, meats from the butcher, and fruit was a fruit stand and it was great to share the task of assembling lunch and relaxing for a bit between work sessions.  And on the last day we had lunch on the terrace, under an absolutely blue sky.

It was also a very fun trip because before coming here the only other language that I could speak more than hello and thank you was French.  And I can tell you that my mind was very confused as I always try to think, "can I say that in German?" while I am here, only to also ask myself, "can I say that in French?" whilst I was with them.  Needless to say, I sometimes slipped into German, but my friends, who all speak French (the other collaborator is French-Canadian), enjoyed it.  And Sue said that yesterday when I attempted to order pizza in German that I asked the person with a polite, "s'il vous plaît!"

And on a cultural note, we all know that the French are big believers in using every part of the animal when they cook (I had pork cheek, tried blood sausage, saw head cheese on the menu (and it ain't cheese!). But what I really enjoyed was seeing how they made something really yummy out of chestnuts (châtaignes in French). Here is a can of châtaignes made into a sort of thick caramel. It is truly yummy and I can't believe that no one has imported this into the US (hey, I'll go call Williams-Sonoma now :-)

Russ

Sunday Outing

It was a beautiful day on Sunday and I wanted to get the kids out of the house.  Henry has been resistant to my outings, so I told him we'd find a new toy store.  No stores are open on Sunday, so we couldn't go in, just find it so we'd know where it was.  So off we go, the kids on their scooters and me walking.  Pretty soon we start seeing people dressed up and heading to the City Center.  By dressed up, I mean traditional dresses and men in green vests.  By the time we found the toy store, we'd seen LOTS of dresses and even some men in lederhosen (leather shorts with suspenders).  So we had to follow them to see where they were going.  Turns out it was a big street fair/festival with people dancing, playing music, booths selling food, drinks, traditional crafts.  This would have been lots of fun to explore, if I didn't have a folded up scooter in each hand, Henry pulling on my arm and Grace diving into the crowd. And was it CROWDED! And, as it turns out, lederhosen aren't just for men. Henry just wanted to leave, and Grace was bound and determined to find where all those giant cookies were coming from.  Neither one got their way since we got a little lost trying to find our way out and didn't find the cookies on the way.  Turns out all those little side streets, well, some of them lead to courtyards and some lead to exits.  I wish I had known more about what was going on, but it was a little overwhelming for all of us. The pictures below show men dancing (it was like stomp dancing), accordion players, and Grace's best attempt at capturing the traditional outfits. Did I say it was crowded?  I later found a newspaper and discovered the festival was Das Aufsteirern - celebrating Styrians. Styria is the state we live in.  It's history goes way back, but that's for another day.

Sue

Added some pics to some prior posts

We added a few pics to a couple of the posts tonight.  So, if you want to go back and see them, check out "First Day of School" and "Trip to St. Radegund."

The Time-Zone Challenge

The challenge of living abroad for a year, and continuing to work on projects back home, is the time-zone difference (7 hours in my case).  Even a meeting as "late" as 9a in Arkansas is 4p here in Graz.

As not every meeting back home can be scheduled for 9a or earlier, I have designated Wednesdays as the day of the week that I'll accept meetings that start after 9a.  On most Wednesdays I have a noon meeting, which means that I'm finished around 8p local time (which means that I miss dinner and bedtime at home with Sue and the kids).  But yesterday, a meeting I have been trying to schedule with a company representative for over a week could only be scheduled at 2:30p.  That means, yes, my day ended at 10:30p.

Like I said, it's a challenge, but while the US slept this morning I spent a fairly relaxed morning going with Sue to the butcher to pick up tonight's meal, we then met a friend for coffee, and I bought my lunch at the farmer's market on the way into the office.  So, it's not all bad to be out of sync with the US :-)

Russ

An Austrian Experience

I will likely write a little too much about this, but had an experience today that just wouldn't happen in the U.S.

If you read the other entries, you'll know that we rented a car for some touring on Saturday.  They were closing at noon so we would be returning the car after they were closed.  I was a little disappointed because I wanted to pay in cash and avoid the 3% foreign transaction fee on my credit card.  I expressed this and the agent, who spoke perfect English (but for some reason put us down as Australian), said, "no problem, just come by and pay on Monday."  If this was the end of the story, I would have been impressed with their accommodation of my desires to pay by cash and save a few dollars, but it continues.

So, the next thought of this was TUESDAY morning.  We had a busy Monday and we totally forgot about going by to pay.  Sue said that she'd take care of it on Tuesday, and was even in that area of town, but she forgot.  When I got home Tuesday we discussed it and Sue said, "just check your credit statement, surely they've charged you by now (I mean, this is Hertz we are talking about)."  But I recall the agent on Saturday being pretty insistent that if I wanted to pay in cash, I coud pay in cash.  Anyway, I called them and sure enough, they had not charged me yet.

So, even though it was a 15-minute walk each way, I was determined to go pay this thing.  When I arrived, I settled up (no late fee, no hassle, etc.).  I asked the agent today, "so, I said I'd pay on Monday, but forgot ... what if I forgot on Tuesday as well ... when would you charge my credit card?"  She looked back at my record and said, "it clearly says here from the agent working on Saturday that you would pay in cash on Monday ... we wouldn't think of charging your account until Wednesday or Thursday maybe."  And the look on her face was one of, "there is no other possibility ... you would pay of course."

Russ

First Day of School

School is beginning in Graz!

Our children took their typical first day of school picture ... you had to cajole a smile out of them!

Turns out the First Day of School is a big deal in Austria, or at least at Grace's school. Parents (in many case, both parents) were standing outside to meet their kids with gifts in huge cone-packages and giant sunflowers. Sadly, we were clueless and had nothing.

Grace's class met from 7:45-9:30! On Thursdays she'll also go 7:45-9:30, but instead of class, the whole class does to church (the whole school?). The rest of the week she goes 7:45 to 11:40. Today she met the English teacher and the German teacher. She'll meet with the German teacher for an hour each week. She finished one assignment in class early and so the teacher let her play a "learn German game" on the class computer. She was in good spirits when we picked her up.

Henry's class normally meets 7-1 or 8-12. They seem very flexible.  Since their schools are right next door to each other, Henry will probably go 7:45-11:45 or so. Friday his teachers told us to pick him up early this week, so we did. He said, "well, it was kinda fun, but I didn't make any friends." He said he didn't talk to anyone, just nodded his head yes or shook his head no. I think they had center time most of the time. The kids were playing at tables at drop off and pick up. They had snack out all day and the kids could eat whenever they wanted. (He liked the bread and honey but not the butter -- he must've been HUNGRY because Henry has not been trying anything!)

Sue

Schools

Tomorrow the kids start school. Both are a little nervous. Grace will
be attending 3rd Grade at a Bilingual Primary School where they teach in
English about 7 hours a week. Given that she's in school 4 hours or less
a day, it's almost half the time. Her teacher is super nice; she took
Grace by the hand and took her up to her room to show her around. Grace
will be the only native English speaker in her class, but there is a
chance that a girl from England may be joining the class, too.

Henry will be going to a Montessori Kindergarten that is all in German.
He'll be in school about 4 hours a day. Henry and I were pretty nervous
about it until we got a chance to visit the school. They have lots of
very fun educational toys throughout the room. Friday we found out
Henry needs shoes for PE. The shoes look like ballet shoes on top and
have a rubber sole. After the kids and I made an unsuccessful attempt to
find them, Russ was able to reach a local contact who told him the name
(sounds like Gymnastics Pat-shun, I didn't get the spelling) and then we
could ask for them and eventually found them. Grace liked them so much
that she wanted them, too. She needs shoes for PE also but apparently
this style is common for little kids because they are easy to get on and
off.

Hopefully we've got all our supplies correctly interpreted and purchased
for tomorrow!

Sue

Trip to St. Radegung

We hit the road today without directions (because the visitor's center opens at 10a) and with a not very helpful GPS. Getting out of the city was really hard, but Sue navigated us to the correct road via the iPhone (gotta love those portable wifi devices!). The tram to the top (1460 meters) was really impressive and the view was fantastic.

At the top of the mountain there were some cool playground toys that the kids liked.

And there was also a cool cart system were you rode a cart down on a rail (braking, if you need it!) and then it linked into a chain to take you to the top (like the ascent on a roller coaster). Anyway, with 14 rules printed in German I'm glad all I needed to know was "push lever forward for 'fast' and pull lever back for `brakes.'" It was a blast and I wish the kids would have wanted to do it so that I could have ridden all day!

We had a good lunch in a village and the way back and stopped at two large grocery stores. We are coming to the realization that there are multiple items we will never get here! But that's the subject of another post :-)

Russ

Heading out ...

Heading out of the city for the first time since we arrived a week ago (how can it only be a week?!).  It's supposed to be a beautiful, sunny day.

Rented a car and will pick up this morning.  Have in mind a local ski area so that we can ride a tram to the top of a mountain and see the Austrian Alps.  There is also a "water tour" that is reputed to be great for kids.  Of course, our GPS isn't quite being helpful in pre-planning ... it can't find some of the towns, etc.  So, we shall see!

Sept. 8, 2011 (phone numbers)

Skipped an update yesterday, but the big (kind of, anyway) news is that we now have Internet at the apartment! Sue, in particular, is welcoming being connected again (I was able to use my cell phone, so was in denial about life without the Internet). Anyway, we bought two of these devices that take a cell phone 3G signal and then broadcast wifi from them. So, to your computer it looks like there is a modem coming into the house. But the best part is that these devices are small and portable (think very small, very light cell phone). So, you can take them with you and have wireless anywhere inside or out. Very nifty! These are just coming on the market in the US and it is the first thing that we've found that is actually cheaper here (unlimited internet for 9 euros a month with these). Anyway, a nice development for us.

Secondly, we both have a cheapie cell phone that you can call and text us on. Now, you probably won't want to do so (the calling part) b/c it will cost you overseas fees to do so. But the texting shouldn't cost you too much. You may have to play around with the number you use (explained below). And with Internet at home, we can check e-mail easily and we will try some skyping soon.

Other updates:

- Went to Henry's school yesterday and checked it out. Besides the apparent lack of legos, he liked it :-) The Director can speak better English when I was there before, but it will still be an adventure to figure much out :-) We'll see how the dynamic of Grace going to school less than Henry (most days Grace is done at 11:30, but some days at 9:30!, and Henry will go to noon).

- I worked! Yes, it was inevitable, but I worked almost a whole day. Wednesdays are going to be my "US Meeting Day," with meetings going to 1p or so Central time (which means 8p or so CET). I was home by 9p and it was kind of fun to be out after dark for the first time.

- Today I spent a good chuck of the day doing the above while Sue took the kids on a shopping trip for school supplies. A kind person there took pity on Sue and took the list for Grace's class and basically filled their basket with everything on the list :-)

Ok, that's it ... I need to figure out how to put our new cell phones on the English setting ... at least for now!

Bye!

Russ

Address: 

This is how it is written here ...  

 Meller-Hankins  

 <e-mail for address>

 8010 Graz

 Austria

We live in an apartment and everyone assures us that we don't need to list our apartment number.  That's a good thing because we don't know our apartment number ... our mailbox key opens #2, but we are on the top floor, and our buzzer seems to be in the 3 spot.  So, maybe no one knows our apartment number!

Graz is the city and the zip code is 8010.  We don't think you need to list the state, but if you did, it is Styria.

Phone numbers:

Russ (+ 43 650 490 5939; 00 can be a replacement for +, and 43 is the country code)

Sue (+43 650 4901469)

E-mail stays the same! 

Sept. 4, 2011

Won't have a modem or a cell phone until the latter part of the week. But we will get by. I can check email from my phone.

The kids are doing well. They like the apt and we stayed in mostly on Sat. They wrote notes to friends (Henry: I don't like the food, but I do like the oreos). I got out with a friend to buy some things. We will get out as a group today. We are taking it slowly so far.

Language is challenging in small ways. Took me a while to solve the no hot water problem because I couldn't read the hot water heater manual. Took me over an hour to order something from the German Amazon.com (and then mistakenly placed my order twice and couldn't figure out how to cancel it).

But our big victory of the day was finding a butcher who prepared meals -- and Henry (out pickiest eater) like the turkey cordon bleu!

Hope all is well!

Russ

Sept. 6, 2011

Here is the most-recent update. We've been here exactly 4 days and none if us can believe it as busy as we've been!

Here are some things we've accomplished:

- arrived

- unpacked

- went sight-seeing, riding a train to the top of our town's hill

- ate our first frankfurters (very different!)

- figured out the grocery store (cash only, need a euro for a grocery cart deposit, bring your own bags as they cost 0.05 euros each, weigh your produce yourself and put a label on the bag, etc.)

- found the main train station (which has the only grocery store open on Sunday -- you can figure out for yourself why that might be necessary!)

- routed ourselves after seeing a tram detour

- went to a hardware store via the tram and hauled everything back

- registered with the city

- completed our residency permits

- officially hired at TUG

- setup health insurance

There is a long story involving bureaucratic issues for those last 3, let me tell you!

- opened a bank account

- found a route to someplace without knowing exactly how to get there

- explored the park by our house

- visited Grace's school

- bought flowers and fruit at the farmer's market

- got keys to my office

- convinced Grace to try some new foods (Henry is harder!)

- Ate at Subway :-o (not exactly the same if you ask the kids)

- washed and line dried two loads of laundry (we have a washer, but no dryer)

- and many other things!

And it may not sound like fun, but we must be having some fun because Grace announced today that she wants to live here as an adult. She'd take this apartment, but she said she wants an elevator! Walking to the 4th floor dies get tiring.

Tomorrow I'll have my first meeting with my team back at the UofA via Skype and Sue and the kids will go try to buy school supplies.

Russ

Sept. 2, 2011, evening

The apt is very nice! Unfortunately, with it being on the fourth floor, I'm exhausted after carrying all that stuff up! Thankfully the next time we do that it will be DOWN! We will be in much better shape by the time we leave though :-)

Grace and Henry already own the place!

Sept. 2, 2011 at 6:37p CET in Graz

In Graz with all 10 checked items :-)

Sept. 2, 2011 at 12:25p CET (5:25a CST) in Vienna

In Vienna ... very tired waiting out a 5-hour layover.

Sept. 1, 2011 @ 1:45p CST from XNA

T-15 minutes and counting :-)

Aug. 31, 2011

Sold a car, replaced the battery in the other one (how's that for a nice surprise?), cleaned house, moved out, and spent 2 hours on a walk through with our tenant. Oh, and moved over 500 pounds of luggage!

Headed to a hotel by the airport for RnR before 19 hours of flights and 11 months in Austria.

Peace!

Russ

Preamble

We've always talked about Grace having a blog as a way to keep her connected with her friends. But the updates I've been putting out should be recorded somewhere and I doubt that I'll journal. So, this blog is to capture what has already been distributed in some fashion and we'll see if I keep it up. And I still hope Grace is willing to keep up a blog!