Exactly one year ago I arrived at Zurich airport which marked my return to Europe after 7 years abroad – 6 years teaching in New York City & 1 year traveling around the world. This last year hasn’t been much smooth sailing, but more of a rollercoaster ride. It’s been a year full of new beginnings, interesting experiences, and expected as well as unexpected adjustments.  It’s been a year of feeling a little lost at times - in the fall often still feeling more connected to my old life in New York City than my new (old) life in Vienna. I realized that 7 years is a long time & things had changed. During my 6 years in New York I had not only adapted to life there – sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously – but also gotten used to it – the good and the bad. I had become more familiar with it than life in Austria. Then, my trip around the world made me see so much of our world – countries, cultures, people, animals, food, etc. After all this, I wasn’t just going to fit in again here in Austria. And believe me there’s hardly any weirder feeling than that of feeling like a foreigner in your own country!!! Feeling like one while still not really being a foreigner can be a rather confusing experience.

“It takes about a year to really return after such a long time abroad”, is what friends told me.

There’s no shortcut.

But I’m slowly settling and I’m starting to feel that things are going to work out - that it was the right decision after all.

I have accepted that it takes time to not just physically but also emotionally arrive…

So better late than never    :

Vienna, here I am

PS: Do you know the book “I’m a stranger here myself”? It got a whole new meaning this year - I can now truly relate to the author’s experience 

PPS: Met with Sonja & Christian today – old Austrian friends whom I’ve known since 2002, who still live in New York City & also traveled the same year as I did. It was so nice to see them

PPPS: Skyped with Veronika & her kids in NYC this evening   It’s wonderful to stay in touch with old friends!

On Friday I ran some errands and went to the East Village to check out “East Side Ink”, a tattoo parlor where Rihanna (the R&B/pop singer from Barbados) got one of here tattoos recently. In the evening I babysat for Veronika and Christian – part of my birthday present for her.

On Saturday I met with Stephanie, a former student of mine, at Pinkberry’s, and then met up with Michelle, my friend from Chicago, whom I have known since my first year in the city when I was living at the Webster. Hanging out with Michelle is always funny, she’s hilarious! We ended up rowing a boat for 2 1/2 hours at the lake in Central Park - something we both had wanted to do for a long time, but never did. So we were rowing in Central Park, talking and cracking up. Whenever I meet Michelle I have a stomach ache afterwards because we always laugh a lot. I don’t know what it is, but that’s the way it is with Michelle   We also have this idea (from our days back at the Webster) that one day – when I’ll be living in Vienna and she’ll be living in Chicago or New York – we’d do a “kid swap” over the summer. When we met we thought it would be fun, partly also because I’m white and she’s black, or in politically correct terms:  Caucasian (I still remember how puzzled I was when I found out that I’m Caucasian racewise – I never knew until I moved to the U.S.) and African-American. So we think it would be a great experience for the kids. Well, now that I’m writing this it doesn’t sound particularly funny, but believe me, for some reason, when I talk about this with Michelle, it IS funny…

In the evening I had dinner with my dear colleague from my former school, Alla, her husband and her daughter. They had made a reservation at “Counter”, a vegetarian restaurant in the East Village. Alla and her husband are originally from Russia, and she knows a lot of math. She is one of the best math teachers I have met during my 6 years in New York! And she is such a nice person! I’ll miss her and working with her when I go back to Austria… So we had a really nice evening together, first talking about school and then leaving school behind and talking about our travels and all sorts of things   Alla also mentioned that she had checked my blog and I hadn’t written anything since 7/7…

On Sunday, today, I got myself a nice birthday present in the East Village in the afternoon, and then went home (staying at Jan’s place in the city this week) to update my blog. – So now my blog is updated and it’s late, almost midnight. I’ll be going to bed soon. – I have two more days in the city before my trip ends. It doesn’t feel like it. It doesn’t feel like it is going to end soon. I’m very much living in the present these days…

However, I’m not totally planless   I’ll be arriving in Zurich this Wednesday morning (the last leg of my RTW-Ticket) and be in Vorarlberg from 7/29-8/7, then in Graz for the weekend (8/7-9), and then in Vienna from Aug.10 onwards – looking for an apartment there…

On Monday, upon my arrival at JFK (from Miami) I met up with Sonja & Christian, two very good friends of mine who moved to New York 8 years ago (to teach in the city like me), left last summer (just like me) to travel for a year (North and Central America by car), and were about to leave for Austria that day, where they’ll be spending the summer. The only difference between us is that I’m at a point in my life where I’ll be moving back to Austria this summer and stay there for at least a couple of years, whereas Sonja and Christian will return to their life in the New York City. So it was great to see them for an hour or so, to catch up briefly on our past trips and future plans

Then I took the subway to Bed-Stuy as I’m staying there with Bibiane, her husband Calixte and their two children Anna and Anselm this week. I ended up meeting more friends (some the same and some different than the first two weeks, like Eszter, Behnoosh, Peter, Michi, Veronika, etc.) – hanging out, catching up and having fun Then yesterday, Friday,…

…I had a wonderful birthday       I had a manicure and pedicure (which I only get like once every two years, but it’s such a New York thing and so I felt like doing this before I leave this place for  good) in the morning, then a wonderful picnic in Central Park (near 97th Street, my old neighborhood – East Harlem/Upper East Side) with Veronika, Maximillian and Katharina, and a great dinner at Gobo‘s, a vegetarian restaurant in Greenwich Village with Veronika, Tatjana, Natalie, Verena and Andrea. We had a blast and only left when the restaurant closed. The moms went home and Verena, Andrea and I went to two bars for more drinks – one in Greenwich Village and another one on the Lower East Side. I haven’t been out this late in the city for quite a while… On the way home I felt very happy about this rather unexpected (in terms of not really planned in advance), but wonderful birthday   I even got lucky and found a yellow cab back to Brooklyn, Bed-Sty to be exact   Lucky me   On the way home I thought that if the next 35 years of my life go as well as my first 35, then I’ll have no complaints by the time I turn 70

By the way, thanks for all your lovely birthday-wishes (e-mail, facebook, etc.)! I started to reply to some of them in an attempt to get back to every single one, but due to my rather limited internet access this month I haven’t succeed in completing this task. So, if you haven’t received a “thank you” yet, please accept this one: THANK YOU for thinking of me on my birthday!

Jenny and I have known each other for 19 years – since August 1990 when Jenny moved to Austria for one year as part of an exchange program (AFS) to live with my family and attend high school (BGD) in Dornbirn. It was great having her as a sister that year and after she moved back to Florida and  I continued living in Austria (and other places) we loosely stayed in touch throughout the years. When I moved to the U.S. 7 years ago that’s when we started to see each other on an almost regular basis. When I was living in New York I visited her about once or twice a year – I remember her wedding, her baby shower for Madison, two thanksgivings, one Christmas, and numerous other visits in February or in the summer   It’s been really nice to live so “close” and be able to visit her so often over the last 7 years. Somehow Jenny really is like a sister to me and her family is somehow family to me. Thanks, Jenny! I’m so glad we met!

I spent the days with Jenny, her daugher Madison (who is 2 1/2 now and such a cute girl), their two dogs (Jake and Zach) and their cat   On Sunday Ed joined us to go to “Lion Country Safari” where we were having a lot of fun – especially in the water park   Jenny and I went to the movies twice: Ice Age III ( a little scarier than the first two, especially considering it’s a children’s movie) on Thursday and “Bruno” today. OMG, “Bruno” was quite hilarious! I have never seen a movie like this (I haven’t seen “Borat, I must admit, though) and seeing such a movie in the States was even more unexpected. Anyway, I enjoyed both movies for very different reasons and both movies were fun – again for very different reasons

Tomorrow I’ll be flying back to New York – to meet more friends

PS: On the flight from New York to Miami on Wednesday- just as we were about to take off – there was the following announcment: “WHOSE BABY is this in the middle of the isle? We’re about to take off! Please, take your baby!!! The plane is about to take off! Take the baby if it’s yours!!!”

I’ve been meeting up with friends, spent time on playgrounds in Central Park with their kids, gone out for dinner a couple of times and drinks afterwards, celebrated a friend’s birthday in Prospect Park and another friend-of-a-friend’s birthday on a Harlem rooftop, spent a day out on Long Island, and another one up in Westchester, went to the movies, did some shopping at Ann Taylor Loft (my favorite clothing store in the city), watched the “4th of July” fireworks – on the Hudson river this year for the first time since I moved to NY in 2002 - from a Harlem rooftop, had a “Maedelsbrunch”, went for a walk on the new highline, did my laundry, etc. But I won’t bore you any longer with this part of my trip because it’s not that exciting – for you to read about this, I mean. The “real” travel part of my trip is pretty much over and all I’m doing this month is taking it easy and catching up with friends in and around New York and also Florida (visiting Jenny for a few days). Furthermore I feel this part of my trip is more personal than the previous 8 months. This month there won’t be any sightseeing, there won’t be any interesting and/or funny stories about a new country or continent. New York was my home for 6 years before I went on this trip and it would be strange to write about the conversations I’m having with my friends on this blog.

I do have a story for you (i.e. this blog), though: There was a shooting outside the Harlem apartment I’m staying at on Wed, July 1st. I’ll write about it when I have more time…

So on Thursday, I met up with Veronika and her two kids, Maximillian and Katharina, whom I both adore, and we spent the day together – catching up about their time back in Austria and my travels in South America. I felt as if I had never left. That’s what it always feels like with true friends – no matter how often we see each other, once there’s a certain connection it’s always there

Later I met up with Peter, his brother Patrick, and his cousin Frank for a couple of drinks. It’s always fun hanging out with these guys   On the way home, I ended up falling (well, more being thrown) into a fountain, but I won’t go into details on this blog   Just that much: I was soaked and I had a lot of fun that night

On Friday, I went to the GRADUATION of Manhattan Center of Science and Mathematics H.S. (MCSM) - at 10 am at Hunter College (69th Street on the UES), and although I had planned on watching from the back, the principal asked me to come up on stage (where most of the teachers were sitting) when he welcomed everybody at the beginning. Although there were (and still are) issues between the administration and a lot of teachers, and I haven’t forgotten the protests last year after Mr. Thomas was sent to the rubber room, etc.,  I felt this wasn’t the time for me to make a point, and I simply walked up on stage and watched the ceremony from up there. It was wonderful to see my former students (who had asked me to came back for their graduation when I left MCSM, New York and the U.S. at the end of last school year) graduate. Sitting there made me look forward to teaching again But I still wouldn’t want to stay here. I still feel the same way I felt last year: it’s time for a change, time for me to move on. I’m glad I still feel the same way a year later. It’s time to move back to Europe, back to Vienna and teach there. I know it’s been 7 years since I left (summer 2002) and people keep asking me if I’ll be able to adapt to the Austrian way of life again or whether I have become too American to be happy there. Well, first of all I don’t believe I have become too American to live in Europe. (There’s this saying: “You can take the girl out of Austria, but you can’t take Austria out of the girl.” And I believe this to be true to a certain extent.) Anyway, going back to graduation. Here’s the video from the principal’s introduction – including me walking up on stage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnVyWSsL1Cc

It was wonderful to see my former students graduate and I also have to admit that it was lovely that they gave me such a warm welcome. Afterward the ceremony I got the chance to talk to some of them and their families   Memories of the 5 years at Manhattan Center kept coming back… And it was such a great finish – sort of – to my trip, one leading me back to teaching. And the good thing is that within this year of traveling I feel I got myself back, well I mean the person I like. At the end of last year I wasn’t like that. I had somehow over the years in the city and working for the DoE lost some of my positive outlook on life, some of my groundedness, some of my faith in people, etc. Last year around this time I felt I was ready to leave New York, but I wasn’t ready to go back to Europe yet. It’s not that I needed to find myself, I know who I am, what I do and what I stand for. I needed to get – in short – my happiness, my groove, or whatever you want to call it, back. And I consider myself lucky to have found it. I’m back the way I like myself   I know I’m not going to change the world, and I’m still saddened at times that I couldn’t do more and by the fact that good teachers like Mr. Thomas (since last year) and Mr. Moshos (since this year) are still in the rubber room and about other things. But this part of my life is over and sometimes no matter how hard you try, how hard you work, and how much energy you invest – sometimes (not often, but it happens), you still don’t win and things don’t work out. So I let go… For those who don’t quite understand what I’m talking about I just want to say one thing: the students at MCSM never really gave me any problems and the joy of teaching the students at MCSM (and teaching Mathematics in English) is one of the reasons why I stayed in New York for all those years. Overall, with all the good and the bad, I wouldn’t want to miss any of these 6 years, though   I learnt an awful lot, I truly enjoyed teaching in East Harlem, I made some really good friends and I guess  this is why New York has become my home - but not the one where I’ll grow old. That’s more likely going to be Vienna. But then who knows what life brings… Maybe I’ll grow old in Fiji, or in New Zealand, or somewhere else… Or in Vienna

I’ve just been letting my thoughts wander off…

PS: Later that day I bought a cell phone (prepaid) for $20. Funny isn’t it: I have traveled around the world for more than 8 months without a cell phone, but can’t really do New York without one

Today is our LAST DAY IN SOUTH AMERICA! Verena left early and I slept in   Then a wonderful surprise awaited me: Kati and Daniel showed up! We have traveled with them before, but thought we won’t see them again on this trip, but now they are here    Will have dinner with them tonight – our last evening in South America…

On Sunday I was having breakfast on the Plaza Santa Domingo when I met Constance and Brian, whom I had met back in Bolivia (Uyuni trip). They are also traveling for a year and we exchanged travel stories and memories, as they had a similar route on the trip   Then I went back to my hostel, packed and left Cartagena.