field trip!
I awoke Saturday morning at 4 am in order to get myself and three girls ready to get on a chartered bus to Vienna by 6:30. Yarra, Rebekah's friend, had spent the night and so I had two teenage girls and one preteen that needed to gussy themselves up (as did I) in our single bathroom. A feat of strategic planning. At 6:25 we headed to Townshend International School and boarded the bus along with all of the residential students, many teachers and all of the dorm assistants. Off to Vienna. Our plan is to hit the Museum of Natural History http://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/ and Naschmarkt, an immense outdoor market.
The bus ride was fun, how could it not be with all of these energetic highschoolers? Our first stop was the Museum of Natural History which is housed in as beautiful a building as one can find. After an espresso (strong and small) and a panini we headed out to explore the world of zoology brought to us in the form of stuffed animals. Pretty interesting. My group consisted of Rebekah, Roxie, their friends Shahab, Payton, Malaika and Musau, and my friend Rob joined us for a little while until all the kids made him go bonkers. I think I would have enjoyed the museum much more if it weren't for having to herd teenage kids around. But it was still pretty cool. Shahab (who is one of the coolest kids I know) I thought would be mildly handy to have around as he is German and could be our spokesperson. But he kept speaking English to the museum workers..and his English is only 6 months old. I kept asking him why he was speaking English and he kept telling me that he was "mixing them up"...ah well...
We had planned 4 hours at the museum having been told that it requires a full day to go through. But the boredom of 60 teenagers was apparent after about 45 minutes. Although these particular teens are relatively well behaved and wonderful, anyone who is at DEFCON 2 in boredom tends to get a bit twitchy. Plans were revamped and we headed out to Naschmarkt two hours earlier than expected. Fine by me, the sooner sushi is in my belly the better! Roxie, who is our resident natural history expert, soon-to-be museum curator, was a bit disappointed, but she was able to buy a REAL LIVE fossil at the museum gift shop (on sale now...low low prices!) and this assuaged her. She is setting up a museum in her room complete with fossils, dino teeth, models, rotating solar system, microscope, gro-yo-sef crystals and the newly procured smashed fish in sandstone. Entry fee negotiable. Family discount available. Arriving at Naschmarkt, we hurriedly hunted down" Mr. Lee's Asian World". Purportedly the best sushi at the market. It was excellent sashimi, maki and a bowl of coconut boba as a dessert. My absolute fave thing about Mr. Lee is his totally non-ACLU approved logo...see top. Huge guffaw!!!
mango chicken
Mr. Lee's L4 plate
Naschmarkt could have been an excellent place to buy cool stuff, foods, exotic fruits, asian spices etc...if you hadn't been minding a group of teens who were wandering around looking to find a seedy vendor selling a Michael Jackson shirt and in the process irritating every Austrian with whom they came in contact. Next time I will go by myself...The best part for me was spending time with my kids, their friends and my friends. Plus having time of the bus rides to chat with people I hadn't really met before, thus making new friends. So, maybe I didn't get to shop much at the market, new friends are so much more valuable.
No comments:
Post a Comment