The Top Ten / Die besten Zehn

Emotions are running high today, flip flopping back and forth rapidly. They range from glee that we are getting out of this place while watching the rain pouring outside and sanitizing the dryer lint filter, to regret that we ever thought moving was a good idea because it is simply a lot of hard work and emotional turmoil, to excitement for things back in the US like large refrigerators and heaters with thermostats and stores that are open on Sundays in case you run out of orange juice. But between all of these emotions is sadness that our year has come to an end. Packing and cleaning and deciding what goes and what stays has made me realize why our apartment was left the way it was for our arrival. Who wants to be packing and cleaning when, really, you don't want to leave at all?

Lukas's and Thomas's mother arrived at kindergarten pickup time today with a goody bag of small things to help keep Nikolas busy on the airplane, a 'thank you' to Nikolas for being such an important piece of her boys' lives. Lukas and Thomas won't be at school tomorrow, which is just as well as saying good-byes to the teachers will be enough. I was surprised at how hard it was for me to see the boys together for the last time, as we have often wished that Nikolas' friendships had worked out differently this year. Like it or not, Lukas and Thomas have been just about the most important people in Nikolas's life. He will miss them more than he realizes.

What will I miss the most? I'm sure I'll find many, many things as we reenter our real lives, but for now my top ten things to miss are (in no particular order, though perhaps #1 is really #1):

1) Time - time to relax, time to be a family, time to learn new things, and very few things pulling us here or there in the rush-rush real life we lead

2) Hellbrunner Allee - so many different running or walking or biking routes, all in such beauty

3) Erna - the cook at Nikolas' kindergarten whose three course homecooked meals at school beat sandwiches and a piece of fruit in a lunch box any day

4) Travel - such great trips, so many more places to go

5) Hofer - quirky to say the least, but a great place to study people and culture and pick up some good bargains

6) Salzburger Tennis Club - every session of Kids Club was exciting

7) Bikes and bike paths - car travel is highly over-rated

8) Mountains - beautiful and inspiring, every single day

9) The Castle - what's not to love about a castle in the middle of your home town

10) Quality - quality of life, quality of goods, quality of time (time, again); it's a different approach to life, a less is more attitude instead of a belief that more is better

It has been a great year. It wouldn't be so hard to leave if it hadn't, and we will miss our Salzburg lives greatly.