Sure didn't see that one coming

Remember how I was supposed to be living in Austria until May? Well, on Friday, those plans were crushed. I can't pretend to know all of the reasons, and frankly, maybe it's best if I don't, but for some reason, I'm being sent home about 6 months early. Here is as much as I know: the coach who hired me is the assistant coach for the USA National Team. Because of the World Cup that is happening right now, he hasn't been here this past month, but he was supposed to be coming in one week to join the team and take over as head coach here. However, the president of the club decided that the team would be better off without this coach. I'm sure that there are tons of political and financial reasons behind this decision, but bottom line, it also means that I'm not necessary either anymore. Sooo, I have to leave this amazing country on Monday. That's in less than a week. Wow. I can't even tell you how disappointed I am by all of this. I was so excited to LIVE in another country for 7 months, learn a new language, be immersed in a different culture, and get to travel around Europe. For a couple of days, I will admit, I was pretty upset about the situation and how it was handled. I quit a good job because I was promised a job here for a specific amount of time and now that job back home is no longer available. There were also a thousand other reasons that I wanted to stay. However, it was last night while we were hanging out a volleyball game that I truly realized what I'm going to miss the most by leaving. It won't be the sights, or the culture, or the traveling. It will be this:

With Jenna and Svenja

Coop, Sophie, and D Money. Ohhh the juice boxes haha

I know I haven't been out here long, but I have made some great friends with some truly incredible girls. I'm really going to miss them and I hope that after I leave I'll get to see them again some day. So guys, thanks for being so awesome! Really, you are all so fun to be around :)

I think I've come to terms with leaving now. I know that things happen for a reason, and maybe back home is where I need to be right now. As Elder Wirthlin so wonderfully put it, "Come what may, and LOVE it". On the drive home from the game last night, we were just messing around and singing along to some song, and out of nowhere it hit me. Being sent home might be a sucky situation, but I still got to BE HERE. I still got to make new friends, see some more of this beautiful world, and experience something that I never thought I'd get the chance to experience. Despite the sadness I feel about leaving, I am SO grateful that I had the opportunity that I had, as short as it was. Now, I just have to try to see the rest of Vienna before I leave and party it up with my buds :)

Christmas is coming!

It's official...Christmas is almost here! I've been told that Christmas in Vienna is one of the coolest things ever. There are lights put up on every street, buildings are decorated, and Christmas markets start popping up everywhere! The excitement over the holidays is tangible. It's such an awesome atmosphere. This weekend, the first Christmas market opened up! I think I could've spent days looking at all the fun things they had there! Here are some pics of the Wiener Christkindlmarkt Rathausplatz. SO COOL.

SO MANY nativities! My mom would have been in HEAVEN.

The Rathaus

I wish I could claim taking this beautiful picture, but sadly, I can't. I've been too cold to go visit this at night, but here is what it looks like. So PRETTY.

Gladiators for a Day

Last weekend, I went along with some of the BYU study abroad students to a little town outside of Vienna called Petronell Carnuntum. We just spent the day walking around and explored some ancient Roman ruins there. Cooper came with, and man, was she a hit! Everyone was amazed to be in the presence of a real-life, pro athlete :) Best quote of the day: "Will you take a picture with me pretending to fight me? I mean, you're definitely the closest thing I'll ever get to a real gladiator, since you're a PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE and all...". HAHA. It was great.

I loved all the scenery around! Such a pretty place.

I seriously felt like SUCH a rebel standing on the tracks.

Playing Catch Up

To begin, I have a couple of pretty funny stories to share. Hopefully they aren't the kind of stories that you have to experience to find the humor in them, but I'll give it a shot even if they are. 

Story 1: So, we were eating lunch together one day and Jenna and I were trying to learn some colors in German. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, what you have to understand is that there are certain sounds you must make in this language that WE DO NOT MAKE in English. I was having particular difficulty pronouncing "grün" (green). Svenja, bless her heart, was attempting to explain how to make the "gr" sound correctly. As an example, she asked, "Ok, when you're mad and you're texting and you write grrrrrrr, what sound does that make?". We both responded with something that sounded like "gerrrr". She was shocked! Her response was, "Wait, really??? It's not...", at which point she proceeded to almost growl like a dog. HAHA. Not only did everyone have a good time laughing at that, but the entire team had great fun listening to our pathetic attempts at speaking German (well mine is pathetic; Jenna is pretty good). The old ladies at the table next to us even had to hush us up as we got a bit too rowdy I guess. Whoops...

Story 2: After finishing a delicious lunch of Chinese food yesterday, I was told that I should try the chocolate balls for dessert. Never one to pass up an opportunity for good chocolate, I gladly obliged. They were pretty good, but to be honest, they weren't my favorite. I thought they tasted a little strange and the coconut on top didn't improve the taste, in my opinion. Well, a couple of bites in Svenja mentioned something about...RUM. NOOOOOOO! The look on my face must have been most peculiar because both Svenja and Cooper were staring at me wondering what on earth was wrong. This may be childish, but I then proceeded to spit out the bite in my mouth (don't worry Mom, it was in a napkin). Sure, I probably could have swallowed it as I had absolutely no idea what was in those chocolates when I tried them, but truth be told, I wasn't really loving them anyways. In hindsight I do realize that my brother Logan did try to warn me about this possible predicament. I can't remember exactly what he said, but I recall it being something about, hmm let's see, chocolate, desserts, and rum. Bingo! I'm such a good listener. 

Well, these past couple of weeks have been great! Nothing too noteworthy has occurred, but here are a few of the things that have happened:

We had our first home match! We've played a total of 4 matches so far this season and have won all of them. The team is lookin pretty good so far :) Here's a pic of the awesome facility we get to play in. It's super nice!

A few of us went out one evening and had fun looking around for a bit. I think we would've stayed out longer, but it was a tad chilly out. Here are a couple pics of our wanderings:

Volkstheater

Next to the Hofburg Palace

The other day I went to the Naschmarkt with Jenna and Cooper! It's a HUUUGE outdoor market where they sell tons of fresh produce, food, and even clothing and such. Because we went on Saturday, there was also a separate section set up as a flea market of sorts. We thought we should check that out as well. Let me say, I have never seen so much used junk in one place. Imagine raiding your grandparents house and you'll have a pretty good idea of the kind of stuff people were trying to sell. There were records and CD's, old jewelry, dishes, china, lots of old shoes, worn clothing, newspapers from decades ago, and even some rusty cookie cutters. Honestly, it was like a real-life episode of "Hoarders". It was pretty cool to look around, but I don't think I would ever buy anything from there (unless I was going to film an old movie or something). Here are a couple pics of the flea market section:

So crowded

Dang, I knew I should have brought my US license plates to sell. I could've made a fortune! 

The actual Naschmarkt was AMAZING though! There were stands that stretched for blocks of fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, breads, spices, and just about anything else you could think of. They even had a couple Asian stores! Let's just say I found a place to buy a rice cooker and some Calrose rice :) Winning.

 I LOOOVE tulips

I can't decide if this is cute or creepy

HAHA baby pineapple

Logan will be happy to hear that I also tried my first Kebab at the Naschmarkt! Basically it's bread with meat (in this case either chicken or lamb), chili powder, lettuce, tomato, and a greek yogurt of some kind. It was DELICIOUS!!!

Wandering around the shopping district. Don't worry, I haven't bought anything...yet ;)

Other news of note: my apartment that was supposed to be ready for me long ago is no longer available to live in. Uhh, WHAT?? Yep, yesterday I found out that 5 tenants were supposed to be moving out of the apartments where the rest of the team is living. However, they all decided to renew their contracts. I don't really know how that's possible since those apartments were supposed to be reserved for the team. So, both Cooper and I are stuck in this hotel for an undetermined amount of time. Possibly for the remainder of our stay in Vienna. Oh boy, wouldn't it be a blast to live in a miniscule hotel room for 7 months? I just can't wait for more sleepless nights with super loud snorers next door, or obnoxious people checking in at all hours of the night, or having to walk super far to get to the train, or having no way to do laundry, or having to eat the same hotel food every day, or not being able to unpack my suitcases STILL. Yes, sarcasm. I should try to control myself a little more. It's actually really not that bad. I know I shouldn't complain. I just wish we could be closer to everyone else and I could have a place to call home. The team is working on it though. They just can't work fast enough.

Yes, I'm a nerd. And yes, I like classical music.

A friend of mine posted this video on facebook the other day and I cannot get enough of it! I thought it was definitely worth sharing. I LOVE the original version of this song, but this guy just makes it even better. Seriously, is it even possible to improve on something that Bach wrote?? Apparently it is, because I love this song 10 times more now! I'm so grateful that people share their incredible talents with the rest of us. So uplifting!

The Team

LOVE this. 

Fall has arrived

FYI everyone: daylight savings DOES occur in Europe. Oh, and they do it on a different day than the US. Also, no one reminds you about it here like they do back home. Whoops. Haaa I had NO clue, but it was today. Way to go Chelsea. Just imagine me running around in my room freaking out that I was late and you’ll get the picture. I’m sure I must’ve looked like a chicken with its head cut off. It’s just a good thing I had an hour extra this morning and not an hour less, or I might have been in deep doo doo haha.

On a completely unrelated note, who knew BYU had a study abroad program in Vienna?? You guessed it, not me. I went to FHE on Monday and met up with a ton of BYU students! It was such a fun night getting to know a bunch of kids from the Y and making lots of new friends!

Wednesday, we traveled to Bratislava, SLOVAKIA to play a match. Unfortunately, we don’t have a ton of time on our own when we are on the road, but we did have about 45 minutes to explore a bit. A few of us ventured out to see what we could find, but we only had enough time to walk to the grocery store. Yep, a sweet grocery store was the extent of my sightseeing in Slovakia ha. The match went well; we killed em! We won in three, and got home in time for dinner. Pretty good day in my book.

Today, Jenna, Svenja, Cooper and I decided to go to a park and have a little fun taking some pics. The leaves on the trees are such beautiful fall colors right now! We had a grand time :) Such a blast. Afterwards, we went over to Jenna’s to carve some pumpkins! When I say “we”, I really mean that Jenna and Sven carved while Coop and I watched Hocus Pocus (such a classic!). Apparently, pumpkin carving is definitely an American tradition because only those two could find pumpkins to carve. Bummer. They did a FANTASTIC job though and we had fun just relaxing and hanging out. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the day :)

With Svenja and Cooper

Hahahaha Sven stepped in some dog poo...she's trying to scrape it off with a stick here.

:) Jenna, Coop, me, and Svenny

Yeah, I'm a little immature, but I really find this pretty hysterical

They got some hops!

Playin in the leaves

Workin on their masterpieces/watchin the movie

The AWESOME finished products. Jenna and Svenja are PRO pumpkin carvers :)

Food

REALLY???

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Those are KETCHUP chips. Saw these puppies at the store the other day and couldn't resist taking a pic. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it?

Because my apartment isn't ready yet, I've been living in a hotel for the past week. While it is a slight inconvenience (living far away from the rest of the team, having to get picked up to go everywhere, and having a teeeeeny room), there are a few benefits that help to make up for it. The best ones are that my room gets cleaned daily and I get free food twice a day! This apfelstrudel (apple strudel) that I had last night was köstlich! YUMMMMY.

So, don't worry Mom, because as you can see, I am eating quite well :)

What a great weekend!

Saturday night, I went out with the some of the girls on the team to celebrate Dianna’s birthday! We had a blast! I attached a hilarious little video taken while we were at Conny's apartment at the end of this post. The story is this: we were trying to get Jelena (who is from Bosnia) to speak in an American accent, but she had no idea what she should say. One of the American girls, Jenna (who is from Ohio), recommended that she repeat the phrase, “I’m from Ohio”. So, of course, all of the European girls had to try it :) After Jelena's fabulous attempt, Dianna, Niki, Conny, and then Svenja tested it out. My favorite is Niki, who definitely sounds like she’s speaking with an Asian accent or something haha. Of course, Sven’s American accent is perfect since she went to school at the U of Pacific in the US for four years :) Watch it!

After hanging out at Conny’s apartment for a while, we went out looking for a place to go dancing. Lesson learned: trains and subways definitely take off on time and they don’t mess around. Once those doors close, there is no getting out. We were running to try to switch trains and Jelena was ahead of the rest of us. As soon as she got inside, the doors closed. Oooops. Yep, she was the only one quick enough to get on. Thank goodness (or maybe it wasn’t a good thing) the rest of us were in heels and couldn’t run fast enough to make it. Oh man, I can still see her, face and hands pressed against the window, sad little look on her face, yelling for us as the train pulled away. HAHAHA! It was pretty funny. Luckily, we were able to meet up with her at the next station and we all had a good laugh about it. We also had some good laughs when Jelena kept telling strangers that she was from Ohio haha. I think she might need to work on that accent a tiny bit more before that’s believable though ;) Well, we ended up going to a bar/club to go dancing. I must admit, that was the first time that I've even been to a club like that, so it was all pretty foreign to me. I was grateful that the style of dancing here isn't dirty at all. Actually (don't laugh when I say this), it was almost like a dance party back at the Y, exceeeept for the presence of alcohol everywhere. I mean, I'm from Vegas, so alcohol isn't a new concept to me by any means, but that was my first experience where my friends all drank as well. They only had a drink or two, so it’s not like they drank a lot and I have absolutely no problems with them drinking, but it was just weird for me. I just felt a little uncomfortable with the environment and ridiculously out of place. Hanging out and dancing with the girls was a complete party though! I had a super fun night and am so grateful that all the girls are so cool, welcoming, and fun to be around :)

Today it was reaffirmed to me that Sundays really are the BEST days of the week. I was a little nervous about trying to navigate through Vienna solo this morning to get to church for the first time out here, but boy am I glad I did. Perhaps it was due to such a stark contrast between the dance club a few hours prior, and then being in sacrament meeting today, but the moment I sat down in the building, I was utterly overwhelmed by a sense of peace, love, and security. That ward in Vienna literally felt like home at that moment. I have never really felt that with such intensity before and it was incredible. THAT was exactly where I was supposed to be this morning. It's almost impossible for me to comprehend that I could be halfway across the globe, attend church in a foreign city, not know a single soul, yet feel like I was surrounded by family. The church is true no matter where you are. I am so grateful for that knowledge. I already love the ward so much. Everyone was so kind and happy to have me there. There are even a few young single adults and couples my age from the States! How lucky is that?? I am amazed by this wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ and am so indescribably grateful for it in my life.

Here’s a picture of Böcklinstraße, the street that the church is on. I love Europe.

Here's the promised vid. SO FUNNY!!!

Insomnia

Blogging while I should be dead asleep. Hmm, this could be a bad sign. Rather than say I'm already addicted to the blogging world, I'm going to blame it on the jet lag still. That's plausible four days in, right? Please say I'm right...

Anyways, I was looking at some of the touristy things to do in Vienna, and here's one that I found. Visit the Belvedere Palace:

Dang, gorgeous right?? I just want to get up and go right now! We do only have one practice later on today...I miiiight have to do it this weekend :)

Well, that's all for now. Really, I just wanted an excuse to share this beautiful pic I found.

First Trip? Check.

I'M HERE!!! After only a few slight complications, I made it! :) By complications I mean: 1. I had an extremely full bladder while seated at a window seat for 6 hours of a 9 hour flight. Trust me, NO BUENO (or should I say nicht gut? haha). 2. My bus driver in London nearly got in a fight with a disgruntled passenger. Hmm. Words like racist (the passenger was not white) and about 50 F bombs (I thought "bloody" was synonymous with that out there, but apparently this wasn't the case with this guy) were thrown out like they were no big deal. I was seriously worried that punches were going to start to fly before the police had to step in... and 3. A baby screamed the ENTIRE duration of my second flight from London to Vienna. Normally I wouldn't have minded, but my lack of sleep on my first flight, combined with the fact that she was loud enough for me to hear her through my headphones, wasn't the best combination for my mood. Oh come on! Ironically, she would stop crying long enough for me to nod off, then start wailing again. Coincidence? I'm not so sure anymore...

Well, I arrived in Vienna around 7:30 on Tuesday night, got picked up by the team trainer, and then went straight to the gym to pick up all my team gear. After arriving at my hotel and thoroughly enjoying a traditional Austrian dinner of schnitzel and pommes frites (essentially pork chops and fries), I was off to bed, or so I thought. I figured that my utter lack of sleep on both flights would be great for the jet lag; I assumed that I would have nooo problem falling asleep since I was exhausted. No such luck though. I slept for about 3 hours, woke up at 3 am, and could not fall back asleep to save my life. All in all, the 9 hour time difference is not so fun.

The next morning, and my first day in Austria, we took off for Maribor, Slovenia for a couple of friendly matches against a team from Azerbaijan! It turns out that one of my friends, Nancy Metcalf from the USA National Team, plays for them! I was so excited to get to see her before I realized that she is still in the States with Team USA since their season isn't quite finished yet. Man, what a bummer. It was still a super fun first trip and it was a blast getting to meet all the girls on the team. They are HILARIOUS and so much fun to be around. I can't wait to become better friends with every one of them. There are girls from Austria, Russia, Germany, Slovakia, one from Croatia, another from China (woot for the fellow Asian!), and a couple Americans on the team. A few of them have taken it upon themselves to start teaching me some German, which is awesome! I have to say that they are super cool to keep straight faces and not laugh while I struggle miserably with the pronunciation of EVERYTHING. I can't even say "danke" correctly yet haha. Any tips on learning German, Mutter (Mom)? :)

Oh, and P.S. We won both of our matches. Not a bad start to what is shaping up to be a fabulous six months :D

Unfortunately, it was pouring both days we were there, so I didn't get to take many pics, but here's one of the few that I did get. Here's Maribor, Slovenia! Beautiful little mountain town.