A New Routine

I've developed a routine here in Wien (pronounced: Vee-nuh).

The alarm goes off at 7a, I hit snooze until about 7:30a, hop in the shower, dress, eat, then leave for school.

Now we are blessed to be in a location where the trolley runs right to our front door. So every morning, I hop onto the trolley and take it to the U-Bahn. There are two U-Bahns that I take. The final drops me in Stadtpark, which is a quick 5-10min walk to Johannesgasse 7 - AKA Palais Corbellis AKA My School (!).

The whole trip takes me about 50min (one of these days I'm going to try riding a bike and see how long that goes. You can rent a bike - known as the City Bike - for very cheap. In fact, the first hour of every ride is free so if I can make it to school in an hour, I'm set).

Starting at 9am I have German for 2hrs 45min. Some days I learn a lot, others my eyes glaze over and I revert to Spanish. Like today. Whoops.

I'm free by 11:45a and depending on the day, I will either wander or go straight home. My trip home is the same I take in the morning, only in reverse.

Once again, the trolley drops me right at my front door and I climb the 4 flights of stairs to our "penthouse" apartment (penthouse because it's on the top floor). There is no lift. You should have seen our faces when we found that out, suitcases in tow, Sunday. Good times.

I walk through the door and I always call out, "Hello". Just in case. I have two roomates now and do not want to startle them. But the greeting is always the same: silence. No one is home. They will be home hours later, after their own class has finished and they've made new discoveries in the city. But for now, it is just me and an apartment that has spent its day cast in shadows, windows closed, curtains drawn. The air is still and slightly muggy. There are no fans, no AC.

This is my job. Everyday, I bring life back into the apartment. I go to each window - two in the bedroom, two in the livingroom, and one in the hallway. I throw back the curtains and the room lights up. I turn the handles and the curtains billow with the influx of air.

The apartment breathes again.

My routine is complete.