I've changed blog hosts! My blog can now be found at http://annacmaylo.wordpress.com. It's easier to navigate and has some nifty bells and whistles that I just couldn't find on blogger. Come visit me there!

Klagifornia

When it's hot, there's nothing else for him to do!

Hello!

It's August and Klagenfurt is HOT. Like 40C/104F hot. Like Anna melts in this weather hot. It's insane! People are telling me that it's a heat wave originating in the Sahara. Are we really that close to the Sahara that the heat can make it all the way here? Don't those Alps act like some sort of barrier to melt-your-face-off heatwaves? Either the people I talk to know nothing, or those Alps need to step it up!

We all like to sing in the car

School got out in early June, which meant I had to say goodbye to almost all of my new friends from school who headed home to their respective back countries. I miss them already, and Hank misses his pal Linus, who got dragged back to Germany with his hooman Linda. WE WANT LINUS BACK! Hank might stage a protest.

Hank and Linus, best buds!

Other than those goodbyes, I'm loving summer life. My beach partner and I have played in as many tournaments as our schedules allowed, and were happy to get 4th at the Carinthian state champions this past Sunday. We'll play in one more B-Cup (yeah, the Austrian Beach Volleyball Association thought it would be a good idea to name the tournament levels A-Cups, B-Cups and C-Cups. I don't know if anyone has pointed out that those are the common names for bra sizes, or if they know and just think it's funny!? True to beach volleyball, there are no D-Cups... :) later this month, and then beach season will be over for the year and we'll head back into the gym. It's been such a blast, while I'm bummed it took me 'til age 26 to get into it, I'm SO happy I had the chance to play so much this summer!

We celebrated 4th of July at our house, complete with a full American menu and an America-themed iTunes playlist. The national anthem came on at various times throughout the evening, and our Austrian and German guests attempted to learn the words. We all agreed that America has the best national anthem out there. Or did only I agree? I can't remember. USA!!!!!

4th of July chocolate cake

4th of July on Spatwiesenweg!

More of the cake

We got a visit from Tesha several weeks ago, and I loved having her here for a week. Despite her general uncertainty about dogs (I think she has an issue with the dirt/slobber/bodily functions that dogs bring along with them), she and Hank became best buds. Hank got used to her staying in what usually is his room, and sat outside her door every morning waiting for her to get up. When she left, he continued to sleep outside the door, hoping that Tesha would show up again! It was pretty darn cute.

Besides bonding with the Poo, Tesha and I spent the week enjoying things that we can only do in Klagenfurt. We went to the beautiful lake Wörthersee twice, and were thoroughly irked by the amount of nakedness that's so common on beaches here. We also went on a hike in Tscheppaschlucht, a beautiful river canyon located right before the border with Slovenia. We were there with Marco's mom and 88-year-old grandpa, who went all Indiana Jones on us by essentially deciding he would lead the pack for the duration of the 3-hour hike. Hank also came along and turned out to be a total canyoneering pro! Finaly, we got to bring Tesha along for smoked trout at the Breithuber pond, a meal I absolutely adore. Before taking off for Dresden, we got crêpes at one of my favorite restaurants in Klagenfurt, Île de France on Karfreitstrasse. Mmmmm. Definitely a successful trip, but as soon as she left I was ready for her to come back!

The gore of roasted trout

Gisela, Hank, Grandpa and I on the hike

Tesha, Hank, Grandpa and I at Tscheppaschlucht

At Tscheppaschlucht with Tesha, Hank and Gisela

Flower girls hiking

Silly teddy bear dog, wearing his muzzle for the bus ride back to the car from Bodenthal

Since Tesha's visit things have quieted down a bit. We celebrated Marco's grandpa's 89th birthday with a meal of Italian jause (so delicious), and we've set up a tent in the backyard to help make the space more usable in the unbearable heat. If we've learned anything from this heat wave, it's that no matter how uncomfortble it is for us, the poor pup is feeling exponentially worse. So we've been taking advantage of the sparkling clean Sattnitz river near our house, taking Hank swimming at least once a day. He's a total water baby! He especially enjoys chasing the ducks that are at home amongst the cattails, and swimming against the current to retreive a tennis/volley/soccer/anykindof-ball.

This week we're seeing some excitement because the European Championships for beach volleyball are in town, and it's taken over the place! It's the first year that I've been here for the tournament, since usually I'm at home in the states at this time. But this year I got the chance to watch some of the Austrian teams play on center court, which was a blast.

2013 EM Klagenfurt

Hope all is well wherever you are!

xox

Anna

Hank, attempting escape through the bedroom window

Schalke 04 playing beach volleyball during their training camp in Klagenfurt

Accidental twinsies

Hank disapproves of my sillyness

Such a babe

Hey Marco!

At the Airedale club meeting in May, we went for an awesome hike with a bunch of Hank's cousins!

Hank and younger half-sister "I am Kiwi"

Endlich Sommer!

Hello friends and fam!

After what seemed like the longest winter of all time, it's blazing hot here in Klagenfurt. The pup (who is showing some gray hairs as he turned 1 last Wednesday) is tired all the time because he is running around in 90 degree heat with a perma fur jacket on. I myself am feeling like I've finally thawed out after freezing my butt off from November 'til late May, so I can't complain.


In most recent news, I spent 14 days in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina for a study excursion with my International Management class, which was quite the learning experience. I had been to Croatia before for volleyball games, but had never had a chance to explore the beautiful seaside cities and towns that make it such a perfect vacation destination for many Europeans. We first visited Zadar, which was originally settled by the Liburnians sometime before or in 384 BC. HAHAHA. As an American who gets excited about a 100 year old house, Zadar is OLD! But one can imagine why it was a perfect place for humans to live. Its ports are sheltered from harsh ocean weather due to a string of islands that lay just off the coast, acting as breakers for the waves that may otherwise pummel the coast. The weather reflects that of wonderful subtropical Mediterranean temperate climate, so much friendlier than that of Austria!

The wave organ in Zadar

Outside the Falkensteiner resort near Zadar

We spent 4 days visiting various companies and sights in Zadar before moving on to Split, where we had a lecture in an auditorium built inside of Diocletian's Palace. HAHAHA. It's a total joke to me. Having a lecture in a building that was originally erected in the 4th century. What? Unreal.

View of Diocletian's Palace from our lecture auditorium

We spent one fast night in Makarska, a spot with pristine coastline and a perfect vacation vibe. I had some delicious fried calamari there that evening. There's something about eating seafood while sitting a few meters away from the waves that makes an already delicious meal even more delicious!


We then moved on to Medjugorje in Herzegovina, where the Virgin Mary appeared to 6 school children in 1981, now an extremely important place of religious pilgrimage for anyone of the Christian faith. We visited a winery in the area before moving on to Mostar, another old city that was so different from anyplace that I've ever been that I felt like I was walking around in a movie set. Again. HAHAHA.


We headed back towards Austria after that, settling in to our hotel in Zagreb for the last 4 days. I sound like a broken record, but this was also a beautiful city, packed with interesting history and fun things to do. We were busiest in Zagreb, filling our days with visits to various lectures and businesses, but it made that part of the trip most memorable. After our 14 days were over, we headed back to Austria and were met with summer weather in Carinthia!


In other news, as mentioned above, Hank celebrated his first birthday last week! Here's a little video compilation that Marco threw together to commemorate the important event. Yes we're weirdos, but anyone whose heart is not made of ice has to admit that this pup is adorable!!! :)

My season with the Wildcats ended in mid-April, and as the weather has been absolutely glorious, I've embraced the awesomeness of beach volleyball. It's a blast! Besides that, with university stuff wrapping up by the end of this month, I'm hoping to find a part-time summer job to help fill my days until school starts again in the fall. For the 3rd semester of the International Management program we're required to study abroad, so I'll be looking forward to spending several months studying in Ljubljana in neighboring Slovenia. Should be interesting!

Beach volley fun

I am also looking forward to a visit from Tesha, who will be making the trip down from Dresden, my old home whose image has graced the front page of newspapers everywhere due to being the center of a horrible flooding catastrophe that hit large areas across Germany. One look at these pictures and you'll remember how amazingly strong nature can be. Hopefully they'll be able to return to some state of normalcy within the near future, but some of the damage will be irreparable.

Hope all is well with you, and that you'll also get to enjoy some sunshine this summer!

Love, 

Anna

We visited our breeder to meet the next generation of Hanks

PUPPY

Our outfits for a recent Middle Ages themed wedding

Hanky

Inspiration before our last Wildcats game

Ahhh Austria

View from a cafe in Split

The IM group

Linda and I at Diocletian's Palace

Mostar

Endless Winter

Endless winter in Austria

Hello Friends and Family!

It's almost April, but I'm still leaving the house every morning wrapped up in many layers of winter clothes... and up until yesterday, we still had snow on the ground! It's unreal. Seriously, this 5 months of hellish winter stuff makes me really appreciate the wonderfully warm Californian climate. That being said, it should turn into spring here soon, and I will most definitely welcome it with open arms! I'm ready for Klagenfurt to turn into Klagefornia :)

Since my last update came before Christmas, I'll start with a recap from there. We celebrated the holidays with Marco's family at their home in town, and we probably ate our weight in goose and rotkohl and knödel.. It was wonderful. Anyone who has been away from home for the holidays can understand how wonderful it is to find a second family of people who take you in as one of their own, so that instead of constantly thinking about and missing your own family, you're enjoying where you are!

Hank with Uncle Martin

Marco's dad, Marco and Marco's mom with Hank on a hike

We then headed up to Matthias' house on Falkartsee for New Years Eve (a tradition that began in 2009), which was a blast. I tend to have disappointing New Years' whenever I make elaborate plans to pay a ton of money for the "NYE party of the century" (it never turns out the way you expect it to!), so a party with close friends up in the mountains is exactly my kind of New Years. Marco and I headed up a little after noon on the 31st, went on a hike with Whitney and Hank (enjoyed a Radler at the top of the mountain), then started a long evening of hanging out with various friends. Hank wasn't as scared of fireworks as we had expected, which was a relief!

Radlers at the top!

My NYE poker parter, Hank

Sleeping through the fireworks

January was the last month of the first semester of my Masters program, so it was a little stressful on the school side of things. I think I can declare now that accounting is most definitely not my cup of tea! But thankfully through the help of several classmates I was able to close out the semester without failing even the most number-intensive course (quite a feat for me!).

The month of February is usually off for university students in Austria, it's known as the "semester break." It actually came at the perfect time for me, because I was able to fly home to New Jersey for some important family time. I was home for about 10 days and got to see basically all of the Cmaylo side of my family, which doesn't happen often enough! Talia, Jack, Tyler and Chase and I also produced another music video, which you can find here. We're pretty funny, I know. (Or maybe we just think we're funny? Haha)

After getting back in mid-February, I was extremely excited to receive a Bronco visitor by the name of Megan! Her whirlwind work adventures had her in Germany for a speed-skating event, so she came to Austria for a few days of hangout prior to work in the Vaterland. Since we don't get to see each other nearly as often as I'd like, we tried to get the most out of our time together. First we explored Vienna for a day, walking through the amazing winter scenery outside of Schönbrunn Palace and throwing snowballs at targets. Then we dined at a delicious restaurant called "Motto am Fluss," where we had the nicest waitress and the most delicious organic meal. Mmm. If you ever get to Vienna, go there!

Their food... Eat it.

Megan is probably the most important person to have around when you're trying to squeeze every last drop of opportunity out of a day... When I might easily choose snuggle into bed, Megan reminds me that time is of the essence and that we need to make it FUN! So despite having walked umpteen miles through the city that day, we went out for an evening adventure as well, dining at a typical Austrian restaurant where Megan got to try kernöl (pumpkin seed oil)  for the first time. She agrees... Delish!

Megan then came back with me to Klagenfurt for 2 days, where I got to introduce her to all of my people here and show her what my everyday life looks like. That, of course, included a lot of HANK time! Haha. Thankfully she understands crazy dog people, as she has a beautiful pup named Jasper at home in San Diego. (That being said, I don't think Jasper has an affinity for biting noses the same way Hank does!)

Snowy hike with Megan

After sending Megan on her way to Germany, I got ready to start school again, and tried getting Hank ready to spend time alone at home. We struggled with getting him used to being alone when I went to school, but as of now, I can finally say that I think we have it under control. The learning experience included a trip to Hank's birth mom in Styria, who was really helpful in showing us how we could demonstrate what we wanted from him. She's the Cesar Milan of Austria! Since that trip, Hank has been able to stay alone whenever I need to go to school, which is such a relief. Anyone who has struggled with pet anxiety issues knows how frustrating it can be to have to babysit your four-legged friend like you would a human toddler!

With Hank getting a little older and wiser, all is well here. While the rest of my classmates are on Easter break, I am fully engaged in a 2-week intensive German program, which will hopefully leave me with a B2 proficiency certificate by the end of next week. That means that I can show future employers that I could, theoretically, work using the German language, even if I do permanently confuse the der/die/das/dem/den articles!

Finally, the volleyball season is coming to a close. While we were able to make playoffs as the 3rd place team in the Austrian league, we lost handily to a good Hartberg team, which means we'll play for 5th or 6th place overall against the 2nd team from Vienna to end the season. It was definitely disappointing, especially since we had such a successful start to the season, but that's sometimes how sports work!

I hope all is well wherever you find yourself this Easter. Most of all, I hope you get to eat lots of chocolate, since that's what I'm most looking forward to!

xox

Anna

Proud moment: Hank lifts his leg for the first time, choosing to mark the fence as his own

This is what our bathtub looks like after taking Hank to the dog park and showering him upon return home! (Mimi, is your skin crawling???)

Hank kind of enjoying the snow

My lapdog

Just hanging out, watching TV

I think he thinks he's a bunny

Mira and I in Villach

Hank and Linus bring driven by their chauffeur, Anna

Whitney and Kelly joined in on an adventure to Villach

My cuddlepuppy

Snowpup

Hank and Buddy

Hiking with Hank