Why I volunteer

A non-profit organization I volunteer for recently received some criticism on social media about how they depend mainly on volunteers rather than paid employees. One person even used the phrase exploitation in her criticism. I have been so tempted to respond, but I know that replying to negative comments on social media is rarely fruitful. 

Shaw Spouses' Club Scholarship Ceremony. As President, I had the pleasure of presenting the scholarship recipients with their certificates. But the scholarship committee work was completed by a group of very dedicated and smart ladies. It was a pleasure to work with them and then see the result of all that work in the appreciation and gratitude of all the recipients. 

I am a serial volunteer. At the moment, I am volunteering for four different organizations/groups simultaneously. This is not normal. Most people do not or cannot commit to that much, but for me it is what I enjoy most. I purposely chose a part-time job so that I could have time to focus on the volunteer work that I enjoy. I am lucky that I am able to make that decision and super grateful that my husband supports my volunteer habit. 

I don't know if this was so much a volunteer event, but we participated in Color for a Cause to try to win a prize for our organization. Coloring for a couple hours straight is tougher than it sounds, but was always fun to do with our group. 

Why do I volunteer? Ultimately, it is so rewarding! I love being able to put work into a project and see the result of that effort. One of the organizations I currently volunteer for is the USO. Our local USO office is super active and always has something going on. There have been many times where I have volunteered for a cooking/baking shift and then volunteered at the giveaway shift and it has been amazing to see the genuine appreciation and happiness that brings people. Another organization I volunteer for is the local military spouses' club where I serve as Membership chair. Seeing all the new members join and sharing all the fun things we do together brings me joy. The spouses' club, because of our well-performing Thrift Shop, is also able to donate a massive amount of money in welfare grants and scholarships to our local community. Being a part of that is exciting!

Chocolate chip cookie giveaway day was fun! Who isn't happier after eating a cookie???

Another reason I love to volunteer is because it is flexible. Of course there are hard deadlines even with volunteer gigs, but most of the time the work is on my own time and schedule. If I have a busy week or we are traveling, it is so much easier to put down a volunteer responsibility. It is not as easy with a paid position.

Creating graphics for MSAN has been so much fun! I feel so lucky to be able to do this for a globally impactful organization. 

Volunteering also helps me explore skills that I am not able to cultivate very easily in the workforce. One thing that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE is social media marketing and creating graphics. I am completely self-taught so there is little chance that I would be able to obtain a paid position doing that kind of work. But volunteer work is a lot easier to come by. Without volunteering, I would not have discovered that passion. I am about to pursue a Master's Certificate program in Social Media Marketing which could possibly lead to more opportunities of a paid position in that field, but without the volunteer work first I would not have known that is something I enjoy doing. 

Making graphics for the SCSC is not even part of my job as Membership chair, but I offered and they let me. When else in my life would I have the chance to make an 80's themed flier? This was a fun one to make because I could be a little crazy with the design.

Volunteers are also treated a little differently than paid employees. This was a discussion we recently had during a Military Spouse Advocacy Network (MSAN) meeting. Because volunteers are not paid, the standards and expectations are less strict and more flexible. It is nice not to have the same pressure that a paid employee has. There is something to be said for having goals and accountability and when I was President of my last spouses' club I struggled with how to keep volunteers accountable for their responsibilities while being mindful that they are volunteers. Being a part of MSAN has been helpful for me to see that modeled in an effective way. MSAN starts off every volunteer experience in a professional manner, as if it were a paid position. They have an HR department. We have required training modules. We have team meetings. We sign paperwork. It is all official. But they also understand that we are volunteers and have other things going on in our lives and are always checking in to make sure the requested workload is not too much. It is set up in teams so that if one person has a lot going on, we can lean on each other and pick up tasks from each other. MSAN also makes a huge effort to show appreciation to all of their volunteers which is a important key to successfully maintaining a volunteer "workforce". 

Handing out trail mix to the military community was fun! 

Last, for those familiar with the Five Love Languages, you will recognize Words of Affirmation as one of the love languages. That is my primary language and volunteering often fulfills me in that area. Volunteers are often recognized formally more often than paid employees are (at least from my experience in the workforce). This is another reason that I get so much enjoyment from volunteering. I enjoy being recognized. I enjoy being appreciated. It can be simple thank you's, a free dinner, a certificate or even a "major award." Sometimes, I will admit, this is a major reason why I volunteer. I feel a little guilty admitting that, but it does not negate the good that comes out of the time I give. The USO has a really great volunteer appreciation program where after certain levels of volunteer hours you receive fun USO swag. A friend and I volunteer at the USO together often and we always joke that we are working to get the fancy gold nametag that you receive after 100 volunteer hours. In the end, it is just a name tag, but knowing that we earned it is the exciting part. Sure you can earn a paycheck, but somehow the things you earn as a volunteer feel so much more special. 

For this USO project, we put together doggy goodie bags. Not mentioned in my diatribe, but volunteering has introduced me to so many new people! 

Volunteering is not for everyone. I have noticed in every organization that I have been a part of that there are some volunteers that give an exceptional amount of their time to the cause. Organizations thrive on those individuals. And I know that every one of those organizations wishes they could pay their volunteers their worth. Unfortunately that is not always possible in order to maintain the programs and projects that make up the mission of that organization. That is the nature of non-profits. And that is why I will continue to volunteer and encourage others to join me. 

Anniversary trip: Bratislava

 

Did you know that Vienna and Bratislava are the two closest capital cities in the world? They are only about an hour apart from each other. We took a bus from Vienna to Bratislava to spend the day and check off Slovakia from the list of countries we have visited. 

To get the most of our time in the city, we booked a walking tour through Airbnb. It was the perfect start to our day as it gave us a ton of interesting information and history about the city, but it was short enough that we could meander around afterward. 

The above picture is showing where the Jewish synagogue used to stand. You can see it outlined in stone on the ground and there are a bunch of displays talking about the history and showing pictures of it. I love that they memorialized it this way and it's a shame that it was torn down.

There are a few quirky statues around the historic center of Bratislava and this is one of them. It's located just outside the French embassy and is poking fun at the French. 

This statue, as was explained to us by our guide, is memorializing a man who was iconic to Bratislava. From my understanding, he was a homeless man, but he was always dressed to the nines as depicted in the statue. He was a very jovial and friendly person and I just love how the artist is showcasing an everyday person. 

This one is called Man at Work. In normal times, our guide said, this statue is surrounded by crowds for pictures. When we went after the tour to grab a picture, there were a few people but it was nice not to have to wait around too long for a picture. 

When researching Bratislava, we saw this blue church and chose to see it in person. It's just outside the historic city center, but it was so neat looking that I am glad we took the detour to see it. We did not go inside, so I'm not sure how it compares to the unique exterior. 

This is a fun statue of Hans Christian Anderson that is along the boulevard in the city center. This was a lovely tree lined area with cafes and benches. Great for people watching!

For lunch we found a restaurant that serves traditional Slovakian dishes and gave it a try! Everything was delicious!

Labor Day Weekend in Austria: Side trip to Liechtenstein

Another goal of our Labor Day weekend trip was to visit Liechtenstein. It's a small country that borders Austria and Switzerland and you can drive through the whole country in an hour (or less). We started in Vaduz, the capitol. It was filled with sculptures, like the one pictured above. 

We did not go inside the church since we had Suzie with us, but the outside gave us some good photo opportunities and they had a free bathroom that we took advantage of. 

We drove up the hill to see the Liechtenstein palace. The royal family lives there so visitors are not permitted inside, but there are hiking trails nearby that give different vantage points of the outside. On our way out of town back to Germany, we visited the Prince's winery and picked up a few bottles of wine. 

For our one night in Liechtenstein, we stayed in Malbun. It's a big ski resort town, but in September it was just beautiful and chill. We walked into the town from our hotel and snagged some pictures of this little church. 

We found a little free library with a Max & Mortiz book inside. I snapped a photo and sent to my sisters who I knew would appreciate it. There used to be a German restaurant in our home town that was named after these characters. I was tempted to take the book home with me, but thought it better to leave for a little kid to enjoy. 

For dinner in Malbun, we visited a pizza place. For some reason, the restaurant was decorated like a cave complete with cave paintings like the one pictured behind us. The pizza was pretty tasty and the ambiance was interesting. The place was pretty empty, but I imagine during ski season it is a happenin' place. 

This is what happens when you are an American living in Germany and visiting a country that uses the Swiss outlets. We did not realize that Liechtenstein did not use the same outlets as Germany, but luckily the hotel had an adapter that we could borrow. 

Our hotel had a great breakfast buffet! It had the typical sliced cheese and deli meats and breads, but also sausage, eggs and more. We also tried Ovomaltine for the first time. It's a chocolate and nut spread not unlike Nutella, but it was crunchy! I am going to have to look for it in the German grocery store next time I'm there. 

Labor Day Weekend in Austria: Feldkirch

On our way out of the Braz/Bludenz area, we stopped in Feldkirch, Austria. I had originally thought about staying here, but when it came time to book the hotel the one I had my eye on was fully booked. We visited on a Sunday so most of the shops were closed, but we still had a nice time walking around the area. They had a river walk that was lovely, too. 

Labor Day Weekend in Austria: Braz and Burs

For our long Labor Day Weekend, we visited Austria. After a few weekends in cities seeing all the sites, I was ready for a relaxing, no pressure kind of getaway. After searching and searching for just the right spot, Charles found an inn in Braz, Austria that would fit the bill. It was right next to a beautiful Alpine church that came complete with church bells. 

The inn had their own in-house restaurant which included free breakfast in the morning with a selection of meats, cheeses, rolls, yogurt and more. The coffee was delicious and it filled us up for our hiking ventures. 

On the first night, we enjoyed dinner at the inn's restaurant. I had goulash with polenta and Charles had venison. Everything was delicious!

Right near the inn was a hiking path by the river. We brought Suzie down there and she enjoyed splashing around and drinking the fresh water. It wasn't quite like being at the beach, which is one of Suzie's happy places, but we could tell it made her happy nonetheless. 

For hiking, there were tons of options within the area. We chose a trail that started in Burs which was an adorable town in its own right. Can you imagine what it would be like to live here and have views of the Alps right out of your window??? 

Part of the trail we took was a Fairy Tale trail and had these gnome people at various stops. We somehow veered off the trail onto another one so we missed some of the tales, but we still had a nice walkabout.

Anniversary Trip: Vienna

Our thirteenth (I can't believe it has been that many years already) wedding anniversary was earlier this month and to celebrate we took a trip to Vienna, Bratislava and Nuremberg. 

Upon arrival in Vienna, we grabbed dinner around the corner from the Airbnb at a place called Coconut Curry. We had some delicious sushi and Asian dishes. One thing I thought was neat, and then noticed it at other restaurants and cafes around Vienna, was that at the outdoor tables the restaurants provided blankets. It was a slightly chilly evening, but I am sure the closer and closer we get to winter the more necessary those blankets become! 

Vienna is set up in different zones and we stayed in the zone with Prater Park which is a very old amusement park. The Ferris wheel is iconic to Vienna and promises great views of the area. Since I am afraid of heights, this was not something I wanted to try out for myself. The park is completely free to enter so we walked around to see all the rides and other typical amusement park booths. 

St. Stephan's Cathedral is at the center of the 1st District and where all the tourists flock to. It has a really interesting roof made up of a patterned tile. 

This is a neat art installation inside the Cathedral. I love that it's included as a statement of how the Cathedral is still a modern part of the city and that it still values art. Cathedrals and churches throughout Europe are great places to see amazing pieces of art and architecture, but they don't always feature anything new. 

St. Stephen's has two towers that visitors can visit for views of the city. One of the towers is only accessible by elevator and it was broken on the day of our visit, so we visited the top of the other tower which is accessible by climbing over 300 stairs. Needless to say, I was a bit tired after that climb. But we got that promised view over the city. 

We visited the Butterfly House and saw a bunch of beautiful butterflies fluttering about. This would be a great place to visit on a cold day as it was nice and toasty inside. However, after visiting the butterfly house in Niagara, this one felt so small. 

Vienna, like many old cities, is filled with statues. I have no idea what this one is representing (if only I remembered more symbols from my college art history classes), but we loved the faces and drama of this one. 

We did not take any other pictures inside, but on the rainy day of our visit we headed over to the House of Music to walk around. It had a lot of interactive exhibits and information about some of Vienna's famous composers and musicians. At the very end, you enter a hallway that is dark except for this neon sign. I loved how, after all the music and sounds from the museum, they offered a relatively quiet space to reset before heading back out into the bustling city.

One of the highlights of our trip was a pastry tour that we booked through Airbnb. Unlike our food tour in Prague, we had two other couples on the tour with us which led to some fun conversations and a little less awkwardness. We visited several places all over Vienna and tried a variety of traditional Viennese desserts. This picture is from one of our favorites where we tried dumplings and strum. Strum is from the first harvest of grapes for wine and has a low alcohol content and is very sweet. It is only available for a limited time, though, so our trip was timed perfectly to try it!

Oktoberfest Quiche

I am not normally one to go off-book when it comes to recipes. I love following directions. I love rules. I am not a confident cook. However, I had this idea to make an Oktoberfest or German themed quiche to bring to a Fest potluck with the other residents in our apartment building. I searched Pinterest and did not come up with anything exactly like what I had in mind, so I combined ideas from a couple different recipes and came up with my own Oktoberfest Quiche. It is a little risky serving something you have never made or tried before, but it turned out pretty tasty! 

This was my first time wearing my brand new dirndl! I am in love with it and so glad I found it in the sale section. Not only did I save a bunch compared to buying a current season style, but I had my eye on this exact one from my online browsing. Finding it in my size at 50% off made my day! And of course Suzie was a big hit in her "dirndl". 

In addition to my Oktoberfest Quiche, I brought my German Apple Cake. This is one of my favorite things in life and this time I made a salted caramel frosting instead of the typical vanilla buttercream. Yummy! It's not authentically German AT ALL! Germans would never make something that sweet, but it was made with apples we picked in Germany, so that makes it more legitimate to me.