Days Ein (1) and Zwei (2)

(Weird words above are pronounced ein as in stein and svi (rhymes with spy) They’re German. That’s what they speak here in Austria!)

Pics from where we left off:

Emily and Jeanine

Emily trying not to be in the picture and Me displaying the weird cinnamon mint things the hotel tried to give us. They looked like drugs.

Waiting…

After I finished typing up the last post, Emily, Jeanine, and I found some other Franciscan Students in the airport. Turns out we were at the wrong gate, haha. It’s ok. It worked out well. We boarded our plane without any issues, and I ended up sitting next to a slightly older woman wearing a lot of lavender. She was having a mid-life crisis. Apparently she was an architect who had recently been laid off of work and was having trouble deciding whether to go into business working under another person again or start out on her own. We spent quite awhile discussing her options, before moving on to her recent vacations in Africa. Apparently she enjoyed observing the sand people and how happy they are with their simple lives. Kind of ironic for a woman who is making picking a job SO DARN COMPLICATED. Whew. Glad I got that out. Anyways, I dozed for a bit and we got to Dulles.

Sarah – She transferred into FUS for this semester so she could come to Austria with us! This is while we were waiting to board in Detroit.

Natalie – I met her in Detroit, and I love her. We’re on the shuttle in Dulles, heading to our departure gate for Austria.

Sarah, Jeanine, and Emily on the shuttle to our gate in Dulles.

Emily – She’s gorgeous, basically. This is after we landed in Dulles (DC), and we’re waiting the five hours till departure to Austria

After we landed and I updated the various people I love so they would know I was alive, I found some food and tried to sleep. Fail. People kept showing up, and of course I had to hug them and freak out. More people kept showing up, and a couple of us had praise and worship. Yep. Right there in the airport. I love my school. Right before they started boarding the plane I realized that it was likely that not all the Franciscans who had recently showed up knew about the little paper they wanted us to fill out and turn in pre-boarding. Naturally, I grabbed the stack and went around to make sure everybody was taken care of. My friends all laughed cause I’m such a mom. Haha (:

One of the first things I did when I got on the plane was plug in the headphones. The first song they played was Wavin' Flag. It made me smile a lot. Then it was Sweet Home Alabama. I think they were trying to appeal to the American passengers. Good job Austrian Airlines. We appreciate your efforts. Or something. 

Franciscan students made up about 1/3 of the plane. However, I was one of the few who didn’t end up next to another student. The man who sat down next to me had a British accent, an Indiana Jones hat, and drank tonic with his dinner. The dinner was chicken by the way. I think I ate three bites. After dinner the man, whose name was Peter, and I struck up a conversation. He was an agnostic, so the conversation ended up being 3 1/2 hours long. Creation, women in the Catholic Church, abortion, homosexuality, government, and the weird new-age book he had recently read.  He was a really nice guy and wasn’t out to convince me I was a lunatic, so the conversation was actually pleasant. However, I was sick, exhausted, and incredibly uncomfortable in the ridiculous seat (we were up against the back of our section, so the seats couldn’t really go very far out of their 95 degree angle they were in), so I was glad when we decided to call it quits. I then curled up in a ball to the best of my ability and tried to sleep. I managed about half an hour… right through breakfast, haha.

When we landed we all had a revelation. It was WARM. I mean, seriously, it was 40 degrees out. That’s twice the temperature of Norwalk when I left. So much for sub-zero. Stupid lies and untruths online. I’m not really upset though, because it is beautiful. There are a lot of hills, and it actually looks very similar to Pennsylvania. We went through customs (no issues with my lack of visa!!!) and were met by some of the friars and sisters from the Kartause. They are awesome (: I dragged/carried/almost died because of that bloody huge bag. We got on the bus and an hour and a half later we were in Gaming! We were met by a welcome crew made up of staff and KIDS. There are children here!!!!! There is this one boy who looks pretty similar to Micah and acts EXACTLY like him. The similarities were so striking that I asked how old he was. Ten. Bam. Called that. The kids gave us roses and helped us with our bags. I’m so pumped to be able to play with little people at college!!! It’ll help since I’m in a perpetual state of missing my brothers/sisters/cousins.

These are all pictures from the bus ride from the airport in Vienna to the Kartause in Gaming.

Mel McChesney!!! She’s an intent to Regina Angelorum and she’s AMAZING!!! 0:D

My friends Jose, Emily, and Catherine. Emily is also an intent!!! 0:D

After check-in we were given a chance to grab our towels and other random free stuff left by former Gaming-students, and drop stuff off in our rooms. We got a quint! There was a very small chance it would happen, but it did. We’re crazy blessed. I am now officially rooming with the beautiful Emily Barrick, Britni Gordon, Mary Lipscombe, and Helen Dennehy. (left to right in the pic below).

Note: This pic was taken today at Maria Taferl, which I’ll blog about later.

Then we had our first meal in the Menza. That’s the caf here. I ate yogurt and granola, and I’ve eaten it with every meal since. It’s basically the only stable thing, aside from the bread/meat/cheese platter. The rest is adventurous.

After lunch I took a nap, where I had a dream about Hannah. It was weird, because when I talked to her later she said she’d had a dream about me. So odd. After that we had Mass. It was absolutely amazing. The church is gorgeous, and I had forgotten what an incredible blessing it is to go to Mass with other people who have the same appreciation for what it is and who we are as Catholics. I love my Franciscan family. After Mass was dinner (more yogurt) and then some chill time before we went to a rather boring talk by the president of the Austria program. The only interesting thing about it was that, when he gets excited, he makes the same hand gestures that I do. I got to see how ridiculous they look. I lol-ed. (:

When that was over we all went back to the room, unpacked (mostly) and went to sleep. Yay sleep…

Whew. That was it for days one and two. I’m trying to be thorough, in case you didn’t notice. If you don’t like that much detail… skip some.

Exhaustion. I’ll tell you all about today, but not until tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll actually catch up sometime.