Machines, Maria Taferl, and Melk

This is what I did Monday. (That was for my benefit, not yours.)

I used my cool Austrian alarm clock to wake up. I’m not sure if it’s going to survive this semester, because I’m used to my quiet little phone vibrating, and I don’t react well to blaring buzzing in my ear. I hit it pretty hard. Oops ;)

After a shower (I figured out the shower, no probs. Win!) I headed down to the Menza for breakfast, where I learned that with Austrian Coffee machines (which also dispense hot water for tea) you have to hit a stop button to keep it from overflowing. Then I stopped in Maria Thron (Mary Throne), our Church here at the Kartause (pronounced Cart-ow-za, something I failed to mention earlier), to pray. I love that Church.

After the Church we had another talk, slightly less boring than the others. It was given by Professor Franz Schneider. He’s the German professor. He’s kinda awesome.

Then we got on a bus and headed out to Maria Taferl for our first FUS-planned/paid for trip. I almost cried it was so beautiful. For the record, I’m usually not a fan of Baroque architecture, by any means. However, this Church had so much… love. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was holy ground. So many people have given God their everything there in that building. So, so beautiful. Below are the pictures.

 

After exploring/praying/nearly having my heart explode from joy we went to dinner at a fancy Austrian restaurant, paid for by the school. I didn’t think to take pictures until dessert, which I couldn’t eat anyways, haha. This is what was for dessert:

These are the reviews of the the dessert:
Emily: Love on a plate.
Helen: Very dead and bloody smiley face. (she made a smiley with the cherry sauce. She’s not really as creepy as she sounds.)
Storm: The chicken nugget part was strange; the other part was cherries. (looked like chicken nuggets, was not actually.)
Matt: As not being a very high fan of cherries, it wasn’t bad.
Mary: it was like a giant donut hole covered in powdered sugar covered in cherries and cherry syrup.

After Maria Taferl we got back on the buses and drove to Melk, where we visited and toured the Church and the surrounding area. I took some pictures, but my pathetic camera can’t even begin to capture how ornate everything was, so you can find some more here. The best of mine are below.

Gerda, our tour guide, and a stairwell with a mirror at the bottom so it looks huge.

This was the tiny, simple Eucharistic Chapel in the Melk Abbey. It was, without a doubt, my favorite part. It was beautiful.

My Britni being gorgeous, and Matt. I took the picture through two bus windows.

Melk was much more ornate than Maria Taferl. It was bigger, and had a long history of being passed from various secular and religious leaders. It was very impressive, but for some reason I didn’t get the same sense of wonder that I did in Maria Taferl. I’ve actually thought about it a lot, and I’ve come to the conclusion that Maria Taferl simply spoke to me on a deeper level. Even before I really realized that it had been a site for pilgrims for centuries, that people had literally died trying to get there, I felt that it was sacred. It’s incredible how much God can fill a building with His grace. He is so good to us to meet us in such a way.

We were very, very late coming back from Melk, which is rare, because Austrians are super big on being punctual and proper. When we got back we ate dinner right away, and then chilled for a bit until we got to go to a talk about drinking! Oh joy. (sarcasm there. lots of it.) It was good to be made aware of the differences between European and American alcohol though, because drinks here usually have a higher alcohol content than back home. Then we got our Austrian cell phones. Here is mine:

Yeah. It’s a beast. I know. It has the Snake game though! I think I will become great friends with it. It doesn’t have a setting where it only vibrates though, so it beeps at me! Ugh. We also got a chance to sign up for student work jobs here. Pray for me! I didn’t sign up for a cleaning position, because honestly I’m a little tired of custodial work. I’ll do it if that’s all they have though. Hopefully I’ll get one of the few secretarial jobs though. That’d be great. (:

THEN, I got to talk to Hannah!!! So much happiness. Then bed. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to talk about Tuesday tonight as well.

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.

Bam Baby. Foreign Countries.

Ok. So… I’m sitting in the Detroit airport right now with Emily and Jeanine. Emily is the girl who lives in Toledo who got me here (whom I love) and Jeanine is another Franciscan student who will be traveling to Austria with us. It is 8:55am. Our flight leaves at 10:10. This has been a crazy morning already.

First of all, I left home last night. Dad drove me to Toledo to meet Emily. We all prayed together, and then took off. There was bad weather on the way this morning, so Emily and her mom wanted to drive in that night and stay in a hotel. It was a good time. The hotel was “swanky” ;) and it was right near the airport, so we were able to get there fast. This morning we got up and were downstairs to meet the shuttle by 6:20am. We got to check-in (I am going to be SO buff if I keep carrying those bags. For real.) and Emily went through, no problem. Then it was my turn.

To sum up a very long story: because of technical difficulties and bad advice from the Study Abroad advisor at Franciscan, I wasn’t able to get a Visa. She told me that it would be easier on everyone if I just applied for a residency permit after I got there, because, due to the technical difficulties there was a chance a Visa wouldn’t come in on time. She said it’s been done before and shouldn’t be that big of an issue, it would just cost a bit. To me, it was worth it to make sure that I would be able to get in the country. Then, this morning at check-in we had some problems. Apparently, because I also have a return flight that shows I’ll be in Austria for over three months, the computers automatically show that I need a Visa. It took some special calls and some convincing (and fifteen of the most heart-stopping terrifying minutes of my life) but finally it went through. Now we’re just really, really hoping they let me through customs after we get to the country. Whew.

I’ve never done things the easy way before, and apparently I couldn’t just start today. Dang it.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to get internet, but I’ll keep adding to this until I do. Pray for us!

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I still haven’t had a chance to type up what happened after this, but I’m working on it! It’s been exhausting, but so, so good. I’ll let you know soon! (:

Yesterday…

 

Hannah left for Marietta.

Oh yeah. This thing.

Over a week ago, I started writing a post about Christmas. I never finished it. Turns out it’s easy to get distracted around here. Who woulda thought?

As always, it’s been pretty busy, especially now that it’s crunch time for Austria preparations. All of a sudden I realized that this thing is legit. Me. Foreign countries. It’s gonna happen.

Half of me is really pumped. I can’t wait to hike my way through Europe, and take a billion pictures, have adventures, get lost, laugh and cry with my friends, get to know our household’s intents, visit every single Catholic Church I come across, see miracles, pray, praise, learn, and have my life changed. It generally sounds like a pleasant experience.

The other half of me is aware that five months is a long time, and I’m going to miss a lot. I have a few really close friends that I love and will miss, but saying goodbye to my family will be even harder. Five months is a lot of time to miss out on when siblings are growing a few inches every week. Or something like that. Birthdays. Musicals. Life lessons. Accomplishments. Easter. People say absence makes the heart grow fonder. I say having distance between you and people you love really sucks. I know God is calling me to do this though. He has provided for it, and I am so grateful! I know it will be a blessing. Goodbyes are just hard. Part of life, but hard nonetheless. And please, don’t try to tell me “It’s not goodbye, it’s I’ll see you later.” because that’s dumb. Goodbyes are real and I’d rather say them than spend the rest of my life wishing I had. Lesson learned.

All that aside, we’re gonna rock Austria ;)

Oh my. I meant to write about Christmas and other happenings, didn’t I? Good plan.

Christmas Eve was a little hard. It wasn’t just the night before Christmas, it was also the 8 month anniversary of my daddy dying. I was having a hard time, but my family was there for me, as always.
Alaina Berry, Jordan’s beautiful girlfriend, and her family, bought us the Just Dance game for our Wii. One of the most incredible experiences of my life was watching my little brothers and our friend Dylan discovering their hips while dancing to Katy Perry and Spice Girls. Hate the songs, LOVE the dancers (;  .
Mama, Dad, and Hannah all came with me to the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass. Best present I could have ever asked for, and I didn’t even have to ask. When we got home we did a few last minute preparations, and then Hannah and I stayed up until ridiculous hours talking (a habit we’ve fallen into recently. recently = since break started). I’d written her a song as a present, and I’d been dying to tell her about it for days. I’d been hinting obnoxiously, simply because I couldn’t help myself, and finally when I saw the clock was past midnight, I had to show her. Somehow, despite the fact that it is basically the hardest thing ever for me to keep a secret from this girl, she still managed to be surprised. She seemed to like it, which was good (:

The next morning (an hour or so after we went to bed) Timmy came running in. I tried to shush him so he wouldn’t wake Hannah, but that didn’t work. Apparently there is no shushing on Christmas morning. Then it was downstairs in PJ’s and sweats for presents and pictures. Everyone was happy with their presents. Hannah got me harmonicas! I’d mentioned that I wanted them, but she wasn’t sure if I was kidding or not. I wasn’t, so I was super happy. There are seven on them, and if space allows, they will totally be coming to Austria with me. My guitar is coming for sure, so no matter what there are going to me some jam sessions taking place. (:

Later that night we had a big Christmas dinner with the slightly more extended family, followed by a giant nerf gun war. Naturally.
It was awesome. I love Christmas. I love my family. I love my life.
Happy belated birthday Jesus! <3

Well, that’s all for now. Still to come:
Family trip to Kentucky
New Years
Shopping with my mother
Planning for Austria???

Peace and blessings everybody. Peace and blessings.