Austria Journal 3 and 4- Milka and Singing, oh how I love thee.

Tuesday and Wednesday, August 28-29

Two days filled with orientation meetings hardly make good blogging material. I could write for pages and pages about the University policies on alcohol, traveling, laundry...you name it, but unfortunately the administration has already done that in something called the University Handbook. Not only have I read the handbook, but I've also spent most of the past two days listening to it be read aloud and explained in great detail.The highlights of these past few days, however, can be found in a few key events and adventures and moments that were unplanned but certainly set the tone for this dreamlike state of being I'll refer to from now on as The Gaming Haze.

       The Gaming Haze: The dreamlike state of being each Franciscan Student experiences upon arrival at the Kartause in Gaming, Austria. Side effects may include: excessive chocolate consumption, sudden uncontrolled bursts of laughter, silly grins, and commonly heard mutterings of, "This can't be real life" and "ahhhh."

In the interest of keeping this post on topic, structured, and succinct (because I have to wake up for classes in less than 8 hours), I have decided to organize the occurrences of the past few days into 5 bullet points, ranging from 5=fabulous to 1=dropdeadfantabulousx25. You will excuse my cliche terms as such are the units of measurement in the Gaming Haze. 

5. Milka chocolate, the Mensa (Austrian Caf) donuts, the bakery pastries and all sweet things of great goodness that warm my heart gladden my stomach. The first two days we were here, the Mensa did not have anything sweet. Even the yogurt was sour (or so I heard), so by day 3, I was pretty desperate for something, anything to contrast the copious amounts of salty type foods we had been eating. I broke down and asked Alex and Mark to accompany me to the nearby SPAR (local grocery store), where I quickly discovered a buy 2 Milka bars get one free deal, and .40 bars of cheap chocolate with Hazelnuts, which incidentally, I almost prefer to the namebrand stuff. I bought 5 bars of chocolate for under $5, and we're talking REALLY good chocolate here. Unfortunately, since that time and the discovery of the bakery and Mensa donuts, I have consumed more sweets than I care to reveal and have since begun to question the goodness of Milka chocolate for moral and physical health reasons, particularly in the area of gluttony. For the above reasons, I felt that Milka, donuts, and pastries deserved a spot on the list but ranked them a mere 5 for the unfortunate toll they are likely to have on my physique. 

4. Making friends, particularly international ones. Everyone here, being under aforesaid Gaming Haze is of the attitude that you can talk to pretty much anyone and introduce yourself to everyone. This means that people you would often see on main campus but never meet just walk up to you and say hi and somehow it's not awkward. I think this is due to the spirit of camaraderie stimulated by the fact that we all traveled halfway across the globe to reach this place, that we are all Franciscan students in a foreign place so we need to band together, and that there are less than 200 of us total, which minimizes the choices for friendships. The song "We're all in This Together" from High School Musical would be an appropriate theme song if you could somehow add in lederhosen, yodeling, and if we weren't all in college and beyond such trivial things as "High School Musical". But I digress. One especially important aspect of this friendship making fest is the LCI students. LCI stands for Language and Catechetical Institute, a program in place for students from other European (and asian!) countries to join us here to learn English and Catholicism in a wonderful environment. 

Two of the LCI students I met today are Chung (probably totally misspelled) from China and Martin from Slovakia. Chung was at the other end of the table at dinner tonight, but Martin sat next to me, and it was fascinating talking with him for a short time (he was really quiet and didn't volunteer any information beyond what I asked) about Slovakia. 3 of my Mom's grandparents are Slovakian, which makes me 3/8 Slovakian, a fact I'm pretty proud of, because Slovaks are just cool. It turns out Martin knew of Haluski and perogies  and told me about the terrain and capital city, and his own hometown, which is the 2nd biggest city in Slovakia. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand what he called it, partly because it's loud in the Mensa, partly because he's 100% Slovak and I'm not. Also, he looked like a mix between my great grandpa, my grandpa, and my uncle. Altogether a cool experience.

3. The stations of the cross trail up the foothills that is slightly dangerous and majorly beautiful. The paintings could practically be in an art museum and instead they're under little roofed shelters in the open air on the side of a cliff. The "path" is criss-crossed by slippery rockbeds and gnarled tree roots which make things just scary enough to be thrilling. Alex, Mark, and I explored the first 3 stations but had to make our way back because it was getting dark and we all had meetings for ministry stuff, but we plan to go back asap. More on this to come in our Vlog if we ever figure out the video software to edit the stuff we've filmed. If someone wants to send me a mac complete with imovie, it would be greatly appreciated. I'll pay you back in laughs (from the videos) and prayers (said in a monastery from the 1200s!).

2. The opportunities available here. Two major mission trip options to Lourdes and a Romanian orphanage, Poland, Rome, and Assisi pilgrimages, learning pretty much any language you want, tons of local ministries, mass every day,adoration all the time, praise and worship weekly, and audience with the pope, 3 day weekends and two huge breaks to travel all over europe, swop jobs to pay for some of it, beauty surrounding me EVERYWHERE, and the food. Oh yes. The food. Excuse me while I wipe a bit of drool of my keyboard. I think you get the picture. From edible to historical to spiritual, the opportunities to experience and grow are mind blowing. I'm praying I have the time to manage everything I want to do while I'm here. :)

1. MUSIC MINISTRY!!!

Having auditioned my freshman fall semester on main campus and not made it in, I was reluctant to try out again, but something about this place made me want to do it. Maybe it was the smaller numbers and consequent lower level competition, maybe it was confidence from the voice lessons I took over the summer, maybe it was really just God stirring something special in my heart-- a calling to minister in a way for which I was not ready my freshman year (not that I feel much more ready now). Whatever the reason, I decided, somewhat nervously, to audition yesterday night. It went fairly well, but I worried far into the night about it (auditions in general mess with my head). I tried to place it in God's hands. I tried to feel like it would be the best for me whatever He chose, but it's hard to feel that way, when you care about something. Well, anyway, this time God blessed me with far beyond what I'd been dreaming (actually, doesn't He always seem to do that in the end?) When I checked the list this morning, I discovered, to my complete surprise, that I had been selected music lead of the acapella group to sing for Thursday's mass. I was humbled, honestly I was, but it wasn't until Sister Sarah Rose (in charge of music) explained all the duties involved and the sheer responsibility of choosing music and organizing the team and singing lead itself that I was struck by just what a huge honor this was. I honestly don't know where to start, but apparently God has some great plans for this adventure. I put this as number one not only because it was the biggest way in which I felt His love these past few days, but also because I feel like it best characterizes the kinds of incredible things that are happening in my life right now in Gaming Austria.

And with that being said and this post keeping me far past my bedtime, I will bid you Guten Abend. Goodnight :) One of the only words I know...I'm sure that will be helpful in my 8am Elementary German class tomorrow.