Austria in Hindsight

It's a crazy life in Ohio, just over four months after "Austria" happened. I still look back on it all the time; with each passing day, I grow more and more thankful for the semester I spent there.

In hindsight, I'm so thankful that I didn't get the Celiac diagnosis until I returned. That way, I was able to to sample all that chocolate and all those waffles guilt-free. (not sickness free, but guilt-free!) That's my one exception to the ignorance is not bliss rule.

I can wear 0" heels here without death glares from every female in a 50 foot radius. And that makes me thankful to be an American.

You know, the people you sleep in train stations with? Well, you come to know each other pretty well. And I am thankful that I can rely on them to have my back--literally, when I am falling off a bench out of sleep-deprivation, and figuratively, when I just need a friend. You don't just forget people who you've been through a lot with.

But probably what I am most thankful for is the opportunity to have witnessed what it means to be a part of the Universal Church. Having been able to experience in a very tangible way the magnanimity of our faith, I have found since returning that I have so much more to draw from spiritually in the face of struggles, doubts, and tragedies.

I think I wrote before that Austria was like a spiritual slap in the face. And I stand by that claim still. It hurts a lot. You can sort of see it coming, you can sort of brace yourself, but no matter what, it stings. Afterwards, though, you are stronger for it. Physiologically speaking, the pain of the slap even stimulates an endorphin release.

...and hey, if we don't suffer, and die with Christ, we can't rise with Him. So if my spiritual physiology is correct, I'm pretty sure the slap all works out for the best. The very best.

And there is so much more that I just can't put in words, and I know that I have so much more to learn from Austria. I hope at the very least that I have allowed some of what I have experienced to change me for the better.

I'll just have to leave you with a song by one Kevin Heider. He went to Austria a few years before me and wrote this about everything he experienced there. I suppose it hits most home to those who can relate to what he's singing about, but maybe if you listen you'll get a hint of the glory that is four months in Austria.

Peace, and God bless.

Auf Wiedershehen!

Weirdest feeling ever? Walking up the stairs to my room after finishing my last final this morning. Now that I have no more classes or exams I have two days to wrap up good ol' life in Austria.

Is this the place where I insert some sappy, reflective essay on the experience of a semester in Europe? That I can do. Contrary to some people’s belief, my heart is not permanently made of stone.

For starters, I can't believe how much I managed to write down here...and yet how much there is still to tell or can't be told for lack of words.

To say this semester was emotionally charged would be the truth. It wasn’t in that teenish angsty way but a…this-is-life sort of way. I have yet to live the rest of my life, but I think being here in Austria has put a lot of it what will happen in the future into perspective. No matter what happens, I will always have this time to look back on and draw from. Given the broad spectrum of experiences, these past four months will no doubt be the semester that keeps on giving.

My philosophy class alone has shown me victory and defeat, confusion and superactual understanding. There you go, I just used the word superactual in a sentence…It might be best to leave now after all. The rest of Europe has shown me everything from the horrors of Auschwitz and the misery of oppression in Poland…to the glory of Rome, the beauty of Italy, and the profound mercy of God. There have been ups and downs from missing trains to witnessing miracles…and many, many more.

And the food! Europeans know how to eat, I tell ya. The chocolate is to die for (Teej, I stand by my claim that you’re out of you mind, but I have Italian AND Austrian Nutella for you), the pasta is outta this world. Everything! Everything! The kebabs! The coffee! The wine! The cheese! (Yes, I’m still lactose intolerant, but I will say that brie here is better than it is in the states). Life is so good here!

I will miss a lot of things, maybe not the Mensa food or zimmels, but definitely the view I wake up to every morning:

..and military time! I’ve really become fond of military time.

And the community. The community at the Kartause has no equivalent. You walk around this ex-monastery and you can just feel the how much every person here craves to experience life…from jumping in the freezing creek across the street at midnight (in the snow no less), to spelunking in the mountains…to dance parties in Rome… and Philosophy what-the-heck-was-Dr. Harold-talking-about sessions in the tea kitchens over coffee. Really that’s just a taste, because the list goes on and on. Life does too. I know that every person here will walk with a special place in his heart for home sweet Gaming. I know I will.

I’d say Austria was a success. It’s bittersweet to leave, but in a few days it’ll be time. The rest of today, tomorrow and Wednesday will be spent cleaning and packing…actually no…most of it will be spent in the mountains. Most of procrastination for final studying was packing, so there’s really not much left to do. Thursday we have our closing mass at 00:01 followed by a bonfire…before we head to the airport where we must wave this glorious semester goodbye…or should I say Auf Wiedersehen!

Thanks to everyone who made this semester so incredible…and everyone who stuck with me on the blogosphere. You rock. See you soon!

God bless,
Mary

Apparently they were right.

Thanksgiving, Kartause Style

I can hardly appreciate in one day the blessings that I have received this past year, let alone this past semester. Getting to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Gaming with students and faculty that I’ve gotten to know so well and become so fond of was yet another blessing.

Thanksgiving run down:

Our town celebrated its Thanksgiving months ago, so we at the Kartause were alone in our 4^th-Thursday-of-November-Turkey-roast…so we got to go to class on Thursday morning, since everyone else in Austria does that.

Mid-day was the Thanksgiving mass. We borrowed from Austrian tradition and had an enormous harvest crown brought in holding a bunch of fruits and veggies that Father Brad blessed. After mass everyone was invited to take a blessed fruit or veggie...and I must say blessed apples taste better than regular ones. For some reason nobody wanted the tomatoes, so we had a salsa party in Father Brad's office while he tried to figure out how to play Amazing Grace on his electric guitar. That didn't sound so good.

No Thanksgiving is complete without football. With no TV in sight, a bunch of the guys headed out to the intramural fields and started a pickup game in the afternoon.

Come 1730, it was time for the feast. From the belly of the kitchen came a turkey flaming with sparklers, at the sight of which the entire Mensa broke out in song with The Star Spangled Banner.

Post-dinner was the ball. We all dressed up in Dirndles and Lederhosen and learned Austrian folk dances until the Schuhplattler guys came in and showed us all up.

I can safely say it was no Rhode Island Thanksgiving. We only have 11 more days here (ah!!), and I can't think of a better way to have started wrapping up the semester.

'Tis the Season...in Austria

Today, the kids I babysit here informed me that Krampus was going to come and get me if I didn’t let them have more Milka.

P.S. from Rome...

...the pope says hello.

While I'm at it, I would like to take this opportunity to personally congratulate every member of the Fall 2010 Franciscan Austria program on their astounding round of applause upon being announced at the Wednesday audience. We were the only group to yield a two handed wave from our lovely Pope Benedict XVI when the groups were called. Awww, yeahh.

Assisi!

I'm a fan. Actually, a major fan. Along with Mondsee, Assisi is in my top two favorite towns. Most of being there isn't so much what you see as what you experience. It's a place where you can just be if that makes any sense. Consequently there's not really much to write. I will say, though, that it is beautiful, quiet, scenic...

...and hey, even the trash cans are quite pleasant.

Being with a bunch of Franciscans in the town of St. Francis has its privileges. Like, for example, getting to have mass in front of his tomb. That was pretty sweet. We also visited the San Damiano cross that spoke to him, and the Portiuncula that he rebuilt.


The Portiuncula is surrounded by a Basilica that houses basically the rest of Francis' life: the place where he died, the cave where he prayed, the rose bushes that he threw himself into when he was having lustful thoughts. Get this, to this day the bushes have no thorns.
Also there's a statue of him that is perpetually decked out in doves. Fo' real.





All in all it was a pretty saintly place.