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.

Rome Is Where The Heart Is

Sometimes travelling with such good looking people in Italy is quite burdensome. Especially in the rain.

Indian street vendor: Bella bella bella! I have umbrella for you! Tree euro! Just tree!

Claire: I have one, thank you.

Indian street vendor: I have special price!

Claire: No.

Indian street vendor: You need an umbrella! Special price! Okay two euro!

Claire: No. I have one. Don’t you see it?

Indian street vendor: Your friend need umbrella!

Claire: She doesn’t. She has an umbrella, too.

Indian street vendor: She need two! I have special price! Just for you bella!

Indian guy proceeds to follow us down the street. We duck for safety into a metro station only to find four more umbrella men holding out their umbrellas to us, too.

…bella?

Anyway, after our little excursion to Loreto and the like, I couldn’t see how the trip couldn’t get any better. But it did.

Can I just say St. Peter’s Basilica is great? Serious understatement alert. It’s mind-blowing. It only took standing in St. Peter’s square to feel so incredibly small…like I was a negligible part of something incredible, which is, well, true, but at the same time I felt like I was home! Take that for a paradox.

Then I got a baby thrown at me and some guy pick-pocketed me.

Just kidding, that didn’t really happen. But had it happened, I would have been prepared. Thanks to warnings from previous Rome-goers about the baby-throwing diversion tactic utilized by Rome’s petty criminals, my friends and I prepared our defense strategy well before the trip. It may or may not have been inspired by Miss Congeniality.

But I digress once again. On to Rome!

Cognitive dissonance might be a good way of describing it…a city rich in ruins of the Roman Empire, the very foundations of Christendom, and…gelato shops, street vendors, and United Colors of Benetton. They all jumbled up together. Like the new Rome was built right around the old. Crazy.

Sunday morning before going into St. Peter’s, a few of us went up to the cupola to say morning prayer with the nuns. You could say it was both literally and spiritually ascetical. I mean, please, we were looking out at Rome while standing just over 150 meters above the bones of St. Peter. After prayer, I was privileged enough to be able to contemplate the plethora of gardens on Roman rooftops with my philosophy professor who, I am excited to admit, is ten times funnier on top of St. Peter’s than he is in class.

Afterward the cupola adventure we descended the 2-foot-wide, sideways, and claustrophobia-inducing stairwell to make it to mass inside….can I say that again? Mass inside St. Peter’s! In Latin! Contrary to whatever you may believe, Latin is not dead.

[Further proof: ATMs in Vatican City have a Latin option]

Being in St. Peter’s is, well, awesome. Just a word of advice? Take care not to get so totally overwhelmed when walking into St. Peter’s as to miss the Pieta, which is just inside to the right. I admit…I had to go back in because I completely missed it the first time I walked in. Anyway, no matter how long you’re there there’s always more to see and more to know. It was phenomenal to be surrounded by just endless holiness, history and symbolism…and humor.

Here we have the monument to Pope Gregory XIV. Pope for less than a year, Gregory XIV was rather unpopular for naming an inept family member as Secretary of State. The church so fondly remembers him with an empty niche set into the wall and a sarcophagus below bearing the inscription “Gregory XIIII.” The tombstone was supposedly recycled from a monument that had been rejected the year that commemorated his predecessor, Gregory XIII.

Well, I found it humorous anyway.

That…among many other quirky design stories made our tour not so much a monotonous explanation of every bishop dressed in white as it was a tangible journey through the history of the church. The early Christians were real people, too. Many thanks to the seminarians at the North American College who walked us through that history.

Sometime during the week we made it to Santa Scala, where we got to ascend the stairs that Jesus climbed to meet Pilate. Imagine a tiny little building just big enough to hold some stairs and a little chapel…mobbed by 170 Frannies trying to ascend the stairs on their knees. The security guard finally came out and had to tell everybody to hurry up because we were spending too long on each stair. The line out the door was getting to be incredibly long…and incredibly restless. Aside from that entertaining anecdote, being on those stairs, well, it makes you think about a lot of things.

Rome has a few other cool things too…you know, like the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, more relics than I can conceive at any given moment…and a church here and there…and there and there....Not to mention Swiss guards, Scavi Tours, the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (!) and much, much much much more.

Did I forget to mention the time we had mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the walls? Probably, but then again I forgot to mention a lot of things.

Have you been to Rome? I think you should go. Take me with you! I will go back!!

If on Monday evening someone’s pedometer read 37 miles since arriving in Rome, I can’t even imagine how much we had walked by Thursday morning when we made our bittersweet departure for Assisi…

Which, God willing, I will document at some point.

Peace and blessings,

Mary

10-Day: The Road Trip Part

Once again I find myself back at the Kartause after an amazing experience in another country. This time it was Italy! This past Sunday I returned from a 10-day pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. It definitely packed full of holy things and lots of pasta. People who come back from a semester here often say they came and “got their face blessed off.” Never has that felt so true.

A few days before meeting up in with Franciscan in Rome, I flew down with a few friends and one of our chaplains. We rented a car and road tripped around Italy to see some saintly sites (yeah, there are a few of those). Holding our breath (and sometimes closing our eyes….“Father Brad! What are you doing!?”) through Italian traffic…and countless hours of bonding time in our “5-seater” rental car (Italians must be very small people) was an experience I won’t forget so easily.

Our road trip itinerary included Loreto, San Giovanni-Rotondo, and Lanciano.

(The “unlimited mileage” option in the rental car package has its perks).

Needless to say, it was incredible. The entire trip was just one blessing after the next. You could say things started off with a bang when our first stop was the house of Mary, the Immaculate Mary…Our Lady herself! in Loreto. We sat and prayed where the Annunciation happened! Where God became man! The Word was made flesh! How else can I express myself!? I am blessed beyond belief!

If that weren’t enough, the next day we visited the tomb of St. Padre Pio, prayed in the cave where St. Michael appeared, and have a private mass right in front of the Eucharistic miracle in Lanciano.

There’s a line from Genesis about God “opening the floodgates of heaven” when it was time to flood the earth. It felt like the floodgates opened again, and the heavens just poured down grace.

Anyway, many thanks go out to everyone who made the first couple of the days so incredible…the Vietnamese Sisters of St. Joseph who let us crash at their convent in Rome, the sacristan, Phillipe, at the Church of Purgatory in Lanciano who showered us with prayer cards, rosaries, saint bracelets, 200-year-old church documents, and unceasing words of affirmation, the sacristan at the church in Lanciano who asked us if we wanted to have mass there, and Father Brad, our chaplain, who [not only successfully maneuvered through Italian traffic, but also] said the mass.

Come Saturday afternoon, when it was time to meet up with the school, the five of us decided that we could have just returned to Austria without seeing Rome sans regrets after those first few of days.

God is so good.

Peace and blessings,
Mary

Chocolate. Belgian Chocolate.

You know back in AP History when we had to write all those papers citing primary sources? Yeah, primary sources were the best.

Well, going to Belgium and eating Belgian chocolate was like going and eating a primary source.

And Belgian chocolate get's a second post because it was that good.

Belgi(YUM!)

How did I ever think I'd have time to keep up a blog? I wish I had more time to write about all the crazy things that happened this weekend. But I don't! Summary: We had four days off to travel so we did! We went to Belgium!

A few worth-mentionables:

• Got to hitchhike for the first time. It was so amazing. I wish it weren't so sketchy in the states. It's such an adrenaline rush. I'm sure that'll wear off, but playing damsels in distress trying to walk to and from the train station really does wonders. We got to meet prince charming in an Audi. Too bad he didn't speak English.
• Passport check on the night train was a treat, given the police officers were speaking dutch and we were all half-asleep. Someone muttered something along the lines of "What are they doing? Robbing us?" after which we got to hear them make fun of us in dutch. Another treat.
• We had the most incredible hospitality ever at the American College in Leuven. Fr. Mahar, you rock.
• The waffles don't disappoint. Neither does the Chocolate. Oh! The chocolate. We went from chocolatier to chocolatier and decided which to buy from based on the quality of their chocolate fountain. I'm pretty sure I'd do that again.
• Then there were churches! And palaces! And gardens! We all had a moment while sitting in the palace gardens when we realized we were...in Belgium, which was pretty crazy. I mean, we were sitting in a garden in Belgium. I'm just so blessed and so thankful to be here. My life is really pretty awesome.
• I'm pretty sure I witnessed a series miracles on the way home, given that we shouldn't have even made it home. Trains were running late every which way, and we all had philosophy homework that needed to be finished today looming over our heads. But all the trains were just the perfect amount of late so that we could get on them if we ran, and all the conductors were just the perfect amount of saintly...holding entire trains just for us and not minding our chilling out in the luggage compartment when all the seats were full. I'm telling you, we had some serious Guardian Angels looking out for us. It was really quite incredible.

And next week we have our 10-day Rome/Assisi pilgrimage, which I know will be incredible. I'm flying down a day early with some friends and one of our campus chaplains to see some saintly sights in southern Italy before we meet up with our group in Rome. I'm so looking forward to this.

You're in my prayers and again, I love you all.

Czech? ...check!

Cesky Krumlov is a cutie patootie little town on town on the Czech-Austrian border, just a 2.5 hour drive from Gaming. So yesterday we did a day trip! Because we all have Philosophy papers and are supposed to be doing them this weekend...so naturally, it's best to leave them to Sunday.

We arrived after only one near-death experience in the car. It's not enough that the roads are 2 inches wide...they're also two lanes.

Here's the town...if you haven't learned by now, I'm not good at taking meaningful pictures, so this is about the extent of the architectural documentation.

Other notable things from the day:

1. Eating a medieval Bavarian feast for lunch. By feast I mean feast. That carried me over from lunch yesterday to lunch today.

2. Eating rabbit. Ok, so it was included in the feast, but it was so good it deserved its own number. I feel the Czech experience is complete after that, even without having bought a Praha drinking team shirt.

3. Creeping on funny actors in moonboots on their lunch breaks. I wish I had a picture that better portrayed the awkwardness of it all. That there is a man in a skirt and leggings...and moonboots.

4. Did I mention we went to Czech in a big white Mary's Meals van? That might have explained the near death experience on the way back, too...as...

5. We foraged through a national park, aka the side of a mountain, in said van. (Did I mention 2-inch-wide roads?)

6. There was also a beautiful lake involved. If I remember the name, I might edit this post at some point. Probably not though.

Well, you know, that's all for now. Off to Philosophize.

How cool would it be to eat Gouda in Gouda?

Update on 10-day post

We're live with pictures. And I fixed all the grammar mistakes (thanks madre) because I know they were bugging you.

10-day, diary style

I resurrected my 5th grade diary days...those days of M.A.S.H. and cootie catchers and watching Full House with Jess after school...for the sake of 10-day. Guess what? I still can make a darn good cootie catcher. I guess I haven't changed much.

9 October 2010
Dear Diary,

We arrived yesterday in Fussen, which is in Bavaria. It’s known for its commercial lute industry.

Today we walked to Schwangau (about 5k from Fussen) and hiked to Neuschwanstein. It was magical, except for the part where I fell into a lake. I’d be willing to bet I was the only one who toured the castle today smelling like fish….and the only one who tried to dry my jeans under the bathroom hand drier. Life’s awkward sometimes.

10 October 2010

Dear Diary,

Mass at St. Mang's Abbey this morning. St. Magnus makes a nice addition to my dragon-slaying saints club with St. George. Sometimes I wish dragons still existed so I could slay one too. But they’re gone so it seems God has other plans for my life.

Hiked to Hohenschwangau, Ludwig II’s childhood home that inspired him to grow up and build lots of fairytale castles. That Ludwig is an interesting fellow. Clinically insane is the phrase I believe the doctors used. Found a cache by the castle....

...Hiked up Pöllatschlucht, which has this incredible waterfall and rocks (limestone and dolomite) that date back to the Middle Triassic period...there are also fossilized corals sponges and limealgaes. It appears all this time I’ve had this hidden an affinity for old minerals. It was great.

11October 2010

Dear Diary,

Spontaneous trip to Augsburg, the beginning of Bavaria’s “Romantic Road.” We got to stroll through an enormous open air market, the cathedral of St. Afra, and the oldest social housing community in the world, which was incredible. Augsburg has some really awesome history. It's definitely a modern city, too though. H &M anyone? Mango? United Colors of Benetton? Not like I've seen those in every single other big city I've been to. Had we more time and if I were solo, I would have gone and explored the backstreets and the little shops. Given the circumstances, though, 'twasn't possible. Good trip though. Good trip.

12 October 2010
Dear Diary,

Stopped in St. Gallen, Switzerland on our way to Italy.

Stiftsbibliothek St Gallen was incredible. We can't take pictures but if you click the link you can see it. There aren’t tours, but I slipped into a group of rowdy French women who seemed to know what was up. I didn’t really fit in because I was not wearing a fanny pack or leather pants, but I can warm up to people quickly. My favorite part with them was by the exhibit of botany books. “Ahh!! La fleur est si jolie! J'aime la fleur! Belle! Belle! J'aime de fumée à la bouche!” one of them exclaimed over and over at a picture of a flower that made you “smoke at the mouth.” She proceeded to rave about smoking at the mouth. Had to be there maybe? Anyway, I’m happy two semesters of French finally came in handy.

Oh, and yes! We wore slippers. Note to self: abbey library in slippers beats sock sliding at Costco any day.

Missed our connecting train to Italy. Got to sleep in a train station. Helped a lady from Peru find her way around Sestri Levente train station (talk about blind leading the blind). Happy five years of Spanish finally came in handy. Holey moley. That’s two in one day.

13 October 2010

Dear Diary,

Stepped off the train in Riomaggiore at 6:30 this morning to the smell of roses. Does life get any better? Actually, it does. We made our way up winding staircases to a walk overlooking the Mediterranean where we sat and watched the sunrise next to a lemon tree. Explored the town by day, made pasta and slept by night. Only here would graffiti consist of JADOR. Only here.

14 October 2010

Dear Diary, Italian Men,

Please keep your clothes on, especially while fishing in public. Gracie...

Dear Diary,

Hiked up a mountain from which you can see all five towns that make up Cinque Terre.

Made our way down and walked through their cemetery. Swam in the Mediterranean. Slept by the Mediterranean. Made dinner. Pasta, pasta, pasta.

15 October 2010

Dear Diary,

We hiked along Cinque Terre! All the way!

Rio to Manarola: walked along “Via dell'amore” It’s about as beautiful as it sounds, the perfect place for honeymooners to profess their love to each other with the sweet sound of Mediterranean waves crashing in the background. There are thousands of locks along the trail with things like “Giovanni and Maria forever” scribbled in permanent marker. I wonder….If you profess your undying love for someone on a lock stuck to a fishnet in Cinque Terre, would you go take it down if you ever broke up? Would you even remember the combination? Or where you put the key?

Manarola to Corniglia: Trail was closed due to landslide. Tried to forge our own via vineyards along the mountainsides. One hour later...dang that's a lot of pricker bushes...oh, and what's this? A cliff? So we just sat and ate some food in someone’s backyard. Then made our way down the cliff and took the train to Corniglia.

Corniglia to Monterosso: Ten trillion, or maybe just 4 hours worth of uneven stairs along the mountains + a bee sting to the face later, we made it. Ah, sweet, sweet Monterosso! Making it there, the view, the smell, the ocean, oh, everything was just fabulous.

It was definitely a long day, but it was a good day. Maybe moreso in hindsight than while we were climbing stairs....I could go without seeing stairs for a while.

16 October 2010

Dear Diary,

Apparently “a while” means less than 8 hours. We went to the church on the hill again this morning to watch the sunrise on our last day in Cinque Terre. If I thought stairs along the trail yesterday were bad, at least I could see them. Uneven stairs in the dark are kind of what I imagine walking through Rome's cobblestone in heels to be like. Man, were we trippin...

At the moment, I’m sitting on the beach in Levanto…

…watching a nun walk along the boardwalk with her veil flowing in the breeze.

17 October 2010

Dear Diary,

Five trains + 17 hours + countless characters we met along the way + reciting the prologue of Romeo and Juliet on the platform in fair Verona...

...+ the Italian woman in our sleeper car to Munich who really ought to have kept her shoes on for the sake of everyone’s respiratory health= we’re back in Gaming!

What a nice trip. And this time I really can say it was a nice trip. And I really did see Gaming in the fall. Hah! Finally, that pun is simultaneously literal...

The End of One Crazy Week and the Beginning of Another

Disclaimer: This is my fifth draft! My head is just spinning with so many thoughts at the moment that I can’t seem to make any into real sense. So let me try to just calm down and say what’s up.

Alrighty, first things first: midterms are over! Praise God! I think that for the most part they went very well, considering I’ve never really gotten to take midterms before. Reflecting on the course of events this past week, I think I would be happy with never taking them ever again. If there’s anything I learned from meeting Alice Von Hildebrand, though, it is that it would be an atrocity not to learn from our life experiences. So, note to self: have chocolate handy for the next potential midterm week.

Next order of business: 10-day itinerary…as I understand it.

Tonight: pack haha, good one

Friday morning: Wake up when it’s dark out. Bake some delicious chocolate nut muffins. Walk down to the train station.

Friday on the train: Read every single word of the Mental Floss that my beautiful madre just sent across the ocean. Oh, I really can’t wait. You try studying about procreation for a Christian Marriage midterm when there’s a Mental Floss in front of you containing an articles on Moptop Mania and Ken Jennings connecting Chai Tea and Tai Chi in six degrees.

Friday - Monday: Bavaria! Activities include hiking, frolicking, mountain luging, visiting many castles, going to mass in German, and exploring the beauty of southern Germany. And geocaching. Lots and lots of geocaching.

Tuesday: St Gallen, Switzerland. Visit Cathedral St. Gallen/ Abbey Library. This is exciting for many reasons:

• The cathedral is Baroque…praise God, I think I’ve seen enough Gothic.
• The library houses 140,000+ documents, some hand-written and some over a thousand years old.
• The library website promises “richly decorated Irish manuscripts.” How elegant.
• When you walk in the library, you have to wear fuzzy slippers so as to protect the floor.
• Picture-taking is prohibited in the library, but I will do everything in my power to snap a candid of the fuzzies.

Wednesday-Saturday: Cinque Terre. Activities include melting at the sight of Italy’s exquisite beauty, etc. Hopefully more geocaching. There may or may not be cliff diving, since James Kerin did it, and one of my life goals is to be just like James.

Sunday: Arrive back in Gaming. Sleep.

And that is all for now. God bless and I'll see you in a week or so. A Hail Mary for me would be so perfect if you have 30 seconds to spare. You know, for my safety or something. Cliff diving can be hazardous.

Happy Feast of St. Francis! etc

I've never seen the friars here so happy as they are today on the feast of their patron. It's really just darling how they just walk around smiling all the time. Like Buddy the Elf in a TOR habit.

In other news, midterms are going well. Starting Friday we have our first of two 10-day breaks. Plans aren't finalized yet, but it looks like I'll be going with a few other girls to Bavaria for a few days, followed by a stop in Switzerland for cathedrals and a chocolate factory, then on down to northern Italy.

Not much other news, besides my recent induction to the Austrian chapter of Sherpas. Thank you, thank you, yes, it's very exciting. Here are some snapshots from last weekend's mountain run..."Keep running, there ain't gonna be no Yelnats the fifth!"

...oh, nevermind.

Off to study!

God bless,
Mary

The finest of Europe's castles

Oberammergau

Franciscan's Austria Program: "the semester of a lifetime" a spiritual slap in the face.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Oberammergau, Germany, to see the Passion play that they are so famous for. The play dates back to the the mid 1633 when the plague was making its way around the region, causing massive amounts of death as plagues tend to do. The people of Oberammergau vowed to portray the Passion of our Lord every ten years...and voila, from that moment, not one person in the town fell victim to the Black Death. True to their vow, the people of Oberammergau have been performing a play commemorating the Passion every 10 years.

Now I know people who have been planning on coming here to see the play for decades and here I just sort of went down to the office last week and said, "could I get a ticket for Oberammergau this weekend?" And they said sure and handed me one. Life is really not fair that way.

The town of Oberammergau is pretty amazing to begin with. In addition to the play, they're known for their woodworking, and for good reason; they just know how to make wood look good. There is also merit to their being known for the play. Besides it being cold and...German, it was pretty epic.

My favorite part was definitely the living images from the Old Testament that were introduced before each scene of the play, foreshadowing different parts of the Passion. Before the interrogation by Annas and the High Council, the images portrayed Daniel in the lions' den and the mocking of Job. Before the Last Supper, we saw the Paschal meal before the Israelites' exodus into Egypt. And so on. They were all rather appropriate, biblically speaking. The unity between the Old and New Testaments was incredibly tangible.

I'm so happy that I decided to go. The experience was unforgettable.

We arrived back here at 4am, and after a few hours of sleep I'm just trying to figure out the meaning of the word "midterm." As I a bio major, the concept is quite new to me. We just have tests all the time...none of this midterm nonsense. I should probably get this settled before next week.

...Next week! Have we really been here that long already?

Baking Adventure, Part 2

If I didn't already learn from my first adventure in the tea kitchen that nothing I will try to bake will come out looking (or tasting) like I expected, I re-learned it this morning.

Gosh I love it here.

Banana nut...donuts, anyone? ...would you like that?

Auschiwtz

Europe’s pretty great when you don’t see the gorey parts. Stick to church hopping and feel-good tourist attractions the only crying you do is of happiness when you find that sweater sale at the open air market. So why did I go to Poland?

Talking about kicking them while they’re down, the past 100 years have not been happy for the Poles. My pilgrimage this past weekend was difficult, to say the least, but looking back I realize how fruitful it was. I do not claim to have the ability to do justice to any of what we witnessed at Auschwitz, but I will try to share a few things that came of the experience.

While I knew going into the trip that I was not prepared for what I was going to see, I also knew that nothing could really prepare me either. You can’t just brace yourself for the punch to the gut that’s delivered around the “Auschwitz 10 km” sign…or when you actually step off of the bus and stand where millions of others before you stood during WWII—but in very different circumstances. We only witnessed only a small piece of the Holocaust, but even so, the pain was incredible.

The statistics about the place, as you probably already know, shocking. There are these millions here and thousands there, and not to be cold and insensitive, but I found the numbers impersonal, and too third party to comprehend. I will admit that I walked through the first hour of the tour, eyes dry, like a robot…not believing where I was. The Nazi’s did a number on me, too; with people in such large quantities, it’s easier to process them as statistics.

The roof caved in completely, however, when I walked into the room full of hair that was shaven of the victims of the camp to make blankets. Gosh, it became so real so fast. These were not just statistics, they were actual people. Actual. People. With actual hair. Just like me. Only their hair was shaven and used for blankets. That was actually their hair. What else to I say? My eyes were not so dry after that.

The only way I think most of us got through the rest of the weekend was by compartmentalizing what we saw, because to have to cope with the concept of the concentration camps in a few days is frankly impossible. This week in philosophy we have been discussing values, and how intrinsic objective values demand congruent responses from us. I think the congruent response to the horror of Auschwitz is impossible to achieve, but doing it justice may require more than a few days.

Had we not visited the Basilicas of Our Lady of Czestochowa and Divine Mercy over the weekend as well, I don’t know that I would have even been able to revisit the thought of Auschwitz, since I found the reality I could grasp physically crippling. Praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet with the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and experiencing Our Lady’s healing at the unveiling of the Black Madonna granted me so much consolation. God’s mercy is still present and unwavering and Our Mother is still watching over us despite everything that has happened. It’s kind of incredible.

It’s hard to just move on after seeing so much sadness in one place, but life does goes on. A congruent response to the weekend does not mean forgetting what we saw or keeping it locked up in our brains so that we don’t have to hurt anymore.

I know it’s cliché, but if you really consider it, maybe there’s a reason why so many people repeat the phrase “Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it.” Not learning from this visit to Auschwitz would be an insult to the memory of everyone who suffered in the Holocaust. They were innocent victims of horrible, horrible human acts.

As the tour ended and we stood at the end of the rail where the prisoners were sent to the crematorium upon arrival, I realized learning from this opportunity means learning that it is my obligation to stand up for the silent victims of crimes against human dignity to make sure this history does not repeat itself. Sadly enough, while so many claim to know the injustice of Auschwitz, another holocaust rages on against the unborn, and therein lies my responsibility.

News from Poland!

I am excited to report that this weekend I made a down payment on my first home. Here is a picture of the front door:

A few things need to be sorted out before I move in, namely mortgage logistics, my education and career plans, how I will cope with living in Krakow, and what the inside looks like. But with a mosaic like that over my front door, I see everything being worth it in the end.

In other news, here is the non-pilgrimage part of this weekend’s Poland trip in bullet points, because that is all I have time for. I hope that I am not so shallow as to completely reduce my pilgrimage to a few sarcastic bullet points, but the holy-site-visiting-part was much more extensive than what follows. So here is a taste of my weekend, and hopefully I'll get around to more of the important things before the week is through.

Czestochowa:

• There’s nothing like trying to sleep on a nine hour bus ride from Gaming to Czestochowa help you get acquainted with the person sitting next to you.
• There’s also nothing like a good half mile sprint from the bus at 5:45 AM in 40 degree weather to make it to the Jasna Gora Shrine in time for the unveiling of the Black Madonna.
• Sprinting at 5:45 in the morning in 40 degree weather to make it to Black-Madonna-unveilings is worth it. No contest. They had brass accompaniment.

Krakow:

• The result of Poland’s epic getting-conquered-over-and-over-again-in-every-conceivable-time-period is something I call gothiromabaroquissance-style architecture. That’s Mary lingo, not encyclopedia lingo. As Proof, I give you Wawel Cathedral:

• Lots of Polish women get married on Saturdays. They also ride put the ride in bride.

• It is perfectly acceptable for a Polish bride to have her wedding reception at a kebab stand. That I did not have my camera for, but I think God gave you an imagination for this very situation.
• Dad, I will have my wedding reception in the yard so long as we fly in a kebab chef from Krakow.
• Cramming nine people into a horse and buggy makes for a cheap carriage ride around the city.
• I do not recommend cramming nine people into a horse and buggy.
• Dear Ta, Spain's soccer team has influenced Polish furniture outlets. You were missed in Krakow.

• Except for the Divine Mercy chaplet, the Divine mercy chapel, and this picture:

…most of the Basilica of Divine Mercy is incredibly not beautiful at all.

• Conclusion: the 70’s were not a good time for architecture.
• Noah did not land on top of Arka Pana church in Nowa Huta after the flood, but it looks like he did. Yes, that is an ark. Yes, the church is another unfortunate product of the 70s.

Wadowice:

• Buy four Pope Cakes, get one free. No, I didn’t eat 5 Pope Cakes, but I wish I did.

Not to bribe you or anything, but I like comments. If you comment, I will maybe send you a postcard, provided I don’t run out of money or patience with the Austrian ladies at the Post. Deal? Deal. Great. I love you all. God Bless.

Tracking Coin, Meet Alps

I am happy to report that the tracking coin I retrieved from a Geocache in Rhode Island...

...has hitchhiked 4.037.35 miles and now has a new home in Gaming, Austria, just a 45 minute hike from the Kartause.

I was having a hard time parting with the little guy until I realized that I would be trading it for kid's picture book about camping. In German!

Not until much later when I read it did I learn that kids picture books here can be about nudist beaches.

I want my tracking coin back.

A Baking Adventure, part 1

The stories that come out of the tea kitchens here after baking catastrophes are priceless.

"All the ingredients are in German!"

"There are no chocolate chips!"

"There's no such thing as baking soda here!"

"This backpulver is fake!"

"I think I used vinegar!"

"I did use vinegar!"

"What is this metric rubbish!"

The trick, my friends, if you do not care to seek assistance from one of the mom's who lives across the street, is to ask the nice sort-of-english-speaking German lady you find in the baking aisle. Every baking aisle has one if you look hard enough or...or happen to be at the right place at the right time. I call it Divine Providence meets Spar.

Also, you must not be afraid to take a large hard object, possibly even your foot, to brown sugar cubes.

After that, you're on your own to perfect american recipes with German ingredients and your culinary genius. If you don't have a culinary genius, you can just learn German recipes, or live vicariously through me. I must just warn you, however, that it will be an adventure in the most literal way. As my good friend Scott Adams would say, creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

I guess now we come to my first attempt at making edible food in a tea kitchen at the Kartause. If ever I thought baking was fun, I had no idea what I had in store for me here. I mean, metric conversions? Powdered vanilla? Brown sugar cubes? Gosh, my joy is just overflowing. Praise be to God for another Sunday and the opportunity to be able to mess around with foreign ingredients in the wee hours of the morning.

This morning's project brought back memories of a girl I babysat a few summers ago who told me quite bluntly: if you add enough sugar, kids will eat anything. [To any parent that might read this, I promise that most of the time I avoided that advice.] When I realized that something was amiss with the flour was using (it could not have been my measuring skills, after all), I modified her theory slightly with the hopes that if I add enough chocolate, my roommate will eat anything. I eagerly await being able to test this hypothesis.

As far as my taste buds are concerned, though, I am happy to report that my first baking experiment with metrics, awkward flour, and sugar cubes was/ is delicious. It's funny, sometimes you have to redefine success in order to attain it. Regardless, they are cookies, and they are chocolate, and while they would taste completely different if I had used the correct ingredients, I have a feeling that my experimentation in a foreign tea kitchen has just begun.

Happy Sunday! And yes! That is a real live Alp in the background.

Pride Goeth Before a Fall...or Something

Went hiking up a local mountain with my roommate.

Convinced her I spoke German by translating this sign into gibberish.

She believed me until the next day when I accidentally bragged about it to our RD.

It was great while it lasted.

Actually, it's still great.

Salzburg, Munich, and Mondsee in $4 shoes

…and no calluses! With a Salzburgian hostel as our home base this weekend, I set out on a school trip to see Salzburg, Munich, and Mondsee before heading back for classes today. Yes, that’s a lot of cities in one weekend. No, I won’t be trying that again.

It’s hard to talk about all the Mozart chocolate (Seriously, whoever told me the Mozart was some sort of composer didn't know he's really Willy Wonka) or history (it’s…everywhere) in Salzburg when there was an Austrian style gnome garden hidden in the Mirabell gardens.

Fat stone Austrians aside, Salzburg was pretty awesome. This view of the city is from Hohensalzburg castle, home of the bullwashers….and some bummed out Turks.

And how is it that there is a legend about the devil losing a bet in the construction of basically every cathedral we’ve seen? Fraunenkirche (the cathedral) in Munich was no exception. Munich also has some other crazy things, like a lot of bratwurst, Hofbrauhause (which can hold 3,000 people...and right now has part of my left middle finger), and an enormous Glockenspiel in the Plaza Marian in the town center, which my incredibly non-Glockenspiel-oriented mind says this was incredibly overrated.

Munich came and went, and before heading back for Gaming we stopped in Mondsee. If you’ve ever been to Chatanooga, TN, Mondsee is like Chatanooga meets the Alps. And if you haven’t been to Chatanooga, TN, you should go there so that you can understand what Mondsee is like. Or…you could just go to Mondsee. It was so perfect, tucked away, with nice people and the church where the wedding in the Sound of Music was filmed. So when there’s no crazy people stalking the Von Trapp family, it’s quaint as all get-out, and just beautiful.

And that’s that. There are so many stories that made the weekend special, the story of trekking up to the Hohensalzburg castle at night, meeting one of Oberammergau’s Pilates at a concert in Munich, the story behind my finger getting lost at Hofbrauhause, and the zen-garden in Mondsee, but those things are to be told in due time when I see you all again. And please know I can’t wait to see you all again and hear how you’ve been.

I can already tell Rhode Island syndrome is starting to set in because right I just want to curl up in my bed and read a book. I’m so thankful just to be here in Austria with so many awesome people and opportunities growth. I just pray that I can make the most of my time here!

Peace and Blessings,
Mary