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.