Paris

Paris
If I am being completely honest, I must admit that my expectations for Paris were not exceptionally high. I wanted to go, but I was expecting disappointment. I had heard so much about Paris for so long and I had seen it in so many movies that I was convinced it could not live up to the image I had of it. I was wrong. We walked out of the train station and into the streets, and I fell in love. Paris is BEAUTIFUL. It is truly like a dream. The streets are broad and the river flows through the heart of the city. There is a café on every corner, along with a man playing the accordion. There are vendors selling prints and crepe shops everywhere. We walked to Notre Dame, which made me want to cry. It is truly majestic. I never thought when I watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame as a child that I would ever see it in person. We ate in a café right in front of the cathedral. There, I had my first glimpse into the wonder that is French food. French culinary standards are remarkably high, and since they invented most of the food western cultures enjoy, they have western food essentially mastered. I had an incredible omelet with ham and cheese, and a coffee with whipped cream and cookies in it. The omelet, though I am sure fried in butter and quite fattening, was almost worth the entire trip to France on its own.
After breakfast, we went to mass in Notre Dame. Notre Dame is massive and honestly overwhelming. Though it is a beautiful building architecturally, it is hard for me to worship in a space which feels so big and cold. However, I was more than honored to be in the same church where Quasi Modo lived, and I was generally shocked to be in Paris at the same time. That is what I remember most about Paris: shock and awe and delight.
We ate crepes and wandered around Paris that afternoon, ending our day with the monumental elevator ride up the Eiffel tower. At my first site of the tower, I burst into tears. I had no idea how grand and beautiful it would be. I thought about my family and the sacrifices they were making so that I could see something that they may or may not get to see. It was a difficult but revolutionary moment for me.

"You made the right choice"

I wish I could blog about every single thing that happened to me, but I can't. My entires are excessively long as it is. I wish I could make people understand how it was, how it has been, but I know that I can't. Before I left for Europe, I was so scared. I didn't know if all the money, time, and energy would be worth it. I felt guilty for leaving my family and costing them so much money so that I could go see and do things that they themselves might never see and do. I was scared to leave Nashville, afraid that everyone would forget about me or that I would miss big happenings. I was scared of being in a foreign country and traveling around with a bunch of immature college students. I was scared of getting robbed. I was scared of a lot of things.
I remember in orientation when Dr. Laurence first came to talk to the Vienna students. He stood in front of the class and reviewed with us the monetary, time, and relational costs of the trip and then he said, "By choosing to come anyway, you made the right choice." For the first time, I felt a peace about the trip. Later, while standing in Vienna gazing at the Schonbrunn palace, I realized that his words were true.
I am not a perfect individual, and I did not handle this trip perfectly. However, I have no regrets. By the grace of God, I learned and grew and experienced, and He looked out for me the whole way. People have said that I am not any different than I was before I left, and I have trouble identifying specific ways that I have changed. But just as Daniel, our beloved travel guide, told us on the day we left Vienna, "Your family won't see the change, and you might not either. But that doesn't mean that something is not different."
I left for Vienna hoping to see the world and grow in the process. What I didn't know is how I would grow. I didn't know how my conidence would increase as I learned to navigate large groups through foreign cities. I didn't know I would learn the significance of living in a small group of people and loving unconditionally, I didn't know I would discover quite so many negative things about myself, but I also found some good surprises in the mix.
I am not capable of truly understanding the implications of this trip, but I pray every day that God will continue to use it to mold me even though I am back home. Coming home has not been a struggle, but a blessing. I am honored to be back among friends and family. Though I love Europe, America is my home. I do know one thing though: Vienna will always be my second home. Roaming around Karlsplatz and Stefansplatz will always be second nature to me. I hope and pray that I can go back one day, but if I can't, I am at peace. After all, Dr. Laurence said it best: by the grace of God, I made the right choice.

Nice

For fall break, we decided to tour France and Spain. We didn’t want to overbook our schedule, but we wanted to see as much as possible, so we finally decided upon Nice, Paris, Madrid, and Barcelona as our destination cities. We left Vienna on Thursday night and took an overnight train to Nice. I love overnights because they prevent me from wasting precious daylight hours on a train when I could be experiencing the wonders of a new city or country. Nice is quite a ways from Vienna, however, and so we didn’t arrive there until about noon on Friday. As soon as I stepped off the train, I knew that Nice would be everything that I hoped it would. Nice is very close to the border of Italy, but its architecture and culture are undoubtedly French- I could see an obvious difference as soon as the train crossed the border. The houses in Nice are built along the ocean cliffs. The city is much bigger than I supposed it would be, and it has a decent public transportation system. The temperature was in the sixties, and the warm sun and ocean breezes gave the town a tropical feel. When we arrived, we headed straight for our hostel in order to check in and drop off our bags.
While I was busy checking in, the other six people in our travel group were busy looking at an advertisement for canyoning. When I walked over to them, they told me that we were going. I didn’t believe them for several reasons. First of all, it was expensive, and secondly, I didn’t know what canyoning was. The picture showed a man jumping off a large cliff, and I did not think that looked safe or even fun. We went ahead and reserved our spot on the canyoning trip for the next day, but I remained unconvinced that we would actually go through with it.
We took the train to Monaco, and spent some time in the famous French coastal city where multiple celebrities own multi-million dollar getaway houses. Then we went back to Nice and wandered around the beach and the city streets. Finally, we went back to the hostel where we ate fahitas, and I headed to bed as soon as possible.
The next day, we woke up as early to meet our guide for the canyoning trip. I still did not believe the reality of the situation until I stood in front of our tour guide, a skinny Frenchman whose English was quite poor. The night before, the seven of us had examined the clothes we had brought with us, and we realized that we did not have the proper attire for the adventure. We had no tennis shoes, no swim suits, no shorts, and no spare t-shirts. Completely desperate, Cari and I raided the hostel’s lost and found bin until we found enough t-shirts and knit pants, which we cut into shorts. Then, we all went to a shed in the back of the hostel and hunted for tennis shoes. Cari wore a pair of much-too-small white keds, Amy found a pair of old man black tennis shoes, and I wore some kid’s skater boy shoes. We climbed into the van with the Frenchman, who was a terrible driver, and we were off. The drive took a little over an hour, and we finally pulled over to a small parking area beside a highway. There, we donned full body wetsuits and helmets. I still didn’t know what canyoning was at this point, and I began to get a little nervous, but I knew it was too late to do anything about it.
We started our canyoning experience by repelling down a waterfall. Granted, it wasn’t a huge waterfall, somewhere between twenty and thirty feet, but it looked like fifty from the top. I have repelled multiple times in Colorado, but I have always been belayed. Here, there was no belay- if I chose to let go of the rope, I would fall and that would be the end of that. No one fell, though, and we all came down smiling and laughing.
As our trip wore on, I slowing pieced together a definition for the word “canyoning”. Canyoning when you essentially travel down a river which is in a canyon. The way you travel is by repelling, swimming, jumping off cliffs, and sliding down waterfalls. One recurring problem during the course of our travel was our guide’s inability to speak English and our inability to speak French. He got frustrated and mad at us frequently, as we would jump the wrong way off of a cliff or let go of a rope we were supposed to hold onto. We all made it through safely, but I think our guide was more than a little glad to be rid of us.
My favorite part of the experience was sliding down waterfalls headfirst. These waterfalls were only about six to eight feet, and the stone in the river was smooth and easy to glide over. I also greatly appreciated seeing the beauty of God’s creation and being in nature, something that I haven’t done much since I have been in Europe.
By the time it was over, we were exhausted. I could not believe that we had taken such a risk, because honestly canyoning was not the safest choice of things to do. However, I have learned that you have to do dangerous things every once in a while, or you will never really live. We returned to the hostel and showered, and then we wandered around the beach and ate dinner. We caught an overnight train that night, and at eight a.m. the next morning, we woke up in Paris.

The Sound of Music

I had a friend in high school who got to go on the Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg, Austria, and I remember being so jealous. I wanted to go on it as soon as possible, and as it turns out the first weekend of free travel was the best time. We traveled with Frau Swann and her husband Jarrin, two of the adult leaders on this trip. We had a great weekend… I am so glad we went with them!
On Friday morning, we woke up early and left Vienna around 6 a.m. We arrived in Salzburg just in time for the nine o’clock Sound of Music tour. Now there are two companies who give this tour- they both have buses, but one of them has a picture of Julie Andrews and all the children slapped on the side, painted by someone who missed their calling in life. We luckily took the other bus.
Our guide was a jolly woman from Great Britain who smiled and laughed and made us all smile and laugh. In the summer the tours are usually packed, but by this time in the season they are almost deserted. I actually preferred the quieter tour- we were able to talk more with our guide, and she took pictures of us and made us laugh even more. We saw the gazebo from the movie, the house and lake where Maria and the children took a plunge, the church where Maria was married, and the abbey where Maria stood in the “I have confidence” scene.
I think the best thing about the tour was the fact that we drove for a good hour and a half around Austria. We saw snowy mountains, quaint villages, and scenic outlooks that we would not have seen otherwise. The driver blared tunes from the movie, and we sang along while enjoying the beauty of our second home. After the tour, we walked around the absolutely stunning city of Salzburg. I think that Austria is my favorite country in Europe…. Vienna and Salzburg are, as Mary Poppins would say, “practically perfect in every way.” Mozart was born in Salzburg, and we saw his birthplace before eating one of the best meals of my time in Europe. The café was nestled behind Mozart’s house in an ivy-covered building, and I ate chili, German bread, and apple strudel with vanilla sauce (my favorite) enthusiastically.
Unfortunately, our time in Salzburg was much too short. I could have stayed there by the majestic river, quaint houses, and manicured gardens all day, but we had to catch a train before heading on to our next adventure. Our plan was to spend the night in Fussen, Germany, before visiting the castle at Neuschwanstein Friday morning. Unfortunately, we missed a train connection, and we ended up a couple of hours out of our way. We were all tired and somewhat grumpy, a situation born out of the fact that we had left Vienna at five a.m. that morning and it was now nearing midnight.
An irritable old man pushed past us rudely as the train came to a stop. In German, he told Frau Swan that this was his stop. As his stop happened to be our stop, we hurried to gather our belongings. I followed the Swans off the train with the three other girls behind me, and turned around just in time to see the train begin to move. Fast. Frantically, we began pulling the other girls off the train. By the time Ricki, the last one, dismounted, the train was moving at almost full speed. Breathless, we stood laughing and hugging Ricki, until one of us looked around and said “Uh oh.” For truth be told, we were not at a train station at all; we were in the middle of a field, nowhere near civilization, and our train was leaving. We all simultaneously broke into a run and began chasing our train with arms flying. The grumpy old man, the only person who got off the train with us, began saying inappropriate things in German, until miraculously the train stopped. Without knowing why it had stopped, we joyfully re-boarded the train which we had just leapt from. The conductor angrily walked down the aisle asking who had pulled the emergency brake. Someone must have seen us and taken pity. Embarrassed, we took our seats, trying not to acknowledge the look on every face which seemed to say “You are stupid Americans!”

In and about Vienna

I feel like I should take a moment to reveal some of the inner workings of my day-to-day life here in Vienna. I will walk you through a typical school day. If typical days bore you, skip this entry entirely. If not, then here you go.
I usually wake up later than I plan, and I rush to shower (sometimes) and then I go down to breakfast. Breakfast at the hotel is great. My favorite option is a plain white roll with brie cheese and apricot jam on it. It is INCREDIBLE! I could eat brie cheese every day of my life, and here lately, I do.
Then I take the U-bann to school. For some reason, the U-bann is ten times more fun in the morning than it is at any other point during the day. All the Austrians stand around waiting for it and reading their newspapers. Little kids hop on to go to school. The U-bann is busiest around this time of day, and it’s great for people watching.
Then we go to school. We have a devotional every morning from eight to eight twenty, and then we have German till nine forty-five. Then we get a fifteen minute break, after which we have either Humanities or Bible till twelve, but we usually get out a little early. Then we go eat. Sometimes I go to the grocery store at the beginning of the week and stock up on a week’s supply of lunch supplies. Sometimes I splurge and eat out; sometimes I get tomato soup or pizza from the Italian Restaurant next door to the hotel. The owners love all the Lipscomb students, and sometimes they will throw in a free drink or bread sticks.
After lunch, I go to do my “one fun Vienna thing” that I try to do every day, no matter how much schoolwork I have. Sometimes I go to a museum, or a play, or a concert; sometimes we just go to a new café to study and drink a cup of coffee. Every day, I try to do something new. This practice has been both stress-relieving and gratifying- I feel like I am seeing Vienna while still staying on top of my schoolwork and avoiding stress. I would like to bring this practice home to Nashville- everyday I need to do at least one fun thing, no matter how small it may be.
After lunch, I usually start doing homework. We try to do Pilates every afternoon. Sometimes, we do it in the gym next door, and sometimes we stay in our rooms. Every afternoon/night is different. I love when we have movie nights or when we all go try a new restaurant together. I have been constantly surprised at the wide array of culture available to us here. Culture in Europe is more accessible than it is in America. Tickets for concerts or events are cheaper, and you don’t have to plan such outings far in advance. Each day, I am blessed to learn something new, and to me, that makes the entire trip well worth while!

Weekend in the Alps

For several weeks, we had been talking among ourselves about taking a group trip to the Alps. We all wanted to go to the Alps, preferably in Switzerland, and we all wanted to spend one weekend together. Frau Swan did the research for us, and she found a lovely house in Northern Austria. The timing could not have been more perfect for me… after all of our grand adventures, I was exhausted and greatly anticipating a relaxing weekend before finals.
We left early on Friday morning, and we reached the town by around two in the afternoon. The house was big, clean, and equipped with kitchens. I have missed cooking more than I ever thought I would, and that is saying a lot! After walking around for half an hour or so in the fruitless pursuit of a restaurant (we had been given directions by the German-speaking woman who owned the house… one of the only times during the whole trip when I encountered an Austrian who spoke only his or her native language!), we decided to cook our own food for a pleasant change. About eight of us went to Hofer, known as Aldi in America, and loaded up on supplies to make the most incredible grilled cheese, canned chili, and French fries you have ever tasted. We cooked with enthusiasm and energy. The food was quite good, especially considering the lack of proper grilled cheese cooking utensils (such as a skillet). The canned chili was surprisingly great…. In general, pre-prepared food in Europe is of much higher quality than that found in the States.
After lunch, I did the unthinkable… I took a nap. Yes, for one whole hour, I slept. It was great. We set the alarm in time to wake up and assist the Professors Horton as they cooked our evening meal. Professor Horton specializes in Italian cuisine, and we feasted on pasta with three different kinds of sauce, roasted Italian peppers which had a sweet and sour flavor, a caprese salad (basically just chopped tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, a common salad in Europe), and bruschetta. After dinner, we talked and entertained each other with various impromptu performances, cleaned the dishes, and went to bed.
The next day, the majority decided to go skiing. I was exhausted at even the prospect of a ski trip, and I opted to sleep in. I didn’t want to expend the money either, and I am not good enough at skiing to go to the Alps and have a lot of fun in one afternoon…. It takes me a couple days to get the hang of it. So, I woke up around nine o’clock and had a stereotypical European breakfast consisting of bread, and bread, and nutella. The Professors Horton had left me in charge of their baby, Stella, who napped while I watched a movie with several other girls (we watched My Girl, in case you were wondering!). Then she woke up and we ate leftover for lunch and took her to the local Christmas market. It was small but endearing.
The skiers returned and we cooked an array of starches for the evening meal- Stove Top stuffing, bought at Julius Meinel and devoured without hesitation, mashed potatos, mac ‘n cheese, salad, and leftover peppers and tomatoes with cheese. After dinner, we proceeded to play the most incredible game of Mafia ever. It was quite intense, but no one was physically hurt, which is all that matters!
Sunday morning we left early to head back to Wien. We had a German final as well as a Humanities final the next day, and our train time was well-utilized as we feverishly crammed for our exams. When we got back to Wien, Leah and I went on a date to the Mozart house. We had vowed not to let one day go by without doing something fun in Vienna, and this was it. I could not believe that I was standing in the very rooms where Mozart stood, where he lived, worked, argued with his wife, etc. I learned a lot about his life. Apparently, he was a heavy gambler who always lived above his means. Though his apartment was considered massive by eighteenth century standards, it seems relatively small today. The museum was well put together in my opinion, and did an outstanding job of appealing to all age ranges. Since Mozart is one of my heroes, I think it could have been his empty apartment and I still would have been enthralled.
I was reminded as I stood in the house of one of the greatest, or perhaps THE greatest, composers ever how blessed I am to have spent time in Vienna. Culturally, it really is the greatest city in the world (not that I’m biased!). Of all the places to have a study abroad, I am glad my school picked this one.

Poland

Auschwitz is actually a town. You probably already know this, but honestly I had no idea. I literally thought it was just a concentration camp. It makes sense, though, that the Nazis would have named the camp after the town it was closest too. I understand why they chose that town as the site to build an extermination camp- there is NOTHING there. NOTHING. I only saw two restaurants, a train station, and some apartments. Maybe we were just far from the actual center of town- I don’t know. I do know that the town was foggy, dark, and colorless.
As soon as we got there, we went to eat in one of the two restaurants. This was actually one of the best culinary experiences I have had since I have been in Europe. Everything in Poland is dirt cheap (for once, we went to a place where the American dollar was strong!) and so took the opportunity to order a massive amount of food. I had my first bowl of borshe, which is a beet and cabbage soup eaten in North Eastern European countries and Russia. Borsche is mentioned in a lot of novels by Russian writers, and I have wanted to try it for years. I thought I would hate it, but it’s great! We also ordered bread and butter that tasted like it just came out of a cow (and maybe it had…)
After lunch, we walked to Auschwitz. We signed up for the last tour of the day. I began to get a little nervous when I saw the sign that said that children under fourteen were not allowed to see the video or the museum. I’m not going to write very much about Auschwitz, because I don’t want to….. I just wrote a paper about it and that’s all I can handle. Feel free to ask me about it when I get back!
When we finished at Auschwitz, it was very dark and very foggy. We walked back to the train station and saw not a soul. By this time, we were all upset and scared, and we still didn’t know if we could get out of the country without having problems. We ate dinner at the other restaurant (unfortunately the first one was closed for a private dinner party), and then we didn’t know what to do. We still had over five hours till our train left. Our original plan had been to go to Krakow after Auschwitz, but out train was delayed coming into Poland which meant that we didn’t have enough time. Since we didn’t know where else to go, we went to the ATM, took out fifty dollars of Polish money (which is only like 13 Euros) and spent it all on junk food. Then we went to the train station, found a bench, and camped out. The whole thing was still scary…. No one else was in the train station, and it probably wasn’t the safest place to be. We made it through the ordeal, though, and got on the train safely and successfully. We had sleepers that night, which are even nicer than couchettes, and I slept great. I can say though, when we got to Vienna on Sunday morning, that I had never been so glad to be home!

Berlin

One of my tops sites to see in Europe was Auschwitz. Before I came here, it was one of the only concentration camps I had heard of, so perhaps that is why I wanted to see it. Unfortunately, Auschwitz is in Poland, and Poland is very far away. I needed to go to Berlin for my project as well, so we decided to take an overnight to Berlin, an overnight to Poland, and then an overnight home.
We got to Berlin successfully, but when we got there we were told that our ticket to Poland was invalid. The girl at the train station in Vienna had neglected to tell us that our Eurail pass was not valid in Poland. I don’t know how she forgot that detail, because she should have seen that we owed extra money when she put our information into the computer. Regardless, we had to buy a whole new ticket in Berlin, and we were not sure how we were going to get out of Poland once we got in. We decided not to worry about it and just see what would happen. With that decided, we headed into the city of Berlin.
We started our morning with a visit to memorial dedicated to all those killed in World War II. I am not sure if this was intentional on the part of the artist or not, but the memorial reminded me of a gas chamber, and one of the statues inside looked as though she was holding her hand over her face to shield it from the gas.
Then we went to the German History museum. Since our time was limited, we focused entirely on the World War II section, since it pertains to my project. It was by far my favorite history museum that I have been to. There were many pieces of propaganda published by the Nazi party: pictures of smiling Nazi girls and boys and pictures of blonde, blue-eyed families laughing together. There was a little girl’s dollhouse which was wall-papered with Hitler’s face. I have heard about the genius of Josef Goebbels my whole life, but I had no idea how truly brilliant he was until I went to this museum. No wonder the German people bought Hitler’s lies.
After the museum, we decided to take New Europe’s Third Reich Tour. New Europe had multiple options for tours, and I wanted to take them all, but this one went with the project and we couldn’t take two. I am SO glad we went on the tour. I learned so much about the war and the city of Berlin. We saw several memorials, including the memorial to the Jews and the remains of the wall. The wall surprised me: it was much thinner and even a little shorter than I thought it would be. The city was divided in a way that seems so random to me. Now, what I would call the “center” of the city is in what was once East Germany, but West Germany is more industrialized as a general rule.
We stood on the site where Hitler’s bunkers used to be, the bunkers where Josef Goebbels and his wife murdered themselves and their whole family. We saw the Jewish synagogue. We saw the Reichstag, the center of German power before Hitler took over. The tour was wonderful, and afterward we stayed to talk to our guide. We told her about the trouble we had had with our train tickets, and she took us to an internet café and helped us get information about entering and leaving Poland. I have relied so much on the kindness of strangers in the last two months, and it makes me more sympathetic to people at home who might need similar help.
After the tour, we decided to go to Checkpoint Charlie, the checkpoint between communist and free Germany. It was much more depressing than I thought. The exhibit showed pictures of people trying to escape from communism in car trunks, and one plaque listed everyone who had been killed trying to escape to freedom. These people must have been completely desperate: there is no other explanation.
We had trouble finding the train station that night, and we were scared that our ticket would be insufficient. We got on the train just fine, though, and slept great. When we woke up, we were in Poland.

Italia Day Six

Friday morning we woke up and met with our guide to head to a few more museums. I felt much better, but by this time I was sick of going to random museum with random tour guides. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand what an amazing opportunity I have and I want to learn as much as possible, but our schedule was pretty packed and a girl can only absorb so much. It’s also hard to travel in a big group and to not have the freedom to choose how to spend your time in a city. That being said, I am glad we went to Italy as a group, because there were certain monuments in Rome that would have been very difficult to see without waiting in line for hours had we not had a group pass.
Anyway, we went to a couple of just ok museums Friday morning that I am going to spare you the details about. We had a break for lunch and then we met to go to yet another museum, the Uffizi. Had it been my call, I would have skipped the two boring museums and spent all day there, because the Uffizi was marvelous. It was full of famous paintings and I could have stayed there for hours. In case you have not yet noticed, I love art museums. I really feel relaxed and at peace when I am in them. Unfortunately, my time was limited, but for a good reason: we had made plans to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and I was not about to miss it.
The train to Pisa was about an hour and a half, not far at all, but it was the first time a group of us had navigated the trains on our own (our travel guide was not with us, and I went with two other girls). Thankfully we figured everything out and had no trouble getting to Pisa at all. It had been sprinkling a little off and on all day, but when we arrived the skies were clear and beautiful. Encouraged, we decided to walk to the leaning tower instead of paying a Euro for the bus. Less than ten minutes into our walk, the heavens descended down upon us. Literally. I have never been as rain-soaked in my life. I was wearing a cotton skirt (mistake number one) that kept flying up in the wind, so Leah held it down for me while we walked and I help the umbrella over us. The whole thing was ridiculous. We walked that way for about twenty minutes, partly because we didn’t know the city well enough to find a bus and we figured we might as well just find the tower.
The rain slacked off a little by the time we reached the tower. The Leaning Tower is really leaning. Really leaning. I would not have been surprised if it had fallen then and there. For some reason the pictures do not do its tilted angle sufficient justice. It is not a huge tower, but worth seeing. It’s a touristy thing to do, but everyone who goes to Italy should do it anyway.
After we saw the tower, which honestly didn’t take very long, we ate dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant. I had my first cup of real Italian hot chocolate. Italian hot chocolate come in two types: the kind that has the consistency of Hershey’s syrup and the kind that has the consistency of a thin chocolate pudding. So basically you have thick and thicker. I love that stuff. It really sticks to your ribs- one cup of that and you are good to go for hours.
By the time we got back to Florence, it was after ten. Our train was delayed, a common occurrence in Italy, so we spent a lot of time traveling. It was totally worth it though. I mean, there is only one Leaning Tower, right?

Italia Day Five

On Thursday we headed from Rome to Florence. The train ride was less than two hours (Courtenay you will be so close to Rome next semester!) and we made it to Florence in time for lunch. Unfortunately I woke up with a bad cold and felt horrible all day- I think our travel schedule combined with a lack of sleep really got to me. We ate some Florence-style pizza, which is quite different from Roman-style. Florence pizza is similar to what we eat in America, while Rome pizza always has a thin crust and not much sauce or cheese, especially when compared to Papa John’s. Both types are great in different ways. After lunch we went shopping in the market. The markets in Florence are WONDERFUL. I have never been so motivated to shop, with the exception of when I walk into an H&M. Leather jackets, beautiful scarves, jewelry, and cameos abound. I will not talk more about this, first of all because it’s probably boring and second of all because I don’t want anyone to know what I bought. But I will say I had a great time.
We met our tour guide, named Christopher, who was very energetic and eager to show us the city. He took us first to the museum where Michelangelo’s David lives. I loved David. He is huge, much bigger than I thought. My head barely reached the pedestal he stood on. I can tell why he is so famous- the statue really does have a life of its own, and David’s eyes have an expression in them that looks uncannily realistic.
After the museum we walked around the city and saw some more statues and a few more works by Michelangelo. I honestly don’t remember a whole lot other than the fact that I felt terrible. We went shopping again in the afternoon (shameful, I know) and then ate dinner together as a group. I must say that I love Florence. It is a manageable size, it is beautiful, it is safe, and it is overall a comfortable place to live. Rome would be hard to navigate logistically over a long period of time, but I think I could live in Florence (I would probably be broke, however). The Duomo, a famous church built of pink, white, and green marble, is my favorite site in the city. I didn’t ever go inside, and I greatly regret that. Had I been more in my right mind I would have. I loved the church, though, with its huge dome designed by the famous architect Brunelleschi; the church alone makes Florence worth a visit.

Italia Day Four

In the past whenever I thought about Italy, two places always came to mind: Pompeii and Pisa. I knew that if I left Italy without seeing Pompeii I would have a hard time living with myself. So when I found out that Pompeii could be reached pretty easily from Rome, I decided to try to take a day trip. Everyone else on the trip seemed to feel the same way, so we talked to our travel agent and he said he would take us. We met our group in the hotel lobby at 6:30 a.m. (talk about a grumpy group of people), and we got on a sketchy graffiti train headed to Naples. The train ride wasn’t very long, I think about two hours or so. I only saw Naples from the train, but I can tell you right now it looked SKETCHY, sketchier than the train. Our guide then directed us to yet another dirty, graffiti-covered train which was supposed to be headed for Pompeii. After that hour and a half train ride, we found ourselves not in Pompeii, but in Salerno. I am not sure how that happened, since we were being directed by a professional tour guide, but anyone can make a mistake and this mistake turned out to be a good one. Salerno is a beautiful town on the coast of the Mediterranean, and we spent our hour layover walking around the harbor and enjoying the ocean view. It was breath-taking, with mountains rising above the coastline and the harbor full of sailboats. We finally made it to Pompeii by about 2 in the afternoon, just in time for a guided tour.
Our guide was a native of the Pompeii region, and he was adorable. He was very old and had a very thick accent, and it turns out is the very man who gave Bill Clinton a tour in the nineties. For some unknown reason, I did not expect the ruins of Pompeii to be very big. I was so wrong. Pompeii is HUGE. MASSIVE. It is a legitimate city that has been dug out of the ash, and you can walk around in it for hours just like you can any other city. The walls and streets are still intact; you can see original water pipes running down the sides of the alleys. There are frescoes in some of the houses and political campaign slogans on the walls of the buildings. There was a large plaza with the remains of a huge temple and other sacred buildings. There were restaurants where you could see the holes they served food out of. We went to the brothel, complete with stone beds for hygienic purposes and very explicit frescoes on the walls. I just didn’t realize that it would be possible to walk around the city for blocks and blocks, just like the volcano had never erupted.
I thought the whole experience would be sadder than it was, and honestly I don’t know why I wasn’t more moved at the thought of a city full of people dying. Maybe the brothel helped me feel better about it, sort of a Sodom and Gomorrah thing, I don’t know. At any rate, we saw the plaster casts of the bodies of people and animals who were killed; when Pompeii was excavated, they discovered holes in the ash which were the shape of bodies long ago decayed, and so they poured plaster in them in order to study the forms. The plaster casts were sad, but not horrifying.
We went back to Naples and then caught a train to Rome, where we ate dinner at a restaurant run by nuns from all over the world. I LOVE nuns. I kind of want to be one. I don’t know why, but that is the fact. There were nuns from Africa, nuns from Asia, nuns from Italy, and their food was great. Part of the proceeds went to mission efforts across the world, another factor in the restaurant’s favor. The nuns sang a version of “Ave Maria” for us, which I loved, and then we left to visit the Trevy fountain one last time. I don’t remember the last time I felt as exhausted as I did that night…. Needless to say I slept great once again. One very good part about traveling is good sleep.

Italia Day Three

Rome is chock full of fabulous museums and original classic art, and nothing is more fun to me than spending a couple hours in a great museum just thinking and looking and walking. I realize that might be unusual, but I don’t care. Museums are just good places to think, even if you don’t look at the art work around you. If you do look at the art AND you think, museums can be quite formative I think.
But I digress… what you really need to know if that we started our day with a trip to the Galleria Borghese, a fantastic museum with a collection of paintings and statues that blew my mind. Since I only have so much time to write, I will try to be concise about all the incredible art work I saw. My favorite part was the statues by Bernini, a Baroque sculptor. His sculptures are unbelievable. His figures are so detailed that you can see veins and muscles and hairs and all kinds of things you would not expect to see in a piece of marble. When his figures touch each other, you can even see the imprints their fingers leave in the other’s skin. I literally stood in front of his work with my mouth open. My favorite was Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Proserpina… check them out on google and see if you can zoom in to see detail… they are awesome!
There was also a Francis Bacon/ Caravaggio exhibit. Caravaggio is the essence of Baroque painting, and Baroque is my all-time favorite style. The way he plays with light and color while giving his paintings extremely realistic details with clean lines is what makes me so attracted to him. I love very detailed, clean artwork. Bacon on the other hand is a modern artist whose paintings are anything but detailed and clean. That being said, I loved him too. I have always hated modern art with a passion. To me it has always seemed pointless and simple. I have always said that some modern art is the product of a life devoid of meaning and purpose. In our post-Christian world, we get a lot of art that is purposeless. However, I changed my mind about modern art that day, looking at Francis Bacon. His art is still the product of a life devoid of meaning and purpose, in my opinion, but that is why I like it. Let me explain. I think Bacon and other modern artists are TRYING to be purposeless in some cases and are TRYING to show that life is futile. At least, that is part of what I think Bacon tried to do. So, if I as a Christian, someone who believes that life is not futile, can learn to appreciate and interpret works by people like Bacon, then I have a very clear glimpse of what goes on in a non-believer’s mind, and I can start to understand them and this post-Christian culture we all live in. Therefore, I think it is important to learn about modern art because it gives me a window into my own culture that I would not have otherwise.
Back to Rome. After the museum, we walked to the church where Michelangelo’s Moses stands. The church was closed till three, so we took a lunch break and ended up in a tiny café by a college in Rome. The café was recommended by Rick Steves, according to a laminated sign on the front door. That meal turned out to be the best I had in Italy, and maybe during this entire trip. The pizza and pasta were fantastic, and at the end we had a cappuccino. That cappuccino ruined me, because I have not had any cup of coffee that good before or since. Oh well, at least I had one perfect cup of coffee before I die (not to be dramatic or anything).
After lunch we saw Moses, honestly a little disappointing for a Michelangelo. I am afraid I am turning into a super art critic who sizes everything up and criticizes great masters, but who can’t sketch a flower herself. Oh well.
After we saw Moses, we walked to the Castle of St. Angelo, one of the pope’s former residences. We had wanted to walk to the top of St. Peter’s but we didn’t make it there before it closed. Disappointed, we decided to climb to the top of the castle instead. That little snafu turned out to be the best disappointment ever. Not only could we see the whole city from our vantage point, but we could also see St. Peters and the sun setting behind it. It was glorious. We read a Psalm about the Lord ruling over His creation while we looked at the church which has served as the seat of church authority through the centuries- it was a powerful experience.
After some more pasta and gelato (why do I keep telling you when I eat this stuff?), we went back to the hotel. I listened to Dean Martin’s song On an Evening in Roma and felt very good about life before I fell asleep.

Michelangelo

If I could use one word to sum up my entire Italy experience, it would be Michelangelo. They are literally crazy about him in Italy. Absolutely obsessed. After I saw some of his work, I began understand why. Monday we toured the Vatican, and my view of art and specifically Michelangelo’s art was changed forever.
We started our day with a tour of the Vatican. The Vatican is located in the very heart of the city of Rome and is recognized as its own independent country, so that no one nation (such as Italy) can claim the control of the pope and therefore the Catholic Church. The Vatican is completely walled in, and I loved walking around Rome and coming across the imposing wall of another country- it gave me the temporary illusion of living in Medieval Europe. Roberta met us at the Vatican and gave us a whirlwind tour to beat all whirlwind tours, which is rather unfortunate as I would have liked to have spent a whole day in the Vatican. In spite of this, we did get to see several really cool art works. The Vatican has basically been transformed into the sacred art treasury of the world, in part because of its frescoes painted by Michelangelo and Raphael and in part because of sacred art brought there from all over the world. We saw the Laocoon Group, a famous statue of the Baroque era. There was a hall of maps and a hall of tapestries. One of my very favorite parts was the frescoes by Raphael. His famous School of Athens is in a room behind the Sistine Chapel and honestly I LOVED it. I really did. I have seen so many poor imitations of it in art history books and in classroom settings, but honestly a picture on a slide show does not come close to the real thing. For the first time, I understood the value of actually looking at a work in person. It’s like the difference between buying Kroger peanut butter and buying Jiff- obviously, one is far superior to the other (I really miss Jiff, by the way).
After the frescoes by Raphael, we moved into the Sistine Chapel. Part of me expected to be blown away and sit and cry and laugh and do all those crazy things a person ought to do when they finally see the Sistine Chapel. Another part of me figured it was probably overrated. So I guess I really didn’t know what to expect. I will say this: it is definitely not overrated. And I didn’t cry, but I felt like I could. The chapel was not as big as I had thought it might be and the frescoes were not as detailed as they look in the pictures on Wikipedia, but the result was far more beautiful. I could have sat and stared for hours on end. I am honestly glad that the Italians are right about Michelangelo.
We only had twenty minutes in the chapel, which was by no means sufficient. We never had enough time anywhere we went, but I guess that’s how it goes. If I lived in Rome for five years I am not sure that I would be able to see everything and take it all in the way I want to, so I am learning to be content with seeing only a glimpse of what Europe has to offer and knowing that it is much better than nothing.
Then we went to St. Peter’s Basilica, the “Mother Church” as they call it in Italy. St. Peter’s really is the church to end all churches. Not only is it grandiose in size (it’s the biggest church in the world, period…. I tried to think of some equally large American church but was informed that nothing in America even comes close, except perhaps that church in Texas which meets in the Astrodome, but I’m not sure that counts), but it is also extremely, EXTREMELY elaborate inside. The church is built over the grave of St. Peter himself, and we know this because several hundred years ago, a pope did some excavations under the church in order to find out if it was in fact built over Peter’s grave. The pope’s excavation team discovered a whole cemetery and a head stone with Peter’s name on it, along with a couple other details which prove it was him.
St. Peter’s houses Michelangelo’s Pieta, a statue which I absolutely adore. I am turning into a Michelangelo fanatic myself- go figure! The statue features Mary with Jesus lying dead across her lap, though most of the focus for me centers on Mary and not Jesus. Mary’s pain and beauty are so well captured and so believable. When you look at the Pieta, you see a woman mourning the loss of her son, and that is why I like it.
After the Vatican, I walked to the Trevi Fountain with a group of ten or so people. I loved the Trevi Fountain, but I hesitate to tell you why. I guess I will go ahead and say it, in case Laura, Rebecca, or Courtenay is reading this…. I love the fountain because it was in the Lizzie McGuire Movie. I can’t believe I just said that. But seriously, I have loved that movie since eighth grade and because of it, I always wanted to visit Rome. It looks just like it does in the movie, except the shops that are pictured in front of the fountain in the movie look surprisingly like a different row of shops altogether. There’s Hollywood for you.
I ate gnocchi, Italian potato pasta, for dinner. Gnocchi is really good but really dense, and it’s one of those dishes that is best eaten in small proportions. We walked around Rome till dark, got some gelato (I bet you didn’t see that coming!), and went back to our hotel. All I can say is, I slept very good that night!

Italia Day One

When I was fourteen, I read a book called The Flames of Rome, which captured my imagination and had me thinking about nothing else besides Nero and the Coliseum for days. Even before then, I read a book about some Roman school kids solving a murder mystery, and I envisioned myself trudging down the Appian Way and the Via Sacra. I never believed for a single minute that I would ever see Rome, let alone walk down the very streets I had read about as a child. I guess that is why this trip meant so much to me. I think that in some way I am probably not even fully aware of, I will always view history in a different light because of our group trip to Italy.
We left on Saturday the third and took a night train to Rome. I had never been on a train before, let alone spent the night on one, and my first trip was quite an experience. I really felt like I was on the Polar Express or Harry Potter (so many literary correlations to be made). The couchettes really are tiny, just like in the movies, and we slept in bunks. On later trips we will not be taking couchettes, simply because they cost an extra forty-five Euro, but I am glad we got to experience them for one night. We sat up for a while talking with our professor and our travel guide, and then we went to bed pretty early.
For me, the craziest part of the train experience was waking up in an entirely different country than the one I went to bed in. As soon as we stepped out of the station, Roberta was waiting to greet us. She was less than five feet tall and probably old enough to be my great-grandmother, but she had more energy than any of us. Roberta’s job was to help us discover the city of Rome, and with waving flag in hand (we couldn’t actually see her from behind when walking in a crowd, so the flag was a definite necessity), she marched us first to the Baths of Caracalla.
The Baths of Caracalla are some of the most extensive ruins in Rome. I think public baths are one of the main points teachers emphasize when talking about ancient Rome, so I had some preconceived and very wrong ideas about what the baths would and wouldn’t look like. I knew there were three main pools of water: the frigidarium (cold water), the tepidarium (tepid water), and the calidarium (hot water). In my mind, I was picturing three Olympic-sized swimming pools. However, though the actual building itself is huge, with spaces for a gymnasium and a library, the pools themselves are pretty small. There was one bigger swimming pool, but it definitely could not accommodate the hundreds of people I had originally envisioned.
Then we went to the Coliseum. I almost wet my pants when I saw it. I had never thought about the Coliseum being a beautiful structure before- I had only thought of it as ancient. It really is breath-taking though. And big. VERY big. The fact that two thousand years ago the Romans had built basically the equivalent of any of our modern stadiums, only without electricity, resonated with me for the first time. It just goes to show that there is nothing new under the sun. We post-modern Americans really aren’t so smart after all.
There is a wooden cross standing on one end of the Coliseum, near the bottom floor. I think you understand without me babbling further.
After the Coliseum, we went to the Roman forum. Once the cultural and religious hub of the city, the forum is now only broken temple columns and large building stones. It might sound retarded, but my favorite part of the forum was standing on the Via Sacra (because I had read about it) and drinking water from a spigot there which came straight from the ancient aqueducts. For some reason, standing there drinking that water, I really understood where I was for the first time.
Then we went to the Pantheon, by far my favorite building of all time. Ok maybe that is an exaggeration, but not a big one. The Pantheon was once a temple dedicated to multiple gods, but now it is a church. I loved its massive domed top, so tall that rain drops evaporate before they hit the floor. The interior is lovely without being tacky or overly decorated. Raphael is buried there. I could have sat in the Pantheon for hours on end, but I didn’t. Instead I went and got some pizza and the best gelato of my life (which is saying something, because gelato in Austria is not exactly a bad thing).
We rested in the hotel for a little while, and then we ate a three course Italian dinner, which I loved. Italian food is absolutely fantastic, about twenty times better than Austrian food. Italians serve pasta as a sort of appetizer, and then they bring the meal. We had bread and outstanding pasta, followed by roast chicken and potatos. Then they brought us a terrible salad adorned with a salt, vinegar, and olive oil dressing. I have learned that Italian dressing is apparently a myth concocted by either Kraft foods or the Olive Garden, because in Italy the only dressing they use is the formula described above. We ended our meal with gelato. I am ashamed to say this, but I ate gelato twice almost every day I was in Italy. There. I have confessed, so please don’t judge.
End of day one, only seven more to go. If you read this far, congratulations!

Choir Rehearsal

Wednesday night Kathryn-Claire and I went to choir rehearsal at the Augustinerkirche church. I was honestly nervous about the whole thing... the thought of showing up in some random choir to sing with a bunch of people who speak German was slightly overwhelming, but on the other hand I figured we had nothing to lose. After all, if something goes really badly over here as far as social interaction is concerned, I know that I will be out of here in three monthes and it won't matter anyway.
So we went, and I am so glad we did. We got there early, well before any of the other choir members, except one elderly woman who told us in broken English that she sang tenor. As soon as more members began to drift in, I felt at ease. One man was particularly welcoming and explained some of the procedures to us, and I sat next to a very kind woman in the soprano section who did her best to help me keep up with a rehearsal conducted in German. The repertoire we sang was predominantly in Latin, with a few German pieces thrown in, and it consisted of various Christmas songs and carols. Many of them I had never heard before, but some such as "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful," though sung in German, were like familiar friends.
The rehearsal lasted two and a half hours, but it didn't feel long at all. After the rehearsal the director asked Kathryn-Claire and I to sing a few scales on our own (I'm assuming so that he could make sure we aren't tone-deaf). Then he invited us to eat downstairs with the choir. There was fruit and bread and cheese and everyone was talking and laughing and passing around plates. They really are like a big family. I felt right at home, which is saying a lot I think, considering the circumstances. We met a girl named Katrin, a student our age who is studying at the University of Wien. I liked her immediately and we had a great time talking about everything from movies to cultural differences between Europe and America. Hopefully we will be able to travel with her one weekend, and I think that will be an amazing experience.
I am becoming aware of the differences in interaction between strangers in the southern U.S.A. and here in Wien. I have noticed that we southern girls are extremely friendly right off the bat, while the Viennese are very reserved and don't want to share their intimate private lives with us. For example, both our German teacher and our travel guide have been very vague when we have asked them about their familes, and they usually try to change the subject as soon as possible. Kathryn-Claire asked the choir director about his little daughter, to which he replied, "Is that a normal question for you?" Here one's professional life and one's private life are two completely separate ideas, and we are learning not to ask what we would think to be standard questions about the lives of the people we meet here. As we develop relationships with these people, it becomes easier to talk with them, but on the outset personal questions are a bad idea.
I still cannot believe that I sang with a choir in Vienna, even for just one night. Our travel schedules will make singing there often difficult, but I hope to sing there whenever I am in town, as long as the director will allow it. He did not seem too pleased by our scheduling conflicts, as most choir directors would not be. However, those two and a half hours were worth millions to me. And anyways I am now an auditioned and officially registered member of the choir, so surely we will be able to sing again...

Vienna visits

One of my favorite things about this trip has been our Vienna visits. Each week our humanities professor gives us a list of churches, parks, museums, and other sites around the city to visit and we write about them in our journals. When I first found out about that part of the course, I was very overwhelmed. However, when I started visiting I discovered that I loved going to out-of-the-way places in Vienna that I might not normally see.
For example, today we went to the Minoritenkirche. It is a beautiful church, as is the Michaelerkirche I visited last week. Though Stephansdom is a stunning work of architecture, I find it a little overwhelming. The interior is so full of paintings and sculptures that I get distracted and feel that I can't quite absorb everything I am seeing. The Minoritenkirche and the Michaelerkirche are a perfect balance of ornate beauty and quiet simplicity. I think the Michaelerkirche is my favorite, but I do love both. The Minoritenkirche is not as common a tourist site, which is refreshing.
I have also loved going to the parks around Vienna. I think I have been to all of them at this point, and they are all lovely and they all have something different to offer. Burgarten is close to our school and is perfect for studying, while Volksgarten has some beautiful sculptures and a huge rose garden. Schonbrunn is on the outskirts of the city and boasts some exquisitely manicured lawns and flower beds. Augarten lies in the shadow of two large towers left from the Nazi occupation. My favorite park, however, is Oberlaa. To get there you have to take the U-bann to the end of the line, and then you take the Strassenbann to the end of its line. That's what makes the park so perfect, though... I feel like I am out in the country when I am there. The air is fresher and the park is much bigger than the parks in the downtown areas. Most of the people at Oberlaa are older Austrians; in fact, the park is not even listed in our extensive Vienna guide book. I love going places where mostly locals go. I feel less like a tourist and more like a regular human being.
I don't want a single day to go by without seeing at least one cool thing in this city. There are so many wonderful things to see and do that I honestly don't think three monthes is long enough. I still have a list of museums to go to and cafes to visit. I know that weekend travel is one of the biggest blessings about this trip, but honestly I feel that discovering Vienna is more important to me personally. I am starting to think that it takes monthes, even years, to really absorb a city and its culture. I will get to see lots of cool places on the weekends, but I won't become part of the culture in those places like I am here in Vienna. I hope that as each day goes by I can make this city a little more my own... it has so much to offer me.

Music

Sometimes this blog overwhelms me, because I cannot find the words to describe this experience. I feel somewhat guilty about that, because as an English major I feel that I should always be able to say SOMETHING semi-poetic about life here. It's funny that I have so much to say, but yet I cannot seem to say it.
This week has been amazing, to say the least. Tuesday I went to Madame Butterfly, my absolute favorite opera. If you have never seen it, I highly recommend it. The music is stunning, but the most compelling part of the opera is the story. It's all about unconditional love and everlasting hope. I don't want to give more of the story away, but I will say it is definitely worth your time.
This whole week was full of incredible musical experiences. Saturday we went to The Magic Flute, an opera I had never seen before. Unfortunately there were no subtitles and the story is very complicated, so I was completely lost. The vocalists were outstanding, though. Today my roommate and I went to two high masses. At one mass, we heard the world-renowned Vienna Boys Choir. Heaven literally descended into the chapel when those boys started to sing. They looked remarkably young, probably only about eight to ten years old, and their voices were clear as bells. I was honored to hear them sing.
After mass number one, we went to the Augustinerkirche, a church whose music is renowned throughout Europe. The music literally swept me away. I have become increasingly aware of the richness of Catholic liturgical music versus the poor quality of some of our own church music. Granted, I do not by any means want to get rid of the songs I sing at my home church and I don't think they are bad, but when I honestly consider the quality of the repertoire, I have to say that the Catholic churches here sing better music than many Protestant churches at home. There is a difficult balance to strike between the traditional and ritual aspects of Catholicism and the modern, individualistic approach to Christianity we sometimes take in the States. I have decided that though I am most definitely Protestant as far as doctrine is concerned, the Catholics do have some good things to offer and we should pay more attention to them.
We had trouble finding a seat at the Augustinerkirche, and so a very kind church member helped us find a place near the altar. After service, we started talking and he told us about the amazing choir we had just heard. Apparently the choir is open to anyone who can and wants to sing. He asked if any of us were interested, and I and one other girl said yes. He took us backstage and we met the choir and the conductor, who were all sitting around eating spaghetti. It was incredible. They invited us to practice and perform with them, which we are planning on doing. I could not believe my ears.
I am constantly reminded of God's great love and care for me everday. He wants me to live an abundant life. Even if it is just looking at a blooming flower or hearing my favorite song on the radio, the good things in life, small though they may be, show that good exists. And if good exists, then God exists and He really cares. And if God really cares, then my life is worth something. After only two and a half weeks here, I can see His love in a new way, which is what I wanted to gain most from this experience. He is looking out for me and I am blessed indeed.

Prague

This past weekend I had my first European experience outside of Vienna. Saturday morning we traveled for four hours by bus to Prague, the capital of the Czech Repulic. I stepped out of the bus and found myself looking at the river which runs through the city's center and staring at some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen. We had six hours of freetime to spend in Prague, but first we went to find some lunch. Before we could eat, however, we had to stop at an ATM to get some Czech crowns.
I thought the Euro was confusing, but that was before I met the Czech crown. Good grief. Seventeen crowns to the dollar and twenty-five to the Euro... needless to say, I really had no idea how much I was spending at all, a fact made most apparent when we figured out that we had spent twenty bucks on a hamburger at lunch. The Bulgarian man whom I bought some souveneirs from gave us a good deal on what we bought, and expressed sympathy when we sadly related our lunch story. He informed us that just such purchases as the one we ignorantly made are what keeps the Czech economy in business.
Prague was crowded- very crowded. Apparently, it is one of the top tourist spots in Central Europe, a fact I did not know until we arrived. I learned one very important lesson last weekend: I learned that I really need to do my research before I land in a city, so that I will know where I am headed exactly and what I can do when I get there. Because none of us had done any research at all, we ended up staying in the tourist district and visiting dozens of tourist shops. I don't believe we used our time well. We did run into a random rave in the middle of the street, however, which was unusual and well worth watching.
Czech culture, or at least what little I observed of it, is much louder and more informal than Austrian culture. The buildings and city streets look much like Wien, but with an eastern flair. The people seem to be more prone to rowdy celebration and spontaneity than the proper Austrians. We saw people marching down the street loudly singing folk songs, people dancing and drinking beer, and people laughing and talking in large groups. I have not seen any of those scenarios played out in Vienna. It is true that some of the people I was observing were probably tourists, but the culture allows for more of that kind of thing regardless.
Sunday we took a walking tour of the city, and I fell in love with Prague for the first time. Prague is called "The City of A Hundred Spires" because of its many cathedrals and churches which fill the landscape with spires and domes. Our guide said Prague is much like Paris in that regard. I realized on Sunday that despite the tourism and crowds, Prague is a stunning city and there is none like it anywhere in the world. After our historical tour, I explored the city with several girls and we found a great chicken kebab place and a great little bakery with wonderful desserts. Lesson number two learned: get out of the main tourist areas of any city. The other areas are much better:)
Prague was an incredible experience, but I found myself wanting to go "home" to Vienna. I also realized how much I appreciate what I have in Vienna and what a great place it is for students to live. I think part of me will always consider Vienna my second home. I am looking forward to planning my own weekend trips and seeing where the next few weeks will take me... Prague definitely whetted my appetite for more travel!

?

I don't know what to call this entry. I feel like my cheesy titles take away from the beauty that is Vienna. I am discovering on this trip how beautiful life really is... and I know it is easy for me to say that, since I am in one of the greatest cities in the world and I am blessed to experience and see things that many people don't get to experience and see. That being said, however, I am starting to think that life in Nashville is just as beautiful as life is here. If I looked at the world in Nashville the way I look at the world here in Vienna, as a world full of promise, truth, excitement, and hope, I would treat other people differently. I would go to more museums, spend more time at the park, and try more out-of-the-way coffee houses. I would go to academic lectures and plays and operas. It is true that such cultural experiences are more easily accessible in Vienna than they can be in Nashville. In Vienna, I can hop on an U-bann, pay four Euro, and be in an opera with not much forethought or planning. Still, there is more in Nashville than I often take advantage of. In the same vein, I think that I am more accepting of different people here than I am in Nashville. There is something about being a foreigner and looking completely stupid everytime you open your mouth that makes you more tolerant.
Wednesday we had a devotional in the courtyard of the hotel. Our group as a whole is truly seeking the Lord in this experience, and to me that makes all the difference. In one short week, I believe He has shown me so much about myself and my relationship with Him. I have realized how much I rely on other people to give me a sense of self-worth, instead of looking to God. I have realized that God takes care of me constantly.... He NEVER stops looking out for me, even when I ignore Him. As much as I will learn on this trip about culture and geography and the world in general, what I learn about my relationship with Christ is THE most important thing. If this knowledge of Christ is all that I gain on this trip, every penny spent will be more than worth it.

P.S. We went to several AMAZING museums yesterday... sat in the most famous coffee house in Vienna and talked about philosophy as it relates to love and beauty... visited Cafe Sperl and got snappped at by the waitress when Cari ordered tapwater... and spent today at the park and restaurants studying for a big test on Monday. Life is good.

Yesterday was an amazing day. As part of our humanties course, we are required to visit lots of places around Vienna and keep a journal of notes and sketches documenting our experiences. After class, we set out to visit some of the places on our list and ended up in front of the Stephansdom, where we sketched the cathedral. After a quick stop for gelato, we walked to the Roman ruins outside of the Hofburg. Vienna was once a Roman outpost, and a group of underground buildings were found when the Viennese tried to build the U-bann. Now you can go see the ruins, which are basically in an enclosed hole in the middle of the street.
After the ruins, we walked to Volksgarten Park, a lovely green oasis complete with a rose garden and majestic statues. We sat on the benches and sketched some more... I think I could have sat there all day.
My favorite part of the day by far was the ballet. Three other girls and I randomly decided to go to a ballet, and we were able to get standing room tickets for four Euro. The ballet was performed in the Vienna Opera House, or the Staatsoper, a beautiful building. Unlike the Stephansdom, which has a nice exterior but a more beautiful interior, I think the Opera House is more majestic on the exterior. The inside is still stunning, however, and the performance was incredible. The ballet's title translates from the German into "The New World of Ballet." It was definitely a modern opera, but the first act particularly retained many aspects of classical ballet. The performance did not have one cohesive story line but was more like a series of dances, each telling a different story (though I am not altogether sure I understood any of those stories.)
I am thrilled to live in a city where I can go to a ballet or an opera or a symphony whenever I feel like it without spending a lot of money or planning in advance. I don't even have to drive to get to concerts- I can hop on the U-bann and I will be at the Opera House in fifteen minutes. I can see why Europeans have more exposure to classic performances. They are cheaper and more convenient to get to than they are in the States. I know I will miss the classic performances available to me here when I go home.

My First Full Weekend in Wien

Every now and then, I catch myself stopping and saying aloud, "This is the most incredible life ever." I think I am experiencing what they call the "honeymoon stage" of living abroad. Everything seems wonderful, and I can find almost no fault with the world. Even the things that might usually bother me are easily disregarded and forgotten. I still am not a huge fan of the food, however, but the more different places I try, the more I find dishes that I really enjoy.
Saturday our wonderful German teacher from school divided us into groups and sent us to explore different shopping areas of the city. In America, I love to haggle at flea markets and bargain for the best price, so I asked to be in the group that went to the Vienna flea market. I thought it would be lots of fun... when we arrived however, it was an entirely different story. I felt complete cultural overload for the first time. Hundreds of people were pressed in tightly around me, speaking German and quite frankly smelling like body oder. Unlike our flea markets, this one offered a plethora of goods that I would never consider buying... such as gas masks, for example. Many of the booths were filled with antiques of one sort or another, but my eyes are not trained to look for treasures in places like that, and so everything for sell looked like junk to me.
Afterwards we ate in the Naschmarkt, one of my favorite places in all of Vienna. The food there is diverse, cheap, and good. Later that night we visited the Prater, an amusement park in the heart of the city. The rides are more like the ones found at a state fair than the ones at six flags, but they were actually lots of fun. I rode the swings with Leah- it was basically a date.
On Sunday we went to Stephandom Cathedral for mass. The experience was unvelievable. Unfortunately I sat behind a huge pillar, so I couldn't see anything happening on the stage, but I did get to sit next to the orchestra and the choir. When those people opened their mouthes, I literally thought I was in heaven. I have noticed that the Austrian people have a deep respect for classical music and classic singing that we in America sorely lack. The Stephansdom choir, I am sure, is well respected, but they are not considered to be "great" by European standards. By American standards though, they were pretty incredible.
After church we ate lunch at a harvest festival. I ate my very first bratwurst with mustard. Then we took the train to the very outskirts of Vienna and stood on a huge hill where we could see the whole city. Vienna is stunning and HUGE. For some unknown reason, I feel so comfortable here that the city feels small to me. When I saw it from the top of the hill, however, I realized what a huge Metropolis I live in.
We hiked down the hill (after losing half of the group and missing the important devotional in the vineyards) and somehow made our way back to the hotel and supper. The day was beautiful.... everyday here is like a dream.
Today was our first day of school. We had our first German lesson with our Austrian teacher, whom I really liked. He was hilarious, though seemingly quite distraught at our lack of German knowledge. After class I went to the park with my roommate, and then we ate goulash at a small cafe near the hotel. The best part of the day, believe it or not, was the trip to H&M we took tonight. I hate shopping, repeat HATE shopping, but for some reason I went nuts in that store. I bought the most adorable little black dress you have ever seen. I want to spend about 300 euros in that store, but I am resisting the temptation.
I just don't understand why everything can be so perfect. I am blessed beyond belief, and so undeserving of all that I am experiencing. I feel like I will learn a vast amount here, and I hope that somehow I can use my personal growth to bless others here and in the States. God has given me much more than I even asked for, and I don't want to waste it. I also don't want to get so wrapped up in Vienna that I forget the One who created it all. I know that I have been given the opportunity of a lifetime... everyday I am reminded of God's extreme mercy and love. He is taking care of me each and every day.

I am in Vienna?

I cannot say exactly how many times I have asked myself or the person next to me this question in the last forty-eight hours. I am simply in awe. I don't know what to say to convey exactly what these two days have been like, but I guess I will try. So here goes.....
The plane ride was actually my first taste of European culture. The plane was huge, with five relatively large bathrooms downstairs (I greatly appreciated that, just so you know). Every seat had its own screen with TV, music, and movie options. The staff served us good meals... Over all, the entire experience was several steps above any American Airline I have ever been on, including the plane I flew on to Hawaii.
We spent day one trekking about the city, discovering some of its wonders. Unfortunately, my jet lag prevented some of those wonders from sticking with me, but I do remember that we visited our school, saw the Stephansdom (the most famous church in Vienna), and ate gelato at the best place in town, Tichi ice. I will probably go there at least every other day, and that is no joke.
Today, we went to the Naschmarkt, which consists of hundreds and hundreds of booths and little restaurants all lined up down a mile-long stretch. Most of the booths sell cheap and delicious food, though some have great scarves and clothes just waiting for me.
The most moving thing we have done as of yet was to visit the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Hapburgs. Today I have stood in rooms where Napoleon walked. I stood in the very room where Mozart gave his first concert as a six-year-old boy for the Empress Maria Theresia. The architecture and decor was absolutely stunning, but the most incredible part was the knowledge that generations of legendary men and women have stood in those halls, men and women I have read about my whole life. I think the whole Mozart thing was what really got to me.
In general, I feel about Vienna the way I felt about the plane- it is several steps up. Not that Europe is better than America, because that is not the case. Europe, or at least Vienna, is much more formal, however, and their standards are higher than ours in certain areas.
For example, the streets are amazingly clean, as is our hotel. The public tranportation system is phenomenal. The Viennese value manners and propriety much more than we do, and I have become increasingly aware of some of my more annoying habits. My annoying habits include: elbows on the table, talking in a very loud voice, laughing loudly in public places, not maintaining certain standards of cleanliness in the hotel, etc. In America, this wouldn't faze anybody, because most of us would not consider these things a huge problem. Noise is a big deal here though.... we are a group of college students, mostly girls, and by American standards we are extremely well behaved. However, we were told after breakfast that we had been too rambunctious in the dining room, and we needed to try to lower our voices. Very interesting to me...
I am surprised by two things. Number one: we are very much like the Viennese. Number two: we are so different from the Viennese. Tonight I was sitting in a restaurant eating pizza, laughing with friends and joking with the waiter, and I felt like I was in America. Then we went to a coffee house and ordered cheesecake and a water, and I knew I was not in America. First of all, the Viennese do not eat as much sugar as we do. Nothing is nearly as sweet as it is in America, even the desserts. And I don't know what they do to their cheesecake, but it tasted pretty good. Secondly, they bring you teeny tiny cups of liquid with no ice when you order a drink. There are no refills and sometimes they will not bring you free tapwater, so you have to pay.
I do like the Viennese, though. They have been kind and helpful, very forgiving of my poor German and very willing to speak to me in English. When you really look at it and pull away the layers of small drinks and odd cheesecake, they are just like us. That is comforting to me, and I feel surprisingly at home here. I live in Vienna, for three months at least, and for three months I know I belong here. Who would have thought.... I am actually in Vienna.

Two Days Before Departure

I cannot believe that the planning, packing, shopping, and talking are practically over. Even though I know intellectually that in two days I will board a plane and fly across the Atlantic, the whole trip feels more like a dream than a reality. I have seen numerous pictures and listened to multiple Europe travel veterans tell their stories, but Europe still seems more like a fantasy world found in history books than a place that I will actually live. I am excited, though, about this dream world... I am also sad to leave people and places I love behind. However, I know that for me, in this time and place, the benefits of leaving home for three months will outweigh the advantages of staying. I hope that when I come back I will appreciate my home in a new way.
So, off I go... to vienna and beyond! ( I couldn't help myself...)

Auf Wiedersehen