Almost, almost, almost caught up ;P

March 28 – April 4

            Adventures with Friends! Switzerland and Salzburg!!

            Thursday, March 28: As always, started out the trip with a transportation challenge- Rusty and I almost didn’t make our train! I had gone to the Post Office to mail a couple postcards, and basically it took me longer than I expected, so by the time I met back up with Rusty at the College we had about 15 min to get to the Hbf. We both powerwalked, and I also ran a bit to keep up with his long legs. :P But we summited the platform exactly two minutes before our train arrived! Not a fan of close calls like that! On the way, we listened to music, Rusty taught me how to play Chess and I entertained myself trying to beat my computer… Lost every time. Haha. Arrived at the train station in Lucerne and we turned to grab a burger for me at BK when all of a sudden Jacob appeared by Rusty’s side! Joyful reunion! J He took us to the hotel and me and Ellen reunited as well! So great to see that girl! J Along with Anna and their friend Katie! That night it was so nice to all hang out in our cozy little room, with a bunk bed, 4 twin mattresses on the floor, and huge wooden beams reaching diagonally from the floor to the ceiling! Loved catching up and skyping with some friends. J

            Next morning we went to the train station and picked up Johanna! Fun to reunited with her as well! Walked around, ate brunch at a Rick Steve’s recommended café, saw the weeping lion- the landmark of Lucerne, did trust falls in the amphitheater by the lake (Rusty got quite “offended” at my “fat joke” because I remarked, after the 5 of us girls and Jacob caught him in a trust fall, “If we can catch Rusty we can catch anyone!” Nothing personal intended!! ;P) got some familiar Starbucks, went back to the hotel and chilled since it drizzled the whole day. After making a short excursion to the grocery store in the train station to get cheap food for dinner, we went back and chilled at the hotel in the boys room while Jacob and Rusty picked up Josh from the train station, and then we just hung out, swapping stories, mostly being entertained by Josh’s many adventures. J

            Saturday we explored more of the city! Again it was drizzling rain so the weather wasn’t exactly conducive to appreciating the alleged natural beauty of the mountains surrounding Lucerne! I got some fresh raison rolls and a thick chunk of cheese to eat for breakfast at the market, and we went up to the castle wall on the hill, climbed up in the clock tower, found this awesome park with the coolest playground equipment ever, walked by the lake again and enjoyed feeding the swans! Showed Josh the lion and he and Jacob had a mini photo shoot! Oh those boys! That afternoon/evening hung out in the boys room again, played the longest game of Phase 10 ever!... and just enjoyed each others company. Oh and I was just really happy to be hanging out with some guys for a change! Girls are great and all, but spend a semester with 14 of them and you’ll be ready for some male company!!!

            Easter Sunday: Pretty much spent it on a train back to Salzburg, but in the company of great friends! And we listened to a sermon via podcast. J But admired the view of the mountains, man I can’t get enough of them! And enjoyed re-reading “The Host!”  everyone chuckled when I would get really into it and squeal, or suck in a sharp breath, or get really animated in general. ;P Got to Salzburg that evening! So pumped to show everyone where I live! Found the hostel, and then I took everyone to Il Sole, the pizzeria that was basically our “cafeteria- except 100x better” during the first block. They were all big fans. J We went back to the hostel and all piled on the top bunk beds to watch Monster’s Inc.! Reminded me of open dorm minus all the rules… hahaha! And to top off the night, Jo and I had pillow talk. So Good. J

            Monday. Me and Jo enjoyed the nice long walk by the river to get into the city, it’s about a 45 minute walk from my house! Definitely gonna look at differences differently when I go back home: last semester, the 10 minute walk from Gosser to the Science Building seemed forever! But not anymore, in fact it will be nice to be at most 20 minutes away from everyone in the apartments, as opposed to across the ocean for some and in different countries for all! Anyway, lol. Met up with everyone, showed them around Old Town, the weather was kinda cold and grey, not ideal for seeing the mountains all around :/ but I enjoyed being with the friends none-the-less! We hiked over the Monchsberg, my favorite part was Rusty and Jacob taking a different path, and then having to cut through the snowy woods eventually to join us. Those guys are too funny! Went and saw the abbey from the Sound of Music, winning moment of the day: Jacob was by the gate that Maria comes out, and there were some other girls there reenacting the scene from the movie. So Jacob says something like, “What are y’all doing?” And they reply that they are taking pictures from the movie SOM, and Jacob goes: “Never heard of it…” HAHAHAHA!!! We all died when he told us!! J That evening we couldn’t think of good places to eat so we ended up going back to Il Sole again and picked something different on the menu. Even so it didn’t disappoint! (And this time Ferdinand remembered to give me my 1euro discount too ;P) Then we all went to my house! It’s maybe a little sad that this was the first time I’d had a group over, but you have to understand that my house is one of the farthest out of the way… you want to take the bus, but then the bus stops running around 11 pm, and it’s quite the walk! We hung out for a while (Me, Ellen, Jacob, Josh, and eventually Jo and Rusty) and then watched a movie (you can rent movies off of Itunes! Who knew?!) “Moonrise Kingdom” which was about a weird romance between tweens, with plenty of awkward moments that the boys found hilarious and I found intriguing and strange and funny and not all at once! When they were getting ready to leave, Rusty announced with flair, “Wellp, see ya later!” and walked into the spare room where my host mom’s aunt (who was visiting from Copenhagen, Denmark) was sleeping!!! I get that the number of doors is confusing and it was late and dark, but I hoped that the incident wouldn’t end all other opportunities for having friends over! Thankfully it wasn’t a big deal and Franzisca said I could have friends over anytime! J

            Tuesday. My worst day… So I had class from 11:30 to 4:30 with a half hour break in between and I was worried that I wouldn’t get much time to spend with everyone since they were planning on going on an excursion out of Salzburg on Wednesday and leaving on Thursday. So first, for music history we met our professor at the archives, basically a controlled storage area for really old documents, both books and music! I have to admit it was pretty neat getting to be right up close to things that were made before Columbus had even discovered America! I can’t say that I would want to have the job of cataloguing all of that stuff though! But unfortunately the coolness of the archives was kinda spoiled for me because we got done with class late and still had a 10 minute walk back to school, and I had been planning on showing everyone around school during my break but clearly I only barely had time to eat lunch. Definitely fought back some tears on the way over… I know, pretty dramatic. Then Art History took forever too! In fact, if I hadn’t spoken up, she would have gone on for another half an hour! Apparently she forgot when our class was supposed to end. I was so relieved to go downstairs and see all of my friends waiting at the table. So over school! But then, it also kinda stunk because me and Jo weren’t gonna have enough time to go up to the fortress before going back home to get picked up to have dinner at my host sister’s house… and of course I was trying to figure everything out with no margins at all, and was just stressing myself. But Jo was gracious and said I didn’t have to stress, we could just go home and have plenty of time and it would be ok. Sigh! Thankful that she was able to calm me down and reassure me that everything would work out! Dinner ended up being really good and fun though! Loved laughing at little Noah’s antics- he’s quite the drama king, and he loudly explains everything in German, which of course I can’t really understand, but he’s so sincere about everything! It’s great! Met up with everyone back at the hostel and played some SPOONS. Fun fun!

            Wednesday. Jo and I had some great devo time! I had German class, then Jo and I went and got some lunch at My Indigo- a yummy little Korean (?) restaurant? And topped off the afternoon eating Ben & Jerrys on a bench by the river and talking! Also shared some great prayer time too! So much encouragement whenever Jo is around! Went back home, watched a little P.S. I love you! Had dinner with the fam! Franzisca and Hanz were talkative and teasing as usual. J After dinner, Jo went into town to have coffee with Rusty, and they eventually met up with the friends back at the hostel, but at that point it was late and the buses were running at inconvenient times and I needed to study for my Music History midterm… sigh. Wasn’t very happy with school that night!

            Thursday. Had to say bye to Jo L But, I guess the good thing is at that point there were only a few more weeks til we will be reunited on the other side of the pond for good! Music History test went better than expected, and then after German I got to go home and managed to skype with my bff Brooke!! She’s been studying abroad in India since right after Christmas, and this was the first time we had skyped! (We had exchanged letters and emails J) So that was a huge blessing to be able to hear what she’s been learning and how she’s been growing!! Looking forward to hopefully spending quite a bit of the summer with her in Siloam!! Then I met up with Jacob and Josh, who had decided to stay an extra day, and we went to Schloss Hellbrunn, one of the Prince Archbishops of Salzburg’s summer/day villa, which is situated on beautiful gardens and has this really neat hill where supposedly the sunset is beyond words! We powered up the mountain racing the clock, but unfortunately it was kinda cloudy so there wasn’t really an epic sunset… the view of the Untersberg was pretty stinkin incredible though! And there were these really huge fish in the ponds! Oh it was beautiful! After that we went to Molly Anne and Megan’s apartment, met Rusty there and watched most of the Sound of Music! (Except for me… I’ve seen that movie SO MANY TIMES now… I fell asleep.) After the boys left, I spontaneously decided to spend the night there instead of walking back home at 12 am! Haha no toothbrush, nothing. But it worked out great! Didn’t even have as far to go to meet up for our school excursion the next day!

April 5

            School excursion to Obersalzburg: we got to see the bunker system that Hitler had built! Pretty incredible, the materials they built it with were so durable that it’s still in basically perfect condition today! It was a bummer though that it was super cloudy, so we totally missed out on what should have been an incredible view of surrounding mountains… Then, because I had spent the night, I only had my Sperrys, and we had to basically hike down a snowy mountain… it was slippery going, let me tell you! Thankfully Kerri was a dear and let me hold onto her arm the whenever we got to excessively slick areas, and I enjoyed catching up with her! We have soccer and big injuries in common among other things. J Enjoyed lunch on a park bench, discussing Molly Anne’s “type,” then, because it was super cold, Molly Anne, Megan and I went into a little coffee shop and got a big (and inexpensive!!) cup of coffee, and sat and had a great life conversation instead of touring the city in the freezing cold. So grateful that these friendships can be more easily continued since they are both OBU girls that I barely knew at the beginning of the semester! Man was I missing out! J

April 6

            Another school field trip to Nurnberg! Our train was crazy packed so me, Molly Anne, Megan, and Rusty sat on the floor, in the aisle (me and Molly Anne were under the luggage storage compartments) and we played crazy eights. For two hours. But it was a blast! Got to see the Nazi rallying grounds: these were architectural designs intended to impress one with a sense of power and might. Pretty crazy to stand where Hitler once stood and try and imagine the thousands of troops standing in formation before him, giving him the infamous salute. Then there was the pink limo incident… if you really wanna know you’ll have to ask me about that in person. Discretion is advised haha.

April 7

            Study day! Two midterms to prepare for the next Monday, so Victoria and I spent a couple hours on our Art History stuff and then I went over to Molly Anne and Megan’s that evening to study for German. What a night! I feel like we were pretty productive studying, all things considered, and we also managed to learn a lot about our different personalities using some wonderful websites! Haha… ended up staying up til 2 am, and again I decided it was better that I don’t walk home. Spent the night. Again, with nothing haha, and went to school the next morning no less! I’m really starting to feel at home there…

April 8 – 9

            Got to meet up with some more OBU friends! Welcome to Salzburg, Hayley and Ellen! Met up with them for some dessert at a recommended restaurant the evening they arrived, then Rusty showed them the Monchsberg the next day, and I had them over to my house that night for girl time and a movie! J So fun! It was nice to catch up on even more OBU stuff… makes me even more excited for coming back home!!

April 11 – 12

            LOST. Got a little addicted… Also got to go to a really neat Orchestra concert by students at the Mozarteum! I was astonished at how good they were- seriously! I was moved by the music like never before… and I know that sounds cheesy, but usually I listen with an analytical ear, especially to the strings, but they all moved as one unit, the breadth of dynamics was incredible, and on a couple occasions my heartbeat rose and my breath came fast. It was pretty intense stuff!

April 13

            Bike ride around Salzburg with Molly Anne, Megan and Rusty! First of all, we rented bikes (so I didn’t have to ride my really uncomfortable, squeaky, flat tire, bad breaks one) and I was blown away at the difference a good bike makes. Literally was incredible. It’s impossible to describe how beautiful that afternoon was, the weather was warm and sunny, the sky lightly cloudy, we road through trails in grassy green meadows, went to Schloss Hellbrunn again and sat in front of the ponds, walked around in the gardens, had a photo shoot in the Stone Amphitheater, apparently the first opera in the German language was performed there several centuries ago! Pretty unreal. Salzburg in Spring is incredible. I only wish it had looked like this a month ago!

April 14

            Mountain hiking adventure. (Going back in time, thoughts as I was there…) “Right now I’m sitting on a shady bench, next to a log pile, with a mildly cloudy, sunshiney blue sky, with a view of the Untersberg and other mountains through the trees, on a trail/road somewhere on the lower part of the Gaisberg. The goal was to hike to the top and back, but I was never really sure what trail to take… I think I got over halfway up- it was quite the adventure! First of all, I went by myself. Feels sorta like an ambitious thing to do, as well as toeing the line of dangerous (and stupid) because my phone doesn’t have minutes on it, and I was alone for majority of the time, not even sure I knew where I was. Yeah it would have been interesting if something were to have happened. So I felt like this was something I needed to do for myself. I was scared and excited: scared because all Franzisca told me was to just take bus 6 to the end of the route, and that there should be a sign or something that would lead to the path up the mountain. So I have to get on a strange bus, going someplace I’ve never been, trust that it takes me where I’m supposed to go, and figure out a plan. The bus ride goes smoothly (oh random note: another interesting thing I’ve learned: here, my goal is to blend in, to try and not stick out, to not draw attention to myself. It’s funny because in some ways it seems kinda the opposite of what it’s like in the US: sometimes intentionally trying to get noticed, stand out, attract attention, etc.) Anyway. Get off the bus at the end, no clear directions in sight. So I just take a guess and try to head in a way that seems like it might lead up the mountain. So yeah, basically just adventuring. It was nice to have solitude, (to make a decision at a fork in the road based on Robert Frost’s famous lines, “I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference…”) I didn’t really even feel like talking out loud. I kinda just wanted to have some me and God time… Although I’m afraid I haven’t really listened much. I love being in nature, today is beautiful and it is probably around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I am sweating profusely… another reason why I didn’t particularly want anyone around to see me… haha. There are beautiful woods, little waterfalls, birds chirping, wind caressing, clean fresh air, and to be honest, it feels great to be doing something that is physically challenging. My body really does enjoy being active. So I went where I could see trails, got a nice view of the radio tour and people were paragliding from the top of the mountain!!! Freaking Awesome. Man I want to do that sometime!”

More Adventures :)

more updates on various adventures over the course of the semester!!

March 10

            Epic evening adventures: me and Allyson. Goal: to go up in the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomph! Decided to take the metro instead of walking from the Notre Dame- proud of us that we figured it out all by ourselves! (Kendall had been doing the majority of the navigating during the week…) Got to the tower, couldn’t really figure out where the lines were, so we decided to climb up the stairs for 3.5 euros!! What an undertaking! It really ended up not being too bad! I was pretty happy with my stamina! :P Got some neat pics and of course, most importantly, bragging rights!! Then, directly after that, we took the metro to the Arc! Climbed up to the top of that, took some more pics, success! All in all we climbed a total of a little under 4000 stairs, including both the going up and the coming back down!! But it was awesome to see the city lit up at night. J Went back to the hostel with a feeling of accomplishment, indulged in some delicious chicken quesadillas, and then enjoyed the last night hanging out and laughing a lot!! J Great end to our independent Spring Break!!

March 11

            Getting home from Paris: Me, Victoria, Allyson, Kendall, Molly Anne. We were late in getting ready that morning (had to wake up super early…) everything was a little tense, we were struggling with our giant suitcases. The metro line that we were on broke, they made everyone get off, time was ticking, thank the Lord that the stop they made us get off at was the only stop that had a connection to our final destination. Powerwalked to the airport bus, got there literally a minute before it left, our tickets wouldn’t validate by the machine, thankfully no one checked, then we thought we missed our terminal stop, it looked the tram was heading back to the highway! We got off at the next terminal not knowing if it was the right one, but again, thankfully we ended up being right where we needed to be, checked in, a sign said it would take us 45 min to clear security, but it didn’t, my bag was selected for a random security check, the worker took his sweet time, but we made it to the terminal before our flight started boarding!!! I literally don’t know how- only by the grace of God!! That day ended up being from like 5:30 in the morning to 7 pm at night, and we had to get up and leave for Vienna the next morning! Craziness!

March 13

            Opera adventure in Vienna! So for our Music History class, each of us was required to go see an Opera while in Vienna, and out of the two choices, I really wanted to go to the Marriage of Figaro, because I actually know and like the Overture, having played it in orchestra on multiple occasions. J The only slightly problematic thing was that I was going to have to go straight from an Art History field trip at a museum, to the Opera House, by myself, with not a whole lot of extra time to spare, and let’s just say I hadn’t been paying particularly close attention to the layout of the city… So the time comes for me to make my way to the Opera House, and we had finished late so I was already even more pressed for time, but Becca had given me directions (albeit vague) to “go right, and you’ll eventually see it.” So, naturally, I take off powerwalking in the opposition direction (don’t ask, I don’t know why this ALWAYS happens to me!) and go for a couple blocks when I realize my colossal blunder, “Crap! I have been walking Left instead of Right!” I lose no time turning around, and made good time retracing my steps, but I’m still not seeing any of sign of the Opera House being on my right. So I ask two girls for help, turns out they aren’t from Vienna either, but they showed me where I was on the map and told me which metro stop to get off at. Yay! I get to navigate the metro by myself! But seriously, I managed to do that without difficulty, extremely proud of myself for that, but when I emerged from the depths of the earth, I came out in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, with no Opera House in sight. (Keep in mind that Kendall and Allyson had said they would meet me at 5:30… and by this time I think I was fifteen in minutes late and still not even within sight of the OH.) Insert a bit of irony: I had been sorta longing for some alone time after 3 weeks (this was at the end of spring break) of constantly being around people… so thanks Lord, for making sure I ended up all alone in Vienna wandering about by myself. ;P Asked some more people in a store how to get to the OH, and thankfully they pointed me in the correct direction! Ten minutes later I arrived (over 45 min late to the appointed meeting destination) so I didn’t see any of sign of the girls. I walked to the door where I might purchase standing room tickets, but there was no line- so I automatically assumed that they were sold out. Bummer! I was really looking forward to going to the Opera with those friends! I walked back toward the corner, seconds away from admitting defeat and going back to the hostel, but something made me turn around and go in and ask if there were any more tickets left. Besides, the girls probably had still decided to go to the Opera even when I didn’t show up. So I go inside, get instructions from a very helpful lady who spoke English, went to the counter, got a ticket (in the center standing area too! How did that not get sold out?!) went into the foyer, and right in the center of my vision was a welcome sight: Kendall, Allyson, and Rusty looking fine and taking pictures on the huge steps!! To say I was relieved would be an understatement. I just walked over and gave Kendall a big hug, startling them all! Rusty exclaimed, “What the heck?!” and I replied, “Yeah I know, I got lost!” He said, “I knew it!” So I quickly went and reserved a spot, came back, they wanted to see where I was, and it turned out that there was enough room to squeeze in by them!! Wow. What an evening! I was so thankful that somehow everything worked out! J I really enjoyed the Opera, and it was even better as I was able to be by friends rather than all by myself! Thanks Lord!! ;)

March 14-17

            Budapest weekend!! Like always, meeting up with Natalie was quite the adventure.  For those who don’t know Natalie Holmes is a college friend who graduated from OBU a couple years ago, and now she is living and teaching in Budapest, Hungary! First of all, the train that I got on from Vienna to Budapest was delayed for over two hours because of crazy blizzard weather! When it finally arrived at the station, I walked around and looked for Natalie but didn’t see her anywhere. The whole time I was praying that somehow everything would work out, because I had no way to contact her- my phone doesn’t work outside of Austria, and besides I didn’t have a number for her or anything. I spotted Greg, Becca, and Colette- thankful for that because I had been with them on the train but then split to try and find Natalie! It would have been super sketchy to remain at the station by myself, at night, in a completely unfamiliar place and language!! So I decided to go with them to their hostel and try and get on the Internet to communicate with Natalie there! Becca sweetly paid for my metro ticket since I didn’t have any currency to exchange at the moment. We made it to the hostel without difficulty (the whole time I actually felt pretty calm, wasn’t too worried, I think I was trusting that the Lord would work things out somehow) Got on the Internet, saw a message from Natalie with a number to call, the hostel let me use their phone! She answered on the first ring, and I was able to tell her where I was so she could come and get me! Sure enough, bout fifteen minutes later we were reunited! So great! Thanks Lord for taking care of me! It was still a long process to get to the house where she lives, it was a little ways out of the city, and we had a typical experience (for me) of getting on a wrong bus, not really being able to communicate, walking around at night etc. But, on the positive side, we did have ample time to talk and catch up! It was wonderful to finally arrive though! She is living with some missionaries and they have a beautiful home!! It’s a lovely, big house, and apparently their ministry includes hosting other missionaries weekly! So cool! So Natalie was super sweet, she made me a delicious combination of potatoes, chicken, mozzarella cheese and salsa, plus some yummy bread with butter and honey, warm and sweet orange tea, and cookie dough for dessert! I felt at home sitting by a counter in the big kitchen with a familiar friend! My spirit felt so refreshed, and then I was able to take a nice long hot shower, and took my time getting ready for bed! Slept so soundly in my first American style sheeted bed in Europe!! I can’t even fully convey how great this weekend was about to be!

            The next morning, woke up to the SUN streaming in the window at 7am and lazily stayed in bed snoozing off and on for the next couple of hours! It was heavenly! When I finally got up, had a delicious breakfast of a type of scrambled egg casserole- man I miss eggs!! Toast with honey and coffee. J Lounged at the dining room table for a while and enjoyed chatting with my sweet southern belle hostess and her friend. We talked about nail polish and pedicures: so funny how homey and feminine that is. My hostess is super sweet, it makes perfect sense that the house is beautifully decorated: she is tiny and super hospitable, basically reminds me of an OBU belle. She is originally from Tennessee I think! Got to go up to their attic, where I journaled and had some devotions for the first time in awhile after my big SB travels! It was a glorious sunny day. The blue sky was dotted with fluffy white clouds, the sun was glinting off the snow-covered rooftops, green mountains graced the distant horizon. Wow. It was peaceful stillness all around with the occasional whispers of gusty wind. My soul felt so content! After relishing the quite aloneness for a bit, me and Natalie went in to see the city! First, we had lunch- yummy chicken paprika with dumblings- so DELICIOUS! And, as always, the conversation was great J It was so beautiful outside, we walked around and saw lots of beautiful buildings! Went to a fun coffee shop, got the biggest latte I think I’ve had in Europe! Haha. Got to finish up at the castle district when the sun was setting! The sky turned an incredibly rich blue velvet! Made for some neat pics! On our way back home, stopped at this mall and I found the cutest store ever!! I was taken with the chic jewelry and had my first major splurge moment of the semester! ;) Cute earrings are my downfall ;P Delightful little things J I loved walking around the city in the nice weather, but I was also looking forward to going back to my weekend home away from home(s) ;P The restfulness of that place was pretty stinkin’ hard to compete with! Natalie and I had made big plans for Girl’s Night! Back at home we changed into comphy clothes, got some snacks, nail stuff and hair stuff, and my laundry haha. Went downstairs to the basement apartment, (which side note: I’d be perfectly content living there as nice as it was!!) and commenced a great night~ We ate popcorn with marshmallow chunks, chocolate ice cream with leftover cookie dough chunks, watched some Pirates of the Caribbean, did our nails, looked for a train ticket back to Salzburg, then moved upstairs so Natalie could trim my hair! ;P Watched “Yours, Mine & Ours” and to top everything off, even got to call my family on an international phone! Talked to Mom who was with Grandma and my Aunt and Uncle in Wisconsin (probably the only time I’d talk to them while I’m over here) and even got to call Karl!! Boy was he confused when I was like, “Hey Karl! It’s Emily!” J #BLESSED Natalie did an excellent job on my hair, it turned out even on all sides and got rid of a bunch of split ends! ;P Such a great night! Finally went to bed around 2am, and woke up the next morning to go to my first English church!!! So pumped!!! [Oh breakfast: ate the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted!] Natalie introduced me to some folks, then the worship music was all familiar to me and I LOVED harmonizing again J Marvelous Light, Before the Throne of God Above, etc- some of my favorites! The message was super good too! Need to remember to make sure my priorities are in order: do I value people’s souls more than my own self-preservation? Then after church it was time to head to the train station to go back to Salzburg. Again, the Lord graciously provided, turns out my ticket was cheaper buying it in Budapest than if I would have gotten a round trip! Found Becca, Greg, and Colette on the train, and enjoyed a nice 6 ish hour trip back? So blessed. The Lord made sure I got there safely, got to stay in a real home, and Natalie paid for everything! Wow! Definitely going to pass on the blessing when I get the chance! Loved Christian fellowship, special delight of getting some cute new stuff, and of course Girl’s Night, talking to my family on the phone, sunny weather etc. Thanks, Lord!

March 18

            Bus adventure. First day back, going home from school, waiting for my bus in the drizzling rain. See a number seven- thank goodness! Curious chain of events: Number 1- can’t figure out how to open the bus doors… that’s weird… a lady finally lets me in after seeing that I am clearly struggling, awk. Number 2- go to sit in the back, there is this new raised portion! Hm, that’s interesting! Then notice the TVs embedded in the ceiling, I guess our bus route must have gotten new buses! Cool! Number 3- staring out the window, all of a sudden realize that this area is looking really unfamiliar… then realize that I’m going somewhere that I’ve never been before! So after a moment of dramatic internal conflict, I get off at the next bus stop. Look at the bus driving away, sure enough, the number on the top says 27. Not 7. Definitely just got on the wrong bus!!! So it’s raining, I have no raincoat or umbrella, I don’t know where I am, call Franzisca, she doesn’t answer, call Anna, she doesn’t answer either, call Gabriel, he answers! Haha classic. I have to explain that I’m lost, can he help me figure out how to get back?! He very patiently helps me figure out a plan of action, I walk back in the direction I came, giving him updates on the bus stops that I pass. Finally get back to familiar territory, and eventually get home. Never gonna hear the end of it, Hanz, Franzisca and Victoria all teased me to no end at dinner! The famous remark was that my spring break must have been a little too long!!! Sigh. Always happens to me!!

March 21

            Got to see a modern dance performance! So neat! It was really cool and at the same time pretty weird. The dancers are all college age students from all over the world studying at this famous school in Salzburg! Melody, one of the girls from school had a high school friend who is currently a student there! So fun! Afterwards, we went to a restaurant, in an attempt to not be culturally impolite, I ordered my first beer- and… it was disgusting. I didn’t even drink half of it. I’m never gonna develop a taste for that stuff! But I guess the most exciting part of the night was sitting across the table from the cutest dancer I had seen! (I guess I should admit that I pretty watched him for the entirety of the dance performance…) so it giddying to be within a couple feet of him- haha I’m so dumb! I think I would prefer to just admire from afar, because I totally couldn’t think of anything to say and hence was quiet and shy the whole time. Hehe I’m such a girl!

March 22

            Running adventure. Had an impulsive desire to run. Told Franzisca and she said I should try and run to the German border! It’s not far she said. It will only be about twenty minutes away she said. Uh huh. Nope not really. It took me 45 minutes of running and walking to get there. And I was ready to give up on multiple occasions, but then I just really wanted to be able to say that I had run to Germany. I confess bragging rights was really the sole motivation that kept me going! ;P But I eventually made it! Boy did I feel accomplished! Pretty proud that my ankle help up for that long too! (It definitely got kinda sore on the way back!) But I calculated that I think I ran/walked about 7 miles!! Not too shabby if I do say so myself! When I got back, met Victoria and she wanted to run there too! (She had tried earlier but wasn’t sure where it was so she didn’t quite make it.) So I said I’d bike while she ran to show her the way! So I certainly got my exercise that day! Then we took an alternative way coming back home, and wouldn’t ya know it I took a wrong turn and we had to wander a bit before finally finding our way. But it was a glorious day!!! And well spent in my opinion. J

VENICE!!!!!!

Still catching up... back-tracking again :P

February 7-10

            VENICE!!!!!! “Er mer gerd…” what a weekend! It was pretty amazing. Once upon a time, I was super excited to meet Hayley, Beth, Jo, Asaf, Josh, Tink, Brynn, and friends in Venice, Italy. Well, Thursday night, about 11:12 pm Tori and I headed to the bus stop- perfect timing to catch our bus! (Thanks Lord!) When we get to the connection stop however, we realized that bus number 1 (the bus we needed to take to get to the train station) had stopped running a couple hours before… so it looked like we were gonna take a hike. Sigh, as Victoria remarked, “What would our trip be without some sort of travel adventure!” Seriously though. (Sorry Franzisca! She didn’t want us walking in the dark at night…) We saw some parts of the city that we hadn’t seen yet, blazed a trail through a park, and made it fine without getting lost. J When we got there though, met up with Rusty, Greg and Margot who had been unable to find our train on the departure list… well that wasn’t good, and to make matters worse, no one was working, so we couldn’t find anyone to ask! (Everything shuts down at the latest around 10 pm.) But as usual, the Lord was taking care of us! Right after I prayed that we would figure out what to do, two security guys came up to me and Victoria and were like, “Hey, you guys going to Venice?” Yes!! They explained that our train was leaving from the same platform as another train going to Zagreb, and we should go to platform 2. So we found the platform, but we didn’t think our train was coming for awhile, and we were about to go back into the station when the same guys appeared again and told us our train would be there in 5-10 minutes, and then when it came they pointed out our car! So we got all settled in early, thanks Lord! Got to our little sleeping cubby, it was tiny, with three bunks stacked on each side! We were all quite taken with the accommodation and excitedly chattered as we tried to figure out how to untangle the sheets. :P Played a little get to know you game at Margot’s suggestion, but then the people next door came and asked that we be quieter for the kids trying to sleep, and so we pretty much just went to bed. Can’t say that I slept superbly, however I am sure it was much better than trying to sleep in second-class seats! 

At some point I was startled awake to someone opening the doors and telling people the stop- for some reason I think it reminded me of like Nazi soldiers stopping trains and forcing everyone out… yeah it was weird. But anyway, it woke me up so I sat up and loudly whispered, “Rusty! Do you think we’re there?!?!” He sounded sleepy, and he was like, “It’s only 6:30 am… we still have a couple more hours…” So yeah I guess it was just earlier stops. But from that point on I was wired and couldn’t go back to sleep! After freshening up a bit I came back to our room, and we folded up the middle bench so that we could sit down, and then the trainman brought us all breakfast! It was So good!!! A couple rolls with butter and Johannisberry (?) jam- literally the best jam I’ve ever tasted! (Shoutout to Johanna… even though those berries were sweet they weren’t as sweet as you!!! ;)) and coffee of course. J Then in no time at all we were crossing the bridge to mainland Venice!!! We weren’t really sure what our plan was going into the station, didn’t know how we were going to meet up with the others, but as we walked toward the outside, I saw them waiting for us- Beth, Jo, Asaf, and Jacob! AHHHHH!!!!! Happiest moment!!!! Jo and Rusty embraced (Bethany was videotaping… so cute!) I sorta skipped/ran over to Beth and gave her a big hug, and my eyes definitely flooded with tears! The good kind! Then I gave Jo a hug and Asaf and Tink, Sight! It was one of those moments that would fit into my new favorite “Life is Beautiful” song! A joyful reunion after a long absence! It was beautiful! Then we walked into the sunlight, saw our first glimpse of Venice! A wide bridge over a beautiful canal, cook, sunny weather, all the Spain girls were dressed up super cute. J Said Hello to the rest of the gang, and decided to go on a boat ride up the grand canal! It was so awesome to exchange life stories with Hayley, Beth, Jo and Brynn! We are having such incredible, but different, experiences, and I just felt so awesome talking about our programs, what we’re learning, seeing, doing, tasting etc! Didn’t want to stop taking everything in- I could have swapped stories with them for hours! Went to San Marco’s Basilica which was an incredible church, it’s style was completely new from any of the other Cathedral’s I had seen so far so it was neat to see something new!  Then we went to the Rialto bridge- beautiful structure that was packed with an even greater than usual number of tourists, who were all there for Carnival weekend! It was fun to see locals dressed up in super fancy costumes, and then they would just stand around and pose for pictures with tourists! Me and Tink and Josh got separated from the group for a bit, so we walked around looking for them and eventually ended up at the famous outdoor fish market, which, incidentally is also featured in the movie “The Tourist-“ Johnny Depp’s character is running from the bad guys and knocks a policeman into the water at this point! J Found Rusty and Jo there, wandered back to San Marco’s square by the Grand Canal and Rusty tried his first pear! Loved soaking in friend time! Met up with the rest of the group again to try and figure out dinner, a group of Me, Tink, Josh, Brynn, Hayley, and Asaf eventually found this nice little place and I had a delicious ham and mushroom calzone, that was super huge until I cut it and the bubble of air collapsed. :P Wandering back from the restaurant we ran into Rusty, Beth and Jo! They were looking to get some gelato!! So I had my first real Italian gelato! Coffee… SO GOOD!!! Wandering back to San Marco’s yet again (I know we were basically in the same place all day) we, and by we I mean Beth, Jo and Rusty, photobombed various pics with the costumed people, and then Rusty, Jo, Beth and I decided to head back to our hostel, which was actually on the mainland of Italy. It was quite the adventure figuring out which bus to catch to take back to our hostel- it was about a 30 minute ride, but thanks once again to the Lord taking care of us we made it back without getting extremely lost! At the hostel (which was really basically a campground/ trailer park in the middle of nowhere…) we met up with Victoria, and all decided to just relax at the hostel bar that night, on the condition that we would definitely see Venice nightlife the next night! It was lovely to walk from our little trailers to the separate shower/bathroom facility where the guys and girls were right next to each other… it was kinda weird… I felt like we were breaking camp rules or something, “No boys in the girls cabin area! No girls in the boys cabin area!” haha J The adventures weren’t over however; sometime in the middle of the night I had a dream that someone had turned off the heat… and half-asleep/half-awake I foggily realized that I hadn’t actually turned the heat on! Hence, my body was physically cramping from trying to squinch up in a ball and conserve heat! So at 5 am I figured that out (through a dream mind you) and flipped the switch, which produced a welcome flow of warm air! Thank goodness, even though it took til the next night to really feel warm! Not my best sleep ever…

            The next morning, Rusty, Tink, Greg, Margot, Jo, Beth, Tori and I all met early to go into the city via the 8:00 ferry. Headed to the dock with about 10 minutes to spare, I tried to confirm with the other people waiting there that we could get tickets here. Naturally it turned out that we had been misinformed, we actually needed to buy tickets from up the road a couple hundred yards! Realizing the need for haste, Rusty and Greg volunteered to sprint there and get all of our tickets! The ferry was pulling up to the dock when they appeared again, just in the nick of time! We arrived in Venice and started making our way toward San Marco’s- it was so peaceful and absent of tourists, so neat to experience the early morning quite devoid of the crowds! Even the tent shops were only starting to be set up. I enjoyed taking lots of pictures, and of course the company of good friends! Saw the “leaning tower of Venice,” a very crooked bell-tower? I wanted to go back and find it but unfortunately didn’t get the chance. We found the “hair sculptor” recommended by Rick Steves- Rusty wanted to get his hair sculpted haha. When we got there it was closed, but as we were deliberating on what to do next, a lady came and opened it, and Rusty got his haircut! In the meantime, me and Tink wanted to see this big white cathedral at the entrance of the Grand Canal, and due to time limits we decided to head that way and let the others join us if they wanted. Got a little confused at first, I had a map and was leading the way, but it was yet uncharted territory! On the way we would stop into various churches and try and figure out what the murals on the walls depicted! It was an entertaining game! Some of the paintings were really neat! Tink also found some nice postcards- we ended up getting a bunch of the same ones haha. Our first glimpse of the cathedral was coming out from under this tunnel, over a little bridge, and the building was breathtaking and towering! I got very excited! The inside was magnificent as well! After seeing a bunch of different baroque churches that often looked over-decorated, I was impressed with the simple magnificence. The central dome had around 8 statues of some of the most famous men of the Bible (David, Isaiah, Hosea…) and I thought it was neat that they were placed highest, there were other statues of alter saints a little closer to the floor. Also, the murals were neat. This is probably my favorite Cathedral yet- it was simple but elegant, and awe-inspiring.  So glad I got to figure out my way there! Met up with everyone at the Rialto bridge, took a group photo and headed back to the train station with the girls to get lunch while the guys had a little bro time. Said goodbye to the group who was going to Milan- such a short but good weekend! Me, Tori, Margot, Johanna and Beth finished up lunch and met up with Rusty and Greg at the train bridge. Got some more gelato, got accosted by a random group of costumed folks and took a picture with them, then I led everyone back to the church I had been to that morning, walked through a residential area though and got some carnival masks! Mine is somewhat ombre peach with gold glitter- I know this is silly but I figured it would match my prom dress if I ever get the change to wear it again :P. Saw some neat little art displays on the way back from the church, and stopped in a cute little yellow café! Me, Beth, Tori and Greg decided to hang out and chill for a bit while Rusty and Jo took Margot back to the hostel and then went on a dinner date. ;P So the rest of us, after enjoying chocolate croissants, decided to set out and try to track down the place where we had been told the young people go to hang out at night! On the way, Tori saw a gondolier and we girls stopped to get a picture with him. He asked us if we wanted a gondola ride but we said no, since we had heard it was very expensive. Then, he quickly offered to give us a discount- 5 euros off for each of us! At this we all kinda looked at each other, and then almost immediately gave in! This was the best deal we were going to get! Why not? Once in a lifetime chance! We were all excited and the moment was kinda surreal as he helped us into the boat and gave us some warm blankets to cuddle under! Claudio turned out to be an excellent gondolier! He was very knowledgeable on a variety of information about Venice, and he was quite willing to talk the whole time! I learned that one has to go to school to become a gondolier! Also learned a lot of interesting tidbits about Venice, my favorite was finally finding out what the Griffith meant- I had seen it everwhere! Claudio said that the animal symbolizes Venetian influence all over the world, and the open book at its paws means it is peacetime. Our ride was quite serene… the sun rapidly set and I alternated my attention between trying to figure out the proper setting on my camera, as well as pay attention to what Claudio was telling us. We got to see the building where the ball was held in “The Tourist,” apparently there was to be a big ball there for carnival that night! Claudio told us that starting ticket prices were 1000 euros!! Crazy! Claudio took us close to where we wanted to go, gave us some very vague directions, and recommended a drink! Haha. After a few minutes of walking and some uncertain wandering as well, we eventually arrived at our destination! It was exciting to see the crowd of costumed young people gradually beginning to swell! My adrenaline was surging pretty high… I wasn’t frightened by all of the people, but I was slightly nervous about what to expect later that night when the party really got started! After we had all gotten something to drink and sat down to soak in the atmosphere a bit, we headed back to the train bridge to meet up with Jo and Rusty. Each step away from the square increased my anticipation for the return and new experiences! Tori was “caught” by some guys dressed up as ghost busters- haha it was crazy! One of them had big fish net- which is what ended up over Victoria’s head! And a couple others carried a boom-box playing the ghost buster’s music, and another had a leaf blower- maybe supposed to be a vacuum or something? I don’t know haha. Made it to the train station and reconnected with Rusty and Jo, excitedly filled them in, made them put on masks, and led them right back! When we returned the number of people had grown considerably! After a little while we found the ghost busters again, and this time, the guy with the boom box was blaring popular tunes (mostly American). Pretty quickly a crowd gathered around and we all started dancing and singing the lyrics at the top of our lungs!! It was pretty funny to hear all the different accents! Seriously- so much fun!!! Definitely my highlight event of the weekend!!! It rained though- what the heck, the bad weather follows us everywhere! At one point, thunder clapped really loud and close, right at the climax of a song this huge burst of lightening streaked the sky, and then it started to snow!!! It was unbelievable. It was awesome! My favorite costumes were these Italian speed limit signs that yelled at passersby to slow down. :P We ended up eating gelato in the snow too. :P After trying to warm up in one of the bars while Greg and Rusty met some new guys, we finally took a taxi back to our hostel, hung out at the bar for a little and then went to bed! What a crazy night! It was seriously so much fun though!

            On Sunday, the weather was pretty cold and gloomy, so after figuring out where we needed to go to leave, we pretty much chilled in a small café for the whole morning, got on wifi for the first time that weekend! Loved reading new messages from friends back home! Shout out to Clay and Garet for a wonderful picture. ;P Then I got to wait in line for the bathroom for literally 45 minutes, while a mass of people tried to use the one stall (the other one remained locked for at least 30 minutes?!) Got our last gelato and then it was time to head to the bus station. It was hard to say goodbye, the weekend had been so great; I had loved hanging out with my precious friends!!! No shame: I cried as Beth and Jo and I hugged each other tightly… so good to be with them, so freaking hard to leave. On the train ride back, Greg befriended this Spanish guy, and he ended up hanging out in our train compartment and talking to us in a mixture of English and Spanish! It was so neat! Made me long to be able to communicate in different languages! He actually teaches the Tango, likes to travel alone because of the opportunity to meet people, and I was told that he was typically Spanish in being very expressive and friendly, frequently grabbing Greg’s arm and patting my knee in a physical gesture of connection? So different from the reserved Austrian culture I have grown accustomed to! When we arrived at the Salzburg Hbf, it really felt like we were coming home! I loved getting back to my sweet little room. J Enjoyed facetiming dad, not only to fill him in on the weekend, but also to try and process all of the different experiences I had had, some of which I couldn’t even fully articulate what I felt! It was actually kinda crazy to have experienced things that I don’t fully understand, and maybe never will. 

Spring Break and a little before!

Spring Break and a little before...

Sorry posts are going to be a little out of order but I had kinda already had this ready... still working on more posts and pics when I can :)

February 22

            Friday: basically just worked on my paper for Understanding Austria a lot, found a bunch of interesting articles that took a long time to read! Rode into town, met Rusty and went to the dorm for our group meeting, got a package from Jess!!! Too sweet J Valentine’s candy hearts and some cute socks and stickers J Our meeting didn’t last too long, and I still hadn’t finished my paper, and we decided to just design our slides for our presentation separately, so I headed back home. On the way my bike started making an awful squeaking noise, so I stopped in town and bought a weeks bus pass, then rode the bus home with my bike! Hit the computer again and finally finished my paper, at 6:03. Turned it in, realized my bibliography wasn’t in alphabetical order, so I submitted a revised version at 6:05. Naturally I documented the event by making a facebook status about my first late paper of my college career… sigh. The rest of the evening was marvelous though! Victoria and I went into town, stopped at Il Sole’s and got a Hawaiian pizza, then she ran to the Billa and got us some half-baked ice cream, we hurried home and watched lost and feasted on our delicious meal!! It was a great night J Laughed a ton, we were both thrilled with the little comforts of great pizza and ice cream in coffee mugs J

February 23

            Saturday! Headed to the Hbf to meet Alex and the group to go to Bad Gastein and see the Red Bull Playstreets and Spa day!!! Get there, we explored the city a little bit, found out where the course was going to be, then the girls all headed to the spa! Had a lot of fun hanging out in the hot outside pools, laying in the snow, getting in an igloo, sliding down a slide multiple times, experiencing the jets, and just lots of laughter with Meghan, MollyAnne, Allyson, Kerri, Victoria, Megan, Rusty J Then we went to watch the skiers warming up! Rusty, Megan and I stayed and watched for awhile while the other girls went to a café… Beginnings of the cool moments: The skiers were ending their run right where we were standing, and Rusty had researched some of them so he saw this Austrian guy and was like, “Hey girls come take a picture with him!” So we got out Rusty’s Austrian flag from Schladming, walked over to Tony? (I think his name was) and asked if we could take a picture! He graciously agreed so we posed with the flag, and all of a sudden this professional photographer comes over and takes our picture too! We weren’t exactly sure what was happening but it was pretty cool J We were freaking out J So we walked back up the steep hill, stopping at different spots to watch the different skiers and their jumps, then we headed over to the ice skating rink we had found earlier in the afternoon. So we skated around, I was happy to find that I could skate backwards and forwards again without too much trouble! I didn’t go insanely fast at all though! Then Rusty started playing hockey with this little kid, (Jochin?) And so I joined in and we’d play two one…. He always won haha J He was really good actually! But that was a fun little unexpected moment! After probably an hour, we decided it was time to head back and camp out at an opportune spot from which to watch the event that started at 8! (Had my first kabob… thinking it was chicken on a stick, but it’s actually this huge post of meat that they shave and put into a thick, fluffy tortilla thing with lettuce, sour cream ish sauce, tomatoes, etc. Yumm!!! Then we found a spot under this platform right by the big air jumps to hang out at!!! So then it was time to wait. At this point it was me and Allyson and Megan I think? Everyone else (except Rusty, who was also up there but a little to the right) had gone down to the bottom. But they came back up after about an hour. So for some reason I asked Rusty if we could wave his Austrian flag- me and Allyson were right at the fence, close to a camera guy etc. We got it out and were dancing and waving it around, and then we saw the camera guy start to come toward us! (This was before the event had started!) We started freaking out and screaming and cheering everytime it looked like the camera was pointing towards us! Finally, he let us know that he would tell us when it was time for us to make some noise!!! So here we are, at Red Bull Playstreets- this national extreme ski sports event, about to be on TV! Pretty cool!!! I was extremely hyper and was making everyone laugh just by being crazy :P Oh and we were taking a ton of silly selfies J Best! So anyway, the minutes are winding down, the film of the  event comes on the jumbo screen, and all of a sudden it cuts to our camera man and there we are on the Jumbotron!!!! We go wild!!!! Waving the Austrian flag, screaming and yelling, cheering… yeah my voice went away after that night!!! So all in all we counted- saw ourselves on the Jumbotron 6 times!!! Yeah that’s right J And they are actually airing that on TV, so no big deal, just got on national television!!! :P Well the event was spectacular! It was incredible to see the fearlessness these guys had! I cheered for everyone, couldn’t help it! The spirit of excitement in the atmosphere was infectious J Then, a little later this lady came up to me and started talking to me. She was asking if we were American, and when we said yes, she wondered why we had the Austrian flag and were cheering for Austrians! So I explained where we were from and that we study in Salzburg, etc, and she said she was from a major Salzburg newspaper, and me and Megan had had our picture taken with Tony earlier, but they wanted to take a picture of our whole group and feature us in the newspaper!!! WHAT IS MY LIFE?!?! So no big deal, the photographer came over and snapped some shots of us, we all wrote our names down, and she told us it would come out on Sunday morning!!!! Whoa. Literally craziest day ever!!! In the meantime there was the incident with these boys standing next to Allyson, apparently they kept increasingly wedging us farther and farther to the left, (kinda rude, taking over our space that we had been standing in for 3 hours by that time) eventually the pressure became so great that they broke the fence!! So me and Allyson, kinda defeated stepped back and they crowded in front of us :/ By that time we had been on the Jumbotron a bunch though so we weren’t super upset about that, but we were kinda talking about the boys and how rude they were being and how we should retaliate… Then (I think it was the Holy Spirit kinda convicting me or something…) I realized that this moment was an opportunity to let my light shine before boy… and girls haha. And I realized that here was a moment where we had been treated unjustly, but instead of responding an eye for an eye, we could turn the other cheek and show kindness etc. So I started talking to the boys, asking where they were from, why they were here, what their names were etc (Ok so there was also like this psychology nudge that I feel like was telling me the more I talk to them and become no longer strangers the less they might still antagonize us…) Anyway, then I mentioned to Allyson about being nice and she kinda sighed and said, “Stop being right!!” And I also mentioned “killing them with kindness” haha. But I think at least that stopped the antagonizing, I only wish I wouldn’t have talked about them angrily in the first place and would have immediately been polite etc… but who knows maybe the Lord still worked in the situation in some small way… The rest of the night was still pretty exciting!! We were sad when the American fell a couple times in the final two… and the gold went to the Canadian, but it was still a fantastic experience to be a part of definitely!!! J

February 24

            Had to wake up earlier than I wanted to again because Victoria and I were to go with Franzisca to watch the Austrian National Faustball championship! (Missed breakfast…) But I did manage to buy a delicious albeit expensive hazelnut Chai Latte while waiting for the bus (she didn’t have any vanilla syrup). Faustball is very similar to Volleyball, however the ball can bounce once on the ground in between hits… At one point Franzisca got us special permission to go take a picture of the stands from a restricted area J The girls’ game was kinda slow, but once the boys started the crowd displayed its pride in a huge way! Most everyone was wearing some form of lime green- the home team’s color, and there were men with huge bass drums, megaphones and every sort of noisemaker you can imagine! Needless to say it was quite loud! The game was quite exciting! Our team won, then the other team won, then our team again (need to win four out of six games to win…and must win by two points) the last game kept being within a point! One team would score and be ahead; then the other team would tie it up! Very nerve-wracking!!!! But our team prevailed!!! Yay for Stevo!!! (we “know” one guy on the Salzburg team… he lives with Gabriel and Anna downstairs from us!! I’ve seen him twice over the whole semester hahaha) So exciting J

February 25

            Monday! Driving to school on the bus (that is a German expression… you don’t ride places, you drive there! Wow I can’t believe my brain automatically thought in German!!) we stopped at a bus stop, Victoria and I were looking out the window at this electronics store that was advertising TVs which happened to be showing footage of Playstreets! Jokingly, I offhandedly mentioned that it would be funny if we were on TV- then literally 3 seconds later our faces show up on the television screen cheering!!!! What the heck?!?!?!? Victoria and I squealed and grabbed each other in shocked amazement, the people on the bus kinda looked at us funny I think, but we were too busy exclaiming over the fact that we had just been on TV!!!!! WOW. Life made!!!! Hahaha. Another couple hilarious moments… well during my presentation I had randomly found this picture of Beyonce doing a single ladies’ pose as a symbol of commitment, but when it came up during my actual presentation I casually threw it in as a transition statement by saying, “Now we will find out if it is better, as Beyonce says, to put a ring on it!” The whole class erupted in laughter, and it was a good 30 sec before I could go on with what I was saying!!! Haha glad the candid humor made such a good impression! Then during Meghan O’Halleran’s presentation, I learned that there are dual flush toilets in Germany to conserve water!!! When the picture came up on screen I was astonished, because it had never crossed my mind that the two different parts of the button one could push signified whether it was for liquid waste or solid waste, so I would randomly push them or just push both…. Again the whole class couldn’t believe I was being serious that I legitimately had no idea that such a thing existed… Konrad especially was quite bemused!!! Sigh, well at least I learned 6 weeks in rather than the last week of the semester! And the toilet at our house just has a regular flush lever so I guess in my defense I never really had any reason to assume it was different? It’s just funny how absolutely clueless I can be sometimes though! Back at home Victoria and got dressed up to go out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant for her birthday!!! We were very much anticipating the food!! First time I’ve worn a skirt since I’ve been here… it was fun to get fancy J Met some girls at the bus stop and found our way there partly through blundering about, partly having some idea where we were going!!! It turned out to be a super fun night!!! Met all of our expectations J I had my first Marguerita! It was strawberry and it was delicious, I couldn’t even taste the alcohol actually, it was more like a yummy slushy! Kendall and I split Chicken Enchiladas- YUMMMM and tortilla chips with an assortment of dips… my favorite was the avocado one!!! (one thing I’ve realized here is that my tastebuds are adapting!!! I have gotten used to spinach, cranberry jelly, and some other things that I wouldn’t have been too keen on eating in most instances…) Enjoyed good conversation with Kendall, Molly Anne and Meghan, mostly talking about what we might like to do with our lives!!! Kendall paid me a super sweet indirect compliment, she said I reminded her of her good friend Emily back home, who is a strong Christian, super positive all the time, really nice and happy J Yay! Glad I can display that! (and I genuinely feel that most of the time too J) Walking back to the main bus area Victoria and I talked about sharing our faith and how to try and interject aspects into conversation, I mentioned how it’s sometimes hard to realize that you are trying to share Jesus with people who may have no desire to hear about him or change… not that this absolves us Christians of the responsibility of being his witnesses, I think it’s just important to remember though, that more often than not it will maybe be a difficult initial conversation? Did our German hw, told Tink about the weekend, fb chatted Jessica, Brittany Jackson, David Henderson, Fulton for a bit, and then facetimed mom and dad and went to bed! I have a huge todo list before going to Sweden on Thursday!!! Ahhhh!!!!!!

February 26

Today: Talked to Konrad a little about grades, especially wanted to know how I did on my presentation. I guess I kinda expected what I got after some of the comments he made yesterday… B+ on both the paper and the presentation and the reason he gave was that I didn’t do a very good job of cross-cultural comparison. Basically he said I got very invested in the topic and kinda passionate about it, but I neglected to look at why it was the way it was in different cultures.

            On another note, he said my overall grade in Understanding Austria is a 96, he really likes my writing style, and although the presentation wasn’t up to my usual level he said I would still come out ok. Then I asked about my grade in German, and he asked, “Is that a serious question?” Because I know that I’ve averaged 100 on almost everything. But he looked it up anyway, and yes I have a 100. I was talking to him a little about languages and he said that I should keep learning languages, he said he can tell that I enjoy learning, and I have a talent for them, I am able to form sentences in creative ways etc. So that was nice to hear J I asked if sometimes I participate too much, and he mentioned sometimes my questions can lead off on side trails, but he will just tell me to stop in the future if that is the case.

             

February 27

Wednesday: Woke up super late, almost missed the bus (I started running, the driver started driving, but then he saw me and apparently made the kind-hearted decision to stop and even opened the front doors for me.) J Went on a small tour around Salzburg close-by to learn about other lunch options… we will get an allowance of 7 euros for lunch from now on. Enjoyed laughing over “100 ways to flirt with guys” Understanding Austria was an introduction to our Vienna field trip… apparently Vienna is ranked the number one most livable city in the world! Pretty pumped to go there J After school I went home and decided to go for a run! Wow pretty ambitious, but once again I wanted to do something active! So I did it! Bout twenty minutes at a surprisingly brisk pace, listening to my two steps from hell music! It felt unbelievably good to stretch out my legs, and my ankle didn’t bother me at all! Got my heart rate up, breathing pretty heavily haha but it was fantastic and I felt like I was able to run close to what I would have been able to if I hadn’t broken my leg! Thank you Lord that I actually enjoyed it! That night was a busy one, checked in online to our flights, figured out what I owed Victoria, then I did some last minute laundry and it took forever to pack, and then I skyped Jessica J Yay! Good to talk to her, and I feel like our friendship is growing stronger, can share things about God that I didn’t in the past! Finally started studying for our German final with Victoria around 10:30… I really wasn’t feeling to bad about it but nevertheless it was strange to not be studying hardly at all! Around 12:30 am I called it quits and went to bed. J

February 28

Thursday: Woke up relatively early, got ready, got all of my stuff organized. Our German final was a little more difficult than I expected, but regardless I still feel like I did pretty well. I didn’t even attempt the bonus stuff though… I guess that’s kinda unusual, didn’t even feel like rising to the challenge of getting the maximum possible points! But finished a little early, had time to print off our boarding passes, then waited around for Victoria to finish so we could run our errands! Ate a delicious Pizza to go from Il Sole, and crème puffs and whipped cream for dessert! Yum! Then home, whirlwind of trying to make our suitcase weight work out; we finished everything, went to the airport, almost had a weight crisis with our bags, made it through and everything was ok from then on! Enjoyed walking out to the terminal in the open air! Victoria made a great instagram pic J On the plane to Gothenburg I managed to bump my head on the overhead luggage storage compartments, then fell into my seat because I was shaking with laughter! Victoria was cracking up to, but as she was laughing at me she cracked her skull on the pull down TV screen! Hahaha what goes around comes around!!! When we were leaving the plane, the guy in the seat next to us said as his parting comment, “watch your head!!” haha pretty sure I’m gonna be laughing about that one in the future! Arriving in Sweden was quite exciting!!! We made it through all the airport stuff with little trouble, and when we came out we saw Lilian and Melina holding big signs with our names!! I thought it was kinda funny because there was literally no one else waiting to receive people, and I already knew what they looked like, but it was a thoughtful gesture nonetheless J Then we got to take a two-hour car ride to their house, which apparently was out in the middle of nowhere! But surprisingly I didn’t mind one bit because I was so happy to be in a car!!! It’s a familiar feeling really, and despite the benefits of public transportation there is just a whole different feel in a private vehicle J When we got to the house I felt like I was going to love it! They live on a little farm, at least twenty minutes away from the closest towns, they have goats, hens, a dog, some cats, and their neighbors have horses! They are surrounded by lots of trees, hills, and on an isolated driveway, they said they hardly ever have unexpected visitors! I looked forward to the next morning when my soul could expand in the solitude and beauty of nature J Mats was very nice! I liked him right away, and Pelle came and gave me a big hug! Felt like coming home to family even though I have never actually met any of them! We had a delicious meal of homemade lasagna- yummm!!!! And enjoyed talking and getting to know each other, and finally, the last highlight of the night was going to the little house with two beds where Victoria and I stayed! It was so quaint and charming I fell in love with it at once! Not to mention the comfiest, warmest comforter in the history of comforters!

~I’ll do more journaling later but a couple comments first. Of course still need to process the article dad posted on my wall about what Christ in me really means. For me to live is Christ. Christ doesn’t just help me, he LIVES THROUGH ME. NOT MY LIFE. So then the question, have I been praying the wrong way? Why do I want to ask for God to help me love people, shouldn’t I really be asking that Jesus love people? And on another note, all these songs asking God to be present, aren’t we missing the point? When we are “in Christ” he is literally present in us and we in him. We are just ignoring that fact? No wonder our lives aren’t marked by victory when we are focused on continually asking God for something HE HAS ALREADY GIVEN US. No, the step we should be taking is constantly putting our faith in Christ to moment by moment live out his life in us. It’s a decision, and living in light of that decision. To trust him that he will do what he says. Totally upside-down philosophy it seems to me. And looking back at some of my first devotional entries on this trip, I think the Lord was starting to reveal that to me. That we have “THE FULLNESS OF GOD IN US” But I didn’t understand until I read that article, and even now I feel like I am a little too overwhelmed with that fact to react how I ought, joyfully praising God and experiencing absolute freedom!!!! That’s what I want to do but it’s literally “too good to be true!” But it is true!!! Ok changing the subject a little bit, how do I love people and display Christianity to people who may not even be searching for it. I love them. No not I, I ask Jesus to love them. I don’t judge. If they are unbelievers, no amount of judging or condemning will ever win hearts toward Christ. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can convict people of sin anyway.  So I will just love, in any possible way. Showing interest in their lives, sharing about mine, praying for them, but getting over myself and making about Jesus life through my vessel. Lord, let them see you!!! I don’t know what to do, what to say, how to speak! I have a window of opportunity for them to hopefully see you, and I just ask that you get rid of me and let them see only you!!!! May I do your will Lord!!!

March 1

Friday: Can I just say how incredible it was to wake up to sunlight?! Ach! I’ve missed it so much!!! It wrought a wonderful lift in my spirits! The little farm that Lilian and Mats live on is very cute! All of the buildings are red with white trimming, apparently a popular Swedish tradition so Lilian tells me! I had a leisurely breakfast, Lilian was so kind to think of us, she bought Nutella!!! PTL. I had toast for the first time since Munich, but with Nutella and raspberry jam- it was heavenly! Tried some cheese too which I loved (not too strong!) and of course, Swedish coffee! (with less sugar than I usually have!) I think the true Swedish brew is the best I’ve ever had!! And it is quite normal to have it with every meal and even in between times!! I hung around and chatted with Melina and Lilian a couple hours after breakfast, while waiting for Victoria to get up! It is so nice to really be talking to them and having enough time to actually get to know them and learn about their lives and what is important and what is normal and so on! We drove to a little down Grana, by the second largest lake in Sweden! It was so big it looks like it could be part of the ocean!! I LOVED driving in a car! Something we were to do a lot of J It felt like home, and the country reminded me of Wisconsin! Of course, all the little lakes are frozen here! But there were lots of evergreen trees! One thing that was different, however, was that there are tons good-sized boulders everywhere! There isn’t really any grassy areas free of rocks! And everything is covered in moss too, which reminds me some of Washington!!! Ah it felt like coming home!!! Maybe if it wasn’t quite so cold (and expensive :P) and didn’t stay dark for so long in the winter, I could live there J In Granna first we ate lunch at this cute little Swedish 50’s style café, I had a delicious Quishe Lorraine! Reminding me of France J Then we walked down to this quaint little candy shop where Melina used to work in the summers! Lilian got us a wild-strawberry stick for me and Victoria each to try! Then we went to Jonkoping and worked out with Melina! That was a culturally immersive experience! Haha. Learned several things, besides feeling great about exercising! First, in nice gyms you had to bring a pair of shoes just for use indoors! They didn’t want to get the equipment dirty! Pretty smart if you ask me! Then, in the changing room, people pretty much just stripped down in front of anyone and everyone, I saw a bit more nudity than I expected! Haha but in a way it felt kinda normal too! It wasn’t like people stared at you when you were changing, that would be impolite! Everyone just paid attention to their own business! Don’t know if I’d be ok with community showers at this point, but it is something that perhaps I could grow accustomed to if necessary!! I did some leg exercises with Melina, she had some good advice, “Exercise should be fun! Do the exercises so that you’re exhausted at the end, but not so they hurt! Listen to your body!” I enjoyed bonding with her over that! Couple things I want to remember: Mats always says “Becaurse” and Melina and Pelle immediately shoot back, “Becaurse without an R!!” They have mentioned many times how much they love garlic! Mats is quite the jokester, he is always trying to get laughs out of people! Sometimes, as Lilian says, it can be taken a little far, but I suppose I have gotten used to his sense of humor. Lilian often says “catching” instead of like “I’ve got to go get him, etc…” she says “I will catch you!” I wonder if the verb they use in Swedish is different? Also, instead of “practicing” something, you “exercise” something haha. Friday night we had a meat fondue, really fun! They had kinda marinated meat with different spices, and then we each had a stick that we put the meat on and then put those in a pot with boiling oil, so the meat cooked right in front of us! It was a very experience! Mats and Pelle had a bit of a war, Mats sticks kept coming up without meat! And Melina made the comment of the night when Pelle’s sticks were the last ones in the pot” “Now you are all alone in the boiling oil!” Pelle and his gf Lulu drove Melina into town so she could catch a bus back to where she lives! On the way out of the driveway he turned up his music so we all could appreciate the bumping of the bass!!! I turned around and started fist-pumping, and was quite gratified when he turned on the light in his car and fist-pumped back at me!!! Small connections J Me and Victoria then sat and talked with Lilian, Mats, and their neighbor Brian! I asked them a lot of different questions, and it was interesting to hear about their views on different aspects of life. First, about drinking, they think it’s a problem that young people are drinking too much. They don’t really practice much self-control, and it is easy for the young ones who are of age for soft alcohol to get the older ones to buy them hard liquor. Makes me sad. Then we talked about social welfare a little and compared systems. The subject of religion came up and I was very interested to hear their views. It became quite clear that it was more of a tradition than anything else, and also I think it brings comfort to come people. Mats sings in a church choir, and they go on special holidays, but they don’t know Jesus. It was pretty incredible for me to be able to talk to them though! I never really got a chance to full out share my testimony, however I did bring up Jesus a couple times and just tried to make that the focal point rather than church. Brian was pretty adamant about thinking it is important for everyone to be able to be baptized… but he concluded and Mats and Lilian kinda agreed that he didn’t know what to believe, what was true, and he didn’t want anything forced on him. Couple times I got close to tears, just wanting to blurt out what was in my head, “For me to live is Christ.” Afterwards I facetimed dad and asked him to pray and just shared what had happened. He said it was pretty amazing that I had even gotten to talk about that stuff with them!

March 2

            Woke up late, around 10:15! It was great! Then Mats decided he was going to make us Swedish pancakes!!! Which are basically crepes, so I was thrilled J They were pretty big, and they had gotten us nutella to put on them!!! By far the best breakfast I’ve had in Europe so far J complete with nutella and jams and coffee and juice and fruit!!! I was stuffed! Love the practice of sitting around for a little bit and just talking, the pace is a lot more relaxed I feel like! There isn’t always a deadline for things that we have to do! They also took out the violin that belonged to Lilian’s Uncle Philip! I was a little worried about what my ability would be like, considering that I hadn’t touched a violin in two months, and it had been a lot longer since I really had regularly played, but much to my relief my fingers were limber enough to remember how to play!! So I enjoyed the familiar feel, even though my repertoire has remained quite limited and unchanged! Spontaneously I believe the decision was made to go sledding, and as I hadn’t been yet (even in Salzburg) it seemed like a fun thing to do! Then Mats showed up with a snow mobile!!! (they call it the snow sculptor) and I was thrilled because I got to ride while he drove me up over to the hill! The sledding didn’t end up being too fast, however I enjoyed several good laughs while I couldn’t get the hang of steering and would veer to one side and then overcorrect and wipe out! Me and Victoria went down together once too and the same thing happened.. haha. Then Mats tied the sled to a rope behind the snow mobile and pulled me up the hill- so fast!!!! At one point my legs flew up and I almost sommersaulted backwards! Hahaha. Then, we got in Pelle’s car and he drove us down to the lake, where we found out Mats was going to pull us behind the snow mobile on the frozen lake!!! Only in Sweden!!! Boy was that the experience! He told us the day afterwards that he got up to 50 mph!!! So intense!!!! Definitely a highlight J Haha :P After getting dressed up we drove to meet a violinist who had been a student of Lilian’s Uncle Phillip! On the way I asked Lilian lot’s of questions about her family and different things, I want to know about things that are important to her!! A couple times I was even able to bring up faith again and try to put more of an emphasis on the life change that comes from accepting Jesus, using mom’s life as an example! It was neat to feel a little more free to talk about it, but I still didn’t feel like the time was right just to share my testimony… sigh. She said, “I feel in my heart like I’m doing my best, I feel ok.” I want to share truth!!! The violinist Hanz, had a full out studio! At first he took a look at Philip’s violin, which Lilian had brought for him to see and for me to possibly play. He talked a lot about how Philip had collected folk music from a ton of different musicians and had written it down so it wouldn’t be forgotten, he had been very important for Scandinavian folk music! Hanz had so many CDs though! It was incredible! Oh and two violins… no big deal! Then we had coffee, felt very grown up (and we had sweets, and this delicious chocolate cake with yummy ice cream and passion fruit on top?) Hanz asked us a lot about what we were studying and about Salzburg etc. Then we decided that we were all going to fiddle together! (he is a folk musician as well!) I was nervous because even though I had played that morning I don’t have much experience with folk music, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially when he set up three chairs in a triangle and we all sat down without music… Basically what went down was he would play a folk melody several times for me to listen, and then once I had gotten a pretty good idea of how it went, I joined along and we would both play the melody, and then when I was really confident he played a harmony along with me! It was so incredible. I don’t think words can describe how blessed I am to be able to listen to something a couple times and then be able to play it!! Also, with this style of playing, it was crazy the connection that had to exist between the musician!!! Hans and I had to watch each other, breathe with each other, match each other’s style and dynamics, and when we did match each other the result was a beautiful dancing music J Wow! It was really neat! He paid me a couple wonderful compliments too! Said that I should continue on Philip’s work, he seemed amazed at my ear and ability to learn quickly, it was quite special for me to receive his praise! After that experience of course, I got to thinking what I could be if I practiced again and refined my technique. I know the feeling is there, the ability to learn is there, and sometimes the passion is there… sigh. And folk music seems a little different because there is a big component about connecting with people! Who knows what will happen! After that we went and saw the movie Anna Karenina in the movie theater in Jonkoping! So neat to have a familiar experience- the movie was in English! It was a complicated story, tragic in many different ways, and I wasn’t sure what it was trying to say about love and faithfulness, although it quite clearly depicted that an affair did not lead to Anna’s everlasting happiness, even if her lover was the one she really lovedBut it was beautifully done, the cinematography was wonderful to watch, and especially the dancing was incredible!!!! The most beautiful dance I think I’ve seen! The movie ended around 8 pm so by the time we got back to the house it was pretty late, and we still had to make Swedish meatballs for dinner! I also enjoyed some toast and cheese as a pre-meal snack J So nice to hang out with Lilian and Victoria. Then we went back to our little apartment kinda early and I was on facebook and saw Clay was online!!! And he was able to skype for a little, and then Grant came too! And I briefly said hi to Garet, and Jake Coffman! But it was so great I talked to Clay for an hour and felt like close friends! They caught me up on all the news from OBU. Looking forward to a reunion! Seems like a bunch of the guys are going to be living in apartments next year though so that will be kinda different! It looks like my and Ellen’s scholarship won’t cover utilities (which stinks…) so I think it’s going to be a cheaper option for us to live in Gosser, and besides a lot of girls are living there too- Beth and Jo in particular!!!

March 3

            Loving sleeping in J Lazily headed to the kitchen, and as I walked inside, I noticed Mats was busy at the stove again… Curiously I asked what he was making, and he promptly replied, PANCAKES! Again?! I asked if he had just had some batter left over, but no, he was spoiling us with a fresh batch!!!! Best breakfast in Europe J Enjoyed watching different youtube videos… had to show “TSwift goat version”, and “You forgot the blueberries” then we watched this cool video with a very awesome student section participation- and the comments afterwards went as follows: me, “Is that a high school team?” Victoria, “No it’s Florida..” me: “Oh, haha the Gators?” (trying to show that I do know something about sports)…” Victoria, “Yeah.” me, “See, at least I knew that they were the Gators because of the Crocodile mascot!!!” ***realize what I just said as Victoria looks at me in disbelief at my ridiculous assertion. Me, “I mean Alligator!!!! Not crocodile!!!” hahahah Headed out shortly for a brief excursion, we visited Lilian’s little house, apparently she bought a house whenever she and Mats were going through some issues a couple years ago, Mats even casually referred to it as the divorce house! It was very cute and Swedish! I especially loved the brightly colored and patterned wall paper, and the homemade touches of Lilian’s embroidery and crocheted table cover! Met some different friends, at one of the houses they had the windows open! In 30 degree weather!!!! I suppose they were airing out the house, one thing I noticed while looking in was that the windows were positioned such that you could see straight through the house! Kinda reminds me of pride and prejudice style. I decided someday, when I have my house, I want lots of windows to let in a bunch of natural light! After these visits we drove over to a little lake, apparently we were going to walk around the lake and then stop for a coffee break! (insert special word here…) However, as it was kinda chilly, Mats and Lilian decided it was too windy and cold to hike around the lake, so we just walked down be the shore and unpacked the coffee and little cinnamon buns! Wow… what a comical picture we made I’m sure, standing around bundled up in coats and scarves, standing beside a picnic table because the benches were wet, holding little cups with coffee in what we found later to be a 25 mph windchill… I was trying to fully immerse myself in the moment, however I failed at miserably as soon as I thought about the absurdity of the situation! Shaking with pent up laughter, I realized I had given myself away when both Lilian and Victoria started laughing as well!!!! We all shared in hearty chuckles, but it was a memorable moment! As Victoria said later, it is the unusual things that stand out! Almost anyone can talk about having picnics by lakes, but definitely only a small minority can claim standing beside a frozen lake, drinking coffee in the snow. Hahaha!!! Charming! We enjoyed leftover meatballs and spaghetti (I actually ended up just using the meatball sauce, mistakenly at first, but then I was glad when I realized that the “spaghetti sauce” was actually ketchup!!!) We enjoyed a very relaxing afternoon… watched “Date Night” with Tina Fey and Steve Carrol. Then chilled in our house for a couple hours ish… I was initially listening to some violin youtube videos, then found one of this German violinist who kinda combines classical sounds with rock/pop- pretty neat! I was wondering if I could ever do that, how good I could be… hm. Dinner: Had a delicious chicken stuffed with ham, cheese, and dried tomatoes, potatoes, salad and my first Chardonay white wine! Man that stuff always tastes super strong to me though, I make a grimace every time I try it! Can’t really say I’m a very big fan :/ Then delicious chocolate cake with homemade whipped cream for dessert!!! I’m telling you, spoiled!!! Got to facetime with Mom and Dad, and they got to meet Lilian, Mats and Pele! So fun J I was glad because I was able to mediate the conversation a little, and just listening to them talk I realized that I have learned a lot about Lilian and just their family while being here only a couple days! I think that I have been really intentional about trying to get a feel for their lives J

~Note: cutting vegetables Lilian’s way: cut lengthwise slices into the vegetable, that way it keeps together for a bit longer!! J

March 4

            Early morning! Had to get up to take a train to Stockholm! It was quite dark when I woke up, however the sun was just beginning to lighten the sky as we got ready to leave. Pretty sure I snapped 50 pics of the sunrise: it was glorious! At first it was a gold ribbon, then pink tints graced the clouds… Ahhh!!! On the train Lilian and I had a great time! I showed her some of my pics on my computer, and then I had the idea to try and take some photobooth pics! Hahaha we were dying… all of the weird settings kept affecting me but not her… what the heck?! We met Victoria’s family friends at the train station and took the metro to their apartment to drop off our luggage! They were both very nice! Sophie and Henrik. The apartment was the cutest thing! Best features: high ceiling with molding around the upper edges, a beautiful glass chandelier in the living room/bed room. Lots of candles, both in candelabras and brass holders, that when lit lent a peaceful atmosphere to the room! A table that had two wings that folded out to save space, and stools that stacked in a corner! The bathroom was incredible, the towel rack was a fun design of the hot water pipes! The shower was just in a corner of the tiled room, and a current made a triangle! I didn’t believe that it would keep the water in, but it did! After dropping off our stuff and taking an afternoon coffee complete with cinnamon buns, Lilian, Victoria and I set off to explore the city J What a glorious day! It was sunny again and we soaked up the rays! I loved the water in the middle of the city, actually Stockholm is composed of several islands connected by bridges! Kinda like Venice but on a larger scale :P We went to the Vasa museum first, which tells the story of this huge 17^th cent warship that sunk in the harbor on its maiden voyage! I got a bunch of pictures, I think the thing that was most interesting to me was all of the carvings on the ship: there was a mix of biblical figures, soldiers in Roman dress, barbarians, and Greek gods and sea nymphs etc. It was kinda weird that apparently the blend of all of these things was supposed to bring luck and fortune… (the rest of the ship will be explained in pics :P) We got to take a ferry to Old Town, one thing that’s nice is we bought a 72 hour metro card, and that ended up working for the metro, and city buses, and the ferry! Ate at this adorable little restaurant! I decided to try seafood while in Stockholm, so I got a grilled perch with veggies!! It was super good! Plus, the salad and coffee were included I think, so it was also quite economical! Then we walked around and went into the biggest cathedral I think, apparently where the king was married? It was very beautiful! Again a new style, so that was fun to admire! Then Lilian had to take the train back home so went back to the apartment and said goodbye! Once at the apartment we hung out a bit until it was time to go to dinner with Sophie’s uncle and grandma! Had a neat conversation on the bus with Victoria about witnessing, she said she wasn’t sure where her place was (since it was my family) so she was just a silent prayer warrior! Which I was really excited to hear! Got to pass the palace where the king lives! Nbd! Then we got to the house- it was huge and beautiful! And the Uncle was very friendly and talkative and seemed to characterize a successful Swedish businessman. His wife was also very sweet, very beautiful, small and blond! We had mashed potatoes, a kind of meatloaf (with lingon-berries which are quickly becoming a favorite of mine J tea, and apple pie with ice cream for dessert! It was all soooo good!!! So blessed to have homemade meals and not have to pay for stuff!! They were very nice and I enjoyed listening to all of the stories too J We were kinda tired when we got back home, so we just hung out, watched some TV, got on our computers, and went to bed!

March 5

            Slept in… yay!!! The sun had risen and was shining brightly! Got to use the super modern bathroom- yay! Then Sophie laid out quite the spread for breakfast! We had gone to a corner grocery store the night before and got to pick out special K cereal J So I had some of that, with cashews, with bananas, partially thawed raspberries, and strawberry-banana yogurt!!! SO GOOD!!! Then I had a piece of sourdough bread with butter (it’s a European thing) swiss cheese, bologna, and tomatoes! One weird thing I’ve observed is both Melina and Sophie put out vegetables for breakfast: Bell peppers (which I am also starting to really like!), cucumbers and tomatoes. Then I had a boiled egg, and orange juice and coffee to drink!!! Swedish coffee is definitely the best coffee I’ve ever had! After breakfast we all got ready and then Sophie took us around Stockholm! First stop: this really neat indoor market: the craziest thing we saw there I think was all the huge fish! Like the size was spectacular! Then we just walked around the city a bunch! It was nice, we went into several different shops but I wasn’t particularly in a shopping mood… we saw the many different malls as well! They cater to wealthy patrons though- too expensive for me! (Plus I feel like I really dislike materialism most of the time) Had lunch at this fun little healthy place, Victoria and I shared a yummy pizza! Then Sophie had to go so me and Victoria explored a little more- went back to the American cookie booth we saw in the mall, and I enjoyed a delicious brownie with ice cream J When we got back to the apartment we hung out for a bit, and Sophie kinda started talking about drinking and beer and stuff, and we were trying to explain why we didn’t drink, and then I was able to articulate the stuff I wrote up in response to Becca’s query after that first night in Munich! It was kinda neat to be able to explain that I don’t need external stuff to satisfy me, that my life is about something different, something more! Sophie listened politely to what we had to say, Victoria jumped in there too! At the end I just kinda mentioned that I think it is worthwhile for everyone to figure out what makes life meaningful and devote their lives to that… and I tried to encourage her if she was interested in seeking God at all she should read the Bible! She didn’t really show any definite interest, but it was neat nonetheless to really share my testimony I think! Each time has gotten maybe a little easier? And it’s cool that it keeps coming up in conversation! It’s a record for me in talking to unbelievers too for sure! Thankfully nothing got super awkward and we enjoyed the rest of our evening together! Sophie’s dad came and talked to us for awhile, he was a very fun guy, personable. Then, Sophie suggested that we try a “Swedish” tradition: “Cozy Friday or Fredag Muse?” Basically it’s making tacos on Friday!!! How cool is that?! So we went to the little grocery store, she picked out all of the ingredients that we’d need, and then Victoria and I helped cut up veggies while she cooked the meat and made a killer guac complete with the special ingredient, thai spice! I loved that meal! Everything tasted so good, and fresh, and I like guac now (love it actually!) and it reminded me of home J After helping clean up the kitchen, we watched Forest Gump!! First time either of us had ever seen the whole thing, and it ended up being a really good movie!! I almost cried several different times, but also there were definitely moments of humor too J

March 6

            Had to get up super early this morning! Bout 5:20 am L Had a delicious breakfast of cereal, yogurt, fruit and nuts again, took forever to get ready so I almost made us late to the metro :/ Literally got there with only 30 sec to spare! Met Sophie’s friend Caroline, who, incidentally, spent a year traveling around the US with a girl friend when she was twenty! Man this Swedish mindset is so different to me, yet it has its appeal… Working right after high school to either a) live the “good life,” b) save up money for school when you can’t work as much, c) use it to travel and see the world. I’m realizing more and more how important it is to expand one’s view of the world, and of people! There are just so so so many different people, who live differently, etc, and it’s so important to learn about them and from them, and not have a superior attitude towards other people. Then Victoria and I said our goodbyes and ventured on our own to travel to Paris! I think we did a pretty darn good job about getting here without too much confusion! We even had time to get some souvenirs for family J Our first flight was super quick! Slept for most of our flight to Paris, when we got there it was quite the time figuring out how to get to the hostel. But we did it pretty dang spectacularly! Found the right train, I wasn’t really sure if we should get on but it turned out to be the right one. Navigated the metro surprisingly well considering it was rush hour and there were hundreds of people surging through the walkways- pretty freaking intimidating! I did get a little mixed up and lead us to the platform going the opposite direction for line 5, thankfully Victoria paid attention to the stations on the front of the buses, and we were able to get on the correct line. We made it to the hostel without getting lost! Basically dropped our stuff off, changed, and went for a run beside the canal! It felt really good to be active, and to stretch my legs, and be in shorts, t-shirt, tennis shoes (my feet were quite tired of walking around in boots, wish I would have brought my hiking boots to walk around in…) We ran a pretty good pace, Victoria said she had to slow down a little for me but not too much, originally we were going to try for 30 minutes, but I wasn’t sure if I could make it that long so I asked to do 20, and I did that! Then we showered (I took my time, learned I like not being rushed and taking forever to dry off and change and basically do everything haha. Then, we were going to try and eat at the restaurant, but it was pretty packed, so we ventured out. I have to mention that I was dressed in a t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes, hardly Parisian fashion. Unfortunately, I realized that my dress, especially the short-sleeve shirt without a coat, attracted quite a bit of attention… yeah that was super awkward! Note to self, it is much nicer to make an effort to blend in! Although I did enjoy the nice 50 degree weather in a t-shirt, although it did get a little bit chilly! We ended up at a kabob stand, it was cheap and pretty good, then walked back and basically pretty soon after I went to get ready for bed, journaled a bit, and went to sleep! The early morning wore me out!

So in some ways being in a city, and at a hostel is exhausting, because I feel like there are so many people who are just so worldly, and concerned about everything the world has to offer: looks, meeting guys/girls, partying- having a good time, etc. And I just feel like I don’t care about that stuff anymore! Or at least not very much, it seems like a waste sometimes…

March 7

            Woke up early (although I thought it was 9:30 because my ipod was still on Riga time!) read my Bible a bit, Cathy had suggested Romans 8:1-17 about living according to the spirit! Got ready, missed the free breakfast :/ So after checking out we had to go hunt for something to eat, as we started out it was raining, so we decided we had better find umbrellas also! I saw this shop, and for some reason remembered the French word for umbrellas, so I walked in and asked the guy, “Avez-vous parapluis?” (ok so I needed to add an article, but hey! He understood me and showed me the umbrellas!) I felt quite accomplished J Then we couldn’t really find a suitable café to eat breakfast in, so we ended up back on the street close to our hostel, and I saw a chocolate croissant (which I also ordered in French- well kinda) and it was delicious! When she said the price I couldn’t think of what it was, but she didn’t speak English, so I just guessed, and then I remembered that quatre-vin cinq was 85 cents! (ok, so she also gave me change back and I figured it out from there :P) Then we stopped by in a grocery store to look around- thinking I can do budget lunches there J Then we spent quite a while just waiting around at the hostel for Allyson, Kendall, and MollyAnne! Finally, when it was getting close to three, we decided we should go eat, but then right when we were walking out the door we saw them crossing the bridge! Yay! I immediately brightened up, it was so nice to see familiar faces and have more company!!! Had fun checking in, got settled and swapped stories for a bit. Then we ventured out, got our first crepes! Nutella with bananas! Yummm so good!! Then we took the metro to the center!!! Ahhh so pumped to see the first view of Paris J We took Rick Steves’ walking tour, (although backwards, because we started at the end! Molly Anne read aloud from pages torn from the Paris guidebook! So much fun and laughter, I was loving the city!! Went into the Notre Dame, couldn’t help noticing the people who crossed themselves with the holy water: I wonder if they think that will give them favor with God? If so it seems kinda deceiving… a mass also started while we were there, the organ music was beautiful and the soloist was super good! My feet sure hurt without my hiking boots though :/ We headed back to the hostel, Kendal and MollyAnne went to try and find some tickets to a Lumineers concet! I thought about going, but the price seemed like they were going to be high, and as I don’t know them, I decided to stay with Allyson and Victoria instead. We went back to the hostel and ended up ordering a quesadilla, which was delicious! Cheese, red onions, peppers, dipped in salsa, sour crème, and guacamole! Then we were hungry for ice cream, so we went close by to the grocery store and got some chocolate/brownie/chunk ben and jerrys and all shared it J yum!!! We were going to watch Pride and Prejudice, but thought that some girls were asleep in our room so we didn’t… I journaled/ go ready for bed, then Kendal and MollyAnne came back and got to share their awesome story about finding 60 euros on the way, getting cheap tickets, and enjoying a wonderful, small, basically free concert! I was very happy for them J

March 8

            Today was a big day! Forgot to turn up the volume on my alarm, so I woke up late and me, MollyAnne, and Allyson were all late to breakfast haha. Set out for the city, and our metro broke down, so as people were streaming off the metro several different people told us what was going on! We ended up walking to the next station and using another of our precious tickets, but we finally got there a little late! It was so exciting to walk through the big gate and see the Louvre, the glass pyramid, the fountains, and the mini arch! We took our time getting some photos J Once inside, found out it was free for European students! (insert Salzburg ID!) That was a blessing! Had to go back to grab a map, and then off we went! I was kinda wanting to go at my own pace, and it seemed like Victoria and Allyson and Kendall were pushing it, so I kinda chose to split off, and MollyAnne came with me! I was happy about that J I felt like we kinda had the same idea about what we wanted to do! So we wandered around, seeing all of the cool stuff on the map, trying to interpret the different paintings stories! It was so enjoyable for me! I loved the Greek and Roman sculptures, especially the nudes, I think the girls are beautiful, the men are impressive! So many of them depict passionate love… wow! Loved the Psyche and Hermes maybe? And there was another with Hermes holding Aphrodite? So beautiful!!! Saw the Mona Lisa again! I actually hardly looked at it! Haha. I really liked the really huge paintings too! Then of course the ancient Egyptian stuff was really impressive!! Agh so cool!!! Me and MollyAnne were fantastic museum partners in my opinion J After we met up with the others, we went and sat by the fountains and ate our break and nutella from the hostel that morning! And I fed a little duck that swam up behind us looking for a snack! Then we walked through the Jardin de Tuileries, so nice to see flowers!! Went too the Orangerie museum? With impressionist paintings, that was free also! They were neat paintings but I didn’t find them quite as interesting. It was incredible though how they could create beautiful smooth impressions from afar, by painting rough unblended strokes up close! Went we looked at the portraits downstairs, we got into a discussion about piercings, because Allyson and Victoria wanted to get one, and they were trying to convince me to get one! (it had started the night before in the hostel!) But I wasn’t really sure: it felt weird to make that decision without my parents knowledge, I wasn’t sure if peer pressure was a good reason (although I had thought about getting my cartilage before) and it just felt super impulsive. I did manage to look at this neat artist who seemed to paint as if on a convex, swirly canvas! I bought some postcards J Monet and Renoir! It was raining so we all had to get out our umbrellas, and we were attempting to stroll down the Champs de L’Essee, but it was raining hard and windy, so we decided to look for a café instead! Had to walk along way, and we were getting weary and unsure of finding a cheap option when all of a sudden I spotted a Starbucks!! We made a beeline over there! I had a nice yogurt/fruit parfait, part of a blueberry scone, and a Café Americano with less sugar than usual! I am slowly getting used to the taste of blacker coffee! Sat there for an hour and just talked, I never felt bored with MollyAnne’s stories! Then we decided to try to find a Claires! At this point I was game for getting a cartilage piercing, but still a little nervous about it! We happened upon this big Opera house first though, and went inside! First sight we had to pay for! It was really beautiful though! I wish I could go to an opera there! MollyAnne I danced in this ballroom, that was quite fun J We did get separated from Kendall, and that was kinda uncertain for a bit but it worked out! Went to Claires, they didn’t pierce anything but we got directions to somewhere else! On the way over there we were looking for something to eat, spotted a McDonalds that was appealing, but then, what was that behind?! Chipotle?!!!! OMG!!!! Everyone practically ran to the restaurant, all exclaiming about the place! Inside this waiter mocked us, “OMG they have Chipotle?! OMG” haha. My first time to have it though I think, yummy burrito! We were in quite good spirits! Oh on the way there we discussed the pros and cons of a social welfare state, and we talked about different deaths/near deaths that we had gone through. After dinner, made it to the place where the girl had recommended, but we didn’t see Claires, but we did see a shop with a piercings signs! Adrenaline pumping, hearts beating rapidly, we piled in, the lady mostly only spoke French, but we found out it wasn’t going to be too expensive, and decided to do it! Victoria went first with a middle cartilage, then Allyson, then me!!! I did it!!! I got my cartilage pierced!!! Blah most impulsive thing I’ve ever done!!! I was freaking out about it a bit!!! Then MollyAnne did her doubles! Haha fun memories J I don’t regret it yet, haha think it will be fun and new and different, just hope it doesn’t hurt too too much!! The girls all said it was cute, they were so proud of me for getting it, and yeah J So that was fun!! Headed home after that, I tried to facetime mom and dad and leah but the connection sucked, so I ended up just taking a pic and messaging them, fb chatting mom, she said it was cute, she approved J Dad was cool with it too! Uploaded my pic on fb, got lots of likes J

March 9

            Woke up late… decided to get (cute) in a skirt, but it took longer to get ready that I expected, so I grabbed breakfast to go… felt a little bad. Gonna not be late tomorrow!!! I planned ahead! But we headed directly to Versailles! Ended up being a great day! First of all, the weather was absolutely gorgeous! Rich blue skies with fluffy white clouds, warm sunshine, I took off my coat for the afternoon! We met up with some of Kendall’s friends from school, her friend Matt especially was really funny, and I guess it was nice to have some male company again! Weird to think I really have hardly spent anytime at all with boys this semester… I feel like that’s kinda different for me! Versailles was really neat! MollyAnne and I ended up being wandering buddies again, I just hate feeling rushed by larger groups of people! We had a difficult time trying to figure out time period stuff, the date of Versailles’ construction, which French king, when the American revolution was, when the French revolution was etc. I think we finally got it straightened out! There were some incredible tapestries, of course tons of incredibly beautiful gilding, marble halls, I loved the hall of mirrors, the bed chambers were incredible, yeah everything was beautiful and quite impressive! I just wondered how much the king ever actually looked at all of the intricate details he commissioned! I really like strolling through the gardens! It was peaceful, and green! And we went to Marie Antoinette’s petit chateau- so cute! I loved the little walk down to the English hamlet she had built, it was so so so precious!!! Loved that! One of the girls in the group told me she had picked me as the oldest (which I am, of the five girls right now J) Which was kinda weird to think about!! I got pretty quiet walking back to Versailles, my feet were hurting pretty bad, and I was really hungry! We power-walked to McDonalds, Yummy chicken sandwich from McDonalds, then I enjoyed the rest of the train ride back to the Eiffel tower, we were trying to catch it on a nice day! It was pretty thrilling at the initial resighting of the Eiffel tower J It’s pretty stinking cool! We took a huge photo shoot there! The most incredible thing though was one of the girls, Nina, was telling us all how she wanted a picture being bent over and kissed by a boy in front of the tower, so she was looking for a cute stranger to take a pic with! I was amazed when she actually did it! She found this really really attractive tall dark and handsome boy, and he was up for it! So she got to be leaned back and kissed on the mouth!!! Dang!!!! He even did it twice to make sure it was good!!! It was incredible. I couldn’t believe that had actually happened!!! I was a little jealous… I know that I believe kisses are precious, but it would be cool to say your first kiss was a pic with a cute stranger in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower!!! Sigh. Anyway, it was still fun getting all excited about her experience!!! Magical! Said goodbye to some of the group, figured out a plan for tomorrow, and ended up being at the tower long enough to see it get lit up and then see the light show!!! What a great day! Enjoyed the trip back on the metro, and some more banana/nutella crepes from the same little stand, chatted dad a bit, took a shower, and basically got ready for bed while distracted with little things! Tomorrow is our last day and we still have a really full agenda! Hopefully we get to do everything… unfortunately it’s supposed to be rainy :/ hopefully clear skies?! Other notes: ear is cute J Like it! Out of touch with God… traveling is craziness… I’m sure I’ll  have more to muse on later. For now, Bonne Nuit! Oh and random scary though, I will be turning 22 this year!!! How crazy is that?!?!?!