Books Unintentionally Left Behind

I realized I never posted pictures of the other books I've finished so far. I don't want to leave any of them  out...they all deserve a photo slot :) 

So I started this one during the summer, but it was the first book I finished here in Austria.

The third book I finished

Also, if you have any book suggestions, please pass them along!!

The Walking Tour

The past weekend I walked a lot.
Well, not the whole weekend, just Saturday.

Mikal and I decided to meet up and see where the day would take us. We had a few ideas, but the first stop was Billa (a grocery store) because we were quite hungry. This was actually a serious point of discussion. You see, we are both trying to be very careful with our spending, so we wanted to choose the best way that would insure saving the most cents. We thought, for a few seconds, about just going to a bakery or something for a snack, but we reasoned, correctly I believe, that getting food for now and later would be better. We bought a fresh loaf of bread, deli meat, bananas, Almdudler -which is a ginger-ale like drink native to Austria- and chocolate chip cookies (American style). Plus I restocked my chocolate store, which is becoming a biweekly occurrence.

We ate sitting down on this little path with weeping willow trees all along the sides; it was so pretty. It also happened to be, in my opinion, a perfect fall day. The air was crisp, it was sort of sunny but sort of cloudy too, there was a hint of mist in the air but no actual precipitation. And you didn't need a coat. Ahh, it was great. After we were satisfied enough for the first time around, we just started walking around. Eventually we found the forest and took a route that I have run before. As we entered, we saw signs with florescent borders, but we weren't sure what they said. Good thing I (usually)always carry my dictionary with me. It said rescue dogs. Cool. There was some sort of training going on for the K9 unit, so we heard barking periodically as we walked. Cool. I really do love this forest. It has all sorts of ascents and descents as well as clearings and smaller less traveled paths as well. But one of the neatest and most appreciated things about it is the benches. Okay, don't get too excited; they're not exquisitely designed or embellished benches. They are just normal wooden benches with green steel legs and arm rests. I just like the fact that they are there. For when I decide to use them for reading, journaling, taking photographs from, or for thinking or praying or just for being. I don't know...they're just nice. I have yet to pass by anybody sitting on one yet, but when I do, I know I'm going to smile at them.

Whilst in the forest, we decided to take a journey to Sonnberg, a little village about three miles from Hollabrunn. One of our friends lives there, and he happens to have an apple tree in his yard. Mikal had gone there to pick apples once before, and had the idea to do so again since baking was an option for something to do later. Apples naturally need to be included in any baking venture since...'tis the season :)
After stopping by our respective houses and swapping handbags for backpacks, we headed out for our hour long journey, or so we estimated. En route to the village, we passed lots of fields, some already plowed and some still planted. Mikal stopped at one, thought it was potatoes, bent down to check but came back with an inconclusive result. After more walking, we came again to a plowed field. I glanced down, and there were a lot of rocks that quite keenly resembled potatoes. I bent down, picked one up, and sure enough, they were potatoes! Mikal had been right about the other field too. There were also a few different types of wildflowers that I'd never seen before; those kept my attention. We finally made it to Sonnberg; with our few little stops to pick flowers and play in the dirt, it did take us an hour to get to the edge of the tiny town. There were also a couple apple trees along the rode into the town; we tried to climb them but were unsuccessful. The limbs were a little too high and the bark too slippery. Bummer. But not too despair, for there was a whole tree waiting for us! There were a lot of apples already on the ground as well, which made things very easy for us. Since we were baking with them, it was okay if they were less than perfect. Our host offered us tea after we filled our bag with apples, which we gladly accepted. Then he drove us back to Mikal's. Lovely.

We finally made it!!

The apple trees we tried to climb were a little ways back on this road...on the right.

Awh, Sonnberg, you are cute :)

We planned on making apple bars, so we started washing the apples and getting everything ready. Then Mikal realized we didn't have any eggs. Here we go again...another three quarter of a mile walk to a food store and back. It was worth it though as we got a couple other things to supplement or supper, which were delicious compliments. The apple bars didn't turn out exactly as planned, but they were far from inedible!! We enjoyed them once they were finished, along with some white wine. We made spritzers as well, but to spruce them up a bit we added Holunderblutensaft (elderflower syrup) to them. Oh my word, They was so good! It was then time for a movie, and The Patriot was decided on, after which we both felt proud to be American along with a mild disliking for the British. That's saying something for me, since I love the Brits! We watched a couple episodes of Friends to end the night on a light note, which was good.

Then on Sunday, we celebrated Elena's birthday with both sets of grandparents. It was a lovely time! We enjoyed a delicious lunch and cake prepared by Andi and Elisabeth. Naturally, Elena was beyond excited: She got her "favorite wish," a Nintendo DS, along with other very nice things. She came into my room later in the evening and was showing the the Nintendo...prrrrrreetttty cool. I had no idea it had a camera!!?!/? But I guess what electronic/battery operated device doesn't have a camera on it these days?
Then even later, I got to add two more familiar faces from home to the ones I've gotten to see here from Austria! Thanks, Katie and Emily!

Alas, friend and family time = lovely weekend :)

Guitar Sightings and Vienna Overnight

As most of you know, I enjoying singing and playing guitar. As most of you also know I was not able to bring my guitar with me to Austria. I told my parents I'd either just hop in a music shop every now and again and play one, or I would just wait to meet a kind soul who would let me pluck a few strings on his. I thought the probability of both happening were actually fairly high to be honest.

The first actualization of either of these things was a music shop here in Hollabrunn. The first day I walked around town I noticed it, but it was closed. Check! My mind was at ease knowing there was at least a music store in this relatively small town. However, even though that was the first sighting, it was the other way that actually led to a guitar in my hands again.

The first Sunday I attended the International Chapel of Vienna (IVC or the Chapel), it was apparent they were in a real transition and rebuilding phase. The worship leader, I do not remember if it was at the beginning or end (or both) of the service gave the call to anyone interested in being a part of the praise team: Come! We need you!

{"Cool, God. Also, you are funny. But I'll be sure to pray about it and actually talk to you before I just jump into things, like I do sometimes. You know."}

The next link in this chain of events happened during that following week. For the first time since I got here, I decided to go on Harvest Peoria's website and see what the new sermon series was about. They are getting ready to move into their new home, and so the series is basically a prepping course of how not to get distracted spiritually and a warning of things and feelings that may be to come. Anyway, the first sermon was called "Prepare to Partner." It's main take home point was that you have to be ready and willing to serve your local church, the body. One of the ways we get closer to Christ is by using the gifts and talents God has given us to worship him and serve other. Also, we are challenged when we serve sometimes, which only grows our faith and brings us still closer to God.

{"Hey, that was also pretty cool, God. And I think I'm starting to get the message. Thanks a lot, but just because I happened to click on a sermon that happened to be all about serving in your local church...well, yeah, I'm just going to keep praying and waiting. But yeah, thanks for that"}

I went to the Chapel again the next week and they made the same announcement. This time it was actually given by the gentleman who is the leader of the Worship committee, which has been working on building up the whole worship pillar of the church. And then that day's message was on worship. I had told a couple friends at church about my thinking about joining the praise team and the sermon from Harvest, and as all of this was happening up front, they just gave me looks that seemed to say, "Okay, what more to you need? You must do this and get involved!"

{"Okay, third time's the charm. Thanks for listening and giving me an answer and showing me the way to go in multiple ways multiple times. I'll tell them I'm interested - a.k.a  have a huge whole in my heart that can only be filled by playing music with people and using it to praise you!"}

They announced that on October 6th there was going to be a meeting for anyone interested in the praise team. I went up and introduced myself to the committee leader, told him my story, he was pleased to meet me, and I told him I'd be there Saturday for the meeting. I also told him that I don't have me own guitar, but that if somebody had one I could use that that would be awesome. Check!

That Saturday rolled around and I got to the Chapel at 10:00 am. We talked for a little bit and shared a bit of our music/praise team background and then just started jamming and worshiping the Lord. It was so so great. It was one of those times when you just know and feel that you are right where you are supposed to be. I played on of the guy's guitars as he played his ukulele- perfect. I was glad I hadn't forgotten any chords or anything, but I could tell my fingers were going to be quite sore after a good one and a half hours of straight playing. At one point, the songs for the next day's service were brought out, and we all went through those. Afterwards the leader asked, "Who thought that was fun? Do you want to play tomorrow?"
"Sure!"

The two guys who have been alternating leading the worship asked if any of us wanted to lead at some point also. I told them my experience with Focus at NCC, and that I think I would like to, but that I'd like to see how the first couple times go and to keep praying about it.
And that's how God got me exactly where He wanted me.

After the meeting was over I had until 9:00 pm until I was to meet up with Andrea, which was exactly nine hours. Hmm, what to do in Vienna for nine hours? Since it was a gorgeous day outside, I thought it would be nice to go see the Schonbrunn Palace, which I had heard was absolutely gorgeous, especially the gardens. Also, I was told that the best time to go to the butterfly house is when it is sunny and nice out or else the butterflies don't really move around that much. Well, it was surely sunny, so I thought I would go there too. Those were my only tentative plans; whether I would be alone or have company was yet to be determined.
That is until it soon was.

Two friends and I headed for Schonbrunn, and I was glad for the company. We took the U-bahn from the church and got there to greet tons of people walking around! The palace is indeed very pretty. We didn't go inside though, so I'll have to come back (which has been the case for just about every touristy place I've "been" to so far). The gardens were really pretty as well. We walked up the big hill past the fountain to where you can see the whole palace and the part of the city of Vienna behind...very cool! I was not wearing walking shoes though, so my feet were pretty sore after the hills; I could tell I would have some lovely blisters by the end of the evening. Ha...little did I know.

After the palace, I met Sarah at the Prater, and we observed lots of people in Dirndls and Lederhose, the tradition Austrian dress. You see, Vienna's version of Oktoberfest has been going on the past couple weeks, so the Prater area has been a bit of a party. Sarah and I weaved our way through all the people, observed lots of singing and beer and games, and luckily found and empty bench to just sit and chat. Lovely. Good chat and amusing scenery.Then we parted ways at the U-bahn, as we are so used to doing by now, and I headed to Stephansplatz in search of the perfect coffee shop.

I didn't want a cafe, I just wanted a coffee shop, which is sort of tricky business, if you ask me. There's this place called the Coffeeshop Company; I was told it's Vienna's Starbucks but cheaper. Perfect. The atmosphere was familiar, and it felt great. My caramel macchiato and carrot cake was great too, although the cake a wee bit dry. I found a nice spot and started a new book, Knowing the Unknowable God, by James Lucas. It is about the paradoxes of the Bible and the seemingly contradictory things it says. I only read the first chapter, about what a paradox is exactly, but it has already challenged me. I am excited to dive into it and learn my Bible better!! One of the things of took away from that first chapter was that in looking at a paradox, there are two sides- black and white. So often people think in black or white; things have to be this way or that way. Well, with a paradox, it is black and white thinking that is necessary. The author states that, "God is both/and...not either/or." Cool stuff.

photo: http://potsdamerplatz.de/typo3temp/pics/d00f7d5ddc.jpg 

photo: http://covers.openlibrary.org/w/id/835220-M.jpg

I hadn't seen what time the shop closed for the evening, but I had been there for at least a couple hours. I was getting hungry for some real food, so I moved on to my next destination unknown. I honestly love just walking around the city. Sometimes I feel self conscious because I feel like everyone is looking at me and wondering why I am all alone, but then I'm like, "Why should I care? Oh that's right, I shouldn't." So I walked in the direction of what is becoming my favorite park, the Burggarten. I saw a food stand right outside the entrance, grabbed a kabap-in-a-box and waltzed on in for a stroll with my dinner. It was completely dark by now, but there were still a decent number of people around. After a full lap around, I decided to just take a seat and enjoy the peaceful evening and watch the stars (what I could see of them) blink their way into the night sky. Instead of choosing a bench, I just stepped off the path and sat down right up against a nice old tree, praying the ground wasn't too wet. It was lovely. It was one of those pinch-me moments: Yes, I really am just sitting here, under a tree, in Vienna, Austria. And I've been here for about 6 weeks already. Crazy!

Andrea called me and we found each other outside the Oper. It did not take us too long to realize that that night there was something pretty cool going on: Lange Nacht der Museen. The long night of the museums. A couple nights a year, all the museums in Vienna stay open until about 2am. You buy one ticket, and you can get into all of them with it! We, rather spontaneously, decided to do this. We tried to drag more people into our fun, but they declined...it was already about 9:30 by this point. We had a great time though, just the two of us. We visited 5 museums: Feuerwehr (Vienna Fire Brigade) , the Albertina, the Leopold, the mumok, and the Bibel Zentrum (Bible Center). The middle three are art museums, and the last one is filled with all sorts of old (and new) Bibles. It also had a few different scrolls and artifacts that were interesting to see. The Leopold is a modern art museum, and the mumok also contains modern and contemporary art collections. We did not see every exhibit in each place, but it gave me a good idea of each on was about and if I would want to see more at a later date. The mumok was real contemporary and progressive; a bit too much for me but still interesting. After three hours of museum hoping, my feet were dead; I felt terribly for all my complaining, but I could just tell I was going to have the worst blisters. Ugh. We called it quits around 12:30am: our excitement and motivation faded quicker than we thought at the onset. The museums were all very crowded and it was crazy at the museums quarter!! It was a real party there, that's for sure. People were just sitting, hanging out on the museum steps and drinking beer as if they were comfy and cozy on a couch in their living rooms. Crazy. But I will say it was a well spent 11 Euros.

Outside the Feuerwehr

A cool statue en route to the Albertina

The Albertina

The Museums Quarter- where the party was at!

On Sunday Andrea and I had a leisurely morning/afternoon getting ready for Bible study and church. Both were fabulous. I was a blast playing for the worship service, plus it was Communion Sunday! Everything just fell into place musically and we played really well together, which I was some what surprised by. Ahh...I'm so excited to be a part of this ministry and cannot wait for all the things God is going to do through the Chapel.

I took the early train home because I was pretty exhausted, but it was all worth it.
Until the next adventure...

~Sarah

Tschus, DeutschAkademie: Hello, even more Free Time

My final day in Vienna for my German course was really nice. It was a Thursday, and I was free to stay in the city for as long as I wanted, so I did. I had planned to meet up with Andrea, but not until 7pm, which left me 6 hours to roam about and occupy myself. This is what cities are good for.

Naturally, I came prepared for this occasion. I had a good book that I was hoping to finish, so I asked Sarah where a good coffee shop was. First of all I did indeed need some coffee and a snack and also a good environment for reading. She wasn't totally sure where to direct me, but I ended up just going to a McCafe on the Mariahilfe Strasse. Let me just make something clear, the McDonald's McCafes here are legitimate coffee shops. Granted they have the McDonald's part attached to them too, but these ones have a special area that is just for the McCafe and they also sell all the gourmet looking baked goods that a Starbucks or someplace like that would sell. I was told that they were actually quite tastey, so I ordered a blueberry muffin along with my caramel macchiato. I was most pleased with both items. Now, the environment...left more to be desired, that is for sure.

It's not that it lacked the capacity to have a nice coffee shop vibe, not at all. It just so happened that I was there at lunch time and it was very busy. I was content enough, though, and stayed to observe and to read my book. The disturbing part was that there was a group of 4 girls sitting right across from me. They looked to be anywhere from 13-16, which made me think, "Why aren't you in school?" Seriously, the school hours here are so so different. It seems that there are school aged children walking about at all times when they should all be in school. I have no idea what it is, but I know that I like it in the US better. I like knowing that when I'm out in public between the hours of about 8am until about 2 or 2:30pm, the stores and coffee shops will be void of children and LOUD teenagers. I'm telling you, these 4 girls were obnoxious; it made me miss my Starbucks on Chicago Avenue, Naperville, IL. Luckily, they left and I had a few moments of "quiet" before I myself headed out to meet up again with Sarah.

We walked around, discovered more and reasons why we think we were separated at birth, laughed a lot, and then she tried to help me decide where I was to go next. I still had about 4 hours or so to kill...

I thought I would just walk around the Ring and actually stop and see some of the buildings that I hadn't so far. There are so many buildings and they all look old and pretty and really important, even if they're not really that important. In that respect, it's hard to know if you're looking at one of these "famous" buildings. I just wanted to point that little fact out.

Anyway, I made it to the Parliament building. I had not been on the part of the Ring yet; I was sure of that. It was getting to be 5pm and it was mostly cloudy, but I snapped a few photos anyway.

Since this was the last week in September, I figured they were getting ready to honor  Breast Cancer awareness month- October- with the Pink ribbon. Really neat!

The Police were starting to put the fences up in front.

Yeah, you show that horse who's boss.

The side of the building

It was a leisurely walk passed; there were still a decent number of tourists there taking pictures, so it was hard to get really good shots, but that's okay. I'm sure I'll be back; more photos can be seen here though: more
As I crossed the street, I saw a little park positioned between this building and another one, but I couldn't tell what it was. It was on my map, so I knew where I was. It said it was some sort of Judicial building. It was a nice little park, so I sat down there, in the peace and quiet - minus the sounds on the street, which are much more pleasant than high-pitched girls' voices - and finished my book, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis. It was such a great book! I feel like now that I've read that and know his story from his own perspective it will only enhance my experience of his other works. Besides the Narnia series, I have only read mere excerpts and small portions of his other writing, so I am excited to get to them. I decided though, to take a break from Lewis and read somebody else instead. It is only to build my excitement that much more. My goal while I am here, reading wise, is to always have one novel and one non-fiction/spiritual growth book going at the same time. So far, so good.

The little path there was in the design of a wheel, or at least that's what it looked like.

Yes, these bird are everywhere and can be annoying; however, I do enjoy their red feet and the shininess of the feathers around their neck.

All finished. But I won't be surprised if I read it again while I'm here :)

Once I finished the book, I had a little more than an hour to go. I decided to just go to the Stephansplatz and see what I could see. Plus I was hungry, so I needed some fooood! There were lots of people about, as always on the Stephansplatz. I walked along the backside of the Stephansdom, which I had never really though to do until then. There was a really pretty statue and a better view of the tiled roof, so that was cool. Since it was Thursday, most of the shops were still open for at least another hour, so that was providential. I saw a bookstore and went inside. It was small, but had a lot to offer, especially in the religious section. I think being stationed right behind a famous Catholic cathedral may have something to do with that, but then again, maybe not. I went downstairs to the children's section, and it was so cute. I just love bookstores :)  They only had a very small standing swivel wire rack of English books containing authors like John Grisham, Nora Roberts, and the like. After I left the bookstore, I window shopped all along the street. There was this sweet little shop, closed unfortunately, that sold little figurines and really pretty wooden nativity scenes. I didn't see the prices, but I am curious; they were really nice looking and would make a nice gift and/or memento of my time here. There are so many designer stores and things are so so expensive, but it is fun to look. I went into one shoe store, but only to look.

My stomach was talking pretty loudly by now, so I stopped at a hot dog stand. Now, these are not your average hot dogs. The bun is at least 10'' long and they have a machine that makes a whole in the middle of it for the sausage, and then you get to pick what kind of sausage you want and if you want ketchup, mustard, etc. It is pretty cool and way less messy than an American hot dog because all the ketchup is inside the bun. It sort of sinks do the bottom, but still, it's great. I walked around some more, and along the way to a bench, I saw this street performer. He was dressed as a raggedy clown and making huge bubbles, like the size of a 4-yr old. He had hand-crafted his tools, that was apparent. He was using two sticks with string tied to each of them. He made sure the sticks were touching at the ends, dunked the whole string part into the special soap mixture, took it out, and then gradually moved the two sticks apart to create these massive bubbles. There were several little kids gathering around to watch and to possibly try it themselves. Neat. Then a few meters up the walk, there where these two guys just sitting and playing accordions. They were amazing. I stood and watched for a while and was totally blown away.

I finally sat down, finished my hot dog, and waited for Andrea to show up. When she did, we walked to another place, had some hot chocolate (which you need to add sugar too because it is not sweet at all!), and caught up. We were both pretty tired, so we didn't stay long, but it was worth the wait to spend a bit of time together.

And that's the story of my last day of my German course.

By the way, I order all my food in German, even "American" things like hot dogs.

~Sarah