Birthday thoughts and happenings

It was not until a couple of weeks ago that I finally booked my ticket to leave Austria: the 5th of July. Now that I actually have a date, something to count down to, it makes the rest of my time here seem all the more precious. There are so many things that I want to do and people that I still want to invest in. Ten and a half weeks is all that there is left; however, I know how much can happen in that amount of time. For the last four years, that same amount of time has been where all my life's punctuation marks have been: Fall term, Winter term, Spring term, repeat. So much happened during each one, so I know a lot will still happen here as well, which is encouraging to me now. But it also makes me think about the time that I have already spent here.

What have I done with it?
Who have I spent it with and for what reasons?
Who has taught me the most?
What has challenged me the most?
Who do I feel like I really know?
Does anyone really know me?
Have I made an impact in any regard to anyone or in anything at all?
I know these are a lot of deep questions, some of which I do have an answer for, at least in part. But others I really don't have an answer for... And then there's that final question: When will the answers come?

I finished skyping with Jessi a few hours ago, and I was reminded that if you just commit to practicing a willingness to learn from everything, to be corrected, to let your guard down, to be vulnerable, to take a few risks, and - most importantly - to trust that God will guide you through all things, then the answers will come at just the right time. They always do. Always. That being said, prayers for patience and discernment would be much appreciated ;)



Now that I shoved all the heavy stuff off my chest, I would just love to let you all know that I truly had a wonderful birthday weekend! On Friday, my actual birthday, it rained, which is sort of normal, but it wasn't cold, so that was nice. I had the girls during the day, and we had a good time. Kristina was excited to give me my card and the picture she drew me. She just kept saying, "Oh, Sarah, you must love it! You must!!"
And I replied with, "Well, of course I'll love it, it's from you; plus you made it!" Soooo so stinkin' sweet!
Since all of my family were actually not going to be at home in the evening, which finally made me realize that I'd be at home alone on my birthday, which then my extroverted self kicked in and made me realize that that would indeed make me quite depressed, I decided late that morning - but still sort of last minute - to go into Vienna for Bible study. Then depending on what all went on, possibly stay overnight there as well. It was a very good decision! I got there and Liz gave me a lovely card, Angel was preparing the meal for us all, and then when I walked into the dark living room, everyone popped their heads out from behind pillows and yelled, "SURPRISE!!" The fellowship, the food, and everything else in between was just lovely. Afterwards, a most spontaneous and brilliant sleepover happened with Noa, Kelli, and myself. Being all from the USA, we naturally talked about all the things we love and miss about our country, so that was just great. Sharing frustrations and jokes with fellow citizens is always fun, so thanks for that, ladies!

I got back home late in the morning on Saturday, went for a good run (I still had lots of sugar in me from the night before!). I was told that at some point I was not allowed in the kitchen, and to distract me, it was Kristina's job to take me upstairs and play Barbies. That did not end up needing to happen, as I just leisurely continued getting showered and ready once my workout was finished. Soon after, we sat down to a delicious meal of schnitzel, potato salad, and rice. So Austrian and so yummy!! We let that settle for a bit, and then we had the cake, which was seriously probably the best and coolest birthday cake I've ever had:

There's an owl on my cake!! So sweet!

I had planned to spend the rest of the weekend and Monday in Vienna, so once things settled back down at the house and I had snoozed a little while reading my book, I figured it was probably about time to head back as I didn't want to get there too late. After dropping off my overnight bag, I eventually made it to iCafe and met up with some more friends there. Luckily I was still sufficiently full from my amazing lunch that I did not even miss the fact that all the food was pretty much gone and cleared away at iCafe. I don't even want to know what I missed out on. Noa and I left and decided just to walk around a bit and take the scenic route back to the apartment, which was so very worth it.

The Rathaus by an April night

We came upon these potted palm trees lining the pavement between the Rathaus and the Burg Theater, which confused us both a wee bit:

And then we came to Parliament. I've walked by several times but never actually gone up to the front of it, so naturally, as it was after 10 pm and no one else was about, we walked up there. There are several statues spotting the railings, and I felt the need to climb onto the railings and then continue climbing onto the statues themselves.

Then we met up with another friend and finished out the night at an Irish pub where we talked in German to a Turkish guy (he said my German was good!), laughed a lot, met some new friends, and just had the best time!! I seriously cannot remember a night as fabulously enjoyable, brilliant and FUN as that since being in Vienna -  from the statue climbing all the way to climbing into bed at about 6 in the morning. Ah...what a great birthday! :) :)
Thank you, everybody! May there be many more to come - that is, birthdays and nights like that in Irish pubs alike.

Cheers 'til the next time 'round,

~Sarah

A Scare to Trust

Sometimes things happen, and they just straight up take you by complete and utter surprise. I feel like there have been a few things that have happened like that in the last couple of weeks; however, the one yesterday made me flip out the most.

I was on Facebook getting ready to tackle a few ongoing Words with Friends matches, when suddenly my screen went dark. Nothing else happened with the modem or anything; no weird sounds were heard. I could still see the faintest outline of the puzzle board, but not enough to actually do anything. I tried to brighten my screen via the keyboard controls, but that didn't work either. Then I did a force shutdown, waited a few minutes, and then started it back up again. The screen never came on, but I could tell it was booting up correctly: I heard all the right sounds, even my Skype signing in. Ugh!!!! So I tried it again. This time when it started up, the screen came on, but barely even got anywhere before it started flickering and then went out. And by this time I'm like flipping out, internally of course. I need this computer. It's the way I communicate with nearly everybody, not to mention a significant source of entertainment and music. Ahhhh!!!!
I sort of wanted to cry, but I thought that might be silly, so I held it in.

A couple hours later, Kristina and I went to the one computer repair store in Hollabrunn. I walked in, and said, "Ich habe eine Frage, do you speak English?"
He did, so my first worry was assuaged.
He started my computer, and of course everything was working fine. Of course.
Then he looked at a couple other things, both of which he said were totally fine. Of course.
Then he shut it down; that all went fine. He turned it over, looked at the backside, and said, "I'm going to clean this," at which point I thought, great, here's where he'll make his money. When he came back out, he handed it to me and said that it was really dusty and to try not to let it get too hot. I said okay and thanked him, and then he told me to have a nice day and didn't charge me for anything!! Yehoooo!!

And that's the end. I was thinking though, it's in these small but seemingly huge everyday occurrences that God asks us to trust in Him. As I was walking to and from the store, I just kept thinking, okay, God, what am I supposed to learn from this? Why would you scare me like this!?!. Just clue me in, please! When I got home, I was highly relieved of course, but still somewhat unsettled. I just set me laptop back on my desk and plugged it in. I left her (my laptop is affectionately called Lacy-Anne Toms and is a girl) sleeping and waited until after supper to start her up to see if she was just playing a trick at the store. I was praying the whole time that everything would be normal. And it was.

I'll take the risk of sounding completely melodramatic here, but it really felt like my whole life had been snatched from me. It was dangling by a thread; the assurance of it being given back to me was nonexistent. And it's at those times that you realize what you cling to, what you really trust in this life. Do I cling to my computer and all the it offers me, or do I cling to Christ? Well, maybe that's what this was all about...

Laptops and humans alike need some routine maintenance and dusting off in order to work to their potential.

~Sarah

Finished another one

I do not recall nor do I feel like counting the number of books I've read since I got here. However, I finished Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah last week as well. I had the last 50 pages to go, and I was a ball of tears for the last forty. This is no exaggeration, my friends. I am being completely serious. I was laying there on the sofa bed, determined to finish the novel (when I get to the less-than-50-pages-to-go mark, I just want to get it finished), and when the tears started flowing they just didn't stop. I figured I'd just cry for a couple pages, so I let my t-shirt suffice to wipe them away. Um...wrong. It was frighteningly insufficient  Once my sleeves and collar were unpleasantly damp, I was more or less drowning in the salty stream, not to mention that I could no longer breathe through my nose anymore. I got up and got a tissue. Four of them actually.

And once I got to the last page, page 479, all four were well used. I do not even remember the last time I had cried that much from a book. It is a moving story, and if you have a best friend - your other half, the one who tells it to you straight no matter what, the one you can always count on, your "lifer" - then your heart strings will be plucked and tuned in order that you never forget what really counts in this life.

Ahh....I could read it all over again and still probably cry that much all over again.

April is not Fooling

That's right. April is not fooling me. It may seem like it's still winter outside, which makes me think it's still January or something, which would mean my time here is not running out as fast. Ha. Joke's on you, fourth month of the year. I know better. Three months; that's a quarter of a year; that's all the more time I have here.

I got home to Hollabrunn this evening after spending a whole 8 days in Vienna staying with one of the sweetest people I've met here and two little dogs. It was a great "spring break" even though it was snowy, cold, and rainy. I did not have any exact plans, so I was content to take each day as it came- snow, rain, or shine. I relaxed, watched movies, watched Suits, baked really yummy things, played with two rambunctious little pooches, and finally saw a couple awesome museums. I can't even remember the last time I had been into the city on a weekday, so it was nice to actually be able to go into a store or two if I wanted since everything is closed on Sundays. I went to the city library for a couple hours one day to read, which was nice. It sort of made me miss college, something I didn't think I'd say while being here, but alas, 'tis true.

The next day we went to explore two of Vienna's Easter markets. Although there were not as many of them dotting the map as there were Christmas markets, they were just as exciting and fun and sweet smelling. Not to mention there were what seemed like millions of brilliantly decorated eggs for sale. Real eggs, with all the insides blown out, decorated with the utmost craftsmanship and creativity!

I probably spent a good half of an hour meandering through the crates. I could have spent a  fortune on those things!

After we visited the markets, I left to find my way the the Natural History Museum, which I was pretty stoked for. Like I said, I haven't really been in the center of the city for a while, not to mention in the daytime, so I stopped a long the way a couple of times just to looked around. The Rathaus is such a work of art. 

The Burg Theater right across the street from the Rathaus

The Rathaus

So then I made it to the museum. The Art and Natural History museums are right next to each other with a little park thing in between them. The buildings are actually mirror images of each other too. How cool. I visited the Natural History Museum, and I soaked up every minute of it. It was the first time I've ever been to a museum by myself before, and I must say, it was more than pleasant. No one was there to drag me along or complain about being bored and wanting to go. I took my time, read descriptions, and did my best to absorb some new knowledge. Plus, I saw the BodyWorld exhibit for the first time. Oh my word, it was awesome and definitely worth the extra 7 EUR. I even bought the book, which tells all about plastination and is also a little mini anatomy text book. I was there for about three and a half hours, but could have stayed for five. I saw fossils, stones, gems, dinosaurs, birds, whales, sharks, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, and what an 7 week old embryo looks like, fingers included!! Ahh, and so so much more! It was so cool. Fun fact: technically they are not called saber tooth tigers; they're called saber tooth cats. Learning is fun :)

Art History

This one moved!!

woolly rhinoceros 

giant Irish elk

saber tooth cats

the dome

I just had to

Later that evening we baked the yummy things! Plus, what makes it even more of a feat, we didn't have any actual measuring cups. We used a juice glass as our "cup" measure...and then just sort of based everything off of that. And there may have been a couple times when I added a dash of this and a pinch of that just for good measure. In the end everything turned out fantastic and immensely pleased my over excited sweet tooth.

Cinnamon coffee cake

Chocolate chip cookies :D

Indulging :)

On Good Friday I took a trip to the Belvedere, a museum and one of the famous residences of Vienna. The artwork was beautiful and I got told off for taking photographs. To be honest, I didn't see the no photos sign. Oh well. My favorite pieces were all from the impressionism and realism periods. Both the style and content appealed more to my eyes than the others. And Klimt, while he certainly is something, but he's not my favorite; I'd take Monet over him any day.

Upper Belvedere

The gardens looking out to the lower Belvedere and the rest of Vienna

We had a Good Friday service that evening at which I was in charge of the music. Everything went smoothly, except by the end of it my voice was dead. We sang a lot of hymns, which were lovely, but also a bit long and repetitive at times. Since hymns are a bit tricky to play on guitar, I decided to just stand and sing with the keyboard and violin played behind me, which turned out to be a good choice. Then I Saturday was probably one of my favorite days here in Austria. It was fun, super chill, involved playing and listening to music, shopping, jokes, laughing, and hanging out with lots of awesome people. The same goes for Easter Sunday. I led worship at church for this service as well. Even though I didn't really feel nervous leading up to it, when we started the first song, I could tell my adrenaline was pumping. I love celebrating the Resurrection, so I was already excited about that, but then adding being up front with the praise team for some reason gave me a little extra boost. But, as always, the Holy Spirit was at work; everything calmed down and settled into place, and it was a great time of worship and celebration. And then it just kept getting better. Following the service, we did my favorite combination of things: ate food, watched a movie, chatted, and stayed out late. Honestly, it's so simple, but it's so great and, I believe, one of the best ways to deepen relationships. Cheers to getting one of the last U-bahns and making it home :)

I thought about going to another museum on Monday, but I was too tired and felt like being lazy. So Galya and I watched two episodes of Suits and relaxed. I left Vienna feeling refreshed and wishing I could stay longer, but at the same time excited to see my family in Hollabrunn. I made it on the train; however, exiting the train was my problem this time. When I got to the door at my stop, it wouldn't open. The door opens by touched this "button" which isn't really a button. It's flat and has a sensor that is supposed to open the door! Gah! Well, it must have looked or it was not working, and the train pulled away with me still on it. No one had come by to check my ticket, and I was just praying that they wouldn't come now. I had no idea how long it would be until the next stop as I'd never been on the other side of Hollabrunn before. Luckily it was only about five minutes. I called my family, but they were unable to assist me; then I called the only other person who could possibly have picked me up. He didn't answer. Then I asked the kid with silver nail polish (ha) if he spoke English (he did) and if he could tell me when the next train to Hollabrunn was. Nearly two hours. Ha. How lovely. So I read a chapter of my book, which was quite nice actually, and that took me about an hour. Then my phone rings and it's the only other person calling me back!!! 

"Oh yeah, I'm on my way to Hollabrunn, I can just come pick you up."

Thank you, Stefan. Thanks for laughing at and with me and for making me laugh at myself too. I hope you enjoyed the cookies as your payment and thank you! ;)

And now it's back to life here. No matter what the job, the first couple days back to work are a little awkward and tiresome, so hopefully everything settles back in nicely, which I have no doubt that it will.

Until the next time,

~Sarah