Fourteen Day: Take 1.

Part of this fabulous Euro trip is splitting into groups and traveling away from the castle and around Europe... and guess what's up this Sunday? Oh yeah...
free travel! Fourteen days of western Europe with seven people.

The planning was my first taste of... differences with others. heres the thing ((and it happens in the switch between high school and college as well)): i expect people to have the same bond that i have with my old friends. there are two issues with this. one, they arent the same people. and two, weve had a month and a day with each other and i had a year with my college friends and six years with my high school friends. of course were going to be closer! of course we are going to know each others stregnths and weakness better and how to cover for each other. its inaccurate to assume things will be the same right when you start out. so planning was a little stressful but in the end it all worked out and after a good nights sleep everyone said they love the plan.

here it is:
sunday night we take an overnight train to amsterdam.
from amsterdam to brussels and brugges.
then the group splits into two and my part goes to paris and munich.
we meet back up in berlin and then split again and my group goes to warsaw and krakow and finish off the trip with auschwitz.







im so excited!
tomorrow before we leave were going to mathausen, the last concentration camp to be closed down in world war II. i dont know what to expect, just that i should expect something intense. im pretty sure im going to bawl. ill try to blog about it if i have my thoughts in order... no guarantees!
pray for the trip- especially for rest and safety and of course for us having fun!

THE ALPS! AMAZING.. ((extra))

the playground by the river. so fun!




the first hill on the way up the mountain.

THE ALPS!! AMAZING..

the day before the alps we took a walk along the river... it was really really chill. thats all i got.




this is our home in the alps! the church in vienna we help out owns it so we get to stay in it. in the alps.





deborah bush and i! were both blogging this trip... and we both have curly hair! and were in the alps...






yeah. i climbed a mountain. it was eight miles; five up, three down. and it was not a path. maybe ill find a photo of the "trail" later.





this is the loft that josh and i found in the alps. its in a tree... we didnt get any journaling done but it was enjoyable none-the-less.



it was basically a weekend of vacation away from vacation. sometimes the hustle of trying to be in a culture and see everything and keep up with back home and homework gets overwhelming. so we took a break, read, walked, watched the sun rise over the mountains.

back home i love to sit in the hot tub and watch the stars when everyone goes to bed. it was comforting to sit on a fence in the garden and see the big dipper and cassiopia. its the same sky back home.

tea time in the castle.

funny story of yesterday:
last week the female chaperones decided to take small groups of girls and have tea with them wednesday nights after theme dinner ((the students cook theme dinners wednesdays- last night was mexican. lovely.)) and devo to get to know them.

so alex and linds and becky and laura and i get invites and we end up sitting near each other at a meal one night, all excited and such. the question of how we all got picked for the first tea party came up and someone leans in and goes, "i heard that they made a list of people they were most worried about and thats how they decided the order." and the whole table just froze. and then we looked around and looked at ourselves... and then laughed for about twenty minutes. but the rest of the week we discussed fictional problems we could share at tea time. the best ones revovled around one of the three single guys on our trip and two of the girls. everytime we saw each other we smiled, a little condescending of the old chaperones acting like they knew us. were young, its understandable yeah? :)

so tea time comes.
i wont go into detail but it was great fun! we had hot chocolate and cake and got to know each other a little better... id say more but i dont want to ruin it for anyone who hasnt gotten to do it yet. but it was nice to hear people talk about what they love... a new perspective on familiar people. at the end we admitted what we had heard and the jokes wed been mock planning all week and danielle and patty gave us the most blank stares ive ever seen. so we laughed again. they had randomly drawn names to see who would come to tea and the only scheming involved was trying to keep people who were best friends in different tea groups. our youth exposed.

its funny how things work yeah? they essentially planned tea to split up the cliques and bond different groups of people. but the tea did less of that than the week leading up to tea...



today we leave for a weekend in the alps. the alps! oh gosh.

today was very long...

so today after lunch ((which was sooo good- spanish rice and brownies)) i decided that i was going to find the hospital that frau ehler taught us about today in class.
three signs should have alerted me to trouble on the horizon:
1. red sun in morning (sailors warning)- that was a lie. but it felt apropriate.
2. the largest map in the castle didnt have the area on it i needed. truth.
3. it was freezing and windy out. also truth.

so i take my satchel and head out. first, let me say that the return journey on the train took exactly twenty minutes, including wait time. then, let me say that the train ride on the way there took two and one half hours. i glanced at the map incorrectly ((probably shouldnt have glanced)) and headed the entire wrong direction. in my defense the colors are similar... and the trains did connect in the right place. i just went the long way around. and then had to take an s-bahn instead of a u-bahn. which was a new experience in the end, so im glad it happened.

i made it to the correct stop without a map but with a list of streets and which way to turn on them. that should go on the ominous list as well yeah? so i walked up the largest hill of my life before i saw a street sign that told me the street had morphed into another street. so i walked back down. and walked back up the other side of the hill where i realized that the street, a mere yards from where i was, had changed back to the original street. man, sometimes i outdo myself.

but i made it!!! this was one of the first hospitals to use the idea of multiple buildings that are not connected. after i took this photo a cute older man came up to me and yelled at me very nicely about taking photos on hospital grounds. im thinking the women leaning out the window humming with her gown open probably had something to do with that. so i kept trekking up the huge hill.






this is the church designed by the same man who did the hospital. i sat there for twenty minutes because it seemed so tragic to leave right away after all that hard work. but i didnt want to journal cause it started raining ((did i mention that? it started raining as i walk up the stairs to the church, which was closed.)) so i just sat on a bench in the rain. the trees, cause i was up so high in the hills around vienna, were very much like home. it felt like something you would find in sequim or port orchard or anywhere. i really liked it.








so thats my adventure, i ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich to celebrate being home. then i toweled off and watched spring sing from last year. very enjoyable. the director of gammas show is on the trip with me... alex is fabulous. always singing showtunes around the castle...






on the way home i saw this flower and it reminded me that im a lambda.

good moooorning vienna!

its kinda like good morning vietnam.
you guys are just waking up maybe.. go to church! we had church at the castle today, that was pretty awesome. their are four missionary families that just moved here from the states and they joined us. one of the children was adorable.. he came around and asked us all our names and then shook our hands and told us he was two. his cute blonde head weaving about the room. we discussed 2 peter 2:11-17 and in a nutshell: you should respect everyone regardless of whether they respect you because christ died for us even while we were still sinners. so it would be hypocrytical to not respect them cause werent we just there?
yeah. so that was church.


now were watching a movie and im doing homework and wishing that i was outside in the sunshine! but if i finish my homework now i can play this week. better do it now.

Saturday.

Today was our first day of no classes in a while.. very nice.

I went shopping and finished up seeing the required places we have to go to. I bought pb&j and ate it at this quiet church close to the center of town. its really quite amazing actually, this church. two blocks away is the largest tourist site in the city and theres a u stop in the courtyard and yet, even on a saturday, there was no one there. people pass by a street away and dont even look up. the sound from the streets dampen and the sun reflects off the windows making it brighter and the wind blows the leaves around the old corners. i love it. the inside has a moasic commissioned by napoleon, fun fact.

after i went to the church i was wandering around on my way back to a more central street and i walked through this large crowd of people going into a small glass double door. i thought it was.. i dunno, a free taste test or something so i went in, you never know yeah? and so i go in and mingle and i cant figure out whats going on and then the music starts and everyone sits down. and so i sit down. turns out its a wedding! so i got to see an austrian wedding from the sixth row. it was very fun. there was a kiss at the end and everything.


its the weekend so the city was more crowded than usual- street performers and shopping crowds and me. in vienna everyone takes their dogs with them everywhere ((have i told this story already? i feel like i have.)). its so fun! theyre well behaved and well groomed and quiet and big. almost everyone has big dogs. i like it a lot. my poor dog would go crazy... its probably better that he has acres to run on at home! my mom called me while i was putting away my stuff from being out today- what a coincidence! i was really glad that i caught her though. i love my mom and terry and dingo... i love my brother too but he hasnt emailed me once on this trip! what is that?!? my mom told me today that the hamm radio class he was supposed to take ((how random yeah?)) got canceled and now hes in weightlifting. so hes going to be super buff when i come home.


this is what i could see of minoritenkirche ((kirche mean church in german)) from the bench i was laying on today.



this is my puppy at home. and jarrod, making a crazy face.

stephansdom quarter ((its the very center of the city))

this is the railing from stephansdom and the building in the background is the brand new complex haus haus. there was a big fuss about the building because how valued stephansdom is but it worked out alright.






this is a swimming pool in the river. how odd! but seeing as the water is filthy it makes sense.






this is me. i got bored waiting for my U so i snapped a photo.





and this is the tiniest car i have ever seen! note the size in comparision to the bike.






also, id like to remind everyone that three days from today tottenham and arsenal battle. well, more like arsenal is going to slaughter tottenham. i cannot wait.

unpacked in vienna.

today is tuesday.
on tuesdays in vienna museums are closed, and lots of other places shut down early... i have no idea why though.
this is my fifth day in the castle and my first tuesday. happy tuesday! i went out for a bit after class this morning... discovered some cute markets and explored the city, went to the grocery store and bought a bag to carry groceries and my camera and my journal.
weve settled into a routine now:
745: breakfast
900: group time
930-1200: language and culture class
1215: lunch and then freedom!

after the month is over the routine will be different because well have eurorail passes and well be traveling all over europe and not just in vienna but for now life is settling down. its been raining here for the last couple days which makes it feel like a hidden corner of Seattle that i havent discovered yet. i like it.

one thing that is very different here is how often people smile at each other. back home we smile for just about anything. bump into someone on the subway? smile. grocer bags your pasta salad? smile. here a song on someone else ipod you like? smile yeah? here though, being friendly is not as typical. our culture teacher told us that its even considered rude or intrusive to inquire about someones day ((ie how are you?)). and we arent supposed to smile at men because it gives them the wrong idea...
it seems like such a small thing but its hard to change because its so engrained as part of our mindset as americans. ive never felt like a happy person especially but here i feel like im chipper mcchipperson. its kinda fun. i suppose youve just got to smile on the inside sometimes and look indifferent on the outside. it kinda makes me wonder if they would help someone being mugged on the street or would run into a burning building for a screaming women or if they would keep their cool exteriors and walk on by... im sure they would stop. people are people everywhere and if you cant believe that human beings would look out for one another than it doesnt seem worth interacting with anyone at all.


that was very off topic. apologies.

snapshots of london...

big ben!


the tube and my toes.


me "navigating" the busses during the tube strike.


platform 9 3/4


matt and i ((tired)) on the bus to heathrow.





what a busy week!
today is our groups one week aniversary, no gifts we decided.

so little time...

london... yup.
im having a hard time processing the trip still, two days later, just because of the massive amounts of things we did in the small amount of time. so bear with me and ill try to sort it out with some semblence of order. unlike what i last wrote. ive slept since then never fear!


first: impressions. london is dirty. but its not bad. its easy to navigate for the most part and it has that nice european feel of old and new placed together. even though im expecting that placement im always surprised at how much i like it. the dirt is offset by parks everywhere- in use. at lunch there were ((note: the "c" key on the keyboard is nearly dead so if words with that letter are spelled badly then i apologize now)) people on the lawn everywhere. felt like the fourth of july every day. very nice. lovely weather... a fluke apparently. appreciated by me though. the gap between young and old is less defined. i ate fish and chips next to two middle age man and one in his middle twenties arguing the odds for australia in the world cup this coming week. because alcohol isnt the deal it is over here ((which im not going to argue for or against so dont get stressed right now!)) it makes the age gap nonexistantthat college years here brings. maybe the way jobs are split as well. age doesnt seem to split people as muh as white collar blue collar. just a thought. i love london. i like the fast pace, the walking to get somewhere attitude. vienna so far seems similar to portland and london was more like seattle. its hard to settle into a slow pace when this whole trip is essentially fast paced.




favorite sites: i had three places i loved. but ill be brief.

- westminster abbey. it was crowded and ornate and small and made me comfortable. i like that crushed in feeling. it was beautiful. interesting fact: the poets corner, with all the famous authors, was created because chaucer was buried there. however chaucer wasnt famous when he died, he was buried there because he had done some work for the abbey.

- st pauls. im terrified of heights. hoo boy. but i climbed all the way to the top of the dome of st pauls and saw london from the top. i dont get to see the top of many things seeing as im a little short so this was pretty fun. its three hundred and sixty feet in the air, which is halfway as tall as the space needle! i was very proud of myself. yeah?

- les mis. i just finished reading it, i'm glad cause having the full story was nice. hugo writes like i think kinda... i want all of the story. i want the life of everyone in a story. and after we were less than two feet from one of the supporting cast, he walked by on his phone trying to schedule some meet up with his home diggity dogs. wow. that phrase alone proves i should go to bed.



get ready for: the castle! and hating ignorance. im going to devo now but just to give you a sneak peak theres a link on the right side. also, to get from this computer to my bedroom on the top floor is sixty-two stairs. 62. and ive been up there four times since i started this blog! oh yeah...
or maybe tomorrow can just be photos.

ello! nice day innit?

london.

we flew and it made everyone really jet lagged. i would try to explain it all but it escapes me at the moment. maybe forever. im not feeling very prose prone tonight so i think bullet points of our first day overseas is going to happen.

- the tube. after the thrill of hearing british voices settled down i realized the tube really is BART ((bay area rapid transit)) but underground the whole time. yup. two things happened on the tube today. one, i saw a mouse that was under the tracks. it was far away from me so i decided it was very cute. also, today was ARSENALs only home game when im here and everyone on the tube had jerseys on. it was just sad they were taking trains in the opposite direction of me. ah well.

- the british museum. its huge and gorgeous and i didnt appreciate a minute of it! i was so tired and it was so big i didnt know what to do. very overwhelming. so i chose one room ((enlightenment)) and explored it throroughly and then came home and took a nap.


it doesnt sound like much im pooped! im off to get to bed early, night!