I spent Thanksgiving in Idaho with one of my amazing friends and former roommates Nikki. The drive was long, but worth it. We spent a few golden, snowy, fun-filled relaxing days in the middle of nowhere in a snug cabin with plenty of food and relatives. The trip back was even more exciting - Nikki's uncle happens to be a private pilot, and he brought his plane to make some of the transportation easier. The tiny but graceful metal bird made for an astounding ascent over Yellowstone park, that is, after we heated the engines with hairdryers for an hour to make it start. Our other adventure was completely unexpected - Nikki and I were peacefully watching a movie when we heard a faint crash. Seconds later the neighbor was calling to tell us the front fence had been obliterated by a car that had backed up and sped away right after the collision. After calling the police we rushed outside and gasped at the damage - the fence, the basketball hoop and all of their bikes were lying in a heap in the neighbor's yard. Minutes later an officer arrived to snap pictures and note the damage, and minutes after that we heard that the police had caught the culprit... it made for an exciting evening.
The last two weeks of school were just as grueling as the rest, with exams, papers, grading and the like. We had an awesome class party in German 202, and I had at least 4 or 5 students come up after class to thank me personally for my hard work. It felt AWESOME! I think it must have been a little bit like what a mother feels when she sees her kids accomplish something wonderful, or when they take the time to thank her for her constant, selfless service. Our skit for our theory of drama class went pretty well - it was a shortened rendition of the redentiner Osterspiele - a play from the middle ages about Christ's resurrection, focusing specifically on Satan's reaction to losing the souls he had so nicely locked in hell. I played both a devil and an angel, swapping characters as needed. My final triumph was writing a paper calling for a change of textbooks in the German 200 level classes. If all goes well, my Professor will take it to the department, and hopefully we'll see some changes in the near future.
Finals week wasn't as bad as I expected - all of my exams were nicely spread out, and quite managable. I finished my papers, grading and assignments all in the nick of time, and felt optimistic about the outcomes. I even got around to working a bit more on my ORCA project with Professor Brewer, which suprised me. I hope to make some more progress before my last week is up...
Despite our flight's delay of 24hrs, Laura and I did finally come home to our snow-covered Philadelphia, bringing Granny with us. It has been a relaxing week of Christmas preparation, celebration, and enjoyment. I loved experiencing the family traditions again - listening to the song and scripture for each day of advent, visiting Longwood Gardens, baking cookies, then cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning for 8 missionaries, my family and our neighbor, the shepherd's meal on Christmas Eve, constantly singing Christmas carrols... just wonderful. In church today I got to jump in as the primary pianist, and have found my dream calling for someday... :).
Lots of plans for the coming week, not enough time, but I know God will help me make the most of it. Hope you all had the best of Christmases, and that your "slide" into the New Year goes smoothly, as the Germans say!
It's kind of hard at this point to deal with chronic sleep-deprivation, and all I can say is, I'm looking forward to that break of ours that never actually seems to come and save me. Still, life is good. Classes are interesting and challenging at the same time. I took a waltz test and a French oral exam, and I feel fairly confident about both of them. This week promises to be extremely busy with Star Academie (like American Idol in French for the French department -- I auditioned last Friday so I could count it as one of my cultural activities), Dancesport, a French exam and the normal stresses of life, but I know the Lord will help me through it all.
I got to see Laura twice which was really good. This weekend Ben and I attended an Austrian culture night, complete with Gulasch, Wurst, cookies, and a small music group that performed some Austrian folk songs. I really enjoyed listening to the stories I knew so well about Maria Theresa, Josef II, Franz Josef, and of course Sissi. Saturday morning Ben picked me up to watch his inter-mural team's soccer game and eat a delicious french toast breakfast with his ward. The hw rampage that followed was relatively productive, and we finished it off with a bite to eat at a small Mexican restaurant - the burritos, homemade tortilla chips and cinnamon flavored rice milk were absolutely perfect. We finished in the nick of time to get to his rehearsal for the stake musical number. The octet's run-through of "Lead Kindly Light" sent shivers down my spine. Once I dropped him off at stake conference I rushed home to assist in the creation of a marvelous apple crisp, which Hillary, McKay and I all carefully transported to the McFarland's house for our Vienna reunion. Everyone except for one girl was there, talking, laughing and eating, recalling the million memories that we had made together this past summer. The slide show, thoughtfully prepared by Danny, our program coordinator, was fantastic, capturing the ups and downs of the trip in such a way as to leave us all sighing and laughing every few seconds...
A new week. A new week... to live in...laugh in...be thankful in...
Another week of somewhat consistent stresses is already over again! Time is falling as fast as the leaves... speaking of leaves, we had an awesome activity Monday evening with our FHE group. The original plan was to make a pile of leaves for jumping in, but we only got as far as the pile before it turned into a giant leaf war. I hadn't laughed/had so much fun in a while. It was especially amusing when I started a private war with Dan, which involved attempts to cream each other with leaves. It wasn't very fun to get them in my mouth, but it was all in good fun and I would do it again any day...
Tuesday I forgot to bring my temple recommend again (this was the second time this semester) on my weekly excursion up the hill, which frustrated me at first, but was really a blessing in the end since it gave me some extra time for personal study and some time to talk with my Mom who I hadn't talked to in FOREVER. Devotional (actually it was a forum this week, but I don't usually distinguish between the two) w/Laura was good, as always... the speaker spoke on his book "Three cups of Tea" about striving for world peace by promoting education. It helped me to resolve anew to go forth out of college to do good/try to make the world a better place. I cooked my meal for 30 people later that day, which involved baking about six casseroles, making two salads and two cakes, but I had my amazing cooking group to help, and everything was done on time. That's always a relief!
Wednesday afternoon I was supposed to film my teaching, so that I could let people in my pedagogy class critique it on Thursday. Laura agreed to help me with this, so she brought her camera and sat in the back of my German 202 class while I gave one of my worst lessons ever. Frustrated that it hadn't gone the way I would have liked, I asked her to bring the footage with her the next day so I could edit it before class. Thursday morning came, and the look in her eyes told me something was wrong. My mouth dropped in horror when I heard the fatal words "I deleted it, Margaret!" I panicked a little after that, but decided I should still try and get it done. I re-planned my class so I could talk a little bit about grammar, found a tripod, and set up the camera in the back of the classroom for a second try. Luckily the lesson ran better than my first attempt. As soon as the bell rang I grabbed the camera and sped off to class, then I skipped around in my 37 min. long video to give them a taste of what I had done. I was so relieved to have it overwith...!!!
I spent the weekend with Ben as usual, and as usual the time flew at an alarming speed. Friday evening we did some homework, went to Olive Gardens, then did some more homework. Friday night the FLSR fire alarm went off twice -- once at 2 am an once at 3am, which caused me to disable my alarm clock for the next morning. It felt so good to sleep enough for once. Saturday I met up with my dance partner Tyler to work on some waltz, then met Ben in the physics lab to do some more hw. Hours later we made dinner and caramel apples together, then we did some more homework. Noticing a common pattern there ;)? Even though it doesn't sound to exciting, I really enjoyed the time with Ben, even if it was just doing hw... a lot of hw...
Early this morning I attended a RS training meeting, went to church, then in the evening enjoyed Elder Uchtdorf's CES fireside on the questions of life that centered around finding out who we really are, and recognizing our eternal worth and potential. I can't wait to read it again!
I'll close with a short poem I wrote for German 377...
Fall Crisp and golden floating, hovering, trembling A saddening sweet anticipation Parting.
So, time is very short... I really should get to bed soon... but I'll give you a few highlights of the week, in hopes that they will brighten your day.
The big transition this week was saying goodbye to my Germ 201 class... it was hard. They are all such good and enthusiastic students. We watched Harry Potter V in German and had a discussion about it as our last fun activity. Laura came and recorded it for me so we could critique it in my German pedagogy class. Everything seemed to go smoothly, which was a relief. My new 202 class has 10 fewer students than my 201 class, and it is an hour later in the day, which makes the class preparation a lot less stressful. It looks like it's shaping up to be an awesome class as well.
Ben had to leave Friday morning for Denver, Colorado to present his current physics research at a conference, so Laura and I decided to spend some time together. She came over Friday evening for an evening of chicken parmesan, a chick flick, and lots of girl talk. After she left I spent about 4 hours trying to get final grades together for Germ 201, and I almost finished that.
Saturday morning I took my roommates to go shopping for the German house, then rushed home to study for and take my French exam. Luckily it went pretty well, I think. The walk home wasn't particularly fun due to some stormy, rainy weather, and it matched the outcome of the homecoming game (a sad loss for the cougars), but Ben came back late Saturday night, so it wasn't that big of a deal :).
Today we had a marvelous stake conference. I was really inspired by the speakers, and am excited to put some of my new goals and resolutions into practice. After two sessions (yes, we had them both today) of stake conference and ward prayer, we had a ton of people show up at our apartment (which looks beautiful at the moment) to help us surprise our roommate Rachel, who had had her birthday on Saturday. Happily, the surprise was total and complete when she walked in the door, the refreshments delicious, the atmosphere conversational and festive. I just can't believe that the weekend is over once again and the treadmill never stops rolling...
Love and miss you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Wow... I'm kind of drawing a blank right now about the latest happenings in my life...
Let's see. Life is still somewhat stressful when it comes to my current academic activities, but everything has become a regular stress, and thus in its regularity slightly less stressful. The irregularity this week was my presentation for German 441R on the history of witchcraft, which went pretty well. The biggest stress is still German 201 - it's my last full week teaching 201, and I'm really going to miss my students. Thursday and Friday I administered oral exams to each one of my twenty eight students, which meant that on Friday I had a three hour marathon of exams without a break. Oral exams were only the beginning. I hadn't gotten my syllabus together for 202, so yesterday I spent over four and a half hours in my office (the longest time span I've ever been there) organizing the readings, grammar chapters and homework with Jared Cook, the other TA in charge of 202. This is the first semester that the 202 classes will actually have a corresponding syllabus, and the readings we decided to incorporate this time should be really helpful to the students. It feels good to have that somewhat more solid... now the next thing I'm going to have to figure out is a speaking activity that I can do for my last day of German 201, so that I can bring it to my pedagogy class on Thursday for someone to critique.
My life certainly isn't all work though. Some of the highlights of my week included eating lunch with Ben and two of his late summer honors friends in the WSC, getting together with Laura to watch devotional (I have to admit we spent the entire time talking/catching up, which we needed desperately, but that was really important), then at the end of the week (Friday) a double date with Ben, my old roommate Allyson and her husband Ben. We went to see the Victorian exhibit in the MOA, then made a fancy, delicious meal (zucchini cheesecake, pork chops, salad, and carrot cake for dessert). It wasn't easy to persuade Ben that sometimes it is important to enjoy more good food than just the essentials (for him the essentials are peanut butter, bread and oatmeal). Saturday morning I visited the BYU lost and found sale, where I found three pair of dance shoes that fit me for under thirty dollars total, then after my marathon in the office Ben and I made stir fry, went for a walk, spent abt. 20 min. in the basement of the HFAC singing/playing the piano, then did some hw.
To sum it all up, life is beautiful... I know the Lord gets me through every day of it.
Fall is such a beautiful month... I just want to take the brilliant sun, the crisp air, the pristine blue sky, the majesty of the fiery mountains and keep them with me forever. Of course, it's tricky to make time enough to get out and really enjoy the season, but with Ben's help I've been able to manage it a few times... :)....
I didn't have time to really elaborate on Ben last time, but he's become a big part of my life and you should all definitely know about him. First of all, he's one of the busiest people I know with two majors (German and physics), two jobs (teaching German 101 and a physics internship), a huge calling and inter-mural soccer, and that just scratches the surface of all that he's doing/some how staying on top of at the moment. He works extremely hard all the time. He's one of the most considerate people I know, always going out of his way to serve people, and his highest goals and priorities all have to do with putting the Lord first, and doing His will, no matter what. And he doesn't just say that. He lives it. We see each other every day, even if it's only a few minutes, to study the scriptures together (we're working on the Gospel of John), talk, and if we're lucky, we snatch a few minutes outside to enjoy the beauty of fall together.
On Friday Ben came over to help me make some apple strudel for the German house's Oktoberfest event, before he rushed off to his soccer game. I met him on campus, and we went to his apartment, made dinner, then walked back to my apartment just talking for hours. Saturday morning we both had church meetings to attend... I had an enrichment activity (or relief society meeting as they now want us to call them) that went really well. Lots of people came, we had an amazing bagel/fruit breakfast organized, and we talked about the importance of visiting teaching. It went so smoothly... Katherine, the girl in charge of enrichment, was so organized and on the ball. Everything fell into place, and all I had to do was be there to help and support from the sidelines. As soon as our meetings were over, Ben and I drove up to Alpine to enjoy the last of the fall leaves in the area. The weather and the way were breathtakingly gorgeous - tall slender birches, stalwart mountains covered in patches of snow, and a beautiful waterfall. After a picnic, we left and just did homework together the whole rest of the day. It was simple, yet one of the best weekends of my life...
Other news... well, it's hard to think of anything else as exciting as all of that... Thursday I had my first International Dance Lab, where I participated in a mock-competition for foxtrot. I wore my brand new standard ballroom dance shoes for the first time, and felt like Cinderella. I had two partners, since I'm the tallest girl in the class, so I got to dance three times before I got cut. I was quite happy to leave when I finally got cut, since I had a ton of hw to do and I came home to see Ben. Shortly after I got back Laura, Cara and Janneka came over to visit, and it was really good to catch up with them.
I only have about one more week of teaching German 201 before I'll have to switch to German 202. It's really pretty sad, since I'm just starting to be really confident with my students' names (yes, I know that took me forever, but I just couldn't help it). School is stressful, but okay... my drama class is still my favorite, and we just started reading Faust, which I absolutely love...
Anyway, I love and miss you all, even though it probably doesn't seem like it because I've been so bad with my correspondence lately, and I hope you are all doing well and that you have a wonderful week!
Dearest most Darling Friends and Family that I have so sorely neglected for way too long...
Wow… so much has happened in what seems like the blink of an eye. After I got back from Vienna, we had a wonderful Ebeling family reunion. It was a little different this year without Rachel, but it was really good to get to spend some quality time with all of my cousins, swimming, jumping on the trampoline, enjoying a talent show and a fireside, and watching the cousin play Peter Pan for the first time (every other time I’ve been quite involved in the grand scheme and therefore unable to watch the production myself).
School has been a veritable whirlwind of everything. I love having Laura and Cara here with me, even though I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like.Classes are challenging, fascinating and draining all at once. My German 201 class jumped from 20 students to 30, and it has been a huge demand on my time and creative resources. I just feel like a sponge that has been wrung out too many times as I try to come up with new lesson plans, activities, unit plans etc. I’m taking a drama theory class for German that I absolutely love… we’re discussing the relationship between religion’s role in the development of drama by examining lots of famous German plays that I should be very familiar with already, that I haven’t gotten around to yet. My 284 ballroom dance technique class is trickier than I thought, but I love being able to concentrate on standard the entire time (my Cuban action for any of the Latin dances is sorely lacking). My mission preparation class is nice because it’s easy. French 201, well, the only thing that makes it hard is the fact that it’s something I have to fit into my schedule every day. Practicing vocab is also just really time consuming, but it’s really fun to practice with my friend Felicia after class… such a good excuse to just talk about the important things in life.
So, then I’m taking a German pedagogy class that meets almost every day. I was not very happy about it, since I had already been teaching just fine without it, but I’m beginning to see the value of it in more than one way. It’s been really helpful when it comes to planning different listening, reading and speaking activities. More importantly, however, a young man in that class asked me on a date… on several dates… and it has been awesome. We saw World of Dance together, went to a movie in the dollar theater, saw a choir concert, had a picnic at Provo River trail, climbed trees, waded through a river, went to the social dance club where I gave some intense dancing lessons and he was a pal for taking them, rolled down a hill, ran through the sprinklers, went to a football game, sang at an old-folks home and then again in the basement of the HFAC, watched conference in Salt Lake, made waffles, crepes and chocolate chip cookies… well… you get the picture J. His name is Ben. He’s amazing! More on this later.
Oh yeah – another really important development in my life that I forgot to mention. I have been called to serve as the second counselor in the Relief Society in the ward. It has been an amazing experience so far. Our presidency is a solid group of incredible women, and I’m learning like I’ve never learned before. The ward is really solid this year, with so many people from diverse backgrounds with something to contribute to the community. It’s beautiful.
And on that happy note… life is beautiful… full… but lovely.
It's so hard to believe we have one week left in this city. I feel like I say that every week, but it's true! Lillian is leaving on Thursday to go to her summer program in Tübingen, and I won't see her again till the breakfast on the day before she goes into the MTC. Things in our classes are winding down with some big projects... Monday we had a paper to finish up for Patrick, so Tasha and I went to buy a ton of chocolate for our study party, which we spent analyzing the post modern family. The chocolate was excellent, and I think my paper was alright. We were kind of tired the next morning though; Lil and I bought a loaf of amazing bread for lunch that day - beautifully dark and moist with plenty of carrots and seeds in it. We enjoyed it in the shade of the Musikverein, and after lunch we ambled across the street to join our group at the Museum Wien. It was air conditioned, which was a big deal. It helped me to focus on the art. This time my favorite painting wasn't on the list of ones we were studying for class. It was a Waldmüller painting of a family, entitled "Congradulating Grandfather on his Birthday." The expressions on each of the children's faces were precious. Each was off in his or her own little experience of childhood bliss. The twinkle in the Grandfather's eye beamed out at one of the little shy children, approaching his grandfather timidly to wish him happy birthday. I wish my picture did it justice...
The other cool part of the museum was their collection of old clothing/dresses, some of which belonged to the Empress Sisi herself. In one part they showed how unhealthy corsets were.... they actually prevented the full development of the rib cage, scarred liver tissue and were just really unhealthy in general. I used to wish I could fit into all of those incredibly tiny dresses, but no more!
Later that evening Lil, Tasha and I went with Phil and Oliver to see the new Harry Potter in German. It was a really nice theater, and the movie wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I admit I'm excited to see it in English, since the dubbing always seems to lose some of the excitement/experience...
Wednesday our art class went to the Leopold museum, which had mainly more modern paintings by Schiele and Klimt on display. I liked the feel of the museum, and it wasn't just because it was air conditioned (although that did augment my good opinion quite a bit) - the colors of the walls, and the spacial set up just helped us all flow effortlessly from one room to another. The only thing it was missing were big, velvet-covered exercise balls to roll around on to enjoy the art with (yes, they had those in the Belvedere). After that excursion, Tasha, Lil and I went on an adventure to find the perfect apfel Strudel... Chelsea and Megan had claimed they had found it. It was a long, hot trek, but thoroughly rewarding. This strudel was truly amazing, with it's mouth-watering vanilla sauce and beautiful presentation:
We had two tests this week as well... one on Zwillingsformel, which are special kinds of idioms in the German language, and the other one was an art quiz. I think I did well on both of them, but don't have my results back yet. The weather while we were taking those tests was at a record high, 100 degrees with lots of humidity. Luckily it cooled down a bit this weekend.
This weekend I spent working on my last couple of projects (art, lyrical, and research) and visiting the museum of natural history in Vienna, right across from the art history museum. Chelsea, Tasha and I especially enjoyed the live fish, and the butterfly collection (the butterflies were all dead sadly). There are still a couple of other museums I have to see before we leave... so much to do and so little time! I hope this week is wonderful for all of you!!
This week I worked really hard on "being a good girl", a phrase I remember vividly from my readings in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series. The disadvantage of this behavior is that there isn't much exciting adventure to tell, so it remains to me to write you about the beautiful mundane moments of the week (as mundane as they come here in Vienna lol).
The weather has been almost unbearably hot and sticky, unbearable because there is hardly any air conditioning in Europe, so I've enjoyed swimming in the pool (yes, we have a small pool in our front yard) twice this week. I went jogging a couple of times at sundown, and have found the perfect running stretch along a little stream that creates the perfect thinking atmosphere.
Wednesday night I was walking home from institue in a light rain shower, and my flip flops were giving me a blister. Finally I couldn't bear it any longer, kicked my silly shoes off, and walked home in the rain splashing through puddles as I went. It felt so satisfying to feel the rough texture of the ground under my feet... it made me feel alive... young... joyful... connected. I would reccomend it to all of you as something to do in the near future.
I finally made the aquaintance of the turtle that lives right outside of our window. I had dragged a chair next to the window sill to set some chocolate milk on for me to enjoy while I was doing some research. I kept hearing slight rustling noises from the bushes, and got nervous. My imagination jumped right to a snake, and as soon as it did I climed through the window back into the apartment. A few minutes later I peeped out and found Pünktchen crawling out of obscurity. She is a big and beautiful turtle to behold. She crawled away the other day, escaping her little compound, but Assini luckily found her nestled in the bushes.
Tuesday morning I got up around 5am, and after a shower I left the house for a quick run to see the beautiful sunrise. Even though all of our man-made architecture and art is beautiful and inspiring, I have yet to find something that makes me love life more than a sunrise.
Even so, the Art history museum here in Vienna never ceases to facinate me. This week our assigment was to pick three pieces to do three different assignments on. One of the assignments was to spend at least 15 min. in front of a painting writing about someone in it from first person perspective. I chose a painting of David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio, and amazed myself
with my own discoveries as I sat, looked at and really pondered the painting. David's face isn't full of triumph at his conquest. His mouth is set, his eyes turned away from the gruesome head he holds as far away from himself as he possibly can. His eyes look upward, above the darkness he is surrounded with. Light almost seems to eminate from him. The two other pieces I selected were Bruegel's Tower of Babel, which I tried to examine in detail, "reading" it from left to right, asking questions and answering them, and then Rafael's Madonna of the Meadow that I mentioned in my last letter for a formalist analysis.
The other art museum we saw this week was the Belvedere, which has a collection of the beginnings of modern art. Our focus group was Schiele, Klimt and Kokoschka with a smattering of the impressionists. I think I had one of my first aesthetic experiences with art when I saw The Kiss by Klimt. this picture that I got from online conveys only the merest shadow of the beauty of this paiting. The texture gets lost in the photograph, and it is precisely the texture that gives the painting life when you look at it.
I spent most of the weekend alone doing research since Chelsea lives in Justin land, Lillian lives in Lloyd land, and Tasha was in another part of Austria visiting relatives. It felt good to know that I've made some more progress on that. I watched a couple of episodes of sesame street in French, to help me remember some of it for the coming semester. Saturday evening Charles (one of the other study abroad people) and I went to Pizza Bizi for a delicious slice of Italian amazingness, sprinted to Sanoni & Sanoni for some ice cream and barely made it to the Minoritenkirche for a free concert by a youth orchestra from Texas. They were amazing, and the accoustics of the church made it an unforgettable experience. Phil called when I got back to Alterlaa and invited me to go to a movie night at McKay's house, so we took the U-bahn there to see the last little bit of Kung Fu Panda, which I had never seen before. I really enjoyed it.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot! Tuesday night our whole study abroad group went to the Gulasch (German word for stew) museum. I got a turkey gulash, and was transported into a world of delicious wonderfulness I had no idea existed. The chocolate gulasch that followed was also delicious, a little too rich, but it had an interesting kick of pepper in it that I might try adding to some of my chocolatey recipes in the near future...
I can't believe how fast this is all winding down. Just a few more weeks of amazingness... till the new adventure begins!
It has been a relatively peaceful week. How strange does that sound??? I guess Europe has changed my perspective on what being busy means...
Classes are still going well. We had two German classes that are worth mentioning, and they both happened on the same day. In Patrick's class we're talking about traffic. This time we got split into groups to represent different interest groups fighting for funding for different safety enhancement projects. Patrick asked if someone would be the moderator, and I volunteered. While the other groups were figuring out their arguments, he explained my job and told me to really get into my role. I enjoy acting and putting on a narrator voice, but I hadn't done it for a while. Sitting at the head of a table full of people to start a type of talk-show was cool... I remembered how much I missed acting. I enjoyed asking critical questions in a cool emotionless voice to get people to argue with me. I'm such a nerd!
In Peter's class we never got around to economics. Chelsea was talking about Justin, her fiance, just like she always does, and Peter asked her when she was getting married. It sparked a discussion that lasted for the entire class period on families... their roll in society, the divorce rate, gay marriage, everything. It was really interesting to hear an Austrian's perspective on it all, and it was so neat that he allowed us to use our class time to talk about something that was really important to us instead of sticking stubbornly to the topic. I want to teach like that too, and be flexible enough to deviate from the plan sometimes to just go where discussion takes us.
That same day (this was all on Thursday) our art class finally finished the theory for the baroque/renaissance period, and we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum to put our new knowledge into practice. The interior is spectacular, and the paintings are even more so. My favorites were Madonna of the Meadow by Rafael and Bildniss eines jungen Kaufmanns by Holbein and Brustbild einer jungen Venezianerin von Dürer. I love that I'm finally figuring art out what art means, now that I feel like I've begun to understand literature and architecture. I love seeing the things we learn about in theory. I'm beginning to see my reactions to art as reflections of my identity. One of our assignments was to analyze ourselves and try to figure out weather we were more sophic or mantic and then how that would affect our reactions to art. I think I'm a pretty thorough sophist - I tend to rely on logic/reason/my brain to make decisions as opposed to my feelings.
I discovered my new favorite portable lunch this week... they have palat-schinken (just like crepes except a little bit thicker) in packs of 5 at Billa (the grocery store), and I brought a small jar of nutella with me from home, and heated the crepes up in the microwave at the institute... man they were soooooo good!
Lillian and Tasha went to Prague this weekend, and I decided not to go so I could get some research done. In addition to reading all about Elisa von der Recke, I went to the outreach center for movie night on Friday, then on Saturday morning I helped with a move and went shopping for a gift for my host mom since it was her birthday today. I wrote another article for the BYU life sciences magazine about hypertension in rats. I've missed talking to my family who is out in the wilderness just now... but they're getting back tomorrow!
Lillian just got back and it's getting late! Love and miss you all!
Weeks fly by incredibly fast when you're having fun/have tons to do...
We started German classes this week for summer semester, and it looks like we lucked out when it comes to teachers. Both of them, Patrick and Peter, are doing unit studies, which is really good since I'm actually getting some more challenging technical terms to learn that will broaden my vocabulary. Class starts earlier now, so that instead of having to be in city center at 1:30pm, we now have to be at class at 9:30am, which is a change for the better in my opinion. The one drawback is spending two hours in the unconditioned upper floor of the institute. It's been pretty hot and humid lately, and I miss air conditioning.
We have one other new class on art that replaced our architecture class (we finished that up on Tuesday). It's with Professor Isaac, a BYU professor who arrived in Austria with her family a few days ago who seems really cool/knowledgeable. Her goal is to help all of us have aesthetic experiences with the amazing art here in Vienna. "I'm not naive enough to believe that it will happen to all of you" she told us, "but I want to give you all the tools and opportunities I can to do it." What is an aesthetic experience? A brush with art/music/literature/a play etc. that inspires you and engulfs you so that you loose all track of time. It strikes you to the very core. Needless to say, I'm quite excited to oblige her and have one of those experiences asap!
Let's see... other fun things that happened this week... Wednesday Lillian and I went on splits with the sisters again. It's such good experience, especially since I've been getting excited about serving a mission lately. Sister Frier and I went to visit a woman who had accepted a Book of Mormon. She said she couldn't invite us in just then, but she wanted the sisters to come back and give her son a Book of Mormon as well. Next we went to visit Billiana who wasn't home yet when we got there, so we talked with her grandmother who happened to be there and set up an appointment for next time. Saturday I joined the sisters again to go visit Billiana and we had a really good visit. She came to church today, which I was really happy about. We'll see what happens!
Thursday we decided to celebrate Phil's b-day with some apple pie. The people at the outreach center were kind enough to let us use their kitchen, and I made one of the biggest apple pies in the history of mankind and it tasted amazing! We actually ended up using only one pie, so we took the other one home to give to our host family. That half made up for the lack of apple pie on the fourth of July (I still missed it).
Instead of enjoying apple pie together, our whole study abroad group went out to lunch at an old famous restaurant where they served big roasted pork shanks accompanied by potato and cabbage salad and french fries. Needless to say it was DELICIOUS!! Later that night I heard fireworks going on, which naturally surprised me. Grabbing my camera I sped outside to find out what was really going on. I started filming the fireworks, and then I just couldn't help myself... I started singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" as loudly as I could manage. It was so exhilarating... patriotism filled my soul and resonated in every note. On the last line I noticed some dark figures leaning out of windows and over balconies, and realized I wasn't alone. I finished the last line, and was shocked with applause from both sides of the street. Laughing in awe and disbelief I ran back to the gate, let Tasha in, and enjoyed an evening with her doing homework and watching "Our Mutual Friend", which is officially one of my favorite movies of all time. Friday the fabulous four (Lillian, Chelsea, Tasha and I) took a train to Bratislava to hang out for the day. The heat/humidity were kind of hard to handle, and I had a really bad soar throat alll day, but aside from that our walk through the city was fun. Lunch was interesting... I ordered what the waitress suggested, which was some kind of pork schnitzel with cheese and ham, but when it arrived it was still raw in spots. Not especially appetizing. I sent it back to have it cooked some more, but somehow had trouble enjoying it after I had seen the pink flesh. We saw a couple of cool churches, explored their crypts/treasure chambers and made our way to the fortress on the top of the hill overlooking the entire city to enjoy the view. Meandering down we saw a few more churches, explored the market place, saw the changing of the guards at the ?presidential/parliamentary? palace, and headed back to Vienna in time to go to the activity at the outreach center that night.
I'm kind of sick just now... the soar throat I had on Friday sadly got worse, and I've got a full on cold now that is exceedingly bothersome, but I'm still doing alright and enjoying myself.
Hope you are all doing well too, and to hear from you soon!!!
Again, I've been a horrible slacker when it comes to updates! So sorry...I’ve been doing well. I've definitely turned a shade darker since our amazing trip to Italy this past week. We (Lillian, Chelsea, Tasha and I) took a night train to Florence, and we weren’t in a sleeper car. We had seats that we could pull out and get pretty flat, but it was really cramped all night and no one got much sleep. When we found our hotel we conked out on our soft beds for a couple of hours before we set off exploring. Florence is beautiful, although it definitely wasn’t the most beautiful city in Europe as some people believe. My favorite part was the Uffizi museum, the oldest art gallery in the world, where we saw the painting the Birth of Venus, as well as some originals by Cranach and Dürer, two of the most famous German artists. We happened to be there on one of the biggest holidays for Florence, celebrating their patron saint (I forgot which one it was), so we saw a parade and watched fireworks from the ponte veccio, the oldest bridge in Florence that has some of the most amazing jewelry shops in the world. We spent a few hours just window shopping, drooling over the ring selection.
We ate tons of gelato everywhere we went. Gelato does not equal ice cream… it’s a step beyond all of the other European ice cream which is so much better than American ice cream… it’s absolutely divine!!!! We found the best gelato in Florence with the help of some missionaries that we ran into. We ended up replacing meals with gelato. It was the last thing we ate in Florence.
Ravenna was our next stop… it’s not a tourist center, which was really cool since we got to see more of the real Italy. At the bus stop close to our hostel we got confused about which direction we were supposed to take to get to the beach, and so we tried asking an Italian lady who didn’t speak any English. She was so nice and we used sign language, Chelsea’s limited Spanish and Lillian’s few words of Italian to communicate. I love languages so much! Maybe I should be a linguistics major so I can learn more of them. Anyway, we made it to the beach, and sadly I hadn’t brought my swimming suit, but I rolled up my jeans and completely soaked them by the time we were done. We made Chelsea into a living mermaid sand sculpture and a random little Italian boy thought it was so funny he came and took a picture of our art. The water and the sky were beautiful. I love the Mediterranean! In the evening Lillian, Tasha and I went to explore the city by twilight. It must have been an old roman center, because almost all of the buildings were Romanesque.
Early the next morning we caught a train to Venice. Our original plan was to leave our luggage at the train station, but there weren’t any lockers left when we got there. Carrying a really heavy backpack isn’t the best way to tour a city, but it was bearable despite the heat and weight. I wasn’t super excited about seeing Venice, since the last time I had been there was the end of a two week trip through all of Europe with 12 people and I had gotten tired of traveling by then, but this time around it was different. The tiny twisty streets, the bridges, the gondolas and the bustling crowds were fascinating. The colorful booths dotting the streets were bursting with glittering masks, delicate glass, and silky scarves fluttering in the wind. It was a recipe for disaster for a person who is slightly clumsy and is carrying a huge backpack… but I made it without breaking anything!
After seeing San Marco with the stunning golden mosaics we took a water bus to Murano, a little island that is devoted to glassmaking. We watched a master create a tall slender vase and a delicate horse from the malleable glass. We enjoyed some window shopping and I was tempted to buy some of the Venecian glass I had just seen made, but I withstood. I bought a sweet mask instead… silver and blue. It’s gorgeous and I can’t wait to wear it at a masquerade… I just have to find someone who will go with me when I get back to Provo. How annoying. The trip ended with a gelato and a gorgeous sunset. The pictures turned out really well… I'll try to put them up on Facebook so you can see them, and when they're up I'll send a link. Hope you are all doing well and to hear from you soon!
The day after I arrived, Lillian and I met up with Chelsea and Tasha in the heart of Vienna to explore the Naschmarkt (snack market), which has become our favorite place to snag some lunch before class every day. The beautiful, delicate smell of roasting Döner meat was absolutely irresistible, and soon we were all munching pita bread filled with strips of succulent chicken or lamb, crunchy lettuce, onions and tomatoes. Sadly, even a döner couldn’t cure me… my energy was low, my throat hurt a little and I was completely congested. We decided to go to Chelsea and Tasha’s home to use their internet and rest a bit. Chelsea had some advil that she finally persuaded me to take, and wow, I have a reaffirmed testimony of medicine! I felt soooo much better after that started kicking in. The four of us sat around discussing life together for a few hours, then Lillian and I made our way home with some Sudafed in our pockets. Sunday we miraculously found the church from the vague directions our host mom was able to give us. The ward is fairly large for a European ward, but rather small for American standards. Everyone was very friendly, and listening to everyone speak with their own variation of an Austrian accent was fascinating to me. I did have to try a little harder to understand what they were saying, but didn’t have too much trouble. Our Sunday school teacher was my favorite… he’s a short slight old man with white hair who has one of my favorite accents and lots of stories. Everyone was surprised we spoke German, since the last BYU group in Vienna had been a music group where only 2 people spoke German. Later in the afternoon we ventured into center city to find the outreach center. We walked up and down Florianigasse a few times before we finally found it. Quirkful Elder Gill heartily welcomed us, gave us a tour of the center, and informed us that we could get 2 full hot meals/week, all we can eat for 1.50 euros on institute and FHE days (Mon and Wed). That was definitely good news! After meeting a few of the JAEs (Young Single Adults), we watched a really good fireside about the dangers of wasting your life on the internet/in a virtual sphere. I think we really needed that… it’s so sad how computers eat up our personal relationships nowadays. Anyway, the outreach center has become one of our second homes with the good food, fun activities and instructive lessons that are offered there. Our Architecture class involves picking out a building that we tour/see during class to write about, and Lillian and I enjoy going back to the sites to sketch and to really get another feel for the building before we write about it. So far we’ve written about the Augustinerkirche, the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche, Gothic Stefansdom, High Baroque Peterskirche, Renaissance Schweizertor and Rococo Schönbrunnen, each of which are sights that I will never forget. Pictures just aren’t the same as being there, and I get so frustrated at my inability to capture the true beauty of what I’m seeing. I really don’t know what to do, since writing doesn’t capture it either…
I’ve become reconciled to the fact that I won’t be able to really get caught up in all the details of my trip, so here are my RANDOM ADVENTURES: Once upon the month of May I enjoyed amazing European foods: ice cream (caramel, yogurt, nutella, raspberry, forest-berry yogurt and a few other flavors), Moor im Hemb (a Viennese chocolate cake covered in chocolate sauce) at the Griechenbeisl (the oldest restaurant in Vienna), Apfelstrudel at Café Tirolerhof and at the Griechenbeisl, some delicious Spätzle with tomato zucchini sauce made by our Gastmutter, Schnitzel Semmel, fresh cherries and pita bread with chummas at the Naschmarkt, a chocolate croissant, Syrian style pizza, palat schinken (very much like crepes), chocolate truffle Torte with hot chocolate at the café Centrale (the swankest café in Vienna), and more. I went on a trip to Graz for two days with the YSAs where I played basketball, völkerball, danced the night away and listened to Lillian open her mission call (BERLIN!!), our whole class went Melk where we saw a beautiful Baroque monastery, I watched “Our Mutual Friend”, took tons of pictures with a bunch of girls at Schönbrunnen, drifted around the largest underground lake in Europe where the Three Musketeers was filmed, hiked to Burg Liechtenstein to frolic in the tall grass there, visited the Prater (an amusement park in the middle of Vienna), heard the Viennese philharmonic orchestra live in Schönbrunnen and in the Musikverein, went to a missionary farewell party, and participated in the long night of churches (night were all the churches are open and have musical programs going on till about 2 am) till midnight. So far my trip has been a glorious, golden experience… I miss you all, and wish you could be here!
Traipsing down the hill I visited the Schöns. Frau Schön brushed the dirt from her hands to dab her eyes when she recognized me. We spent a few minutes talking, but then I had to go. Erika’s house was luckily within walking distance. The delicious ice cream with strawberries, in addition to the peppermint tea with herbs from her own garden made for a very cozy evening where we talked about old times, the present, and future plans. It all slipped by very quickly… and soon I was waving goodbye on the Northrup’s doorstep. Wednesday morning I went to center city Wuppertal to meet Angelika Günther, my old piano teacher there. After a little window shopping she took me out to lunch, were we spent about two hours discussing life, and especially ballroom dance. She started taking lessons not to long ago, which she enjoys immensely, and as I share her passion, we were able to relate to each other very well. Around one o’clock I caught a train headed to Cologne. The imposing Gothic cathedral towered over me on my arrival, filling me with awe that surprised me a little… I had seen the cathedral before. Tristan was waiting on the steps reading a book. Chatting pleasantly we explored the cathedral, then started on the city. I realized how little I had actually seen of Cologne. There were so many hidden niches crammed with buildings that were obviously several hundred years old, as well as many larger buildings like the Rathaus that I didn’t remember ever seeing before. Tristan was an excellent tour guide because he was so familiar with the area and could translate all of the Latin plaques for me. After showing me a few options museums wise, he let me chose one to see. I felt that my German experience would somehow be incomplete if I didn’t visit the chocolate museum, since chocolate is one of my very favorite things in the whole world. The best part of that was the huge golden chocolate fountain that overlooked the Rhine, spouting milky, chocolaty goodness for samples. What more can one wish for? Thursday morning I decided to try and run by a few fabric stores to see if I could find a bit of lace to sew on the bottom of my dress, which needed a little extra length. Giovanna was an angel and drove me to the first one, but we didn’t have a lick of luck there. Praying hard I rushed to a store at the Hauptbahnhof on the way to the Barluschke’s house. Lo and behold, they had the best and cheapest lace I had found yet right on the shelf. I wasn’t sure it would be enough, but I bought it anyway and rushed on. At Christiane’s I helped her do some shopping and make some lunch. She’s just plain wonderful… she was my Young Women’s teacher growing up, and one of my greatest examples. She made her amazing strawberry quark in my honor. I can’t tell you how good that is, because it is an EXPERIENCE!!!! I watched her daughter Lisa, who is now about four, ride her bike like a pro, then we got out some craft supplies to make cards. All to soon Thomas came to pick me up, but before we left Christiane offered to take me to the airport the following morning. I had been praying I wouldn’t have to take the train. At the Götze’s house I met little Johanna for real. She was absolutely adorable! I had to get her on video… I think I’ll put that up on my blog. We made a huge pizza and then ate it by candlelight. After putting Johanna to bed, it was time for me to go, but before I left I felt prompted to ask Thomas for a blessing. It was one of the most powerful blessings I have ever received, and it sounds like I’ll be doing some missionary work while I’m here in Vienna! One last adventure before I stop writing about the past and focus more on the present in my letters: Friday morning Christiane came to the apartment to take me away. We had a wonderful last talk in the car. I noticed immediately how heavy my bags were, but soothed myself with thoughts of getting rid of them in a few minutes when I checked it. My arms were a lot happier when they were gone. It was only a 1 ½ hour flight to Vienna, and I was planning to read about Elisa von der Recke, but my throat hurt, I had been coughing the last couple of days, and I felt exhausted. The flight (nap) was too short… I actually started feeling worse by the time I left the airplane. Somehow I lugged my bags off the conveyor belt and made it to the place where arrivals meet the locals. Eagerly I scanned the crowd for a sign with my name or American Austro Institute on it. Nothing. For fifteen minutes I scanned the crowd. No sign. No help. My arm was aching. Heaving my suitcase behind me I made it to a payphone and dialed the number I had scribbled in the back of my notebook. It wouldn’t work. It said the connection would start, but then it would hang up on me right away. I put more money in to see if that would help. Same failure. At this point I realized that I could use my money that I was afraid I had just wasted on internet access. There was a new message on my email from Lillian that made my sinking heart land on the floor with a splat: “Where are you? No one knows where you are. Come to the institute as soon as you get here” which was followed by directions on what trains to take and the address of the institute. My breathing got irregular and my vision blurred. Panic licked the edge of my consciousness like a hungry flame. I felt miserably sick, and somehow I had to get myself and my bags filled with rocks to downtown Vienna using public transportation that I definitely wasn’t familiar with. My pride is actually what saved me. It was offended at the thought that I couldn’t handle European public transportation, no matter what the odds. Taking a deep breath I somehow found a ticket machine, paid the exorbitant sum, lugged those suitcases into the train taking up two seats, and just sat like I had been run over, quite crazed. Switching trains was painful, since I had to bang my suitcase down a set of metal stairs, creating a ruckus that probably deafened anyone else in the tunnel with me. I was popping cough drops, my only form of anything that resembled medication into my mouth every few minutes. Luckily there was an escalator that took me up to street level. When daylight hit my face I realized I was in the middle of center city, with no clue where to go. I knew I had to look confident though. I walked up to an old man pushing a stroller with a young child in it, and asked him if he knew where Operngasse was. He had the highest voice I have ever heard in my life (boys and girls included), with a beautiful Austrian lilt to it, which he used to explain the way to me. Pulling my bags painfully behind me I started down the street. Every few feet I was forced to stop, wipe the sweat off my forehead and catch my breath, telling myself that I was almost there and I would make it. I found the building. I found the doorbell of the institute. The door opened into a dark hall filled with suitcases with three dark figures talking in the background. I addressed the group to ask them where I should go to find the institute, and upon hearing my name one of the women said “so you’re Margaret!” It felt good to be recognized. It did not feel good to be confronted with a huge two flights of stairs that I had to climb. If the woman hadn’t offered to take my duffel bag, I probably would have collapsed halfway up. At the office they gave me tickets to take care of public transportation for the next two weeks and arranged for a taxi that would me to Goldhammergasse, my new home. I banged my suitcases down the stairs, far past caring about the noise… I broke off part of the bottom in the process, but just picked it up and shoved it in my backpack. The taxi driver was friendly and informative. It took us a lot longer to get there than I had originally imagined, so it was a good thing I knew the institute would reimburse me. Finally we unloaded my bags and I rang the bell outside the gate. Frau Alfons came to greet me, showed me a bed and I crashed.
Wow, I hadn't realized how bad I had gotten with emailing, and what a time to stop! Here's an update about my trip to Germany... sadly haven't had time to finish this installment yet...
It was hard to hug and kiss my mom and brother John goodbye at the airport, but not half as hard as it was the first time I left for Europe by myself two years ago. My suitcase was so heavy with my duffel bag on top that the wheels weren’t turning really well. Painfully dragging my luggage I tried the check in machine, but was unsuccessful, so I waited in line and had an agent sort me out. I was slightly worried when I heard I’d only be getting my first boarding pass and that I’d have to re-check in at my first destination: JFK airport in New York. I knew there wasn’t much I could do about it though, so I made my way to the gate and sat down to read the biography of Elisa von der Recke, part of my ORCA project that I was determined to have out of the way by the time I got to Vienna.
The first flight was extremely short, and provided a bit of unexpected entertainment as the captain called Chantal, the stewardess, Kelly and “Kelly” called the captain Jasmine, after which she couldn’t stop laughing throughout the entire safety announcement.
It seemed only a few minutes after we reached cruising altitude that the pilot was announcing our descent. The plane was tiny… two chairs on one side of the aisle, then one by itself near the window. I got one of those seats, and enjoyed the extra room. Leaving the tiny plane I walked into the airport and asked several people where to find Austrian Airlines. I had to walk outside and switch terminals before I finally found the right ticket counter and got in line. Clutching my boarding pass and praying that my luggage would survive the switch in terminals with me, I found the security line for international flights. That is where I saw a few passengers wearing white face masks, the first evidence of swine flu paranoia I had seen so far on my trip. That made me more nervous than the constant reports on the tvs, talking about a possible pandemic.
Collapsing in a chair at the gate, I forced myself to read some more Recke. It did get slightly more interesting as I went on, but reading Gothic script and old, shakespearesque German gets tedious. I knew I wouldn’t be happy if I had to do a lot of this reading while I was trying to enjoy Germany, so I pushed on for another hour or so after we boarded the jumbo jet. Sleep was impossible, but I knew from experience that getting frustrated about sleeplessness only wears you out even more. Restlessly I closed my eyes and tried to find a spot that didn’t strain my neck or hurt my head too much. Over a wonderfully German breakfast (a hot roll, cheese, a small assortment of meat and some yogurt) I got to know the person sitting next to me, who asked me about my reading. He was originally from Albania, but now lived in Connecticut working as an Italian chef, and was visiting his family in Europe.
My last flight from the beautiful Viennese airport to the one in Düsseldorf that I remembered so well was short and painless. Hoping against hope my luggage had managed to get through, I watched the suitcases pass me on the conveyor belt. My duffel showed up, but then the belt stopped, and my heart sank. Making my way to the luggage office I described my bag, and was told that they didn’t know where it was. I kicked myself mentally for not listening to the prompting to put an extra change of clothes in my carryon luggage. Now, all the clothes I had left were the ones I was wearing. Resolving never to make that mistake again, I walked out the door to find Hans Gerhard, Romana, Alexander and Nadien Erstfeld waiting for me. The ride to Wuppertal brought me back down memory lane, especially as I watched the lush green vegetation wiz by from the window of our old blue van that was still sporting yellow and white fish stickers.
The whirlwind had just begun. Leaving my lonely duffel bag at the Erstfelds’ house and praying that we would be able to find its friend soon, I got into that big old blue fishy friend of the family. He/she/it (not sure what to call it) transported me to Münstner Brücke, one of the tallest train bridges in Europe.
The park at the base of the bridge, right next to the river, had been rather run down and empty when we had moved. Now it was teaming with children, dedicated walkers and nature lovers, and dotted all over with big brown bronze mushroom-esque blocks that asked you riddles and told you stories when you stood on them. The sun that so seldom graces Wuppertal caressed the grassy banks of the river. Soon I was seeing one of my favorite things in the whole wide world – familiar faces! Götzes were there with their little Johanna, Daniella with her husband and two little girls, Bergmanns with Nathalie, Kevin and the dog Guiddo… each face brought back memories that had gotten rather dusty after 2-4 years of disuse.
The hours of talking, good German food, wading in the Wupper and braiding daisy chains were over before I knew it, and by the end of the evening my Normadic existence for the next two weeks began. Instead of going home with the Erstfelds, I went along with the Bergmanns, to spend some time with Nathalie before she had to go back to school in Freiberg. The afternoon we spent talking, and in the evening we went to some of her friend’s house for an intense game of phase ten that lasted till about midnight.
How I managed to stay up and on top of the conversation till that hour going off of less than 24 hours of sleep, I will never know. What I do know is that I slept like a rock without moving an inch, and that when I woke up I noticed that I started breathing again. Our early morning activity was a visit to the Trödelmarkt, an open-air market with clothes, shoes, jewelry, perfumes and more. Wanting to be prepared, I bought a dress and a pair of shoes to wear to stake conference, in case my suitcase decided that 24 hours wasn’t a long enough vacation from my sometimes abusive use. I tried to thoroughly repent for all of that abuse, believe me. Joined by Nathalie’s grandparents the Schmidts, we breakfasted at Ikea… they have the best hot chocolate machine ever!!!! Free refills J. About that point Kerstin got a call from the Erstfelds, who informed us that my bag had been found and would be arriving at their house at 2:00pm.
After enjoying some delicious Turkish paste with Nathalie, she dropped me off at the Erstfelds where I happily embraced my runaway suitcase. Hastily grabbing a new outfit, and doing a quick make-up job I raced out the door and met Laura in the city. Since we only had two hours, we sat down in the mall café and ordered ice cream. It was so good to talk to her again, but much too short. Promising to get in touch with her soon, I barely managed to catch Kerstin, who was going to take me to the first session of stake conference in Düsseldorf. At the stake center the opening hymn was starting, so I managed to slip out of my jeans and into a dress within about 60 sec., just before the meeting was fully underway.
I had squeezed into one of the back rows, which was very advantageous, since I could pick out several unsuspecting people that I wanted to say hello to afterward. The topic of the conference was very interesting – missionary work. It hit me as I listened that this just might be the very week for me to do some missionary work. I really felt like the conference was geared specifically to me and my needs.
My plans of greeting specific people after the conference went rather well… most of the people who I hadn’t seen in 4 years (people from wards outside of Wuppertal), had a hard time recognizing me at first. All I had to do to remind them was say the magic phrase “I’m an Ebeling”, at which point I would get a hug, exclamations of surprise, eager inquiries about my family etc. Before I knew it, I had joined the stake choir, which was in desperate need of strength. Finally it was time to leave. I went to the Erstfelds, and blacked out on the couch.
Dressed in Sunday best I hopped in the car with Giovanna, who had decided to follow the Erstfelds in her car to help her find the stake center. The ride was all lively conversation, as it always is with Giovanna, and seemed quite short. After several more recognition games and warm greetings from different members of the stake, I took my seat in the front with the choir.
That, I soon realized, was a big mistake. The chapel soon got quite warm, and I found out that although I thought I had conquered jet-lag, it must be still hanging on tight. My eyelids were incredibly heavy. I tried pinching myself, shifting my weight, blinking fast and slow, sitting up straight, but nothing seemed to work. If I had chosen to sit in a pew I could have unobtrusively closed my eyes or leaned on the arm rest at the end of the bench for a few minutes, but since I was on the stand, in full view of the whole congregation, it was my duty to stay awake and alert to set a good example and listen attentively to each speaker. The only reasons I didn’t just conk out on the bench: the rest hymn (we got to stand up for that), and a hard candy my neighbor offered me in the last few minutes of the meeting.
Afterward I got to talk to more people… Constance, Sarah Malms, Schw. Münch, Daniel Münch, Tim Egley, Jana Hatzik, Karen Hatzik, people from Duiesburg like the Davids and the Braxmas, and Tristan Kempkins, people from Köln like the Hodgekins, and so many other unbelievably good, dear people like Schw. Manchievsky, Brother Orth, the Karthauses… the list should be a lot longer, but I’m so behind with this report I’d better move on.
At the Erstfelds I enjoyed some lasagna with a delicious fresh strawberry dessert. In the evening Giovanna came and picked me up. I’m still not sure how we managed to get my heavy bag into the back seat, but we did J. The next two days provided a bit of recuperation that I sorely needed… I spent hours and hours and hours just talking to Giovanna, enjoying the 4 adorable guinea pigs, and doing fun things like having a dance party with the kids, watching a movie and messing around in the kitchen.
Wednesday was extremely full. In the morning I went back to visit my old school. Not much had changed in the two years that had gone by since I last visited. I got there just after the first five minute bell, so everyone was in class. I saw several people walking into class late, one of whom was one of my former class mates, Tim Niklas. I called his name, but he kept walking, then he changed his mind and turned back. “Do we know each other from somewhere?” he asked. I just laughed a little and he turned around and left. The principal walked by, and she did remember me. After chatting a few minutes with her I sat on the heater by the window just remembering everything, both good experiences, and ones that I had had a hard time forgetting.
I have no idea how long I sat there, but it was a while. There were footsteps on the stair, and to my surprise it was Tim Niklas again. He almost just walked by me, but then decided to stop after all. “Sorry, do we know each other from somewhere?” he asked again. “Yes” I laughed. He peered at my face a moment, and then it dawned on him. “Oh, it’s you!” he exclaimed. I had to try really nard not to burst out laughing. He invited me to come with him to English class, which I agreed to do. Mrs. Bähr Böhm, who had been my English teacher for the whole time I had gone to the Waldorf school, recognized me immediately and invited me to sit down. Class was just as boring as I remembered J. It was actually full of Laura’s class mates and not mine. Tim Niklas hadn’t passed 12th grade the first time. Some of them I barely recognized. I spent the pause talking to Frau Ploch, Frau Berning, Frau Werksnies (now Frau Billmeyer) and some of the other students.
My whole class wasn’t at school, since they were in the middle of Abitur prep, so I didn’t feel a need to stay very long. Thinking I would come back again, I caught the bus to Alter Markt, where I did some shopping for gifts/a trench coat. I LOVED the fit of the coats. Of everything I happened to try on in fact. I hadn’t realized how horribly American clothes fit before… I knew they fit poorly, but I hadn’t realized they fit horribly. I bought a Milka chocolate bar and ate almost the whole thing, relishing every bit. That evening I went with Giovanna and the kids to Young Womens, where I enjoyed some more dancing with the kids, and socializing.
Thursday I was able to take it pretty easy again. After Laura was done with school, I hopped on a bus and managed to find where she lived. The apartment complex was really nice, the rooms were spacious, and the kitchen up to date. We talked for a while, then I left to go to institute. I met Ann-Kathrin at the Hauptbahnhof and got on a train to Düsseldorf. Institute was great. We talked about faith, a topic that has really interested me ever since Elder Peckering’s talk this past general conference. Socializing with several of the young adults again during the simple meal that followed the lesson sent me down memory lane for the twentieth time that week.Just before I left I had the sudden thought to ask for a BOM to take with me. Back at Laura’s apartment we made a pallet and talked until my words were so slurred and my German so confusing neither of us were quite sure what I was trying to say anymore…
Bright and early we got up to get ready for school. It was a weird feeling to sit in the same classroom for the whole day with the same people just like I had in middle school, and be confronted with high school mentality/maturity levels. Biology was a little hard to follow, since my vocab in that area isn’t the strongest and I was fighting lack of sleep. Math seemed like a very chill class. English was amusing… the teacher was a native German, but he had lived and studied in England for some time. This was the perfect recipe for a flavorful accent. At lunch time we went to a bakery and enjoyed our food in a nearby park. Spanish proved to be my favorite class of the day. I didn’t really get much of what they were saying, but it sounded cool. The teacher organized a little sketch, and even gave me a line to say. I have no idea how it sounded, but I kind of fell in love with the language…
After school we went to find a cheap straightener for me to use for the rest of my stay in Europe, which we did without to much trouble. We cooked an amazing stir-fry and some rice, which we enjoyed by candle light. We talked, and talked and talked the whole time, until I finally drifted off to sleep.
The glorious morning came with David and Martina. Saying goodbye to Laura and stowing my backpack in the car, I thoroughly enjoyed the 1 hour drive to Arnsberg. We spent the majority of the day talking. We talked with their parents over a delicious meal, we conversed during our tour of the museum of natural history and walking the streets of Arnsberg. David and I reminisced about high school – teachers, friends, activities – while Martina and I discussed university life with its challenges and highlights. Talking didn’t stop till far into the night. David got behind the wheel again, and we talked some more, up to the very doorstep. Hugging David and Martina goodbye, I waved until the car disappeared from sight.
Sundays are glorious! It was so neat to be in the Wuppertal ward and enjoy the meetings, talk to everyone and take pictures of all the kids. The afternoon passed by pleasantly with food and conversation. After the kids were in bed Giovanna and I started b-day prep for Lucas. First we decorated the living room with tons of balloons, made a banner for the hall way and hung balloons from the door, then we started the cakes. Yes, plural! First we made brownies in the form of cupcakes for Lucas to take to school in the morning to share with all of his class mates (following German tradition), then we started a chocolate cheese cake that would be for the adults… oh my goodness, the batter tasted AMAZING with some leftover brownie bits. When that confection was finally in the oven we started baking a chocolate sponge cake for the kids that we planned to decorate in a pacman theme. It was really late when we were finally done… our words started getting slurred and when I got to bed I crashed….
Next morning b-day prep started again as soon as the kids went off to school. Kids’ cake was first priority. While whipping up a chocolate frosting, Giovanna poked holes in the cake, poured sweetened condensed milk over the whole thing and let it soak in. After adding a layer of chocolate icing we took smarties (the German version of m&m’s) and made a colorful pacman with four ghosts. Then we made dips – artichoke, and a Mexican chili-esque dip and both looked absolutely delicious. And they were. But the chocolate cheesecake – ohhhhh my goodness!!!! My newest favorite cake by far! Lucas loved his new light saber and was really excited to start riding his new bike right away. So much good food!
Tuesday Giovanna and I snatched an hour to go to the store, where I found one of the cutest black dresses ever, two adorable shrugs and one white skirt that was on sale! We kind of lost track of the time a bit while we were there, so I had to rush to get to Frau Stahl’s. On the way down the hill from the bus stop I took a million pictures of each bit of that so familiar, yet still breathtakingly beautiful landscape. Frau Stahl was waiting for me at the door. She called a taxi, and directed the driver to take me to the restaurant we had been to on my last visit. The huge wiener-jagdt Schnitzel with mushroom sauce and little fried potato rolls was insanely delicious...
And now for a quick peek into the present: VIENNA!!!
My Gastmutter (host mother) is awesome. She used to be a ballerina and travel the world. Now she lives in the richer part of Vienna and Lillian and I live in a 2 room apartment on the first floor of her house... we have the whole 1st floor to ourselves, and can even cook really basic food in our apartment. I love living with Lillian. We talk all the time. Vienna is sooooo amazing as a city. Everywhere you look there are old buildings with rich sculptured faces and colors. It all just seems to exude culture. It's really quite tangible. Class is cool. We walk through the streets of Vienna, and Professor McFarland will take us to certain buildings and talk about their context, sometimes getting really general and talk about what a city really means. I never noticed the different time periods that are built into almost each cathedral... since they took so long to build they're a hoge podge of different styles, a kind of embodiment of the progress of the city. Such a cool thought! I haven't started my grammar class yet, and Prof. McFarland said we wouldn't really worry about research yet either, so it's really not to bad. This weekend we went to Graz for a YSA (Young Single Adult) Sporttagung (sports activity that lasted 2 days). It was pretty fun, and there was an awesome dance too....
I spent Thanksgiving in Idaho with one of my amazing friends and former roommates Nikki. The drive was long, but worth it. We spent a few golden, snowy, fun-filled relaxing days in the middle of nowhere in a snug cabin with plenty of food and relatives. The trip back was even more exciting - Nikki's uncle happens to be a private pilot, and he brought his plane to make some of the transportation easier. The tiny but graceful metal bird made for an astounding ascent over Yellowstone park, that is, after we heated the engines with hairdryers for an hour to make it start. Our other adventure was completely unexpected - Nikki and I were peacefully watching a movie when we heard a faint crash. Seconds later the neighbor was calling to tell us the front fence had been obliterated by a car that had backed up and sped away right after the collision. After calling the police we rushed outside and gasped at the damage - the fence, the basketball hoop and all of their bikes were lying in a heap in the neighbor's yard. Minutes later an officer arrived to snap pictures and note the damage, and minutes after that we heard that the police had caught the culprit... it made for an exciting evening.
(yes, they had those in the Belvedere). After that excursion, Tasha, Lil and I went on an adventure to find the perfect apfel Strudel... Chelsea and Megan had claimed they had found it. It was a long, hot trek, but thoroughly rewarding. This strudel was truly amazing, with it's mouth-watering vanilla sauce and beautiful presentation:
