Classes and Vienna

Classes started this past Thursday. I ended up changing one of the classes I was originally registered for. I had originally registered for Foundations of Ethics, thinking that Siefert was going to be teaching the class. Then I get to Gaming, and find out that someone else is teaching Ethics (Seifert was only teaching Human Person, which I took already). So I figured that I'd at least see what he's like. So I went to the first class, and I find out that we had to write a 7-10 page paper with 11.5 font and 1.5 spacing. No professor I know has ever had us write a paper using that size font. So I really wasn't feeling that good about the class, and wanted to switch to a different class. So one of my household sisters told me about a class that she was taking. It was called Survey of Physical Science. It's a class where the professor teleconferences the class from main campus. So I decided to switch classes. Hopefully it will work out in the end. Other than that, I love my classes. I have Dr Asci for two of my classes: Christian Spirituality and Christian Marriage. And I have Dr Cassidy for Theology of the Church. I love his Scottish accent! Plus he's really nice. I'm also auditing German I. I think that will come in very handy here.

Yesterday we went to Vienna. We started the day by having mass in one of the churches. Afterward, we had a tour of Vienna. It was very cold and windy that day. We got to see the different buildings and churches in Vienna. After the tour, we went to a restaurant where we had wienerschnitzl. It wasn't that bad. After lunch, we had some free time to explore Vienna on our own. I went with some of my friends and household sister to look in the different shops in Vienna. We later on had some coffee and dessert in a cafe. We later boarded the bus and went back to Gaming. I had such a good time, and it was so fun. It was really great.

Am now in Gaming Austria

So as the title now says, I am now in Gaming Austria. The packing for the trip was very stressful. I was trying to jam everything into my suitcases without making them too heavy. My parents drove me down to Philadelphia International Airport. I couldn't believe how much security I had to go through. We never had to do anything like that when I last flew in 1985.

Anyway, I found other franciscan students at the airport. I was happy to see familiar people because I thought I would have had to fly to DC all alone. So the flight to DC was a quick one, but a turbulent one. Once we got to DC, we saw a whole bunch of franciscan students. we waited to the plane for about an hour. Once we got on the plane, we got to watch movies and listen to music. You could choose whatever movie you wanted to watch. So I watched Beauty and the Beast, and the Social Network. Both were good. I didn't sleep much while on the plane. I think if I got two hours sleep, I was lucky. Anyway, the dinner they served us was very good. We had the choice of pasta or chicken. I had the chicken. It seems like it wasn't too long before we were served breakfast. For breakfast, we had a ham and swiss sandwich on a bread stick, a muffin, and yogurt. It wasn't that bad.

We arrived in Vienna at around 8:15am Central European Time (2:15am Eastern Standard Time). The people from the school were there to pick us up from the airport. I got my bags from baggage claim, and made my way down to customs. It was harder leaving the United States than entering Austria. All I had to do is present my passport, and I was in. It was too easy. The buses were there to take us to the Kartause. It was really interesting to see the street signs, and how different they are to those in the united states. All of the lines on the road are white. The speed limit is in Kilometers per hour, and not miles per hour. I'll see the speed limit signs say "100" and have to realize that it's in kilometers, not miles.

Anyway, it took us about two hours to get to Gaming. Once we got there, the children gave us flowers and brought our luggage to our rooms. I got a single. I'm on the 6th floor. My room is in samuel hall, or "six track" as people affectionally call it. It's not too bad. I've had worse housing at Rutgers, so I'm not that worried about it.

So these last few days, we've been having orientation. We've been learning about the Kartause, and about Austria and Europe. Yesterday we went to an old monastery in Melk. We're going to Vienna on Saturday. And next weekend is Salzburg/ Munich. And classes start on Thursday. So I hope I don't oversleep like I almost did the other day (where I slept for almost 10 hours). But I think that this semester is going to be absolutely amazing. I hope it's better than last semester.

I leave for Austria in five days

As the title says, I leave for Austria in five days. It's hard to believe that it's finally happening! I'm really excited about it. I'm looking forward to going over there and seeing the Kartause for myself.

As for the Lourdes mission trip, I'm probably not going to be able to do the mission trip. There's a few reasons for this. First of all, I only got the application a few weeks ago. I wasn't able to print the application until last week because of printer problems. Plus my mother didn't like how expensive the mission trip would be...almost $600. So what I may do is just go to Lourdes on my own during 10 day. This way I can visit other places in Europe like Disneyland Paris and the Berlin Wall. 10 day isn't until early April, so I have time to figure things out. At least it won't be freezing cold by then.

I just pray that there won't be any problems with the weather or the flight over to Austria. Some of my friends are flying to Ireland before going over to Austria. As much as I would have liked to have seen Ireland, I didn't want to freeze. That's ok. I'm flying from Philly to DC to Vienna. So I'm sure there will be a lot of Franciscan students on the flight over to Austria, since it's with Student Flights. I'm just glad I'm not going alone. It should be a fun flight. I guarentee that I'm the oldest person from Franciscan going. I'm probably the oldest person at Franciscan to have ever spent a semester over in Austria.

The next time I write, I will be in Gaming.

Groß Gott!