Let's Get Lost

Guten Tag!

Finally made it safe and sound into home sweet Austria. The day had started with my amazing friends Becca and Abby stopping over for breakfast, one last goodbye, and Heidi just barely making it to see me off (how blessed am I for friends like these! Love you ladies) My family then made the trek to drop me off at the airport where, after a tearful goodbye (at least on mom’s part), Ilsa and I went through security and found our gate. The plane thankfully changed our seats so that we could sit next to each other…in the second to last row. We spent most the time watching movies, the best by far being “Meet the Sloths” (thanks Jericca ;) but seriously, just picture it—sloths slow motion fighting; Freaking entertainment, that’s what.)

We arrived in Gaming an hour early (woohoo!). However, being in the back, we were separated from the group and had to wonder the Vienna airport alone for a bit. The Franciscan group was easy to spot though—who else would come with their very own Franciscan TOR sister and priest? After grouping up we were supposed to follow the group to the buses that would be taking us to our house in Gaming. Ilsa’s bag on the other hand had its own plans. One of the wheels popped off and was lost, making it extremely difficult to navigate through the streets of Vienna. We took turns hauling the bag to the bus, laughing and probably looking pretty ridiculous (couldn’t take a couple steps without having to set it down—that thing was heavy!). We were separated from the group (again), but using our “amazing” directional skills we were able to find them as they were loading the buses (that’s Tess and Ilsa: 2, Vienna Airport: 0.)

The bus was already packed full, so our luggage was moved to bus two (this will be important information later on, I swear) while we got on bus one. Our drive through the beautiful Austrian country took about a little less than 2 hours until finally we arrived at the Kartause! People got busy checking in, getting their room assignments, meeting their roommates, etc. We were both placed in room 301, with our lovely roommates Erin and Katherine. Time went by, we grabbed some lunch in the Mensa then headed back at 12:30 to go check on the status of bus two. We heard a bus was about 25 minutes away, but luck was not with us yesterday. Turns out, it was bus three; bus two was stuck in traffic and wasn’t expected to get at the Kartouse until 3:00. We literally had nothing—my carry-on was even on that bus. Thankfully, though, there were towels to spare and a friendly RA was willing to share some of her soap so that we could shower before mass (by the way, the bus didn’t end up arriving until 4:00).

Mass was at 4:30 (One of us will have to take pictures later, this place is incredibly beautiful). The pews were packed, so my friend Becca and I went to sit in the back with the director and his family of young children (such an adorable distraction; two babies and a 4 year old boy shooting imaginary bombs all over the church to blow it up; that kid has quite the imagination).  We had dinner right after that, and then headed up to our room to unpack and organize a bit. It’s funny how you think you brought a lot, but when it’s all taken out and hung up you realize how little you really have (this coming from a girl who could change her outfit three times a day, easily; probably going to have to change that habit while here). At 7:30 there was a small meeting where we met the staff. Afterwards we headed to the St. Francis lounge for a social with beer and wine. We mingled a bit, even met some foreigners—or wait, maybe we’re the foreigners?—whose names were Olga and Balint (if only they had a euro for every time someone asked them to pronounce their names again).

Being as jet-legged as we all were, the night ended young and we were off to bed at 9:00.

Overall I'd say it was a good start to the adventures we'd be having here in Austria...can't wait to see what is next! And since I started this post in German, might as well end it the same.  Aufwiedersehen! 

-Tess

P.S. The picture at the top is of our dinner on the plane...can you tell what it is??