To our 10 followers/anyone reading this:
Sorry for the delay! We have literally been living from one
moment to the next these past couple weeks. For all those who didn’t know, we
recently took a 3 day pilgrimage to Poland, visiting the Shrine of the Black Madonna,
the concentration camp Auschwitz/Birkenau, Krakow, the Divine Mercy sisters,
and finally Wadowice (the birthplace of JPII). The trip was humbling and
wonderful, some of the highlights being:
-Running off the bus at 5:40 am to make it to the unveiling in
time
-Crawling on our knees around the image of the black Madonna,
following in the footsteps of previous pilgrims that have done so (to the point
that there were indents in the floor from where their knees had been)
-Saying a divine mercy chaplet in Polish
-Sitting on a bench in JPII’s hometown, watching the kid’s playing
in the fountain (though not so much for Ilsa, she was just getting over being
carsick…not fun)
More happened, and hopefully we can add that on a later
date, so for now this will have to do…
More recently, it was Oktoberfest here at the Kartause. We
had been studying for midterms all weekend, so the festival was a welcomed break
for everyone. The school even provided the opportunity for us to rent dirndls,
which for Austrians is considered formal attire (seriously—we see people
wearing those things everywhere around here). Naturally, we were stoked (who wouldn’t
be?!).
When we arrived to pick out a dirndl, we came to find
absolute chaos in the Francis room. Dirndls were scattered everywhere, with
girls running from here to there trying to find the best one. We both came out
with some pretty spiffy dirndls, Ilsa’s being a beautiful blue, and mine striped
red wool. Donning our dirndls, we headed out to the festival tent…
…only to find that hardly any of the locals had a dirndl on.
Seriously, they most likely were really confused. And ours were way old—probably
from when their grandma’s wore dirndls. Oops. We didn’t care though, and
settled in for some time of dance and merriment (ok, a little cliché, I know).
We polka-danced the night away, had some dance-offs, got
rejected by an Austrian grandpa when I asked him to dance, then was redeemed
when the Austrian man Peter agreed to dance with me instead. We stayed out until
almost 2 am (living on the edge)—definitely worth it.
Everybody be like:
With all four of our midterms completed as of today, we are
now on our way to Lourdes for our mission trip. There we will be serving a
special needs group of pilgrims for the duration of their stay in Lourdes.
Service includes anything from basic house-keeping, to kitchen duties, to CNA
care. Ilsa left today, so I will be meeting her in Paris this Friday (just
booked the hostel tonight…) we will no
be back from France until the 20th,so
until then just know that we are thinking of you all and keeping you in our
prayers!
Aufwiedersehn, Tschuss!
Note: the first two images and the dirndl ones were taken from Google (not sure on the specifics, so hope I'm not breaking laws or anything)
Also, there was a horse in the courtyard for the blessing of
the animals on st. Francis’ feast day.
P.S.S. For all you moms out there, here is where we will be staying in Paris Friday night (
and Ilsa is spending the night in a convent thursday):