Yet another trip to Vienna...

Alright folks,

I apologize for the late blog entry. As you all know, if you have been following my blog, my life has gotten very busy. But here we go...

So the students had their second trip as a class on Saturday. We went to my favorite city! Vienna! What was even more amazing about going to this fantastic city was showing them around. However, as much fun as it was giving them tours of the city, I was a little disheartened because their is simply not enough time to give a good tour in 4 hours. There is so much to see.

We started the trip by going to Mass at the Minoritenkirche at around 11AM. I then took my tour group to Hapsburg palace. After we stopped by the plague memorial. This is where it got interesting. As I was explaining to the students the history of the memorial, an very upset Austrian lady vocally expressed to me that I was not able to give tours, because I didn't have an official license to give tours. Hehehe... what a spaz. I almost started laughing, because I found it so ridiculous that she was complaining that I didn't have a license to give tours. How am I supposed to get a license so I can explain to my students the beauty of Vienna. I guess this is what socialism does to a country. 

So after the little incident, I brought the group to Stefensplatz to show them the Cathedral. After that we went to lunch. We had lunch at the Zwolf Apostel. It was pretty funny watching 160 students crammed into a Keller trying to eat a buffet style lunch. But at least the food was good.

After lunch we went to Capuchinkirche and then to the Albertina, where I ended the tour. I wanted to give the students enough time to see as much of Vienna as possible. 

At around 5 PM, I met up with the CFC community. I missed them all so much! We had dinner Akakiko, to celebrate my belated birthday. Thank you Cay for making all that happen! And thank you Tessa for the incredible birthday cake. It was delicious to the last crumb, and yes I finished it already. Here are some pictures of the celebration...

Here is Jerome and Coby... how cute...

Nick and Mary... how cute are they?

Jerome and Chris

Jerome and Katie (Jerome is so popular)

Me and my birthday cake, yes I know there are no candles... it was for the photo...

Rebby, Coby, and I

Tessa and Me

Business...

I think it's funny how we can get so busy with life that we forget the beauty that surrounds us. For most of my day, up until now even, I have been in my office trying to get stuff straightened out for work. I feel like when it gets busy like this, all I do is play catch up. Anyone else feel that way? Anyways, after work I was able to take some of the students to the waterfall by the Kartause. It was a little dark outside, and cloudy on top of that, so the beauty of the falls were not as great as when I first saw them. Regardless, it was still beautiful.

I got back from the hike to the falls and ate an entire frozen pizza. Yes, that's right. Time to hit the sack, we have a busy day tomorrow and I don't want to miss any of it. Peace...

A little tired...

I have to admit, these days have been draining on me. Maybe it is because I'm getting older and I can't keep up with all these young bucks. But I love all of them. The students bring so much energy and life to the campus. After all, the program was made for them, and my job is to make sure that they are in an enviroment that is safe so that they may come closer to Christ... 

I miss my family! 

Okay... seriously... I cannot write anymore. I need sleep...

Mass with the Bishop in Sankt Polten... and My Birthday...

So the students are amazing. I really love this group that has come in. They are so diverse. Their personalities are just so all over the place, and appreciate all of them. It was quite awesome being able to have Mass with the Bishop... Here is a group shot of all 160 students and some staff members...

Ok... so my birthday... wow. What a celebration. Thank you Lord for such a blessed day. It was sad that I didn't have my family to celebrate it with, but the Lord definitely provided and gave me so many good friends. This morning, when I went to the opening school meeting, the students greeted me with a cake and sang. Then the next meeting after lunch there was another cake and song. Then this evening at a bonfire that was held for me- thank you Mark and Niki!- another cake was made. I feel so loved. I would also like to thank the girls who brought me Milka bars and for my awesome staff for the gifts. Also to Katie for just rocking and being to good to me on Birthday. A special shot to Jerome for your birthday greeting that made me laugh so hard I cried. For everyone who wants to know... I am 28 now. 

The highlight of the day was being able to go to Mass and give thanks to the Lord for giving me another year. Lord, please grant me the grace to live this year for your glory. Bring me closer to You and allow me to know you more...

They are here...

The students are here... finally... all 160 of them. We are missing one, because his flight got delayed, but here should be here tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are waking up super early to go to Durnstein. We have Mass with the Bishop of the area, and then we are taking a tour of Durstein. It should be gorgeous outside. 

Ok, I'm exhausted, so I'm cutting this blog short. Love you all and God bless!

My Big Fat Slovakian Wedding...

I think one of the blessings the Lord gives me is placing me in the right places at the right times. Seriously, I think I've asked myself, "How the heck did I get this opportunity?" countless times in my life. 

One of those times was last night... Over the time I've been here in Austria, I've had the honor of meeting some fantastic people. Two of those people are Tomas and Laura... I met them right when I arrived on the campus, and they have been nothing but welcoming. They invited me to their wedding this past weekend, and let me just say that Slovakians know how to party!

Not only did they invite my sorry butt to the wedding, but they even invited my rockstar staff... of course, the staff was put to work. Jerome and Andrew did fantastic jobs pouring champagne, and Andrew, Lynne, Justin, and Katie did great babysitting the myriads of children that live in the area. But after all the work, the dancing began... Here are some pics...

Justin and I 

The staff and the Bride... hehehe

I even got a picture with the Slovakian wedding band, Quatro!

Me showing off my dancing skills...

Biking on the Donau and Bowling with the peeps...

What is it with the rain these days... I kinda feel like I'm in Seattle. One day it's raining the next day its beautiful and then for three more days it rains... But alas, not all things are meant to be perfect. If it were, then we wouldn't have heaven to look forward to.


I would like to apologize to everyone for not staying on top of the blog, but I do have a good reason. The internet has been a little temperamental here... seriously. I think it's all the rain.


But this is what has been going on for the past several days...

Thursday- The staff went biking on the Donau, or the Danube as Americans call it. We started in Spitz (a little bit outside of Melk) and biked through Krems and into Durnstein. The scenery was quite lovely. The countryside was painted with vineyards and quaint country roads. The sun was shining, and the weather was in the upper 70's (F). My favorite parts of the ride were the small towns along the bike paths and the vineyards. Here are some pictures...

Friday- We did a whole bunch of work around the campus to prepare for the arrival of the students on Monday. Wow I can't believe they are going to be there this soon. But we are definitely excited. I'll be sure to post pics of the arrival of the Americans. You Europeans better have some appreciation for entertaining you the way I do... :-) But after all the work, we decided to take the staff Bowling in Purgstall...

My favorite parts of the bowling excursion have to be singing Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer", and watching Jerome bowl. I think I may have been crying...here are some pics from the night...

My rockin staff, but another rainy day...

So I woke up this morning, knowing what we were supposed to do. We were supposed to take the staff and go biking for the day down the Danube. I was so excited about it, I hardly slept at all last night. Actually, that's a lie, I didn't sleep much last night, because I had coffee at around 10pm. But regardless, I was excited about the bike ride...

So my alarm goes off at around 7:30am, and I hear the sounds of dripping. I look outside, and to my dismay is the sight of rain. Sad day. Needless to say, the bike ride was cancelled for today. I was a little sad as I walked to Mass at 8:00am. However, after I received Jesus I felt much better. Christ makes all things new. Amen? After Mass, I had breakfast with the staff, and then talked with Katie about the day since we had to reschedule the bike ride.

We decided to do some policy review, and form training, and then go on a hike. The hike was great, because we took them to the waterfall by the Kartause. After the hike, which took a couple hours, we got lunch at the Kebap stand. I do love Kebaps. Then we did more policy and building reviews. I also found out that Tita Nel got my ticket for Malta. Again... the mother of the year award goes to Tita Nel...

Malta here we come!!!!

Ok back to today... After all the work, we headed to Mark Kalpakgian's house for dinner. Niki and Mark made a fantastic dinner. They made chicken Cordon Bleu, rice, and fresh green beans. For dessert we had chocolate mousse with fresh berries. After the lovely evening with the Kalpakgian's we went back to the Kartause and made some signs to hang up for the students as we told each other our life stories. Let me just say I love my staff...

There names are (which go along with the picture below):

Andrew, Jerome, Katie, Lynne, Justin, and Michelle

The Staff is here...

I just want to say that I love my staff this year... They bring so much energy and excitement to the somewhat quiet town of Gaming.

I am exhausted... I love all of you...

A beautiful Sunday... I know this is late...

Okay, so first off, I apologize for the delinquency of this blog. My attempt at a blog last night was pretty poor. But hey, I was exhausted. Driving two hours at night drained me. So my weekend was fantastic, especially Sunday. It went like this...

I woke up at the Santayana's at around 8:00 am and got ready for coffee with my friend Silvia. We met at the city center at 10 am and went to a nice cafe

. I cannot remember the cafe, but it's where the Disney movie, Bambi, was written. Silvia, thank you for the great conversation, I hope we have more to come, and I'm looking forward to meeting your family.

After coffee, I went back to the Santayana's and we had lunch. Tita Nel, thank you for the marvelous shrimp. This woman can cook... I must have gained a couple pounds from staying with them this past weekend ;-) After lunch, we decided to go for coffee (can you tell I like coffee?) in Kahlenberg. I'll now let these pictures speak on behalf of the beauty of the place. Thank you Santayana family for taking me!

This is a view from the top of Kahlenberg. Quite nice huh?

Cay and myself at the top...

The cafe up here was simply beautiful... For your viewing pleasure, I got some shots from the fine establishment...

Temporary blog till I write one in the morning...

Peoples...

To be a man of my word I am writing this blog. But this blog is meant just as a "filler" till I wake up in the morning... so, let's just say a quick prayer together...

Angel of God my guardian dear, to whom God's love, commit me here. Ever this night be at my side, to love, to guard, to rule, to guide. Amen.

A rainy day in Viennatown...

I love Vienna... I bet people are tired of me saying that, but I do. I got in the little orange Skoda after lunch, stopped by the Asci's house in Gaming, and played some hide-and-seek with the kids. They are so adorable, I love them. I got back in the car and proceeded to drive towards Vienna. It was going to be a somewhat of a short drive, because not too many cars were on the road. It seemed short, until I got to Vienna. 

I cannot stand road construction... I find that it is one of the few things in the world that makes me impatient. My one and half hour drive turned into a 2 and half hour drive. Blah, anyways. I got to Cay's place at around 4:30pm. After I arrived, Cay and I headed straight to IKEA so I could pick up some stuff for the campus and some stuff for my room, including a mosquito net. 

Why a mosquito net? Good question... The reason is because the Europeans don't believe in screens for their windows. Therefore when you open the window, everything gets in. I have woken up several times over the past two weeks to various bugs on my face and in my bed, including spiders. Not fun. 

Alright, so after IKEA, we drove to Stefansplatz and played for the 7:00pm Mass. It was great... I love playing for Mass. After Mass, my second parents (thanks Tita Nel!) brought us to dinner at Akakiko, a fantastic little Japanese (Tita claims it is more Korean than Japanese) restaurant right by Stefansplatz. Lovely dinner... I had the sesame chicken, and everything else, because people kept giving me some of their food. I love it. The life of the party had to be my friends Rebby and Jericho's son, Coby. He is approximately 3 months old. He is this little chubby cute kid! After dinner, Tito was craving some Panna Cotta gelato. Good call Tito! We headed to the gelato place by Hohermarkt. Fantastic! I had the espresso and some panna cotta. *sorry is over my head right now bothering me*

Now I'm at the Santayana's house chilling and telling stories of my past... Thank you Tita and Cay for asking about my dating past!

Rainy days... but happy feast day Mary!

It was rainy all day...

But it was Mary's Assumption. Awesome!

Tommorow... I'm going to Vienna! I can't wait to see you all! 

All gave some... some gave all.

My peeps,

On my grandfather's tombstone there is an inscription written: "All gave some, some gave all." That short line has so much meaning to it. One thing it makes me do is question, "What is it that I am doing with my life; the life that God has given me?" 

Am I giving some, or am I giving all? I strongly believe, and I try to emphasize this whenever I speak to people about the truth of life, that when we die and meet our Maker, He will ask us what we have done with our lives that He has given us. And at that point we will be held accountable. This may not be the most uplifting message, but it is truth. We will die. We will be asked what we have done with our lives. We will be held accountable. 

One person, whose feast day we celebrate today, is Saint Maximilian Kolbe. This is the example of a man who gave all. He gave in the ultimate way, by laying down his life.

A little background on this man:

Maximilian was born in 1894 in Poland and became a Franciscan. He contracted tuberculosis and, though he recovered, he remained frail all his life. Before his ordination as a priest, Maximilian founded the Immaculata Movement devoted to Our Lady. After receiving a doctorate in theology, he spread the Movement through a magazine entitled "The Knight of the Immaculata" and helped form a community of 800 men, the largest in the world.

Maximilian went to Japan where he built a comparable monastery and then on to India 

where he furthered the Movement. In 1936 he returned home because of ill health. After the Nazi invasion in 1939, he was imprisoned and released for a time. But in 1941 he was arrested again and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

On July 31, 1941, in reprisal for one prisoner's escape, ten men were chosen to die. One of the men cried out, “I have am a husband, and I have a family!” Father Kolbe heroically offered himself in place of the young husband and father. All but four men (including Father Kolbe) died after three weeks of starvation and dehydration. Father Kolbe finally put to death by lethal injection. 

Saint Maximilian Kolbe... pray for us...

Visitors from Vienna (and the United States)...

Thank you Cay and Dunn for coming to visit me out here. It was a little sad because the weather was not too good. It was cloudy and rainy all day. But how can anyone be sad when Dunn is around. He is just so crazy. We didn't get to talk too much, because today was a day of prayer for the both of them. I did make them breakfast...

We had:

yoghurt

fruit

ham and cheese quiche

toast

coffee

and some of that crazy muslix stuff

It was nice to show people from here where I'm living. 

A special shout out to my second mother... Tita Nel. I love you. You are so amazing for all that you do for me. Thank you for taking care of me. The food was just what I needed! I miss you a lot and cannot wait to see you! This Sunday I'll be in Vienna mama!

Okay back to our day... after the two visitors prayed and I did some work, we had lunch at the restaurant in the Kartause. I had some sort of deep friend pork that was breaded. Dunn and Cay had some sort of bread dumpling with mushrooms. Good eats!

They filmed some videos here to send to their friend in the US, because it was her birthday. Happy Birthday Cat! They even got one of the nuns to be on the video. I'm not suprised with those two.

They left at around 4:30pm. I cried. Just kidding. I don't cry. Sorry, I just don't. I try to, but I can't. Anyways. After they left I went on a long run and did some weight lifting. Word. Off to shower and pray. God bless you all!

Visitors from Vienna (and the United States)...

Thank you Cay and Dunn for coming to visit me out here. It was a little sad because the weather was not too good. It was cloudy and rainy all day. But how can anyone be sad when Dunn is around. He is just so crazy. We didn't get to talk too much, because today was a day of prayer for the both of them. I did make them breakfast...

We had:

yoghurt

fruit

ham and cheese quiche

toast

coffee

and some of that crazy muslix stuff

It was nice to show people from here where I'm living. 

A special shout out to my second mother... Tita Nel. I love you. You are so amazing for all that you do for me. Thank you for taking care of me. The food was just what I needed! I miss you a lot and cannot wait to see you! This Sunday I'll be in Vienna mama!

Okay back to our day... after the two visitors prayed and I did some work, we had lunch at the restaurant in the Kartause. I had some sort of deep friend pork that was breaded. Dunn and Cay had some sort of bread dumpling with mushrooms. Good eats!

They filmed some videos here to send to their friend in the US, because it was her birthday. Happy Birthday Cat! They even got one of the nuns to be on the video. I'm not suprised with those two.

They left at around 4:30pm. I cried. Just kidding. I don't cry. Sorry, I just don't. I try to, but I can't. Anyways. After they left I went on a long run and did some weight lifting. Word. Off to shower and pray. God bless you all!

Canyoning...

So what is canyoning? Well, it's what I did today with my staff. We got in a car and drove an hour through probably some of the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. After we met with a small group of 4 people. One guy was named Joe. He was to be our guide for the day. He tells us that he has our equipment ready.

Mind you, none of us have even heard of "canyoning." I googled it, and it seems that there really is not set definition of what "canyoning" entails. 

So back to the story... Joe hands us IKEA bags with our equipment. They included the following:

Harness

Full-body wet suit

water socks

mountaineering boots

Helmet

What the heck? What are we getting into here? So we drive another 30 minutes up a mountain and we suit up. Joe told us that we will be getting wet and to not be afraid. 

So what happened is that we hiked uphill for about 20 minutes and then proceeded to head down towards the canyon. The first thing Joe has us do is sliding down the rocks. Our harnesses were great because they were perfect for doing that. They had this rubber padding on the booty area. 

After sliding on the rocks we got to a slightly large drop. You definitely could not jump down it. So what we did was take rope and climb down using our grip. After a couple of those kind of drops we got to even larger drops. That was actually a little dangerous, because if you lost your grip you would fall pretty far.

Finally we get to the first of a series of waterfalls. The first was approximately 20 meters high. It was way cool. At this height we had to hook up the rope to our harnesses while Joe let us down. The scary part was getting to the edge of the waterfall and leaning back on the rope. Its like only thing keeping you from falling is this little knot tied to your harness. But the drop was fun! It's like walking on a wall, plus a whole bunch of water (from the waterfall) crashing on to your body. It was quite exhilarating. 

The last waterfall that we did was about 100 feet up or 30.5 meters. It was so crazy, and the water falling was so hard. 

So that was that... Canyoning is way fun. If you have a chance, I highly suggest it.

I got back and went to the grocery to prepare for two of my friends: Cay and Dunn. They are coming to visit tomorrow. I am so excited! I picked some flowers from the field and made a quiche (from scratch, I'll put the recipe with pictures up next week). Ok off to bed... God bless!

This is Exciting... How to Bake Foccacia Bread... Yes, I took these pictures in my kitchen...

(Special thanks to Niki Kalpakgian for giving me the recipe)

1) Get your ingredients:

1 cup warm water

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 Tablespoons (heaping) Italian Seasoning

2 teaspoons yeast

2 cloves of diced garlic

First, combine the water, yeast, oil, salt, Italian seasoning and stir till it looks like this.

2) Second, add the flour and mix some more. 

3) Third, the mixture will get thicker and eventually you will have to start kneading the bread. Knead the bread till the dough is consistent.

4) After kneading, let bread rise for 1.5 hours. (I find that if you cover the bowl, it rises better).

5) Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celsius.

6) Take dough and roll it out till it is flat, like so. 

7) Make indentions on the surface of the dough and allow to rise for 20-30 more minutes

8) Brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle some diced garlic 

9) Place in oven for 15-20 minutes till light golden brown on top.

10) Let it cool for 3-5 minutes and slice

11) Serve with good olive oil mixture of olive oil, salt, and freshly grated parmesan cheese. 

Climbing Mountains...

Let me just say that I love where I live... I wake up every morning thanking God for the opportunity to do what I am doing right now. The beauty of nature is just right outside my door. So today was nice... I went to 10am Mass here in the Kartause. Afterwards, I had brunch with Katie and Tomas. We had waffles and bacon! I felt like I was back in the US.

After that Tomas and I met up with perhaps the coolest boss I have ever worked for.

We hiked the Buch Mountain which is a 15 minute walk from my bedroom. I can see it from my window. I didn't think it was going to be too tough... Well as you can see from my perspiration, it was tough, but we did the ascent in 50 minutes. Check out these pics...

A restful day...

So nice to relax... kinda. I spent most of the day reorganizing my room. It looks a little better. I also did laundry and I'm about to bake some bread. I feel so domestic. 

I went for a run earlier this evening and I was just blown away by the beauty out here. The mountains and the streams... I just had to stop in the middle of the run to admire it. 

I want to ask all of you that read this blog to say a quick Hail Mary for my friend Tomas and Laura who are getting married in two weeks here at the Kartause in Gaming, Austria... ready? I'll even pray it with you

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and hour of our death. Amen. 

Thanks all... I miss all of you in YFC and cannot wait to see you! 

Peace and hair grease...

Another Day of Shopping... this time in Sankt Polten...

Ok,

I never thought I would say this, but I don't want to shop anymore... 

Katie and I went to Sankt Polten, which is the capital city of this area of Austria. We stopped at the Metro store. It's basically a really nice Walmart. The highlight of the shopping trip was tugging around 4 large carts of items. I also bought a Simon and Garfunkel CD for 4.99! 

Ahhh! I want to go to Vienna this weekend, but I'm really torn, because I need to have some time to just be still and prepare for this crazy semester... But then again... when could I come in to Vienna? Such hard decisions...

Please give me tips...

Everyone,

My apartment is so blah... and now I am posting pics of my blah place so that you all can give me some pointers. Please respond quickly as I will leave tomorrow at 9.00 for the store... Let me know what you think I can do... peace!

P.S. The pictures are of the living room... I'll do my bedroom later!

My Night in Vienna...

Greetings all,

I am not going to write much because I am exhausted. I had a long train ride and then used the fantabulous yet intricate public transport in Vienna. It's good to see my family here. I brought my second mom some flowers. I think she liked it... And then we had a household meeting. It was basically a night of prayer and discussion. Amazing time. We prayed for one another's intentions, and I mentioned praying for my future spouse. I got a hard time for that. Hahaha... I thank you all who were there... especially you Riche aka Chicong... Here are some pics of the evening...

IKEA... wow...

You know you're getting older when you want to buy stuff for your pad. People, my place looks so blah. I mean, your place should be comfy enough for you to want to stay in in all day right. I guess it's just hard when you have nothing to fill your place with. That would probably be different I weren't moving every several years, but that's another topic altogether. Anyways, for day two of work in Austria, Mark, Katie and I went to IKEA to buy stuff for the campus. We ended buying 3 black leather couches, a nice table, and cool rug for the main lobby. We also picked up a couch and stuff for the kitchens as well. 

I also picked some stuff up for my place. I got some of the cool sticker things that go up on your wall and make funky designs...

I am going to post some pics of my place up tomorrow and ask you all to give me some suggestions on what I can add to my room. 

Tomorrow I leave for Vienna... get ready peeps...

First day of work...

Folks,

Today was the first day of official work for Franciscan University - Gaming Campus. What a day. I woke up at 7:45am. I was late to Mass and ended up not going.... eeek not a good way to start out the week. Katie met me as she was getting out of the Church. The work day began with us driving to Scheibbs to buy drinks for the student social at the end of August.

We got to Scheibbs and went to the alcohol store. Wow. Beer galore. One of the things we do here at Franciscan University is promote a balanced life, so one way we do that is provide alcohol for the students. Now wait a second... how does this accomplish promoting a balanced life? Well... all things in moderation. One can drink and yet be balanced. And it's difficult to achieve that balance coming from the United States, where drinking is not permitted till 21 years of age. In a way alcohol becomes taboo till that age. 

But Europe is a different story altogether. It seems that here in Europe, people are brought up in a culture where drinking is acceptable at a much younger age. So what we try to do is introduce them into a culture where drinking is acceptable, but should be done in a responsible fashion that is in line with the Christian life. Therefore we have a social in the beginning of the semester where we provide them with alcohol, but monitor them so they can see that it is acceptable to drink, but that there is a responsible way of doing it. All things in moderation.

So anyways... the shopping for the drinks was fun. Afterwards, Katie and I went to the market to buy food for ourselves. I mean we've been living in Vienna for the past month and have no groceries in our places, so we had to stock up. I ended spending a whopping 75 Euro... Lots o food there. But I'll be eating well! Before we went back to Gaming, we stopped at a small cafe in Scheibbs. Fantastic coffee... I hope to frequent that place often.

We got back to campus at around 1pm. We took a lunch break and then met in the office where we had a short meeting with the overall director of the program. It was a good meeting, because it was short and to the point. Katie and I started working on some projects and ended at around 17.00. I told Katie and Tomas that I wanted to cook them dinner. So I made the following:

Tomato Basil Mozzarella Salad 

Fresh Foccacia Bread (thank you Niki for the recipe)

Lemon Chicken with pesto on penne pasta

We had some great wine and chocolate for dessert.

We ended the night watching the "Count of Monte Cristo," a must see movie...

Ok time to hit the sack I'm gonna try to make it to Mass at 8am. God bless! 

First Night in Gaming...

Ok,

Let me just say that the internet in Gaming (yes Tessa, I know I say it funny) is not good. For some reason I can't access the following sights:

1) Chase.com (my American bank)

2) blogger.com

So if any of you know what I can do to fix this problem... I will reward you with my gratefulness. 

So today I slept in after a late night. I realized how much I love sleep. If I could spend a day napping, that would be fun. Cay and I ended up leaving a little late (sorry Cay, I know your mom reads this blog!), but we made it! Praise you Lord. Honestly, I wasn't worried too much. There is always another train to take.

The train ride was fun. Katie, my co-worker, and I prayed a rosary to start out the ride. We talked for a little bit, and then I fell asleep. Trains are so nice to sleep in, but make sure that you are with good company. 

We got into Gaming at about 4:30pm and we were picked up by Professor Cassidy, who just arrived from Scotland. I got back to my room, and quickly changed into my running gear. I did a short 35 minute run before dinner.

The run was scenic and sunny. The mountains and streams that surrounded me were beautiful. Sometimes I can't believe I live here in all this natural beauty. Lord, you spoil me.

I got finished with the run and then got ready for dinner with the Kalpakgians. I arrived at their house at 6:30pm and was greeted by their cute son Ari. Wow, what a pistol! He is so full of energy and curiosity, much like any 3 year old would be. Soon after I was greeted by Dominic, the younger. He is adorable! He's one years old and just beginning to walk. Mark and Nikki are so great. What a charming couple. They are die-hard outdoors people. I love it, and I believe we will get along famously. Mark was already talking about the staff hiking trip before the students get back. 

After dinner I went for a short walk around the Kartause. The night was cool and quiet. It is real quiet out here at night. Things really shut down after 8 pm. There were barely any cars even. The stars were beautiful tonight...

My Last Night in Vienna...

Dear all,

I'll have to admit, I am feeling a little bittersweet right now. I am excited to get back to Gaming and to begin the work for Franciscan University, but I am very sad to be leaving the community that I've fallen in love with here in Vienna. 

What am I talking about? It's not like I live that far, but still, even the distance of a couple hours can put a strain on communication. But I told a lot of  you already, whatever free time I have it is for you all. The Lord called me to serve Him by serving you and I will be faithful to that... 

And to all those who are supposed to go to Salzburg and stop by in Gaming next week, you better be there *ahem Chicong*

So today was great. I woke up kinda early... went running around the lake and saw an very overweight man running in a speedo. I love Europe. I had another kaseleberkaesesemmel for breakfast (did I spell that right?). 

Then we went to the Happy Buddha in the city center for lunch. There I met with Rebby and her beautiful son, Colby. Cute cute kid... I posted some pics of the lunch and baby. Again they are interspersed throughout this blog, so disregard the order and what not.

After dinner we went to Stefansplatz where I played my first Mass in Europe. Wow. What a cool feeling. Thank you Lord for the opportunity. The choir sounded great! Good job all. After Mass, we had dinner at this place where they had good spareribs. Our waitress was a nice Bulgarian women. 

After a long and enjoyable dinner (Thank you Tito and Tita), Cay, Jun, and myself went to Rebby's house where they were playing poker. 5 Euro buy-in. I was out fairly late in the game. I'm not a good gambler... 

Anyways... so here I am, back in the Santayana's crib. I really will miss them and the community. Cay, make sure you get more sleep... Alright... it's time to hit the sack. Good night and God bless...