I'm Coming Home!

Sunday I took Kelsey to church (did I mention she's LDS too?!)  to show here where it was and to introduce her to everyone.  It was really fun to see everybody in the ward one last time but it was also more sad than I was expecting.  The sister missionaries who had become my substitute grandmothers while there gave me a beautiful gift to keep with me and remember them always.  Saying goodbye to them was by far the hardest but I have no doubt that we will keep in touch.  After saying goodbye to the other YSAs and an awkward goodbye from Bishop Mamouney it was time to head home and say goodbye to all the kids. 

Isabelle and Sigrid were in the hospital for a mother-daughter checkup (yeah I don't know either...?).  So I had said my tear-filled goodbyes to them the night before.  Saying goodbye to Isabelle was so difficult.  As she hugged me, which is not something she was accustomed to, I remembered all the good and bad times that we had throughout the year that had brought us closer than I expected.  Not knowing when or if I'll ever see her again made my heartache. 

Sunday evening I spent time with Matthias, Rene and the kids eating dinner and watching some more of the world cup.  When it was time for the kids to go to bed, I was able to take each one of them separately so I could say goodbye as I tucked them in.  Of course Christoph, being the youngest was first.  He asked me to read our favorite book, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, one last time together.  As I started to read I was totally fine, but as he snuggled up closer to me, my emotions started to really hit me.  This was the last time that we would every read this book together and an entire year of frustrations and sweet memories came flooding back to me and the closer I got to the end of the book the harder I would cry.  Normally Christoph would get impatient and want me to finish, but he seemed to understand and just let me cry as he continued to cuddle with me.  When Matthias came to tell me Fanny was waiting for me, my eyes were in an intense flow.  We finished the book and then he gave the sweetest hug that I will never forget.  He also promised to visit in America.  :)  Next, I had a good time playing a quick game of horses with fanny and explaining to her that I wouldn't see her in the morning but I would try to see her again as soon as possible.  More tears and a flood of mixed emotions and memories came with Fanny's tender hug goodbye.  With Flora, I read a couple of her favorite books and then we listened to our favorite song, "Best Friend", by Will.I.Am from the Madagascar soundtrack.  She understood more fully than fanny did that I would not be returning in the morning.  As I hugged her, she wrapped her arms and legs around me and refused to let go, making me promise that I would come back someday.  Finally it was Timon's turn.  I'm going to be honest.... saying goodbye to him was by far the easiest.   At first I thought he wasn't even going to hug me or care at all, but he caught be off guard by putting his arm around me and reminiscing the few good moments that we had shared during the year. 

Before Rene left, he caught me and kissed both of my cheeks wishing me well in life.  And as I started to head off to finish packing Matthias caught me to say goodbye.   He shook my hand and expressed his gratitude for my help and friendship.  I tried not to cry as he shook my hand but it was a losing battle.  When I was finally in my room alone, I was nothing but a puddle as the reality of it all hit me.  I was going home in the morning, where I could see my friends and family that I hadn't seen in a year but I was also leaving this wonderful, terrifying, frustrating, magical adventure that had changed my life, and leaving my new family not knowing when I would see them again.  The term bittersweet had never felt more real than it did in these moments. 

Anybody who knows me knows I don't exactly like to wake up early in the morning.  So as I finished packing I had the brilliant idea of just staying up all night since I had to catch my taxi at 5:30 am anyway.  I was far to emotional to sleep anyway.  I worked on packing until about 2 in the morning when I finally thought it was good enough.  I had so much stuff that I was bringing home that I was nervous my bags would be way overweight and I didn't exactly have enough money to cover the ridiculous overcharges.  Worrying about that mixed with the emotions I was already dealing with, was literally making me sick.  I prayed so hard, so many times that everything would work out ok and at 5:30 I met my taxi outside with my two huge suitcases, my overstuffed backpack with my Doc Martin sandals strapped to the shoulder straps and my 'purse' stuffed with chocolate.  During the ride to the airport I conversed with the cabdriver in near-perfect German (he actually thought I was a native) that made me realize even more how much this experience has taught me and how much I will miss it.  When what seemed like a lifetime had passed and we were finally at the airport it was time to put my faith to the test and hope that my bags could pass the weight requirement.  But first, I had to get all of my bags out of the are because apparently the driver wasn't allowed to help me (lazy excuse).  I felt like a one-woman circus act with my backpack, that had sandals flopping around it and all of my other suitcases that seemed to all want to go in different directions at the same time.  At the check-in desk I hoisted my huge luggage on up there and help my breath and.... it passed!  By the grace of God, they had passed the weight requirement!  I took my ticket and carry-ons and carried on down toward security.  Once I had made it to my gate they weight of the entire year and the reality that I was really leaving hit me like a thousand bricks.  I sat down in a chair and cried like a baby.  I was sobbing so hard that people were staring at me like I was a crazy person.  I was tired and exhausted from staying up and stressing all night, I was over the moon about seeing my family soon and heartbroken that I was leaving my new family and home.  Once the tears started flowing there was no stopping them... They continued to flow as I waited to board all the way until we had been in the air for at least 45 minutes. 

And this my friends was only the beginning of the longest day of my life.  From Vienna, I flew to Duesseldorf, Germany for a 2 hour layover and then boarded a 12-hour flight to LAX.  I was so tired that I felt like a zombie by the time I had found my seat on the second flight.  Usually flights this long have individual televisions so people can watch movies and keep their mind off of the fact that they're extremely tired and uncomfortable.  But no no, not this one... as tired as I was you'd think that I would have passed right out but for some unknowing and annoying reason I just couldn't so I sat their agonized over every single, uncomfortable second.  Flying west means that you go back in time which meant that even though I had been on  the plane for 12 hours, only about three hours in the day had passed.  This made me feel like I was in some strange time-warp movie and I was almost delirious with exhaustion when I finally reached LAX.  I got off of the plain as soon as I could and booked it to customs.  As you approach the customs gate there is a hug sign above that reads, "Welcome back to the United States of America."  The beauty of that simple statement almost made me start crying all over again and I was overjoyed to be back in the land of the free.  The lady who checked my passport was unamused, as they always are, and looked at me like a mental patient as I told here how I happy I was to be here.  From there I searched for the next terminal where I would have to recheck everything.  This time, my luggage didn't pass the weight requirement.  Rigged scale?  I think yes.  But instead of caving in to the $90 charge to cover 7 lbs, that I couldn't pay for anyway, I was forced to rearrange everything in my perfectly organized suitcases in front of tons of others waiting in line.  After an embarrassing shifting session everything had worked out and I was on my way back through my favorite part of flying... security.  :(  This time my bag with all the chocolate had to be opened and searched, where I proceeded to get questioned about the large and unnecessary quantities.  When I finally made it to my final gate I pulled out the phone that I had stored safely the entire year, plugged it in, and sighed a huge sigh of relief at the fact that it still worked.  Out of sheer elation, I started calling and texting people starting with my mom of course, just to tell them I was back in the country!  Mmmm it felt good.  A 4 hour layover, and 3 hour flight later I was riding the escalator down to baggage claim in Salt Lake City.  By this point I had been traveling for over a day.  Seeing my dad waiting for me at the end was one of my favorite moments of my entire life.  I was home. I was older, more experienced, more grown-up, but I was home!   Well I guess technically I still had an 8 hour drive until I was REALLY home, but still... I was home!!

A quote to finish off the blog,
"You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place.  Like you'll not only miss the people you love, but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and place because you'll never be this way every again."

Last Week in Austria :(

Over the last couple weeks the idea that I would be coming home soon seemed very surreal. I assumed that it would start to feel more real the closer I got to leaving. However, it just seemed to grow more and more surreal. It wasn't until Kelsey, the girl who replaced me, arrived on Tuesday, June 15th that I was hit by reality. And even then it was still only a small amount of reality. Even though she was standing there in front of me waiting for me to help her and show her around, I still had a hard time believing it.

It was really interesting for me to see her and see how tired, nervous, and culture-shocked she was, because I can remember exactly what that felt like. When I first started I didn't think I'd ever get used to the family or the big city. But seeing her like that and being able to relate made me realize just how much I really did adjust and how attached I had become.

My last week with the family was not much different than any other week except that Kelsey was there, which was actually really great! (2 people for one job!) :) Isabelle's parents and two sisters Catherine and Thesi, came over on Thursday night to have one last dinner all together before I leave. Catherine cooked, so of course it was amazing and it was really fun to visit with them all one last time. After dinner however, the boys were fixed on the world cup and had it really loud. The only thing running through my mind while they were all enjoying their soccer, was "tonight, lakers vs. celtics, game 7, NBA finals.... and I'm watching this crap". But it was still definitely an experience watching people get excited about soccer... I didn't know that was possible.

My plans for the weekend were to take Kelsey to Ana's house and then into the city to show her around and introduce her to some people. On the way there she kept telling me how overwhelmed she was by everything. She mentioned that she didn't think she'd ever be able to get used to it. But guess what... that is exactly what I thought but I was able to get a pretty good feel for the city and the public transportation.  Or so I thought...

Friday afternoon we set out to take the kids to Kinderstunde as always.  Things were going great as I showed Kelsey the correct bus routes and U-bahn stops.  After dropping off Timon and Fanny I tried to give Kelsey a fairly quick tour of some of my favorite places in the city.  The entire time I was just talking nonstop, answering her questions and trying to give her all the information she could possibly need.  I loved the feeling of knowing all the answers to her questions which were the same questions I had not to long before.  One of my comments was, "I promise Kelsey, if I can get used to the public transportation and big city you certainly can too... I can navigate my around the city with my eyes closed."  Aaaannndd... that was the beginning of my train ride to humble-town.  We went to the train station, Praterstern, to get on the train to Baden to see Ana, and as soon as we got there I saw, on the departure screen, that the train we wanted would be leaving in just a few minutes.  I thought I knew the train schedules so well that I just glanced at the screen and was confident I had found the right one.  But about 20 minutes into the train ride I stopped talking for a minute to look out the window and noticed that the hills that Baden sits at bottom of were getting farther and farther away instead of closer.  I though for sure that I was just making it up and that perhaps they were different hills seeing as I often traveled to Baden at night so I may have missed those hills.  But as time passed and the hills continued to get farther away I was becoming less and less confident.  I stood to look at the map that have above every door and at the same time an announcement was made stating the final destination of the train... which was nowhere close to Baden.  My heart sank as I finally faced the fact that we had boarded the wrong train... and paid for it!  Embarrassed, I grabbed Kelsey and we got off at the very next stop, figure that we could just catch a train back to where we started and and start over.  Only, of course, to find out that the stop consisted of a tiny shack and the closest town was about mile away.  Also, there were no more trains coming through there for the night.  So... we high-tailed into to town to try and catch a bus.  We literally had to run over the river and through the woods to get to this little town and once we arrived it was only to discover that the next bus wasn't coming for at least an hour.  There we sat at a tiny, sketchy little bus stop, just the two of us, waiting. By this point I was beyond embarrassed at my previous over-confident attitude about knowing my way around.  Eventually the bus finally came and a couple of hours later we were back on track.  We made it to Ana's around 11 pm, only 5 hours later than originally planned... but the rest of the evening was filled with reminiscing our adventures and preparing Kelsey for hers. 

Moral of this story is... humility is key.  Don't embarrass yourself with your pride because you just might end up in a tiny, foreign town, with little money, eating your words. 

Videos of places that were too big for one picture

Roman History

hmmmm..... right... as if one blog could even begin to cover the basic history of a city known as "The Eternal City"!

Inside the Colosseum

excited to be there

The Colosseum/Il Colosseo:

The Colosseum is a great amphitheater in Rome that is very well known throughout the world. It was first commissioned in AD 72 by Emperor Vespasian. It is believed that get its name not only from is massive size but from an enormous statue, the Colossus of Nero, that used to stand nearby. It is the largest theater ever built in the roman empire and considered one of the greatest works of roman architecture. The theater has 80 entrances which allows easy access to the 55,000 spectators that it can hold. Inside this very structure is where the gladiators used to fight to death. The colosseum also played host to many other types of shows, one of them being wild animal fights. The 4 rows of the outside walls are each built with different styles. The bottom 3 are arched, one with Doric columns, one with Ionic and the last with Corinthian. The top level used to support a huge awning to shade spectators.

The bridge leading to the castle

St. Angelo's Castle/Castel Sant' Angelo:

This castle gets its name from Pope Gregory the Great's vision of Michael the Archangel in the 6th century as he led a procession across the bridge, praying for the end of the plague. In AD 139, the castle began as Emperor Hadrian's mausoleum. Since then it has served for many other purposes, such as being a bridgehead in the Emperor Aurelian's city wall, a medieval citadel and prison, and a place for safety for popes during times of war or political unrest.

Piazza Navona:

This piazza follows the shape of a 1st century AD stadium, built by Domitian and used for athletic contests, chariot races and other sports. The foundations of the surrounding buildings come from the ruined stadium and traces can still be seen. The church of Sant' Agnese is named after the virgin martyr St. Agnes, whose hair, when forced to strip naked to renounce her face, grew miraculously long hiding her body. The fountain in the middle of the piazza, Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi portrays four gods personifying the world's greates know rivers at the time - the Nile, the Plate, the Ganges, and the Danube. (I dipped my foot in this fountain... definitely not something your supposed to do :) and got my butt soaked from it...)

Pantheon (undergoing renovations... lame):

The Pantheon is the Roman temple of all the gods, and is the 'best preserved' ancient building in Rome. The first building on the site is believed to have been built by Agrippa between 27 and 25 BC. But the present structure was built and maybe even designed by Emperor Hadrian in AD 118. In the 7th century, Christians claimed that as they walked by they were being plagued by demons, so permission was given to turn the Pantheon into a church. Today it is lined with tombs holding the bodies of many Italian monarchs.

Palatine Hill:

The Palatine is a the hill where the Roman aristocracy lived and emperors built their palaces, and is considered the city's most pleasant and relaxing of the ancient sites. The area is dominated by the grand ruins of the Domus Augustana and Domus Flavia, which were two parts of domitias huge palace in the 1st Century AD. Other remains here include The House of Ausgustus and the House of Livia, where the Emperor Augustus lived with his wife Livia; the Cryptoporticus, a long underground gallery built by Nero; and the Huts of Romulus which are iron age huts from 10th century BC that provide archaeoogical support for teh areas's legendary links the the founding of Rome. According to legend, Romulus and Remus grew up on this hill in the 8th century BC.

Trevi Fountain/Fontana Di Trevi:

By standards of the Eternal City, the Trevi Fountain is pretty recent. It was only completed in 1762 by Nicola Salvi and is Rome's largest and most famous fountain. The central figure is of Neptune, flanked by two Tritons, one struggling with an ill-tempered seahorse and the other leading a more relaxed animal. These symbolize the two contrasting moods of the sea. Originally the site was the terminal of the Aqua Virgo Aqueduct (19 BC).

St. Peters Basilica/Basilica di San Pietro:

Being catholicism's most sacred shrine, this vast, beautiful building attracts people from all over the world. The shrine was built on the site of St. Peter's tomb in the 2nd century and the first basilica was commissioned by Constantine and completed around AD 349. It began falling down in the 15th century, so in 1506, Pope Julius II laid the first stone of new church. The present basilica took more than a century to build and all the great architects of the Roman Renaissance and Baroque helped with its design.

Roma, Italia

As we were flying into Rome on the evening of Friday June 4th preparing for landing, I could hardly stand it. I had my face pressed against the window trying to take in as much of the city from the air as I could. Luckily, I was able to catch a glimpse of the beautiful Vatican and also the stunningly huge Colosseum! When our plane touched down in Roman town it was all I could do to contain myself. I could already feel the wonderful warm air and beautiful Italian atmosphere. After getting off the plane, our first task was to locate the shuttle bus that would take us to the city center. As we began our journey from the airport on the outskirts to the main part of the city, I had already fallen head over heals in love with Rome. Around every single corner you can find history dating back thousands of years, amazing architectural ruins, and the whole city is just blanketed with a warm, friendly, engaging, elegant, amazing (and the list goes on..) aura. Even on the outskirts you can see many ancient ruins, and old city walls out in the middle of fields.

After about 40 minutes of enjoying the city through the windows of a bus we were finally at the city center and were in for another long journey to find our hostel. Before beginning we decided that we had to get some gelato first, and boy are we glad we did. That stuff sends me straight to heaven every time! We then proceeded to attempt yet another city's public transportation. (I can't even express how excited I am that I get to drive a car in 2 weeks!!) It seemed pretty easy since there were only two metro lines and we had detailed directions and information on which bus to take. The metro part really was extremely easy, but once it came time to transfer to a bus, it got a bit more difficult. We couldn't find the stop for our bus number anywhere and just kept wandering back and forth around the area with no luck. There were two other small groups of people about our age, and after a while of ignoring each other we all turned to each other for a little help. As it happens we were all american and all looking for the exact same bus to go to the exact same hostel. So with increased power due to our increased numbers and the help of a very old, very friendly Italian man we finally located our bus... just in time. From there we had about a 30 minute bus ride (though we didn't know it until the 30 minutes had already passed).

Upon first climbing onto the bus, I went to sit down with Ana in a couple of available seats. But as I was squeezing into the tight fit, my butt hit something really sharp on the side of the seat. It hurt so bad that I sprung back up into the isle really quick and then once the initial pain wore off attempted to sit back down. It wasn't till I had been comfortably seated for a minute or two that it dawned on me to check if my pants had ripped. I didn't think they would have but it never hurts to check right? As I reached down to feel if they were still in tact, my hand felt something it shouldn't have... skin!! Sure enough, that sharp thing I had hit, ripped clean through my pants and my underwear and even made perfect 90 degree angles in them. Nice huh. The best part was when I remembered that I had stood back up in the isle for a minute giving everyone behind me a nice view.

Since by this time it was getting pretty late, when we had reached our stop at last after a long, bare-butted bus ride, we were looking so forward to getting to our room and crashing!! With my jacket tied around my waist like a nerd to cover the rip, we trekked up to our hostel, which actually turned out to be more of a campground. At first I wasn't so thrilled at that idea but then I saw our 'room'. We were able to get our own little mobile home/camper thing complete with two beds, a fridge, and our own bathroom for two people for two nights for only a total of 40 euros! Talk about a sweet deal. ;)

The next day we woke up fairly early ready to really begin our roman experience! I really was so excited that I'm sure Ana felt like she was walking around with a hyper puppy. But then again, she was just as thrilled. The very first thing we saw was none other than archeological wonder that I've been dreaming of seeing fovever... THE Colosseum! Its abrupt massiveness practically slapped us in the face immediately after stepping out of the metro station. Ana and I walked around it for a while in awe-filled wonder and took tons of pictures! As we were walking around with bent necks and dropped jaws we almost didn't notice the random men that were dressed as roman gladiators trying to get people to take pictures with them. After a while of staring and picture taking we decided to go in. Thank heavens we were smart enough to buy the Roma Pass ( card that got us 3 days of public transportation use, 2 archeological sites or museums free, and discounts on everything else) previously because it meant we got to skip the ticket line. Had he waited in the line, we probably would have been there for hours!!! But lucky us, we got to trot right past all the other poor suckers and go right in! Inside it was unbelievably amazing! I couldn't comprehend (and still can't) that I was actually standing in an almost 2000 year old arena where gladiators used to fight to the death. The vastness and history of this place is incredible.

The rest of the morning and afternoon we spent just wandering around the city seeing whatever sites we happen to run into, which was a lot, and eating lots of pizza, lasagna and of course gelato. After buying a couple sweet t-shirts at a cute little souvenir shop, I dropped my camera while I was waiting for Ana to complete her purchase. I didn't give much thought to my clumsiness at the time and my camera seemed to be ok. However, after a 20 minute journey up to the vatican, and many failed attempts to take a picture I noticed that my batteries and memory card had fallen out. Normally I would be ok with just getting a new memory card, but I had already taken some amazing, irreplaceable photos that day. So back to that same souvenir shop it was. When we got back, I immediately started looking. At first I had no luck and I'm sure people thought I was crazy for crawling around on the floor. But after a few prayers and some diligent searching we finally found the little card and even the batteries tucked away underneath a rack of purses. Once a very grateful prayer was said, we began our journey again to the catholic headquarters.

When we arrived at the Vatican, memory cards and all, we had no idea what to really expect. I knew it would be beautiful, but St. Peter's Cathedral blew all expectations out of the water and is beyond description. This building is considered the most sacred to the catholics (obviously), so upon entering, people must go through a security check and are only allowed to wear pants that cover the knees and shirts that cover the shoulders. The first thing we did after we passed security, was went down underneath the building to see the tombs of the past popes. As I'm sure you can imagine, being underground, with a bunch dead popes was extremely creepy and I was looking forward to getting out of there the second I got in. Toward the end of the hall tourists are urged to be move quickly but silently, due to the fact that people still come there to pray and worship (or whatever it is they do) to the most recently dead pope. It was quite an odd thing to see. I know this is an irreverent thought, but the only thing I was thinking at the time was, "And they think mormons are the weird ones? ... seriously?" Immediately after that tomb, you can turn a corner to see the supposed tomb of St. Peter himself. It's not just a normal tomb though, its a huge, beautiful room that is glassed off. I wish I could describe it, but I honestly can't do it justice and we weren't allowed to take pictures. A few minutes later we were able to get back upstairs into the light and go into the main part of the cathedral. Again, I wish I could describe it but there are simply no words. I've had the opportunity to see a lot of beautiful and historic architecture, but St. Peter's vastness and beauty far surpass anything I've ever seen (with the exception of mormon temples of course ;) haha)

The rest of the evening spent doing some more wandering and random sight-seeing. The Trevi Fountain would have been one of my favorite things to see had it not been so insanely crowded. It was as if everyone in the city went to see it at the same time. But I can't say I blame everyone for wanting to go there and see peaceful water fall down from gorgeous marble statues and land gracefully in a beautiful pool. Plus, the fountain has a legend, that if you throw a coin in, it will insure that you'll return to Rome one day. Although I've also heard that you can make whatever wish you want. So its no wonder it was packed with tourists.

It was starting to get late so after the Trevi fountain we began our journey back to the hostel for the night. The next day we spent the morning wandering a little bit more and even visited a museum (which just happened to be the most boring one on the planet). When it came time to go to the airport to fly home, I did not want to go. Normally when I go somewhere else for a weekend I'm always glad to get back home to Vienna. However, this time was different. In just one weekend I had completely fallen in love the roman charm, beautiful and historical architecture, and italian food. It took everything I had to force myself to get back on the plane to leave it. A week later I still wish I was there, and am praying that I'll be able to go back one day. Rome is one place I could visit over and over and over and over and over and over......

Small Pre-Roman Adventure

Last weekend I took a much anticipated trip to Rome with my friend Ana. But on our way to Rome we had a little pre-adventure..

Ana and I were both able to get the day off 'work' on Friday so we could get an early start on our last big adventure together. We left Vienna early and headed over to Bratislava, which is where our plane was flying out from. Bratislava is only about an hour away from here and our plane to Rome didn't leave until evening, so we had most of the morning and early afternoon to explore the capital city of Slovakia. We thought it would work out perfectly since we've talked about going to Bratislava for months. Our first item of business after we arrived at the train station was to find out how to get into the station from the platform. As we exited the train we started to walk towards the building, but this wasn't the main station and the building was quite odd so we had some difficulties finding the main entrance, or any entrance for that matter. We started walking in a direction that looked promising and just kept walking until we'd reached a point where there was definitely no entrance. As we turned around to walk back and try again, we were startled to see a very large group directly behind us. Looking at the group of people, I recognized them all from the train and realized that they all looked quite lost themselves. An awkward moment passed by and then all of the sudden it hit us all at the same time... everyone had been following us, the clueless foreigners, simply because we were in the front. A little embarrassed that we were leading a bunch of people to no where, and seeing that they were all embarrassed that they had been following us like bunch of dumb sheep, we just all busted up laughing together. After a few minutes of laughter with our new Austrian/Slovakian friends we finally found a way into the slight pathetic station. Our next item of business was to acquire a map of the city so we could find our a way around and try and figure out the public transportation system. Normally, finding a city map is no problem because there are always information spots at ever train station. However, like I said, this station was slightly pathetic and the only thing inside was a dysfunctional vending machine and a very cranky station attendant who didn't speak german or english. Outside of the train station, there was absolutely nothing... we were definitely on the outskirts of town. And, of course, neither of us speak Slovak so trying to read signs was out of the question. Finally we were able to find some one spoke german to direct us to a small store to buy a map. I'm pretty decent with maps, so now that we had one I figured getting around would be a piece of cake. But much to my dismay, looking at the map was like reading a foreign language... oh wait, it was exactly like reading a foreign language. Nothing made any sense whatsoever, and all the bus lines were connecting and intersecting and all printed in the same color, making it incredibly hard to figure out how to get anywhere. But after a while, we were able to get some sort of clue and just started jumping on buses and hoping we ended up where we wanted.

Once we made it into the main part of town we discovered that its just as boring, lame, and confusing as the outskirts we started in. In less than two hours we had seen all the main sites of the town which consisted of a total of... about... one. The Bratislava Castle is really the only thing worth seeing there, and even that is pretty sad. It looks pretty cool, but it also looks brand new, which lowers the cool factor... A LOT. After that we decided that we didn't want to deal with the crumby city anymore mixed with rain and really cold wind so we just decided to attempt to find our way to the airport and wait for our take-off to Rome Italy! It took us quite a while to get to the airport, but once we were finally there, it felt great. Its a very liberating feeling to conquer the public transportation system of a confusing/boring city. We had to wait a long time at the airport, but once we had checked-in, gone through security, and boarded the plane I was overwhelmed with a realization that I was ACTUALLY on my way to ROME... a city that I knew wouldn't be boring or confusing, but a city that would in fact fulfill a dream of mine to see!!!

a cool view of the city from the castle... but don't be deceived... once you're down there its pretty depressing

Bratislava Castle

I dare you to try and decipher this

Birthday Weekend

The weekend after my birthday I had the opportunity to spend the whole weekend with my best friend here in Austria, Ana. Friday night we just had a typical girly sleepover party that included lots of pizza, ice cream, laughing etc.. The next day we went into the city to meet the sister Missionaries for lunch. Sister Chun and Sister Achiu have been like substitute grandmas for Ana and me during our time here away from our families. :) After our delicious chinese meal, Ana surprised me with a birthday cake so we took it back to the empty institute center where we had a mini birthday party complete with cake, pictures, and card games. :) After a couple of fun-filled hours of getting our butts kicked in every game by Sister Achiu, Ana and I went on to do something we've wanted to do since we got here... ride the famous Prater Ferris Wheel! Prater is a huge tourist attraction and from the top you can look out and see a breathtaking view of the entire city of Vienna. Then a little later we headed to another part of the city to visit the Schoenbrunn gardens. Shoenbrunn was the first major thing that I saw when I came to Vienna, but I didn't remember it very well because I was super tired the first time. So it was good to finally go back and really enjoy the beauty of it... just before my 1-year anniversary with the city. :) Then for a good ending to the weekend, we went back to Ana's for more junk-food and laughs that kept us up for most of the night.

Gloriette: 12th century French for "little glory"

Built in 1775, it stands up on a hill behind the Schoenbrunn palace as a focal point and lookout point for the gardens. Franz Joseph I used it as a dining hall, festival hall, and breakfast room. Today the dining area is a cafe. In the 2nd world war, the Gloriette was destroyed but was completely restored by 1947.

Schönbrunn palace and a very small portion of the gardens...all of the gardens together are like a big beautiful forest thats probably bigger than the whole town of Hamilton.

Schönbrunn: "beautiful spring"

The palace is a former imperial summer residence and is one of Vienna's most important cultural monuments. In its early history, the area was used as a hunting lodge but after being destroyed by the turks, Leopold I asked Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach to design a grand Baroque residence in 1965 but was only completed after Maria Theresa hired Nikolaus Pacassi to finish the project. Within the gardens there are fountains, an orangery, a public swimming pool, and even a zoo... among many other things.

Prater

View from Prater

Ana and Me

Sister Chun

The second time blowing out the candles... because they forgot to take a picture the first time.

Sister Achiu