This semester i've been given more than i could ever dream or hope for! I am so sad to leave my austrian home and family! I feel like I just got off the bus from the airport, dazed and confused. Has it really been four months?
I love how everything is different here - it makes life such an adventure.
I love even how whenever I go on facebook in the library or the lab - its in a different language, especially on account of the language and catecatical institute students.
I love the kebab stand - walking down and eating outside. "What's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?" "Get kebabs" ... ohhhh. "I've lived for 80 years to eat crap like this?? just give me a kebab"
I love all the families here - so beautiful and such an example of love and how relationships can be so strong
I love how we live on an island - but instead of water surrounding us, its mountains. You spin around and see greatness.
I think I will be writing about this for a while longer, just thinking things through as they become clearer. anyways, i really like these quotes
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” Henry Miller
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Martin Buber
Well Good Night!
Tomorrow I will be in the US of A. I love you all!

Yesterday I finished my exams - such a relief.
Then we had an Austrian ball, where we all wore dirndles and
liederhosen, learned some Austrian dances and then danced the night
away. They brought in the Austrian slap dancers. which is so amazing.
It's impossible to go to an austrian dance and not just laugh the entire time.

Today is our last day here - we leave at 3 am for Vienna.
I'm incredibly sad that it's over and we're leaving. Not that this was
all there is to my life, but it was just such a good experience. I just love
being around the Kartause and being with the people here.
I was thinking about all the places that i've visited before coming and
i think one reason why I loved them so much was because of the people
i was with and well, partially, just how i felt. Not that life here in Austria
is bliss (it's life - come on. no place is like that) but just the feeling
that this is life and i'm going to live it. i so want to take the feeling home with
me, to live a passionate life.

where the two rivers meet. like two hearts. cute.
the burren, north of doolin, somewhere in Ireland.
The end is drawing near.
I try not to think about it - but how am I not to think about something so sad?
I loved traveling so much - I went to Paris twice! And even snuck in a trip to Florence (that miraculously worked out). But really, I just not ready to move. I'm not ready to leave beautiful Gaming. I love living here at the Katause with everyone. I'm not ready to stop getting to know people and to not see mountains all around me. So, that's my problem. On Saturday, I hiked for 7 1/2 hours. We stopped once, to jump in the river that was made from frozen snow. My body was so confused when it hit the water. whyyyy are you doing this to mee?? apparently our screams echoed to people who had passed us 20 min before we jumped. we were loud.
so ... i say YES to the volcano. keep it coming baby. ha. what a last ditch wish though.
I love you!!

This weekend is a 4 day one. The weekend after that is a regular 2 day and we're having a Haiti fundraiser (we're opening up the kartause to everyone in gaming and having a festival kind of thing). Because of the fundraiser ... I don't think I will be traveling anywhere really (except for maybe a day trip). So what I am saying is, I think this is my last traveling weekend. I can't believe it. I am not going to become all sentimental while I am still here, though. haha. So, tonight I am off to Florence. I am so sad that Florence only gets 1 little day, but I am determined to make it work. Then Friday night I am going to meet people in Paris. Why Paris again? Because I liked it a lot and I wanted to travel with people on my last trip. No actually I loved Paris.
So yea, I hope you all have a fun weekend and have beautiful weather to enjoy! Love you!

oh. I just wanted to say. I picked out my dirndl today. My dress for the Austrian ball. I like it, too.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!
As always, I don't know what happened to lent.
It started and then suddenly it was over.
Last Saturday I left with Meg and Michelle for Ireland!
We went to Dublin, the Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough,
Galway, Doolin and Knock. In Dublin we spent some time with
the missionaries of charity. They have the cutest little house and they were
so dedicated to serving the people who come for meals. During the whole trip I had sopping wet feet that were frozen. It rained every day except one and it snowed when we were in the wicklow mountains. ehhh. It was so beautiful every where.
Doolin was such a sleepy little town ... it was so perfect. It was right on the water so we walked along the edge of the cliffs to the actual cliffs of moher. Ahh it was so fantastic. I have never felt wind like that before. I noticed a lot of people in town with really rosy cheeks ... wind burn. yah. Walking along the edge of the cliffs was kind of scary, it was a really long way down. Plus the path we were told to go on was not like anything you could see unless you were looking for it.
I loved, among other things, listening to a little boy sing the Galway girl song in a pub, all the music we heard, driving on the wrong side of the road and playing with this little irish girl. My favorite was when she said, "This is just rubbish!".
Well ... my goal is to put some pictures up today. Maybe I'll just ignore the order of things and put up some ireland pictures.
We leave in 3 weeks. I am so sad. Ok, but I'm not going to think about it any more :)

It smells like spring!

Ah! I bet you love the smell of spring. Freshness, cool breezes, flowers ... In Gaming the smell brings me back to my childhood. Every year, at this time of year, I would go to springtime on the farm at lake farm park. This, my friends, is exactly what Gaming smells like. Apparently, some where around here are farms. I think I saw one, once when I was walking.
No, but in all honesty, even though the snow made it look like Narnia here, it sure is nice getting to go outside for once without stiffening like the tin man and getting frozen boogers.
Lesson I've learned: If you think you might like traveling to a certain place and you've dreamed of going there all your life, go, even if people are debby downers about it and offer many disparaging comments on the city - you will probably love it. Paris was (AH! i can now say was) my number 2 on my go to list. Paris. Paris. Paris. And it was fantastic. There is a reason why it is such a great city. Not because it has the Eiffel Tower or Napoleon's body. The people there were so passionate about their city, so in love with it that it made me love it too. Plus, I really saw how it is a city full of art. Not just in the museums but everywhere throughout the city. It was so wonderful seeing my mom and Mrs.K. I hope I wasn't too annoying and wasn't to much of a map hogger. It was like a dream getting to be with my family in another country. I also really just like that little old lady I met at Notre Dame. But the French language really scares me...