So even though I probably won't make it to Salzburg this time around, I've been feeling like I live in a movie lately. I mean, seriously, how can you live in Vienna and not feel that way? This is the most amazing city. A week and a half ago we went to a monastery at Melk... we had already paid for it through program fees, so we opted to do Budapest another weekend... and then took a bike tour through vineyards and along the Donau. It was pouring rain and freezing cold, but our little group (me, Jeff, Tasha and Emily) completed the whole 36km despite cases of near-hypothermia, haha. People's lips were blue and there was some uncontrollable shivering all around. As a matter of fact, only 10 of the original 18 or 20 made it all the way. Then last week we saw some pretty awesome buildings like the Rathaus and Parliament and hung out in Schoenbrunn. After our group meeting on Thursday a few of us got dolled up and went there for a little photo shoot. Though it is definitely not what I would have chosen to do on my own, we ended up having a good time and the pictures turned out pretty awesome. Not gonna lie. I even went so far as to upload a couple of them, which is saying something. If you want to see any other recent pictures, of which there are a ton, check out my facebook profile. Seriously, there are some pretty sweet ones. Like the one where I'm blowing out Martin Luther's burning Bible that I posted at the top of this. Yeah, the Catholics definitely believed he was being thrust down to hell, along with his translation. Interesting stuff, yeah? Talk about charity. No wonder so many people here are disillusioned with church.
We have found out favorite little pizza place around here, which is pretty awesome. It is called Pizzeria Mafiosi and the pizza/pasta is delicious and cheap. For example, an entire spinach pizza (of which I can usually only eat about half) is only 3,60 Euro. An entire plate of gnocchi with spinach and a cream sauce is the same (do you think I like spinach? I miss eating veggies all the time). And it's good food! I love it. We ate that during the Schoenbrunn concert and even enjoyed the music at the end, though we couldn't hear it too well. They played Night on Bald Mountain, which made me super happy and reminded me of how bad that piece scared me on Fantasia, as well as some other pieces with fireworks during the finale. It was way fun and very free, which made it even better. That, and the fact that the weather stayed nice for us despite the threatening rainclouds.
Friday I couldn't go anywhere until Tasha brought me back my monthly pass from Jeff. He had accidentally walked off with it the night before after hanging onto it for me while we picked up the pizzas. Really, I should have gotten it earlier but I forgot. Then in the afternoon Margaret and I went on splits with the sister missionaries, which was fantastic! I cannot tell you how amazing it was to feel the Spirit so strongly and see how the Lord is able to work through His missionaries, even if we're just regular people. He opens doors for them that would otherwise be sealed tight, let me tell you. It is a little scary and definitely hard work, but I can already tell it is going to be worth it. It's just hard sometimes to keep up that level of enthusiasm all the time, when there are other things distracting me here. I'm working on it though. And I am trying to prepare myself, though I could always do better. Friday night we had dinner with our host mom, Frau Alfons, who is totally awesome. She made us palatschinken and told us funny stories about her horses and dog. I love it. She is almost 71 and still incredibly active and lively and I find it so impressive. Did I mention that she used to be a ballerina and travelled the world? Yeah, way rad. After that we went to a missionary farewell party in our ward and then went to Lange Nacht der Kirchen with some friends. It turned out to be pretty cool, even if we did get there a little late. Then most people went home and four of us (me, Tash, Lloyd and Charles) stayed out and went dancing. It was fun but I don't anticipate having such a long night again, I was totally drained the next day.
Saturday afternoon we had standing room tickets in the Musikverein, which is ranked as one of the top 3 concert halls in the world, or something like that. It was AMAZING. Standing room definitely isn't my favorite, but listening to the Viennese Philarmonic Orchestra live in such a setting was absolutely priceless. They played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik as well as a French romantic piece with some Spanish influence, an American piece, and Mendelssohn. The conductor was absolutely fantastic, conducting and playing the piano at the same time. Sometimes he'd conduct with both arms, sometimes with one while playing with one hand, sometimes he'd play with two hands... awe-inspiring, let me tell you. Afterward we ate at the Italian place and then went over to Charles and Phil's house where we tried to watch Barfuss. Sadly the streaming didn't work, but we had a good time anyway. It's such a quirky film. Anyway, we got home late again and then I went with Tasha to church because my friend Jonathan Hiemer (from Germany) was visiting his girlfriend there and I thought it would be cool to see him. Then I went home and fell asleep for a couple hours. Sooooo nice. I was really dragging by that point and could tell I was feeling pretty grumpy. I also talked to my parents in the evening, which was very good. I miss my family a lot, despite all the fun things we've been doing here. It's not possible to everything all the time, I guess.
This coming week we are heading on a temple trip to Frankfurt, which should be pretty awesome. We are going with the JAEs and I am looking forward to going back there. I have so many good memories of there from 2 years ago. We leave Wednesday night and get back Saturday night, so it's a pretty good chunk, even if about 24 hrs of it will be spent on a bus. I don't mind though because the temple is always worth visiting. Well, catch you all on the flip side. I need to be at least a little productive today.
