Settling In

It's day two in Vienna and our first two days of being out of a dominantly english-speaking area. Granted, most Austrians seem to at least understand a little English, if they aren't relatively fluent. 

I didn't really think about how difficult it would be to adjust to the language barrier. It's a little frustrating, and it takes a lot more time to get from place to place. We legitimately didn't know how to exit the train station earlier, because we couldn't read the signs. 

Luckily, we're all picking up on German phrases pretty quickly and everyone has been super patient with figuring it out. I've mastered please, thank you, excuse me, I don't speak German, Do you speak English, and a few other handy ones. Looking on the bright side, we'll come back with a little bit of German in our vocabulary. 

Vienna is absolutely beautiful. I'm madly in love with the city, and we haven't been here very long. The Deutchmeister is a lovely hotel and it's SO nice to have apartments. We cooked our first dinner [as an apartment] tonight, and I think we were all happy to have home cooked food. After a week of nothing but eating out in London, it was a nice change of pace. 

We had our first gelatto last night, and I think half of us went and got more today. That could be a problem...haha

In the next couple of days we will start exploring what Vienna has to offer academically, worship with a local congregation, have a cook out, and experience our first free day in the city. A week from Friday will be our first free-travel weekend and my group is headed to Switzerland for a few days. 

To wrap it up, God has been SO good to us. We've had safe travel, mild amounts of homesickness, and not too much culture shock. Everyone seems happy and healthy, for the most part. 

When the time comes, I have no doubt that we'll all be ready to head home, but for now we're soaking in the day to day. 

Please keep praying for us as we continue to explore, learn, discover, and travel. Love you all! 

 

London, England

Oh my goodness. I've been in London for three days now, and it's been a total whirlwind. It also doesn't feel like three days, it feels more like three weeks. We have seen so many things, and we still have two days to go.

I thought I would hop on the computer real fast and update you as best as possible. I can't share pictures until I get to Vienna at least, so sorry about that.

The first day we flew into London and were a bit exhausted. To combat the jet lag we headed out to explore until a decent time for sleep. Our first ride on the Tube (Underground Railway system here) was a bit overwhelming. By now we feel like pros. (Except that I accidentally de-activated my card with my room key. Oops. The guards are getting very familiar with letting me through).

Coming up out of the underground we caught our first glimpse of Big Ben. That's the first moment that being in London was real for me. All of the things we're seeing are absolutely wonderful and SO beautiful in person.

Instead of boring you with the usual things people see in London [which we've done most of], I'll give you a glimpse into the random adventures we have had so far:

-There was a trash can right outside our station on fire. Flames bursting out the sides and everything. That was interesting.

-A few american-bashing moments. The first was a man that told us to go back to our country. The second was a man and woman who were talking nearby. The man muttered 'Bloody Americans' under his breath and his wife scolded him and then said 'I don't know..I kind of like them'

-Chilling in Hyde park for hours, eating ice cream and people watching.

-Seeing a very elderly man sitting on a bench with nothing but a speedo on. I guess he needed some sun. 

-Walking around for 3 hours because we couldn't find anyplace to eat. Needless to say, we earned our food that night.

Anyways. There's so much to say, but I'm exhausted. I'll try to post again as soon as possible.

Love you all, can't wait to share stories in person!

[Heard a street performer singing Wonderwall today and it made me smile. That can be the song of the day]

Every Journey Begins Somewhere

Words are my escape, my comfort, my sanity. They clarify my confusion, calm my frayed nerves, and preserve my day to day life. 

It seemed fitting that as I am about to embark on a life changing journey, I should blog about it. Instead of cluttering up my other blog and to keep these separate for future reminiscing, I just created an entirely fresh new one. Hurrah for the technological age and the endless wonders of the internet. 

To kick the blog off, I wanted to voice a bit of awe at the fact that this trip will actually be happening for me. 7 weeks in Europe was a dream I never actually expected to come to fruition. One of those things you break out on a rainy day and look at for a while, but then store in the deep recesses of your brain for the majority of your life. 

I can't even begin to explain how incredibly thankful I am for everyone that has helped me get to this point. A lot of prayer, support, encouragement, and determination were necessary to make this happen. 

So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

In two weeks and five days I will be boarding a plane to London and fulfilling one of my lifetime dreams. The ensuing 7 weeks will most likely be a whirlwind of new experiences, foreign places, beauty beyond my imagination, and memories that will last a lifetime. 

Here's to a summer worth remembering.