Fresh

On Monday we visited our priest-friend Daniel's parish. He is the priest of the third largest church in Vienna and we got to get a tour.

We then spent a lot of time talking about Catholicism and how most Austrians believe/think. It was really interesting to get his insight. It was also enlightening to hear his view on the different symbols in the Catholic Church. There are so many that sometimes it can seem confusing, or may seem like the symbols are the religion. But with the way Daniel explained, it all makes a lot more sense. I'm thankful for these moments that help me to pray for the people I am surrounded by. Austrians need God and being a "Catholic Nation" does not mean that they know Him.

We also enjoyed a quaint thanksgiving feast yesterday. It was a lovely time of fellowship, football, food, friends, and freedom. :)

The wonder of it all

Nothing extremely exciting or blog worthy has really happened in the past week, but there sure have been a lot of lovely little moments. I'd like to share some of the highlights.

November 17th brought the celebration of Emily's day of birth. We spent the day doing things that reminded us of her. We had a tea party where we all dressed up and decorated our kitchen/living room accordingly. I discovered that I really enjoy making origami birds and we used them in the decorations.

Vienna is preparing herself for the Christmas season and she's pulling out all the stops. They've already begun to decorate the streets and it's so magical looking. Also with Christmas comes many markets with good food, drinks, music, and shopping. I'm very excited to celebrate Christmas here.
The weather has been surprisingly nice as of lately and has beckoned me to take many walks to soak up what little sunshine is left before the very gray winter rolls in. One sunny Sunday a few teammates and I went on a walk down the heavily painted Donau Canal. It was a lovely day.

I've discovered a fun way to practice my German and have a good time with friends. One of the families here on the OM team is Swiss and has three small kids. They have a computer game that helps young German speakers to practice spelling, pronunciation and grammar. Even though the game was definitely designed with children in mind, it's helpful and fun to work on with my little Swiss friends.

Blogs don't have to be perfect!

You know, I would blog a lot more if I didn't feel the need to make them really elaborate, eloquent, and super exciting. I need a new outlook on blogs.

So, a quick re-cap of life here in Stock-town as of lately. I've been working a lot more in the second hand shop as well as hanging out at the homeless dinners. I really love it a lot. I dearly love all of my homeless buds and now look forward to seeing them each time. I used to dread it. I hated the feeling of embarrassment with my lack of German, or the awkward situations with the few men who like women a little too much. I would let those moments get to me, and it would ruin all the good times I had. But now I'm adjusting my mindset and seeing it as a learning experience for my German, and an opportunity to show love to people even through their sin or inappropriateness. I really want to post pictures sometime, but I've never felt like the timing was right to snap a few photos at the dinners. I'm not sure how they would feel about me taking their picture. We will see.

Some friends and I went to a Tinariwen concert last week and it was awesome! It was really refreshing to be in a concert setting again since that was how I spent a good portion of my high school career. We danced, sang, and admired as this semi-famous African band played the night away. If you're interested you should check out some more information about them. They have a crazy story!