December 12-14

       Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do. I know that brevity is a literary virtue, but I'm feeling verbose tonight. (There were a lot of "v"s in that sentence). This entry will be very lengthy, so consider yourself forewarned. The past 3 days have been so jam-packed with goodness, and I don't want to forget any of it. Buckle up. Here we go.
       Crawling out of bed the morning after my epic ski adventure was like trying to get Riley (our lazy dog) to roll out of his bed and go outside for the night. You almost have to keep knudging him until his body gains enough momentum to actually roll out of the bed. I'm not nearly as hairy or stinky as Riley, but getting out of bed was definately difficult. The fact that I hadn't worked out in a good 2 weeks didn't help the situation. My knee felt better, but it was still hurting and growing a gnarly bruise. I managed to slowly pull myself together and get ready for church.
       The Hudsons (the missionary family I stayed with) planted the church that we went to, and they hold services in English and German. It's a cozy place with its own nice kitchen and a grand piano (score). The English service was first, but I stayed through the German service as well. The service style is pretty conservative, and by that I mean that they sing hymns. Strangely enough, I found that very, very refreshing. Out of 5 musicians, 3 of them were Hudson family members which was awesome. They are some pretty talented people. Todd, the pastor, led vocally while directing the audience like a choir (totally old school). Guys, get this - I read out of a hymnal!!! I wouldn't mind doing that more often, but I don't really know why I enjoyed it so much. Well, I didn't enjoy ALL of it. The whole sitting and standing thing was very senior-citizen-ly for me because my body was so heavy. It kinda felt like I was hauling a huge bag of used coffee grounds like the kind we used to give people for their gardens at Starbucks. We would have to hoist the bag out of it's bucket and waddle it across the store to the customer while breathing deeply as if we were one of those Scandinavian weightlifters whose pictures are on jugs of protein powder.
       Anyway, during the German service, Meg (a very close friend of the Hudsons) sat next to me, and we shared a hymnal. Of course, the songs were in German, so I took that opportunity to try to learn some German pronunciations during the songs with familiar melodies. It was funny actually, and I would catch Meg or one of the Hudson kids who was sitting in front of my grinning at me every once in awhile. The message in both the English and German services was the same, so I just read my Bible during the German service and kinda spaced out while all that German was flying around above my head. After the German service, a lot of people hung around and chatted for about an hour. Then I piled in the family van with the others, and we headed back home for lunch. I felt super spoiled the whole time I was there because someone other than myself or my own family was constantly feeding me, and I wasn't paying for it! We had a delicious pot roast with potatoes for lunch (as I'm writing this in the corrider of the dorms at school, one of my friends just walked by and offered to heat me up some free pizza. Ha, it must be some kind of trend, this whole "feeding Lauren for free" thing). The church youth group had planned to do a scavenger hunt that evening at one of the many Christmas markets in Vienna, but the plan changed last minute and the youth meeting was moved to the Hudson's house. We spent the next hour or so cleaning up in a frenzy, but I enjoyed helping out. Sarah, Meg, and I (and Benny, the youngest boy who isn't youth group age yet) hung out on the sidelines while the youth did their thing. Benny got bored pretty fast, so I agreed to go play "knights and pirates" with him and his figurines. Oh boys, how they love that violent, action-packed stuff! And how they love to win! I was in charge of the knights, but I had no chance against the pirates with Benny as their captain. He laid down the law!
       That night after the youth left, everyone was pretty pooped. Somehow, I ended up bringing out my laptop to show a few of the Hudsons a couple Jim Gaffigan and Angelah Johnson videos, and we were roaring with laughter. The next night we got hooked on some more Jim Gaffigan and then I found some of those golden SNL skits with Kristen Wiig. I haven't laughed that hard and for that long in a really long time. The streaming video in itself was a treat because the lazy wi-fi on campus at MDX missed the memo that youtube-ing students are not ok with waiting 5 minutes for a 3 minute video to load.
       On Monday, I turned 22. Dun, dun, dun. I slept in and woke up to the sound of singing as the kids were starting their school day with some music. Love it. A little later, Meg and I went out on the town and started at Schonbrunn Palace where we found a great Christmas market. We didn't go into the palace, but we walked up to the Gloriette that rises on a hill behind it. Even though most of the plants were dead because of the winter, the grounds were still very beautiful. I'll upload photos to facebook soon. In the Christmas market, we came across this booth that sold Polish ceramics (dishes and the like), and I fell in love. I bought a number of things and felt super domestic. With my purchases in hand, Meg showed me how to navigate the Viennese subway, and we headed for the Johann Strauss memorial. I failed to mention that Sarah had packed us lunches for while we were out that day. How thoughtful! . . . and delicious. We ate them as we walked and came upon the desolate Strauss memorial. Perfect. Picture time. Wait, what is that? Oh no, it's a large migrating group of Asian tourists. PHOTO CRAZY! After I weaved my way through the Asian invasion for Meg to take a picture of me playing my statue Simon Says game, two Asian ladies came up to us and, after much confusion, we figured out that they wanted pictures with us. I have no idea why, but I definately ended up making a funny face. Maybe they were trying to make it look like they made friends in Vienna. Hmmmm. Meg and I were cracking up as we walked away. Strauss was still cool despite the confusing Asian tourists.

       Ok, it's time for a break. Go get some tea or something. Maybe a power nap. I am actually going to sleep for the night, and I'll commence with Part II in the morning.


Alright, it's Wednesday morning, and I feel much better. On with Part II.

       Our trip to see Strauss was pretty quick, and we decided it was time for some coffee. Meg took me to a place called Cafe Central (original, right?) which apparently is a famous Viennese cafe that's been used in movies or something like that. She kindly bought me an "Amadeus" coffee (that had Mozart liquer in it, whatever that is) and a fab piece of chocolate torte. Yum. Chocolate and coffee are always winners. We walked around to Parlament (the German spelling leaves out the "i") and the Rathaus Christmas market. It was getting dark around that time, and all the Christmas lights around the city were so beautiful! I'll post pictures of them soon. We had our fill of sightseeing for the day, and we went back to the Hudsons for dinner. When I walked in, they all yelled "Happy Birthday" and totally freaked me out! They had hung a birthday banner up and made me a cake. PLUS, their rendition of the birthday song included some great harmonies. Yay for hanging around musicians! That song can be really ugly, but they totally did it justice. Sarah made fajitas and Todd made the cake which was one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever had. It had tons of plum puree in it (but it didn't taste like plums) and coffee grounds or some kind of delicious coffee crunch in the frosting. I'll have to get that recipe. We spent the rest of the evening watching funny videos and laughing our heads off. It was awesome.
       Tuesday morning was an early one. The family had various things to do that day, so they dropped me off at the subway station (U-bon I think they call it?) to meet up with one of their friends who showed me the way to the airport. I was surprised at how sad I was to be leaving. Usually, I don't let my emotions get that kind of hold on me, but this parting was difficult. I sucked it up and began my long day of travel back to London. When I got to the subway station, I had to pee really bad, and I'm pretty sure I got ripped off my a bathroom attendant who said that it cost 50 cents to use the bathroom and there is a 50 cent tip. I gave the lady the look of death like I used to give choice customers at Starbucks who were trying to rip us off, like that really helps. It was an interesting exchange. Then, I was on my way to the airport. It was a surprisingly stress-free travel day, but I only had 30 minutes after I got back to campus until I had to go to choir rehearsal. I was wiped out, but rehearsal went well enough and my solo did too. Let's just hope it goes just as well tonight for the actual performance! I can't wait until all this business is over. It's time to have some more fun in London! As I was walking back from singers ensemble, I ran into a couple of my neighbors who, actually, RAN into me and attacked me with hugs and "we missed you!"s. It was precious. I spent the rest of the night doing dishes, laundry, and trying to get a handle on all the work I have to get done in the next 2 days. I can't wait until Friday at 4 when (almost) everything will be over and I can get to work on the fun stuff!
       It's weird to hear everyone talking about goodbyes already. Most of the friends I've made over here and leaving for Christmas break on Friday which means we have to say our final goodbyes then. : ( I'm not prepared for that yet. I think leaving London is going to be harder than it was to leave Sacramento, it's weird and I don't exactly know why.
       To sum up, I had an unbelievably wonderful time in Vienna and left very spiritually encouraged.

       Alright, I'm pretty sure this blog entry is longer than most papers I write for school. Thanks for reading.

Prayer Request of the Day: That I would get my work done efficiently and not get sick. (I usually get sick at the end of semesters).