Big Day

I'm sorry that i am not posting pictures, but the internet here at the schloss (castle) is very slow and makes it very stressful and difficult to upload pictures. but i wanted to update everyone on my adventure and let everyone know about my event-filled day yesterday. my friend austin, sarah and i had been out exploring for the early afternoon and saw a church and visited some stores. i bought an orange european hat at a eurpean version REI. we were on our way to head to the north side side of vienna about an hour by train from the scholss. we had some time to kill so decided to see 1 more required church on our way. we walked in at 6:02 and saturday evening mass had just started. we decided to sit down and participate thinking it would help it make this an easy required site to journal about. it turned out that this was their international mass so it was done in german, english, french and spanish. it was very interesting through the readings, sermon and then communion. but the cool part happened after service. right when it ended, the priestess who helped the priest lead the service walked stright towards us in the back row of the cathedral. we have no idea why she chose us, but she asked if we wanted to join her and the priest for drinks in the back. we accepted the invitation and followed her to the private quarters of the building where there were crackers and drinks set out for us. we sat and talked about our studies and travels and they told us about the church and their work for about half an hour. it was awesome! we then went and had kebabs at the stand jackson told us about.... you were right man, the best ever! we had gotten directions to the church down south where we were headed to pick up jordan who had been at a vbs all day. we got on the correct bus from the Ubahn and off at the correct stop. we had been to the church last sunday for service and nothing looked familiar! we knew we were in the wrong spot. we decided to try to follow the directions to the building but it was to no avail. to make a long story short, we ended up walking around for almost 2 1/2 hours before we figured out what we were doing. it's one thing to get lost, but then another to get lost when you can't read any street signs or talk to anyone for help. it was quite an adventure. by the time we found jordan, it was only half an hour before the buses shut down for the night! we had barely made it. we also couldn't make any phone calls becasue we had blown all of our coins on the payphone trying to talk to someone for directions. it was a cool experience overall and i'm glad things turned out the way they did. well, this morning for service a few of us are heading to a coffee shop for a small devo/study. hope you are having fun and enjoying life. i'll try to update you again before we leave this weekend for a retreat in the austrian alps!!!!

Hallo! Wie geht's?
It has been crazy so far trying to cram 3 credit hour class of german into 2 1/2 weeks, but we're doing it. we have class every day from 10-12:30. it actually goes by fairly quickly though becasue it is interesting and we are moving through the book at 100mph. our teacher is a local from vienna, which makes the class a lot of fun. she has a deep german accent and is sometimes hard to understand, but it makes us all learn quicker! Jordan, Austin, Sarah and I went exploring yesterday. we have a list of 18 sites in Vienna that we have to see before the semester is over. we went to the Hofburg palace and into the Ephesus museum which houses ruins from the roman city of Ephesus. (book of Ephesians). the hofburg is the palace where Hitler gave his speech on March 15, 1938 that is considered to be the start of WWII. we tried to find the balcony he delivered it from, but will have to go back becasue we didn't recognize any of them. the weather here makes me feel like i'm at home! it's a lite, constant rain and cool. i'm loving it. today i am just staying in the castle trying to get ahead on my homework so i can not be as busy in the weeks to come. i just thought i'd take a break from research and journaling though and update everyone....... is anyone is actually reading this....... on how i am doing.

Breathing room

since we left from portland to oklahoma 13 days ago, i have been going 1000 mph. i have not had any down time. i started my german class today. our teacher is really nice. she is a native to vienna who the school hires for the month of september to come and teach us german. it's a fun, but tough language. i'll have to do a lot of studying. it will be nice to be able to have somewhat of an idea what is going on though. but, i now having nothing to do until class again tomorrow evening at 17:00 (5:00 pm, everyhting here is on a 24 hour clock or military time). we are having a pizza party tonight at the castle that we don't have to go to, but i'm sure everyone will becasue it means we don't have to buy our own dinner and spend our money. i will definatley be going! now for the castle...... it is amazing!!!!! it's huge and really really really beautiful. it's a 14th century castle that has been renovated with the times, but it still feels like a castle. my room is on the top floor, which is the european 2nd floor but american 3rd. i am sharing a room with caleb. our room is way to big for just two of us. we have a shower but the water closet is down the hall. the best part of our room is sleeping with the windows open (it's really hot and muggy here right now.... a lot like oklahoma) and waking up to fresh air only to get out of bed to look out the window and over the entire city of vienna! it's a breathtaking view. i would definately have to say that the best part of my trip so far was one morning when i got up extra early to go have communion at Westminster Abbey in London. it was an experience i can't even explain or put into words. if you would like to hear about it ask me and i'll tell you when i get home or in an email just so i don't have to write about it all. well, i should probably go and get some german homework done and rest a little until my friends want to go ecplore vienna til pizza time. i miss everyone and hope you are all having as much fun as i am............. as much as you can anyways :) love you all and here's some pictures finally! enjoy!!

MARK

Finally in Vienna

Hey everyone!
sorry i haven't been keeping up much with the blog. i didn't really have much internet access.... for free anyways.... so i didn't get on except to do some homework. so sorry!! but london was great. it was an amazing city and i saw so many beautiful sights. Vienna is awesome as well. we explored the city all day today and it is definately confusing with the language barrier to navigate our way around. its frustrating, but fun at the same time. i'll spend some good time on the computer this weekend and explain more about my travels so far and try to upload some pictures, but i'm still exhausted from traveling and need some sleep becasue i start german class in the morning. i hope all of you have been blessed in each of you lives in some way this week. talk to you all soon!
MARK

London

We drove to Dallas, flew 8 1/2 hours on a plane, walked all over London, and am finally ready to go to bed! London is amazing! We saw so much today like Buckingham Palace, The house of Parliament, the London Eye, Big Ben and so much more! It was cool to learn how to ride and navigate the tube all by myself and get back to our hostel on our own from downtown London. I know this is a short one, but we haven't slept in 2 days basically. Tomorrow we head back out to explore some more!!!!!!