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!!!!