my weekend continued
After we looked at the church, we walked to the restaurant where we had lunch. The houses and stores were all so cute! They were all very small ( heighth and width) The windows were a little higher than my waist. I felt like a giant walking thru this town. Mary and I walked next to the McCallen's and I watched their little boy Connor who is two and SOOO cute! Mr. McCallen and a girl who is a senior were holding his hands and swinging him every few steps. It was funny b/c I remember doing that very vividly. That was always my favorite thing to do. I also remember doing that with Liz and swinging Marie when she was younger. But back to the buildings. There was a big difference between the houses and the church b/c the church had such high ceilings and such a long aisle. It was so decorated and had a lot of gold in the sanctuary. I've decided I don't really like gold in churches. I tend to like smaller churches better, although my favorite church in Salzburg was Huge...We had lunch at the Hotel Leitnerbrau (umlaut over the a)and I had blackberry juice. It was really good! I had a tall glass of it. It was a lot sweeter than the blackberries I've had from our farm. We ate chicken legs and fries. I was disappointed with the meal (except for the juice) b/c it was so americanized. But I sat at the table with some fun people. Tony Arnold and Tom Timmins were cracking jokes the whole time (which I would normally get tired of, but somehow I thoroughly enjoyed that day). I also sat with Heather S. (it was her birthday), Amy, Mary, Matt McDonald, and some other people to my left who had an entirely different conversation which I did not participate in. Angie and I talked for a little bit about where we want to travel for ten day and the little German that we know. She taught me the days of the week. After lunch, we had another hour in the bus. We got to Salzburg and we saw (from across the pond)the back of one of the houses they used in the film "The Sound of Music". We were not allowed to actually go on the property b/c it is owned by Harvard. The pond was all ice except for a small thawed out part next to the path. some swans and a couple of ducks were swimming there. I enjoyed watching them swimming there and the one swan as it cleaned itself behind its wings. We found the trees the Von Trap were climbing in the movie to the right of the pond. The pond was relatively small, which one cannot see in the movie. After our short stop there, we went to our youth hostel. I roomed with Mary, Sarah Pettit, Sara Heim, Trulie, Theresa Bey, and Amanda (in SOL). The hostel was supposed to be one of the nicer hostels in existence. It was kind of strange. The walls were painted various obnoxious colors. I felt like I was in a clown house (like in "Are you afraid of the Dark?") THe room itself was pretty nice. My bunk bed had various graffitti on the frame--most of it was in foreign languages, but there were two statements using the F word. Overlooking that, the rooms were nice. My bed was surprisingly comfortable. The comforter was thicker than the one I have here in my room at school. After we got settled, we headed off on a walking tour of Salzburg. It was extremely cold!! Everyone was bouncing up and down and I think everyone had a hard time concentrating on what Prof. Fugerous (probably spelled wrong) was saying--I know I did! I was really hungry and wanted to eat before the concert, but I went to the Latin mass (at St. Sebastian's church) anyway b/c I could not find anyone who was NOT going. I didn't know what was going on during most of the mass. WE then went to a concert in the Mirabel Palace. It featured a string quartet and I enjoyed it. I closed my eyes and allowed images to come to mind. The music made me think of water and flying birds. It was very peaceful. After the concert, Brian Casanas, Mary, Amanda, Alex Boyde, Dan (from CTL), Lisa, Josh Houd, Matt McDonald, Angie, Tom Timmins, and I looked around for a place to eat. It was around 10:00 by the time we ate. We looked for around 45-60 min's but I didn't mind. We ate at an Italian restaurant which was pretty good. We each got personal pizzas. I had a Capriciossa pizza. After dinner, we walked to the hostel and I went to bed straightaway. The next morning I went to the Capuchin monastery with about 15 students and the German teacher. We got blessed by a small miraculous statue of the Infant Jesus. I have never been inside a cloister before. The nun who blessed us was behind bars with a small opening near the bottom. She reached out this opening to bless us with the statue. We knelt and said some prayers as we got blessed and Amy Brockman led everyone in songs of adoration. I got a relic (it was piece of cloth touched by the miraculous statue).