back to reality?

Monday came wayyyy too fast. I feel as if I've been out of school for several months, considering how much we just experienced during our 9 day trip to Italy. I had a consistent migraine for the entirety of class today...yes 4 straight hours. Not such a great feeling. CIVA was interesting and stimulating today, as we compared/contrasted 4 different artists renditions of "David." We also discussed the Mannerist and Baroque periods of art. Maybe class was more stimulating because we were conversing about artists we had just been privileged to see in person throughout Italy! After class, several of us went to the local Billa to purchase groceries for the next few days. After returning from the trip, I decided my diet needed drastic help. I refuse to come back to America looking like I just competed in a 3 month long hot dog eating contest. Therefore, I stocked up on some fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grain breads. It's VERY much easy in Europe to let yourself go, refuse to exercise, and eat as much wiener schnitzel as you can before making yourself sick.

After lunch, Kat, Sarah, Cari, Ricki, and I journeyed over to the local laundrymat situated 15 minutes from our home. We arrived in Vienna on September 3, and this day marked my FIRST trip to a laundry center. I'm pretty impressed and surprised at myself, actually. Don't get me wrong, I've had to hand-wash several necessities over the past month, but made a goal with myself that I would try to do laundry only as much as necessary. I think I can live here three months and only wash laundry three times. I believe I'm becoming lower maintenance with each passing day, and I hope that feeling doesn't fade once back in America. Besides, doing laundry over here can get pricey. We each paid around 7 euro (which is close to $10) to wash/dry all our clothes.

After purchasing stamps at the local post office, we returned to the hotel to begin working on homework and our sketchbook journals for Humanities. Our teachers required us to take notes/sketch throughout our time in Italy, which seems unnecessary, but I genuinely enjoyed that challenge because it forced me to concentrate even more than I already had been. We had our pilates session for a good 40 minutes afterwards which was invigorating considering the only exercise we could claim the past 9 days was trekking through all the cities in Italy. Later, I had a delicious peanut butter sandwich in the hotel for dinner, completed a few blogs, edited some pictures, then joyfully got in bed before 10pm.

It's currently Tuesday, and I already feel like time is FLYING by. We leave again Thursday. From this point on, the next two months will go by WAY too fast, considering we will be travelling every Thursday-Sunday, as well as a 10 day fall break. Class was good today. Sometimes our German teacher can be frustrating because he is extremely scatter-brained, and I feel like the majority of what we are learning is not practical knowledge. CIVA was stimulating again today. We ACTUALLY used our Bibles today as part of class discussion, which I loved. We had a great conversation about Catholicism and their use of icons/idols in their worship, and compared our practices as modern Protestants. Even though we don't claim to use images in our services, we do in a sense. For instance, many churches use soothing/meditative music throughout the service to evoke a sense of heightened emotionality and conviction. Also, many churches have adopted the practice of using powerpoints with rather goofy, misplaced images of pastoral scenes, sheep, Jesus on the cross, etc. to also create an environment of sentimentality. It's very interesting and rather hypocritical how many modern day Christians ridicule Catholic practices, when in fact we are falling in their footsteps.

Sorry for that rambling...after class, we went back to the train station to get some more detailed information for our train schedules over fall break. We ate a quick lunch at the hotel, then I was able to skype call my wonderful parents and talk to them for a half hour before they prepared for the work day. I miss you both!! If you are reading this and don't know my parents, to say you are missing out is an understatement. We proceeded to continue planning for fall break throughout the afternoon. The train schedules got messy when we realized Nice, France does not have many train destinations to pick from. I had the idea to check for cheap flights on ryanair.com and fortunately we found a flight from Barcelona back to Vienna for the day we needed, AND it will only cost 42 euro! This way, we will be taking 2 fewer overnight trains, which allows for more time in our destination cities! After fall break planning, I uploaded my pictures from Italy onto Facebook (check them out if you haven't). Then, off to the martial arts center for our daily dose of pilates with the rest of the girls. Afterwards, my fall break group came back to the hotel to proceed to book our single airline flight from Barcelona, as well as the hostels we will be staying at during our trip. I'm very much excited about all the sights/new experiences awaiting us!  After,  I went to Ricki and Rachel's room to watch the Sound of Music for a few minutes. Now, I'm about to skype with some good friends from home before heading to bed for the night! I don't have enough hours in the day....ah!