by love i sail: zuruck gehen...

my past came to visit me in Vienna, four Saturday's ago...

Nicki and Mark Kalpakagian have been living and working in Gaming, Austria for the past 6 years. Mark is the Director of Student Life at the study abroad campus for Franciscan University, my alma mater, in a tiny town in Austria just 2 hours southwest of Vienna. Peter, the younger brother of Mark, was a good friend of mine in college and also spent the same study abroad semester as I did in Gaming which led to the blessing of getting to know Nicki and Mark a little better than I probably would have in the midst of trying to see everything in Europe I wanted to in only 4 short months. Like I said, what a blessing to know them then, and to go to be part of a University family in which e-mailing a contact you have in the country to which you will move means rekindling a relationship of love, support, and American "home away from home".

They are wonderful parents to two boys--Aris (5.5 yrs) and Dominik (4 yrs)--and the third...we're not sure if it is a boy or a girl. Nicki was due on May 31st. So, when Mark and Nicki and the boys came into Vienna on an airport run and spent the morning and early afternoon with Alina and I, she was still expecting to give birth a week or two early (like she had with the first two boys!)

The little family arrived at Offenes Herz by about 9am...we had a little coffee and breakfast in the apartment, gave them the tour, played and drew with the boys, talked about my visa mishaps and our lives in Vienna. Then after a couple hours and the restlessness of the boys becoming rather apparent, we decided to walk over to Augarten (a huge park just a 10 minute walk from us). We spent the next few hours playing spaceship on the playground, having Dominik cook us a three course, gourmet meal in the sandpit, and simply get to enjoy spending time talking and catching up--in English, of course! On our way back from the park the treated us to lunch at the BEST pizza restaurant in Vienna--Pizza Mari--and then headed on their way leaving us overflowing with such happiness and thankfulness for getting to spend such a beautiful morning playing, talking, receiving their love and support, and simply being with them.

Now, it is June 4th. Nicki did not in fact give birth early...in fact she has still not given birth, much to her dismay and discomfort! But Mark and Nicki are now out on a walk while I write this blog post and finish cleaning up the dishes. Which means, YES...I AM IN GAMING!!!

Yesterday, I came to visit my past...
The walk down the well-traveled sidewalk from the Gaming Marketplatz to the old stomping grounds of Gaming's ancient Kartause, of course past the facade of Urs Bierstube, was an experience of pure bliss in the light sprinkle of rain yesterday evening when I arrived at 8pm. Mark and Nicki are so gracious and invited me to come visit and take a day of rest (or mini-weekend) during the time that Alina and Fr. Jacques are away and I am holding down the fort in Vienna.

Last night I arrived to the warmth of the home of an American family (I love Austrians....but I promise you there is a difference). Italian was being cooked up in the kitchen by a good family friend of Mark's family, Joan (I think I have the last name wrong...). She is an american artist, soul-seeker, art teacher, gourmet italian chef, avid Catholic, widow, and adventurer extraordinnaire. She has been living in Florence for three months on a break from teaching at the Art Institute of Charlotte and she is on a little trip to finish off her stint abroad before she returns to the US to teach. We sat down to a wonderful dinner and great conversation that led into the wee hours of the morning. Simply in the several hours of talking I learned so much, especially from Joan in all her life experiences, her artistic ventures, her travels--and I knew that she was definitely one of the reasons God had led me to Gaming this weekend of all weekends.

This morning began at 8:00--a welcome sleep-in from my normal Viennese morning. I came downstairs and was soon tackled by the boys and the smell of fresh-bake coffee cake filled my nose. I was in heaven. I have been nothing but spoiled by Nicki and Mark since I arrived! From amazing food, to the relaxation of feeling completely at home, to the leisure of being able to offer to do the dishes rather than having to do them because you are alone and know there is no one else to do them for you.
We went to mass at 10 in the Eucharistic chapel at the Kartause...oh how I missed you!...and then while Nicki rested and Mark did some work in the house, I played in an intense soccer match, soon followed by a much needed escape from the squelching sun....a jump in the ice-cold water of the Gaming creek! I took a couple of the Cassidy kids, as well as Ari and Dom down to the creek to play, and an hour or so after we walked a little farther down the creek, led by Gabriella to "Little Gaming", a village in the woods that the children had created. There was a main road, a courthouse, a fort, and everyone had their own house....all of which had boundaries or walls made by piling up collected stones, stringing together vines for curtains, and laying big leaves on the ground to serve as rugs. Of course, a town would not be complete without some sort of government and I was witness to some of the first civil meetings of the Little Gaming townspeople. Even better...I even got to have some original Little Gaming currency....snail shells.
Like my constant story with wherever I go in Austria...the government wasn't so happy that I (a foreign visitor) was in the country and invading the territory. It took about 25 minutes for the court to determine whether they were going to be visitor friendly or not--but finally they decided it would be ok if I stayed and played with them....and they would even give me a tour of the town for the price of 2 snailshells.
An hour or so later a storm began to roll in....we made our way back to the house, but not before we picked every Holunder blossom we could find on the way back through the woods so that the kids could later make Holander syrup (its like a homemade juice you can make in the summer). Waiting for the storm to pass, we had a late lunch, heard Ari practice the violin, played legos, read books, etc. Its been a nice and stress-free day thanks to the ease Mark and Nicki have made possible for me here...and I didn't know how much of a difference it makes to get out of the city for a day and a half....I didn't realize how tense I had become, how much I needed an unwind day to regroup for the next month or so!
We shared a lovely dinner together and spent, once again, hours talking about everything under the sun.
Now we go to bed praying that the third, little, long-awaited child joins his/her amazing family soon!!

Tomorrow I'll stay for the morning mass and then, pending the arrival of the baby, head back to Vienna right after.

But, so that, as the gospel today says, "they're joy may be complete"...I am hoping the arrival happens before I leave and the birth can give some relief to this anxiously awaiting family :)

fond memories of this train, anyone? wine bottles and backpacks :)

trees chopped down at the creek, but fun and ice cold nonetheless.

instead of my college buddies, I pal-ed around with some international youngin's (american, scottish, english) and took a refreshing jump in the creek with them after an intense game of soccer.

dominik k.

rosealee

johannes and ari

johannes

gabriella

the people's court
*so they created this "little gaming" in the woods near the creek and here were the townspeople holding court:
deciding whether they would have a mayor (they voted "no mayor")
what kind of currency they would have (snailshells were decided on)
whether visitors would be allowed into the town (thankfully for me, they voted "yes")
how many snailshells it would cost to have a tour of the town (only 2 shells of the 5 you were given when visiting...pretty good price!)