o life...

a random post just to update you on various details of our everyday lives. 

Nazli and Saima and the girls visited us one Saturday for lunch and time together. This is me and Irena playing in my room. Love her. 

Cafe Prückel: Monika and I go on a 'date' every (other)week to take some time to talk and catch up and plan, etc. It is a lovely breather for me, like an older sister who is enough inside what is going on in our lives to understand without me having to explain more than needed and enough outside what is going on in our lives to give good advice. Its amazing to see how our friendship has changed and deepened through this time we get together. 

Our first 'date' was officially in Tachles, the bar/cafe across the street from our apartment that I am absolutely in love with. We spent three hour one evening drinking wine and having a much needed talk. But our first official date happened after I shared with her my intrigue concerning the "Cafe Culture" in Vienna (Vienna being the home of the Cafe) and my wish to visit every famous and underground-famous cafe in Vienna before I leave. We decided that our dates would take us on a tour of the Viennese cafes. Here we visited Cafe Prückel. 

old. drinking coffee. talking. smoking. i. love. Vienna.
(Sarah Boettcher...this will be us one day when I convince you to move here with me) 

love the contrast between these woman and the young guy in a v-neck, alone, with headphones, and a computer. diversity. 

evidence that I am still alive because I am never in any pictures 

A friend of a friend of Mathilde lives not too far away and has become a good friend of ours. His name is Thibault and although he is from France, his German really isn't that bad, his sarcasm is hilarious, and his love of adventure and every kind of sport imaginable keeps us in shape (well at least we would hope) :) One Saturday he invited us to go on a bike ride. There weren't enough bikes so I opted to save my lungs and my life and not join the hardcore sporty type (I went on a bike-ride with a City-bike instead, at my own pace...slow). They came back about three hours later having done 30km. Not shabby. 

Tandem Bike!

Thibault on the roller blades. You've never seen anything like it.

Why do we have to worry about sports, you may ask? This is why. We visit our friends and they feed us the most scrumptious, fattening, not to mention beautiful things at coffee and cake hour. This afternoon we visited our friend Inger-a Viennese grandmother of ours who suffers on and off from debilitating depression and always enjoys a visit, sharing a meal, and showing us her latest "deals" bought at Hofer or on her latest hop over to Slovakia.

Anyone from Franciscan recognize someone familiar??? Yes! That's Mary Johnson!
Mary Johnson and I were in the Little Flowers Household together and now she is studying in a town outside of Vienna called Trumau at the ITI (International Theological Institute) working on her Master's in Theology. She had time between arriving in Vienna after fall break back in the states and when she needed to be back at the Institute so she got in touch with me and spend the evening with Alina and I at a house concert where we were invited by Melitta, a friend of ours. Melitta hosts these house concerts several times a year and this particular concert was especially interesting for Alina because the performer was a young woman from the Ukraine who plays the Bandura (a very old folk instrument in the Ukraine). The evening started with coffee and cake and time to get to know the others at the concert, a living room concert of beautiful folk music from the Ukraine (she also had a beautiful voice) and a typical Ukrainian dinner afterwards. It was a beautiful evening and I was so delighted to share this little sliver of our lives with Mary! 

some people sleep in beds. well we have those too, but we prefer the U-bahn seats on our way to play with the kids at Apostolate. Commutes make you tired no matter how energized you are. 

P. Jacques, armed and ready to caulk the tile! 

WeWe, Monika's best friend who is actually from China but moved to Vienna when she was young, asked to cook us dinner one night--Thai! It was sooo yummy, and spicy--I've never seen P. Jacques sweat so much! In the end, a beautiful evening together and such a gift for us! 

The first Sunday of Advent we celebrated with a full chapel in our apartment!! Christa and Anton and their children, accompanied by a friend of theirs and her two daughters. It was a beautiful mass, complete with the lighting of the advent wreath, crying and running children, a beautiful homily by Fr. Jacques, and I even braved playing the violin with some typical Austrian advent songs. Afterwards we shared breakfast together! 

My Godmother sent my Christmas present a little early so that I had enough time to make presents from the ingredients for American Christmas Sweets (marshmallow hollies) contained inside! 

Alina was especially excited!!! 

On the way home from visiting a friend of ours, Clemens Fuchs, at his art studio (he's a talented painter--check him out... www.clemensmariafuchs.com), I walked through neighboring Karlsplatz on my way to the U-bahn----getting ready for the Adventmarkt! My favorite part of Christmastime in Wien! 

The first Thursday of every month we hold a night of adoration in Karmeliterkirche. We start with mass at 9:30 and then from 10 until 2am we give the possibility Eucharistic Adoration with open church doors to anyone who wants to take part. We have been, until now, unable to go through the night because it is difficult on a Thursday night to get people engaged enough to sign up for an hour, not to mention the fact that the public transportation doesn't run through the night. So we do it until 2am and it has been a beautiful experience and opportunity for silent prayer and adoration with friends. But this month, the sisters from the St. John Community who live in Marchegg (a town a little outside of Vienna, where we go often to take "Desert days"--once a month a day we take to step outside of our daily lives in prayer and fasting and silence) came to Vienna to join us for the night adoration and enable us to hold the adoration through the night. We started with mass all together at 9:30 and each person signed up for an hour (the sisters each took two!) and we had adoration until 7am when we prayed the Laudes all together and then had breakfast together before they went back to Marchegg. Alina and Mathilde and I camped out in the living room and the sisters (who are usually cloistered :) took our room! It was such a beautiful time to share with them and such a gift to us to be able to offer and take part in adoration through the entire night. At the time we were also enjoying the visit of a priest from Romania who has been friends for a long time with the Heart's Home in Deva-his home town. Now as a priest, he is hoping to go on mission with Heart's Home! Please keep him in your prayers and he preparation and last decision-making to give a part of his life in service this way!