"Home is behind you, the World is ahead"

Greetings from Austria!

It’s been a whirlwind couple days since I left the states.  I’ll give you a short little recap of the first couple days! (fair warning: that “short little recap” could get longer once I get into the Austria stuff :P )

So I left my house on Saturday morning at 10:10, got to the airport around 11, I checked in, went through security, found my gate, got on, and flew away to Chicago!  That airport is huge!  I took a train to the international terminal… that was an adventure.  See, I brought 2 suitcases, and one was extremely heavy while the other kept tipping over :P  I had to finagle them on and off of 3 elevators because I first had to go upstairs, then I saw a sign telling me to go “that way” which led me to another elevator which ended up taking me down instead of up, so I went up the escalator, but then was told to go up again so I took the elevator again.  Goodness.  Thankfully, a kind pilot held the elevator door for me so I didn’t do a “Paris repeat” (that’s a story for another day)…

I finally made it to the Aer Lingus counter at 1:15 only to find that it didn’t open until 3:45.  I hadn’t eaten, but I couldn’t bring my bags with me to find food so I just sat and read a guidebook. :D  Another woman waiting for the Poland counter tried to speak to me, but she just spoke Polish.  It was literally a real-life version of a verse of the Veggie Tales song (“But when he tried to speak to me he just spoke Polish and I only know like 3 words in Polish but now I know 4 ‘cause Oscar taught me the word for lip: Ousta!” I couldn’t very well just say “Ousta” to this poor distressed woman.)

Anywho, I met up with Stasia and Grace and another Allison, and then we also met a girl who is studying with us for the semester, but she’s not from Franciscan.  She is super nice!!  The Aer Lingus people were also really helpful and gave Stasia, Grace, Allison and I seats together.  

The flight itself was uneventful… yeah.

We arrived in Dublin, found our gate, and met up with about 50 other Franciscan students.  That flight was also fairly uneventful, thank goodness!  After waiting for our bags and then waiting about a half hour for the bus, we were on the way to Gaming!

I’m guessing that about 85% of the people on the bus slept on the 2-hour trip, and I was definitely one of them!  I’d been awake for 28 hours at that point (not counting the ~2 hours of sleep on the planes; if you can hear what’s going on, you’re not really asleep!)  Sunday night consisted of dinner, starting to put things away, Mass at the Kartause chapel, and sleep!!

Monday morning we were up at 7:15 in order to eat breakfast and get to the bus by 8:30, and we were on the way to the Melk Monastery!  It is one of the oldest Monasteries in Europe, and it was incredibly beautiful! (this post is already getting kinda long, so I’ll post pictures in another blog.)  We also had Mass there, then lunch at a local little hotel, and we took the buses back to school.  That evening we had a little talk and got our “emergency phones”.

Tuesday was essentially a day of orientation.  We had talks on different aspects of life here- ministries, mission trips, travels with the university throughout the semester, and alcohol.  Yes, we’re all legal here… so we’ve gotten a significant number of warnings about excessive consumption of alcohol.  Makes total sense, in my opinion, but it does get tedious.  We received a tour of the Kartause in the afternoon- this is such a cool place!!!!  I’ll have to give more details about it later.

Wednesday (today) we had yet another orientation meeting, received textbooks, and then had a tour of the town on the way to Mass in the afternoon!

It’s so surreal to be here, and Grace and I keep saying to ourselves, “Are we really here?  We live here!”  It’s an amazing area!  To wake up and see an old Carthusian monastery and the mountains right outside my window is beautiful.  

So even though I’ve left my home in the states behind, I think I will easily be able to call this place my new home for the semester.  I have the entire world ahead of me (or the whole of Europe, at the very least).

Let’s get this started.

turned all 'round

It's so hard to believe that it's already been two weeks since school started, and three weeks since I arrived back on campus.  I honestly really love it here, and when I call Steubenville my "second home", I mean it 100%.

I have been blessed with some amazing friends who help me in so many ways.  Every time I'm having a bad day or a hard time with something, they're there.  They're definitely up there on my "most thankful for list".  (another list. yup.  I'm into lists.) 

I've gotta say, my perspectives on so many things have changed since this summer.  Not just perspectives, but habits and daily activities.  I drink a lot more water, I eat trail mix like it's going out of style, I have no qualms about doing dishes in the dorm bathroom sink, and if my cell phone goes out of service for an hour, I may not even notice.  I wake up a heck of a lot faster, and when I go to bed, I crash (2:30 am fire alarm? didn't phase me).  I value conversations with friends and correspondence with family more.  I find myself "dropping in" to the chapel at random times, and I lovelovelovelove adoration (I missed that this summer!)  I pray the divine office every morning and evening.  My views of dating, dorm "visitation hours", and kneeling to receive communion have all changed, whether slightly or drastically.  And oh, walking the hills across campus?  No biggie.

Still, it's hard to tell what all the ways I've changed are.  Is it possible to see all the fruits from an entire summer in just 4 short weeks after completing the journey?  I can wholeheartedly say that this summer changed me, yet I can't say exactly how.  I can just feel, sense, a change, for the better.  Even two of my friends said to me, "You're different!" "How?" I asked.  "We don't exactly know.  But you're different, and it's a really good kind of different."

As I move on from this summer, I'll look back often and see all the good that happened.  I'll even revisit those difficult days, because I know they helped form me.  Hopefully, I'll be able to see someday how Crossroads made me who I am today.

But for now, I'm just gonna trust that God will reveal it all, in His perfect timing.

the list o' dreams

I believe I mentioned a while ago that after my sister-in-law began posting some of the items on her "bucket list", I thought I may do the same.  And then I thought that it may be nice if I started to get a little more systematic with my blogging... if you've noticed, I've been trying to post every day (or as close to it as possible).  That's definitely intentional.  (One of my blogging friends posts every day without fail, and while it varies from funny to serious to just a little quote, I always look forward to reading what she's written.)  So here's my thought: continue my "Silly Saying Saturdays", post an addition to my "bucket list" once a week... and... I have a couple other thoughts. ;)

I've never actually liked the term "bucket list"... it seems so harsh and cold and uninviting.  So I came up with my "dream list"- those things I dream of doing before I die.  Some of them really are simply that- dreams.  Dreams that most likely won't happen.  But you never know, right?  Some of my dreams are silly, some are extremely serious, some are completed, or in process, or years from being started.  But I wanted to have a concrete list of some things that I wanted to accomplish in my life.

And so, I present you with.....(part of) Allison's Dream List.

~eat fried green tomatoes

~go canoeing

~learn to crochet

~have an audience with the Pope

~grow a rose garden

Do you have a list of things you'd like to accomplish in your life?

xoxo,

Smoke and Mirrors

Ah, yes, I do believe I am the only person who would have set off the smoke alarm in the dorm whilst using a hair straightener.

How hawkward. **

Time: 10:15 am, Monday, August 27, 2012
Place: my dorm, my room
The Situation: a workman had just dropped by (at which point I was mid-way through straightening my hair) to show Ev and I how to adjust the temperature on the heater.  He left, I started the straightening process again, and 3 minutes later, we heard a piercing alarm.  Thinking it was a fire alarm, we bolted from our room, then realized, Hold Up, That's Coming From Our Room.  The workmen (now there were 2 of them) meandered down the stairs (apparently they weren't half as worried as we were) and then wandered into our room, thinking, wondering why it was going off, at which point I meekly informed them that I had been straightening my hair kinda-under the smoke detector (SIDE NOTE! I stood in this same place while using the same straightener for the last week, and no alarms went off).

Oh goodness.

So these two workmen (who were very nice) didn't know how to turn the alarm off, because it was a new model.  It took them a good 5 minutes, while I stood in the hallway with Evelyn and looked embarrassed.

Finally, the alarm was turned off, and we returned to our normal lives.
Well, as normal as a day can be after you set the smoke alarm off.

**Taken from my blogger/friend Renée at Sweet Unrest who in turn took it from her friend: "an adjective used to describe a situation so painfully awkward, you with that a hawk would swoop down and take you away."
xoxo,

Never thought I'd be the one....

Two months ago, if you had told me that I'd be "that person" sitting in McDonalds with a Frappe and a computer, enthusiastically typing away, I never would have believed you.

Yet, here I sit.

I have decided that typing blog posts on my phone is totally not worth it, because of the number of typos, so alas, you must wait until I have opportunities such as this one to take advantage of free Wi-Fi. Thankfully, today's night local (aka, Walmart) is a 1 minute walk from McD's.

I also never thought I'd be ok with seeing roadkill so close and personal.  Like, 1 foot away.

And yet I am.

I never thought I would wash dishes with water from a spigot 2 feet off the ground.
That I'd drain pasta in a parking lot.
That I would drive an RV before I drove a 8-seater van.
Be ok with popping blisters.
Eat the same lunch 5 days in a row.
Beg for money at Masses.
Accept cookies from people I've never met.
Go to Walmart at 2:30 in the morning.
Sleep overnight in a Walmart parking lot.
Shop at Walmart multiple times a day, 4 days in a row.

(are we seeing a Walmart trend here?  We are of the opinion that Walmart should sponsor Crossroads.  We go there enough!)

We are a walking advertisement (haha, no pun intended) for Walmart, iPhone, and Chrysler.  Except now we have a Dodge van, so that doesn't really work anymore.

Basically, Crossroads has made me go sooo far outside my comfort zone!  On this journey, I have done oodles of things that I never would have done before.  And honestly, I needed to break out of my box.

Consider the box broken.
xoxo,

PS- say a prayer for us- only 1 month left!
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Adventures of a College Student

There are times when the only explanation for something is, "I'm in college".  I mean, when else would you think of lowering a bracelet tied onto a set of headphones behind a bookshelf?

"What?" you ask.  Let me explain.

A week ago, my glasses went missing.  I couldn't find them anywhere, yet I knew for a positive fact that they were in my room.  I also knew that they were around my bookshelf, because the night before they disappeared, I had been reading in bed, leaned down from my bed (which is lofted) and set the glasses on the bookshelf underneath.  20 minutes later, as I drifted off to sleep, I heard a "clunk", looked down, and saw a book on the floor.  Hmm, I thought, my glasses must have fallen off the shelf into a box that's on the shelf.  Nope, not there.  I looked every day this week.  Just now, I literally took my bookshelf apart looking for my glasses, to no avail.

Let it be noted here that without glasses or contacts, I am virtually blind.  In fact, 3 days ago, I went into the hallway and couldn't tell who I was talking to.  Embarrassing, to say the very least.

So I took my tiny book light and shined (shone? did shine? shoneded?  humph.  I'm not an English major) it behind the bookshelf.  Sure enough, there were the glasses, stuck right above the floor, between the shelf and the wall.

I told Evelyn and she said, "All you need is a string and hook!", in a tone that said, "I don't think that will actually work.  And where will you find those, anyway?" :D  Ha, I thought.  I will get a string and hook.  Sure enough, once I had a string and hook, I eased it behind the shelf and caught the glasses.  If it had been a carnival game, I'd have won a giant stuffed animal with the speed, agility, and adeptness I exhibited in retrieving the glasses.  (Like the tiger my nephew won at Hershey park.  Lets just say that the children were displaced from the double stroller for the day.)

Wait, what?  You want to see my amazing string and hook?  Well, here you go:

And I took the picture without contacts or glasses.

Beat that.

xoxo,