A Hunky Boy's Dream Come True... REAL Halusky!!!

Fall time in Slovakia

HALUSKY!!!! Yummmmy!

Garlic soup, a traditional slovak soup.

Mary appeared here to a poor man in the 19th century with a message for the Slovakian people.

Walking back from the apparition site. Maria had on heels so I carried her for a little while to give her feet a rest.

Today we spent the whole day in Slovakia. Maria, Jessica, and I started with the castle in Bratislava - these are the main government buildings. We paid a visit to see how the college students live when we visited the student dorm center in Brataslava. There are over 10,000 students who live in this mini-city within-a-city and there is a very large Christian College Community Center where we spent some time. Then, we met up with Sr. Mary Paul and went to a Marian apparition site in the countryside. We had to walk about a half an hour through fields and a small country community. We also had some amazing hot chocolate... literally hot melted chocolate in a mug. Dužinatý! It was a beautiful fall day and the leaves were all changing. We laughed until our sides were splitting.

The highlight of the day was HALSUKY... Real halusky and garlic soup -- my favorite slovak tradition.

Last Shabbat

The USA National Anthem!

Looks like a war-zone!

Add this to the collection of funny faces of Sr. Mary Paul

Today we had mass at 8AM followed by breakfast. We checked the mouse traps and found two more mice! It was quite the scene, which is why I'm probably disturbing you all with the picture I've posted. Somehow the one mouse was upside-down and the other one got out of the trap although it was not completely dead. We re-set the traps and no action for the rest of the day. Jessica is going to stay in that room tonight but she will come find me if there is any action. After the mouse adventure, I did some school work until lunch time. After lunch I took a little nap until we went to the store to get some food to prepare dinner. We had a nice dinner and then Jessica came in on the train from Munich. It was sooooo nice to see her for the first time since 2008! The train skipped the stop and she was looking out the window and we saw her go by! We were all confused... so we had to walk to the other end of town to meet her. Maria, Sister, Jessica, and I had a lot of fun before bed. We introduced them to Dr. Pepper and ate gummy bears. Sr. Mary Paul talked about how it made her think of Texas and then we sang the USA National Anthem :)

Catch-Up Day - Alleluia!

I had class online yesterday in the middle of the night because there is a 6 hour time change from Villanova. So, this morning I slept in and it was glorious (I got 8.5 hours of sleep)! We did some things around the house and went for a holy hour at the house of one of Sr. Mary Paul's friends. One major and life changing development happened today when I bought Sister a new coffee pot! Alleluia. The old coffee pot did not make the coffee hot and it took about twenty minutes to make 4-6 cups. I don't know how she did it!?

Sister taught me how to make leek soup before we picked Fr. Peter up from the airpot... he came in from Assisi. At the airport I got to try McDonalds... they have waffle fries here and you dip them in sour cream - they were delicious.

BREAKING NEWS: I think all the mice in the house are dead! I killed 2 before we left for Gaming, Manfred killed 8 while we were gone, and I trapped one more today... This should be the end of the catastrophe. We could not get rid of this last one -- the one in my bedroom. I changed bedrooms after I found it on my bed!!! We crushed up some poison and put it in some nutella and then put the nutella on a mouse trap and put the mouse trap right up against the mouse hole. Somehow the little devil-mouse ate the nutella, spit out the poison that was crushed up, and avoided the trap. The second trap got him though... he was gluttonous and could not resist the endless nutella that appeared around the room -- eventually he got what he had coming all along :)

Jessica (my Chinese friend) is coming in from Munich tomorrow evening. We will have Shabbat again and after dinner we will have a prayer meeting here at the house. We have some things planned in Bratislava with Maria on Saturday and Annemarie and Thomas want to come to Hainburg to see Jessica and we will go to Vienna (probably on Sunday). Monday is a day in Hungary and Tuesday we will be going to Loretto, Austria to make our final prayer and preparations for the School of Communion. My time is coming to a close, but it is not winding down at all. I think that today was as laid back as it will get from here on out.

No pictures today... sorry!

Double-Post

Hainburg at night

Me and Annemarie

Cardinal Schonborn

Kartause chapel

Annemarie making us lunch. She kept saying "I love chicken skin" :)

The violin concert.

The Kartause with snow in the mountains

Johannes and me in Trumau

I was in Gaming yesterday and the internet to do a post so I'll write about yesterday and today.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was Auatria's "Independence" Day. We had meetings all day about the School of Communion. The idea for this school would be to train and form missionaries for a period of two months and then send them on mission for a period of 10 months. This mission work would incorporate continued formation. It seems like it is something that we will be moving forward with, but a large majority of the work will fall on Witness to Hope (Sister and Me) in the beginning. This may not be a problem because Sister is thinking about working almost full time on this project and I am thinking about moving to Austria to work on in starting in June 2011. The training would take place in Gaming, Austria at the Kartause. I am also looking to work with the Language and Catechetical Institute on development and grant writing, which would be a great experience and it would benefit the Chinese students that Witness to Hope is helping to sponsor. Annemarie made us "traditional" Chinese food for lunch and she played a mini violin concert in the evening for us. After that, I went out with her for my last Kartausen Brau -- a wonderful and productive day.

Today we went to Trumau for the dedication of the new dorms for the International Theological Institute with Cardinal Schonborn. We went with all the LCI students. When we were at High Mass before the dedication, I realized that my Household brother, Johannes was serving mass! A great surprise. The ceremony was nice and Sr. Mary Paul and I came home, ordered pizza.

My Birthday in Gaming, Austria!

Evidence of the mouse on my night stand

My birthday party!

Proposed site for the new missionary training School of Communion

Me and Annmarie

What a day! I woke up at 3:00 AM to a sound of something moving in my room. I was really freaked out, so I decided to turn on the light on my night stand. When I put my hand down I felt something warm and furry scurry away! By the time the light was on it was gone! So, knowing it must be some rodent, I tried to go back to bed but just couldn't knowing something was on my night stand right next to by head! 10 minutes later it was making noise again. Before I reached for the light I looked as much as I could using the light of the moon coming in the window. It was a MOUSE! I jumped up and tried to reach for a shoe, but it escaped into a small hole. This turned into a three hour escapade! I could not sleep because I was freaked out... at 5AM Sister Mary Paul woke up and we tried a sneak attack... this failed also. So she went and got mouse poisoning! But, this morning we left to go to Gaming to the Kartause for a series of meetings about the School of Communion (a.k.a. Missionary Training School).

I celebrated my birthday with Kartausen Brau with my friends from China who are studying in Austria with the help of Witness to Hope. It was a wonderful day and I'm blessed to be surrounded by so many people who love me!

Please keep praying for the development of the School of Communion!

World Mission Sunday!

Today was World Mission Sunday. Today was filled with planning tomorrows meeting about the new School of Communion. I also had the joy of composing spreadsheet after spreadsheet of financial data to review and analyze -- anyone who knows me will know that this is not my favorite thing in the world to do :)

Since I will not be home for my birthday tomorrow, Sister made me pumpkin pie tonight! She did not have eggs so it turned out like warm pumpkin pudding in a crust, but it was great... it did the trick!

Yesterday when the work was being done on the garden, there were about 40 mice discovered... today we saw one running around outside the kitchen door. It hid behind the bookshelf. Sister Mary Paul kept watch until it came out and then I killed it. Right as I was going to bed, Sister called me from the hallway and when I came out there was another one in the hallway. It jumped off the balcony and I went flying down the steps after it. I got that one too!

Off to Gaming tomorrow for a big meeting about the School of Communion. Any prayers are appreciated.

Catch-Up Day

Pumpkin!

Now Pumpkin Puree

Unsuccessful attempt at clearing the clogged tub.

Today was filled with getting caught up with all the small things that had been put-off. Sister made fresh Pumpkin puree from a pumpkin we just picked out of the garden here. We cooked, cleaned, I got a watch, did some homework, did some work, we tried to fix a clogged bath tub, we watched "The Sound of Music" (and Fr. Peter made us nearly pee or pants laughing), and we ended the day with prayer and praise.

Another Shabbat

An eventful day in Hainburg. Food shopping, cleaning the whole giant house from top to bottom, more food shopping, Shabbat meal, Gabby's birthday, and picking Fr. Peter up from the airport.

Ahoy! -- Walking from Poland to Czech Repubic

Today we woke up early and sadly we had to say goodbye to Gosia and her family. After several wonderful days in Poland it was time to move on. We took a small bus through the mountains where I saw the first snow of the year. We got off at a random train station and then Sister Mary Paul knew of a secret path through the woods next to some train tracks. It was a dirt path and when we came out on the other side, we were behind some buildings in the Czech Republic! I felt like a refugee, but since the Czech Republic is part of the European Union it really was not that big of a deal :) In the Czech Republic we found a two liter of Dr. Pepper which we are savoring. We also had a major fail on some pizza that tasted like bread with ketchup, salsa, and jelly with unidentifiable white substance that may have been some form of cheese, but we were hungry so we forced ourselves to swallow anyway! Then we took a bus to Slovakia and after walking across Bratislava, we had a latte and cappuccino before taking another bus to Hainburg. When we arrived the motion detector light behind the gate was on. Sister was scared because the only thing that can set if off is something rather large that is moving around. She gave me the key and when I opened the gate it was a large rat of some sort. It ran behind a board and I'm pretty sure I killed it. We got really freaked out. Then we dropped our stuff off and took a walk. We found a nice restaurant and had Wienerschnitzel and wheat beer! I wonderful end to a wonderful day.

I miss Fr. Peter. We will be picking him up from the airport tomorrow and he will tell us all about his meeting in Spain. Can't wait!

Czech Republic!

Glorious Dr. Pepper!!!

The Czech countryside

The worst "pizza" ever!

Baptismal Potential in Poland

Acting Silly

The Church where Pope John Paul II was Baptized. We prayed that we could reach our baptismal potential!


John Paul II had Converse shoes like me! How cool is that!

Statue of JPII

Divine Mercy Shrine

Today we went to Wadowice, Pope John Paul II's hometown. We ate the famous kremówki, the Pope used to eat this with friends after taking exams and while he was in Wadowice in 1999 he interrupted his speach to talk about how he loved it. Mass and prayers to Our Lady of Perpetual Help were said at 6PM for the new community.

Dinner was excellent, we had barszcz z uszkami and kurczak z pieczarkami.

We went to the Divine Mercy Shrine for Mass and prayed with the sisters in their convent chapel.

When we came home we were feeling goofy so we spent a half an hour taking funny pictures and laughing.

To Czech Republic tomorrow morning...

Auschwitz-Birkenau

A very hard day... a time of prayer at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. There are no words for the experiences of the day.

"Work Makes You Free"

In the memorial to the Jewish victims.

St. Maximilian Kolbe's name on the list of prisoners who were admitted

Where the Nazis were conducting human experiments. Birth control was being researched here.

Crematorium Wall

We could not see the end of the camp. We walked for 30 minutes and still could not see the end. Birkenau was the largest of the concentration camps with 1,500,000 people killed from 1940 to 1945. A tour guide said "this is not a museum, this is the largest cemetary in the world."

"Keep the Peace"

On the bus from Auschwitz back to Krakow

Gorące pozdrowienia z Krakowa!!

Finally some sleep!!! I woke up a little later today and after breakfast and seeing the City Center we had noon Mass at the Dominican Church. Because we did not want to pay for a restroom, we went into a cafe to have Hot Chocolate with almonds, and apple pie with advocat and vanilla ice cream! Yummy! Then we ran all the way back across the city to pay the parking fee for the second half of the day. We went to several Catholic bookstores to look for Icons, but we did not get one today. We stopped by to see some Franciscans but we ended up staying for a long time to talk about our shared vision and possible projects. It went very well. We got home and the BEST part of the day was... home made PIEROGI! Alleluia! Thank you Jesus! Then we had some time to pray and talk with MORE people who share the vision for the future! Again, ALLELUIA!