Well, it would seem that I have let the past three weeks
slip by without updating anyone on my adventures. So, instead of getting all
the details, I will just give you a brief summary of the more interesting
experiences:
1.
Mauthausen Concentration Camp:
This wasn’t necessarily the most exciting
or fun experience to have, but it was definitely an experience that I am
appreciative for. One Saturday looooooong ago (at least it feels that way now)
some other, most North American, students and I piled into a big bus and drove
about two and a half hours away to Mauthausen. During WWII this was the biggest
concentration camp in Austria, and it had 49 subcamps. We were fortunate enough
to have a guided tour through the camp and because of this, I learned much about
the camp and WWII in general. I don’t need to go into specifics, but it good to
remember that the camp affected the whole community. Although citizens could
try to ignore what was going on, it would have been impossible to remain
completely oblivious. And with a concentration camp within 15 or 20 miles of
every person’s home across all of Europe, the effects were devastating. But
even with this continual presence, officers and neighbors did a great job of
ignoring the pain and suffering taking place in their backyard.
Inside of the camp was a memorial set up
for every country to use. Although it didn’t work out this way (there are now
memorials built by every country right outside of the camp), there is still
something to be learned. On the memorial was written (in Latin) this phrase:
From the fate of the dead, the living learn.
I do not want to blindly ignore what went
on 60 years ago I do want to learn from the past and learn from this
opportunity that I had to visit this concentration camp. And after visiting the
camp, I began to think about freedom. For the prisoners at the camp, freedom
must have been a touchy subject—something that gave false hope or generated a
weak and pitiful laugh. But for me, freedom is something that I take for
granted. As a US citizen, I have freedom of speech, press, religion…Freedom,
freedom, freedom! I so easily accept these freedoms as my own and yet, I am so
often hesitant to find my freedom in Christ. This is the ultimate freedom I
could ever attain, and yet I am so afraid of accepting this gift. But at the
concentration camp, I realized how blessed I really am to be living the life I
am—to be at Bible school in Austria—and I realized how much I take for
granted. So, this is my challenge for
myself and for you…where do you place your freedom? And are you willing to
learn from the fate of the dead?
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2.
Krampus:
One strange Austrian tradition
that you may have heard of is the Krampus. Every year around the middle of
November, Austrian men adorn themselves in costumes that are very demonic
looking. One night in each town (they travel around) there is a huge parade in
which they show off their costumes and masks. But one other crucial element t
the Krampus are the whips they carry around with them to beat people with. And
yes, this actually happens. It all started when some men decided they needed to
punish children for bad behavior just as St. Nicholas rewards them for good
behavior. They don’t always hit you when you are near them, but basically if
you show signs of fear, they will follow you and hit you with their whips. I
went to the parade in November and was, of course, super freaked out, but I
thought after that night it would be over. Turns out that many men in the towns
keep walking around for weeks, all the way until Christmas. So the Krampus are just something I am
learning how to live with.
3.
The next Saturday we did not have an outing and
it was snowing quite hard, so naturally one of my roommates and I decided to go
on a nice long hike. We didn’t really know where we were going, so we ended up
being out for six hours and tromping through all terrain (snow, mud, rivers,
farmland, highways, etc.) to two different nearby villages. It was so wonderful
to once again make it out into God’s glorious creation. We also had a marvelous
time eating snow, singing, finding strange Narnia creatures, deciding where we
would one day live, looking for imaginary castles, and peeing in the middle of
fields. Until, that is, our hands and feet almost froze off.
4.
The next week I was able to accompany Canada’s
top U-19 biathlon racer to the shooting range and try shooting for the first
time. It was quite the experience (and certainly not as easy as he made it
look) but it was still fun! And of course after real shooting we had to have a
photo shoot!
5.
The next weekend was extremely busy, but it all
started off with the opening of Planai, the World Cup ski mountain from last
year. Overnight, the size of our little town of Schladming tripled as people
from all over the world poured in to attend the concert and drink TONS of beer.
Oh yeah, and ski! The concert was a famous German band named SEEED. It was fun
to listen to, from behind the fence, and it was so crazy to have that many
people surrounding our little school. It was also crazy to see just how much
alcohol was consumed. The next morning they were still cleaning up from all the
partying that went on that night. This was also the only night that the doors
were locked in our school, as drunk people have been known to wander in in past
years.
6.
The next day, Saturday, our school took a trip
to Salzburg to see the Christmas market. On the way, a few people pointed out
spots from where the Sound of Music was filmed and then the whole bus broke out
in “The Hills are Alive.” It was so fun! Once I got over the fact that we were
in the town where the Sound of Music was filmed, I was able to fall in love
with Salzburg for just being Salzburg. We wandered around the market for quite
some time looking at all the Christmas decorations and cozy sweaters and
everything else. Then we ducked into a beautiful old church that was right in
the middle of town. There were five organs just in the one church! We also went
down into the catacombs to have a look. It was a bit creepy, but it was a nice
excursion. We wandered around the market a bit more and I bought a DELICIOUS
pretzel. Yum! We walked up to the castle and looked around for a while. It was
fun to see Salzburg lit up at night…and it was so nice to be in a decent sized
town again! Schladming can be a bit small at times… Then we ran back down the
hill in order to catch an “unforgettable experience” that was happening in the
market. It turned out to be trumpets playing on different rooftops around the
market. It was very neat and an overall fun day! I am so excited to be able to
go back after school and look around a little more. While I was there I finally
felt like I was in Europe. I hadn’t necessarily felt that while in Schladming
since it’s so small. But I loved the feel of Salzburg—the Christmas market, the
decorations, the narrow streets—everything was just so fun!
7.
The next day Teanna and I decided to go
sledding! We put on all of our warmest clothes (which doesn’t consist of
much..haha!) and grabbed some garbage bags and cardboard and headed up into the
mountains. We climbed up and slid (or rolled, in my case) down maybe three or
four times before other people came to join us. It was so much fun and we were
going so fast with our homemade sleds! After a couple hours I was absolutely
soaked and I couldn’t feel my fingers and toes at all, so I decided to head in.
But then I had the brilliant idea to go night sledding down Planai! So we
headed back and got all warmed up again. But later that night we climbed up
Planai and then slid down the Black Diamond hill. It was the fastest and
scariest sledding I have ever done. All the lights were on us and we didn’t
even need our “sleds.” We were going SO FAST down the mountain. It was so
amazing!
8.
This same day as the sledding, we also sang in
the Schladming Christmas market. We just sang a bunch of Christmas songs, and
so we invited a bunch of other Tauernhof students to join us. It was a really
nice time! We also started off by having a flash mob to kind of draw attention
to ourselves. It was very exciting!
9.
This Saturday Teanna and I again decided to go
on a hike…only this time we had to tromp through knee high snow! It was so
exhausting, but it was well worth it. We found a trail that was called the
Ramsau Marathon and decided to follow it for a bit. We ended up back in a
beautiful valley in this cute little community. We went to a restaurant and got
delicious apple strudel and hot chocolate! Well worth the hike!
10.
These past weeks we have had amazing lectures as
well.
Peter Reid (director of the German
Torchbearer school) – Colossians
Rob Whittaker (director of English
Torchbearer school) – Personal Evangelism
Toby (local missionary) – Philippians
Murli (from India) – Spiritual Formation
It has of course been a time completely
filled with thoughts of faith and growth and such. I have thoroughly enjoyed
the lectures, but I am beginning to feel that I am ready to live my faith and
not just continue to build up knowledge.
11.
I almost forgot about Thanksgiving! Even though
there are only ten or so Americans here, the kitchen staff still prepared us a
delicious Thanksgiving lunch. At supper, all the Americans decided to sit
together and one girl from Wisconsin even made us all little mini apple pies.
It was such a wonderful day, but it sure did make me miss my friends and
family!
Living in Austria has been quite the adventure! I have
learned so much about myself and God and different cultures as a result. I have
only a week and a half left in Europe but I am so grateful for the opportunity to be
here at all!
Miss you all and hope you are well!