Saturday, September 02, 2006

Interesting...

Last weekend, I was very busy working for the ITI moving beds, furniture, all kinds of stuff. I get a call on Saturday to see if I want to help this guy move. We'd be paid cash. I wasn't too excited about it, but they were desperate for the help so I went over.

I met a wonderful couple. He is the main fundraiser for ITI and is Dutch. His wife is Mexican. They have a four year old boy who speaks Dutch, Spanish, German, and English!! It was amazing! Anyway, they were moving to Vienna. We loaded up, hit the A1 (main highway) and were on our way.

They moved into a 13th century castle that was built by the Liechtenstein's (sp?) as a horse riding getaway. It was amazing! They was a chapel in the castle that they were in the midst of refurbishing in hopes of making it a chapel once again. I have never seen anything like it before.

When we were done, the gentlemen took us out to dinner to an Italian pizzeria. The beer wasn't bad for a lager (although I desperately miss my IPAs, Porters, and Stouts - got to get to England 8^>). The pizza was a little more interesting. My acquaintance ordered a so-called "Mexican Pizza". It was nuthin' of the sort, honey. THEY PUT TUNAFISH ON THIS PIZZA!! I can't remember what else was on it BECAUSE THEY PUT TUNAFISH ON THE PIZZA. (Or thunfisch for you Germophiles). I, of course, did NOT have the "Mexican Pizza", yes those are scare quotes - 'cause it scared the hell out o' me. Mine was edible.

We then were able to take a quick tour of Vienna at night on the way back to Gaming. It was magnificent, especially when I am in the car with a Slovakian, a Romanian, listening to Austrian radio sing crappy American hits in English! Way too much cultural diversity for a guy like me who thinks cultural diversity is two guys from Ada and Canyon Counties in the same bar!



In other news, I received my final class list.
  1. Natural Philosophy I: Principles of Nature - mainly focusing on Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas
  2. Natural Philosophy II: Motion and Order - focused on Aristotle, Bacon, and Descartes
  3. Introduction to Logic - Aristotle and others (don't know yet)
  4. Mysterium Salutis I - Class on the first 1/2 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
  5. Church History I - No idea yet
  6. Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.
A combined 24 credits. I think I might be a busy boy. I love it though. The bulletin board on Friday was filled with announcements from the Professors assigning reading, before classes begin, so we can hit the ground running. As I told one of them, "I am way to old to be messing around. Let's get it on!!"

We started homeschool this week. Wow. double-wow. triple-wow. It is going to take us all a while to get all of this figured out. Four kids at four different levels needing help all at the same time makes for a comedic melodrama. I am not particularly fond of God's sense of humor. :)

Hopefully, we can get the camera going again and get some pictures up. We are going on our pilgrimage to Mariazell (Check it out at http://www.basilika-mariazell.at) next weekend. 20 Km walk (~12 miles) through the mountains. It will be a wonderful time of penance, purgation, and pilgrimage.
The above is a picture of the main altar. The website is in German, but the pictures aren't! Enjoy!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I actually felt jealous when I read your class list. Your head is going to be so full of awesome knowledge that it might just burst:) We all miss you...

Anonymous said...

I'm jealous too! (Hi Colleen - hope to see you at Bible Study next week!) Of course "Church History" has already messed up my tidy little life! :-) The pilgrimage sounds amazing. This is where I get prayed for, right??? Don't hold back! :-)

April A. (cmap)

Michael Lee said...

Of course!! I will be carrying our entire Idaho family in my heart to lay them at the feet of Our Lord and Our Lady!

It is about an 8-hour walk so I will have plenty of time to pray for all.

It is so good to hear from the CMAP association! I hope and pray that you and Candy are doing well, nestled deeply into the bosom of your mother, the Church! 8^>

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear about your "pizza." While in Japan we had "German" pizza delivered to our home: potatoes in a white cream sauce on a pizza crust - yum!!!!