Con't

Since I'm doing all this back-blogging, I have a severe lack of cute and funny titles. You can make them up if the spirit hits you (or whatever the phrase is) in comments.

Friday, January 12:

Breakfast at the hostel was very European I guess. There were rolls with a Nutella knockoff spread, jams, cheese, meat, and yogurt-y stuff with blueberries in it. There was also toast and fruit.

After breakfast, we had more meetings about security and welcomes and stuff. Then we had our first test of the semester -- the German placement exam. They had it divided according to the number of semesters you had had. For the part I took, I had to conjugate verbs, fill in adjectives and pronouns, and write an essay on myself. There were a few things I had issues with, like bestellen. I still don't know its meaning. And the essay was just a bit silly, but I did my best I guess.

Then for lunch, they served us fish. It took a while to connect, but the majority of people in Austria are Catholic and still practice the no meat on Fridays. We also had potatoes for this meal.

Following lunch, the PicCell (the phone company for IES students) guy came to talk to us about our calling plans. And it turns out that they're a rip off. Each call, even when we're in Austria and calling another PicCell customer, costs us 0,20E. That comes out somewhere around 36 cents just to say hi or have the voicemail pick up. The fees for calls to landlines and out of country are ridiculous. And apparently a lot of these were "hidden" costs because the IES faculty and staff were pretty upset about them. But they can't do anything because PicCell contracts with IES Chicago (the headquarters) and provides service for the entire student population that gets sent abroad. Some countries have much better plans because PicCell bases their rates on the local rates. If anybody wants to get in touch with me, my cell number is 011.43.676.831.47470. You may want to get a calling card or something, and most of the time my cell is off, but I can recieve calls for free. So if you email me and set up a specific time to call, I'll have it on and we can chat. Just remember that whole time difference thing. It's kind of important.

Now we get to some of the good stuff. After the PicCell meeting, we had a couple of options for afternoon activities. I chose to go to Mariazell and do some touristy things. The hike to town took about 35 minutes. First we visited the Basilica. There is a legend surrounding the origin of Mariazell. There was a monk whose name was Magnus charged with bringing Christianity into the wilderness of the area. He went into the woods with only a servant and a small wooden statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus. Since this was in the late 1100's, there were many knights running about, but they were of the robber-sort and not very nice to bump into. However, it was late and Magnus needed a place to stay with some protection. On the top of a hill, he saw a light and ventured toward it. The area was owned by a robber-knight, who was suspicious of Magnus because he kept his hand on his robe where he had hidden the statue. When the knight confronted Magnus, he was shown the statue, and instead of killing or robbing Magnus, the monk was set free. The knight told him to avoid the other robber-knights because it wouldn't be good for his image. Magnus and his servant traveled further into the woods, only to hear a chase start behind him. He and the servant ran as fast and hard as they could, but they came upon a rock that they couldn't go over or around. Magnus set the statue next to the boulder and suddenly a crack appeared that was large enough for him to fit through. On the other side, they came to a valley. It was here that Magnus built a box for the statue (box=cell=zell). From there, a chapel was built, and then expanded upon for the next several centuries. Just as a sidenote -- do you know how awesome it is to see pictures of places you've been in encyclopedias and on wikipedia? It has to be the coolest feeling ever.

The Basilica is ginormous. It's almost like looking up and losing your balance and falling over. It looks over a small area that's cobbled. The front door has all sorts of carvings over it. Right now there's a lot of renovations going on because the Pope is coming to commemorate an anniversary at Mariazell this September. So some of the pictures are better on Wikipedia, but I have some on my picasa thing. Which will have captions after this weekend. But once you get inside, its all marble and silver and gold. There's several pews before you get the shrine part. On the left and right of the shrine are larger than life archangels. Originally, they were solid silver, but they were melted down at one point and the angels that are there today are wood covered in silver. The gate of the shrine is silver and was given to the church by Empress Maria Theresa. The little wooden statue is still kept there, but most of the year it is covered by ornate robes that were sent by various monarchs back in the day. Each robe has a hole for Mary's head and one for Jesus too. The robes have real gems on them. There are only two times of the year that she isn't wearing the robes -- December 21 and in September.

Behind the shrine is the altar. It's absolutely breath-taking. It's done completely in solid gold and silver. Joseph Emmanuel Fischer von Erlach designed it. The center is a globe that's over 2m in diameter and made of solid silver. Curled around the globe is a snake who's head is tilted slightly up. This sybolizes both the Original Sin and that even evil must eventually turn to God, because Jesus on the cross and God are positioned above the earth. Mary and St. John are also there in positions suggesting that they were supposed to take care of each other after Jesus' death. The crucifix symbolizes both pain and hope. Up near the ceiling, there is gold that is shaped into angels and clouds and such. There are also two smaller archangels to the sides of the alter, both of which are solid silver. At one point, they disappeared, and nobody knew where they went. The process of carving wood to cover in silver had already been started because renovations on the church were needed for the Pope's visit, and suddenly the angels showed up again. Nobody knows where they went or when they came back.

As we walked out of the church, we looked up and there was the organ, which was done all in black and gold. It was enormous!

Back in the town, we walked over to the local musuem which depicted life in Mariazell and some of the local culture. In this area of Europe, people make huge Nativity scenes with incredible detail. The largest one in the museum had been built by a man who kept it in his house and made a log of when he displayed it and what repairs he had done from year to year on it. Eventually, he retired to a smaller house, and ran out of room for it, so it was donated.

Since the group was split into two smaller groups, we met up infront of a store that sold "medicinal" schnapps. It's made with a secret family recipe that is passed only from father to son. Pretty much, if you marry into this family, you have to keep having children until one of them turns out to be a boy so the tradition can continue. There are three kinds of schnapps that they make here from herbs. The sweet kind is green, then there is also semi bitter and bitter, which are both brown.

And now I'm getting kicked out of the IES center, so I'll finish up this in a couple of hours when I get back to the apartment. Love you all, Amanda