August 7-9

August 7 Friday

The German word for today was der Korper, body, and normally I would make my own sentence but for today I needed to take the example. Du hast einen perfekten korper, or, you have got a perfect body, quite scandalous from the word of the day people I say.

Today was our last lecture for the week and the last time many of us will see each other until our trip to Klosterneuberg monday, Speaking of which I have shouldered the burden of figuring out when and where we should be meeting monday at what time to get on which bus to take us out to the monastarery. I have gathered the requisite information and passed it on to Kathy so the only thing left to do is to wait for monday and hope my peers can make their way to Heiligenstadt.

Last night was the best night of sleep I've managed so far, not a great or even very good night of sleep, simply the best so far. We were fortunate enough to experience a drop in the evening temperatures from an average of about 80 at night to only 70 at night while the high for today was a manageable 86 opposed the the brutal 100s of the last week. And to reiterate from a previous post, the historic high heat record for Vienna. After so many days of brutal heat today has finally allowed me to catch up on some jounrally, reading, laundry, and grocery shopping, which so far I have struggeted to do when I am so desperate for rest between our schedule meetings. Many folks are leaving for the weekend to travel beyond Vienna including my roomate and a few friends going to Bratislava. Typically I would join but I really must rest this weekend.

August 8 and 9 Saturday and Sunday

Today was a much needed rest day for me, I mean; my legs hurt, my head hurts, I'm sunburnt, and currently struggling to string thoughts together. It was not much a want to rest as a need to. Some of our number went to Budapest and Bratislava today, I hate to feeling like I'm missing oppurtunities to see other cities but if I forced myself to join today I would've only been more miserable going forward. I did a little clothes shopping today however, along Zieglergasse, getting a few nice linen pieces I may be able to wear in the future. Other than that today was deeply uneventful for me.

Sunday turned out a very intriguing day for me. I made my way early in the morning to mass at Stephensdom where I prayed for the first time in many years. and I am of no domination and I am of no faith yet today I swear I could feel the power of prayer. It was very nice to join with so many others in prayer for a while, for me at least today it was a very calming and relaxing feeling, even if I couldn't truly understand what they were saying. After the mass I took the walking tour of the catacombs beneath St Stephens Cathedral. The catacombs are very eerie, the massive piles of bones are a little disgusting, and the many catacombs are beautiful.