Freitag - Reise nach Wien (Friday - Trip to Vienna)

Friday we are off for the day and a trip to Vienna was enjoyed by all. We were dropped off at a large shopping mall anchored by Ikea. They run a bus to the Opera House in Vienna for a nominal fee. I contacted my daughter Carrie who is living in Bratislava, Slovakia which is not far from Vienna. She took a train and was at the Opera House to meet us. She helped everyone to buy an all day pass for the trams, u-bahn, buses and we headed to the Zentralfriedhof which is a huge cemetery. Carrie directed us to the correct tram/bus connections to get us to the proper entrance where we could see the graves of famous musicians such as Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schoenberg, and others. It was an amazing site. Carrie then go us to the Belvedere, which is a huge palace with a large English garden that slopes towards the city. It was beautiful. Carrie then had to catch a train back to Bratislava to make a connection to go on a weekend mission trip. Everyone was very happy to meet her and to have her knowledge to get us around. We then went to a neat restaurant near St. Stephens Cathedral where we had a great weiner schnitzel lunch. The rest of the afternoon we walked around the streets around old town. Back to haus Edelweiss for dinner and dishwashing. Everyone was tired.

Donnerstag - Warmes Wetter (Thurs - Warm Weather)

Well another day of serving at Haus Edelweiss. Had to check of few more of the downspouts for clogs as more rain is forecasted for the coming week. After completing my ladder climbing chores I returned again to de-leafing the rocky waterfall area to allow the vines and ferns to spread and to help complete the beautiful effect it adds to the fishpond. Ron and another worker named Gene cleaning out the swimming pool the day before and it is now being filled with water. When we arrived here there was some nasty looking water in the bottom of the pool and they removed over 10 frogs and a salamander. By the way, I haven't come across and snakes yet working on the rocky waterfall area... thank God! They were hoping to get the waterfall running today, but Kevin who supervises our work said that the concrete & stone chase towards the top of the hill side where the water is pumped to start it on its way down to the pond has deteriorated. They are afraid too much water will runoff and never make it back to the pond. I have been asked to see if I could come up with some concrete repairs to fix some of the worst sections. That will have to wait until Monday. Friday we have the day off to go to Vienna. Everyone is looking forward to a break from the work routine and to be a tourist for awhile. After dinner and doing my dishwashing job we had a Vienna meeting. Later I Skyped Carrie, my daughter, and she is going to meet us in Vienna to help us find the huge Central Graveyard where famous people like Beethoven, Shubert, Brahms, Strauss, etc are buried. I'll let you know how the Vienna trip went in my next post.

Mittwoch - Schönes Wetter (Wednesday - Nice Weather)

Today we woke up to another pleasant but cool morning after another heavy rain during the night. The sun is coming up and breakfast is welcome. By this time of the week most of us STWs (short term workers) are experiencing some sore muscles and such. Our days are hectic and filled with things to do and places to be at precise times. I spent the morning up again on the ladder as we discovered that three of the downspouts had clogs. It turned out that we had to remove a section of the downspout to cleanout the clog. By the way, these are not your typical residential gutter and downspouts. I spent the better part of the afternoon working on removing dandelions from the lawn as well as working on clearing leaves and other debris from the lower section of the waterfall run that empties back into the fish pond. I am becoing more accustomed to hearing various Slavic language conversation during mealtime. I have spoken some German with a few students who know some, but or the most part it has been Estonian, Russian, Latvian, etc.
After dinner a group of use hiked down to the Stift (a huge monastery) in Heiligenkreuz to watch the evening Vesper. The monks chant in Latin. After that we went to the Stift Restaraunt and had pastries and coffee. After we hiked back (through the Vienna Woods in the dark) Bob Boswell and I had a nice converation with a Latvian student who has been very friendly and talkative. His English is very good. He is 29 years old and is a chaplain in the Latvian Army. After that we headed off to get some sleep before the next day beckoned. Guten Nacht und Schlaf Gut!

Dienstag - Mehr Arbeit (Tuesday - More Work)

We had a pretty heavy rain during the night but it was nice an cool and dry this morning. After breakfast and the breakfast cleanup we all go to meet with our area directors to get our work assignments. The maintenance group meets in the shop end of the long "Horse Barn" administration building across the road from the Main campus buildings. We do a morning devotional that lasts about 30-45 minutes and then get to our tasks. Larry and I got the job of cleaning out the leaves and pin needles from the guttters on most of the buildings. Some of them overflowed during the heavy rain so we knew some of the downspouts were blocked. They have the tools here to do every job and to do it safely and most effectively. So I spent the morning and most of the afternoon up on a ladder cleaning out gutters on buildings that were built between 1892 and 1908. It was a really interesting feeling doing maintenance on such a historic property in Europe.
At lunch I got to host table #14 for the first time. I was told that there might not always be a #14 table but I should be ready to host. This involves serving the food and later in the lunch (about a 30 minutes time period) serve coffee, tea, and dessert. I quickly learned that I can't eat leisurely or get into long conversations or I don't get to finish my food. (This hold true for dinner as I mentioned earlier because I sit down 5 minutes after it starts and leave 5 minutes before it's over to wash dishes). Breakfast is the only meal that I'm not rushed.
Tonight the full-time staff hosted an appreciation party complete with torte, chocolates, and refreshments. We also got the names of a couple of the students for whom we will pray.
As I type this it is after 22:00 (10:00pm) and it's started to rain again. I think it's time to go to sleep. Guten Nacht und Schlaf gut!

Montag - Es regnet (Monday - It's raining)

Today was the start of the first full week of the two week session. All of the students are arriving today from all over easter Europe and Central Asia. I ate dinner tonight with a couple from Estonia. They drove 3 days through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria! There are students from Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and even a student who is trying to get his visa to come from Iran. The prayer at dinner was said in a different language.

Today was also a day of varied work. I'm in the maintenance group and we are all given a particular area that we dedicate our individual attention to during the last hour of our shift between 3:30- 4:30pm. I have the lawn area in front of the pool at the "Big Haus". I will be weeding by hand to remove dandelions and then using a soil/sand/seed mixture similiar to what you use on some golf courses to repair divots in the fairway. In the morning I worked on cleaning leaves and other tree debris from the rock slope that turns in into a cascading waterfall from water pumped from the fish pond to return down the rocky hill to the pond. However, during lunch it started to rain pretty hard. After lunch I repaired holes in the wall of a former storage room that is being turned into another office in the sprawling admistration building which is housed in the former "horse barn". They remove shelving brackets from the wall and I spackled, sanded and repainted the wall. After cleaning up my tools from that job I finished out the maintenance shift back at the waterfall as it finally stopped raining. I got a short break from 4:30 till 5:45pm to clean up and then I report to the dishwashing room to clean all of the pots and pans etc. used for cooking the meal by the kitchen crew. Two of us work with a full-time staffer to get them cleaned and dry during a frantic 15 minute window before dinner starts at 6:00pm. We are talking a dinner cooked for about 100 people every night. (I'm not on the lunch crew). We then have about 25 minutes to eat as I have to be in the dishwashing area before the meal completes as all of the dirty dishes come back in a huge wave of plastic tubs. As clean dishes come out of the dishwasher, students, professors, full-time staff and other part-time workers stand around the drying table and very quickly hand-dry a huge number of dishes and utensils. It is the most amazing organized group effort I have ever had the experience to be a part. By around 7:30 or so I am free to go take a walk or a shower and sit down to write this.
I will certainly sleep well tonight.

Sunday - A Day of "Rest"

Today we were given a day to be a tourist and we all went out on an extended field trip to two different towns. The first was Rosenburg, Austria. There they have a beautiful Renaissanceschloss (castle). We took a self-guided tour with ipods and then we saw a falconry show. What is that you say? They showed hunting birds starting with faclons and then working up to larger owls and eagles. The release the birds and the birds are trained to do what the handler wants them to do to demonstrate how they are used for hunting. After that we ate a sack lunch and headed down to the Danube town of Dunstein. It is a typical tourist attraction with quaint shops and winding, hilly streets. Perched high above the town are the ruins of an old castle that goes back to the 1100's. It was a really steep and winding trail to reach the top. I, Steve White, and a couple of other ladies made the trek. I got some great pictures. After we descended to the town we regrouped and headed to the vans for the trip back to Haus Edelweiss. We had a prayer and communion time and a light supper. After my dish washing duties were complete I took a short walk with two of the ladies from the group. Now it time to blog and get ready for sleep. Tomorrow will be a very busy day as the students arrive.

P.S. Now for the latest entry to the never-ending saga of Steve White foibles. At dinner last night one of the professors who just arrived at the Haus from Warsaw, Poland was asking if Steve came on the trip. Looking around in the dining room he was no where to be found. Turns out he was preparing for his upcoming class and lost track of time and completely missed dinner. More to come I'm sure.

Hello from Heiligenkreuz, Austria

This is my first attempt to blog about my experieces at Haus Edelweiss in Heligenkeuz, Austria. I am here on a mission trip working to support the needs of ministry students from former Soviet bloc countries in eastern Europe and Cental Asia. Today was a long but interesting day of orientation. I am working on the facilities maintenance crew and the evening dinner dishwashing crew. The days are long and tiring, but the people are great and you can't beat being in this wonderfully beautiful valley in the Vienna Woods. Tomorrow we have an outing to a castle on the Danube River. I should have pictures to share in the coming days. Monday the students arrive and things should get really busy. Tschuss (bye)