Hello!!! It is a beautiful Tuesday afternoon with snow outside once again. As soon as I thought I was getting used to the cold, it got colder. Cold and snow bless the Lord!! It really is beautiful out seeing everything covered in snow.

So this weekend I went to Salzburg and Munich. It was a weekend full of new experiences. I went to my first beer hall, that was a cultural experience because there were a lot of locals. It is a hall with various food stands and then a separate stand where everyone lines up with their mug of beer which you just grab off the shelf. Before filling it with beer, you are supposed to rinse it off in the water fount. Then you take all your stuff and find a seat at the huge tables provided there. I didn't try the beer, but I did have an interesting type of meat that we never quite figured out what it was.... hehe... I ate it with mustard (yes, mustard is very common and I'm actually starting to like it). That was all after going to a concert of the Twin Quartet, a group from Moscow that includes two sisters on the violin, a viola player, and a cello player. It was beautiful and it was in an intimate setting, a large ballroom with the musicians only 5 rows of chairs back.

After the Augustiner we stopped by an Irish Pub (in Salzburg) to see if there was live music, but it was nothing impressive so we headed back to the hostel. In Munich I very much enjoyed the open air market, buying a fresh juice (orange and grapefruit), dried fruit covered in dried chocolate, humus, and white beans spiced up Austrian style : ). We went to a local cafe where they had a large variety of hot chocolates. They all looked tasty, but I stuck to a simple tea.

After that, I went off on my own. Don't worry, I had a map... hehe... It was exhilarating to figure out where I was and where I was going. The reason we split up is that everyone wanted to do something a little different. I went church hopping : ) finding an empty church with someone practicing the organ for a bit, a film museum, a fashion exhibit, a little nook to eat my lunch in, an extremely ornate church, a church preparing for mass with a beautiful statue of our Lady, a church that was completely empty, at least I hope it was empty. This last church was a gift because I sung in the church!! Me and my Lord in this 15th century church singing to my heart's delight with my voice reverberating off the walls, a great joy and a gift from God. After this I stumbled on a memorial to Micheal Jackson as well as an Iranian vigil of some sort. I made it back to the buses with some mystery meat and sweat mustard.

Then on Sunday I had mass at the church where Mozart meant for his composition of the mass parts to be played at. It was beautiful. Before mass a friend and I ventured up to the the castle on the hill. The castle was too expensive to go in for the short amount of time we had, so we decided to pray Morning prayer overlooking Salzburg. The bells ringing was a beautiful thing to hear as well.

Well, that is a summary of my weekend, I'm sure I left things out, but I have to run off to class. God bless you all and I send much love!!!