Sunday morning I woke up around 7:30, then rolled over and went back to sleep. This happened about 5 times and I eventually got up around 11:00. I had Facebook messaged Anneke the night before asking when church was, but hadn’t gotten a response… So I decided to get some work done and chill for a while. Around 12:30 I got a message from Anneke saying that church was at 1:30 and that we should meet in the lobby at 12:50. That was fine by me.
We met in the lobby then took the U-bahn to the same stop that I had gotten off at the night before. We walked for a few minutes and then ran into Andrew, Anneke’s brother. We walked up a block and then were suddenly at the church. The pastor greeted us, we got name tags, and then we sat down. The church service was all in English and was very well delivered. It was particularly interesting because the pastor had some sort of English accent.
After the service we all mingled for a time and had some tea and cookies. Anneke and I talked with two girls who are also studying here in Vienna. They’re in a different program and will eventually be transferring to Marburg, Germany. As we were about to leave Andrew told Anneke and me that we had been invited to go to someone’s house for a get together / happy almost St. Patrick’s Day party so we, of course, said that we’d love to go.
We took the U-bahn to Hütteldorf with the guy who led the praise team, a missionary living here in Vienna with his family, and the piano player, a fellow student and teacher at an English school in Vienna. The trip took about 30 minutes. When we got to Hüttledorf a guy, the owner of the house, came around with his car and picked the five of us up. We squeezed in a bit, but we made it work.
The guy, sadly I can’t remember his name right now, drove us to his house. He and his wife had just built it and so it still had some finishing touches that needed to be added, but for all intensive purposes it was livable. The house looked like it had been preselected out of an IKEA catalogue because it was very modern and boxy looking and completely white. Initially I didn’t like it very much, but they did win me over when I sat down on their couch.
When we went inside we were introduced to everyone there, probably around 15 people, and we sat down on the couch. Two guys started playing guitar and we all started singing along and giving suggestions for songs. We did this until dinner was ready.
Dinner was buffet style compete with fresh fruits and veggies, potato zucchini soup, shepherds pie, cold cuts, cheese, an olive tray, and beer, wine, sekt (Austrian champagne), or juice. We sat and ate and talked for probably an hour and a half. Luckily all of it was in English!
We all stayed for about three and a half hours total, but it didn’t sen like it was too long. Anneke and I left together since we were going to the same dorm. We talked on the train about the pastor at the church and how studying abroad had/has affected our relationships whether that be with friends, family, or significant others. We chatted all the way until we got to her floor in our dorm. We said goodbye and then I headed upstairs. I was SO pooped, but still had a little bit of homework to do for my class the next day. I eventually got it done and then went to sleep.
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