11-8
"‘Truths about the universal language.’ I’m sitting in St. Peter’s Church with Nana as we listen to the priest give his sermon in German and this is the thought that popped into my mind.
The priest is dressed in a green robe, representing the timeline of the year of Christ. He is focused and warm, intent on communicating his weekly message to the people of his church. The people who sit here and listen to his words.
I cannot understand him a word he is saying, but I understand him.
He does not know who I am or if I am listening, but I know he cares.
The universal language; beauty in the understood.
Last night we went to a jazz concert, Cassandra Wilson. Abbie had told us about it and Nana and I thought it would be something fun to do. I had never been to a jazz concert so I didn’t know what to expect. Well it will not be my last! I am SO glad we decided to go! The music was incredible, she sang vocals and was accompanied by five men, all on different instruments. They were all African American—I only say that because I want to illustrate the “soul” type feeling it had. There was a guitarist, pianist, drums, percussionist, and a man playing the double base. They were clearly very practiced in their crafts and it was amazing to watch! I had never heard of Cassandra before but I am definitely going to do some research after last night. She sang some blues, a song Paul Simon wrote for them to perform, and a lot of just feel good music. I’m glad Nana got to experience something extra special in Salzburg!"
11-11
"Last night we took Nana to the St. Augustine beer hall! It is a VERY German “local watering hole” type place that I thought would be a perfect way to get more of a taste of the culture. I think I’ve written about the Aug before, we went in September but actually hadn’t been back since last night! So we all got beers and had good conversation J My special guest, (Nana!) got in Friday and we went out to dinner at a place we go to often called “Humbolt Stubn” and we walked around the town a little. On Saturday LJ and I met her at her hotel and we figured out concert tickets for that night (Cassandra Wilson) and decided to do a “Lakes and Mountains” tour of upper Austria. It’s a four-hour tour that took us to 7 lakes and 2 very small cute towns and someone was looking out for us because it was GORGEOUS! Sunny and a nice break from the gloomy-ish days we were dealing with at the end of last night. It was so much fun, we took so many pictures and had the perfect day J
Sunday Nana and I went to another concert held in St. Peter’s Church and then she went with Abbie and her friend Philip to another jazz concert that night (I wasn’t up for it, had a paper to finish and had horrible cramps)
I’ve been having so much fun playing host and it been really nice for me to see things that I walk by everyday or forget about here—now that I have someone to actually show these things to it makes me pay attention!
Tomorrow we leave for our ten day trip to ITALY!!!! It’s crazy, I know. I can’t say it enough: how time flies! But that is not to say it’s going so fast I can’t keep up. I’m taking it all in, fully aware I’m not going to want to travel ANYWHERE when January 5th rolls around, and taking that into account I’m just trying to do it all."
If Italy is anything like Greece I’m concerned about a few things:
sleep deprivation
the condition of my liver
exhaustion from walking EVERYWHERE
bus motion sickness
being in huge crowded public areas with the plague that’s circulating… ahhhh
***good thing I’m vaccinated!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment