Pictures + Real Update

Fast connection today!

In the Alps, near Schladming...

My new buddy Robin, and Jan ("Yahn") the pianist/molecular medicine graduate. Both are German.

The "Eagle's Nest," where I am right now. The guy on the left is French, the girl on the right is British, and the guy in the distant center is Canadian.

Volleyball...

The view from my train as it approached Schladming, where the school is. The spiritual dynamics here are about the same as the physical dynamics.

These pictures are chronologically backwards.

The real (short) update:

This week has been an ideal start to the semester. Not because it's been perfect, but because being around all these people, having school and chore duties, and of course the spiritual teaching have brought out a few mindset-type things I'll need to work on over the next three months. There are about sixty students here, mostly from Canada, then America, Germany, and others. We've got three hours of lectures in the morning, lunch, then the afternoon serves as a free time for homework, exercise, working on our outreach projects (going to schools, hospitals, things like that; I'm in the "singing team" :D), or just relaxing. In the mornings, between breakfast and first lecture, we have "duties" like cleaning and helping in the kitchen. Most of these duties rotate, so after a while you get a new duty. Mine, however, is permanent. I take care of the fish. There's a fish tank by the stairs near my room, so I have to feed them, change the filter, and every couple of weeks change their water. I really like this job, actually! It'll be a good way for me to grow in being consistent, which is a weakness of mine.

I've met most of the students already, and there are quite a few interesting people here. One guy I hang around with a bit is a German guy named Robin. You can see his shadowy picture above. He wants to be a teacher, and is very eager and genuine. All of the Germans seem that way, and I love it; no pretense at all.

The lectures this week have been over the book of Phillipians, taught by a German named Tobi. He's one of those really cool/frustrating guys who's done just about EVERYTHING, including pro boxing, architecture, and carpentry. Lots of stories, quite a bit of insight. Today, one thing he touched on was being faithful in our little jobs, and I thought how great it is that we have our duties around the school, as tangible ways to practice that.

That's all for now. Writing this reminded me of a few things I should take pictures of to show y'all. Hope everything is going well wherever you are.

-Michael

Arrived

Everything's going well, though I don't yet have my luggage; supposedly it'll arrive tomorrow morning. Here's the scoop:

My first American Airlines plane from DFW to Chicago was juuust late enough to keep me from getting to the Air India ticket counter in time to get my next ticket to Frankfurt. (Can you put more "to"s in a sentence?) I went back and talked to AA, who gave me a seat on a flight to Frankfurt later that day. The agent assured me my bags and ticket would be transferred without problem. Cool.

While waiting for the next flight, I emailed my parents and German friend, Sandra, to tell them that I'd be a few hours later but everything was ok.

One smooth flight later, I arrived in Frankfurt a little bit earlier than I had expected so I was relaxed and in a positive mood. Of course all the passengers went to the baggage-claim area, and, long story short, my luggage hadn't come on the same flight I had. The AA man had not succeeded in transferring my stuff from the Air India flight, but when AI saw that I had not gotten my ticket, they removed my bags and put them on the next AI flight to Frankfurt, which would arrive the next day (yesterday). No big deal, the German man assured me, I just needed to call this phone number on that day and everything would be fine.

So, I waited, walked around, read a little bit . . . Half an hour to an hour later, I decided to check my email to see if Sandra had responded the one I sent her. There was an email, but not from Sandra. The words "Failure Notice" were in the subject line, and I knew right away: she hadn't received it.

After that I sent her a couple of facebook messages, because I knew she would get those, eventually. About every 45 minutes I checked facebook again, and sent a message to Lena, Sandra's fiancé Phillipp's sister. Finally, four and a half worried, sleepy hours later I got a message from Sandra saying they had already boarded the train home, and to get a train toward Erfurt, close to their town. She also gave me a phone number at which to call her, which turned out to be Phillipp's iPhone. Apparently they had left within the same hour I had arrived, after spending three hours looking for me. Finally by the fifth hour I was getting on the train to Erfurt, where they would meet me. Whew.

That was all two days ago. Yesterday I called the phone number the German man gave me, hoping my bags would be in. No one answered, so I left a message. An hour later, no one answered; two hours later, no one answered. Online we found another number for the American Airlines desk at the Frankfurt airport, which was answered by a lady who confirmed that my bags were indeed at the airport (thank God), but the desk I was calling with the previous number had already closed for the day, and to call back the next day during their open hours.

Heute morgen. AA called me because of the messages I had left, confirmed everything, and said my bags would be sent to me!. . . tomorrow! . . . my bags will arrive tomorrow. Man. So close.

So tomorrow, I expect to have my suitcase and guitar, which will be awesome. I had packed an extra change of clothes in my carry-on, so I'm not a complete stinkpot. We're having fun, I'm speaking some German, etc. It's cold here; or as they say in German, "It gives cold." Crazy Germans.

-Michael

I made it, ya'll. It's a long story that I'll write later. Later.

-Michael