Last week in Vienna

My host mother and me !

The summer has past by in a blink of an eye. Through the past months I have been able to experience things most will not in their lifetime and I am grateful to everyone that has got me here. Vienna as a local for one more week. I have bought my underground ticket and can travel throughout the city from below. When I am ready I can get off and walk the city from one side of the Danue to the other. Stopping anywhere, the city is my limit - the experience and companions welcomed.

Don't worry... abandoning my weekly tasks is not part of my agenda. I will be listening to my European momma preach on Wednesday as well as enjoying laughter with the youth as we encounter God during our Monday night meetings. Each Friday night is time for outreach as we pass out flyers in the middle of the city. After outreach we sit in a quaint pizza parlor playing a rambunctious game of spoons or whatever pops into our minds at the moment. These moments in my week will be missed as they will be the last ones for this trip.

In the end I am grateful for every encounter. The people here have brought me into their family and unlike most families this one spans the ocean.  It is filled with what I call "a small slice of heaven". Including blended cultures and expansive languages. Even when words are not understood gestures are caught and emotions are stirred. I have fallen in love with a city most have not even thought of visiting.

After my second time spending my summer in this home away from home. I look forward to returning. Some people spend their summers at the beach, being a Cali girl it would make sense but when I think about it I am not drawn to the beach I am drawn to the purr of subways. I enjoy the stir of people and feeling a desire to know what everyone is talking about as they too take in this majestic city. I love being able to hear three languages sung all in one song and understanding what I never thought could be possible. I cherish laughing into the wee hours of the night in front of a bonfire at the lake and the surrounding echoes of your voice off the water making it sound like the world around you is laughing as well.

In the end I plan on spending this week enjoying every day, encounter, moment, and memory. To make sure this is not just something I check off my list of things I want to do but something I will be able to recount at a moments notice years down the road. When goodbyes are needed they are long and overdrawn - filled with smiles and see you soon but no fair-wells.