Day #1 : Welkommen!

I'm at the Kartause! Our flight went smoothly and I got both of my bags back., so that is wunderbar! One of them has a small tear in them from the flight, but it's very small. My friend Joey, a junior in the pretheologate, was kind enough to help me carry my bags, and I helped carry his. We sat together on the two hours bus ride and drew sloppy diagrams of Nebraska and Ohio. The drive is beautiful! There's no snow right now, so it looks kinda like spring. The water is a greenish blue in the rivers and streams, so it's quite pretty! It winds through the towns and the hills, and there's little bridges that cross over it. It looks like Steve Mcqueen should be racing his motorcycle through the hills here, too! When we arrived at the Kartause there was a group of children (the children of the professors) waiting for us with flowers! They were so cute in their little sweaters and Austria outfits! 
We had Mass at 4 pm in the Kartause chapel. The chapel was pretty, but there was guitar music -guitar music in that space does not work well at all! It gets all muddled. They should sing a cappella just for clarity's sake. The paintings were gorgeous though!  I saw one of St. Cecilia -speaking of which there is a tiny, tiny organ in the corner of the choir loft. That may come in handy... Especially as the little grand piano they have in the lounge area is tuned a whole step below C4!!!! This might make it a bit of an adjustment for practicing purposes. I'll just have to get better at transposing.
A little history about the Kartause: It was originally a Karthusian monastery. When it was divided up after World War II, the Kartause was destroyed by the Russians. However, in the 1980s an architect began to restore it to what it is now, a lovely hotel for tourists and an amazing place to study for us students!
Later today we went exploring. It feels like we're walking around a humbler version of Hogwarts! There's hallways and courtyards and a little dining hall (nothing like the grand one in the Harry Potter movies, unfortunately. I would liken it a little more to a hobbit's pub). The dining hall is a nice place, and the food is decent. I also found the library! Which lead into another library! Which contained a small selection of books about the composers! Mainly the Classical/Romantic Period: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. My music major heart was elated. ^_^
Tomorrow we're going to a Benedictine monastery we passed on the way to the Kartause in a city called Melk. They have a beautiful library - I've seen a couple pictures of it from other Gaming students and it looks like the library in Beauty & the Beast! I'm sooooo excited to see it!!!!! Hopefully pictures will be coming soon! God bless!