Day #11: A Vector, Snow, and Palestrina

Guten Abendt! Good evening! Classes are going well! German is my favorite, I think. Professor Franz Schneider teaches it. He's a native Austrian, a sweet older man. Today he gave us Mozart Kogel (pronounced Kool), these little truffle candies with Mozart wrappers, because tomorrow is Mozart's birthday! We went over his dates. He said, "How long did he live? Only 35 years! Imagine what he would have done if he had lived longer!" I turned to one of my classmates and said, "The world couldn't have contained such genius!" Some things I've learned in German class: English is the most dominant language b/c of British Imperialism, and that Germans capitalize their nouns!


Physics is so easy it's hard! The professor doesn't give us any math b/c most people don't like it, so he's just giving us concepts to work with. I guess other people appreciate it, but I don't like it. I WANT Math! It doesn't have to be hard. It's simple formulas. Today we had a little. We had our first quiz today. I think I did okay, but not sure. We were learning about pressure, and our professor did an experiment on camera. I had to laugh when we learned about vectors though. "Because I am committing crimes with DIRECTION - and - MAGNITUDE! OH YEAH!" (Despicable Me reference, FYI)

I'm enjoying Art Appreciation. I know a lot of it already, or a lot of it is at least familiar, so it's nice. We're learning about the Ancient Greek Period. It's cool because the art is divided into four major periods: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Modern. I know some about the Renaissance period and the dates for the Baroque because of Music History class! It's fascinating how they overlap. Our text book has sections on drama and music along with the art, but we're only supposed to read the specifically art sections. :-( There's so much I want to learn and so little time! I wish I could read them...

Foundation of Ethics is hard, but I like the professor. I have Brian to help me, too, and Joey Walsh. Joey tried to explain the difference between phenomenology and thomism to me a few days ago. We established that evil is the absence of good rather than existing in and of itself. This is what happens when you take a philosophy course: your whole thought process gets turned upside down. Christian Marriage is hard too, but Dr. Asci is a great teacher!

It's been snowing almost every day here. Today and yesterday it was a little warmer though, so it's melted some. To those who live in the Pennsylvania area around Lake Erie, this is like lake effect on crack! SO MUCH SNOW! And it's so pretty! Annie and I walk through the town to go practice at the church in Gaming, and we feel like we're walking through one of those decorative Christmas villages. There's a little winding stream through the village with bridges weaving over it. There's fish in the stream - but you need a license to fish in it. One of the prethes, Josh, is really tempted to fish in it. 


We had our first Music Ministry Mass today with our "traditional" choir as Sister calls it. It went beautifully! I played organ and so did Annie, and we sang hymns and such. I love singing and playing for Mass here: it's like therapy. Our practices are on Monday night, just like Schola back at school! Father Brad, one of the TORs came up to say hi during our rehearsal on Monday and said how lovely we sounded. He asked if we knew any Palestrina and I about died! Palestrina was one of the greatest Catholic composers from the Renaissance Period, although he is rarely heard in the typical Catholic Church these days. He said he loves Palestrina and he wants us to sing some of his music for his birthday! Fortunately I even had a Palestrina piece on hand! We're going to try to learn it, I think. Mark Daniels, Hannah, Annie, Elizabeth, Holly, Brian, and Nathan and I make up the choir. Mark pulled me aside last night, excitedly, and said he had found a Victoria Ave Maria for free online, and he was hoping to try it! It made my heart happy. He and I are looking forward very much to the new translation of the Mass in Advent. 

We're going to be singing for the Friday Mass in Salzburg this weekend, and the bishop might be there! Yikes! Sister is trying to get permission for Annie and I to play the organ. *fingers crossed* I'm excited that we might get to play it, but I hope I don't embarrass myself in front of the bishop of Salzburg! We may get to meet with the organ professor that Dr. Weber put me in contact with while we're in Salzburg as well. I might just stay in Salzburg the whole weekend, rather than going to Munich on Saturday. We'll see. I hate being dragged from one church to another without really SEEING them.