Today was definitely one of my favorite days so far, despite the rain, and yes, it does have something to do with music. ;-) We started with another Orientation meeting about the school-sponsored trips around Europe, then we got our books and our laundry baskets. Today's highlight was a little tour of the city of Gaming, thus today I learned the locations of the illustrious grocery store, Spar (pronounced Shpar in German), the local pub, Urs, the ever so important ATM machines, and Book Mountain. During the tour I walked with a girl named Justina, an LCI student from Lithuania who is studying English and Theology at the Kartause. She will be in my Art Appreciation and my Christian Marriage classes. She was super nice and her English was excellent! The city itself is very cute! There's a little stream that runs next to the shops.
The highlight of the tour was Mass at the church in Gaming. The church is very, very old, older than the Kartause (which was built in the 1300s, to give you an idea). I didn't get to look around at the actual artwork much yet, or take many pictures, so hopefully those will follow soon. After Mass we met the parish priest, Father Franz, a cute little German man, who was gracious enough to permit us to practice on the organ!!!! It's a small yet beautiful instrument, and the pitch isn't that off! It's better than the piano in the St. Francis Hall or the organ in the Maria Thron! Annie and I went up to look at it and try it out. The stops are very old, of course, but you had to pull them out and they were little blocks of wood with knobs on the end. You could hear the stops working behind you in the wind chests! The pedal board goes from E2 to A3 (I think, don't quote me on that though), which was better than I had hoped. The keys are harder to play, but I expected that. It was so wonderful to be able to play it though! Annie and I are hoping to go down and practice a lot, but we'll see how it goes with classes and such. We were elated though: we got to play on an organ that Mozart played on!!! How cool is that?!
Classes start tomorrow: Christian Marriage at 8:40 with Dr. Asci, followed by Foundations of Ethics with a new professor they brought in. We also have Mass with the bishop tomorrow! Sister Joan Paul asked me to play the final hymn on the organ in the Kartause, as they've never had an organist here! Wish me luck and say a prayer for me! Pictures will soon follow!
You get to play on an organ Mozart played on? That is amazing! So happy for you, dear!
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