Austrian Dance!

Last Thursday, the school hosted its biannual Austrian Formal Dinner and Dance. The meal was served by our students and included wine, cordon bleu, salad, potatoes, and the famous "heisse liebe" or "Hot Love" dessert. After the dinner, traditional Austrian dancers came to teach the students group dances. Everybody had a great time, even the dancers themselves.

Gone Caving!

Last weekend, I took a group of students to the "Kartausehohle" or otherwise known as "The Cave!" We had perfect weather and everybody got dirty, incredibly dirty.

Below are some pictures of our fun!

The Most Beautiful hike in the world...

Last Friday, over 70 students, faculty, and staff enjoyed probably one of the most beautiful hikes they will ever do in their lives. What is even more impressive is that it was over 15 miles long through the Austrian alpines!! The weather was perfect (sunny and mid 60's) and some of the students even got their first suntan / sunburn of the season. The pilgrimage walk was offered up for personal intentions as well as the overall intention for the end of abortion and the right to life to be honored and respected through law throughout the world. The pilgrimage ended at the famous miracle state of out Lady of Mariazell in the chapel of grace. Ending the trip with a gelato after walking and prayer was the perfect way to end.

Adventure in Paris!

Blog post written by Spring 2008 Student, Megan Gavin:

This past weekend students Jen, Joey, Talina and I went to Paris. It was really hectic leading up to departure but we wanted to stay at Sacre Coeur so we emailed the sisters but we never got a reply so we decided that we would just show up and assume that they received our email. The thing is we heard different times that we had to be there ranging from 5 to 9 so we decided to go in at 8 because once you go in, you can’t leave, they lock up the grounds. It is cool because they have adoration all night and you sleep right next to the church. They ask if you will sign up for an hour of adoration throughout the night. They have had adoration there for something like 150 years!! Anyway -- we showed up and they never got our email, so for a little while we did not know what we were going to do, they said they would see if they had room, the other sisters were saying evening prayer so they told us to go pray with them and then come back down. It ended up that there was room so that was really nice. I would recommend staying here to anyone, it is inexpensive (5 Euro) for the night and you get the opportunity to go to adoration in this amazing church in Paris.

We also saw the usual Parisian sites: Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. A good tip for other students is that the Louvre is free on Friday nights to students so if you are there on Friday night this is an excellent opportunity. The Eiffel Tower at night is beautiful; we went up to the top where you can really see all of Paris, the lights all over the city are incredible.

One thing that is also in Paris but a little less well known is the Miraculous Medal Shrine, it is a little off the beaten path and a little hard to find unless you have a map. But it is worth trying to find. It is in an urban setting so from what I saw it is only a church but it is still really powerful to be where Mary appeared to St. Catherine.

Overall Paris was amazing! I would definitely go back in a second, even though it rained one of the days we were there it was still really cool.