Has a week gone by already? Wow. Time flies when you're having fun.

Last Friday there was a "program wide" (some people didn't have to/chose not to go) to Trieste. This is the far northeastern bit of Italy and borders Slovenia. On the way there we made two stops. One was at Redipuglia, Italy's largest war memorial. This massive WWII memorial holds is the burial site of 100,000 fallen soldiers. Sadly, only about 60,000 of those have never been identified. The whole site was overwhelming and at the top stood three bronze crosses, "symbols at once of the ultimate sacrifice and of the hope of ascension to God." Did you know that somewhere near 45 million Italians died in WWII? Regardless of fault (I've heard a few opinions here), what a tragedy.

After that we went to Miramare, a little seaside town. We saw the Castello and the gardens. Beautiful. (But not as beautiful at the Mirabell Gardens. I'll tell you about those in a minute...)

In Trieste we just wandered around and had a few scoops of gelato until everyone got back on the bus to go to Paderno. Brett and I stayed there, sat at the port for a few hours, wandered around a bit, and then took the train to Salzburg around 9:30 that night.

We arrived in the Sound of Music (or Mozart, depending on your taste) capital about 4:30 in the morning. We slept on the floor of the train station for a few hours before the security kicked us out. Though we were terrified to set out so early on the streets for fear of the 10 degree weather and my oncoming cold and Brett's lack of warm clothing, we hit the streets about 7:00. First stop, Mirabell Gardens.

We were walking down the street and I saw flowers and, naturally, the center of gravity became the garden. Brett's response was "is this famous or something?" My know-it-all retort was something to the effect of "DUH!" (I'd never heard of it.) As we walked through and took lots of silly pictures I started to recognize some of the scenery as backdrops from the movie. Lots of stone gnomes, ivy, a hedge maze, the Pegasus fountain, and ground cover in designs were gorgeous even on a cold, rainy morning.

We stayed there and spent some time in the Word, then went to the tour! This part of the story will be short (though it was wonderful, don't get me wrong!) The lake, terrace, gazebo, church where they got married, Nonberg Abbey, the trees the climbed on, the villa, the "I Have Confidence" road... oh it was wonderful. Brett was even singing along on the bus. Actually, he was sleeping, but his mouth was open so the picture kind looks like he was singing. Haha. I'm a nerd.

Anyway, we spent the evening wandering around the gorgeous streets, eating, and restaurant hopping to stay in the warmth. We walked up to the center fortress, but didn't go in because it was 10euro. Budgeting is tough!

Anyway, we left that night on the 1:30am train. That's the end of that story.

This week is simple: Operations Management test, Economics test, Italian quiz, Marketing test, and a seminar on the EU. LOOONG week. Today Ashley and Allison left to go to Prague. I was going to go, but I think the boys will want to go the week after classes so, last minute I didn't :-( Tomorrow Brett and Drew will go to Florence for the weekend and I will just spend the weekend in the Paderno-Bassano-Castelfranco area getting some stuff done and relaxing.

The end! Love you all lots!

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, bycanceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." (Colossians 2:13-14)