Sunsets

Sometimes, at different times during the day, I think of something great in my mind, and I tell myself to get back to my computer immediately to write it down. Today, that happened to me, but I was 20 minutes away from my dorm. I was worried that I was going to forget everything, so we'll see how I do with my memory. I guess none of you will know if I told you everything or not, but just trust me that I am trying to write down all of those thoughts that go through my mind during the day.

Last night was my first decent night of sleep since I left the castle. That was last Thursday. Ever since then, I've been sleeping in the same room as guys who have terrible snoring habits, and my sleep just doesn't coexist with snoring. My roommate, Avalanche (Aveenash?), doesn't snore nearly as bad as the other guys, but he still does a little. I fell asleep before he got back from the kitchen, though, so it didn't matter. Back to the important stuff, I had my first real intensive language class today. I spent 5 hours in a classroom in 3 different shifts. You might think that sounds like a lot, but I enjoyed it. It was nice to have something to do. During those 5 hours, I think I learned as much German as I have over the past 5 years. 5 years of German in 5 hours. It was a lot, but it was fun. We started off with an exercise where the professor asked each student a random question he made up. My question was how does the future look for America. Is it optimistic, pessimistic, poor, something else? I was also asked what I would improve about the country if I was the president. I'm not a very political person, but I had an answer. The only problem was, how do I say all of this in German? I made it through, and he went to the next person, asking them if they would take a chance in a game of dice to win either $1 million or get their little pinky cut off. It was a fun way to start the morning, and in the afternoon we moved on to settings of time. Grammar came next, and last was culture. Lots and lots of information. It's going to be great to have those classes everyday for the next 3 weeks before I start my actual university classes. After class, I went grocery shopping with my neighbor, who is also from Iowa. Let me tell you, everything looks different in a grocery store in Austria. It was fun to get away from campus and actually spend time in a conversation with somebody.

This evening, I went on a walk to get to know the city where I'll be living for the next 5 months. I decided that I had no pictures yet, so I should probably go out while the sun is still up. It was a miracle that it was still up because it was almost 4 pm, and usually the sun is long gone by then. So I headed out. Somebody had told me that the Wörthersee was in this direction, so I made my way that way. I took some photos of my school and dorm before I left, and when I got halfway to the see, my camera died. Sorry, but I have no photos for you of the beautiful see. You will have to either look it up or wait until I get some new batteries. I persevered through the death of my camera, though, and kept on the path. As I was walking, I quickly got out of the small area I knew, and I realized that campus is really small. It is only a couple buildings; nothing compared to the huge campus in Cedar Falls (just kidding, but really it's not even as big as Hawkeye). I crossed the street, heading away from campus, and on the other side I reached ground never before seen by my eyes. I walked over a bridge and found a nice park. All kinds of neat things were in the park, including a couple giant boards with chess pieces. There were also random stone sculptures strewn around the snowy grass. Near the end of the park, I finally noticed the see. It's huge. There are all kinds of great big houses and castles that surround the see, and did I mention that the entire city is surrounded by mountains? It's beautiful. You don't see the beauty when you're looking out my dorm window, but you can definitely see it when you are by the see. I walked a little ways along the shore, and found a tree I could rest on to watch the sun dip down behind the mountains. I kept telling myself, "Tom, you're in Austria right now watching the sunset. You are on the shores of a huge, beautiful lake, and you're staring at the sun as it slowly slides down the far side of the Alps. Are you getting this?" I mean, how many of us can say that we see that on a regular basis? How many of us can even say that we've seen that once? I realize that there are millions of people who can see that every night because they live here in Europe, but how many of them actually take the time out of their busy day to watch the sunset? How many of you take the time out of your day to watch the sunset over the cornfields on the west side of Cedar Falls or wherever it is you live? I don't think that there are many of us who do take that time. We are often too worried about school, dinner, friends, work, tv, or anything to stop ourselves long enough to notice the beauties put before us everyday. Our lives are crazy, and we often wonder if they are ever going to slow down. I don't think that they ever will unless we set aside time to do things like watch the sunset, go for a walk, have a conversation with out parents, or even just sit in silence with no distractions. Getting back to the sunset and away from that little bit of opinion, I was listening to music on my walk to the lake. It was a newly created playlist titled "Happy, Smile". I named it this because I decided that this part of my life, along with every other part of my life, is supposed to be happy. God says to never grow weary, but to always keep a smile on our faces. I think it's really important to be happy and positive, and that is why I answered optimistic to my teacher this morning. As I was watching the sunset, I listened to these three songs in a row, There Will be a Day, Oceans from the Rain, and Tension & Thrill. You may not know the artists or ever even heard of the songs before, but they were amazing to hear while watching the sunset. So many thoughts started to fill my head. There were thoughts about the words in the songs like the idea that someday Someone will come back to save all of us. There were also thoughts about my immediate future here in Klagenfurt, and my schooling when I get back to America. I had thoughts about the times in my life when I've spoken in front of large groups of people, and I realized when I was thinking about those times that each one of them changed my life. I cried before, during, or after a lot of those talks, but they weren't sad tears. They were very happy. I was also thinking about how beautiful everything was in that exact moment of Lobpreis. It was a wonderful feeling leaning up against that tree, watching the sun slide, remembering the experiences I'd had, and dreaming of the days to come in my future but also the future of the body. I don't know if it's worth trying to describe anymore than I've already tried. I think that you, yourself, have to feel it. It's like being in the perfect place at the perfect time with the perfect thoughts and the perfect Friend. Sometimes, I think my words are silly, like those of a fiction writer or a child in his writing class. I think that a lot, but I hope you can see past my words and discover the words meant for you. Most of the stuff I say is just nonsense, but I want you to find your own sense in the middle of this mess. I would tell you what my dreams were for my future, but I already know that the only thing for sure is the next step. It's like walking in the snow in somebody else's tracks who knows the way much better than you do. You can't look to far forward without stumbling and falling out of the tracks set before you. I think I told you that once, but I said it again anyways. It's time for me to go now. I think I might watch a movie tonight. Tomorrow I have another language class and then an intercultural workshop. Those are always exciting. I hope that you read this today at work or school or wherever so you can go out tonight and watch the sun go down. You never know how many more chances you'll get to do that.