A year ago: Easter Monday and My Favorite Story

April 25, 2011: Easter Monday

You can ask any of my friends—this post includes my most favorite story to tell from my travels abroad.

Easter Monday. We hadn’t done homework all weekend long, and finals were approaching. We really shouldn’t procrastinate any more. But, it was the Triduum—we had a legitimate excuse. Our time in Gaming was coming to a close—we had seen the Toy Store, the Spar, the Kebab stand, Book Mountain, etc. But there was one more Gaming-site that we had not been to yet: Schleierfall. The Waterfall. Nor had we taken scenic pictures in our dirndles. We had one full day left before classes started up again, and we were used to not getting much done on weekends anyway… So, Julie, Mary, and I decided to spend our morning doing those things.

It was overcast in the morning—not good for pictures, so we hopped on bikes and searched for the Schleierfall. It took us a little while to find it, but we eventually did find it. We took pictures with it in the background. We saw salamanders and a dead rat (I poked the salamander with a stick. Note: no salamanders were harmed during this visit to the Schleierfall). And I decided that I would brave the slippery rocks and frigid waters to touch the waterfall. So, I removed my footwear, and recalling the stories of those who had gone before and slipped on the rocks, I walked very cautiously, always holding on to something, so that I would not have to bike back with dripping frozen clothes. And I made it successfully to the Schleierfall and back. My feet were pretty cold after that! On our way back to the Kartause, we stopped to get some gelato. Then we went to Mass and lunch, and planned to study after lunch.

But, during lunch, we discovered that it was sunny. We could not just leave the sun out there shinning without taking pictures in our dirndles! So, yet again, we put off doing homework—just for a little while so we can take pictures! We went back to our rooms, changed into our dirndles and fixed our hair, grabbed our cameras, and climbed the back hill. We had such a glorious time! Pictures with little wildflower bouquets. Pictures with the Kartause in the background. Pictures of us spinning and running. Pictures of Julie and Mary. Pictures of Sylvi and Julie. Pictures of Mary and Sylvi. But no pictures with the three of us. That needed to be rectified.

Fortunately, we noticed a hill at the back of the hill. We could just climb up it, then set the timer on one of our cameras, and run down and take the picture of all three of us! All of us climbed to see what the view looked like—it was pretty steep—I had to hold on to the grass to climb up. Then, we discovered that the longest timer any of us had was 10 seconds. In a moment of sheer excitement, I quickly volunteer to try it first—I had practice with moving fast and keeping balance from skating, what was any different here? So I set the timer on my camera to see if it possible to get down the hill in 10 seconds. I begin to run down the hill. Then I start to jump-run in order to help me keep my balance and stay upright. Then I start to lose my balance and tumble. Down the hill. Head over heels. Think Princess Bride moment.

Poor Julie and Mary were pretty frightened. They called down and asked if I was ok, and I called back up—“Nobody else try that!” My hand was a bit stiff-feeling, so I do the fist-check, and my left pinkie can’t unbend on its own. Problem. I know I need to go back and at least show it to an RD. And I would probably need to go to a doctor or the hospital. But I was not going anywhere outside the Kartause in my dirndle. No way. I explained this to Julie, and we went back to our room and changed. I had to scotch tape my fingers together in order to change myself. At this point, I think it’s dislocated because it’s swollen, and I’ve only ever sprained my ankle before, so I don’t really know what happened to my finger. We called the RD, and she was in the next town over, and wouldn’t be back to later on, but she recommended that we see Jenny Cassidy—Prof. Cassidy’s wife. So much for studying later in the day!

We walked across the street to the Cassidy’s and discover that the Asci family was also there. I explain what happened to the professors and their wives (a much shorter version than above!), and Dr. Asci examined my finger. He said to me, “it’s definitely not broken… I don’t think it’s dislocated, but if want I can try to put it back in place… it looks like it might be tendon damage—they’ll have to do surgery for that…” Very comforting—not! Well, I decided to have him not put my finger back into place because it probably wasn’t dislocated—and if it was tendon damage, wouldn’t that make it worse possibly? Julie and I decided that we should probably go back and study now, but Prof. Cassidy asked us, “would you ladies like some tea and a scone before you go” in his Scottish accent. So, we stay and sip tea and eat a scone while we listen to our professors and their wives talk about theological things—like what having a good Lent means, while I ice my finger.

Finally after an hour or two, Katie the RD arrived and took me to the hospital in Scheibbs (Julie also came along). She registered me in German and they take me into the x-ray room. When we spoke to the doctor, he said, “it’s definitely broken. We’re going to put you in a cast.” And put me in a cast they did! I had a huge metal split that went from my finger pretty much down to my elbow, and then they covered it with a plaster cast. I was to be in it for 4-6 weeks. We had lots of fun trying to prank Claire with my cast when she returned from Ireland. When finals time came around, I was extremely glad that I did not break my right finger!