After we had grabbed our luggage, we raced back up to the seminary. We threw our stuff onto the bus we had been assigned and then got on, not knowing where the heck we were going. Did I already mention how disorganized everything was? We ended up in the village of Ottobeuren where we were to attend a Solemn Pontifical High Mass in the cathedral there that day, celebrated by his excellency Bishop Rifan of Brazil. We had a good few hours…four… five… six. I don’t remember exactly how long it was, but we sat out on the lawn in front of the cathedral with our luggage for a lengthy period of time before mass was supposed to start.
We shared the lawn with about anywhere between three to five hundred other people of all nationalities. This proved rather interesting, as there were only about twenty-five English speakers at most, and only about 12 of us from the good ol’ USA. It was like when your at a party or get together and there are so many conversations going on that it just seems like a hum, and you have to try really hard to pick up on just one conversation. Only it was worse, because there hundreds of conversations going on, but they were all in different languages. So no matter how hard you tried, you could never hone in on one conversation.
Finally, we got to go into the cathedral just before mass was supposed to start. I had thought that the cathedral looked beautiful and impressive from the outside, but even that didn’t prepare me for what I was to see inside. This cathedral in this small village in Germany was even more beautiful than the greatest of our basilicas here in America. It was huge, it was beautiful, it was breathtaking. And then add on top of that the fact that we were going to get to hear mass in it; and not just any mass, but mass in one of the highest forms of a rite that has been used in the Catholic Church for over 1000 years, said in a language that enabled people from many different countries to participate to the same degree. It was quite an incompar-able first international liturgical experience, to say the least.
After Mass, we sat around for another “short” long period of time in which we continued to have only an infinitesimal idea of what was supposed to be happening next. As far as we could tell, our next movement in the disorganized orchestra of our first week was to get on a bus that would take us to the St. George walker’s camp for the night. And so we continued to sit there while the various people in charge tried to determine whether it would be better for us to get on one of the busses with the walkers, which were already pretty full, or get on one of the busses heading back to Wigratzbad and get dropped off on the way. They finally decided on the latter option which sent us on our way officially to being on the walk portion of our stay in Germany.
We got dropped off at a park in a little village, the name of which I was never able to determine, and were told that it was to be the camp for the night. We still had no idea of what we were to be doing, so we decided to go up and talk to the only other people there. They were those who were in charge of cooking dinner before the rest of the group arrived, and they were all French. Luckily, one of them spoke enough English to let us know where to place our luggage, and that we all needed to go and take showers before dinner. We gratefully took advantage of the offer of a shower; especially me, as I hadn’t had a shower in about three days. Upon returning to camp after a this five minutes of gloriousness, we found that we Americans were to be the minority in this group, there being 10 French people to each of us yanks.
Actually, we made a lot of surprising discoveries upon our return to camp. The first of which was that the “large tents sleeping forty” which we were told would be our accommodation for the first week, was in fact only existent for those who had stayed in Wigratzbad. All of the French had brought their own tents, which is what we were assumed to have brought as well. Only we hadn’t, and that night they could only scrounge up three extra tents that would sleep a total of six, one we gave to the girls, and the others four of the guys used. I opted to sleep outside, as it was something I was used to and rather enjoyed. And such were our sleeping arrangements for our first night on the walk.
Another startling discovery was the fact that we would not be joining the French at their meals until dinner the next day. Apparently they were not prepared to feed 12 extra mouths, and needed to go out and by extra supplies in order to do so. And so we were left to basically fend for ourselves. Luckily Gregory, the guy in charge of all of the English speakers in Juventutem, knew of our plight and had graciously gone out and bought us some groceries to help us make it to the next evening. These consisted mostly of meats, cheeses, bread, some milk, two liters of Coca-cola, and twelve bottles of beer. Not a bad way to have to spend 24 hrs. in the feedbag department. We made a simple dinner of which we ate heartily, washed it down with some cheap German beer, and retired for the night.
We awoke in the morning very cold and damp, not knowing what the order of the day was going to be. Apparently we were to be going to Mass first, after which we would be breaking fast with the simple repast with which we had been provisioned the night before. Mass was said in a small chapel that was just barely large enough to seat all of us walkers. Despite its size, though, it was by and far more beautiful than any American cathedral and basilica that I have ever seen. I would soon discover that this would be the standard for all of the churches that I would visit in the next two weeks, but most especially during our first week in Bavaria.
We broke fast after Mass with our French compatriots, us on our rations, and they on the typical bread, jam, and coffee or tea. At every meal, the French sat themselves in a big circle to eat, and still not knowing what we were to be doing, we sat in our own circle apart from them. Phillip, an older French gentleman who spoke reasonably good English came over and asked us to join them in their circle. We did this and sat there kind of awkwardly not being able to just start a conversation with someone we didn’t know and break the ice. Phillip happened to be helping with the serving of breakfast that morning, and so came around making sure we all got coffee and also came around passing out pieces of chocolate. Apparently they had already done this for all of the French, so when a couple of the girls saw us getting chocolate, they started saying in reasonably good English, “ We are Americans, we want chocolate too!”, which caused merriment all around and served to break the ice for all of us.
After breakfast, we packed up all of our stuff and lugged our bags down to the bus to be transported to our camp for the night. We then officially started off on the walk. The first thing that I noticed was the pace that the French kept; it was very swift and very much to my liking. We walked that way for two and a half hours, during which we sang without end. Or rather, the French sang, and we just hummed along not knowing the words. At midday we stopped for lunch, which we very quickly learned was not a fast affair as in America. Rather, it consisted of sitting for half an hour waiting for lunch, an hour eating, 45 minutes for taking a nap, and a 45 min.( which always ended up being an hour and a half) lecture. The one thing that I really remember about our lunch stop that first day, was learning how to play Rugby with the French guys while waiting for lunch to be served. It was loads of pure guy fun, as the only rules are get the ball to your goal, and if you get tackled, you have to pass the ball. I love games like that!
After lunch, it was more walking and singing until we reached our destination for the night. Here we would unload our luggage off of the bus and then pack it off to where we would set up camp for the night. We would then set up camp, shower( dependent on there being facilities available), and eat dinner.
Now, all of the complaining and carrying on in this post, and also the previous one, was done merely to give the reader some semblance of what was going through our minds on a daily basis during our first week in Germany. I have also gone into great detail describing our first day, so that the reader will have an idea of what our typical day was like during the first week, and so that I may be free to describe only those events that which altered from our daily rituals.
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Due to my partner in crime not getting back to me, I won't have the infamous "French girl" escapades up until tomorrow. This little piece should satisfy your curiosity until then. God Bless!