Every year around this time in certain parts of Europe a strange thing happens. The demons of winter make an appearance in the cities and towns. These are the Perchten, which, according to pagan tradition, serve to chase out evil and cleanse the world for the new year. Over the years, the Perchten have also become associated--and often confused--with the Krampus, a similar demon who is paired with Saint Nicholas and beats naughty children with a stick.

Last night the Perchten marched through the main street of Salzburg, striking terror in the hearts of tourists. It was fantastic! If you don't scream, they tend to leave you alone, but if you look scared, watch out! Also, as my friend Alice learned, you should not wear a skirt to these events, as your legs need to be protected from the switches.

After the horde marched past we actually followed them into the main square. Louise really wanted to get a picture with one, but every time we got close enough to ask, she ran away. Silly girl. At one point I got so fed up that I kicked (very lightly) the large bell a creature had handing off the back of his belt. I earned a smack on my head from his switch, but it was worth it. Eventually we did get a picture with one on Louise's camera. Here's the best shot I got:

Maybe it's because I've been watching "Angel" lately, but they seem like the sort of demon Buffy would love to fight. Perhaps that's why I had the urge to kick one...

-Kim

the side benefits of working in a castle

Now, there are many benefits to working in a castle, such as having the most beautiful office in the world. But those pics will come later. today I want to talk about something that is completely unrelated to work. The side benefits, if you will.

Occasionally, outside groups rent out the Schloss for events. There have been a number of weddings since I've been here, and just last weekend, a corporate group on a worldwide tour ended their time in Salzburg by renting out the Marble Hall for a concert.

Now, interns are never invited to events such as these, but we do have free access to the Schloss at all hours because it's where we get our food and where we're supposed to do our laundry. So no one questions you walking in the front door and getting in the elevator. On Saturday night three of us made our way up to the balcony/gallery level of the Marble Hall just as the concert was starting to enjoy the show. The singer was a classically trained tenor, but as he was backed up by a jazz band, it wasn't your standard operatic concert. Here's a taste of one of his early pieces:

Shortly thereafter, he brought out a few Sound of Music classics. You can't sing a concert in Salzburg without doing "Edelweis."

After that, my compatriots gave up the idea of subtlety and began dancing in the balcony. After the vocalist noticed and gave us a friendly wave, I decided to get up and join in the fun, as it seemed there was no going back. In fact, at the end of the concert, the vocalist gave a shout out, thanking "the three girls dancing in the balcony for the support."

It was an epically awesome night.

-Kim

In the beginning

I promised you stories, and you will get stories. Here are a few from my first week here, way back at the start of September:

International Travel

My journey to Salzburg began in the afternoon on Friday, September 10. With my suitcase and my backpack stuffed to capacity and ready to go, Mom, Dad and I hopped in the van and drove down to Sioux Falls to catch my first flight. The Sioux Falls airport was in the middle of a rather large renovation project, and the usual path from the check-in counters to the gates was blocked off. Instead, we were funneled through a winding tunnel built of plywood. It felt a bit like being a gerbil in a maze (Yes, the usual phrase would be about a rat, but gerbils are much cuter). I'm pretty sure we had a good long farewell hug three different times between check-in and when I went through security. Those hugs had to last me a long time! Getting through security was a breeze, as it always is in SuFu (which is one reason I chose to fly out of there), even though I was wearing my tall brown riding boots (hey, I had to get them on the plane somehow!). Of course, there is really no reason to get to the Sioux Falls airport the full two hours early, but it didn't seem right to press our luck on such an important day. So I waited for over an hour to board the plane. Ihad a window seat, which was great, except that it was so cloudy there wasn't much to see. Instead of watching the familiar Sioux Falls landmarks falling away beneath us I was greeted by the sight of clouds, but I did have the surreal experience of seeing the shaddow of the plane, darting back and forth as it passed over clouds varying distances away.

In Chicago I was annoyed to discover that I actually had to leave the terminal to get to the gate for my international flight. This meant riding the airport tram and then going through security again. I got a window seat for this flight as well. I watched the lights of Chicago drop away behind us and then settled back for a nap that wasn't meant to be. Even though this was an overnight flight departing at 10pm, the airline felt the need to feed us dinner. So the lights stayed up, and so did I. The dinner was alright, but sadly the beverage cart had no Ginger Ale (and just when living in Boston had taught me to love the stuff!). There were many options for in-flight entertainment, but in economy class we had no control over them. Several movies played at the same time, and you just had to hope that the one you wanted to watch would be starting when you wanted to watch it. I ended up watching three different movies, Prince of Persia, Letters to Juliet, and The Karate Kid, for lack of any better options. They were all reasonably entertaining, and better than nothing since I inexplicably could not sleep. However, after the first movie, I caught the second one about 30 min in, so I had to wait until it looped around again to catch the beginning. So I watched bits and pieces of movies out of order all night. It was lovely. As we neared Copanhagen the next morning, one of the flight attendants came by to tell me that my suitcase was not on the plane. I had a moment of panic and despair, but luckily that didn't last terribly long. I couldn't do anything about it in Copenhagen without leaving security, so I opted to wait until finally arriving in Munich. At Copenhagen we had to go through security yet again, and then get our passports stamped for entering Europe. I was dead on my feet at this point.

The flight to Munich was a much smaller group, and I dozed in and out quite a bit. Upon arriving in Munich I went immediately to the counter to report lost luggage, which was helpfully located right next to the luggage carousel for my flight. The airline employee was very helpful and gave me a complimentary bag of toiletries to ease my wait for my own bag. He seemed to take an interest in this foreigner with a German name who was on her way to go live in a castle.

My transportation from Munich to Salzburg was a shuttle bus. There were four other people on the bus, most of whom got dropped off before me. I dozed for much of this trip as well, because it certainly didn't feel like the reported 2 hours. I'm sure it was not the most direct route, and it didn't give me any idea what the city of Salzburg was like. It was nearing sunset when we pulled in at Schloss Leopoldskron and I walked into the Meierhoff for the first time. The Meierhoff is actually older than the Schloss, and was originally a barn. Now it's a large pink hotel with a lovely courtyard in the middle and the offices of the Salzburg Global Seminar taking up most of the ground floor.

Much of that first night is fuzzy, because I was so tired. The girl working the reception desk was very nice and called the only other intern who was in at the time to show me around a bit. Lisa is Brittish and an absolute dear. She cooks much of her own food because the kitchen staff don't know how to prepare food for a vegan, so that first night she offered to share her dinner with me. After the trials it took to reach this place, it was the perfect welcome: warm, but not overwhelming.

I met the rest of the interns and staff over the next several days. Well, I really shouldn't say all. There are still staff members I haven't met, and my time here is now a third done! But people are coming and going here all the time, so it's not too surprising. Plus, there are only a couple of us who do our work in the Schloss, so I really don't cross paths with staff members much. Tourists poke their heads into my office from time to time, and I see the kitchen staff quite a bit on my way in and out, but not my actual coworkers. I was offered the chance to work in the general intern office where there would be people around me, but I couldn't give up my beautiful view for that. Besides, the librarian needs to be by the library. This is the way the world works!

Oh, and my luggage did arrive, only a day and a half behind me. And since I spend most of Sunday asleep, I really didn't suffer that much for not having it. In fact, when I told other people at the Schloss that my luggage was lost, they generally seemed more upset than I was. But then, that's just how I react to things. After the initial shock, if it's something I can't do anything about, I resign myself to making the best of it without much thought. And really, if something had to go wrong in the adventure of getting me here, at least it was something relatively small.

Oh dear, will every story be this long and require it's own post? I may have to do some grouping or some serious editing of my usual, detailed style If we're ever to get caught up! We'll see if I can do better next time!

-Kim

extraordinary

I have now been in Salzburg for over a month. For nearly five weeks I have lived in a hotel and gone to work in an 18th Century palace. I have moved from being overwhelmed by it all to being so comfortable I don't even think about it. It's funny how quickly things become familiar. I have the most beautiful office and work in an absolutely gorgeous library, and just recently I was reminded of how absolutely extraordinary this is. This is not the sort of space a recent graduate is supposed to get to work in! Yet here I am. At our last session I got up the courage to do a bit of actual networking, and the fellow I spoke with said he could hook me up with people who want to put toegther archives in Norway if I would be willing to move there. That's right, Norway. He also is going to introduce me to the state archivist of Maryland, so there's plenty of options.

How do I keep falling into so many wonderful things? The only answer I can find is that my life is being directed by someone who has grander plans than anything I could ever dream up. So I thank God for the blessings, hold on tight, and keep moving forward. At the rate my life experience has been expanding, from local to national to international, I fully expect to end up working in the first intergalactic library and archives by the end of my career. Or institute a proper archives program at USF. Either would be just as rewarding, and just as miraculous.

-Kim

storytelling

Hello there, faithful followers! You've had nothing to follow for quite some time, and I feel very bad about that. It's not that nothing interesting has been happening of late, in fact, it's quite the opposite. I find I am spending all of my time and energy on crazy adventures and have less left for reporting them to the masses.

But I aim to correct this problem!

I have been in Salzburg, Austria for almost three weeks now. My intention had been to blog the day I arrived and put up something every time I experienced anything new, which would have been essentially every day. And actually, a more previous intention had been to start the series of Salzburg posts in the summer as I was preparing, but that didn't happen either--but no more excuses! Although stories from these past weeks will lack the immediacy and emotion they may otherwise have had, I still intend to share at least the highlights of what's been going on so far.

They may be patchy and out of order, but the stories are coming! Stay tuned!

-Kim

well there's good news...

...and there's complicated news. After my one month post-op check-up on Friday, the good news is that my healing is progressing at such a rate that my dentists continue to be astounded. In both thickness and height, this second grafting procedure has yielded even better results than the first. Hooray for me.

The news that gives me complicated feelings rather than simply good or bad is that the earliest date we could schedule my next surgery, the upper left side, is May 21. We did what we could to try to get it in sooner, but this was the best we could do. It boils down to the difficulty in matching together three schedules: mine, my dentist Fatema, and the surgeon Dr. Griffin.

On the one hand, this is great because it won't take any more time away from this semester (it actually falls exactly one week after my graduation). This is very good news, since I have three big projects to complete in the next few weeks and another surgery would make that difficult, to say the least. So there is a sense of relief associated with this news. Also, my healing weeks will be in the empty buffer zone between the end of the semester and the start of my summer job as a tour guide at Park Street Church (unconfirmed, but I know they want me back), so I'll have plenty of time to sleep and recover.

On the other hand, scheduling the next surgery for May stretches out the whole process much longer than I would have liked. The procedure that we do in May will be the third in a series of at least four (there has been some debate between Fatema and Dr. Griffin about whether they might do one more procedure on the bottom teeth when we're done with all the bone grafting, to thicken the soft tissue even more). After the surgery in May I will have to wait four to six weeks before we could even consider doing the upper right. Waiting for the left side to heal is absolutely necessary so that I will be able to chew on that side again when we do the surgery on the right--there is no getting around it unless I want to be on a purely liquid diet for six weeks. Not to mention that having two large areas healing at the same time is just not the best idea. So the fourth surgery would be put off until at least June, best case scenario. Then we take into account all the follow-up appointments to check the tissue growth. I've been in every week for the past month for measurements, photographs and cleanings. The weekly visits are now over, but she wants to see me at the two and three month mark as well. So, best-case scenario, the last date I could have a surgery this summer and complete my follow-up appointments, would be the end of June. That would be a tight squeeze, fitting it in after the one on May 21. So, my series of surgeries is likely to be incomplete when I leave town at the end of summer in preparation for spending the fall in Salzburg. Darn.

On the other hand, having the work unfinished gives me a reason to come back to Boston in January and narrows my job searching options. This could be a good thing, as a narrower focus could make searching easier, and I do have a few good contacts here in Boston, as well as friends who would let me stay with them while I look for a place of my own.

On the other hand, if I don't find a job right away but decide to come back to Boston to complete my surgeries (even without dental insurance) it will be a very expensive few months. If I were allowed to look beyond the Boston area, say back home in the Midwest, I would have more options and therefore, mathematically, better chances of finding something.

On the other hand, by completing this internship I am making my resume much more impressive and making myself much more likely to get a job period, wherever I look. After all, who else will be able to say they've done what I will be doing?

On the other hand, sometimes I worry too much. God has been working things out beautifully so far, and I should trust him to continue. He led me from USF to Boston, to an incredible program where I have learned much and made great friends. He made sure I was in Boston, with access to the most current and exciting dental procedures when I needed them. And he blessed me with an incredible internship, which will bless me in ways I can't even imagine yet. I worry because I don't know where I will be or what I will be doing in January, when really, that's not so bad. Plenty of people don't know what they'll be living next week or whether they'll have enough money for food tomorrow. I have never had to worry about those things, and there is plenty of time still for these details to come together.

As for surgeries, I'll take them as they come and trust that the one who created my mouth will grant me the time and the opportunity to complete the work of repairing and strengthening it.

-Kim

the hills are alive

For as detail-oriented and nit-picky I can be about the little things in life, I have a pretty lax approach to handling the big things. It's not that I'm unconcerned about my future, it's just that I take seriously God's promise to work together all things for the good of those who serve him. The larger decisions in life I find easier to let go of and wait for God's leading because they're already out of my hands and too big for me to fully comprehend.

The first prime example of this is my decision to come to USF. I always knew I wanted to go there, probably because my cousins had loved their time at the school. But there was no way we could ever afford it unless I got the very top scholarship the school offered. I'll admit to being a little worried about that one for a little while, but I knew I didn't want to go anywhere else, so I trusted that it would work out. And it did. God cleared the way for me to spend four amazing years being nurtured and challenged by friends and professors and an amazing Christian community.

The summer I first worked for the Sioux Falls Parks and Rec department I quit my job at Hy-Vee before I knew what I would do instead and made plans to live in Sioux Falls for the summer. All I knew was that I didn't want to work another summer at the salad bar, away from the home I was making in Sioux Falls. I turned in an application at Parks and Rec so late in the spring that I shouldn't have had a chance, but another girl left a position at Tuthill, and they needed a new person at the last minute (I got the call just as I was finishing spring finals), but their required background check took exactly as much time as I needed for my trip to the Boundary Waters and my brother's wedding. I couldn't have planned it more perfectly if I had tried. But God planned that one. He gave me the gift of spending one last summer with my grandma, living in her house and being closer to her than ever before. I am so grateful for that.

And then there was Boston. I had never heard of Simmons College, and possibly never would have, before Dianna suggested we go to Boston over fall break our senior year. She had people and a school to visit and wanted me to come along. So I did a little searching and found a school in Boston with a library science program that I could visit, to legitimize missing the last day of class before break. Enter Simmons College and a school visit that would change my life and draw me back to Boston for my graduate studies.

This is how I live my life: I see things that look fun and try for them. Sometimes it works, and sometimes I get something better instead. I've been turned down for jobs at both Harvard and the JFK library since coming to Boston. Instead, I spent an awesome summer as a tour guide at Park Street Church and look forward to doing the same after graduation this May. I think that job has done a far better job of preparing me for what's coming next.

And what is coming next? In case there's anyone left who hasn't already heard, I'm going to Salzburg, Austria in the fall for a three month library internship at the Salzburg Global Seminar. Don't feel bad if you haven't heard of it--I hadn't either before the internship announcement found its way into my inbox. I initially applied on a whim, figuring that it wouldn't go very far but I may as well take a shot at such a great opportunity. After weeks of hearing nothing, I got an email just days before Christmas from the director, asking if I would be able to do a phone interview in January. Well, that got me pretty excited, and I started actually telling people about the internship possibility, since it suddenly seemed like a real possibility. The more I talked about it, the more excited I got, and I had to remind myself I hadn't actually gotten accepted yet.

My first full day back in Boston I spoke with the director, Cheryl. Apparently the seminar hasn't been able to keep a full time librarian for a few years now and there is quite a bit of work to be done. The actual collection is only about 10K volumes, most of them rather old, but Cheryl wants the library interns to look into ways for the library to expand online services to visiting scholars. She figured that recent library school graduates would be the best to fill this role, since we've just had two years of reading and talking about the most current library science topics and should be better prepared to help bring the little old library forward into the digital era. It's a little overwhelming to think that I will be the sole librarian working on this in September, but it's a challenge I look forward to. I wouldn't want a job that was too easy, even in such a place as Salzburg.

Another thing that makes the challenges easier to face is the library itself. I have seen one picture so far, and it is beautiful. The Salzburg Global Seminar is housed in the Schloss Leopoldskron, Max Reinhardt's old home, the 18th century "castle" of Sound of Music fame. The outdoor scenes of the movie were actually filmed on the lake, though not on the actual property, due to conflicts in scheduling between filming and seminar sessions. But if you think about the Captain's estate in the movie, that's pretty much where I'll be working. And where I'll be living. The internship is unpaid, so they provide room and board, as well as paying for my travel to and from Salzburg. I will have a room (with private bath) in the Schloss, and will take my meals with the seminar interns and visiting scholars. And apparently I'll also have the use of Max Reinhardt's office. And the great music hall, where Mozart is said to have performed. Could someone please pinch me?

There are, of course, a few more hurdles, including applying for a three month work visa. But there's plenty of time to get the details smoothed over. And learn a bit of German so I'm not completely lost when I leave the seminar for tourist-y fun. Plus finish library school and learn as much as possible about what I'll be doing at the Schloss.

But I trust that will all come together.

-Kim