what's been going on lately??

Just a normal week at Tauernhof..:) So..basically there are 6 kitchen/house girls and we are split into two groups and alternate between cleaning and cooking. We do 2 camps and then switch. I am on the cleaning crew for this camp which started on Wednesday. I usually get up at around 7:00, but some mornings I am on breakfast duty..so I get up at around 5:45 instead. For cleaning I am responsible for 2 floors. My duties: Vacuum all the floor space on each floor, including the guest rooms. That is approximately 11 rooms. Clean all the showers and toilets. 8 Showers and 5 toilets. Mop all the floors which are not carpeted. I do this from 9:45-12:20. Yes it is a lot of work for that time period!! After I get all this done I help serve lunch and clear lunch and clean up after lunch which brings us to 2:30 or so. I get time off from 2:30 till 5:00 or so. Then I help prepare supper and clear supper and clean up after supper which brings us to 7:30 which is lecture time. We have some singing and then the lecture. Usually Hans Peter speaks, but sometimes Eis does. Almost all of the camps are German so of course the lecture is in German. ;) We are not required to be at lecture every night, but so far I am actually doing fairly well with understanding and so I've been going. Tonight the lecture starts at 8 and goes till 10 then we are going for a night hike up into the mountains to watch the fireworks. Awesome!! After doing that..we'll hike back and have some hot chocolate and go to bed around 2:00 am. I am actually still debating going since I have to help with brunch tomorrow at around 8:00. Soo..tomorrow I turn 20. No longer a teen. :( I can't get away with childishness anymore I guess. ;) Tuesday I have the day off. I wonder what I'll do?? Yesterday I went for a hike up into the mountains along the Talbach River. Beautiful!! A little slippery and treacherous since there was a drop off on one side of a very narrow path. The views of the mountains and the waterfall was worth it though. It took me and Hilde about one and a half hours to make it all the way around. I finally got myself some hiking boots and not for too bad a price either. On sale for €69.90. Today I have more time off since it is Sunday, but I have been up since 6:45 and already cleaned 3 toilets and 2 showers and mopped and vacuumed two floors. :) This is unusual for a Sunday. Usually the camps don't go over the weekend. This is the longest camp. It has been fun getting to know all the staff a bit. The girls are a lot of fun!! Even if they order me around in German sometimes ;) One of the other kitchen girls is Canadian too. Yesterday she was wearing a t-shirt which said "hug a Canadian today". Of course I hugged her. :) On Monday evenings I am signed up to work in the Bistro (coffee shop) in the mainhouse. I will be learning how to make capuccinos with an espresso machine. Fun!! The coffee here is really good! And the cheese..and the bread..and basically just all the food. (Mom..they don't make nearly as good spaghetti as you though, or apple pie for that matter :) All you people at work...I get to run up 5 flights of stairs at least a dozen times a day..if not more. A girl here has asked me to go running with her every once in a while so I am going to be in good shape when I get back. :) Anyway..that's my life for right now. Pretty much Awesome. :)

Pictures of My Home

Here's some Pics of my beautiful Schladming.



Overlooking Schladming toward the Dachstein.



The Mallards that live by the river path



A church (Lutheran I think, whatever, they're all German) :) This is the church I went to for Christmas Eve Service. The pastor spoke a good message about Jesus coming to earth as God in human form. And a story about Corrie Ten Boom and forgiveness. No, I did not need translation. I caught that much on my own. :)



The "River". Really clear water!!



And another church. Not sure which one it is. But it looks cool.
Enjoy :)

End of Story..

Towards supper time we made our way to the Rathaus and browsed through the Christmas Market. Everyone had different stalls of decorations and jewellry and hats and scarves etc. I found myself a nice ring to remember Vienna by. :)Everything was beautifully lit up with paper lanterns and thousands of minilights. The streets had chandeliers of minilights hung. Incredible! After browsing for a while we had supper at the Rathaus Restaurant. I had Wienerschnitzel and Parsleyed Potatoes with Salad. We spent at least 3 hours in there. They had live entertainment. An amazingly talented harpist. She played some incredible classical pieces flawlessly. After this we headed for the underground train and made our way back to the car and by 1:30 am we finally got home. What a fun day!! Here's a few more random pics..



There was so much detail on all the buildings...the iron work and just the construction and statues. Almost makes a person want to get into architecture. If only the old way of building hadn't died off so much. :(



Another closer picture of the same ironwork from inside.



A bunch of buildings were built right over the street so the traffic would go right through this little roomlike structure. In this particular one there was a violinist playing along to music. The acoustics were amazing!! It just kept swelling...Hope you all have a really great Christmas!!

and more..

That is the Rathaus (City Hall) in the background. They have a lot of horses and carriages all over the city for tourists.



We were just heading from the square to the famous Gothic Church when we saw this puppeteer playing. So fun!!



This is the famous Gothic Church



This is a small portion of the stone carving that is inside the church. I had a hard time getting any good pictures inside because it was so dark.



This is a statue in a Jewish section of town. A very old section!

More Pics of Vienna

This was inside a big church.



We laughed about what it'd be like if that huge gold ball would one day fall and bounce across the courtyard floor. :)



These are two identical buildings that hold major art museums or something. I think they were built by the same man who built the palace in the first pic. The two pillars in the first pic were designed after one pillar built in Rome.



I can't remember the significance of this statue, but there were lots of statues like this around. I think they were depicting war heroes.

A Day in Wien (Vienna)

I was invited to go on a day trip to Vienna with a family of one of the girls here. Nif (Jennifer) has been to Vienna 5 times before and so she prepared a fun tour for us. What a beautiful city!!



This is the first thing that we saw in the city. It's a palace of some sort.

Goodbye New Friends...:(

Well...today a bunch of staff left for Christmas holidays. One of them isn't coming back. :( Kinda sad to get to know someone and then have to say goodbye so soon. Aah well..such is life. Christmas holidays have officially started. I'm one of the only people staying here for Christmas, but the others that are staying have been very kind and gracious in trying to include me in their activities. Christmas Dinner on the 25th and possibly traveling to Vienna for a day. Should be fun. :) I spent most of the morning just lounging around. Reading and listening to music. Had lunch and helped clean the kitchen and then helped one of the girls pack up. By the way Heinrich and Irene...All the girls speak German and one speaks Dutch as she is from Holland. They all speak English as well, but they often talk amongst themselves in German. I don't mind though. It helps to hear it all the time and I often ask questions and can usually figure out what they are talking about. Kinda fun. ;) Anyway..after the girls left for Christmas Vacation I moved all of my stuff into my new room. I was living in the Chalet until Monika moved home (she's the girl who is not coming back). I will now be sharing a room with a girl named Christy from the US. I unpacked all my stuff and was able to put it all away. I don't have any good footwear for hiking yet. :( I guess I'll need to go shoe shopping. yeah, yeah, I know more shoes. It's hard when you work at a place like the Credit Union that only needs dress shoes. I thought that I would have too much stuff, but it seems reasonable now that I unpacked it all. Anyway..time for supper.

My Night in Salzburg

I have finally made some time to upload some pictures for your enjoyment. This is from my night in Salzburg at Hotel Adlerhof. It was actually a very nice room.






So...I went for a walk in little Schladming this afternoon. Beautiful little town!! It has a river running through it and mountains on all sides. You can take hiking trails right from town. The water running in the river is so clear and a blue/green color. What an awesome God we have!! Some of the work I've been doing?...We have been preparing for guests. Cleaning all the Chalet rooms and other rooms and dining rooms and the kitchen even down to scrubbing with a toothbrush between tiles. Good hard physical work. Some of the food I've been eating?...for breakfast-croissants filled with chocolate, dark bread with jelly or nutella or peanutbutter(not kraft), meat and swiss cheese, coffee (very good!!), cereal, yogurt and whatever else we can find. :) Lunch - Usually a larger meal, today it was pigs in blankets (really amazing pastry), salad, potato wedges, plum kuchen with whipped cream. Supper - So far it has always been a 'help yourself' meal. Basically scrounge or leftovers. I've become fond of toasted bread with swiss cheese and ham and a cup of tea.
What have I been doing in my off hours?...Reading my bible, emailing friends, updating my blog, going for walks, last night I watched a movie with the kitchen girls (Life of C.S. Lewis in Deutsch). I have been going to bed early. :) Anyway..that's all for now. I will eventually post some scenic pics.

Still No Pictures

Sorry.
I need an adapter for my laptop before I attempt to upload any pics. I will try to get some this weekend yet. Till then you´ll just have to imagine :) I am finally over the jet lag. Yippee. I woke up tired as usual this morning, not wide awake. I know I´m over jet lag when that happens. It´s how I feel every morning. :) Life is good here. We finished making beds for guests today and then cleaned the kitchen. Wow...what a job. We scrubbed everything down. The floor was fun. We sprayed water all over it and then stepped on towels and scooted around to dry it up. Great fun. The girls I work with are great, but some of them will be leaving soon. :( Anywhoos..gotta run for supper. adios.

First Day of Slave Labor!!

Just Kidding!! I am loving doing some physical labor!! I am really enjoying the change and I already am starting to feel at home!! The people here are very friendly. For now I am staying in a really nice room in the chalet. I will be moving to the house next week after Christmas break where I will be sharing a room with an all american girl. ;) I think that my body is almost over the jet lag. I am still having a hard time eating properly at the proper times. I went to bed at 7:30 last night and didn´t get up till 7:00 this morning. I am typing on a german keyboard and am having a hard time of it. So confusing. :) Well..I can honestly say that I love flying. So fun!! I like the smaller planes better though. My favorite part of the whole trip was the train! It was an hour and a half trip with gorgeous sites!! Where I am staying is just as beautiful. Look out the window and see mountains on all sides. Aaah..this is the life!! My first night in Europe I spent in a hotel room, since I didn`t make any of my connections and all the trains to Schladming were already gone. The hotel room was really nice, but also expensive for one night..one person. Oh well..I took some pictures of the room, but you`ll have to wait and see later. I´m too lazy to drag my laptop up to the eagle`s nest. (the lounge/computer room) You guys can pray for me that I will get another good night´s rest tonight and that my stomach will be back to normal soon. The food here is really great!! After eating airplane food though, just about anything would be good. I ate a meal on the long flight over and it made me sick that night. I´m just really glad I wasn´t sick on the plane or bus etc. Hope you are all doing well. I´ll post some more maybe tomorrow.

I'm Here!

Just barely..
let's just say that missed flight connections are no fun!! Stupid Air Canada! sorry, just a little frustrated. I am still severly jet lagged. I ended up staying in a hotel in Salzburg last night, nice, but I couldn't sleep when it was only 5:30 in the evening.
gotta get going now..I don't have my own computer set up yet.
catch ya all later

Opera Anyone??

So...Christmas music huh? It's getting old already. Actually just these cd's that are playing at the cred are getting annoying especially the opera cd. Those high notes just really make your shoulders tense. And the bell choir...wow it can drive you dingaling. Pun intended. Last day on till..Yesss! So far it seems to be slow, but then it's only 2 minutes after opening. I'm going out for lunch today with my girls. (Barbara Ann and Fran) No, I did not make them up to keep me from getting lonely. We are the top of the totem pole, so to speak here at work. The most experienced etc. We generally have a lot of fun when we work together. Then there's Trish, who I worked with yesterday. We call each other fruit and nut. :) So..we're a little crazy. It keeps life interesting. This week I have a whole lot of stuff to get done. I should make a list yet, I keep on forgetting things. I'm really looking forward to the weekend. Saturday, Heather and I are going to hang out..get my Christmas shopping done, get a makeover(actually just a haircut)maybe even play some mario. :)
Mom really wants me to help do some decorating yet, not that I'm a pro or anything, but Tim and Dad won't help. Anyway...hope you all have a good one!!

Entertainment Tonight...ET phone home...

Yes...very random title..just about as random as the comedian at our Christmas Banquet tonight! I wouldn't even be able to tell you what she said that was so funny. Mostly vague Menno jokes and lots of puns/running on into the next story. Oh well..we had our laughs..and the food was great. Actually the thing I found most amusing tonight was watching an unnamed person dump coffee all over themselves and the table. :) It was fun for a Christmas Banquet. Hey Justin..I know how you feel about the choir being off when the Piano came in. I watched the highschool jazz band today, and the one girl soloist was off for almost the whole song. Terrible!! I also couldn't help stifling laughter when the soundman gave us two major bouts of feedback. ouch! Oh...Winkler. Speaking of entertainment..come to the Cred. No..the MSR's are not learning how to juggle. We just got an LCD tv put up that will constantly be showing the news with HCU rates running across the screen. I think today it mostly just had political news on, but anyway. 3 more days of work! I was so tired today. I was almost falling asleep at my desk. I only have a few more gifts to buy for Christmas and then I am done. 2 more work parties to go to and 1 family gathering. :) hope you all are having a great Christmas season so far!! God Bless!!

Winding Down

Well...I'm really tired today. I know, weekends are supposed to be time to rest before another week of work, but no such luck for me. :) I ended up getting up at 6:30 yesterday morning in order to get ready for the quiz meet. We met at the church for 7:45 and left for Altona shortly after 8:00. We had to go and pick up Stephen from Plum Coulee, so we ended up taking that route to Altona instead. Now...neither Roger and Mary or I had any idea where the quiz meet was taking place, since I didn't get any of the emails...and they didn't bother to pay attention to the details, since they thought that I would know exactly what was going on. (Me always being so "in charge" and "organized" :) )
So...I called the Duecks from the church in the morning before they left for Briercrest to get directions. I asked Eric which church the quiz meet was at and I was SURE he said Altona Bergthaler Church. Then he gave me directions. "Turn onto rd 11 from the highway, going north for about 2 miles and you'll see it. Now you have to remember that we were coming into Altona from the Plum Coulee side and so...after giving Rog the directions...I figured he knew where we were going..so I followed him. (Me not being too keen on directions and all.) We went past Altona and Mary and I noticed something..we passed rd 9 and then eventually we passed rd 5..we were going the wrong way. We called Rog and I turned around and went back to rd 11. Unfortunately..we were on the wrong side of town. The directions Eric gave me, were given assuming we were coming in on the 201 highway. I only thought of this when we were in the middle of nowhere. The whole time we were driving, it was windy and blowing snow and at times I could hardly see anything. Finally we decided to go back to town and ask directions. ( Mary and I would have done this long ago, but...Men!! don't like to ask directions. Just joking around guys...) So we asked for directions to the Bergthaler Church, which we found, in town. Definitely..nobody there on a Saturday..definitely not a quiz meet happening there. This is when..I told Rog that we should try rd 11 on the 201. Of course, by this time we were all rather frustrated and also running very late!! We finally got out to rd 11. The sign said "Church Rd" and Bergfeld Church 2 miles. We knew we had the right one. ;) The road was really really bad!! Huge drifts of snow that I had to gun through. (Kinda Fun :) Eventually we got there and although we were late..it was still a great day! Lot's of quizzing and lots of talking. My voice was just about gone by the end of the day from asking so many questions. Our A team has a lot of work to do to get up to speed, but our C team actually conquerred. Good Job Guys!! I am really sad to leave quizzing this year. It has been fun having more kids! If anyone knows of someone willing to take my place while I'm gone, let Rog and Mary know. So that was my adventure. Good Times...gotta go eat some lunch now.