#100

Well guys, sorry it's been a little while again. I have now made it to post 100. Life is good here. I'm a little tired today as I only slept for about 5 hrs last night. I couldn't fall asleep and then I joined Mark and Christian for a bible study this morning at 6:00 am. We watched a video lecture of Major Ian Thomas. It was really good and spoke about giving our lives over into God's hands and living within His will. This subject has been on the hearts of many people here lately. We are leaving for Venice tomorrow morning at 5:00 and it'll take about 4 hours to get there. It should be fun! The hostel that we are staying at is actually a bunch of mobile homes that people rent. Kinda cool. I'm excited to be able to get away for a weekend. I feel a bit like I can't stop working when I'm here. :) I went skiing again on Tuesday and managed pretty well. I skied on a red pist on my 3rd day skiing. I only have enough points to go about six more times. At least I can say that I learned how to ski in Austria though. The church bells are going here. You guys need to watch Sound of Music. Listen to the bells. I get to hear that sound many times a day. It's so cool to have old bells ringing in the churches all the time. I went climbing again at Hopsi on Sunday. I climbed a wall with a difficulty rating af between 5.9 and 5.10 (yosemite decimal rating) I tried once and then had to try again to make it all the way up. My arms were so swollen after climbing that I couldn't even pull the skin. I felt like popeye and my arms were actually numb. Hilde and Tom also came and we took turns belaying each other. Tom is a foot taller than me and so it was interesting to watch him climb the same wall and compare how he could reach stuff that I couldn't :) That was Sunday. It was close to 20 degrees that day and then on Monday we got over a foot of snow down here and probably more than a meter up on Planai. The ski instructors went on a tour today and apparently the Dachstein has some spots with over 4 meters of snow!! Crazy. It went from daffodils blooming back to winter-wonderland in less than 24 hours. It was pretty amazing to see all the snow in the evergreen trees! And it was perfect snowball weather. It's melting quite a bit today and I'm back in my flip flops. It's supposed to drizzle while we are in Venice, but that's ok. We'll have umbrellas. Anyway..I'll take lots of pics and try to post some online somewhere. ttfn

Physically Challenged

Not to say that I'm disabled or anything, but this past week has been challenging. On Monday I went skiing all day. Awesome!! I ended up doing quite well and Niffy had me ski on part of a red flag hill (higher than a beginner's hill). That was challenging and she definitely wore me out. Tuesday I took the day off and just relaxed in the sun and got a bit tanned. It's been really warm here this week. Averaging around 15 degrees down here and probably close to 20 on top. (I skied in a t-shirt on Monday). Wednesday I made cookies for the Bistro. Double chocolate with hazelnuts. Yummy! I have also started making sun tea, which is a bit of a novelty around here. Tastes great though. Yesterday I went climbing at Hopsi (Planai's free climbing wall) and challenged myself again. Apparently I'm a maniac at climbing. I love it! I really hope to be able to do some real rock climbing while I'm here for spring school though. I haven't remembered to take pictures lately so I'll have to get my camera out again. I still can't figure out why it doesn't let me post pics on here. Any ideas?? Today is the last day of this camp and tomorrow we have major clean up and another camp coming right away. Just one more week before I go to Venice!! yippee! Next week it is supposed to snow all week again. I guess it's a good thing since we do have 4 more ski camps. I will also be able to use my skipass to go skiing then. :) One of my friends here is going through a tough time and I would appreciate you praying. I can't really share more than that, but pray for me as well that I would be willing to be used by God however he wants to use me. 1 month before some of my good friends have to leave. please pray that I would enjoy this last month with them. I'm still not thinking about coming home. God has lots for me to do here yet. :) Love ya all and you're in my thoughts! ttfn

Well Guys...I finally did it!

I bought myself a skipass and went skiing for the first time today. A bunch of us went to Reiteralm and Niffy stayed with me to start teaching me. Apparently I am doing really well. It's kinda like rollerblading part of the time. Some of the same muscles and movements. It was fun! I will also be going skiing on Monday and Tuesday with the beginner groups. It's nice to be able to go with the staff now when they go for the day instead of sitting back here and reading by myself. Today is a bit gloomy outside and it has been drizzling and snowing a bit. Hopefully there will be quite a bit of snow for tomorrow when the guests come. Anyway..just thought I'd update you guys on my exciting new development. Also..it's only two weeks before I get to go to Venice!! Yippee! ttfn

Busy, Busy, Busy...

This week is full and I've been going hard already. Today was my day off and so I didn't do anything too exciting, but I really needed a lax day so I don't get sick again. Sunday, the guests arrived and I played piano for the praise and worship. It was a bit scary, I introduced myself in German for the first time and played praise and worship for the first time with 2 new songs. It was actually a lot of fun to play for praise and worship and I felt like Niffy, Becca, and I really played well together. Yesterday was a really full day. I got up at 6:00 to prepare breakfast, worked in the kitchen all morning, went for a walk with some girls in the afternoon and then went running after that. Worked in the evening to prepare supper and do cleanup. Then I worked the Bistro till 10:40. I was wasted after that and my roomate said that I fell asleep before my eyes closed. :) I've been learning a bit of German. Two short phrases that I've learned are...Ich bin so stolz auf dich. And...Ich habe drei espresso gemacht. Of course I understand a lot more German than that now, but I am just starting to learn grammar. Don't worry..I'm trying to learn German from people who speak good Hoch Deutsch. There are a few people here who are from Germany and don't speak slang or dialect as much. Especially Mario. His German is almost too perfect. :) anywho..ttfn

Germany's Big Bathtub

So..one of the things that I've really missed here is being able to take a hot bubble bath. Steam is healthy, and it sure helps with sore muscles too! So..as a treat to ourselves..a few of us girls decided to go to a spa in Germany. It was about an hour's drive and so we first went for a walk in the countryside. We drove to a beautiful little lake which had a walking path all the way around. It has been so warm that the trees were blooming and there were all sorts of flowers coming up too. I have pictures, but I'm having problems with uploading them to the new blogger. Any ideas from you old pros? Anyway..after walking for 45 minutes, we drove back to town (don't ask me the name of the town, it's too difficult for me to remember) and went to a cafe which was decorated all red and white and they sold all Mozart chocolate. I had coffee with a buttercream/nut cake. Delicious! After coffee we walked a block in the rain and had supper at a restaurant. The building that the restaurant is in is 845 years old. The waiter wore a peasant style shirt and leather leiderhosen. The waitress wore a Dirndle. Really fun! It was a really old room with lots of old paintings and with candles and big old wooden tables and benches. We had pizza, which was incredible. Finally we drove to the spa and spent 3 hours soaking in warm mineral water. It was so good. It was big and had several pools with different temperatures and amounts of salt. The best one was outside. It was a perfect tempurature and there were jets that went off at different intervals. There were bars all the way around so you could just hang on at the wall while the jets made you float. Also there was a whirlpool area and a jacuzzi area. Inside there was a cooler pool and also there were a few different rooms downstairs. Saunas (we didn't pay the extra for the Sauna) and a couple little pool rooms that were like grottos. The first one we tried had so much salt in it that it made all the little cuts and even my pores sting. We went to a different one that was hotter, but had less salt. We were the only people in there and it was an echo room so we goofed off and sang opera and other songs with 4 part harmony. Great fun!! After relaxing for 3 hours we got out and drove home. We stopped at Burger King on the way home as well. The first hamburger and fries that I've had since leaving home! The Burger King was designed as an American burger joint and had a statue of liberty draped in an american flag and a motor bike hanging from the ceiling. So weird!! Anyway...that's what my Sunday was like. In a month or so, the same girls and I are planning on going to Venice for a weekend. We'll drive down and stay in a hostel and it'll be really cheap. I'm really excited! We already have the hostel booked. It'll be fun to get away for a little while and see yet another country. Well..that's all the excitement I have to share right now. ttfn