Spent Sunday snowboarding with the Oberstufen ("oh-bear-stew-fin", upper classes--isn't learning German fun?). We went to a mountain about an hour from Waidhofen called Hochkar. You can use the google to see where it is if you are interested, but if you just want to see pictures, you can also take a look at my facebook page--all the good ones and some of the not-so-good ones are loaded. I even overcame my inherent laziness to rotate most of them so that up is up. For some others you will have to tilt your head, but that's how life is sometimes. Sometimes things are clear the way they are, and sometimes you have to alter your perspective a little. Consider it a public service.
Snowboarding was awesome. It was a day made by God for winter sports enthusiasts. The snow was fluffy and perfect, the sun was shining, the temp was hovering a degree or so below freezing, and in the valleys below us there were clouds obscuring everything, which made it feel like we were snowboarding on a wintery island in a cloud sea. (Warning, swimming in cloud seas is not advised. Danger, cloudsharks.)
We got there before the sun crested the mountains, and the moon was in the sky by the time we boarded the bus. I ate some delicious schnitzel (pork that has been pounded thin, breaded, and fried--in case you've never had the pleasure) for lunch, and after a hard day on the slopes we had a beer in one of the chalets. Quite an adventure.
To change the subject, let's reflect a moment on the glories of blogging. The greatest part, as many have probably elucidated before, is that the blogger can start, stop, continue, stop again, drink, eat, listen to music, pause to go shopping, come back, type in his underwear, etc, all of which the bloggee remains blissfully unaware of. I am not blogging in my underwear (currently), but I did just make a small excursion to the store to buy a bottle of wine before they close, and I was amazed to see that it is snowing. It is one of those slow, light, fluffy snows that glistens in the street lights and somehow makes the air seem colder. And speaking of snow, we got about 4 inches last night, which was kind of nice, since our meager helping of frozen precipitation was quickly melting and being carried down the watershed in its inexorable route to the sea. So... again... winter wonderland.
Before I wrap things up, I thought I would mention my trip to Italy (again, or for the first time, I am no longer sure). I'm leaving for Vienna this Friday, and Saturday night I will fly out of Bratislava and get to Rome around 11:30. We're staying at a youth hostel, and should be pretty centrally located, which is a good thing for sure--but Rome is a big city, and a lot of the sights are kind of far apart, or so I have been told. So that means good exercise!
I am really looking forward to a nice relaxing trip, and a good professor friend of mine gave me some recommendations on the right wine to drink and some good places to dine, so hopefully that will give me a leg up while I'm there. Don't expect a lot of pictures of monuments, but I will snap some pictures of the action while there, you can be sure. I will write a full report when I get back, and if you want to see pictures of the sights, you can follow along in a travel guide from any library--seriously. My professor friend made a good point that unless you are a professional photographer with a professional quality camera, you can't replicate the quality of the pictures in a travel guide, so why bother? Take pictures of yourself having fun, and if you want to reminisce about the Colosseum, look in Frommer's.
Hope all is well! 'Til next time!
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