I got back from Salzburg snowboarding on Saturday. It was a really good week. I got to know some of the non-English teachers at the HTL (technical highschool) a lot better, which is really neat. I have been at the HTL one day since then and I feel a lot more welcome knowing more people. It was a late ice-breaker, but one that was needed (which is not to say that I was uncomfortable before--its just better now).
The place we stayed at in Saalbach (in the Bundesland -state- Salzburg) was really nice. It was full board, (4 meals a day for teachers and all people from WI named Rob). The food was really delicious, and gave a chance to enjoy some of the traditional Austrian delicacies like wiener schnitzel. It also provided a full range of pasta with meat sauce for lunch. Can't be 4 star meals every time. Luckily it was always delicious.
Snowboarding conditions were great the whole week with the exception of Friday morning. From Sun-Thurs it was sunny and warm, with fresh powder on Sunday from a Friday night storm. The weather got progressively warmer, so the powder hardened up, and got harder to ride as more and more people made tracks in it. The slopes were comparatively good though, despite the warm weather turning some of them at the bottom of the mtn to mush. On Friday morning we got a snowstorm (summit) and rainstorm (valley) which made riding pretty miserable. But it stopped about 1:00 pm, and we went back out at 2 for some fresh snow. The hills were empty--I guess the bad weather demoralized quite a few tourists--so it was a great last day. Without a doubt the best snow conditions of the whole week.
The night program was pretty good--I went out with the teachers after students' curfew twice, and that was pretty enjoyable. One night we went to a ski party bar called the "goat's stall". Uhh, what happens in the goat's stall stays in the goat's stall. (hint: it involves strippers. and the median age of the clientele was 37. Quite the experience.)
Spring seems to have sprung in Waidhofen. (To quote Garrison Keillor though, "March is a transitional month. It is the month God invented to teach people that don't drink about hangovers." Basically what I am trying to say is that I am going to try not to be discouraged when we get another 12" of snow next week sometime. /-: ||)The meadows are starting to green up and the snow is disappearing rapidly from even the north slopes. I went for a hike a couple of days ago and started a new resolution--to pick up after other people more. It was kind of an epiphany moment. It was a typical blustery-but-warm March afternoon, and a plastic shopping bag came rolling down the street toward me like a tumbleweed. It would have been irresponsible to let it blow by, so i picked it up and then i decided to pick up all the trash that I came across on the hike. My basic rules for the project are that I am going to pick up all the trash that isn't gross (no poopy toilet paper, no used... uh... well, you get the idea). There wasn't all that much to pick up, but I came back with a half a bag. I deposited the contents of the bag in their intended receptacle (if you aren't following me here, it's a trash can, and I guess that also means I am picking up after you...). I kept the bag for further use, and I keep in my coat pocket. Another part of my resolution is to not be disgusted by the quantity of trash that I am picking up--its not a drop in a bucket sort of exercise. The point isn't to clean up the world--my goal is to clean up the areas that I frequent for my enjoyment alone. So far so good.
Beyond that... lets see... one of the teachers from the HTL offered to give me an oven that he doesn't use anymore so that I can start baking and enjoy the full range off cooking that I am coming to miss. I think I will be taking him up on that offer. The mere thought of a chocolate chip cookie makes me homesick. Homesickness hasn't been a problem so far, but I do really miss some simple foods like good hamburgers, cookies, pie, casserole, baked chicken, and so on and so forth. And its not weird that I don't miss the people--in this age of internet, I have really been in pretty close contact with most people. But I haven't had a hamburger since September '09.
still haven't gotten around to uploading salzburg pics from my week snowboarding, but i'll get there. most of the pictures turned out to be the boring landscape shots your retired neighbors bring back from RV vacations and insist on showing you as a slideshow in their living room while you try to melt off the couch, onto the floor, and flow unnoticed out the crack beneath the door. the rest are of my students. there are a couple cool ones, but because of the general unremarkable level of quality, it may be a while before I work up the motivation.
lastly, if you are looking for a good book, I recommend "The Book Theif" by Markus Zusak (Austrailian author). A very engaging read.
prost.
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