So it goes (parenthesis episode!)

First, an UPDATE:

Hanna and I are friends. We went for a ride to Amstetten (~60 km, or in American, 40 mi round trip) today. After tuning up the bike, she rides really really well. I also love the bike path to Amstetten. It goes through small European towns and forests, with just enough hills to make it fun without making it a pain. There are plenty of nice little cafes to stop at in Amstetten (or at any point along the way) to enjoy a cup of coffee. And, best of all, if your rebellious bike stages a coup, the path is never far from the train tracks, and the your mean distance from a train station is never more than 5 km (if you read the last post, you know I'm no stranger to pushing my bike that distance). Luckily I didn't need the train.

Second, an UPDATE:

I mentioned previously that I was planning on curling in Vienna. It was really fun. We play on a hockey rink that is thoughtfully zambonied (Google spell check says I can't use that as a verb--well I say watch me). As you can imagine, though, the Zamboni doesn't take all the scratches out of the ice, which reduces a sport which has been romanticized as "chess on ice" to little more than a "craps shoot on ice." Not that I am complaining. Casinos wouldn't make millions of dollars a year running craps shoots if it wasn't fun. Similarly, curling on a hockey rink proved to be quite pleasantly diverting. The people were both typically and atypically friendly (typically friendly for curlers, atypically friendly for Europeans). And they invited me to come play in a bonspiel with their team in April. Curling rocks.

Third, an UPDATE (isn't there something nice about continuity?):

The Wizard of Oz was really great. The whole theater was filled with kids. I felt like it would have been hard for an adult to follow if they didn't already know the story--but it was perfect for kids. I'm sure everything would have been perfectly clear to a 6 year old. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch an episode of Dora the Explorer). I liked it because I knew the story.

And finally--some real news:

I am returning to WI on 5/28. I am looking forward to seeing all yall.

Hannelorre blows her top

In a moment of weakness I bought a bike. She is beautiful, but temperamental. Perhaps she is crotchety in her old age, or it could be that she simply hasn't warmed to me yet; whatever it is, she likes to cause trouble for me.

I have been thinking about buying a bike for a while now--spring has been in the air, and I miss the wind in my face and the trees flying by on the other side of my aviators. Not being able to explore the miles of hilly highway around Waidhofen is what finally broke me, and I started looking for a used road bike. Last weekend I got in touch with an elderly woman named Hannelorre who was selling her Puch Clubman road bike for a reasonable sum. I met with her, inspected the bike and quickly rode off a happy customer. That's when the trouble started.

It really hasn't been anything too tragic. It could happen to anybody--but I take it as an omen of a passionate but stormy relationship between Hannelorre (my bike--named after the original owner) and myself. First, I had to buy two tickets for my bike to get it on the train. Apparently, the ticket they sell in the ticket machines is not valid on inter-regional trains--there is no mention of this on the machine. I checked. Thoroughly. The train conductor said, "Yeah, sorry, that seems to happen to everybody." Gee, no kidding? Perhaps that's because the ticket machine sells a "Day Ticket for Bicycles" without any description indicating it is not valid on some kinds of trains. Just a hunch.

After getting back to Waidhofen with Hannelorre in tow, I took her out for a spin. I rode about 4 blocks to volleyball practice, and then on the way back, Hannelorre tried to kill me. If you want to be technical, I suppose the van driver who pulled out directly in front of me tried to kill me. But either way, somebody (be it bike or man) wanted me dead. It was, of course, a misty day and Hannelorre's steel rims were wet. This did not help her ancient brake pads grip the wheels to bring me safely to a stop...

**SPOILER WARNING**

...I did not die, however. Luckily I have cat-like reflexes, and was able to swerve to my right (behind, not in front of, the speeding-through-a-clearly-visible-stop-sign van). Not watching for bikers is bad for your karma, and I hope that as a result of this driver's negligence: a) his socks get wet, and b) nobody talks to him at parties. (Both are fates worse than death.)

The latest case of bicycle rebellion happened today. The weather is nice and springy so I decided I would go for another ride--to help Hanna (her nickname) get to know me. I rode 6 km to a nearby village and then turned around to enjoy the downhill coast back home. I am quite certain I got no more than 150 m into the return trip before the sidewall of the front tire blew--with a very impressive hiss--leaving me to hike 5,850 meters back.

This weekend I am going to thoroughly tune Hannelorre up. New brakes. New tires. Gear adjustment. True the rims. Tighten the brake levers. Oil all the moving parts that need oil. And if she doesn't catch one of my fingers in the chain, preventing me from ever typing again, I will report on how she rides after a tune-up.

curling and the yellow brick road

Heading to Vienna tonight--not just for the usual reason, but also because I am going curling! I got in touch with a curling club from Ottakring and they invited me to come practice with them. Rock on.

I am also going to the Wizard of Oz with Lina, which is really exciting. I can't wait to see what it is like in German. My friend Andy also has a friend in Vienna this weekend, visiting from Georgia, so it should be action packed in the city.

Spring is on hiatus again here--after the nice weather a week and an half ago, the continued dreariness is wearing. It is snowing right now. But I distinctly notice that the snow is half-hearted. Almost like Winter recognizes that this is just a token effort.

I'm on the market for a bike--I decided that I need to make the investment. I can't stand walking, and those nice days and alpine hills just SCREAM "bIkE RidE!" So wish me luck on finding something that fits my expensive taste that is in my humble price range. :)

Got to cut this short--train whistles will soon be blowing!

update number twentysomething

lets rock this.

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.