When It Is Cold Enough To Use The Good Ol' Outdoors To Refrigerate Your Liquids.

Okay so here is the super weird thing about today. It is October 16^th and this is the day that I would have been arriving back in New Zealand after galavanting in Canada with family and friends if I had not stayed in Austria. I feel the need to reflect on the last four months of my life and tell you guys how incredible they have been and how grateful I am for all your support and emails letting me know what you guys are up to even though I am not ‘present’ in your life at the moment. The last four months of my life in Austria have been an unforgettable life changing experience and I am so glad that I got to stay here 3 months longer than I was supposed to. But it will be just that much harder to leave. But how weird is it that this morning I would have been hugging and probably crying at the airport as I gave everyone who was there the biggest best hugs of their lives but instead I was watching the sunrise across the Austrian Alps. (and then I skype Lorna :D)

Yes, this morning there was a wake up call at 5.40am where a small group of dedicated students (about 20 of us) headed out on the Tauernhof cars to a mountain somewhere, after a ridiculously horrible windy road that made me wanna hurl we got to the parking lot and walked for about 15 minutes to this super tiny church that someone had built on the mountainside (literally mountain SIDE and it was about big enough to hold like 5 people). The sun was just starting to make the sky light up so we sat there taking 500 million photos of everything, the same mountains but oh! The sun had moved up a little bit, takes another photo. It was a very slow sunrise but it was an incredible view and amazing company so it was okay. So the sun rose, as it does everyday only this time I saw it! As Emma and I bounded down the mountain we thought about all those poor souls down in the valley who were sleeping in bed and how awake and amazing our morning was. Everyone should go see a sunrise sometime in their lives.

There was Sunday breakfast as usual where I ate so much I still feel full. And eating a lot after going up and down a ridiculously horrible windy road is not a good idea.

Oh yea! Then there was yesterday where we went to Hallstatt; one of the oldest towns in Austria and it apparently dates back to 2000 BC! I know. Crazy. It is a stunning town sitting on this lake that is pretty much in a hole, surrounded by mountain cliffs. So we wandered around talking 500 million photos of everything. We ended up at this church on the hill and Kenton, Liz, Sian and I decided that it would be a good idea to pay 1.50 Euros to go into this tiny room that we heard had skulls in it. (Cool right? Well that is what we thought..) it is this tiny shack type room and it apparently had 1,200 skulls in it and they were all stacked up on this table that went around the room and under the table was body bones. It was really freaky but interesting all at the same time. There were some more photos, a waterfall, eating lunch while looking over the town, a lady telling us off for taking pictures in her store, an awesome store with a bunch of wood stuff, a ‘second hand store’ (in which I would use the term loosely as it was pretty much just this hole in the wall that some lady had put all her crap that she obviously didn’t want anymore in it and made a sign out of cardboard saying ‘Second Hand Store’). We went to a Cafe where we found this man who had glasses on that magnified his eyes to like a bagillion, so we got Kenton to stand awkwardly sorta behind him and were like ‘You want a picture with those mountains right?’ and stole a ninja photo of him. We also got sorta free cups! Well you bought a coffee and you got to keep the cup. Awesome right? Who doesn’t love a free mug. Oh yes there were also toilets that were sexist. The guys, if they just wanted to use the urinal didn’t have to pay the 50 cent fee. But girls, oh but the girls had to pay 50 cents either way. Rude right? I thought so too. But that brought about a rather humorous joke that I chuckled at. Wanna hear a joke? Woman’s Rights. Heh. Heh. Sorry if there are any women’s rights activists out there. It has to be said with just the right amount of sarcasm. In the evening a small contingent of us watched The Passion of the Christ, which is super intense. But it was really well done I must say.

Yea so not much else happening in my life; normal week where exciting things happen every day so it just blurs together and I can never remember them when I sit down to write my blog. Oh! We went to Salzburg last Saturday and I spend way too much money shopping... I went to Annina’s birthday gathering last last Friday.. Kendra came back to visit last weekend! She had just finished travelling around with Ben (who lives off 5 euros a day and sleeps under bridges, so she had a lot of interesting stories) and she came back to get her luggage before she headed back to the states so it was nice to see her again J. On Friday we had our social night and this time we played a Schladming wide game of Capture the Flag which was awesome! Emma and I took this super back route and ran into Thomas and Marc and joined them and we like climbed up the side of the Planai and were like running through these fields and slipping and falling over and jumped over this ditch creek thing into a bunch of mud and killed a fair few trees then we get to Tauernhof where the flag of the opposing team is on the volleyball court. Thomas and Marc jumped over the fence to check it out but people started coming so Emma and I had to move quick so we jumped down behind the Lecture hall where there is this like alley that is super dark and creepy and we are hiding behind the corner and we hear Sian and Michael discussing whether or not they should go down and check it out. It was actually quite funny to listen to cause Sian was freaking out and was saying “Michael why don’t you have your flashlight!” But in the end Michael sucked it up and came down the alley, much to mine and Emma’s silent protests and got caught. But it was an awesome journey getting there where my jeans and shoes and now saturated in mud. :D

Yes so that is all the stories I can think of telling they world.
Until next time!

From Staff to Student

So this last two weeks of life have been pretty interesting. I went through the transition from staff to student at Tauernhof which I have to admit is not super easy. You just feel super confused about where you are supposed to be all the time. So last week was spent trying to convince my brain that I was no longer a staff member meaning things like, I could no longer use the kitchen door to enter the main house, but the main entrance. I could no longer walk through the kitchen. I no longer go to staff prayer/devotion in the morning. No free item from the bistro!! And of course I didn’t spend my whole day with Lothar and my fellow kitchen girls. But being a student is also amazing although you don’t get the perks. On the plus you don’t have to clean as much! However for my daily duty they put me on cleaning, you could imagine how thrilled I was.

Anyway.. the lectures have been incredible and I am learning so much! Subtle as things that I never even knew where in the Bible just pop up and are like WOAH. How cool is that? Last week Hans Peter went through Genesis and Creation which was incredible and this week we had a guest speaker from England that was part of this company called Sports Reach and they go around the world and play soccer with people and share God’s word. They all had really awesome accents and it was the ‘veteran’ team or as they liked to say the ‘Classics’. So there were all these 30-60 year old English guys and it was hilarious.

My fellow students are awesome. 31 Canadians, 25 Germans, 9 Americans, 4 from the UK, 2 Dutch and 1 New Zealander. So there are a crap load of Canadians everywhere and there is just so much sarcasm and it is a beautiful thing. However Nat has told me that I need to tone the sarcasm down and build people up instead, so I am trying. It is hard when there is 40 ridiculously sarcastic beings surrounding you to resist the sarcastic pull.

As a student you entertain yourself during your free time with copious amounts of volleyball, reading, ping pong, bouldering, slack lining and of course crocheting, because really who doesn’t like crocheting? I have taught numerous others how to and am making touques and headbands for those unfortunate souls who can’t crochet at all or are just not epic enough to try. So last Saturday we went on a ‘hike’ where you climbed a couple stairs from the parking lot for about an hour and got to this glorious lake that was gorgeous. Those brave enough to jump in the freezing mountain water endulged themselves while the others watched and laughed at how cold they were. Then we had to walk all the way back to Tauernhof. That took us about 3.5 hours? Yea no big deal. My hips were numb by the end. But it was so great just walking down the valley, it wasn’t steep but just flat so it was a casual 3.5 hour stroll really. A few girls and I stopped at a hutte and enjoyed ourselves a skiwasser and continued back down.

On Friday, as part of the social committee we planned a very extravagant and extremely awesome game. So the social committee members (about 11 of us) hid all around Schladming and the rest of the students had to find us, we had to sign their arm for one point and their face for two points. Larry (aka Larissa) and I got real intense and disguised ourselves super ninja like. She wore a hoodie with a hat and glasses and I wore a touque with glasses and a huge puffy jacket and we sat in a dark corner with our heads down and our hands in our pockets. I would say that we looked pretty dodge. But I brought my crocheting! So there was that.. I have also enjoyed a few outings with the staff and kitchen girls, even though I am no longer staff and a kitchen girl. We went to Hans Peter’s house for coffee and cake for Marina’s birthday on Tuesday and last night we went up there again and just hung out and Nat and I baked banana bread and it was good. Now, this Saturday as in yesterday we did what I have been wanting to do all summer; hiked to Guttenburghaus and Sinabell.

For the last 3 months of my life there has been this mountain outside my beautiful window up in the Whitehouse and from that beautiful window your eyes fell upon a mountain. This mountain has a name and is called the Schikenspitzer and has a huge glorious cross that I could actually see from the window on top of it. To the right of that mountain you see this hutte; Guttenburg Haus. I had to look at this mountain every single day for 3 months and it stared and me and called out to me “MacKenzie, please come climb me. Climb meee. Come up here. Please.” Every. Day. So you could imagine my excitement when I walked past the list of ‘Saturday Outings’ and saw ‘Guttenburg Haus and Sinabell’. Now the Sinabell is no Schikenspitzer but it is a mountain that is high and awesome! The day started with all us students super hyped and pumped up for this hike ahead of us. We got there and started and after about 20 minutes many of us were like, gahh why am I doing this. 2 ½ hours later we reached the hutte. It was a glorious hike but probably the longest one of just continuous uphill that I have gone on so that was challenging but you just enjoy the company around you and the scenery and time flies; before you know it you are at the top! We ate our lunch at the hutte and enjoyed some skiwasser (pronounced she-wasser) while some enjoyed the Kaiser-schmarrn. It was such a beautiful hutte in such a beautiful spot as well. It was so cool to see the opposite view, I am constantly looking up at the hutte and it was nice to look down onto Schaldming. Some people slept, others took 500 photos and some decided to climb the steel cords that were attached to the house.

After about 45 minutes, those who wanted to continued the hike up to the top of Sinabell; about a half hour hike up. Once you got to the top it was just incredible! You could see the entire Tauern- Region of mountains and if you turned around you could see behind the Dachstein-Region of mountains. It was amazing. After a few hundred photos up there we began the hike down the mountain. Along the way we met some ponies that wanted to be our friends, there was even a baby pony with them and he and I became good buddies as I fed him dandelions. We got back on the bus to go home and it just smelt like sweat and feet. For the most part everyone’s backs were saturated. Sweating is great. Many, including myself had a lovely little sunburn. Once we got back to Schaldming Emma and I thought it was a good idea to go jump in the river! So we did. Three times.. Later that night some brave fellows decided to have a hot sauce competition with peppers, Tabasco sauce and Frank’s Insanity Sauce. There was crying. There was red faces. It was brilliant.

Thus concludes the last two weeks of my life. Enjoy :D