Oh why hey there world. Haven’t seen you around for a while! Life at Tauernhof has been pretty normal the last couple of weeks. Not many exciting stories to report. There have been movie nights, sitting on the parking garage looking at the incredible stars, a whole lot of crochet action happening. Like a lot, tons actually. We frequently have crochet parties in the afternoon when everyone is too tired to do anything else we will put on some girl movie like Miss Potter or Persuasion and crochet until our hearts are content. I am working my way away at a scarf, I figured that it would be so much cheaper to just make your own scarf but it turns out after buying all the crap load of wool you need to make a satisfactory sized scarf it cost the same if not more. Then there is all the hours you put into making it. Buying a scarf is generally cheaper and faster. But of course then there is all the joy and elation that making and completing your very own scarf brings! I am excited for that day to come. Mind you it might be in a year or two...
There has been a lot of eis eating.. hey even a staff outing last Saturday! We all walked up the Talbach and at dinner in a hutte in Rohmoos. However you this seems like a simple, fun and enjoyable task but the night before it was the kitchen girl named Kerstin and the housekeeper Julia’s last night here as they were leaving Saturday morning right after breakfast so we all decided to party it up in dear little Schladming. It was so not ready for this party to happen. We started the night at Maria’s but no one was there.. so then we went to our dearly beloved Cult Club. Which sounds really dodgey I know.. and it is a little bit.. interesting but pretty much it is a bar with a big dance floor and it is in like a basement. But it was Retro night! So all this music was from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s the best times, especially for dance music. So needless to say our feet did not leave that dance floor until roughly 1.30am. In the end it was just Kerstin, Matthias and I dancing like fools to MC Hammer and Michael Jackson, this activity while it was supremely fun resulted in a very sore and I suspect pulled butt muscle on my part. This made the walking up the slight hill that is the Talbach super painful and my walking pace which is already slow even slower. Poor Bastian and Josh kept me company while I limped in agony up the trail. Eis, Leo and Steve were behind us and I could sense their great concern for my well being through their laughter. Eis was even wearing Lederhosen. I got passed by a man in leather pants. Then at the hutte there was Schnitzel the size of your face and eis desserts the size of a road cone (okay maybe slight exaggeration..) but they were so incredible and we left the hutte all feeling very fat and full, yet satisfied.
After I hobbled back to Tauernhof which seemed to take longer than walking up the hill.. the ‘North American Clan’ as I like to call them (such a clan consists of Ben, Josh, Kendra and I; two Canadians and two Americans so we are even every time we fight..) decided to have a movie night as one of our final evenings together. So we all nestled into the Eagle’s Nest and watched Anchorman. Oh there was also some home video watching.. How you may wonder? Well I opened my birthday parcel from my parents and there was this ridiculously awesome Yoda USB stick and a note saying, there is a surprise when you plug it in! So I got all excited and brought it to the Eagle’s Nest so I could show my fellow N.A.’s and we go to plug it in, all of us frozen in anticipation as we watch and expect there to be some kind of light flashing or perhaps the USB to go “Mmmmm Yoda I am” but no. We sat there staring for a while. Then this folder pops up on the screen ‘Yoda I am’ I realise much too late that perhaps my wonderful Aunt and Uncle have loaded some random terrible childhood photos on it so I attempt to take it out and convince them that we should watch the movie but they are determined and open the file to find four, half hour long home videos on the memory stick. Oh dear. After some more attempted fails at persuasion we watched them and they were... lets say... funny. :D Thanks Auntie Niki and Uncle B!
Sunday morning! The birthday has begun. It consisted of laying around and sleeping in and being awesome and breakfast in bed and being 19. Then when it felt like it was time to get up and get ready for the world we went outside and made some plans, however these poor plans got changed 50 times. So everyone was very adamant that I HAD to choose what we did that day as it was my birthday and all, only I felt more like making them choose because it was my birthday and I couldn’t be bothered choosing.. So first plan that they actually made on Saturday at the hutte was to surprise me and take me to Salzburg for the day. Second plan was to hike up to the Schikenspitzer (I have not a clue how to spell this mountain..) but it is the mountain that I look at out my window everyday and want to climb so super desperately. But doing this requires some organization as we would have to ask Heli if we could use the equipment and then the bell went off in their heads as I hobbled down from the hutte that my hip was broken and I had two cuts on my feet from cleaning.. (with no shoes on.. I thought I could hobbit it up a bit..) so they decided against it. Also our guide turned out to be busy to then there is that.. third plan which was made Sunday morning was to go to Haldstaat which is apparently a super lovely town on the other side of the Dachstein and it is on a lake and it is really pretty. But by the time we all got ready to go it was decided that it was too late in the day to make such a journey as morning is optimal. So then we get to plan number four, which turns out to be plan number one! We ultimately decided to go to Salzburg at about.. 3 then wander and look around then of course go to McDonalds for dinner and finish the night off with a movie.
After the painful course of choosing something I skyped my wonderful Father for an hour and a half then had a nap on the couch outside which was also glorious. By that time it was leaving time so I grabbed my crocheting stuff (one must never leave the house without it) and got in the car. The party crew consisted of Nat, Ben, Suza, Julia, Josh, Kendra and I. To make life more exciting Nat remembered that Luke said he wanted to come so we drive to the river spot and shout at him across a field “Luke! Us! Salzburg! Go! Now!” so he biked like a mad man back home as we chased him and he got is stuff and we were finally on our journey! The drive to Salzie is about an hour so we all enjoyed some good conversation as we drove through the Alps and I finished Ben’s rainbow hippie headband which is amazing. Yay! Salzburg!
First of all, it was boiling hot there. And we couldn’t find a parking space but then in the end we did of course. We walked over to this lovely garden and there was an Italian market out the front! So we walked along and tried all the taste tester things. There was this beyond incredible meat and cheese stand. Wow. Then for a wander about the gorgeous garden park type thing and there was taking of a million photos; with bushes, with flowers, with unicorn statues, with fountains. We decided that we had had enough of flowers and went on to the buildings, they were so beautiful and there was a huge fountain that we of course got our photo by. Ben and I found a really gorgeous statue that we made friends with, it sorta looked like a Ring Wraith.. Then I may have ran across a giant chess board while there was a game going on because Nat suggested that we have 19 minutes of tickling for my birthday. I didn’t like that idea. Let’s just say the old man wasn’t too happy... Next stop the main shopping street! Were we of course bought some eis and I went and gawked at the Austrian hats and Nat says, you need to buy one MacKenzie! It’s your birthday! So.. I did. :D It is amazing and I love it and it even has a feather! Then there was some photo taking at the beautiful river that runs right through the middle of the city. Next up, dinner! And I am not sure if this truly is a tradition or if I just made it up.. but I feel like every year my family goes to McDonalds for breakfast on our birthday so I had to keep the tradition alive so we went there for dinner. I got a ridiculously amazing McFlurry. It was a Magnum Brownie McFlurry. Oh my word. At this point this random guy comes up and asks Josh, “Hey wanna go get a beer?” Josh says no. But he keeps asking and his friend was like “Don’t worry he’s not gay..” So we ask why he wants to have a beer so badly with Josh and he says, “Because you look like a bro!” At this point there was some laughter.. Then we got kicked out of the McDonalds garden because they were closing so we went to the river to chill while we waited for our movie to start. Suza, Julia and Luke wandered off while Nat, Ben, Josh, Kendra and I thought that it would be a good idea to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey while we waited..
Have you ever played PTTOTD not in a house or a backyard? It proves to be a little bit dangerous. We searched for a place to hang it up and found the fence that goes along the river. So it is like fence, steep hill, river. So Nat gets the camera and is our videographer. You see me pumping everyone up get them ready for this Extreme PTTOTD then the blindfold goes on, some spinning action starts, Nat wanders with the camera showing you the scenery when you hear this KAJLDGHSIEL, she turns around and you see me on the ground laughing and everyone else laughing around me. Turns out that spinning around blindfolded by a steep hill with only a fence protecting you is not such a good idea. My foot slid under the fence and brought me down with it. So there was that.. So we tried again! This time no one got injured and I got it perfectly on the butt! Hooray! By about this time we thought we should head over to the movie.
Salzburg is almost more beautiful at night then during the day. The lights reflecting on the river and the moon and stars it was just stunning! On our way to the theatre we saw some girls playing in a fountain getting their clothes all wet and this old lady stops us and says, “Doesn’t that just look like so much fun?” I guess she figured out that we spoke English and she continues to ask us where we are from and Luke says, “Washington State” she gets all excited, “I lived there for 6 months!” Then Josh says, “California” she gets even more excited and says, “I lived there for 5 years!” She goes on to show us a picture of her and Tom Cruise and her and Arnold (you know the one) and she is giving us copies of these photos and she tells us that she was a Ballerina and has performed in all the prestigious centres around the world and how connect to Russia she was. She was the most interesting lady and I really just wanted to sit down with her and have her tell all her stories but our movie was starting so we had to leave her. After we left her Nat goes, “I knew she was some kind of famous actress type lady, just from the way that she carries herself.”
Last stop on the list was the movie theatre! We could only find one English movie.. one called Midnight in Paris with Owen Wilson. Let’s just say it was an interesting film... It was good and funny but a little bit confusing. It is hard to describe my feelings towards this film, you might just have to go and see it for yourself. This theatre was the only theatre that I have ever been in where it was actually hot inside. Usually they are freezing. But no, this one you were sitting there with a thin layer of sweat on your brow. Not nice. So walking back to our car we passed the fountain where the girls were playing in earlier.. and I just really got the urge to run through it.. So I did! It was brilliant! Except for the fact that I was cold and wet the whole car ride back home.. We got home and I went to bed. Thus concludes my amazing birthday in Austria. It was thoroughly enjoyable and thank you to all those involved in making it awesome.
So over the next couple of days all the summer staff left and the new staff arrived. Ben left Monday morning; Josh, Bastian and Jonathan left Tuesday morning; Kendra left Thursday morning and Suza left Friday morning. This week has been filled with hard goodbyes and hellos. And a whole crap load of anticipation for the new students to arrive.
They are all coming today. I see about 10 of them outside my window and I want to go say hi to them! I see one who I knew from Upward Bound so I am about to have a joyous reunion.
Well I hope this was a satisfactory blog for all those who wanted to hear about my birthday and I apologize for not having written one for so long. But here you go! Until next time.
