Who knew I could run 13.1 miles?!?

Today I ran 13.1 miles. Back in February I was peer pressured to sign up for the half marathon in Salzburg with some of my coworkers.  I'm not sure what I was thinking really.  Running that distance, one that sometimes seems tiresome to drive, just was never a goal for me.  But alas, I nursed my sledding injury into the beginning of April and finally deemed the ankle pain manageable and set out for training.  Four weeks later and we hit the roads of Salzburg, past some of the most beautiful views in town, in the cold rain, for race day.  Some observations of the day include:

- The old man working as race crew in his electric wheelchair made it all worth it.
- I have never been so jealous of men and their ability to conveniently pee anywhere as I was today.
- The guys that win these things (and by this I mean the FULL 26.2 miles) are insane, and fast, or just 
   insanely fast.
- A beer at the end of the race was not as enticing as expected.
- There are muscles and tendons in my legs I never knew existed.


The list could go on, but for now, I will stop there.  It was an amazing day, spent running for 2.5 hours, sharing amazing success with friends, and enjoying an afternoon at a kickass pool with more friends and students.

Next up: Flag City Triathlon June 11, 2011 . . . Just four weeks to go!

Even the palms are different in Austria!

Here it comes, the weekly blog post . . . I'm on a roll!  Although, not sure two weeks in a row can be counted as a "roll" but whatever, its happening!  This week had a few firsts.  First real trip to the grocery store with recipe(paella) in hand. First Palm Sunday in Austria. First time "playing" American football with the kids.  First hint that I might be teaching American History for ESL students next year. (stay tuned on that one, its not definite, should know this week.)  You get the picture.

First, let me say, I do miss grocery stores at home.  Not only do I miss the opportunity to shop 24 hours a day, like that's even necessary, but also the amazing variety available.  Sure, "fresh" seafood in Ohio may sound a bit sketchy if you think too long about it, but at least its an option thats not going to send you to bankruptcy court!  10 shrimp were going to run me 19.99 euros.  Thats about $28.  To be generous they even toss in the giant wooden stick that the shrimp are skewered by, or weighted down by.  Also, I drove to all ends of Salzburg just to find some saffron. 

The weather has been beautiful and so to psych myself up for my run I thought playing football with Louie and the kids would be fun.  Fun, sure, but discriminatory as well.  The boys wanted nothing to do with us girls, figures.  Also, playing on moss does not provide the most favorable conditions.  The ground moves when anyone jumps, and thank to the Austrian mole population there are huge hidden soft spots about every 3 feet.  Good times.

As a cultural addition to this post today is Palm Sunday.  I ventured downtown to the Dom for Mass, only arriving 30 minutes late.  Not bad I suppose when you consider I got there 30 minutes before normal Mass time. I figure its the effort that counts, and I was still there for another hour and a half since this is notoriously the longest Mass of the year.  The Austrian tradition is to bring Palmbuschen to mass to have them blessed.  They are bunches of 7 different weeds, and festive decorations that symbolize some things, though to be honest, my google search came up empty on what they are actually meant to symbolize.  They don't hand out palms at Mass like at home, and the small branches most people carry look more like olive branches if you ask me.  Leading up to this week the main bridge in town was also decorated with very large buschen, quite pretty for spring.

I spent the day in town, studying Calculus for my credentialing exam in July.  The weather was beautiful and the trees and flowers are blooming like crazy so it was as pleasant as Calculus can be.  That's all for this week. Happy Easter!

Palm stand.  I bought mine around the corner from a lady making her own:)

Palmbuschen along the river

Baby Lederhosen!

Outside the Dom with my festiveness

Mirabell Gardens on the bike ride home

And as Spring rolls in . . .

. . . I have finally motivated myself to sit down and write an update.  So it goes, no weekly updates, no monthly updates, in 2011 they have become seasonal!  I suppose it would be easier to jot down a quit recap of any highlights each week, so maybe, as I'm 29 now, and a bit older and wiser, I will start to do that from here on out.  But then again, who am I trying to kid, probably not!

Anyway, to get down to it, the first few months of 2011 have flown by.  In a extremely quick recap (which will allow you to skip straight to the pictures if you'd like) I have skied at 6 different resorts in the Austrian Alps, visited Vienna, Budapest, Hallstatt, and Bad Ischl, turned 29, hosted two visitors, and tried veal lung.  I would say the last was the most adventurous, but more on that later.

Each winter the school plans 5 ski trips for the kids.  The Saturdays are great fun, free to me for "working", and involve relatively little involvement with the kids once they are on the slopes.  Unfortunately we had a few injuries, which has kept my weekly visits to the "accident" hospital going strong.  Eventually I might get VIP status in the parking lot:)

We have a long weekend holiday in February.  The kids were hauled off to Vienna, while Nichole, Louie, Jan and I stayed here to maintain a bit of sanity in the peaceful school.  The highlight to the weekend was when we turned the upstairs landing into our own personal movie theater showing ALL THREE Jurassic Park Movies.  Can't beat that on a Friday night in Salzburg.

Next came along my unwelcome 29th birthday.  I guess there's no denying it now, one month later.  We had the Winter Trimester awards dinner so the evening was celebrated at an all school dinner... sort of.  Drinks followed for a bit afterward!  Friday I was joined by a table full of coworkers and friends for dinner and had a wonderful time to ease the stress of being one year closer (and now only one year away from) 30. UGH!

Somehow that brings us almost to Spring Break.  The week before break I got a surprise email from my CISV Interchange partner, Marie.  She found herself with a surprise week off work and wanted to come to Salzburg to visit.  After 13 years of keeping in touch and no reunion, my day/week/month had been made.  She flew down from Norway for a 4 day visit, and since she'd been to Salzburg previously we took a little adventure to the mountains east of us.  We spent the night in Bad Ischl.  An Austrian town where the Kaiser would spend much of his time, bring a lot of culture and wealth to the small town.  Its filled with beautiful mansions, a pretty river, and the Kaiservilla.  Which, unfortunately, was not open as it was "off season,"  and in the off season its only open on Wednesdays.  Really, Wednesdays?  Sunday morning we took the train to Hallstatt.  A tiny town in the side of a mountain that you must reach by ferry crossing.  It was amazing.  They have a salt mine, which we also tried to go to, and surprisingly, wasn't open.  It tended to be the theme for the weekend.  "March is off season, live with it."

Before that visit was barely over Spring Break rolled in and the school was busting at the seams to get out on friday.  The kids had shut their brains off on Wednesday and the teachers lost motivation shortly there after.  The holiday started off with a trip to Vienna to help a fellow teacher at a Whisk(e)y Fair.  She and her husband own a Scotch Whisky distribution business and have a stand that does tasting and such at this little fair in Vienna.  If anyone from Indy is reading this think "Beer and Wine fest at the Rathskeller" but strictly for whiskey.  Could be bad news bears for some people . . . like the 65 year old man that tried to convince me he was fine to take the stairs after he nearly fell coming out of the Master Class room.  After a late trip back Sunday night, I was up early Monday for our 2 day ski trip to Kitzbühel.  Four of us skied, and Nichole came along for the mountain views.  The snow was pretty wet and heavy the first day, but we were blessed to have a great Tuesday to close out the ski season of 2011. Oh, and on this trip is when I got to taste the delicacy that is veal lung.  After ordering was sounded like a veal stew the waiter said "Do you know what that is?" I should have taken that as a sign, but instead said "I think so." Looking at Louie for some German translation assistance.  After going back and forth with the waiter we decided it was what the menu said, Veal, and I ordered it anyway.  It looked pretty tasty with a nice big knüdel in the middle and a creamy looking gravy.  It also tasted pretty tasty, except with a bit of questionable texture.  I convinced myself there must be mushrooms in there, and continued to eat.  In the end (not all of the meal gone) I decided we needed to ask one more time what I was eating, at which point it was revealed that it was in fact veal LUNG.  The waiter looked at Louie, in a manner of "I tried to tell you in German." Ah well, its not often one gets, or takes (whether knowingly or not), an opportunity to try a little bit of lung.  The texture is not recommended.

The next big adventure of Spring Break involved a visit from my college friend Sara.  She flew in from DC for a week in Salzburg, Vienna, and Budapest.  I took her to some of our favorite spots in Salzburg, including the cheapest/best Italian, 4 churches, and of course Augustinerbräu.  We made a quick stop in Vienna for the afternoon, once again treating myself, and those I was with to Rick Steves' self-guided walking tour.  I love that man, and recommend his travel books to anyone that needs one!  Final destination was Budapest.  We had an fantastic apartment RIGHT in front of St Istvan's Basilica, only a few minor problems, one involving the smell of gas, could keep its status from being absolutely amazing.  We pretty much covered that city!  We walked all over, from Heroes Square to Castle Hill and nearly everywhere in between.  We visited the Szechenyi Thermal Baths, strolled through City Park, and even say St Istvan's 1000 year old hand!  No real gastronomical adventures here, though not much can beat the lunch.  I did have the best duck breast of my life, and delicious Chicken Prapikas' from the small market we happened upon at lunchtime.  Since the city was pretty much destroyed in WWII much of the high points had been rebuilt, some historically accurate, some not.  The other thing I found interesting about the city is that a lot of these same "must sees" were only about 50 years old when they were destroyed in the war.  Budapest underwent a huge shape-up in 1896 in preparation for its 1000th anniversary and World's Fair, building a bunch of new structures including the basilica, Vajdahunyad Vára in City Park, and even Parliament.  Much of the city has yet to be renovated to its full glory, but even so manages to be charming in its own way.  We enjoyed Hungarian beer, Hungarian wine, and even a couple Hungarian Langos.  Personally I think they are the original elephant ear, but they are offered in MANY more varieties than just cinnamon sugar.

I returned from Budapest for a few more days of relaxation before school starts back up again.  Thursday afternoon felt like summer, so we capitalized on the weather and headed to the park.  A last minute trip to Munich was thwarted when we discovered some train line issues, but it just gave me more time to finish my last book before heading back tomorrow.  I think three books in one holiday is my personal record, especially three books I absolutely loved!

Tomorrow we start bright and early as usual.  Only 6 weeks separate me from a summer reminiscent of when I was 14!  I suppose starting grad school in May might involve a bit of studying over the summer, but I'm excited to get going.  In 12 months I should be able to complete everything through USC online to get my Masters in Teaching and Credential in secondary math.

So that brings us up to date.  And after the nearly two hours it took me to get this down, I will definitely be making a better attempt to do more frequent, shorter posts.  Also, I'm including a few pictures here, but will update with more over the next few days.  I hope you enjoy, and hope everyone is well at home!

Marie and I in Hallstatt

The way to Hallstatt

Ski Group!

In Memory of the Dead . . . or actually, just the dead. (Hallstatt)

Basilica

From the Fisherman's Bastion

Baths.  The people in Europe have NO shame!

Parliament at night

the 1000 year old hand . . . gross

New Year, New Adventures!!

       Six weeks goes by pretty fast, so for those of you that have checked for updates, sorry I've been slacking.  It was an eventful Christmas season in Salzburg.  We had lots of snow very early making it quite idyllic, and also quite cold, for my first real winter in 4 years.  I have had to re-learned the value of layering and of wearing extremely unflattering puffy down coats.
        December got off to a pretty busy start when I took on teaching AP Literature while one of our teachers is out on medical leave.  I can honestly say I NEVER thought this would be in my future, but so far its been very challenging and yet  extremely enjoyable.  The kids are whiny, manipulating, hysterical, and gracious all at once  I've been given the liberty to do with the class what I choose, and fortunately walked in to the beginning of East of Eden, one of my favorite books from high school.  I also made many trips to the Chriskindlmarkt throughout the month, here and in a neighboring small town, St. Gilgen.  In case you weren't aware, Mozart is a pretty big deal in this area of the world, so in remembrance of the anniversary of his death Mozart's Requiem is performed at the Kollegienkirche each year from 11:45 pm-12:30am on the night of December 4th.  A few of us went, and I have never been so cold for a 45 minute performance in my life.  One of life's lessons over here has been that when a church is many centuries old, rather than those baby church's we have at home, they don't heat them.  Makes sense, central heat didn't exactly exist in 1707.  Seems that we were the coldest 5 people in attendance.  I'm not sure how the musicians were able to function, but from what I could hear through my hood and scarf, it was gorgeous.  The month of culture continued with a night at Winterfest, expected something like Moulin Rouge but actually got an evening of utter crap.  We then continued with a night at the Salzburg ballet to see a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, which was very enjoyable and made for a wonderful evening.
       Winter break started on December 17th and I was on a flight home the next day.  The 10 days went by faster than I imagined, but I think I managed to see just about everyone, except distant friends in Texas, and even get a whole day of Christmas cookie baking in!!  Everyone always asks what I miss most about home, expecting some sort of food, American amenity, etc, but honestly it's having a kitchen, and stores that are open a bit longer than 9a-6p.  I had enough time to make trips to Cleveland, the local findlay establishments, and Youngstown during the time home.
      Just before the New Year I headed back to Salzburg to meet up with a great group of friends, including my friend Amy from Texas, to have a European NYE 2011.  We headed down to the Dom to listen to the band and see fireworks for most of the night, despite the weather, which turned out to be not too miserable.  My camera and self respect may have ben thrown out the window with 2010 as a few too many drinks were on the menu for the night.  But, I guess, what else is a new year's celebration for, than a kindly reminder for how to behave better in the upcoming year.  The rest of the weekend events included sledging in the night (probably not the brightest idea;) ) but fun and adventurous nonetheless, Joe's new year goulash, the Sound of Music tour, and the obligatory "we have guests in town so we're going to the Augustiner" Sunday evening.
       Amy and I set off on our own to enjoy some winter exploring in Vienna, Cesky Krumlov, and Prague.  Fortunately the temperature improved dramatically from our first night in Vienna to the last night in Prague.  In Vienna we took in some culture and went to an evening show of Mozart and Strauss, complete with a bit of operetta and waltzing.  Cesky Krumlov was our next stop, recommended first by my mom, and then pretty much every other person I've talked to.  To me it seemed like the Cinque Terre of the Czech Republic.  We went to the smallest restaurant ever, only 4 tables, and no other patrons, but the food and service were fantastic.

       We caught a morning bus to Prague, because somehow the bus is faster, and cheaper than the train, and arrived at our hotel around noon.  I 100% recommend the Mosaic House if anyone is traveling to Prague.  Except for the challenging showers the rooms were great, bar area fun, and location convenient.  We tackled just about every spot on our list in the two and a half days we were there including some local restaurants, beer halls, and more churches to add to the list than we could count.  I found the city to be utterly amazing.  It almost seemed unreal, in the way Venice seemed unreal, except it seemed like a livable city.  Only one building on the Old Town square was damaged in WWII, and at that just a short time before the official end of the war, which definitely maintained the cityscape, especially compared to Vienna or Munich.  The first night we walked from above the Prague castle all the way back to our hotel which was by far my favorite part of the trip.  I love roaming the streets of a new city, you get such an intimate look at the attitude and atmosphere, and as the lights come out at sunset its enchanting.  After visiting in the dead of winter I'm eager to go back in warmer weather to see how the greenscape changes the feel.
       School started today and all the hopes of the kids being on their best behavior were thrown promptly in the garbage as soon as first period started.  I guess its only natural that the kids are excited to be back at school to chat with their friends and not focus on Chemistry class when they have a sub!  In other news, I got accepted to USC's online Masters in Teaching program, so this summer I'll be headed back to Ohio to get started on the coursework that will take me through next May.  Pretty excited, especially at the thought of having a carefree, financially broke summer at home, which hasn't happened since I was 18!!
      My resolutions for 2011 include keeping this a bit more up to date, with more, yet shorter, updates.  Help keep me on track with the friendly reminders you've been sending me!  Happy 2011 from Salzburg!!

NYE 2011 Crew!!!

Cesky Krumlov

Where is everyone?!? (in the smallest restaurant ever)

the Castle

Just off the Charles Bridge in the Little Quarter 

View of the Charles Bridge

We ran from the Krampus in the dark, snowy night!

So to be honest, Nichole and I did not encounter the Krampus on our late night, snowy walk tonight.  But, Jan and I did have a run-in when we were out on Friday, and I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit scared.  As the story goes (thanks to my research on the ever truthful Wikipedia, yeah right) the Krampus accompany St. Nicholas around the countryside visiting the families.  The Krampus are responsible for punishing the bad kids with minor forms of torture, and may even carry them away, while St. Nick rewards all the good children with gifts of nuts, fruits, and candies.  Around Austria, leading up to the Feast of St Nicholas on December 5th, it is common to have Krapmus runs, which I hear is like a parade of Krampuses, or Krampii, thoughts?  They go around "beating" and "whipping" the townspeople that attend the gathering.  They also make the rounds at the local bars, getting successively drunker, scarier, and more annoying.  I have a minor scratch and bruise on my arm from one sitting on my lap and my arm encountering the spike on its back.  Fun times for sure.

This week also brought our first real snowfall with accumulation.  I've bought my skis and ski outfit, so I'm ready to go skiing this saturday for the first time out!  Hopefully the snow continues falling in the mountains.  Nichole and I did venture out tonight after the kids went to bed because it was so peaceful, in stark contrast to a normal day inside the school walls.  We saw some wildlife, well really just a single jackrabbit.  But, thats more jackrabbits than I've seen in my whole life.  Because of the lighting and the snow we failed to get a good picture, so you just have to take my word for it.  We capped off our walk with a few perfectly made snow angels in front of the school!

We were blessed to have a "headmasters holiday" (surprise day off) as we wrapped up the first trimester on Friday.  Thursday night, in lieu of a typical Thanksgiving, we had a great replacement with an all-school awards dinner downtown at the Sternbräu.  The kids got all dressed up and had a great time, as did the staff.  Naturally we capped off the night with some glühwein at the Christkindlmarkt, which finally looks perfectly festive with a coating of snow!

It's a Winter Wonderland at AISS

Christkindlmarkt!!

Surrounding the Markt they had 3 wind assembles playing Christmas music on terraces. You can't see them though.

Hotel Sacher all decked out 

Krampus!!!!

and here he's whipping a bartender, lovely.

Visiting the Wieners . . . .

Today I went to Vienna, or Wien as we say here in Austria.  But I'm sure you've already figured that out, so I shall stop stating the obvious.  It was a great culmination to a pretty fun filled week!  On Monday Elizabeth and Vanessa arrived all the way from Findlay (sort of, but really Columbus, via Budapest) and we went out for a decent dinner and drinks for our typical monday night shenanigans.  I say decent only because it was All Saints Day which apparently means the whole city of Salzburg closes and we could only eat after going to the THIRD restaurant on my preferred list of possibilities, naturally the company was much better than decent.  I got to see the girls again Wednesday, after a bit of a bus direction mishap on their end not thanks to the lady at the Jufa, we thankfully met up at Hotel Stein for a friend's birthday.  It was great to reconnect with fellow Findlay-ites and see a couple familiar faces!

So, back to my trip to Vienna.  I hitched a ride with the soccer team to their tournament at AIS-Vienna, to save a few bucks and be a top class freeloader.  The 45 minute trip into town from the school was relatively painless, until I got off the U Bahn and realized I really had no idea where I was going.  The free map from the TI center was about as worthless as they come with more detail than your average atlas road map (only later, at about 11pm did I realize there is a more focused "Old City" map on the other side, whoops).  After walking about the block a few times I eventually made it to the NaschMarkt, which is by far, THE BEST open air market I've been too so far.  I wanted to buy everything . . . . you name it, it was there!  I settled on a single sweet potato and can't wait to cook it up here at school in the measly microwave.  Not to be forgotten is my other purchase that was eaten on the spot, delicious green olives stuffed with some sort of sheep's cheese.  On Saturdays the markt has the addition of a flea markt at the far end, and if I didn't live in a 10 x 10 dorm room, or just completed the biggest purge of personal belongings ever, or eventually have to move everything back across the ocean, I would have been tempted to buy everything.

I continued on through Vienna under the guidance of the always informative Rick Steves.  His self guided walking tours are amazing and took me to the major sites inside "the ring."  The highlight would have to be climbing the 343 circular stairs up the south tower of St. Stephens Cathedral.  Only recently have I discovered how dizzy circular stairs make me, and how terribly they mess with my depth perception on the way down.  It was a great view of the city and awesome to get above and away from the scaffolding that is currently surrounding the church.  The Hofburg Imperial Palace was really impressive, but unfortunately I missed the practice time of the Lippizaner Stallions in the morning.  One question though, why is it called the Spanish Riding School if its in an Austrian palace?   The rest of the tour took me past the Opera House, down through the shopping streets, and into the nicest "public" WC I've never been to.  In a previous life it was a swanky Wine Cellar.  Now its a bathroom with mahogany doors, fancy tile, and fixtures; no big deal.  Clearly though it costs 50 cents.  Other highlights of the day include: the best kase krainer I've had so far, seeing the Advent Markt before its all set up so I know where to go right away next visit, and passing through one U-Bahn stop 5 times because I continuously was lost for the first hour I was there.

After my adventures I was able to catch the boys last game, the championship, of the tournament.  Unfortunately they lost, but they had a great day of games to be proud of and brought home a 2nd place trophy to add to the trophy case that I'm pretty sure we don't have.  I guess its got to start somewhere!

Thank you Rick Steves, as always, the guidance was amazing.  And with that, its bedtime over here after a long day and an even longer week. My survival was made possible by the morning light courtesy of daylight savings time coming a week early in Europe.

(I had a hard time being selective with the pictures, so there are a few more than usual!)

a view from the top of the 343 stairs

Opera House 

Cupcakes are even a trend in Vienna!

St Stephen's Cathedral

The plague memorial

The only view of the Cathedral without scaffolding

Hofburg Palace

Rick forgot to mention what this was called, but its pretty 

The former wine cellar turned WC

Victorious!!

Its almost November?!?

Hohenschwangau

Things have started to settle down a little around school and Salzburg as we all get a bit more settled in the routine of the school week and weekend adventures.  Earlier in the month I traveled with the girls volleyball team to Budapest for a 4 game round robin tournament to act as the fill-in coach.  We had a great day, despite the fact that I've never played organized volleyball, and the girls won all four games and even said I knew exactly what to say at all the timeouts and team chats!  I guess those beach volleyball leagues in the 'Saw paid off for something.  It seemed like the longest 30 hours I ever spent traveling somewhere.  We departed after school, got stuck in a 2.5 hr traffic jam outside of Vienna and checked into our seemingly creepy, rustic hotel sometime after 1 am.  When we got moving early the next morning we were pleasantly surprised that the cabins were surrounded by the gorgeous hills and early fall colors just outside Budapest.   We played our 4 games, hopped on the bus, picked up the boys soccer team, and headed back to Salzburg. What was left of the weekend, Sunday, was spent on serious relaxation and recover.


Two weeks ago another St. Jude friend, Brian, was visiting Munich.  I met him on the train and we traveled to Füssen to visit the castles Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  It was the coldest and rainiest day I think I've had here, but it was gorgeous anyway.  The colors of the trees were at their peak and we even got to try the first tastings of glühwein this season!  The castles were very impressive, especially Neuschwanstein that was only lived in for 172 days before the King died, and was not completely finished.  It did however have its own replica grotto built just outside the King's chambers as a tribute to the grotto of Venus, atleast I think its Venus.  By definition, I think this would be classified as extravagant!  It was a great day trip, only 4 hrs from Salzburg on the train one way;)  We had just enough time to walk around the streets of Füssen to find a nice local place for dinner.  It was the best Jaeger Schnitzel I've had!

Glühwein

Last week was fall break for the school, so after turning in midterm grades the kids headed off to Paris and I flew back to the States.  It was an unexpected trip, but my Gramma Virginia gave us a bit of a scare with some pretty serious Pneumonia so it seemed like the right decision.  It was nice to be home for a few days, amazingly saw a lot of family, enjoyed seeing the pup, and even got some good ole American shopping mall time in with Kelly!   The readjustment has been a bit hard this week as I've gone from a 10 pm bedtime to now after midnight!!  I was greeted by the first snow of the season on Monday while taking the train back from the airport.  I woke up from my nap and thought I was still dreaming since the fields were completely white!  It looked like a wonderland, but quickly dissipated as I got closer to the city.  Monday night we had beautiful white puffy (and wet) flakes but by today its back into the low 60s, which is unseasonable.  The weather seems a bit like the MIdwest!  The mountains are getting snow though, and its there to stay. Ski season and the Advent Markets are just around the corner and I can't wait!!

Neuschwanstein

Cousins in Ohio

View out my bedroom window!