New to Austria

I am sitting in the living room of the apartment that will serve as my home for the next 3 months. I am surrounded by Alps, which rise directly up and out of the city. Unfortunately, I am cursed by the snow gods. Last year, my first in Bend, I was forced to ski only on weekends and in a 5 month season only found powder maybe 3 times. This year, in the Alps near me, there is only a few inches of God-made snow. Fortunately, the Austrians do not wait for him and they blow man-made snow down their key runs (actually probably up to 3 feet in most spots). The machine assisted snow is really quite nice though, as the picture shows.







My home here is above a Baptist church. From the church anyone can come up to my home--there is no lock between the two. This should help connect me with the locals here.


Today my hosts (the owners of the home) left me to go back to the U.S. They were my translators and it is now up to me to finish learning German as is my plan. It is a time to sink or swim. The people here are very friendly and have shown great hospitality so far. I hope I can continue to grow in friendship with them so as to not become bored out of my mind.


For the next 3 months I will have consistent internet access so will be blogging often.


My schedule should include (but can change at any moment):

*January 4 - March 31 -- Living at the apartment above the church in Austria
*Beginning of April -- Leave Europe for a week or so (Switzerland... Israel... ??? Who knows)
*Mid April -- Go to Germany and visit friends
*End of April - May -- Travel through places such as Italy, Greece, Czech, Austria, Spain, Germany, Hungary (This section is really up in the air and will be determined by cost and how cool of travel buddy I can talk into coming to visit with me)
*June -- Some hanging out in Germany and Turkey, possibly the coast of Italy
*July 3 -- Fly to Portland at 8:59pm


P.S. For anyone who wants to know more about me you can read Jill's thoughts on me in her post about me.