Running in Austria

Yesterday night I went for a run. The weather has been super humid here and so I spent most of the time, just dripping. I have decided I don't like running in humid weather. There seems to be a lot more bugs in Austria and when you are all sweaty from the humidity, all the bugs stick to you as you run. So when you get home, you look as if you have been hanging out of the window of a car driving down I-15.
However there advantages to running in Austria. There are tons of wooded trails and everything is just so green. I am really going to miss that when I come home. You can find nice trails in Utah, but most are very steep and you usually have to drive to them. The pictures that I have enclosed are pictures from a trail right behind my University. I love to go there and run, or just sit. The pictures don't really do it justice, but you will get the general idea.





Well my time is running out here in Austria. It is really weird, because so many things have happened and I have changed in so many ways, that it feels as if I have been here forever. I think of who I was and what I thought when I first got here, and I don't know that girl. And a part of me is afraid that when I come back, I will lose what I have gained.
Sometimes I become so integrated and involved in what I am doing that I forget that I am speaking German and I forget that I had a different life before Austria. It is really weird. It is hard because I want to share Austria with you and share my experiences, but really I can. I can't explain what it is like. I am really glad though that Jeff is coming, because I feel as if I can at least show him a part of what I have experienced, and that makes me really happy. However, it is hard for me to understand that I am leaving, I can't really wrap my brain around it. But I am sure, or at least I hope, that some day I will be able to return.
Well I am pretty sure that this will be my last blog entry from Austria...

Second day in Hallstatt

Well here are the adventures of my last day in Hallstatt.


Here is a picture of Erica. We are in the courtyard of the Catholic church and the church that you see in the picture is the Protestant church. I think that is the first Protestant church I have seen in Austria. Austria's population is 95 % Catholic.


Erica and I took a hike up to a waterfall. Here is a picture of me next to the river. It just amazes me how powerful water is! This river was pretty impressive. I suggested to Erica that we go tubing down the river, but she didn't think that was a good idea.


This is a picture from the otherside of the lake, looking back at Hallstatt. Erica and I were waiting for our train and decided to go stick our feet in the lake and have a little picnic dinner. It was lovely.


Here is a picture of another part of the river. I love this picture because you can see how clean the water is. And it looks so cold, so that kind of gives you and idea of what it was like to jump in the lake. I also just really loved the color of the river.


Oh our way back we passed a pasture with a bunch of horses in it. I was just really struck with the coloring of this horse. I thought he was so pretty.

Well I hope you enjoyed my highlights of Hallstatt.

Hallstatt

Here are some pictures of Hallstatt. I think Hallstatt has been one of my most favorite places I have visited so far. My friend Erica and I have decided, that when we are old and single we will move to Hallstatt and make money by saleing tourist merchandise;) Hallstatt is a really small town near Salzburg. When you get off the train you have to take a boat across the Hallstättersee to get to the town. It is just little and only has about 1,000 inhabitants. So enjoy:)


Here is the cute town of Hallstatt. I just loved it (did I already mention that?). There were a lot of houses built right on the water, with a little garage for their boat.



After I got there, Erica and I decided to rent a "tretboot" to take out on the lake. When we told the man that we wanted to rent a paddle boat for an hour his wife said "Oh, möchten Sie Sport haben?" I thought to myself, sport? How hard can it be to paddle a paddle boat? Well she was right. After about an hour, we were pretty hot an sweaty. So we decided to go jump in the lake:



Here is a picture of Erica and me after we jumped in the lake. When I told my friends that I was going to Hallstatt and was hoping to go swimming, they all laughed at me. They told me very ernstly that you could not swim in Hallstatt lake because it was too cold. Well boy did we prove them wrong, or should I say right? It was pretty cold. Before we jumped in I told Erica that we had to be very discreet, no screaming or hyperventilating when we jumped in. But even with the pep talk we both let out cry's of pain when hitting the icy Alpin water. But atleast now we can say that we swam in the Hallsättersee;)



I really need to get me one of these, it matches the color of my sunburnt arms.



I don't know if you noticed, but there is a tree growing on the side of this house. It is a pear tree. I think it is a pretty good idea, you can have breakfast in bed. Just reach out the window an pick a pear. There were tons of houses all over Hallstatt with trees growing on the side of them. I thought it was pretty cool.

Well those are the highlights of my first day in Hallstatt.

2.Juni

(note: I wrote this blog in German, just because I felt like it. If you are really bound and determined to read it, you can use an online translator. The results are actually quite funny)
Heute war einen guten Tag. Ich bin um halb acht aufgewacht. Gestern hatte ich Angst, dass das Wetter schlimm sein wird. Aber heute Morgen war dort kein Regen. Ich bin acht miles gelaufen. Das Wetter war kalt und ich habe nicht mein lang Ärmel Hemd ausgezogen. Ich war froh, weil mein Lauf nicht zu schwierig war. Nach mein Lauf frühstücke ich. Nach Frühstück bin ich zu der Uni gegangen. Heute könnte ich mein Stupendium Geld bekommen, auch ich habe mein Austausch Koordinators Unterschrift gebraucht. Mein Austausch Koordinator hat mich gefragt, ob ich dieses Wochenende reise. Ich habe gesagt, nein. Dann haben wir über dem Wetter geredet. Ich habe gesagt, dass ich keinen Regenschirm habe. Sie hat gesagt, dass sie einen Regenschirm hat, dass ich benutzen kann. Das ist sehr gut. Ich habe immer gedacht, dass der Moment ich einen Regenschrim gekauft habe, wird das Wetter besser sein.
Heute habe ich auch Fotos für Mike und Anna gemacht. Ich hatte Lust viele Fotos von meinen Reisen zu machen aber ich habe nur meinen Fotos von Soja und mich gemacht. Dort waren vielen Leute im Geschaft und so ich möchte schnell sein. Aber ich denke, dass sie guten Fotos sind.
Heute Abend habe ich einen Kurs. Aber just jetzt hat Lucy mich ins Kinos eingeladen. Das freut mich. Wir gehen „Da Vinci Code“ sehen. Ich möchte erste das Buch zu lesen, aber ich denke, es ist egal.
Ich fühle mich sehr zu Hause im Linz und ich denke, dass ich viel wechseln habe. Es ist schwierig zu sagen, wie ich wechseln habe, aber ich fühle mich andres als bevor. Ein Ding habe ich gemerkt, ist dass die Leute sehr Schaufel im America sind. Wenn ich im America bin und ich zu Kirche gehe, fühle mich das ich neuen Kleidung brauchen. Auch wenn ich zu Hause bin, würde ich nie ohne Schminke ausgehen. Aber hier ist das nicht wichtig. Und ich denke es ist traurig, dass das bedeutend im America ist. Hier denke ich nie „ich bin so dick!“. Ich hoffe mich, dass ich mich erinnern. Ich denke es ist bedeutend schön zu sehen aber Menschen söllten nicht auf jederman heruntersehen, ob du nicht gut siehst. Hier habe ich nur einen Rock zu benutzen, und es war kein Problem. Aber vor meiner Reise nach Öseterreich würde ich denken, dass unmöglich ist.
Ich muss gehen. Ich habe einen Kurs.

Bis später.

Anne

The Sweetest Girl in the world

Do you guys want to see the sweetest girl in the world? If you couldn't tell, it is the girl on the right, my good friend Soja!


I know I already sent you guys this picture, but I just think it is so cute, that I had to post it on my blog!

Pictures of Innbruck

Here are some pictures from my trip to Innsbruck:


Yeah, I wish!



Lenka and me:

Second day in Salzburg

Well the second day in Salzburg we went to Mirabell Gardens and to Mozarts birthhouse. My favorite part about his birthplace was the real samples of Mozarts hair (j/k). After Mozarts birthhouse we actually ended up getting seperated. It is a long story, so I won't go into it. But the good thing was that while we were looking for each other I found where you can buy the "Original Mozartskugel". There is a kind of candy here that is a chocolate ball and then in the picture on the package it shows it having a green center. Well everyone here raves about how good they taste. Well I have tasted them before, and they are just okay, and plus they are really expensive. Well my friend Lenka told me that the best Mozartskugel was in Salzburg. But when I got to Salzburg I just saw the same generic brand that we have in Linz. And when we tried the Mozartskugel here, Kim was very disappointed that the middle wasn't green. Well it turns out that my friend had been talking about the original Mozartskugel. And so when I found Cindy and Kim we went and tried one. They were really expensive. One kugel was 90 cents! But they are hand made, and yes the middle is green. Pretty much what it is, is a chocolate ball with pistaschio and marzipan in the middle. And they were really good!
Well after we found each other we headed out to the Hellbrunn Castle, where they have the waterworks. They are pretty much tricks that the King used to use to get his guest wet. And now the tour guides get to have fun getting the tourist wet. Here are some pictures from that day. This pictures is of Cindy experiencing first hand the water works:

This second picture is not of Kim looking for her contact, but of Kim collecing bees. This girl never rests:

Here is also a lovely picture of the Austrian side of Kim. If that "come hither look" doesn't get the Austrian men, I don't know what will:


And as promised, here is my "I am sixteen, going on twenty-two picture":


And especially for Ellen, a picture of Kim and I running together in Salzburg (who ever knew you could run in Chacos!):

Salzburg

Well since I am such a slacker and didn't write anything about my trip to Salzburg I will try and make up for it with a photo collage. But I will give you a general idea of what we did in Salzburg. Well on Friday I meet up with Kim and Cindy around noon and after we meet up we went into the city and first went to the Hohensalzburg fortress. Kim and I decided to be tough and walk up to the fortress. Instead of being tough we ended up just getting really sweaty. Cindy was the smart one. Here are some pictures of the fortress:




Inside the fortress was this plastic bull. Cindy and Kim tried to get me to ride it, but instead I decided to give it a kiss:


Also in the fortress was an exhibit on marinettes (sp?) Here is Kim and Cindy as marinettes:



Well after the fortress we did a self-guided city walking tour. It was fun because we would take turns reading from my book and pretending that we were tour guides. Here is a picture of the graveyard that the Sound of Music graveyard scene was based off of, you can't really tell in the picture. But the interesting thing about Austria is that you don't own your grave, you rent it. So every ten years your family has to pay a rent payment and take care of the grave. I don't really know what happens when you miss a rent payment...

Innsbruck

14.Mai

Well Friday and Saturday I went to Innsbruck to visit another girl that is studying from Utah State. My friend Lenka from CZ also came with me. We left Friday morning and took the train to Innsburck. Since Innsbruck is in the small handle part of Austria we traveled through Germany. The train ride there was very beautiful and we were both very excited to get a closer look at the Alps! We got to Innsbruck around 11 a.m. and meet up with my friend Erica (she is the one that I traveled through England with). It was fun to see her again.
After we meet up we walked to her apartment and dropped off our stuff. The exchange student that she changed with really wanted to keep her apartment so Erica took her place. The only weird thing is that Erica lives with two guys. The nice thing is that she has her own bathroom and a small kitchenette in her room. Her room also had a balcony with the most amazing view of the Alps.
Well after we dropped off our stuff, we walked around the old town and then went in search of a hike. It was quite the walk to get to where we could start the hike, but the hike was very nice and we all enjoyed it. After the hike we came back and had dinner and watched Persuasion. I told Erica she had to watch it, since we visited Bath. She didn't like it as much as me. Oh well.
Well on Saturday Erica made us pancakes with maple syrup. Her mom had sent her some maplin in the mail. I was so excited. I have been wanting pancakes for ever. Lenka also really liked them and asked for the recipe. After breakfast we went to mass with Lenka, however the services had been canceled. Instead they were having a little celebration in the old town for mothers day. We looked around a little and then hoped on the bus and rode to Halls. It is a small town very near Innsbruck. There was a market there and also some Mother's Day celebrations. There was also some very beautiful churchs. We had a good time looking around Halls. After that we returned to Innsbruck and Lenka and I travled back to Linz. Once again we enjoyed the view, and got back to Linz around 9:00 p.m.
Today was an okay day. I didn't feel very well last night when I got home and I didn't sleep very well. This morning we had choir practice at 8:00 a.m. which meant I had to get up at 6:00 a.m. so I could be to church on time. My brain did not want to think in German today, and it was very frustrating. My visiting teachers invited me over again for Mothers day. I wanted to go, but part of me didn't because I wasn't feeling well. In the end I decided to go. It was good, but a little too much for me. What with not feeling well, and my brain not working in German it was over stimulating. There were about 10 people there and they were all speaking in German at once. They would ask me time to time if I had understand. I found that I would just tune everything out. My brain was just not having it today. But in some ways it was very frustrating, because I wanted to be part of what was going on and understand what was funny, etc, but it was just too much. The food however was very good. The other problem, is I don't ever know if I should tell them when I want to go home, or wait for them to ask me if I am ready to go. Today I waited until 6 p.m. and then figured I would just tell them I wanted to go home. Even though I told them I wanted to go home, we didn't leave until 7 p.m. I am just too much of a Richey. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get anything done today. But mostly I think I am just tired and overstimulated.

a Quicke on Salzburg

14.Mai

Well it has been while since I have updated my blog. The reason being that last week I had two referats in German. I don't really know what the word for referat in English is. But pretty much I had to free speak in German for 10 to 15 mins. The first Referat was about Running. I did the referat with my friend Lenka. Lenka speaks a lot better German then me, so it was pretty easy for her. As for me, I was very worried. At the beginning of this Kommunications course the teacher told me that I could be in the class, but that I would fail. That isn't usually what you want to hear from your teacher. But I told her, that it was more important for me to learn, and in my hearts of hearts I felt that I wouldn't fail if I worked as hard as I could.
Well in my part of the referat I spoke on the different kinds of runners: supinator, pronator, or normal runner. Then I talked about what kind of shoe you would need, how you could find out what kind of runner you were. Then I went into the details of how to buy a running shoe. So I gave them an address of a running store in Linz and told them that they would need to get a larger size of running shoe then their regular shoe. Then I showed them how to properly tie their shoe. Lenka spoke on training plans and marathons. I think it went really well. I wasn't as nervous as I had thought and the teacher and the class seemed to be very interested in what we spoke on. I was so happy to have it over. My second referat was on what my culture. I decided to speak about food from Utah. I had wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, but I couldn't find baking soda anywhere. It turns out that they have baking soda, but it is called Norton and is sold in the Apotheke (pharmecy). They use it for upset stomaches. I thought that was funny.
Anyway, for the referat I ended up making sugar cookies, but then I ended up giving them all away so I didn't have any left for my referat. I wasn't too worried, because we weren't required to bring anything and no one had before.
In my referat I just spoke about the different food that we eat on different holidays. This referat was very easy, and the teacher complemented me because I didn't use any notes. This also made me happy.
Well to back track. The weekend before this last one. On 5 and 6 of Mai I went to Salzburg. There I meet up with my friends Kim and Cindy. It was kind of weird to see them, just because Austria is a different world then my U.S. world and it was interesting to have them mix. It was a really fun weekend and I actually was able to use my German a lot that weekend, to help Kim and Cindy out. I hope it doesn't make Kim sad, but I am actually not going to go into much detail about the weekend. I will say that I had a great time. And will try and post some pictures.