Just a little note!

This past week has been pretty interesting so I've got a few new things to add. On Thursday it was my turn to do devotion after breakfast. Everyone has to do it and Thursday was my day, I was pretty nervous about it. It went surprisingly well, I was just being honest about a few things that I've learned here at Tauernhof and the words just came naturally for me! So that was a good experience.

Then on Friday we had a Pirates and Ninjas evening! It was a blast, everyone got dressed up, we played games and watched Ninja movies. I went as a Ninja seeing as my current wardrobe (which is pretty much whatever could fit in the back pack here, is not a lot) does not include anything resembling a Pirate so I went as a Ninja! Here's a pic of me and my room mate Lindsay.

And on Saterday we went on a day trip to Mathausen concentration camp just about 2 hours away from here. I kind of knew what to expect coming here since I've already seen Auschwitz but I think each time you go to a place like that it will hit you just as hard each time. We watched a short film about the history of the camp and some survivors told their experiences there. Some of the images they had on display were very graphic, I honestly was feeling sick by the end of it. It was a really hot day out as well so it was overall just uncomfortable. There were a set of stairs called the, Totestiege, the death stairs. They were called that because the weakest of the prisoners were forced to carry blocks of rock, up to 50 kg, up these stairs. They walked so close together that if one fell over due to exhaustion it would create a domino effect and take out those behind them as well. It's just an awful thing to think about.

That evening there are some mountain biking qualification races going on just beside our campus here so I went to check it out for a bit! It was amazing how fast some of those guys fly down the tracks. After that they were playing a snowboarding video so I went to watch that! It was so awesome, it showed the evolution of snowboarding to date and followed a group of pro snowboarders exploring the Alaskan mountains. It just gave me an itch to go snowboarding again!!

Anywho, that's my update for now! I hope the weather gets better at home soon for you guys! Take Care :o)

Half way done plus a trip to Vienna!

Once again it's been way too long since I've updated my blog. There is always something going on here to keep be completly busy and away from my blog. Two weeks ago we had a day trip out to Hallstadt. It's this tiny little town on a lake just and hour away from here and it was so beautiful. It's claim to fame is that it's one of the oldest towns in Austria. It was a great day, we stopped into a church that had a room filled with bones and skulls. Kinda creepy I must say, but it was interesting. We walked around town for a bit and looked in some of the shops and ended the day with a ferry ride around the lake! It was so beautiful. Just at the end of the ferry ride this wall of rain came through the valley. It was amazing, the day went from clear and sunny to a wall of rain and cloud coming our way. We ducked into a small cafe for some pastries adn by the time we got out the sun was back out! It was a great trip though, I'm glad I got to see it.

This past weekend marks the middle of Bible School for me and we had a travel weekend. I and 4 other girls decided to go to Vienna! It was a blast, aside from the minor train problems (a 4 hour train ride turned into a 7 hour train/bus ride) everything else went smoothly! We found our hostel no prob, and the U-Bahn was really easy to figure out. We went out on Friday night to the main shopping strip by Stephansplatz. There were tons of people out and enjoying the beautiful evening. We found nice little Italian restaurant and grabbed some Pizza and topped it off with a few ice creams afterwards! Saterday we spent the morning visiting the main sites. The Hofburg palace was huge, we didn't go inside though. Just outside it though there was a beautiful rose garden with rows of rose bushes of every colour imaginable. So naturally I took a ton of pictures because I love taking pictures of flowers! We had a nice little picnic in the park as well which was great, I loved watching all the tourists pass by. We saw the Parliment building, Stephansdom (a cathedral) and more importantly we found an H&M!! Our afternoon was filled with shopping, shopping and shopping! After all that shopping we treated ourselves t osome Applestrudels! It was delicious. Also while we were down near Stephansplatz we saw some guys breakdancing! It's the same guys that Laura talked about in her blog if you'd seen it already. They were amazing to watch.. I got some good pics! That evening we found an english theater and went to see Spiderman 3! It's been so long since I've been to the theater so I was pretty excited to see it. I haven't seen Spiderman 2 but I still thought it was pretty good. On Sunday we checked out the Schönnbrunn Palace and spent most of the day there. It was also quite huge with an awesome garden! It was sooo hot out, it was really quite nice. I hear that it wasn't the greatest weather in Winnipeg for a long weekend which is too bad. It was definately nice to get away from school for a few days but I'm glad to be back. This weekend we're heading to Mathhausen, it's a concentration camp in Austria not too far away from here. So I'm interested in seeing how that will go. Time is flying by here, I can't believe we're in our 5th week already.

Anyways, I hope that everyone is doing well and healthy back home!! Pics are coming soon, for some reason it won't allow me to download pics from this computer. Soon I promise!! Take Care :o)

Taurenhof.. Loving The Fresh Mountain Air!

So, here I am.. It's been a good 2 weeks since I've written anything on here and a lot has happened. Laura and I spent some time in Hagedorn with our family friend Heike Pothast. We were just happy to stay in one place for a few days and relax. We did get a bit of relaxing but the week flew by at Heike's. We went to a bigger town, Paderborn, to go shopping with our cousin Klara. It was nice to visit with her again! We made Heike tacos one night, and they definately did not taste like the ones we make at home but it still was pretty tasty! Heike teaches yoga so Laura and I joined in on her class. It was really interesting, since I've never done yoga before and it was all in german. I enjoyed it though! We also joined in on Heike's drumming class, which was awesome.. it sounded amazing! On our last day with Heike she took us out for a canoe ride down the Lippe.. a little river near by her place. Laura and I were in a canoe and Heike and her friend Herald were in the other. Much to our surprise there were little rapids on this river and Laura had to steer us straight through them. It was pretty fun, we got a good pic of us in action! From th ride home. Heike's car broke down 3 times, once on the autobahn (Laura was driving it at 160 km/h) and we were able to get help right away because hte autobahn is a priority for them. Then again 20 minutes later the gas pedal was stuck down, we had to wait over an hour this time. So Heike went to a near by house and called to order a pizza. So there we were on the side of the highway eating pizza in Heike's car waiting for the repair guy ! The guy came and fixed the pedal but a short 20 minutes later the fuse broke ae Lippe it was a bit of an adventure to get home though. What should've been a 45 minute drive turned into a 5 hour towgain. So we finally got towed back to Heike's by her friend who came to pick us up. Phew, just a bit of an adventure for us. After Heike's Laura and I set out for Schladming and Part II of our Europe trip where we go our seperate ways. We spent a day together here in Schladming, Austria and checked the town out and where the school was that I was going to be attending for the next 2 months. I was glad that Laura could come out here with me and we could hang out a bit more before I start school. I'm a week into the course now and let me tell you things are different here. From a flexible, do whatever we want whenever attitude to having structure and lectures in a new environment was wierd. There are 72 students here and a lot of them are from Canada! There is actually a few people from winnipeg and 3 people from Winkler ! Fellow Mennonites .. yay! I am learning a lot about the Bible and even more about myself out here. This will be a great experience, as difficult as it feels sometimes, and I'm trying to take advantage of every minute of it. Our campus is right on the side of the moutains here so I can look out of my bedroom window and see the moutain side right there. It's truley beautiful here, I've been out hiking a lot and the views are amazing. There's a river that runs right through town and as I was walking along it one day I saw a bunch of brand new baby ducklings!! They were so cute! Anyways, I just thought I should update my blog since it's been so long..

We went on a 5 hour hike today! It was amazing and worth every step. We climbed up to a little lake and the path followed along this awesome waterfall! It was so beautiful.. I really love it here in the mountains! :o)

I hope that everyone is well at home! Take Care :o)