What a Journey

On Saturday morning I woke up at 5:00 am and headed to the airport. After waiting in lines to get my ticket and security, I headed to my gate only to learn that the plane's battery had died causing the flight to be delayed six hours. And so, I joined the long line of people waiting to talk to the agents and three hours later had a different flight to Salzburg. The only problem: this flight would leave seven hours after my original flight left....and it ended up being delayed for an hour! But, after spending ten hours in the Boise airport, I finally started my adventure.

Everything went smoothly from this point on. I made it to San Francisco, enjoyed some sourdough bread, and then boarded my 11 hour flight to Frankfort. Once in Frankfort I was bused from the airport out to my plane (which was sitting in the middle of a big plane parking lot) and then took off to Salzburg. This was one of the most beautiful flights I had ever been on. The Alps were so prominent against the bright blue sky and the rolling hills were bright green. Every house I saw was a different color...it was SO GORGEOUS!!

When I arrived in Salzburg I found bus #2 (pointed out by a taxi driver who only spoke a little English) but I hopped on it none the less and hoped it was the right bus. It was! and I ended up at the train station, where I found an English kiosk and bought a train ticket to Schladming. I, again, hoped it was the right one since I have never bought a train ticket before. But everything worked out great and I ended up in Schladming at 10:00 pm on Sunday night. Two VERY full days of traveling later.

I was picked up at the train station by a Tauernhof staff who led me to my room. I have two wonderful roommates, Tianna and Rebecca. Tianna is from Canada and full of laughter and thinks everything is "so cute!" Rebecca is from Denmark and is the expert on Tauernhof, as she has been here before. Both are absolutely wonderful people!

In fact, it's only been a day and I love everything about this school. Everyone is very friendly, you can hike just twenty minutes and see a gorgeous waterfall, and the food is wonderful! We haven't started classes yet, but we will tonight and I am looking forward to it. There are 79 students here this fall, and the ages range from 17 to 76! There are just so many people to meet and stories to hear about where they are from and how they ended up at Tauernhof. It's been a blast.

There are a few differences about Austria that I have already noticed. One, everyone here smokes cigarettes and drinks red bull. Together. That is THE THING to do. Also, there is no such thing as organization when it comes to building a city. There are houses just randomly built on the hillside. It's fun! but it also makes finding my way around a little more challenging. Another thing, the y and the z keys on a German keyboard are switched, and it makes typing quite challenging!

I look forward to learning even more about Austria and all the other cultures that I get to interact with here at Tauernhof! And I am missing you all!