Week Two

Another week at Tauernhof has flown by, and many adventures have been had and lessons have been learned.

On Monday night we had our second "family group" meeting. This week my family went to Martin, the school director's, house in Haus. It was so wonderful to be able to see an authentic Austrian home. Martin and his wife designed the house, which was all wood and had a very interesting layout, and Martin built it himself. We were able to meet his two little girls (one is named Emily and she thought it was so neat to meet someone else with her name) before they went to bed. We also were able to play with his puppy and kittens. We had an amazing Bible study on forgiveness, and we talked and prayed until late into the night. It was a great time to be able to connect with others from around the world (in my family we have one Austrian, two Germans, two Americans, two Canadians, and one boy from England who lives in Thailand) and see their perspectives.

On Tuesday we had our first outreach meeting. I was very nervous, since I joined a singing group and I have never really sung before. We went around and introduced ourselves and what sort of musical experience we had, and everyone had been singing in choirs and leading worship at their churches for years. I have never done anything of the sort, but I do enjoy praising God in worship. Everyone has been super forgiving so far! We will be singing about half in English and half in German, which is a fun way to learn pronunciation of German!

On Wednesday we had afternoon sports and I went to play Ultimate Frisbee. It was very fun until one boy got hit in the face. We cut the match short and went to get ice for his swollen lip. If only he were a Whitworthian he would be happy about getting a little three! When I had just gotten back from frisbee and was in the room, a surprise showed up in the form of a 47 year old new roommate! This week has been quite the adjustment to living with another person in the room. Especially when she has been living on her own for 25 years. So prayers in this adjustment would be greatly appreciated!

A Sports Reach Team (they travel around the world to play soccer with local teams and then after they share about the love of God with the local teams and fans) has been staying at Tauernhof playing teams in the area. On Thursday they challenged a group of students from Tauernhof, so my roommate Teannna and I hiked up to watch. It was the most beautiful soccer match I had ever seen, with gorgeous Alps as a backdrop. We got ice cream at a local shop and cheered loudly for the Tauernhof team, but they lost despite our help. Then that night we had another worship night. My roommate Rebecca led the worship and I gave my testimony to the whole school, plus a few people from the local community and the Sports Reach team. It was a little intimidating, but now I am done with that assignment! It was good to hear how well my testimony tied into everything that the lecturers had been talking about and the book that we are reading.

On Friday night, one of the girls invited her parents to give us a Scottish dance lesson. So the whole school piled into a small room and learned how to Scottish dance! It was quite enjoyable, although I'm sure we disgraced the whole culture with how chaotic and bad we were at dancing!

On Saturday I signed up to go on a "walk" with the school that turned into quite the hike! We followed a trail up some waterfalls. Most of the "trail" was metal grates that were drilled into the side of the mountain. We either walked on flat metal grates or hiked up stairs or even ladders. It was quite exhausting, but at least we had beautiful scenery to look at on the way up!

We were able to walk across bridges and look down on the waterfalls, which was gorgeous! We even went across a long suspension bridge!

When we made it to the top, there was a beautiful lake! It was freezing cold but some people went swimming! I was not so brave. There were a couple hüttes beside the lake we stopped at one and ordered hot chocolate to warm up! (eine heiße schokolade bitte!)

The staff told us we were able to walk back to Tauernhof if we wanted (instead of driving), and so a few of us decided to be adventurous and try it out! We started off, and soon saw this sign:

 

The group got split up half way through (my group being the faster group!) but about two hours into the hike down it started pouring! It was quite the experience, but it was a good chance to get to know the girls I was walking with and see the beautiful countryside.

That night we decided to watch The Sound of Music, since most of the Germans have never seen it. They absolutely loved it and we all sang loudly and danced and had a good time. It was fun to be super touristy for a night.

I am still loving Tauernhof and having the time of my life!

Another interesting fact about Austria:

The sheep have tails!