Bishofshofen, Austria

This picture doesn't really go (since it wasn't taken in Bischofshofen) but I wanted to include it because I think it's a good one!

Lately in Salzburg we've been having this beautiful weather that left me with the desire to do nothing but sleep all day. One of my teachers calls this "Föhn". Föhn is apparently an alpine wind that, according to her, makes you feel "as if you're under a bell" and don't want to do anything; it can make you hot even though it's not really that warm outside, and makes you restless and easily excitable. Part of me thinks this is just a catchall excuse, but it does capture exactly how I've been feeling! I've just had no goat (another fabulous Austrian expression). In Austria you say "Ich habe keinen Bock" or in Salzburger dialect "Eee hob kein Bock," which means you have absolutely no desire to do something. For example, I have no goat to write up any lesson plans right now...

Anyway, the week before fall break Maija, Dave and I decided to take a miniature break of our own. We headed out to Bischofshofen, Austria - a small town (a 'willage' as the Austrians call it) where Fleur lives. Fleur is another of the many Brits here in the Salzburger land, but since she lives outside of the city she hasn't yet shown up on my blog. Just wait - she'll be all over the next few posts!

There's not really much to say about Bischofshofen. It's a quiet town with one main street, a train station, and more cows than people. The 'willage' sits in a deep valley, surrounded by striking mountain peaks and a giant ski jump. Apparently the thing to do in the winter is to go watch ski jump competitions in Bischofshofen. The shops close early, and there are about three restaurants in the downtown. Actually, it was a welcome change from the chaos that Salzburg can be. The four of us relaxed, drank hot chocolate (or tea for the Brits) and wandered around before heading out to get delicious pizza and beer, and catch the train home in time to get a good night's sleep before class in the morning.

The view in the town of Bischofshofen

Maija, me and Fleur on the bridge in Bischofshofen

The view in front of us on the bridge

And in the other direction

Walking to Fleur's

The ridiculous sign says "please! not so fast!"

Our shadows

The field which usually contains cows

Another ridiculous sign

Gorgeous sunset

Just To Make You Jealous

All I've been hearing from home this week is how warm it's been - 80s in St. Louis, 70s in Boston. I hate you all. It snowed here multiple times last week. Luckily, these pictures are from the week before, when it was sunny and gorgeous. So these pictures are to make you jealous that you're not in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, enjoying Austrian donuts with me.

Maija and I had a little picnic on the riverside

She's giving a thumbs-up to the couple making out behind her

Our picnic view

Part of our lunch. The picnic included painting our nails

Me

I was really excited about the gorgeous day

The dream team

This boat is part of a tour, and at the end it spins in circles and the (crazy) people APPLAUD. It made me sick just looking at it

Spinning...

Maija felt sick too

The view from the best coffee shop in all of Salzburg

The way up to Maija's

Still on the way to Maija's

And the view from Maija's window. I'm a little jealous, since my view is just of the hotel across the street (and on occasion, the people changing in the rooms)

Bio Fest! Salzburg had a fair for the organic farmers in the area

Maija and the menu, which was glued to the flower vase

Leslie and me

Maija and Leslie's roommate, Brendan

Gotta love festivals in Austria, where beer is always on the menu

The food: Knödelsuppe (dumpling soup). SO GOOD.

Eating our Austrian donuts. You could either get them slathered with marmalade or with sauerkraut. As appealing as they sound, we opted to not try the sauerkraut donuts

Oops!

Got jelly on myself

The random statue in the middle of Salzburg.

All of us at the festival

What would a festival be without an oompah band?

Orientation in Hinterglemm, Austria

Salzburg girls (Mary, me, Maija)

My first short weekend in Austria was spent (as you can see in the post below) exploring with Al, settling in and meeting my roommate Martina, who is absolutely wonderful. My first full week was spent in Hinterglemm - a mountainous area in Salzburg's countryside - attending orientation with the other American and British scholarship recipients. There are a TON of Brits here, by the way. I think a solid half of us are American, and the other half come from the UK. I wish we had spent orientation doing more teaching prep; instead, we spent most of it getting to know the differences between British and American English. For example, the Brits call underpants "pants" and pants "trousers," which of course can lead to some amusing cultural miscommnications. Nothing too dire, though. Mostly, we got to know the other kids who will be working in the state of Salzburg. Salzburg is the capital city of the state of Salzburg, which is in the country of Austria, which is part of the EU. Confusing? It can be.

In addition to meeting the students, we spent a day hiking and yodeling. One of the teachers there was this guy named Hans, who knows my family! (He also knows Maria von Trapp - the real lady of Sound of Music fame - and we sang to her over Skype at orientation!) Hans is a fabulous accordion player and yodeler, and brought his accordion all the way to the top of the mountain just so we could yodel and sing at the top. The majority of my pictures from the week were from this particular adventure, which is fitting because it was the most memorable part of the week.

The beginning of our hike

Typical Austrian mountain houses

"Senior pic" take one with the Salzburg girls (Emilly, Mary, Maija)

The view

Cows!

"Senior pic" take two with the Salzburg girls

With Emily and Maija at a beautiful lake halfway up the mountain

View from the lake

View from the mountain hut

The hut

What do you do when you get to the top of a mountain in Austria? Drink beer and eat strudel, of course!

...and yodel.

Hans and one of the other students, leading us in our yodelfest

The sun came out for a little while

Emily and the horse

Cows