Frohe Ostern!!

Happy Easter to all my family and friends around the world, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  I am spending a nice relaxing weekend on Sallaberg with the Lienharts, we have beautiful sunny weather and I couldn't be happier :) The Easter traditions here are so deeply rooted, it is a pleasure to be able to participate.  Tina and I went to the church this afternoon with our basket of food to have it blessed by the Priest in our village and it was lovely.  I apologize for the long time between posts, there has been alot going on around here so look for a long one after the Easter break! 

Some amusing news from Austria...

Reading the news headlines here in Austria is often amusing, but I found today's particularly funny.  Apparently there have been a series of robberies in Oberösterreich (Upper Austria), the region just northeast of Salzburg.  The thief has been seen wearing an old-man mask during his escapades, but now he has suddenly had a change of attire.  He was caught this week wearing a mask of Obama's face, whether it's a political statement (likely) or he just thinks that Obama is very intimidating is yet to be seen.  Read more about the infamous Obama-robber by clicking the link below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12923582

Dirndl Day!

Its official, I am now a real Austrian "Mädl".  I speak with a dialect, I love schnitzel, the stench of cow manure doesn't phase me, and today I bought myself a dirndl.  A dirndl is the Austrian traditional dress (called tracht) for women.  The men wear ornate hunting lederhosen with buttons made from deer horns.  No, lederhosen aren't a silly Hollywood invention, German and Austrian men actually still wear them today!  And I have to hand it to the Austrian people, they really have found a way to take an ancient Alpine tradition that can sometimes look archaic and outdated and make it trendy!  This might be what you think of when you think lederhosen, along with lots of wurst and beer:

But lederhosen can actually be quite attractive, as so dashingly displayed by Johann here ;)  Austrian girls think so at least, and around age 18-20 almost every Austrian boy gets his first pair of real lederhosen.

Same goes for dirndls.  While feminists would balk at the idea of wearing a dress that was designed for a cooking, cleaning, bread-baking, baby-making Hausfrau, modern Austrian women wear their dirndls with pride!  Some dirndls, in my opinion, can look very outdated and matronly,

There are lots of more modern styles that are incredibly cute and very wearable!  While I find many reasons not to be a Paris Hilton fan, I had to give her props when she rocked this awesome golden dirndl to Oktoberfest in 2006, inciting a resurgence in the popularity of the dirndl.

I wanted one that was a little shorter and one that was spring/summertime appropriate.  So Kiley and I went to Eugendorf after my classes were over today, a little town just outside of Salzburg, to an outlet that's far enough away from the tourist crowds where they have tracht outfits for reasonable prices.  

This one was a little too costumey for me, 

Same with this one.

I loved this one, the colors were beautiful but it was waaay overpriced.

After hours of driving and searching through two different outlets, zipping ourselves into hundreds of dirndls, fastening and un-fastening countless rows of buttons, I finally found it!!  The perfect dirndl :)

It was love at first sight!  I'm planning on wearing it to my host dad Gerd's 60th birthday bash this weekend, I can't wait!  I also think I could wear it around Memphis, it'd cause quite a scene!  I love it!

For all my runner friends...

This is where I get to run every day :)

                                                  

Ma citay!

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!

P.S. I'm going on some great adventures this weekend, so look for a post sometime in the next couple of days!  

Easy Athletics?

I made a horrifying discovery today.  In searching for the owner of the track that's next door to my dorm, I had to ask a few people if they knew of any track and field teams or clubs around here that I could train with.  At first I just said "running" but then I alluded to the track and they supplied me with the word I was looking for.  In German the word for track and field is Leichtathletik.  Directly translated this means "easy athletics"...  Easy athletics??  And that makes me a Leichtathletin... an "easy [female] athlete". What a terrible slander of the most ancient and sacred of all athletic competitions!  I tried not to show how offended I was, but obviously Austrians don't take T&F as seriously as some ;)

Wort des Tages: Fasching!

Because Christianity is so widespread, this time of year (the season leading up to Lent and Easter) is festive no matter where you are.  Venice has Carnival.  New Orleans has Mardi Gras.  The list goes on.  This week, in almost every country of the world there will be parades, costumes, parties, food, and general merrymaking!

In Austria, the celebration is known as Fasching.  On Fasching-Saturday and Fat Tuesday there are big parties in every town and village across Austria.  On Saturday Tina and I pulled four boxes of Fasching gear from years past out of the attic and dug through the wigs and sequins, umbrella hats and fake noses, finally putting together these very convincing Tina Turner and Venetian dancer outfits!

Who are those lovely ladies?

It's really me... but don't tell ;)

The point is to be totally disguised, so you can mingle and dance with whomever you want without anyone recognizing you.  Fasching is the time for the ladies to ask the men to dance ;) You scan the crowd, trying to figure out who the three robots in the corner are? They're only talking in beeps.  And the Smurfs who are getting blue paint on everyone.  And who's that tall lady with the big hands over by the bar?  Oh, nope wait... that's a guy.  Then, at exactly midnight the truth is revealed when everyone takes off their masks in the Demaskirung.  Then its schnapps and musi and dancing until four in the morning!

Happy Faschingswoche!

Hello? I think I'm lost in a postcard...

Some highlights of my first AMAZINGLY beautiful Saturday on the Tauplitz, one of the many peaks of wintry heaven found in all directions around the Ennstal.

Mama Tina <3

Is it ok if I stay here forever?

Even though the ski resort Taublitz was one of the first mountains in all of Austria to install a chairlift, they just added a gondola this year that takes you from all the way down in the village up over the first ridge where there is a station to get off if you're chicken, and then allll the way up to the summit!  Its awesome, and very comfortable... as long as you don't look down.

Thanks to Alex for the use of his snowboard.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect Saturday.  Herrlich :)