We have two ski instructors here, Joschi and Burgi. They have their hands full with our group, as some students have never skied and others are ready to tackle the black runs. Joschi (pronounced Yoshi), generally stays with the beginners and Burgi takes the more advanced groups down a variety of slopes. I am very glad that I know how to ski fairly well and can keep up with the advanced group. Here, the "easiest" runs are blues, followed by reds, and then blacks are the hardest. Burgi usually takes our groups on blues/reds, which are the perfect level for me. Both Joschi and Burgi are in their early seventies, and they are incredible skiers.
The views here are incredible; pictures cannot capture how beautiful it is! These past two days have been foggy, so the visibility is not ideal at the top of the mountain, but it clears up towards the middle. Before, I would undoubtedly say Rio de Janeiro was the most beautiful place I'd been, but it may be second on my list now!
We are staying at a hotel, and three meals per day are included. The breakfasts are typical german/austrian ones with lots of sausages, cheese, bread, and soft boiled eggs. At lunch and dinner we are first served a soup and then an entree. The entrees are nothing special, and are also typical austrian foods. We have had wienerschnitzel, sausage, and lots of potato dishes. Lunch yesterday was a very strange meal, that none of us quite understood. After our soup we were given a full plate of fried dough, covered in powdered sugar. It was basically tiny pieces of funnel cake, and that was our entire meal. We were very bewildered, since it seemed like a dessert food and not a lunch to fuel us up for a long afternoon of skiing!
After today, we have three more days of skiing and then we head back to Vienna on Saturday morning. Our transportation between here and Vienna consists of a gondola ride down the mountain, followed by a 25 minute bus ride, and then a 5 hour train ride. It is a long day of traveling, but it allows us to see much of the snowy countryside between here and Vienna. I am excited to get back to Vienna, since we spent only one evening there so far. We have one week before orientation, so we may take a short trip early in the week to Berlin or Munich, and then we are off to Venice late next week for the italian Carnival celebration!
