Life Updates

Hello Friends and Family and assorted blog fans-

First off, my deepest apologies for my lack of postings as of late...life continues to speed up, and time for blog writing shortens considerably.

This past weekend I went skiing in Bad Gastein, Austria. A great town with great mountains, even for someone who doesn't especially enjoy skiing, I do admit I enjoyed myself. Perhaps the most interesting part of the trip was the international feeling...riding up the gondola you could hear five different languages being spoken. The trip was also relatively easy, Chandra and I took the train right from the center of Zagreb, and landed about two feet from our youth hostel. The hostel was a five minute walk from the mountain.

I surprised myself by being able to ski without injuring myself too badly, I haven't been skiing in over two years, and never before on such a large mountain. When you reach the top, you are surrounded on all sides my snow capped peaks. We had sunny weather both days. I must admit that each night I feel asleep at about 8 o'clock, and I am still recovering even though today is Wednesday. We also visited a spa which boasts outdoor pools that are filled with naturally hot geyser water...we soaked in the pools for about two hours. OK, so I do admit, that was probably my favorite part of the whole trip...much more my speed then trying not to kill myself coasting down the mountain.

For those of you who don't know I have my return date booked for the 13th of June. Time is flying by. On the 25th of May I embark on a two week Euro Tour that ends the 10th of June. So my exchange as I know it will be over by the end of May, a mere two and a half months! School ends the 16th of May, also another joy. And the 1st through the 5th of May, I will be visiting the world famous "old city" of Dubrovnik.

My Croatian class ends next week, and although I feel as though I could keep going for the rest of my life and still not know Croatian completely, it will be nice to have my Monday and Wednesday nights free. At this point I am understanding mostly everything that is said to me directly, although I don't have the words to reply as I would like to.

Two weeks ago I gave a two minute speech in Croatian for the Rotarian's Presidents Meeting. It was more nerve wracking then I would have expected. Since I memorized it, I had nothing to fall back on when I messed up, but in the end it worked out ok. The Rotarians seemed to think I was cute for trying. Croatians love when you speak their language, no matter how you butcher it.

I have a two week break for Easter at the end of March, and will be going to my host family's apartment in Rovinj, a town on the coast, about an hour and half from Zagreb. I am looking forward to it very much, especially the sitting on the beach aspect of it!

Hope all is well in the United States. Missing driving and movies without Croatian subtitles...