workiework

Just a quick one.  I've all of a sudden found myself really busy as all the holiday tourists arrive.  I have a group of 8 Esprit intermediates in the morning (who rejected our original team name the 'Powder Pirates' for the 'Cheese Team' *sigh*) who are great skiiers but really sap the energy from me.  In the afternoon I'm on privates, today and yesterday I had two lovely Scottish women who were decent intermediates but seriously lacking confidence so I coaxed them back into it.  They were really enjoyable to teach!

Flo is still living with us and the plans for NYE are flying around.  We might do something similar to Xmas.  Sadly working from 10am on new years day :(

Mere arrives on the 3rd which is rapidly approaching!

Tatum (I don't know how many people reading this know who that is) might be coming as well which is really exciting!  I havn't seen her since 2001!

All for now, more coming once I have some breathing room.

xx Maz

Salzburg, returning home, white christmas...

Sorry for being awful at the blog. I've been too busy skiing to want to sit inside on the computer for an afternoon. I'll pick up where we left off *gulp* a MONTH ago.

I really loved Salzburg! I was a bit ashamed that last season we lived 2 hours away and never went to see it so this time on the way to Kapun we stopped for a few days. The old city is so beautiful - it really feels like it hasn't changed for centuries, but there was no tacky tourism like in parts of Paris. It felt really authentic. We had a wander around the old city (see photos) and went up to the Festung Hohensalzburg (a fortress) which was my favourite thing. We could see it straight out the window from our youth hostel. Construction of it started in the 1100s and it felt like walking into the middle ages. There was a little museum inside, we took an audioguide tour and some great photos from the top tower! The fortress was never taken by force in history, except it was surrendered once to Napoleon. In the town there was this gorgeous Christmas market where you could buy beautiful homemade ornaments and candies and candles. I will definitely come back one day on a high enough budget to shop for that kind of thing! There was an outdoor ice skating rink in the middle of the Mozart square so Tom and I went for a skate in the evening which was really nice! It was such a picturesque spot and they were playing music. And on rental skates I was so terrible that going around in circles on the tiny rink kept me occupied. Tom did have one terrific stack where he literally went face first onto the rink :D I was going to do the Sound of Music tour but it ended up feeling a little kitch so I passed, preferring to explore the city.

We took the train from Salzburg to Kaprun, and arriving in Kaprun felt sooo nice. After travelling around the whole year this is the first place I've been that I've been before so it felt so welcoming and familiar. We hung around at the ski school catching up with people for the afternoon before we were shown our accomodation which is MUCH better than last season. We are in the Neumair apartments which are directly above the supermarket right in the middle of town. It's not a particularly fancy apartment but it has everything we need and it's not expensive. It's also great and social since the rest of our floor is all other ski instructors so theres always someone to hang out with. Across the hall are Wieke and Evelyn who are both Dutch, next to them are Nout and Mattijs (also Dutch) and next to us is Bianca who is German. (No, there aren't many actual Austrian instructors!) We can see the slopes out the window which is great motivation to get out skiing!

I've already written about my birthday but there are some added photos in the slideshow album (link at the bottom.) We went skiing on Tom's birthday (both on new skis!) which was a lot of fun. I can't believe Tom is 20 though...he certainly doesn't act it yet!

Work properly started last week and I've already finished with my first group of the season. I had Esprit children (duh) but kids that can ski this season! I only had 3 and it was a pretty easy week (bar one day where the oldest boy chucked a tantie and refused to ski). We saw Santa skiing on Christmas day and it was gorgeous to see the kids critiquing his skiing!

We have had a friend staying at our place for a few weeks now. Florian (he works at the cafe in the ski school) who we knew from last season was really struggling to find a place to stay this year and the flat that he found is only available from early Jan so we let him sleep on our couch. Though a few things are now trickier (organising showers in the morning, who gets the keys, etc) he has been a really great guest - he's cooked dinner for us a few times, keeps his stuff really neat, so I have no complaints :) He's leaving just before Meredith arrives from Canada on Jan 3.

Having a white Christmas was really wonderful, it definitely is more magical with some snow. On Christmas Eve Tom and I had a nice dinner on our own and opened presents. I was working on Xmas morning but in the evening we had a group of 10 instructors for dinner. Wieke did entree and dessert (goat cheese cooked in pastry on a bed of salad, homemade apple pie) and Tom did the main course (chicked breat stuffed with brie and sun-dried tomatoes). It was a really great evening! Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was great to have a group Christmas dinner with friends since no one had family around.

We now have enough chocolate so sink a ship (which we are slowly getting through). Tom has been working in the shop for the last few days and I get my next group tomorrow morning!

I hope that post makes up for the lack in the last month. http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.jane.cohn/ReturnToAustria is the link for the new photos.

Love always
Amanda

Reflections of a 19 year old

*Written yesterday but only posted now*

Okay, okay. I'm sorry for being terrible with the blog lately. The mood just really hasn't struck me, and while I realise there is a lot missing from it I want to do it properly. This is just a quickie about my first overseas birthday.

I was a little bit worried about my birthday - it's still early season here so I don't know many people and no one wants to spend their birthday alone. The few days beforehand I was the most homesick I've been this whole year - I'd never had a birthday without Mum making me cake! (And only one without Sarah getting grumpy at me for ageing). The original plan was to ski at the little hill in town in the morning (on my new birthday skis), open presents and then maybe go out? There wasn't much of one.

Birthday Skis

Much kudos has to go to Tom for organising me a really nice birthday! We actually didn't end up skiing (because we were stupid and left our boots at the Alpine Centre on the Kitzsteinhorn) so we slept in, then there was breakfast with presents and general hanging around in the morning. Then at 2pm ish we went down to the Ski Dome for a champagne afternoon gathering with some of the other instructors. Tom had a few surprises up his sleeve there - there were more people than I expected, there were gummy bears and fruit in the pink champagne and he had even organised Florian to make me a birthday cake! Much merriness was had, chocolate cake eaten and pink champagne drunk. It was a really well organised event considering I'm in a foreign town! I really enjoyed my afternoon :)

We walked home just after it had gotten dark, and the best birthday surprise of all for me was that it had started to snow during my party! Giant fat sticky flakes, that perfect beautiful romantic kind, and with Christmas lights starting to go up around town it was a really beautiful sight. We had quick pasta on our own and then Colin and Karl (the only other native English speaking instructors here this season) came over for drinks and more general celebration. (Thank goodness this was at our place as we all ended up very drunk and I was already at home! A whole bottle of Jagermeister disappeared amongst other things).

We spent most of today getting over our hangovers (unfortunately not skiing, AGAIN) and then we went out for a nice dinner tonight (using my birthday money from Oma and Opa) at the Dorfkrug, I had a very Austrian meal of pork cutlets with creamy mushroom sauce, vegetable, and spätzle. (Tom of course had a giant bloody steak). Now I am at home snuggled up in bed with Geoff Bennett's new tiny laptop (we have a 2 month loan of it here), vanilla scented candles and lots of birthday chocolate!

All things considered it was a fantastic birthday, I never expected it to be a big deal here in Kaprun.

Plan for tomorrow: SKIING. About time. Hopefully the recent snow opens up a bit more terrain on the glacier!
Added note: Went skiing today and hit up the first off-piste of the season! A bit safer with my dandy avalanche tracker (above). Visibility was terrible (as skiing through a snowstorm tends to be) but the fresh powder was GREAT. Hit a couple rocks but that was to be expected this early in the season. Bring it on!

home sweet home

Just a quick post to say that Tom and I are both in Salzburg, about to watch the Sound of Music at the hostel.

It feels great and was like coming home landing in Austria. Nothing like crisp air and snow-capped mountains to make me feel better :)

rainy and cold

So far today has been pretty disappointing. The plan was first to check out the National Museum. After navigating my way there in the rain, I found out it was shut on Mondays. So due to my own under-researching I was left with not much to do. And the weather was MISERABLE. (As one would expect from Ireland.) I am embarrassed to admit it, but I actually ended up on a bus tour. I wanted to get out and explore the city but in bad weather by myself badly researched I didn't know where to go. The tour was interesting enough and I did learn a few things about the city, but it was overpriced and I would have preferred a Sandeman's tour had there been one. I did get to see Trinity College, Ireland's smallest pub, the Guinness stockhouse, Wellington Monument, and St. Patrick's cathedral amongst other things. From my bus. I'm off to dinner tonight with Tim and Mik again (I could totally go a nice stew or pie - now I know why they enjoy hot heavy bland meals!)

Last night ended up being terrific though! We went to a pub with live Irish music and dancing, which I really enjoyed. None of my photos of the dancers came out nearly well enough :( and the music made a great atmosphere with everyone clapping along.

Flying back to Germany tomorrow. I'm a little bit disappointed with Dublin - not the city itself, which I quite like - I just havn't had the best time here and I was really looking forward to it. I guess I've learned my lesson and I'll plan better next time.

Ciao
Maz

Hamburg and Dublin

I'll continue this one chronologically:

I really enjoyed my day alone in Hamburg. I bought a day pass for public tranport and explored bits of the city we didn't do there last time. I took the S-bahn out to a cute suburb called Blankenese where I found a little market selling flowers, meats and cheeses. I bought myself a sausage, chatting to the lady in German but I ended up eating it with mustard because there wasn't help-yourself ketchup and I couldnt remember what it was in German. It was really nice to wander around the suburbs, it felt really genuine, I didn't see a single other tourist out there. The weather was terrible but I was starting to be used to it. I also bought myself a comic to help practice my German, its the Donald Duck XXL-Winter-Spass book. Has cute duck comics and children's puzzles in it which are useful for my level of German.

Then I went to the famous harbour and following directions from my guidebook took a few ferries to get a decent tour of the harbour. It was really nice in the cold and mist to sit inside the boat with my iPod and just chill and watch everything go past. Hamburg harbour is pretty memorable - its not particularly cute or scenic because it is a real functional harbour, I saw tons of tugs and container ships and machinery which was interesting.

Back at the hostel I met some other people travelling alone and we got on really well. There was Nelson, from Darwin, and Riley from Vancouver. We ended up all going out Friday night to an Irish pub, it was a good fun night and it was nice to have some people to talk to after spending the whole day alone.

The next day I was up reasonably early to catch my flight to Dublin. The airport was a serious hike from the hostel - the bus took over an hour getting there. Services at the airport were terrible because I was flying on a budget airline from a tiny airport. The flight crew were Irish which was really bizarre after struggling with foreign languages all year. After arriving in Dublin airport I took a sandwich break and ordering in English felt so so wierd. I caught the bus to my hostel without problems. It was a green double decker :D

I am staying in the Kinlay House which is a giant hostel in a really cool part of the city. I am in a 6 bed dorm with people who arent particularly interesting, but hey, you cant win em all. The hostel has free internet which is incredibly useful. It also has breakfast, tv, dvd player with a massive movie library and a shared kitchen. So there is no shortage of things to do here. Last night I ended up chilling here and watching some movies with the other travellers. Not knowing anyone here it was hard to find people to go out on Saturday night, unfortunately.

Today I had a bit of a wander around the city and got my bearings. I had lunch with Tim (the Canadian I met in Paris) and it was nice to see a familiar face. We had bangers n mash with Guinness (trying to be as Irish as we could) but I thought the Guinness tasted terrible. I'm back at the hostel now for a short break (I might finally get my laundry done) but I'm going out tonight with Tim and Mikaela (who is arriving here this evening from Paris!). We're going to go check out some Irish dancing which I am pretty excited for. No more Guinness for me though.

I had a look into walking tours here and there is a serious lack of good ones. They are all very expensive and area or theme specific, leaving a perfect spot for Sandeman to open up. They'd do well here.

One of the things that strikes me here though is that its even harder for me to meet people, which is counter-intuitive, I thought the English speaking would have made it easy. But in Holland and Germany, the English speakers cling to each other at the hostel and its really easy to find people to chat to. At the hostel here I've met Germans and French and Spaniards, but I don't know where the English speakers have all got to!

That's my travels up to date!
I might post again tomorrow, but if not, until Salzburg!

xoxox Amanda

Toms turn.

Well Amanda tends to sum things up pretty perfectly, so I wont say to much about Brussels, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. I cant say nothing though can I. Brussels was yummy. Best waffles in the world. Though I think waffels where the easiest things to find over there. Any other type of food was crammed together. So we found 8 lobster speciality restaurants within 30 meters of each other. And at least 20 Belgian speciality restaurants on the same narrow street. Was great as they all offered 12 euro 3 course meals to compete and actually faught to get you in. The waiters would stand out front and offer you deals to come in. I was being offered cheep meals with free drinks shop after shop. Felt much like heaven.
Brussels as otherwise much like many other cities. The graffiti everywhere was awesome though. Huge comic strip walls, from Tin Tin, Asterix etc etc, as well as more modern graffiti which was also cool.

Amsterdam is a city like no other. So small, quaint, environmentally friendly (little would have loved it) , business orientated, dangerous (bikes do save the environment, though they also sneak up on you.), tourist filled, non-sleeping, multicultural and fun. I wish it hadnt rained so we could have seen the whole place, though everything we saw on foot was amazing. As maz said, not really a city though. Rotterdam on the other hand was a real city. Huge buildings with wild architecture, people that actually speak dutch and seriously good food with reasonable prices. I believe that Amsterdam is litterally their just for the tourists, to create money. The dutch people working there take the train every day from Rotterdam (which took less time as our train into town from Paris).
The history in Rotterdam is very cool, with a serious juxtaposition of the really old buildings that they rebuilt exactly, and the buildings of the last 50 years. They rebuilt a church in the center of the business district, seriously clashes, but is otherwise cool.

Then we split, maz went north to Hamburg, and I went to Hannover. Stayed the first 2 nights in a really nice hotel. That came witha breakfast buffy. I happened to be the only guest, so this brekky buffet became a breakfast fit for a king, and I couldnt let the food go to waste could I. Sadly it was a bit pricy at the hotel, so I sacrificed the brekky and will stay with different friends for the rest of the week. Last night I stayed with Timo, and we had a small party. Around 10 of us chilling in his room with a very silly PS3 quiz game till around 3am. Was loads of fun, though I didnt get much sleep. Tonight Ill be staying with Janick, which means Dvds and dancing till the wee hours of the morning. Should be great.
Otherwise I have been playing basketball, dancing, ice skating and catching up with everyone.

Cant wait till the 18th when maz comes down. Miss her lots.
Love you all! And miss you!

Tom.

Rotterdam and Hamburg

Rotterdam was unfortunately a very short stop. We were staying in a really great hostel there. On our first night we went out for a big dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us and it was fantastic. It was called Bazar and served mediterranean/north african food. We shared this giant meaty rice platter. On our one full day there we did a self-guided walk around the city, stopping at the Boijmans van Beuningen museum (conveniently free on Wednesdays) where there was an exhibition of the artist Charley Toorop, who I'd never heard of before we got there but I really enjoyed the art! Rotterdam was a really cool city - because most of it was destroyed in 1940 it didn't feel old and quaint like Amsterdam or Paris. It has a lot of really crazy modern art and architecture and it felt like a really buzzing city. We checked out both the new and old harbours, and there was an amazing park that was full of cool modern art and a big long windy duckpond, which of course I enjoyed. We ended up having a really quiet night back at the hostel, they had a lounge with tv and board games, so we watched a few movies with the other tired travellers. After a quick breakfast with the ducks the next morning we headed to the train station. We split in Hannover where Tom got a train to Barsinghausen and I caught the ICE to Hamburg. My train was delayed 15 minutes, which scared me a lot because trains kept arriving at the platform that weren't mine and they weren't making any announcements about mine. I arrived at my hostel here JUST as the receptionist was leaving so I managed to check in. Phew! My hostel is clean and friendly, but nothing special. The only common room has just a table and chairs in it, they don't offer internet or tv or other services. Except laundry and they charge a whopping 10 euros for it, so I think I'll be going elsewhere. I did have a nice long hot shower this morning though, which I really needed. It´s a disgusting day here so I think I´ll do a self guided city tour on the public transport. My travel guidebook tells you a scenic ferry line to take. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Lübeck which is where my flight leaves from and hopefully when I post again I'll be in Dublin!

Much love always
Amanda

Amsterdam

After 4 days in Amsterdam it is time to write a little bit.

I have really mixed feelings about this city. It is really beautiful and quaint, lots of canals and little bridges and lots of ducks and everyone rides bikes. But it also doesn't *feel* like a city. It's hard to imagine people actually living here, which is fair enough because it only has a population of 750 000. To that extent Brussels felt more real, more livable. But Amsterdam is really beautiful and like always I am a bit sad to leave. We were going to rent bicycles today but it rained, AGAIN. grr.

One of the things that really is unique here is the red light district. We had a wander during the daytime and then did a guided tour with a group at night. It really is the only place in the world like it. Prostitution is legal here - they pay tax and have their own union. They pay to rent out windows on the street and then charge men whatever they want to. Even in the daytime there were girls in the windows. The best word I can come up with for it is unique.

We did the walking tour with New Amsterdam (the Dutch branch of the company we worked for in Paris) and it was really odd to be on the receiving end of the 'free' tour. We made friends with the guide Micaela (from New York) who we spent an afternoon with. We also checked out the famous floating flower market on the one sunny day we had here. It was great, although we didn't actually buy anything - our ski instructor's apartment in Kaprun isn't really the place for a garden.

Tom has been trying to learn a little bit of Dutch with hilarious results. He strugggles to pronounce anything correctly, ends up ordering mostly in German and then chucks in a 'oui' or 'merci' or 's'il vous plait' at the end which REALLY confuses them. He also tried to buy banana milk at the supermarket the other day, managed to make the wrong choice between 'melk' and 'vla', and ended up drinking a litre of custard because he wanted to get his money's worth.

Amsterdam is also a LOT cheaper than Paris. To put that more intelligently: leaving Paris has made me realise how expensive it was. Food here, tram tickets, everything is cheaper which is a pleasant surprise. We also managed to find waffles just around the corner from the hotel which cheered me up cause I was going to miss the great waffles we had in Belgium. While we're on the topic of Belgium, I just want to add my last remarks on Brussels - one thing that I found amazing were the languages. We were in a Flemish part of Belgium but the 'official' language of Brussels is French -that meant that different parts of the city chose which language to use so it was hard to remember which country we were in. It was wierd ordering in French off a menu written in Flemish (which to us just looked like Dutch - loots of douuble vooweels.) One of our highlights in Brussels was going up to the top floor of a giant parking garage in the middle of the city (following the advice of our budget travel guide) to get a fantastic view of the city. A lot of it looked and felt like Paris, but more real at the same time. The cute old buildings were broken up by newer ones and skyscrapers as well - it felt like a realer version of Paris. If that makes any sense at all. It even made Tom use the word 'juxtaposition' in conversation which I was very impressed with.

Hopefully he will write something sometime as this is still technically his blog as well.

Love always
Amanda

Photos

Bigger update coming I promise, but just quickly, some photos are up!

http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.jane.cohn/NovemberTravels is the link for Brussels and Amsterdam.

http://picasaweb.google.com/amanda.jane.cohn/Paris for the rest of the Paris photos.

I am safe and sound in an internet cafe in rainy grey Amsterdam. Off to Rotterdam tomorrow!

Day 1: Brussels

Tom and I finally left Paris yesterday morning. I'll post later about our last week there and our last tours etc...I just wanted to try to keep up with our travels for once. We had breakfast at St Christophers hostel in Paris amongst the celebration about the American election. All of the travellers were pretty pleased. It was a really miserable day yesterday to lug all our stuff through the Metro system to the Gare du Nord. The train ride was surprisingly short and we spent it reading our guides to Brussels. We didn't do anything remarkable yesterday, just wandered around the city. It feels totally different to all the other cities we've visited so far. Parts feel really old and beautiful like Paris, but thats all mixed in with newer stuff, its not quite as neat and tidy. We found what has to be my favourite street in the whole world. It was a tiny little cobbled road with nothing but restaurants on it, and because there is so much competition the advertising is intense. They all lit up brightly, had giant menus outside, and staff members trying to convince us to eat there...Tom literally got stopped several times by people offering us meals or free drinks or special deals. My favourite one was 'It's free for the princess but double the price for you!' hehe. I wanted to go to that one :( There's also a really cool skyscraper here that lights up at night...each window is like a separate pixel that changes colour so they have text and pictures on it at night.

It's a much nicer day today so hopefully we can see some more of the city. We were going to head to Bruges but then decided that would prevent us seeing Brussels properly. We did have waffles last night as we were wandering after dinner - photographic evidence to follow.

Just to keep you guys updated on the travel plans, here they are:
5-7 Brussels
7-11 Amsterdam
11-13 Rotterdam
13-19 Tom in Hannover
13-15 Amanda in Hamburg
15-18 Amanda in Dublin
19-21 Salzburg
21- Kaprun

Will post photos as soon as I can - I'm back to the old story of not being able to connect the camera to internet kiosks.

Montmartre, IKEA, and M. Bost

After a very eventful week I have finally gotten around to updating. Sorry for the long wait.

We weren't able to extend our stay at the old lady's place in Le Kremlin-Bicetre (she wanted to rent it out long term to a student) so we spent a few very frantic days trying to find somewhere to live. After many classified ads and phone calls later we were really struggling, our best options being hideously expensive by-the-week holiday flats or a studio in a really dodgy neighbourhood for 900/m. With all of our friends and colleagues living in tiny studios of their own we didn't even have anyone's place to crash out, so in desperation we had a chat with Dave, the Sandeman's regional manager who sorted us out an awesome deal! This does sound odd, but please bear with me. We are actually living in the company's Paris office which is a 1br apartment in Montmartre. Dave is letting us stay here for the month (Tom did a lot of unpaid work on the bike tour so he did owe us a favour) and its been awesome so far! We are in an amazing fun neighbourhood, on a tiny cobbled street on the hill (just up the road from where Van Gogh used to live) with tons of cute bars and takeout and shopping nearby. We are much closer to work which saves us transit time. We have our own bedroom and bathroom that are separate from the office bit. The entrance (what would have been the lounge room) is the office and the kitchen comes off of that (we share that with Emma, our manager) and then we get our own bit on the other side of that! In the long term this arrangement would never work but for our last month in Paris it is great! The apartment was a bit disused (ie filthy) so we spent a few days cleaning the place up. Then had a day trip to IKEA where we spent a few hundred euros on new furniture and kitchenware for the place. Since Dave is not charging us rent at all we figured we would show our apprectiation by sprucing up the place. It has been really fun and social being here. The ticket seller checks into the office at 9am where they are now met by Tom offering cups of coffee/tea or even eggs on a good day. Tonight was payin night and we had drinks and burgers for everyone. It's such a central location as well compared to where we were.

Living arrangements aside, this afternoon I went out for coffee with M. Bost! He was in Paris for a few days visiting his brother and gave me a call. It was really wierd and out of context to see a teacher here but we actually got on quite well and had a nice chat about whats happening at Ascham and the differences between Paris and Sydney life.

My personal highlight of the last few weeks was going to see the Lion King with Tom. After much pleading he finally caved and we bought tickets to the stage show and it was a really awesome night! Hearing Hakuna Matata sung in French got a laugh out of both of us, but the costumes and the dancing were amazing, they put on a really good show and we were very entertained even from our budget very-last-row seats. I was singing 'The Circle of Life' for days afterward.

I'm still really enjoying work and giving the tours is getting easier and easier. We are slowly saving up the money to start the final plans for our last bit of travel for the year - heading to Brussels and Amsterdam on the way back to Austria.

I'm going to put in a public congratulations to Sarah in here as well for her work on the Ascham forest. I just saw the photos on facebook and I am very impressed with her efforts. Tom and I are very proud of you!!!

Since we're living in the office I have unlimited internet access in non-business hours Paris time (ie. when Emma isn't in here) so hopefully I can catch some of you on Skype/MSN soon!

Bisous
Amanda

Disneyland!

'Yarrgh!' says Tom. (When asked for a contribution to this blog post)

He's been feeling a little piratey since we went to DISNEYLAND yesterday! They had an 'adventureland' area with a pirate ship and a rope bridge and skull rock and some caves and a pirate ride...

The highlight of my day had to be meeting the world's most famous duck in person. We caught him lurking around a corner peeking out so didn't even have to wait in a queue to see him. A photo of me smiling maniacally with Donald was taken and will be posted ASAP. Tom was more fond of the roller coasters, particularly the Indiana Jones Temple of Peril on which he laughed like an idiot the entire time. My favourite ride was Space Mountain, although the park itself was more entertaining than any ride for me. Of course I was a sucker for the big pink fairytale castle and the Once Upon a Dream Parade (Belle and Ariel and Timon and Pumba were in it!). Tom's favourite were the little green GI Joes from Toy Story. They literally had perfectly green commandos with big plastic feet. The whole park was really well designed and themed and was soo cute. Because we booked our tickets well in advance (the cheap way) we didn't have a choice pick of the weather so it was pretty gray and windy but that meant less queueing and more fun :) There was also a proper hedge maze Alice-in-Wonderland themed that was very confusing and lots of fun.

They even have Ben and Jerry's ice cream...cookie dough...mmm....
They even managed to get Star Wars in there somehow...wasn't a Disney movie last time I checked, but hey, Tom didn't mind. We bought a nice souvenir glass to add to our collection of random odd glasses from all over Europe.

It was a fun (though expensive) day and was a great break from the history of Paris.

My next tour is on Friday and Tom starts on Sunday.

Ciao
Amanda

I am tour guide, hear me roar

Just a quick note cause I am buggered.

Tom and I both passed the test last Friday (with minor comments to work on certain speeches etc.) We both got scheduled for this week.

Gave my first tour today! It was actually a lot of fun though I was pretty nervous at the beginning. It definitely improved as it went along. For those who don't know I work for a free tour company, meaning the tourists pay nothing and I'm not paid by the company. I actually have to pay the company 2.50 per person that comes and then my earnings are tips alone.

I made €147.68 today :)
Not bad for 3.5 hours work! I am pretty pleased. Except for the bitch that tipped me the 68 cents lol.

The tour wasn't perfect, of course I missed a few things but it wasn't bad for my first go. My next tour (and Tom's first) is on Sunday so I have a few recovery days lol. Then off to Disney land tomorrow :D

Love Amanda

Life of a Non-Parisian

He sat at the computer, long hours of struggling with a keyboard who’s alter ego seemed more in love with an evil pain loving warlock known as Richard, and would to his lovers desire confuse and strain the limits of the typists mind…..
Sorry bout that. I am struggling with this French keyboard. It needs to die.
Along with most of the population of Paris.

Anyway, I care little for Paris yet I have had some good times here. Over the past few months a lot of friends from Australia have visited us, either from home or while on their own adventures.
When we first arrived we were living in the small apartment of the beloved Mikaela Squirchuk and Lucy Bradshaw, who were also our original guides of the city. They showed us all we needed to know: the way to the metro, how the metro worked and most Importantly the location of the best and cheapest crepes in all Paris.

So we were set! Or so we thought. The next month was dedicated to finding jobs, which included a lot of wandering the streets leaving CVs in cafes and bars. Maz soon found work in a bakery then changed to receptionary, though I was having trouble finding anything…. Apparently no visa, French or long term employment are a good start to a high paying job in the business centre of Paris.

So then the fun began, and I am sorry to anyone with a better memory than mine as I am V. forgetful. First visitor who was around for a while was Robbie Diamond who is Tom famous (its like world famous…. Only better) for an exceptional rendition of Hallelujah a few years ago, otherwise brilliant multilingual chick from Ascham. Her outstanding attribute being her ability to out eat me, while also being around 4 feet tall.

Beside her stood the 10 foot giant of a woman known only as “Sir” (or Charley Stollman) who was travelling Europe with an old friend of mine. Once again more crepes were eaten and general jolliness had.

Zara rocked up... with but one desire, one simple request, and only one thing she wanted to do in Paris: visit the grave of Jim Morrison. So we did, and we visited the coolest graveyard in the world.

Its big and luminous with crypts all over the place and then amongst all the 20ft tall gravestones you find a small rock, covered in bunches of flowers with cigarette boxes, joints, a million cigarette butts and a lettuce, and a simple plaque saying KATA TON DAIMONA EAYTOY ("To the divine spirit within himself”), as well as his name and dates etc. Really cool, anyway we later convinced Zara that she also had to eat crepes in Paris, so the day ended perfectly.
Daniel Amzalag popped his head in and shared a drink and a crepe as we wandered the streets in search of a beer under 7 euros (we didn’t find one). Then popped back out to travel the country with his folks.

Cadel Evans dropped by on his bike, gave us a wave as we sat on our bridge.

We found our first nice Parisian a few days ago, a banker who went against bank policy to help us! Policy was to not open bank accounts to students or for short term uses (Maz needed to bank cheques then close the account). Anyway yeah, thought it was a special moment.

The Cohns dropped by, or at least a couple of them, and we had a blast of a week including lots of nice food, the Moulin Rouge and another trip to the Louvre. The Moulin Rouge had lots of wine and topless people on stage yet somehow created an extremely classy show, with amazing costumes, water snakes, good food (though not quite enough of it, I ended up eating most of the Cohns meals as well) and really stunning dancers.

In the last little while I have been training as a tour guide, which is much like ski instructing; you get paid to meet cool people. Maz and I should do our tests and be able to give our first tours early next week, until then it is a whole load of learning…….. yay…

Well, it is now a few weeks since I sat down and started this blog, the mixture of wine and this keyboard (which I have still not yet mastered), have made it a fun…. time to say the least.
Love you all, and miss you lots.

Tom

Family in Paris

After several weeks of asking nicely followed by asking followed by forcing followed by giving up on Tom writing a post himself, I decided to write again.

Dad and Oma were in Paris this week! Oma seemed to be really enjoying herself which was nice to see. They stayed at my hotel for the first few days and it was really odd to see people so out of context (family at my work in Paris). We went to Notre-Dame and the Louvre together, and they did the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Musée d'Orsay on their own. Dad took Tom and I out to the Moulin Rouge for dinner and a show which had to be the highlight of my time in Paris so far (contender is Disneyland on Sept. 2 - tickets have been bought!!!). Dinner was nice although not too flashy, but the setting was really cool especially with my personal obsession with the Moulin Rouge. We had a table in a really great spot to see the show which lived up to its reputation for costumes, lights, colours, dancing, gorgeous dancers, and overall good entertainment. Even the intermission-like circus acts were great - one of our favourites was a hilarious multilingual ventriloquist. Sadly enough they have a no-cameras rule so we have none of the show :(

Off this afternoon to do another free tour of the city since Tom is training to be a guide. Lots more learning of dates and names in history for him.

Reflections on the City of Light

So now that I've been in Paris long enough to have settled in, I thought I'd have a ramble on the city itself since our day-to-day life isn't exciting enough to comment on. Paris is nice enough, I quite like it and definitely prefer it to Germany (possibly because of the language - I feel more comfortable here), but it hasn't really wowed me as much as I always imagined it would. The sights are pretty, millions are spent lighting them up at night so the city can live up to its name, but they tend to be surrounded by tourists and locals trying to make money off the tourists which ruins the atmosphere. Other than that, its got everything a bustling big city should have. Homeless people, smelly public transport, lots of concrete and high-rises. I get the odd moment every few weeks where I'm reminded I'm in Paris. There ARE the cute cafes and restaurants and famous museums and flowered balconettes. I just wish I'd been around to visit Paris 100 years ago, before the tour buses and souvenirs, when Montmartre really was a cool artist's village. I think it would have been how I imagined Paris back then. My imagination just ignored the obvious fact that as the capital of a western country it has become a big city.

Rant put aside, I am excited to see Dad and Oma who are arriving next week and staying at my hotel. Dad is taking us out to the Moulin Rouge for a show which I'm really looking forward to!

I have tomorrow and the next day off work so it will be nice to chill and maybe see a bit more. I never posted about Versailles which Tom and I visited a few weeks back. The queue was too long to bother going inside the palace, but the gardens were really beautiful and we spent a nice afternoon getting lost in them. (There were also ducks in the royal pond!)

Bisous
Amanda

cheese, crackers, and fireworks

Yesterday was the 14th of July and the French national holiday. After a quick supermarket trip for brie, biscuits, and cheap wine, we headed to the Eiffel Tower to set up camp on a nice patch of grass where we enjoyed our food and the most scenic game of Bartok ever.

Hm...that big towery thing...looks familiar...

view from our picnic spot

After getting kicked out of our spot by some seriously unfriendly gendarmerie, we went to check out the setup for the festivities, namely a giant stage for a free conecrt tribute to French music.

Eiffel tower, stage at the end, and tour Montparnasse in the background

The concert itself was a little cheesy (and not quite to Tom's taste) but it was cool to see and all the French people were getting into it. I now know of a few random French popstars and we took part in a cool event. On a slightly cooler note...the special guest was James Blunt (which kept a singing-loudly Tom happy.)

Simona...we're getting older...

Not a bad shot for a free concert, huh? Finally afterwards there was a seriously impressive fireworks display set to Opera music for half an hour. I rated it better than any Sydney NYE (maybe cos of our spot though.)

Ka-BOOM!

Moving day tomorrow, so today has been a pretty chilled day getting ready. Zara came to town on Sunday for a pilgrimage to James Morrison's grave and some nice cheap crepes!
And back to work tomorrow for me.

Bisous
Amanda

THE ROAD TRIP (Part 2)

finally continued...

The next morning we took a bus to Venice! There were lots of tourists everywhere, especially in the Piazza San Marco, as well as the usual cheap tacky souvenir stalls, which was a surprise since we’d so far been off the beaten track. The canals and ultra-narrow streets were pretty unique, but as a whole I was actually a little disappointed. The whole feel of the city was a little sad – everything was slowly decaying or sinking. We did however manage to get lost (WITH a map) in our first 30 minutes there. A cheerful (though corny) sight was the gondoliers complete with navy stripes and cute hats.

After a few hours we headed back to the car for the drive up to Germany via Austria. We saw some really beautiful countryside – classic northern Italy slowly changing to mountains, with cliffs galore.

We stopped for pizza along the way at a restaurant whose staff spoke no English, French, or German…we had a good laugh trying to gesture to the waitress what we wanted. The Austrian landscape was familiar with its typical style of houses and snow-capped peaks. We then arrived in Munich (to our surprise since there was no actual border to cross from Austria to Germany) to stay at ‘The Tent” which we’d read about in our travel guide. It was a really awesome campsite with room to pitch your own tent or you could have a bed in a huge main dorm-like tent. It had its own café with breakfast and dinner (all organic) and the cheapest beer we found of the whole trip. The showers were really clean (and solar-heated), the staff were friendly…we couldn’t have asked for a better place to stay. That night we watched Germany vs. Poland in the Euro cup – it was amusing to see how passionate the Germans were about their soccer…I mean football. We also met a nice Aussie bloke named Ben from Newcastle to chat to about travelling and everything else.

The next day we drove to a town called Fussen which is near Neuschwanstein castle, which is this awesome fairy-tale castle perched on a hill. It was Ludwig II’s (who was mad) and the inside was completely painted with scenes from Wagner operas and swans. We took a guided tour which was fairly interesting, and had a nice wander through the woods around the castle checking out the view. I wouldn’t have minded living there – even the servant’s quarters were pretty impressive. That evening we went into Munich and had a wander around the city through the shops. We saw the coolest buskers ever who were a band with a pan-flute and stopped for a beer in a beer garden. (Which you can’t come to Munich and not do!)

Hotel reception and a lazy boyfriend

We finally have a place to live and I have a job :) I started yesterday as a receptionist for a 2* hotel (www.preludehotel.com) and I really enjoyed it. The rest of the staff are really friendly, my hours are 2-9pm, I get paid more than the bakery...its pretty good overall. 90% of the guests are English-speaking and I'm starting to get the hang of the silly hotel software.

We're moving on the 16th to share a big apartment with this batty old french woman (our own room and share kitchen/bathroom for 400/m which is a great deal) and then she leaves on vacation for a month and a half...leaving us the whole thing for that price. It's a bit further out of town, but hey, it makes the groceries cheaper, and being on the 13th floor we get a cool view of the city.

The plan was to go to the Louvre today (free first Sunday of the month!) but Tom has decided to stay in bed. (We had to do it early since I start work at 2). I was going to go alone but for I decided to pay to go another day for Jenny's sake since she would be upset if Tom never got to the Louvre during his stay in Paris (which he wouldn't if I didn't make him.) He still doesn't have a job...and isn't really looking...but the apartment is usually nice and neat when I get home.

It's holidays at home now so there have been lots of friends in Paris randomly which is pretty cool. During the week we met up with Robbie Diamond, Charley Stollmann, Jess Lewis, Tom Shaw, and Amza. It was bizarre to see so many people I knew after 6 months of meeting new ones. We checked out Notre Dame and the Panthon with Robbie (both a walk from our place). The Pantheon has this giant pendulum in it that was used in the 1800s to prove the Earth's rotation and now works like a giant clock. It was pretty cool. Notre Dame is very pretty in that scary gothic kinda way, but the inside was actually a little disappointing after having been to the Prague cathedral (which I never got around to writing about...my bad)

My work is really close to the Moulin Rouge so I'll check it out before or after work sometime soon! Yoghurt was on special and I kinda over-bought it so we have tons to eat up now.

Thats all the news I can think of for now.
xox
Maz

Paris

To put a quick pause in the road trip story (which I will continue...it's hard work with all the photos) I thought I'd quickly update about Paris. We've been here for about 2 weeks, staying with friends from home in their really, really teeny apartment. I was working at a bakery for the last week but I quit this morning...the owner was really an ass and I had to work with him only most of the day and it just gave me the shits. He was always contradictory, negative without being helpful, generally angry and not good company. Plus I was on less than minimum wage. CV has already been dropped at English/Irish pubs around and emailed to a few more receptionist type posts (I had an interview for a hotel receptionist post a while ago but it didn't work out). I should find another job soon enough - I need to to be able to afford an apartment for me and Tom (we can't stay with the girls for too much longer since other people are coming to stay) but I have enough to afford food etc in the meantime.

Paris is really nice - its like all of a sudden being able to read and listen and understand everything which is refreshing. We went to the Eiffel Tower on a gorgeous sunny afternoon for the usual wandering and photo taking. More tourism to come after we get more settled (plus the Louvre is randomly free on the first Sunday of the month which is coming up). And the croissants here are definitely better than at home.

xox
Amandine (which I got called all week - it's the name of a cake)

THE ROAD TRIP (Part 1)

5 countries in 10 days: the adventures of 3 teenagers driving through foreign countries in an 88’ BMW with a broken speedometer, rev counter, gas and temp gauges, and left blinker, but a working GPS. (A retrospective; we all survived, and more importantly had a great time)

Note: names of towns/cities visited are in bold.

It started on another annoyingly early morning at the train station. We actually bought a decent train ticket this time, so it was more direct. We sat on the train with a random American backpacker who was good company. Arriving in Basel was pretty cool – the town sits on the border between France, Switzerland, and Germany, so you can switch countries pretty quickly. After meeting up with Blaise (who now has really blonde hair) we popped to France for lunch just for novelty’s sake and then headed south into Switzerland.

Arriving in Zurich was hard work. Easily the most difficult city to navigate that we encountered by car. It has enough one way streets to get you to the opposite side of the city before you can turn the way you want to. But aside from our navigational difficulties, the city was beautiful with lots of old buildings alongside the water. We spent a while trying to find a hostel (many were booked out or too expensive) but we found a sufficient one with a view of the river out the window. (Ended up being a good move – it had a REALLY nice hot high-pressure shower). We had a decent wander of the city checking out the shops, stopping for an awesome chocolate milk in a proper Swiss chocolate store, and a few drinks at (pathetic, I know) the English 'Oliver Twist' pub.

We set off (reasonably) early in the morning and drove through some really pretty farmland to Lucerne, where we stopped for lunch and checked out the really old nice covered bridge. Dealing with Swiss German was pretty funny – Tom could barely understand a word which left me completely in the dark. Then we set off to Lugano via a truly stunning drive in the rain with cliffs and waterfalls on either side of the road as well as a trip through the Gotthard tunnel which used to be (and is now 3^rd) longest road tunnel in the world. (It was freaking long…just kept going…and going…) In Lugano we met up with Suzanna, Blaise’s cousin, who is impressively quintilingual (is that a word?) She was very nice, showed us around and offered us a bed for the night.

It was really cool and bizarre to see Italian everywhere, on ads and buses and signs (since Lugano is in Italian Switzerland) and it made me realise how much German I do know…compared to Italian that is. Lugano also had a cool river with fast flowing water which ducks were surfing.

In the morning we headed south to Italy, where we were stopped at a border for the very first time! We were questioned by Italians with pretty amusing English who thought we were trying to smuggle drugs into the country. They believed us and decided against dog-searching the car.

Freeway signs in Italy...HUH? It looks important...

We stopped on the side of the freeway for yummy sandwiches and coffee and then took a gorgeous drive through vineyards to Verona, where sadly the boys had no patience for my search for Juliet’s balcony. It was a nice town though, with ancient walls and cute little shops.

Our next stop was Padova, where we got really, really lost trying to find a tourist info place to direct us to a campsite. Tom and Blaise spent ages on street corners arguing over the GPS (which we discovered is completely useless as soon as you step out of the car) and every shop we found was shut before we got there. So we drove towards Venice where we found a decent campsite juuuust on the mainland, in a town called Mestre. We had dinner at the only nearby restaurant registered by the GPS, which was an annoyingly expensive seafood place with a cool cheerful multilingual waiter. That night it poured with rain and we had a miserable cold night in the tent.

To be continued... (and more photos to be posted in the photo albums - these are just a taste!)

Paris phone!

So our speed-road-trip is over and we have finally arrived in PARIS! :)
A huge update to follow once I write it all up, but for now, our french number is +33642599518 if you want or need to call.

Bisous
Amanda

phone

Oh, and I forgot to add: we have no idea whether or not our German phone works once we cross the border, so sorry if you can't end up reaching us. An email is still your best bet because I'll get to it eventually.

Travel!

We're counting down our last few days in Germany! Spent today in Hannover buying pressies for people. We're off to Switzerland on Thursday to see Blaise and then drive back up here via wherever we want before flying to Paris on the 16th :D The plan is to visit north Italy, Prague, Berlin...will be great fun.

Won't be online as much though - so please don't think I've fallen off the edge of the world. I'm just nowhere near a computer for the next few weeks.

Love always
Amanda

Hannover and Hamburg

Yesterday we went to Hamburg to visit Ellen which was lots of fun. And last week we went to Hannover to see the sights. Before I start I'm gonna let Tom have his very own paragraph, and then I'll fill in the gaps.

5am is a hideous hour to be awake at, but the train trip allowed us to catch up on the missing hours of precious sleep. I also managed to catch up a bit in front of the lake, and later while being pulled around the harbour and canals by the girls. Other than sleeping, we walked around both the altstadt and neustadt Hamburg, visiting lots of old chuches, the rathaus (town hall) and Germanys largest harbour, which had as many fat old men shouting at you to take their tour boat around the harbour as big tanker ships. Checked out the Reeperbahn, famous for its..... ummm... nightlife and cinemas...
And finally headed back to Ellens place. For about 5 mins, then we where on the road again and inito the canals. It seems every Tom, Dick and his dog was on the water, either paddling and drinking round the large lakes, floating amd drinking in the small lakes, or buying beer from the canal cafe... and drinking.
Hamburg was great, we're going back soon to visit Ellen again!


I'm impressed with how well written that was for Tom. Well done. He got most of the important bits. I really loved Hamburg - the architecture was all beautiful and the canals make it unlike other cities we've seen. (Plus there were ducks and geese and swans everywhere!) We also made sure to eat hamburgers (in Hamburg). The best of the new photos are up and there are even more on Facebook.

Our day in Hannover the other day was pretty similar - looking at the pretty buildings and churches, visiting the ducks, having a look at the shops. Our next travel plan is to visit Blaise in Switzerland and then drive back up to Germany via Italy - pretty exciting!

Love always from Germany
Amanda xox

Paris and German food

Sorry again for the lack of updates. To be honest, I just got lazy. And I kinda wanted to see whether Tom would ever get around to writing something. Apparently not.

First of all, we're off to PARIS on June 17th :) To visit Mikaela and Lucy. Booked the flights this afternoon and I'm all excited now. Gotta love European flights... cost €0.01 each (plus tax takes you to 20€).

And about the German food (I thought this might amuse Oma and Opa) - everything that I thought was particular to my grandparents, I have discovered, is typically German: putting everything out on the table for lunch (deli meats, cheese), red cabbage, cakes with fruit on top... so I am reminded of them on a daily basis here.

Other odd German moments: nobody thought it was wierd to drive at 200km/h on the autobahn on the way home from Hannover (to see a friend play basketball). We play beach volleyball in a big sandbox. School is really, really lax (Mona's year had a barbecue at school and everyone was hanging out drinking beer). People are really into sorting rubbish (that one was for Sarah!) They always drink bubbly mineral water instead of tap, which I am slowly getting used to. Even the apple juice is carbonated. We drove 50km to swim in 'blue lagoon'... a really deep ex-chalk-mine hole full of beautiful looking bright blue water. The water may have been blue because it was so clear. Mind you, the three big factories next to it hinted otherwise. Either way it was a nice relaxing day in the sun. At least there were no fish to bother swimmers.

Anyway, we havn't been up to anything hugely exciting. Lots of 'beach' volleyball, seeing friends, playing cards... the usual. My adopted duckies in the park in town are growing up and losing their baby fluff.

Lots of love always
Amanda

Phone!

Hey, sorry for the long pause between posts. I just honesstly could not have been bothered lately, but there will be a big post sometime soon!

Just letting you know Tom and I now have a German phone number. (We're sharing for the moment since there is no need for one each.)

The number is 01577 7793623 and the international code for Germany is +49.
Not sure if you have to omit the 0 or not, sorry.

Love always
Amanda

Tanz in den Mai and DUCKS

Last night we went out to a giant party in a tent in a field. It was really really strange for me - it's like a big festival and literally the whole town was there - from 16 to 60 year olds all on a big night out. The band was great and we ran into lots of Tom's old friends who were really nice. The guy in the picture is Nino (Mona's boyfriend) who looks scarily like Tom. Especially when they swap clothes just to mess with me and Mona. The dancing was amazing...they all properly ballroom dance and it was so cool to watch.


Today is Fathers' day in Germany so we're having a big barbecue tonight. Tom and Mona and I made a pavlova (without a magic egg - eep!) that actually tasted alright :) This afternoon we went into the town on bikes and had some ice cream...they make spaghetti out of ice cream and the 'sauce' is strawberry....looks awesome and tastes as good. And then on the way back on our bikes we went past a park with a big pond and...you guessed it :D It was full of duckie families...males, females, and little ducklings in tow...it was so so adorable! Will go back tomorrow pronto with some bread to feed them and a camera.

We're off to Hannover tomorrow to get Tom and Nino haircuts (about bloody time) and then to Hamburg on the weekend to visit Ellen :) So we're basically very busy having lots of fun.


And finally, for those family members of a certain lazy boy, here is his current update (to let you know he's still kickin'):

'Barbecues are my favourite smell...it's like a combination of food and burning shit' - Thomas Bennett, 1/5/08

He's currently asleep on Mona's couch.



Much love as always,
Amanda xox

Germany

So I finally got around to writing a decent post and I can barely remember what I had to say.

I'll just write things as they come to me I guess.

• We got up bloody early on Saturday (4am) to get here.
• It took 15 hours of 8 trains.
• Tom ate (ew) 3 pizzas for dinner on travel day.
  
• There are lots of wind farms in Germany!
• The German landscape is just like Austria but flat.
• Mona and a few other of Tom's friends met us at the train station.
  
• Mona's house is really nice.
• Mona is also really nice.
• We started teaching the Germans rugby.
• They are really good dancers. We went to watch them rehearse a formation routine and it was so so impressive.
• We have much more computer access here so I'm online a lot more often.
• I'm going to try to get a job tutoring 'abi' (like hsc) kids English.
• Mona has a younger brother who plays the guitar.
• Mona's English is really good and she's been really helpful translating for me.
• I miss skiing.
• Tom is a lazy bum who reckons 11am is far too early to be up.
• We've been together for a year as of yesterday.
• Tom and I are cooking dinner tonight.
• We're going out to 'Tanz in den Mai' tomorrow night which is like a big festival thingie.

I can't really think of much else right now. I wish I'd gotten around to posting sooner.

xox Amanda

Deutschland!

Just a quick note to say that we've arrived safely in Barsinghausen. Will write a longer post later about the trip etc. But so far everyone's been really nice and we'll start looking for jobs soon.

Oh, and the running statistic is that it takes 4 German boys to get me to ground in a tackle. (We're teaching them rugby). Hopefully they'll improve.

me again

So, after Tom's lame attempt at human communication I have arrived to actually let you know whats happening.

Still lots of lame boring domestic stuff to work out before we leave. Our train ticket arrived in the mail today which was a nice relief. We got paid and I emptied my bank account this morning (1, 060€!) and we're about to give our instructors' uniforms back.

Dum dee dum.
xox

P.S. Oh, and they made Facebook chat? It's a little sickening but surprisingly useful. Grr.

tom says

Hi.

mooooving

So, we almost have everything under control. Worked for what was probably my last day of the season on Saturday - I was a 13 year old boy's birthday present which was pretty cool. He came from Israel with his parents for his birthday and got lift pass, ski rental, and me for 2h. He had never skiied before and he was pretty bad...he looked a bit like a baby giraffe with legs everywhere which was amusing. But he had a lot of fun which was great.

Tom and I calculated exactly how much food to buy for the week (hopefully he doesn't get too hungry now) and we're doing all the silly things like buying presents for Germans, packing, cleaning, fixing our skis, etc.

We leave bloody early on Saturday morning from the Zell am See train station and we arrive in Barsinghausen (near Hannover) at 10 that night. To get the cheapest tickets possible we have 8 changeovers...a bit impractical but at least we'll see lots of random German towns?

xx Amanda

too lazy to title

Finished my group for the week this morning - they were really great and we had a lot of fun. Plus a 20€ tip is always nice. It was beautiful and sunny too. Took the Gotamas out yesterday and they was niiiiiiiiiiice. Suddenly I'm much much much better at off-piste :) They just float through the powder, it was great.

Starting to make the arrangements for Germany. Plus tons of food in the fridge to finish off - finally Tom is useful.

Tom says hi. (Someone yell at him to post once in a while, please).

xox
Amanda

my Austrian kid

Snowing on the glacier today - hurray!
Fingers crossed for deep powder later in the week to take out the Gotamas on their maiden run.

My group this week is great - considering that it's really low season so I have a combined adult/child/intermediate/beginner group, it's going great. I have an English couple with their 7 year old daughter, and a 5 and a half year old Austrian boy who is the sweetest thing ever. He completely understands that my German is a work in progress so he speaks nice and slowly and simply with me and never loses his patience when I ask him to repeat himself. He is always cheerful, well behaved, and does what he's asked. I seriously want to adopt this kid. It's great practice for my German and he's a lot of fun.

Trying to use up all the groceries so we don't have to chuck too much when we head to Hannover.

xox
Amanda

heat

Not much time to spend on this post, sorry.

It's been really warm here lately - I am currently wearing shorts. After skiing all day it's kinda cool to come back to summertime in the village.

Intersport had a massive sale last week so Tom and I bought powder skis (to share), 2 helmets, runners for me and some assorted socks n stuff for a whopping 278€. (Very, very cheap for what we got.) The skis were originally priced at 800€ on their own.

Since it's the end of season the work is really running thin - we are spending lots of time in the shop and only half days-ish on the slopes. Gorgeous and warm out though.

About another 2 weeks here and then we're off to Germany!

xox
Amanda

kellerratte and rat-woman

It's been a fairly interesting week in Kaprun. While fabulous to be living back down in the town, we are working our arses off since pretty much everyone else has gone back to their countries of origin and left us instructing and doing shop work every day. Ski mit uns finished their season so Tom has been working for us on privates this week. We prepared 200 sets of skis poles and boots for the imminent arrival of English school-groups. I've been taught by my (UGH) 'boss' how to check skis, wax them, grind them, set bindings, etc etc. With both of us working it's at 14€/h so it's worth it, but it does mean we sleep well at the end of the day. Usually at 8 or 9 o'clock when we crash. With most of the other instructors gone it doesn't leave us much else to do anyway so we just sleep, eat, and work. Finally payed off the rent from living up on the Maiskogel so we are in the black :)

My foray into demoing skis didn't go so well - the cheaper skis I tried were better than mine but not great and I've found great ones for a whopping 1100€. So the search continues...

The German is slowly getting better - had 2 conversations yesterday with strangers that went alright. It's annoying that I seem to be better with strangers than with friends who try to practice with me. Less nervous maybe? Dunno.

For those who asked, the post address is still the same. (c/o Skischule Oberschneider) Letters, photos, chocolate, and cash are always well appreciated. Thanks to Sarah (and Mum) for a fabulous package including a huge amount of Dairy Milk which I have thus far successfully hidden from the boy...muahahaha. (I'm not so much a bitch as just trying to have a tiny bit before he demolishes it like anything else I leave in sight).

My Esprit group for the week is already over - I had seven 5-9y.o. boys which were a bit of a handful. Thankfully I can still out-ski them.

Love always
Amanda

photos!

Just letting you know there are new photos.
Karl let me borrow his laptop for the afternoon.

Huzzah!

DAY OFF

So I finally got my first actual day off since February (I've been in the shop otherwise). Slept in all the way to 8:30. I taught my first lesson in German this week! Had a 6 year old German boy for 2 hours for 2 days. By the end of it we could communicate quite well but to start with there were a few odd moments. I had to keep asking other instructors to translate which was embarassing. But we managed and I think he had fun. My Esprit group for the week was actually really good - a bit annoying but overly cheerful and great skiiers. I was slightly disturbed by the fact that when asked I could lead them in the kiddie songs the snow rangers teach them...you know you've been working for Esprit for too long when...

(Just for my own sake for when I re-read this in a few years' time:)

The Tarzan Song (each line is repeated by the kids...and it has actions...)

It's a repeat after me song what is it!? (It's a repeat after you song what is it!?)
Tarzan
Was swinging on a rubber band
And Tarzan
Was hit by a frying pan
Now Tarzan has a tan
And I hope it don't peel
Like a banaaaaaana

Jane
Was cruisin' on a bullet train
And Jane
Got hit by an airplane
Now Jane has a pain
And Tarzan has a tan
And I hope it don't peel
Like a banaaaaana

Cheetah
Was groovin' to the beat-ah
And Cheetah
Got eaten by a beaver
Now Cheetah is Ryvita
And Jain has a pain
And Tarzan has a tan
And I hope it don't peel
Like a banaaaaana

Monkey
Was gettin' kinda funky
And Monkey
Got trod on by a donkey
Now Monkey ain't so funky
And Cheetah is Ryvita
And Jain has a pain
And Tarzan has a tan
And I hope it don't peel
Like a banaaaaana
Like a banaana
Like a banana
Likeabanana (with increasing speed...the kids love this...joy)

And that is what I have to sing every time on the chairlift.

Been a bit of a big week - a lot of the instructors have gone home since it's getting to the end of the season. We all went out for dinner a few nights ago for Jon and Jonas' last night and then Yandi left yesterday. There's one more big week of English school groups (like high schools) coming April 5 and I really hope I get one. It was a bit unfair to be teaching in Kinderland in German when people with awful English had a group of 16 year old English kids. Grr. Last night's shop work involved buckling, disinfecting, and shelving about 200 ski boots from those English kids. I swear the smell of bad feet follows me now.

Ciao
Amanda

moved :)

Hello all.
Just letting you know that we survived the move :) Now into the same building as we first were but a teenier apartment. Really terribly designed, but hey. We have so much empty floor space in the bedroom we could have a dance floor, and so little in the kitchen the table has to fold off the wall onto the couch. Meh.

Worked all day yesterday at the Ski Dome in rental. Spent most of the day fitting people for ski boots, in German! I'm now an expert at 'bigger', 'smaller', 'can you wiggle your toes?', etc. It was really good practice because it forced me to speak, but it was a little embarassing when I couldn't quite do it right. Nice long tiring day earned us (together) 143€ for the one day. So it was worth it.

Back to teaching today and I'm on Esprit. *sigh*. The boss apologised to Colin and I and said he tried to take us off it but the Esprit boss requested us. So at least he knows we don't love having them every week. My group is okay though - only 3 kids all between 9 and 11. So I am moving up in the world. They were on the chairlift already this morning :) Snowing heavily all day today so tomorrow should be niccce powder.

Love Maz

more children

So I was on glacier standby this morning when I was rung to say I had a 10:00 private lesson at Ski Dome II (on the glacier). Little did I know (and I found out when I turned up) that my private guests were in fact ESPRIT CHILDREN. Grr. Friday is usually a nice day of adult privates. Not only Esprit children, but one 5 year old and one 10 year old with autism and ADD (literally, not figuratively). They were sweet but a handful. And my lesson after that was 3 cheerful kids who didn't speak a word of English. Or French. Or German. Yeah, we had no Dutch instructors free. So I was in Kinderland looking like an idiot gesturing and trying to get my point across to the kids. (The parents taught me to say 'stop', 'good', and 'follow me'). The cool thing is I realised how much German I've picked up since I kept thinking of what I wanted to say in German, which was useless, but hey. I could totally have managed in Deutsch.

Moving back to the apartment in town tonight so we'll be up late tonight packing. ('Packing': picking all our shit up off the floor, actually doing the dishes...finding stuff...mmm). It'll be nice to be in a better location though.

Had my first night of work in the shop last night. Man. Being paid to work out is pretty cool, but I was so so buggered afterward. Cause of language I can't work at the counter. And I'm watching and learning how to tune skis, set bindings, etc, but can't do them independently yet, so I spent a good 3 hours running up and down stairs with boots and skis and poles. And cause Norbert the shop owner is sexist (Mathias the rental manager hired me, not him), I felt I had to prove that I can do manual labour as well as the rest of them so I did everything running and carrying as much as I could. Was fine at the time but then making it to the shower this morning was another story. At least Tom winges just as much after he works.

I got some really great feedback from my adult beginners of 2 weeks ago. Tom (Kraus, ski school manager) put them up on the wall in our meeting room and people have been congratulating me :) So hopefully I will be given adults more often now that I've proven I can do it well. (Lots of nice things under 'What seemed perfect to you?' and under 'What are your wishes?' (a bad translation of what could we improve) there was 'Shame you can't control the weather' and 'Liverpool FC to win the championship') Woohoo.

Off to buy some Red Bull to assist with the pack-a-thon tonight.
Xox.

too lazy to title

Finished the week for Esprit :) The kids were cute today and they did well down the Maiskogel. Had a bit of drama getting them on the chairs since there was a storm on the glacier today so all the ski schools moved all the kids groups to the Maiskogel, so there weren't enough adults in the queue to match to the kids. (We can't put kids on a chair alone). One of mine, Daniel, had a big stack in the race and was in a bit of shock but not actually injured, but his dad was watching and agreed to have the kid skidoo'd off the mountain rather than letting me ski him down between my legs (which is what I usually do with upset children). So my most intense and important German conversation to date was this morning getting the liftie to get a skidoo down for the kid. I did manage, but it was tough. The lifties don't speak a word of English (which is sad cause I see them every day and we recognise each other but can't really chat). My German is slowly getting better...I can watch most TV now and understand what's going on, without getting jokes or not even close to every word, but I still struggle to speak it. I can usually get my point across (if it as anything to do with skiing so it suits my vocab) but I sound like a struggling anglophone.

Going to work with Tom tonight to learn how to tune skis...woohoo. His boss (German guy) is leaving next week and Tom gets to replace him in the ski cellar...so now I can be the extra help when he needs it. Nice to be doing something new.

xox Amanda

sunshine

Today was a really gorgeous day - lots of sun and more powder. My kids were really really well behaved for once...they raised their hands to speak and even took turns leading the group. It was pretty cute. Had the afternoon off and skiied with some of the Esprit staff which was good fun. It's Sam's (Aussie instructor from Tom's ski school) birthday today so we're about to go out for dinner. Supposed to be a huge storm tomorrow on the glacier so hopefully we'll get some more fresh snow.

Jon with the big goggle tan says hi.

Later
Amanda xox

powderrrrrrr!

It's been snowing solidly for 2 days up there. Nice and soft. And powdery. So you get practically buried. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Had a 2h private yesterday afternoon in the storm (which my guest didnt like much) and then standby this arvo after my kids YAY! Had a GREAT time in the off-piste with Tom, and at training this morning. It's great and soft and flies up into your face and chest, and nice and soft to fall in. (Yes, admittedly, even the fabulous ski instructor me still falls sometimes).

Had an annoying kid this morning whose reply to anything I suggested was 'I can't do it!' and he cried if I didn't come help him up and he was SEVEN. That's big by my standards. I stalked Tom's group this afternoon for a little while and was sooo jealous of his well-behaved BIG kids. Grr. His youngest is older than I ever get.

Been talking about coming back here next season instead of Canada. We'll do a Montreal trip in the fall-ish, but as far as working goes it's much easier on so many levels to come back to Kaprun (knowing the mountain well, knowing how the ski school works, bank accounts, phone numbers, accomodation, etc.) But no definites yet. We'll be heading to Germany in about a month's time when we run out of work.

Love always
Amanda xx

P.S. A couple new photos of my fabulous adult group from last week that they emailed me. Sorry for the lack of photos but it's my usual excuse - I can't attach USB to the comps at the free internet place.

esprit again and some rain

On Esprit 'Improvers' for the week. Hard after such a great week of adults but definitely an improvement from Spritelets. Colin and I were put in charge of Esprit organisation for the week so we could pick our own groups and leave some other poor souls on beginners and spritelets for once. Had 4 kids this morning, can already stop and snowplow turn, up on the big chairlift tomorrow! (Kinderland is up on the glacier now so they start on a rope tow already up there.) Standby this arvo but it's a yuck day (rain in the village and heavy snow and fog up top) so I'm unlikely to get booked.

south africans and some sunshine

Just had a great sunny day on the glacier with the crazy south africans. They were a bit hard on themselves - disappointed to not ski the whole way down the glacier on the second day...had to put a bit of perspective back. My sunglasses tan is back with a vengeance though.

Apparently Mona and Nino (from Germany) are visiting us in a few days. Not that either of us have the free time to be entertaining, but hey.

Off home to eat and sleep.
xx

a great week and some rain

First of all, the 'head-plant graphically caught on film' needs to be emailed to me. Please. And Mum in moguls is a difficult mental image to imagine!

I've been busybusy so havn't had the chance to post for a while. I had a really great group for the last week - adult beginners (boss gave me a well-deserved break from kids). They were all from England and went from never-skiied-before to happily skiing blue runs on the glacier at the end. They were a really great group, we got along great, and they all really improved. I will miss them when I'm back on Esprit! More adult beginners today and tomorrow - big company group (VIP by ski school standard) from South Africa who are skiing for only 2 days. Bit tricky - we've been told to take them up the glacier tomorrow, on only day 2, so we'll see what happens. They were a lot of fun and were definitely the most cheerful people I've ever seen skiing slush in the rain. I guess it's all relative. They had no fear careening down the hill (unusual for beginners) so they picked everything up pretty quickly. (And discussing the Super 14 with them felt really out of place here!)

One more week living on the Maiskogel and then back down to the village. I've actually gotten used to being up there now. But the weather keeps getting warmer - the Kinderland has moved up to the glacier and everything lower down is slowly shutting. Soon no more ski-in/ski-out for us :( Tom has been really busy in the rental cellar, but I think they really like him there since they keep calling him in.

Love always
Amanda