I don't really have anything in particular to post today. Just thought I would since I'm online.
Tom applied for a job with the opposition ski school who are applying for a work permit for him :) So things are looking up on that front.
No training or meetings today for once so we slept in. Watched MTV since it's the only English channel we get. (Plus I can understand TV5 Monde which Tom refuses to watch...bit unfair since I put up with his German cartoons.) Wow some people are dumb.
It's not a bad day out and I probably should be out skiing. But by the time I got up and out it wasn't really worth getting dressed and ski gear out and bussing out to Kitzsteinhorn and back for not much skiing time.
Stay tuned - hopefully more interesting news next time.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
skiing the glacier
Yesterday Colin and I got our free season lift passes so we decided to check out the Kitzsteinhorn (glacier!) It was gorgeous and sunny 3km above sea level. It's definitely the most different resort I've ever skiied at. You have to take a long gondola up before you can start skiing, and the whole area is above the tree line. The snow was sooo deep since there was a storm a few days ago and when groomed it was really amazing and soft.
I'm still having issues with Telstra so no phone number for me yet. Sorry.
Went out to another ski demo thing last night...wasn't as good as the ones in Alpbach so we were a little unimpressed. Colin and I had training this morning at 8...got a lot of useful pointers but its intimidating all of a sudden to be in a lesson group with some REALLY good skiiers who are much more highly qualified too. On a positive note, one of the Aussies we met (Sean) said he's never had to teach in German so hopefully I won't have to either.
That's pretty much it for the moment. Tom's applying for work with some of the other ski schools in Kaprun. Please send food! :) (or recipes. or cash. lol)
Love Tom and Amanda
I'm still having issues with Telstra so no phone number for me yet. Sorry.
Went out to another ski demo thing last night...wasn't as good as the ones in Alpbach so we were a little unimpressed. Colin and I had training this morning at 8...got a lot of useful pointers but its intimidating all of a sudden to be in a lesson group with some REALLY good skiiers who are much more highly qualified too. On a positive note, one of the Aussies we met (Sean) said he's never had to teach in German so hopefully I won't have to either.
That's pretty much it for the moment. Tom's applying for work with some of the other ski schools in Kaprun. Please send food! :) (or recipes. or cash. lol)
Love Tom and Amanda
Monday, 28 January 2008
address/phone
Hey everyone:
Quick update: Tom has an Austrian mobile!
His number is +436645924892
For mail, please send to work:
Amanda Cohn
Skischule Oberschneider
Hauserdorfstrasse 832
A-5710 Kaprun
Salzburg AUSTRIA
xoxox
Quick update: Tom has an Austrian mobile!
His number is +436645924892
For mail, please send to work:
Amanda Cohn
Skischule Oberschneider
Hauserdorfstrasse 832
A-5710 Kaprun
Salzburg AUSTRIA
xoxox
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Stage 2 begins...
We arrived safe and sound in Kaprun.
The accomodation we were given was pretty much a shitbox. Shared dirty bathroom, no kitchen or TV. Tom and Colin and I worked out that with the 3 of us, we could get an apartment for about the same as we were paying, so yesterday we went hunting and we found a 2 bed 3 bath appartment with a kitchen for only 5€ more per day than we were paying. It's also closer to work. (On a personal note: our building is pink and it has lots of little duck statues in the garden...it was fate.) So we moved, grocery shopped...pretty much just been working out all the little things. Getting Austrian mobile numbers ASAP, will post them.
The town is nice...its bigger than Alpbach and theres more skiing. It's not as beautifully quaint but this is a better place to be living and working.
Plus we found free internet for the first time of the whole trip :)
I start work on the 3rd instructing Belgians in French. English students as of the 10th-ish. Tom can't work as a ski instructor because of the passport and work permit business so he is very busy looking for under the table work.
There are a bunch of other SLAP kids working in nearby towns so we can visit and check out the skiing there as well (Zall Em See, Saalbach)
To Geoff: Our total scores on the exam were equal but we agreed on a 2pt handicap for me cause of language, so I won :) Tom beat me by 1 in skiing and teaching, but I beat him on the written. In German :) I got full marks for both kinetics and children's teaching!
Mum and Dad: Went to the doctor yesterday to get antibiotics for my throat (had tonsils all the way up and no voice at all. Had been going a bit too long to be going away on its own). Collected all the receipts and stuff to claim insurance. Emailed them since I'm supposed to inform them right away. I'll post the receipts and stuff to you if thats okay so you can do the paperwork stuff..I'm assuming its harder to do from Austria.
Love always!!!
xoxo
The accomodation we were given was pretty much a shitbox. Shared dirty bathroom, no kitchen or TV. Tom and Colin and I worked out that with the 3 of us, we could get an apartment for about the same as we were paying, so yesterday we went hunting and we found a 2 bed 3 bath appartment with a kitchen for only 5€ more per day than we were paying. It's also closer to work. (On a personal note: our building is pink and it has lots of little duck statues in the garden...it was fate.) So we moved, grocery shopped...pretty much just been working out all the little things. Getting Austrian mobile numbers ASAP, will post them.
The town is nice...its bigger than Alpbach and theres more skiing. It's not as beautifully quaint but this is a better place to be living and working.
Plus we found free internet for the first time of the whole trip :)
I start work on the 3rd instructing Belgians in French. English students as of the 10th-ish. Tom can't work as a ski instructor because of the passport and work permit business so he is very busy looking for under the table work.
There are a bunch of other SLAP kids working in nearby towns so we can visit and check out the skiing there as well (Zall Em See, Saalbach)
To Geoff: Our total scores on the exam were equal but we agreed on a 2pt handicap for me cause of language, so I won :) Tom beat me by 1 in skiing and teaching, but I beat him on the written. In German :) I got full marks for both kinetics and children's teaching!
Mum and Dad: Went to the doctor yesterday to get antibiotics for my throat (had tonsils all the way up and no voice at all. Had been going a bit too long to be going away on its own). Collected all the receipts and stuff to claim insurance. Emailed them since I'm supposed to inform them right away. I'll post the receipts and stuff to you if thats okay so you can do the paperwork stuff..I'm assuming its harder to do from Austria.
Love always!!!
xoxo
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
PASS
We are now both officially qualified Austrian ski instructors :)
Thought you'd like to know.
Going out tonight to a ski demo by the local ski school. Should be good. Moving to Kaprun tomorrow.
xx
Thought you'd like to know.
Going out tonight to a ski demo by the local ski school. Should be good. Moving to Kaprun tomorrow.
xx
Monday, 21 January 2008
exams
The teaching exam was yesterday and it went pretty well for both of us although we don't have the marks back yet. I had to teach basic position/sliding and tom had to teach basic carving. I also got asked to name the methodical principles which I memorised in German a few days ago....phew.
The skiing hasn't been too exciting for the last few days since we've been practicing basics for our skiing exam on Wednesday. It was gorgeous and sunny and warm today though with a storm coming tomorrow...bring on the fresh snow! :)
Tom bought new skis yesterday (which are pretty snazzy) and I've got new goggles. We thought it was worth treating ourselves to new gear seeing as we use it every day.
Love always from Austria!
xox
The skiing hasn't been too exciting for the last few days since we've been practicing basics for our skiing exam on Wednesday. It was gorgeous and sunny and warm today though with a storm coming tomorrow...bring on the fresh snow! :)
Tom bought new skis yesterday (which are pretty snazzy) and I've got new goggles. We thought it was worth treating ourselves to new gear seeing as we use it every day.
Love always from Austria!
xox
Saturday, 19 January 2008
more SLAP
3 days to go. German is stupid and has long words like aneinanderreihen instead of just link.
Went to Kitzbuhel (spelling?) yesterday to see the world Super G race which was really exciting. There were 3 skiiers from Tremblant :)
We have our practical teaching exam tomorrow and I'm slightly shitting myself. We have to lead the group by teaching a given skill in German for 10 minutes.
Got our Uni offers the other day: I got into Med at UNSW and Tom got into Arts/Engineering at UNSW :)
We've both been offered jobs at a ski school in Kaprun (also dont know how to spell and guessing) with another guy from SLAP (colin, from london) so provided we pass all 3 sections of our exam (written, skiing, and teaching) we're off to live in another town until the end of the season!
N.B. to people sending mail (ie. mum) please stop sending it to the Alphof cause we leave here on Thursday.
I just failed my third practice written exam so I should probably go learn some more.
Much love from Austria
xox
Went to Kitzbuhel (spelling?) yesterday to see the world Super G race which was really exciting. There were 3 skiiers from Tremblant :)
We have our practical teaching exam tomorrow and I'm slightly shitting myself. We have to lead the group by teaching a given skill in German for 10 minutes.
Got our Uni offers the other day: I got into Med at UNSW and Tom got into Arts/Engineering at UNSW :)
We've both been offered jobs at a ski school in Kaprun (also dont know how to spell and guessing) with another guy from SLAP (colin, from london) so provided we pass all 3 sections of our exam (written, skiing, and teaching) we're off to live in another town until the end of the season!
N.B. to people sending mail (ie. mum) please stop sending it to the Alphof cause we leave here on Thursday.
I just failed my third practice written exam so I should probably go learn some more.
Much love from Austria
xox
Saturday, 12 January 2008
SLAP 3
We finally got a well earned day off today so I could finally catch up on little housekeeping things.
I just recovered from a nasty stomach bug (I didn't want to write about it until I was better so as not to worry the parents) so I had a day in bed a while ago too. Not too much has changed - the weather is sooo pretty now, its snowing with big fat flakes.
The other day we witnessed a pretty cool local tradition - 2 random guys walked into the hotel room dressed as witches (female) with huge straw things on their heads and sunnies...like cousins of Cousin It. They made funny put puk put noises and swept the room and us and then just left. Besides being hilarious, we were told afterwards that this happens every year and they come to sweep away bad omens/energy.
About to attempt uploading photos so hopefully that works!
I just recovered from a nasty stomach bug (I didn't want to write about it until I was better so as not to worry the parents) so I had a day in bed a while ago too. Not too much has changed - the weather is sooo pretty now, its snowing with big fat flakes.
The other day we witnessed a pretty cool local tradition - 2 random guys walked into the hotel room dressed as witches (female) with huge straw things on their heads and sunnies...like cousins of Cousin It. They made funny put puk put noises and swept the room and us and then just left. Besides being hilarious, we were told afterwards that this happens every year and they come to sweep away bad omens/energy.
About to attempt uploading photos so hopefully that works!
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
SLAP 2
We finally got on decent internet...here 'internet cafe' means a dodgy screen in the corner of a pub that charges 10€/h. We've been really busy and any free time is spent sleeping. The snow here is beautiful and the Alpbach mountain is a bit bigger than Tremblant. We've both improved a lot (esp. Tom who started off looking like a monkey with an iPod much to the amusement of the rest of the group) My instructor is well....God. Fantastic skiier, head of avalanche rescue, Austrian karate champion, multiple random world records (including most bricks held against a wall with one thumb). Chuck Norris wears Johann Schneider underpants.
Our room is really small but kinda quaint. Not that we spend much time in there. And they expect us to get some German study in too...geez. Food is still amazing (just for you little).
The others in the group are awesome. There are 11 of us doing the actual course and 5 others that ski with us. (2 cranbrook, 3 grammar, and 1 kings) Trust. We havn't killed each other racing yet since we ski in separate groups so Tom found other people to risk his life with (almost died this morning attempting a 360 that landed as a 270). Will post photos later. (We still havn't found a computer that will let us attach the camera - sorry Dad.)
The village is really gorgeous...apparently it keeps winning awards for best village in Europe. Lots of pretty wooden chalets and farms tucked in the valley with stunning mountains everywhere.
My only complaint so far is the temperature - while it's lovely (and very different for a Canadian) to ski in sunnies with an unzipped jacket, it makes the snow at the bottom all wet and sticky and melty - yuck.
The exam looks awful and daunting from this stage but apparently they teach it well. Got a nice big HSC-subject-sized folder full of big German skiing words and was told to memorise it all. I reckon it's the first time in my life I'm studying just to pass.
Servus
Amanda
Our room is really small but kinda quaint. Not that we spend much time in there. And they expect us to get some German study in too...geez. Food is still amazing (just for you little).
The others in the group are awesome. There are 11 of us doing the actual course and 5 others that ski with us. (2 cranbrook, 3 grammar, and 1 kings) Trust. We havn't killed each other racing yet since we ski in separate groups so Tom found other people to risk his life with (almost died this morning attempting a 360 that landed as a 270). Will post photos later. (We still havn't found a computer that will let us attach the camera - sorry Dad.)
The village is really gorgeous...apparently it keeps winning awards for best village in Europe. Lots of pretty wooden chalets and farms tucked in the valley with stunning mountains everywhere.
My only complaint so far is the temperature - while it's lovely (and very different for a Canadian) to ski in sunnies with an unzipped jacket, it makes the snow at the bottom all wet and sticky and melty - yuck.
The exam looks awful and daunting from this stage but apparently they teach it well. Got a nice big HSC-subject-sized folder full of big German skiing words and was told to memorise it all. I reckon it's the first time in my life I'm studying just to pass.
Servus
Amanda
Saturday, 5 January 2008
SLAP
Sorry for taking a while to update. We've been really busy since we arrived at SLAP. We're staying in the cutest little town in the alps, old wooden buildings and everything. We ski all day and have theory and german lectures in the evenings. The food is AMAZING and my insstructor is great - he's one of the top guys in the country and my skiing has improved tons already! The other kids are great too (including 2 other cranbrook guys...haha.)
Will write more when I find less expensive internet.
xox
Will write more when I find less expensive internet.
xox
Thursday, 3 January 2008
German
Tom's post pretty much summed things up. I'd like to add that I ordered my own coffee this morning, in German, all by myself. :)
I CAN'T WAIT TO START SKIING TOMORROW!!!!
skiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiing
snowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiing
snowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnow
(schnee!)
I CAN'T WAIT TO START SKIING TOMORROW!!!!
skiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiing
snowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiing
snowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnowskiingskiingsnowskiingsnow
(schnee!)
Day 2
with no chocolate left, and the temperature droping, we have decided we would like to come home early.
so, all of you who put money on us lasting 3 day´s, u guys win....
kidding... still... lack of chocolate becoming dire, people please send us lots! (especially cadbury, cant get it here....)
otherwise the food is good... our hotel makes its own really good meats. and we get to eat it for brekky. and turkish pizza and doener kebab for dinner.
checked out the goldenes dachl today, and a few more churches n stuff. was cool... will post picies later... (maz reckons u can never have to many pictures of old buildings with mountains in the background.... i reckon she stretches the limit...)
heading off to alpbach in a few hours.. will meet with monika and brad and the rest of the crew at the airport at 3...
sonnst gibt es nicht mehr so viel zu sagen.
habe euch alle ganz schon viel lieb.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
travel/Innsbruck
After far too many hours on the most roundabout path to Austria possible, we've arrived in Innsbruck. It's beautiful and snowy and cold and you can see the mountains. Plane food was great (with Coke!) and I love Austrian airlines. (Mum and Dad - kindly never put me on Air Canada again. Our flights all had little screens so you could pick your own movies, play games etc.) Changing over in Japan was interesting - even the woman at the English information desk didn't understand a word of Aussie. Saw the most beautiful sunrise over Siberia on the flight to Vienna. We caught a cute little propeller plane from Vienna to here. I have officially declared Austrian customs/security as the laxest in the world - we didn't get passported/questioned/stamped at all when we arrived in the country. Bit of a pleasant change from the US. Were both successfully out of bed at 6am today! Everyone speaking German is cool (and a little scary) and even Tom doesn't get it all - bloody Austrians. Had lunch meats and cheese for brekky - they were yummy but was a bit weird to have as breakfast.
We've taken some photos but I can't upload them from this Internet place, will do so when I can.
Lots of love from Austria!
We've taken some photos but I can't upload them from this Internet place, will do so when I can.
Lots of love from Austria!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)