Ticket Home and Skiing

Hey everyone,

In the past month, I have been riding on the crest of the wave, which I explained last time. Most everything that I have been doing has been pretty darn cool and interesting. Doing things that I love and being able to see a little bit more in the world, I am really enjoying this experience abroad and have found it to be quite a challenge as well. Money management is also an important thing to learn while abroad, as I have found out quite quickly. 

It has already been a long journey already, but seems as though it was last week I got here. Now I have to think about going home? Yea right. The reason to that is I got my ticket home, AFS sent me an email including some information regarding going home, and I am not wanting to read what they have included. My flight is booked for the 5^th of July, and what I have gotten to do so far has been amazing, but now I am also wanting to start a little traveling and see a little more than my town. When I got my flight date, I had a weird feeling of not wanting to go, but at the same time wanting to just go. I want to see my hometown and see what I have forgotten, but also don't want to leave what I have here. Although I know what is coming, I still wish for the days to be a little longer or the end date a little further away, but know it must end.

Over the past few months, I have been able to really enjoy and make a life here in Aalen. I go to dance class, climbing, and hang out with friends. I have also been lucky enough to have really nice host parents who took me skiing in the Alps. Over our Faschings Farin (February weeklong break), my host parents took me skiing in Austria. I was absolutely amazed at the sight of the mountains. They were completely beautiful. After getting suited up, we got on a gondola that took us over 2000 meters high (6500 feet). It was a new feeling to be skiing in a completely new terrain, new mountains, new snow, new people, new skis, and just a new feel completely. After the first few runs, I could notice a big difference between the Rocky Mountains (RM) and the Alps. Skiing on these ski slopes, the mountains felt icy, steep, and open. In the RM, the snow is drier and comes a little more often; however, there are a lot more trees and not as steep runs as the Alps. 

Last weekend I was able to spend a most interesting weekend skiing as well, however this time with a part of my rock-climbing group. I had to climb the mountain to be able to ski, with a special kind of skis, telemarking skiing I believe, it took us a few hours to reach the summit, but the view was beautiful when the fog was gone. There was one part where I got to walk up a wonderfully small valley, where a steep hillside was to the left of me, and a rock face was to the right, and as I hiked up this small little valley, I could see a wonderful sight of new snow, and a miraculous view looking behind me. That night, three of us slept in the van camper from my climbing mentor, which was pretty cool. We all ate dinner, lunch, and breakfast together, found a spot to park the van for the night, and just enjoyed the time together. The next day we started again, however, instead of a beautiful day, it was more wet heavy snow with wind, and rain towards the bottom of the mountain. I can say that was the first time I ever climbed a mountain in skis as well as skiing in rain. 

I personally cannot wait for my next few adventures, and still have that weird feeling about going home, but I know I will try to make the best of my experience in my reaming months to come. I hope you guys are all enjoying what I have to write. Please leave any questions, comments, and/or suggestions in the comments below, and I will try to answer your questions in my next blog. 

Thanks everyone,

Michael Steiner

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