Wonderful Tuesday

Some pictures from inside the church I will hopefully be singing at!

Hallo!
Yesterday was a pretty awesome day for me. It started off in the morning, when I was informed during one of my classes that the local Catholic church choir is more than accepting of anyone who would like to sing in it!! This means that I get to sing in a real, Austrian church choir!! I am extremely excited!! Also Tuesday was the first full day that my host brother Zacharias was back from Morocco. He seems to be a really cool guy, and he even set up my internet at the house!! Now I have internet here too! Also yesterday we visited Mozart's house. I really wish I could have taken my camera in, but it was not allowed. It was an interesting exhibit highlighting his life when he lived in Salzburg. There was also a special exhibit which showed his connection to the Hayden family. It was a fascinating exhibit, although a little bland, and some of the information was not as informative as it could have been... if that makes any sense. This week is already proving to be very very busy. I have had about 250 pages of reading, German homework, and a full outline due Friday. BUT! my other exciting news is that I have joined a running club in Salzburg!!! One of the heads of the program, Phoebe, set me up with a running program that she helped found. The only problem is that its 10 miles outside of town. I didn't really care except that I had a voice lesson at 6, and this club started at 7. So I petaled as hard as I could and ended up getting there in about 30 min. So I walked in and looked for a man named Walter, who was supposed to be my contact. And I found him... little did I know, no one spoke English... or at least they didn't seem to. So it was me, and about 30 Austrians, and only my limited knowledge of German to help me... it was so freaking cool!! I felt like when I was forced to speak German, my brain kicked into gear and I was understanding and speaking it 10 times better than I ever had before. It was an amazing experience!! So I went in a group of more advanced runners and we did an 8 mile run, however it was only at about an 8:30 pace. After the run we did a series of form drills, core workouts, and circuit training for about an hour. There were people of all ages there, and that made it pretty awesome. I met a few people who were on the local ski team, a man who lived in the city, and a french girl who is studying in Salzburg for the year. It was overall the coolest experience of the trip so far, to be truly integrated with the Austrian culture, no English speakers to help me... This trip just keeps getting better and better!!
Ciao!
-Christoph-
PS I hear its raining a lot in CNY... its sunny and in the 70's here... sorry for rubbing it in.