The Worthersee

Hello Friends and Family!

Since my last update, the city of Klagenfurt has been bathing in California-esque sunshine almost everyday! It's not super-hot, but it gets to be in the high 70s, which is perfectly perfect for me. I'm all for avoiding the fact that someday the sidewalks might be covered in a thin sheet of back-breaking ice, and when that sun hits my skin everyday, I almost convince myself that this weather will hold 'til March...

Last week was my first time going through the regular schedule of practice and weights, and it's looking to keep me far more busy than I was in Switzerland. Our gym is a pretty awesome facillity across town, and we have practice 5-7 times per week, which means that we have double days on Tuesdays and Thursdays (usually). On the other days we have weights in the morning at a local fitness center called Atlantis (which is an amazing multi-colored, prayer-flag adorned, environmentally friendy hippie version of a 24-hour fitness) and then practice in the evening.

If practicing twice a day has been good for one thing, it's been helping me get over my illogical fear of public transportation! (Anyone who knows me knows that I stress out major over pubilic transportation. I'm always afraid that I'm going the wrong way, going to miss my connection, going to somehow die on board, etc. I think I was traumatized once while taking NJ Transit from Penn Station back to Madison and I ended up going to the wrong town an hour away. Oops?) Anyway, Sophie, Birgit and I take the bus to practice everyday (twice a day!) and I can say that I now saunter onboard with confidence, I know how to buy a ticket, and I have even explored some of the other bus lines around town. Baby steps!!

We had a scrimmage against a team from Slovenia (Kamnik) last Wednesday, and it was definitely fun to play against another team for a change. One of Kamnik's foreigners is a gal named Emilie Toone, who was a standout middle for the University of Utah for the last five years, and who I've been playing against since our days in club volleyball! I know that I'm a pretty nostalgic person, but I don't I'll ever get over the weird feeling of seeing people that I know from home while I'm all the way over here.

After a long week of practice, we had an unexpected day off on Saturday, and Sophie helped me take full advantage of it. Her sister Lena and her fiance Claus came by our apartment in the morning to start us off on a fun day of simple pleasures:

Pleasure 1: IKEA :) With the expert help of Sophie, I invested in some throroughly mass-produced artwork that has helped me cover my walls and create my own home space in Klagenfurt. Martha Stewart and Mr. Feng Shui would be proud. Woot!

Pleasure 2: ICE CREAM :) Has anyone here ever tried poppyseed ice cream? I mean they're good on bagels, so maybe they're good in ice cream too?? Welp, check that off my bucket list!

Pleasure 3: THE WORTHERSEE :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B6rthersee

Due to the clouds and gray of the week, I had yet to see the huge lake that was rumored to be beautiful and nearby. After finishing errands at Ikea, Lena and Claus brought us on tour of the Worthersee, starting with the shores on the eastern Klagenfurt side, and continuing with a trip to Velden, a pretty cute town on the western shores of the lake. In Velden, Lena and Claus decided to treat us to a touristy boat ride around the lake, and I couldn't seem to capture the amazing beauty in pictures!

On Sunday we played several matches against another Austrian team from the first league, and it was good to get some experience playing in a match-situation. We're all still getting used to playing with one another, but we seem to be making strides towards getting better, which is all I can ask for!

On Monday morning, I woke to a surprise when I realized that I had a visitor! As some of you may know, one of my best friends from school (Brody) is playing professional basketball in Poland this season. Brody is one of the friendliest guys I've ever met, and his network of friends is making the world smaller every day! Case in point: One of his best friends from his hometown of Redding is on this side of the Atlantic for a couple months of Euro-tripping. When I heard that Jason was on this continent, I extended the invitation to stop by Klagenfurt if he was interested! Well, after two days of debauchery at Oktoberfest in Munich over the weekend, Jason hopped on a train to Klagenfurt on Sunday night (forgetting the small detail of notifying me), and arrived early on Monday morning! When I rolled over to check the time on Monday, my lovely phone was blinking with several new messages saying "I'm in Klagenfurt! Where should I go!??" and "I'm at an internet cafe near the train station, how do I get to your house!!??" Ha.

After we played the "where in Klagenfurt is Jason?" game for a little while, we met up at the train station and started the visit off right! I had a day off on Monday, so we spent the morning walking around downtown before hopping on a bus toward the lake! After my adventure there on Saturday, I felt like I was practically a local, and I was excited to share the awesome beauty with Jason!

We walked around the lake for a while, and later in the afternoon Sophie and Birgit joined us for some hangout-with-feet-in-water time. It was PERFECT weather (as you can see, I'm wearing shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt!!!) and I was on cloud 9.

That night, Sophie and Birgit had the great idea of trying out Klagenfurt's Mexican restaurant, and I was in full support. I hate to say that I was expecting the worst, but I was definitely not expecting it to be as yummy as it turned out to be! Jason and I had chicken fajitas (yum!) and we came home entirely satisfied by Klagenfurt's version of Chevy's (but no big hats for fake birthdays. dang!!).

Yesterday was busy for me, so I wasn't able to do too much with Jason, but fortunately he's a really easy guest and didn't complain about settling for a long walk through downtown. It's really nice to have a visitor around, and I'll be bummed when he takes off for Vienna later today.

OK, I'm headed off to Atlantis for a morning lift. Love you all and talk to you soon!

xox

Anna