Fun at Taurenhof!

I have been in Austria for 5 days now and it already seems like so much has happened. Ashley and I found our way safe and sound to Schladming, where I will be for the next 5ish weeks. During our first day here we were divided into 4 groups of 9-10 people. My group is the fluffy felz, which means the fluffy rock which was decided upon by all of our members during our first hiking expedition. Don't ask. There are 5 girls, Hanna from Germany, Rebekka from Germany, Danielle from Santa Barbara, CA, Charla from Canada and me along with 5 boys, Dave from Toronto, Canada, Mike from Virginia, our fearless leader Rod from Canada, Philip from Germany and Tony from Wisconsin. It makes for a very unique and FUN time. We all get along really well.

Today all of the different groups were sent to various treks within 30 minutes of the school to complete various trail upkeeping duties for the local community as an outreach. My group took a bus 30 minutes up an alp to the base of a beautiful mountain that we climber for an hour and a half before splitting into 3 smaller groups that were divided among the trail to complete various tasks. I raked rocks. :) Then we made our way to the alpine "hut" (which was truly much more like a lodge, I had been picturing like a one room hut with a fire and animals inside like Ethiopia) were the owner of the lodge gave us soup as thanks for helping him keep up the trail. Then we made our way back down the mountain.

Yesterday we received training on how to use a compass and map before we were given maps with a victim labeled on it and a hospital location marked. We then had until 5pm to go into the mountains as teams to quickly rescue our victim without our team leader. Turns out Rod, our team leader, was "shot by a Costa Rican out for vengence" and we had to carry him to safety. It was later discovered that he weighs 200 lbs and is 6 foot 2 inches. So, we used his mat for sleeping and all of our ropes that we have to construct a spine board. :)

All of that to say... it is GORGEOUS here and I can't wait to see what the next 5 weeks have in store for us. Each week we memorize 3 Bible verses, have devotions and a nightly meeting. But the best part is that we have NO idea what we are going to do each day. We just wake up and show up for breakfast at 8 and receive an announcement about the next place we have to be and so on and so forth. So each day is like a new adventure. I could be leaving tomorrow morning for a 5 day trek and I have no idea! The whole not knowing component definitely adds a lot of fun to the environment overall, and I think it's healthy for a change. I have most definitely already been challenged physically and spiritually as well, so it has been a really neat experience so far! Thanks for all of your thoughts, encouragements and prayers!! Love to you all!