December Goodness

I know, you're thinking, that picture does not look like goodness no matter what month it is. I feel like at home the milk gets stinky before it gets chunky, but here it definitely gets chunky before it gets stinky. I poured some milk into my morning cup of joe not noticing the plopping. I did think that the darkness of the coffee didn't quite correspond to how much milk I had poured in. Then I stirred it and noticed a bit too much resistance. Luckily it was just chunky, it didn't taste bad so I went for it. I didn't really have time to make a new cup, and figured there was no reason the throw something away for having a strange consistency. I didn't eat the chunks, even though they looked like chocolate pudding.

Woohooo! Snowboarding again. This time at Serfaus a rad, super big ski area. You get to the top of one peak, to see another lift going down the other side and back up the next peak. Then you get to the top of that next peak and see the same thing over again. I didn't make it to the last one. I think you could ski there for 3 or 4 days, doing each route once before you have to start doing them a second time.

At some points the weather was not so hot (this is valley number 2) and at the top the wind was crazy, but it calmed down later.

Did I mention there was a goooood view when the clouds lifted a bit?

A few of the lifts and the avalanche stopping fence things. Do we have those in the US? I don't remember seeing them in such quantities as I have seen them in Austria.

I wish I had my avalanche safety gear and a back country riding buddy! Oh the beauty!

Did I also there was much fresh, beautiful, deep, powder to be had? Not quite the back country, but awesome. Really awesome.

This Saturday near Innsbruck at Axamer with a couple other English TAs. This was the best weather day I've had all season. It was colder ,but it was clear and blue all day!!! And you can see that the back drop isn't so bad either.

Andrea in front of the hunk of amazing rock. I was trying to spot bolts or potential climbing routes for summer.

Sadly I was the only snowboarder but they didn't shun me too much, although the ones fro mteh mid-west made fun of me saying "stoked" and "rad". Another amazing rock creation of the Lord's back behind us. I think by the end of the day the others might have gotten tired of me periodically stopping, dropping my jaw, and saying this place was freakin' beautiful.

But I just have so much "Berg Freude". Mountain joy. Look at the joy in my little mountain loving smile. The year I lived in the flat lands of Germany, that particular smile was not frequently seen. I was right next to the Netherlands, which if you missed the memo, is sinking into the Atlantic. No mountains, no hills, no climbing or hiking.

And now a classic Austrian holiday. On December 5 or 6th depending on who you ask, comes St. Nickolaus, sort of like Santa but not sooo materialistic. Kids leave their nicest shoes polished up in front of the front door of their homes. If they are good kids, St. Nickolaus leave nuts, oranges and chocolate.

And here he is, doing his candy passing out deal in the Little Town of Terrenz. Unfortunately there is a bad side. If you are not a good kid, there are some dudes called the Krampus that come to punish you. Sometimes they come and visit your house and give you coal or give you a bit of a whipping with a stick but it seems more common for them to come carousing trough town in what is called the Krampus Lauf (parade or run). Some other assistants and I made the unfortunate mistake of not leaving after St. Nickolaus came by passing out candy. Then we saw this:
That would be children running in fear because the Krampus are coming.

After the children scatter, the first Krampus comes. Seriously, I was nervous at this point, standing behind some other people feeling my muscles tense.

And a few more. Don't worry, bad kids of the world, there are still more coming. But really it only takes one to scare the poop out of you.


Unfortunately, they don't just look scary, they are scary. This is me getting cornered between a rock and a giant beer statue being attacked and smeared with greasy coal. Krampus doing their thing en mass.

And here the close-up of them beating a guy to the ground and whipping him.

Some more Krampus taking care of business. By the way, all of this innocent fun is totally allowed and the police are on hand just in case things get out of hand. But how do you define "out of hand" when there are furry, horned monsters, with chains hanging off their bodies, smearing ash all over people and beating them with whips? Also, the normal people who are getting attacked are present voluntarily. I wonder if the Austrians have a complex that makes them feel like they need to be punished?

The aftermath. I think this was actually part way through because my face got worse. And the oily ash was all in my hair down to the roots, up my nose, I even found it on my back.

To complete the fine evening the Krampus gather around a burning firecracker, chant and holler, and then remove their masks.

This is us trying t0 make friends with the Krampus afterwards. I guess some of them were students of the one of the assistants. It might be hard to tell but one of the Krampus is holding me up in the air. I'm not that tall.
I also sustained more permanent injuries. Those whips you saw, they really use them. I got whipped pretty hard right across both my quads. Day one I had big red welts across my thighs, day two the huge bruises started to form. And they are easier on the girls. The Krampus tend to be harder on guys and especially people they know. Inf fact after seeing me at the end one of the Krampus asked me if I knew one of them since I was so beat up. No, I just look like I'm asking for trouble.

James with one of his students. Class must be hard for him.Ryan looking like a robber, but really he was the victim.

I washed my hair a couple times to get all the gunk out and blowing my nose produced some rad substances, as well as cleaning out my ears. All the clothing gets trashed too. Before I would let my landlady wash my Krampus clothes as usual, I thought I would give them a little rinse. Above is rinse number one. Below is rinse number 4. I did one or two after that.

All in all I decided to be nicer to my brother next year, and stay home from the Krampus Lauf, or just wear more protective layers of clothing.

Oh yeah,and Allie is coming in two and a half days! And only two more days of class until Christmas break! Woooo hooo!