Welcome to every day! This was the high point of today. I'm not complaining. I rejoice in the normal pace of life I now have. New life is always a thrill, but sooner or later it settles into the calm refrain.
Oh, it hasn't been all too normal. On the way to Hallstaettersee with James and his wife Lucy I rode my bike downhill, spread my arms risking life and limb for sake of flight, greeted the sunshine, greeted the surrounding mountains, greeted the warm wind, and sang this song in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QhykGh4VPw
That's me, James, and Lucy. We took a break almost every hour, enjoying cake, a beer, or a glass of wine. I don't know if I've ever had such a relaxed, prolonged bike ride. The pace and mood of the ride was so relaxed that it almost painted a sense of normalcy over the most graceful of slopes and striking rock faces in the mountains guiding us.
That place over on the other side of the lake? That's Hallstatt. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because it's been important for almost 1000 years because of it's salt mines and beautiful architecture. The Chinese even built a replica of the entire city in China because...they liked it so much?
It's been autumn here for a while. Living in the mountains has given such new life to dying leaves for me. Frost hits the tops of mountains first, and so color cascades down the hillside. Peaks went from green to brown quickly, while yellow and red spread daily downward. It was as if the mountains shed their summer coat. It was a waterfall of hues as brown, red, orange, and yellow fell from peak to valley.
We were blessed and cursed for the last few weeks by something called "foehn" or "föhn." The easy description that locals give is that it's a warm wind from the south. Everyone celebrated foehn, because it meant we would have a pleasant autumn perfect for hiking and nature-love. I thought myself clever when I said, "Foehn ist schoen!" "Schoen" means pretty. At the same time, it was a curse because it causes headaches and fuzzy thinking. It's a kind of folk wisdom. Everyone warns: you'll probably have days where it's harder to think and you can't quite complete thoughts. Check it out. It's real! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foehn_wind
So James and I exploited the fine weather to the best of our ability. The day after going to the Hallstaettersee we hiked up a mountain called the Trisselwand with his family.
Two days later James and I almost sprinted up about 1000 meters to one of the peaks of a mountain in Bad Ischl called the Zimnitz. I swear that man is from the future or something. He led the way to the top, often almost rock climbing, at a ridiculous pace. It's amazing how the climb can affect that moment when you turn around to see the landscape. It's one thing when you hike at a relaxed pace taking glances every few minutes, but it's completely different when you climb about 700 meters in 50 minutes and turn around to see the whole world at your feet. Except, we only saw Bad Ischl and it's nearest neighbors. The rest of the world was covered in a sea of fog. The fog stopped literally right at the borders of Bad Ischl.
I'm learning the names of things. Speaking a foreign language kind of inspires that. James and I stood at the peak of this mountain and he told me the names of things. He showed me his house, and he told me the name of the town it was in and why it was named so. He pointed out the boundaries of Bad Ischl. He also pointed where the salt has been mined for almost a thousand years. Then he pointed to most of the mountains we could see (more than twenty) and told me their names. He even explained to me why he thought it was that Bad Ischl was rarely foggy, and how the wind from the nearby glacier probably flowed through Bad Ischl but warmed as it went. The fog slowly crept into Bad Ischl, so we took to the descent.
I'm sure you want to hear about my experience teaching, but I honestly don't know what to tell you that would be particular to my "Austrian" experience. They're becoming adults, and they're wonderful. On the days that I've prepared well they try to match my energy, and on the days when I don't feel so prepared they surprise me. I tried to tell a story about George Washington on the fly the other day, and it was the most boring story I've ever told. I felt sorry for the kids as they rested on their arms and their eyelids drooped. At the end of class James asked them what they'd learned about George Washington. Hands flew to the air. "He was about six foot three!" "He was Commander and Chief!" For some strange reason, they actually listened! It's like they held out hope that the story would get better, and before they knew it they had accidentally listened to a bad story. I now understand why all of our favorite stories involve younger people. They really are inspiring.
It's a dangerous profession, though. There seems to be a direct correlation between the subject taught and my day following the lesson. Lesson learned: don't teach about shopping.
I decided to write the blog with an express purpose. I left the U.S. this last time with a much heavier impression that those I was leaving felt I was going to a very "foreign" place. Many of the people important to me aren't just separated from my passion by the language, but by the distance and culture. Heck, I don't think most people know what Austrian culture would be. When I call my pastor brother, Jeff, I ask him how the churches are, and occasionally we ponder and wrestle some theological question. It's a conversation everyone my family is used to and somewhat good at, since we had a grandfather and two parents to train us. Yet this German speaking world really is foreign to so many that I would have be close to it. So I came at this blog thing trying to make distinctions from the beginning. This won't be a journal, it won't be a letter or email, and it sure as eggs is eggs ain't gunna be no book. So I'll dabble in the sensual, the comical, the philosophic, and the trivial story of it all in an effort to make this "foreign" part of me yours, as well. I'm inspired to write this blog by two truths I love. The first is that very little in this world can make a good substitute for the physical. So, despite how desperately I may try to translate all of this for you, it will never make up for my physical absence in your life. The second is that life is always better when shared.
Thank you for letting me share this with you.
