Snow, Week with Maren, and New Developments

Last night when my shift ended at work, Maik and I made ourselves plates full of food and headed downstairs. We ate in our room, drank beers from our fridge, and Andrea came over from next door. After a few beers and lots of thumping techno music from Maik's system, we got ready and walked 100 meters down the hill to Der Tiroler, the closest bar/club. We hung out and had a few drinks until we spotted a few guests staying at our hotel from Cologne. More beer and several Jaeger shots later, we staggered back up the hill and back to our room with the guests. Another hour of music, drinks, and general German debauchery and we kicked the guests out so we could sleep. Woke up this morning at 7:50 in time for an espresso before I started work at 8:00. Washed some dishes, took out the recycling, shovelled some snow, ate lunch, and then hit the slopes on last night's fresh powder. Tonight should be a repeat... Life is hard in the mountains :)

Clearly, a lot has happened since my last post! Alright, I suppose I should go back and explain. A day or two before New Year, my boss told me he had hired another dishwasher, an Austrian. This sounded like very bad news for me. He was worried about my lack of valid work status I guess, though I am still not sure exactly what changed from the time I was hired. He told me to plan on working about 4 days per week for the season. This meant I would be making quite a bit less money than I would with the 6- or 7-day weeks I was expecting. Plus I would have to pay for my own food on my off days. But it also meant I would have a lot of time off to go skiing which would be nice. However, I was worried that they were soon going to get rid of me altogether. Especially when I spent the next morning shovelling snow instead of washing dishes. Anyway, there was nothing I could really do about it. New Year's was not terribly exciting. I worked until 11, then met up with some of my Austrialian friends at a bar. We lit some fireworks and had a few drinks, that was about it.

Maren arrived on the 2nd of January. She stayed for a week with me at the Deutsch Institute just outside of Kitzbuehel. She had already been sick for awhile before she got here, and I had also been sick for a couple of days. I am actually just starting to recover the last day or two. She and I didn't do too much the first days as we were both waiting till we felt better. I had my first day off work on the 3rd which was really nice. The commute to work 4 times per day was a killer. The total time I spent walking, waiting, and taking the train/bus was about 4 hours per day! Insane! Maren and I bought a bunch of food and spent the days eating healthy and drinking tea. I only skiied once between Christmas and New Year's, and didn't ski again until Maren and I finally went up on Friday. The snow was decent, and we had a lot of fun. Saturday was her last day here. She left to head back to Germany. She has some things to take care of, and then she might work for a month or so. She is leaving in late February for a monthlong trip to South Africa. I am not sure if we will get to see each other again before she leaves.

After Maren caught her train, I hauled my pack and my ski gear over to Kirchberg. A few days earlier, my boss had told me some incredible news: one of the staff rooms was available for me to live in! They are usually only for the 'real' workers who are on contract for the entire season. Many of them choose not to live at the hotel though, because they are married or for other reasons. The new Austrian dishwasher, Maik (pronounced pretty much like the English 'Mike'), had just moved into the biggest of the 3 staff rooms. My bed is in a little nook in the corner, on the other side of the table and chairs. Maik already had the room set up well. There is a TV and speakers with his Playstation 3 and 1000+ movies. There is an espresso machine and a fridge currently overflowing with beer. We have separate closets and a nice bathroom. There is free Wifi for me to use the internet. My laundry is done for me once per week. I get 3 free meals per day, including my off days. My only complaint: the hotel does not stock our fridge with beer, so we have to pay for it ourselves... Haha, just kidding. That will be one of my only expenses this season and it's not much. We just spent 45 euros on 50 liters of beer, should last us quite awhile. I can't believe how lucky I have gotten with this room. It takes me about 30 seconds now to get from my bed to the kitchen. Best of all, accommodation is free! We only have to pay a flat 50 euros each per month to cover our portion of the utility bills. Klaus is in the room to our left, though we never see him. Andrea, a server from the Czech Republic who speaks German and a bit of English, is in the room to our right. Andrea, Maik, and I (and Tommy when he is around) will probably be spending quite a bit of time this season hanging out in our room due to its cool setup.

One important note about Maik: He speaks only German. I have not heard him speak any English. Literally. He has not spoken a SINGLE WORD of English! Which is awesome, and he talks a lot, all the time actually. At first, I didn't understand very much, but I am already learning so much. Now I am able to figure out what he is talking about more than half the time. He uses a lot of hand gestures (naturally, not just to help me), which is very useful to me. I haven't spoken to him a whole lot as I am not very confident in my speaking ability. My comprehension is improving dramatically though. He knows I don't speak German obviously, but he just talks and talks and talks anyway. He realizes I don't always understand, but that doesn't slow him down. I think I am learning much quicker without anybody translating what he is saying. Since I moved in, I have hung out only with German speaking people which is pretty cool.

Well, that pretty much brings us up to date. I now officially have the best job/living situation of all the ski bums in town. Nobody else is getting accommodation AND food covered for the whole season. I have made the Aussies pretty jealous :) Despite only working 4 days per week (which is each day one of the 4 regular kitchen workers has the day off), I am going to be able to save a decent amount of money this season given my laughably low expenses. I should be able to save 90% of the money I earn. So, my worries about the uncertainty of working here the whole season have been relieved, they clearly plan on keeping me around. Plus, I can put my skis on right outside the hotel and ski down the hill to the bus stop, 5 minutes later I am on my way up the gondola! I plan on doing quite a bit more skiing from now on, every day I don't work, plus afternoons of work days when I am not too tired. It feels so nice to completely unpack my bag for the first time in over 6 months! It looks like I will be able to accomplish all my priorities for the season, which are, in order: 1. Make money 2. Learn German 3. Ski 4. Party

My address is:

Sean Stephens
c/o Hotel Willms
Kirchangerweg 13
Kirchberg in Tirol, A-6365
Austria