To start this blog, I must explain the circumstances behind my new and improved (yet again) living situation. The big news to report is this: Maik was fired. So, the big room is all mine!! A lot led up to the firing, so I will first say that I am glad he is gone. While initially it was cool having him talk in German to me, it got annoying after the first week. He talked constantly to everybody around him, and it was usually about things that nobody else cared about. He would go on and on about movies and music, asking me if I knew of some movie he had on his computer. Then he would ask me about the next one, and it would go on for literally an hour or more. He would show photos and give commentary for hours on end, completely ignoring my lack of interest. He also drank alcohol every day. Most days it was just a few beers, but I was starting to sense he had a problem. It also seemed very strange to me that Maik has 3 children (from 2 ex-girlfriends). His two daughters live with their mother in Kitzbuehel, yet in 2-3 weeks of living with Maik, he never saw them. In fact, the only times he even left the room were to go to work, or to go to the bar or the supermarket with me. There were also a couple of incidents that made me a bit nervous. First, he invited some of the hotel guests into our room to drink and party. Then he invited our boss' son and his three friends (who were all 16 or 17 years old) into our room a few days later, again to drink and party. While I had fun both nights, it didn't seem like a very good idea to be drawing that kind of attention (of course the son told his dad about it the next day).
So finally the kicker: The night before Maik's last day, the two of us, along with Tommy and his girlfriend, went out for a drink in town. To sum up a long, stupid night, we ended up in Kitzbuehel with Maik's car, everyone drunk except for me. Maik refused to let me drive his car, and drove home completely trashed, leaving me alone in a parking lot freezing my ass off at 4 am. They tried to convince me to get in the car with them, and Tommy told me the next day Maik drove like a maniac, almost killing them a few times. He hit a couple of things with his car, then broke in to a convenience store to steal something to try and fix his car's damaged tire. Like I said, a very long story that I just summed up. I waited an hour in the cold for the train. Maik didn't wake up for work the next morning, so I ended up covering his shift, which didn't matter to me. When Maik finally made it to work, he said some pretty bad things to Klaus for some reason (depends on whose story I believe). They decided it was time for him to go, and Maik had moved all his stuff out and was driving back to the other side of Austria a few hours later.
I won't tell an old tale here, but for those readers who remember the story of my first roommate at university, Maik was an eery reminder of the other alcoholic who was kicked out of my room, Matt (minus the homicidal instincts).
This weekend was Hahnenkammrennen, which is what Kitzbuehel is most famous for. It is a 3 day ski event which draws 50,000 people to town. I didn't want to pay 24 euros to sit at the finish line and watch the race, but I did want to check out the party afterwards! Friday was the Super G, which I watched on TV, then Andrea and I headed over to Kitz to check out the music, souvenir stands, hoardes of people, etc. Saturday was the Downhill, which is the most famous and supposedly dangerous downhill ski race in the world. The skiiers hit speeds over 140 km/h. Today, I went up to the mountain (16th time) after the last race, the Slalom. I noticed they were letting some people onto the roped off Downhill course, so I snuck through to check it out. I only got to ski on the top half of the course, but it was absolutely insane. I knew it would be steep, but I didn't realize it would be a solid block of ice. It was like trying to ski down an ice rink tipped on its side. Most of the people there just fell and slid straight down, which I practically did as well.
Now for the best news of all: I am visiting Maren in northern Germany this week! After work on Tuesday, I will catch a train to Munich, then fly to Bremen, where Maren will (hopefully) pick me up and drive us to Oldenburg. I fly back to Innsbruck from Hamburg on Saturday, in time to work that evening. I am excited to see Maren, and also to visit northern Germany for the first time (and hopefully understand the 'real' German accent :) ). My boss is letting me go on this trip because I had planned it before the 'Maik' situation. They are not going to hire a replacement, I guess they decided it wasn't necessary to have another dishwasher. So my hours are increasing to four and a half days per week. I have Thurs, Fri, and Sat mornings free. It is actually the perfect amount of work. A good balance of money and free time.
Life here has definitely calmed down with Maik gone. I am really getting used to the mountain lifestyle. Work is going fairly well and I have new places to ski every day. I should mention a bit more about the skiing. I am a bit disappointed with the snow. It is still a bit lacking in many areas, and the powder days have been few so far. All the towns in the valley are at 800-900 meters, and the gondolas take you to the peaks at 1800-2000 meters. That really isn't all that high for a ski resort of this magnitude, which brings me to my next point, which makes up for the lack of snow: the ski areas around me are so massive they put Whistler to shame. There are lifts and gondolas as far as the eye can see. Then you turn a curner and there are 3 more gondolas and 12 more chairlifts. I thought the whole Kitzbuehel area was pretty big considering it takes over an hour to get from one side to the other. Then I discovered an even bigger area with more people and more gondolas which I can get to via a 10 minute bus ride. Every day I go skiing, I wait for one of several busses at the bottom of the hill. Whichever comes first determines where I will go for the day. I think after 16 ski days, I have probably been on about one third of the ski runs in the area. I am not including the 6 other ski areas covered by my season pass which I haven't been to yet as they require a train ride. I hope to check out some of those places on my off days. Well, I am (as usual) enjoying my good fortune to now have a big room with free accomodation all to myself! Not to mention the beer Maik left here in his hasty departure...
January 24, 2010
January 12, 2010
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
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
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