Unexpected Holidays – Kelsi's Travel Times

In the last update that I sent out things were changing a little bit. Well, they have definitely changed more than a little bit to say the least. So I’ll just give a little picture of how these last few weeks have been for me, not necessarily that eventful, just with some unexpected things happening.

I’m staying in German right now at the house of one of my coworkers, where I’ve been for the last week and a half. When we left from Austria I don’t think that I or any of the other people that I was with expected that things would get this serious or change this fast. The majority of us thought that it would be no problem for us to return to Austria within 5 weeks as planned. This meant that I left most of my clothes and other possessions back in Austria and only brought with me the things that I would need for 5 weeks that I was planning to be in Germany.

Our last day at Tauernhof with all the volunteers, right before we left.

But as is pretty much common knowledge by now, the boarders between most European countries are now closed and it’s basically impossible to get through without being a citizen which I obviously am not. The closures happened the day after we left Austria so it ended up being a really good thing that we left when we did. As I mentioned previously I’m staying with a friend of mine, Johann, who I’ve been working with for the last few months, and his family in a small town near Karlsruhe, Germany. At first I thought that I would only stay here for a few days before going to stay with a different friend who lives nearby, but things haven’t exactly turned out the way that I thought.

Once we arrived in Germany we found out that because we were coming from Austria, we were supposed to be in quarantine for two weeks automatically. But since Johann had a slight cough, his doctor thought that it would be a good idea for him to get tested for the virus just in case. This was on Sunday and the test was scheduled for Thursday. On Monday we found out that some of the guests from Tauernhof had been diagnosed with the virus so that was enough to make it feel a little bit more real, but still we hoped that maybe we hadn’t actually had contact with whoever it was. On Wednesday however, we found out that some of the other staff had it, so it was pretty likely that we would have it as well since we all have such close contact all the time. When Thursday came he got the test done and on Friday we found out that the test came back positive.

None of us were that surprised because we had kinda expected it, but still, none of us had anything beyond mild symptoms. He had a cough and I had been a tiny bit congested for one day, but nothing serious. We definitely have been super fortunate that neither of us, nor anyone from his family have felt any of the severe symptoms that we’ve heard others are experiencing. Hopefully it stays that way. But since we got to his house and now for another few days we obviously have to be in isolation until we are sure we aren’t contagious anymore.

So what have we been occupying ourselves with for the last few days? Well to be honest, not that much. But I’ll give you a little run through of what a typical day has been looking like for us here.

Playing one of my favourite board games from home!

Pretty much every day since I’ve been here both Johann and I have been running on the weirdest sleep schedule ever. Sometime going to bed earlier if we’re tired or sometimes going to bed at 3am. In the morning we’ve been waking up at different times but whenever we wake up we usually just have been spending some time reading together in the morning. Lately it’s been the New Testament but other days it was a book or just whatever is on the News. Around 10:00 we usually eat breakfast, typical breakfast here is homemade bread with jam or Nutella or cream cheese. Basically whatever you choose.

After breakfast we have often been spending a good chunk of the rest of the morning just reading outside on their trampoline. The last few days it’s been a bit too cold but when it’s been warm enough, we’ve been out there. It’s just nice to be outside even staying in the yard, because we spend so much time inside right now. Usually we spend a few hours out there, sometimes reading the whole time, sometimes just chatting or taking a nap.

We look incredibly bored in this picture, but this is what most of our mornings look like

Around 2:00 we usually eat lunch with his family, since being here I’ve gotten to try lots of different traditional German foods and to be honest I don’t really know what most of them are called but there haven’t been any that I haven’t liked at this point. We helped Johann’s mom to make pretzels once which was super fun but we kinda sucked at it. But they still tasted good so that’s what counts!

In the afternoons we do a variety of things. Sometimes just spending more time outside, sometimes playing pool, darts or ping-pong, passing a volleyball or football around or playing basketball outside. It’s a little different every day but a lot of the same activities and it’s usually pretty relaxed. In the later afternoon and evening we usually watch a movie or some episodes from a TV show. Sometimes we play a game, read a bit more or call friends or family. Always different depending on the day. Sometimes in there we eat dinner, sometimes we eat together with his family and sometimes its just everyone kinda makes their own thing.

So that’s kinda what our very chill quarantine life looks like right now. Even though we have been in quarantine for 2 full weeks already, we still had to stay mostly in the house until yesterday because that’s the official two weeks since Johann was tested. And I guess the only thing really left to tell is what is coming next for me?

Well the answer to that question is still a bit unsure. As of right now I will probably be staying at Johann’s house until this Saturday before I’ll go to stay with a different friend of mine who lives pretty nearby. More long term I think that I will probably need to be heading home in the next few weeks here. At this point I won’t be able to go back to work in Austria for at least 12 weeks, possibly more and so I’ll probably end up coming home. Nothing is really set in stone yet but I’m checking for a few flights which are available and not crazy expensive which can be a bit hard to find right now. But for right now I’ll kinda just be hopping around to a few different friends and focus on being able to enjoy the time with them!

Feel free to shoot me and email or a text to let me know how you’re doing! I’d really love to hear from you:)

Has it been a hot minute since I last sent out an update? Yes it has. And I could blame it on the busy schedule that we have, but to be honest it mostly comes down to poor time management on my part. But here I am, to let you know what I’ve been up to in the last month so that you know that I’ve been doing well! There are some big things changing for me around here, but more about that later.

With the more routine things first, the work I’ve been doing here is still going great. When I first came here I wondered if I would be bored after a few months of the same jobs every day, but so far I can’t say that I’ve ever been really bored in the last 3 months. There is always new things to learn and new people to talk to. Working in the kitchen there is always opportunity to learn new skills when you ask the right questions and also to learn new German words and phrases that make it easier to live in a German environment.

Even to do the more chill jobs like cutting vegetables or washing dishes is made fun by my coworkers and the hilarious conversations that we have daily. Despite language barriers that sometimes come up we still somehow manage to make fun of each other and constantly roast each other. Sometimes the language difference makes it even funnier when you try to translate something directly and it has a completely different meaning in the other language. It definitely keeps things interesting.

A beautiful sunset we had a few weeks ago!

We (and as “we” I generally mean the other volunteers that I live with) are often able to find different and interesting ways to spend free afternoons and evenings. Sometimes we get the chance to hang out at the houses of the permanent staff, for example, the Bible school principal who invited us over to his house for a “bad taste party.” This just meant that everyone dressed up as crazy as they could, with combinations of pattern and style, to see who could look the most ridiculous.

It was a super fun evening of getting to spend time with each other outside of work. It pretty much just ended up being a big dance party. We played a few games and got to talk with each other but mostly just danced like crazy which is absolutely hilarious when the majority of us are not good dancers. At all.

Do we look ridiculous? Yes. Do we know that? Yes.

Another fun thing that we did this month was have an outing with all of the staff. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from it but I’ll describe it anyways and you can use your imagination. What we did together was go ski touring, which I think is also sometimes called back country skiing, (but don’t quote me on that cause I might be wrong) up to a “Hut” in the mountains near where we live. The ski culture here also involves a lot of socializing in the huts which are basically just traditional restaurants that are often found at the top of ski slopes or trails. People generally go there to get traditional Austrian or German foods and usually a beer or schnapps as well, and that’s just a big and normal part of what you do when skiing here.

So with ski touring you take special light weight skis that have a different kind of binding and you can wear them with regular ski boots or special lighter ones. The bindings are special because when you are going up the mountain, the back of your binding isn’t clipped onto the ski. It lifts up so that you can lift your heel and walk normally. You also put “skins” on the bottom of your skis which prevent you from sliding backwards down the mountain which is very important. Then you basically just walk up the mountain with skis on your feet. You don’t really lift your whole foot with the ski, you just slide it along the snow so that you’re not working so hard and so that you can go faster and not lose your balance. It’s pretty exhausting because on the way up, you’re obviously going uphill the whole time. But I really really enjoyed doing it with such a big group of people, because even though it was my first time I had lots of people to give me tips and to chat with along the way.

The evening that we went on was actually beautiful. Cold but not freezing and snowing gently, just enough to be really pretty. None of us were really in a big hurry because the purpose of the activity was allowing us to have time together to socialize as a whole staff and we had a lot of fun and great conversations during the 2ish hours that we were walking. By the time we got to the top I was pretty tired and definitely had some massive blisters on my feet. But it ended up being totally worth it as we had an amazing dinner of spare ribs, potatoes, salad, bread and ice cream. We spent an awesome few hours just hanging out together with all the rest of the staff and their families.

Once we were done with dinner came the most fun part of the night, skiing down the slope that we had walked up earlier. To be honest I had been a bit nervous for this because it was really dark by the time we had to go down and the path was not lit up. We brought head lamps but they weren’t that bright so I was low-key scared of accidentally skiing off a cliff. Thankfully that didn’t happen and it was way less difficult than I expected. As we were with a group there was always someone to follow and some people had some super bright flashlights as well so that was helpful. It was super cool to ski in the dark in the middle of the forest. It was pretty quiet in the snow and generally just a really nice night for it so I enjoyed it so much!

This isn’t from our staff outing but I guess it’s mildly related because it’s still from skiing!

In the last few days and weeks we’ve also gotten the chance to do some really cool walks and spend a whole bunch of time outside. That’s something that I really love about our schedule here, we have most afternoons off so we have lots of opportunity to spend time outside and enjoy the area. I don’t have a ton of pictures but I’ll put in some of the ones I do have so you can see more of the beauty of this area!

The mountains in the beautiful town of Ramsau which is basically on the other side of the valley and up from Schladming. Many of our permanent staff live in Ramsau.

From a walk we took on a warmer, clear day that was absolutely beautiful!

So it’s definitely been an awesome last month, but now comes the changes that I mentioned earlier. It’s been very sudden, but we found out yesterday that due to the Coronavirus going around, Tauernhof, (where I work) will be closing as of today, and that they plan to be closed for 5 weeks. Hopefully we will only be closed for that long and that we can reopen again for the spring school as planned, but at this point we have no idea how this is going to play out. The last group of guests left this morning so now there is only really only full time staff and volunteers left here. But the directors here have asked that if possible, any of the volunteer staff who are able to go home should go home.

Obviously that’s a bit more difficult for those of us who are coming from North America because flights are crazy expensive, limited, and run a high risk of being cancelled. So they are willing to make exceptions for us, but I’ve decided not to stay here anyways. I just don’t think that I would like to be here for 5 weeks with hardly anyone here and not being able to work. So the plan for me is that I will spend 5 weeks in Germany with friends from Tauernhof and from my bible school last year. God has been so faithful in providing many options for places for me to stay for these next weeks and I’m so grateful. The details aren’t planned out completely yet but I know at least where I will be for the first few weeks so that’s awesome.

The big question that remains for me is what will happen after those 5 weeks because no one really knows how this situation is going to play out. If after those weeks, they reopen Tauernhof, then I’ll return to work here for the rest of the year. If things haven’t settled out in those 5 weeks and they decide not to reopen, then the most likely thing for me would be to return home to Canada. It just wouldn’t super reasonable for me to continue to stay in Europe after that point unless I’m working or end up with a different reason to stay.

In the staff and with our guests this week we’ve talked this week about being able to let go of our fear because we know that God is in control. In the Bible it says “do not fear,” 365 times. Once for every day of the year and that includes this year even in the middle of so much panic. I have a lot of peace in knowing that God is in control of this situation and that we are doing everything that we can to be safe and sensible.

So I guess that’s all from me for now. I’ll do my best try to keep you in the loop of whats happening and how things are going for me. I’d also definitely love to hear from you so feel free to send me a text or email or even just comment on this post to get in touch with me:)

Tag: Unexpected Holidays

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