week uno and dos.

hey everybody! tis James once again, reporting on yet another week of Tauernhof!!
So, to sum up the last week Josh and I had, which was the first, it crawled by. being so far away from home, having to meet so many people, study the bible and go to plenty of lectures, everybodys mind was WELL occupied. Not to mention how awesome the lectures are here. but that completely depends on how you take it in. needless to say, Josh and I have been blown away and had our jaws dropped plenty of times last week. In the lectures, we had a German guy whos life story is really cool (the latter part, anyways) and he had alot of knowlege and wisdom to share. since my brain and body is so tired, I cant remember exactly what he talked about :P but it was good :=)

Besides those things, we did alot of getting to know people, make friends, and do some awesome Hiking. Let me just say this now that having Josh come with has made so many things easier to get into! Its awesome to know we can share memories of this trip later on in life, instead of just a camera and some people you most likely won't see again after. If anyone wants to do something like this, for the first time, I would encourage them to take a friend or close one. But they say being alone is a more gaining experience. First timers should definetly go with someone they know, though!

anyways, YEAH things we did... Well, we played alot of Volleyball (Josh way more than I) and I hiked the Planai Mountain (without Josh) which is the mountain that Tauernhof is at the base of. A good 2 hour hike. I got lost on my own by myself, but its not hard to navigate to the base of a mountain you are currently on. Oh, and Josh and I, last week saturday, went to the Guttenburghaus... I dunno how to spell it, but its a chalet at the top of the Guttenburg mountain, which was a good 1.45 hike up. then we got to the peak, took some amazing pictures, and Josh, me, and a friend jogged down in 40 min... beat the record going down of the guy whos record was 51 min going up! pretty impressive, eh?

and then THIS week... Quite different. we got to know everybody pretty well, Im pretty good on the names of 61 people. and, for some reason its just been dragging on! I don't know what the problem is, but everybody would have to agree that its been very slow! but not boring :) reading 5-6 chapters in the bible can get a little irritating though, cause I am a slow reader. BUT the Lectures... we have a new guy namde Hanns Peter... have been also amazing! hes focused more on getting to know the Bible, and getting to know Jesus personally. I have really had my mind blown from time to time, and hes challenged us alot to explore what it means to know him. same with the last week guy too, actually. but its been great, and were learning and experiencing alot!

today Tauernhof took most of the students in a bus to a waterfall place which was a nice 45 min hike to a freezing cold lake, which of course Josh and I were just shaking to go swim in it, which was actually a chilling experience. It really shook me up, and it was a shocking experience. (yeah, those were puns). So, the amazing part is what Josh did. I just did a 3 hour walk/20 min Jog to get back. Josh took the crazy long way! he went with some other guys ready to do it, and took the 6 hour detour around a mountain in the opposite direction, and I think over 2 montain tops! in the ALPS! just ask him, i dont know the full details, but it sounds pretty tough. Him and the others showed up during supper to a big round of applause, sharing their heroic sotry of conquering the Alps.

So tonight is movie night, which I'm missing because I have something better to do. read the bible, and call my girlfriend! (probably mostly the latter)

So God Bless, thanks for reading my novel, and I probably miss you if you are reading this... But I donÄt know for sure.

homesickness hasn't hit me too hard yet... but it has its moments.

ummm... I think thats it.

This is James, representing the J squad.

siging out, over.