The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow-weekend bliss

When I woke up Saturday morning it was a beautiful day outside, and actually has stayed pretty nice ever since.  The weather is in the 70s here, so it's been pretty perfect outside.  Much different than what I hear we are getting back home.

When I was planning my trip to Salzburg I had purposely planned to arrive in Austria a couple of days before my class to do some sight seeing.  I booked two tours with "Bob's Tour Bus" (sounds real  hokey doesn't it?!), but both tours were great!  I highly recommend this company if you ever do any sight-seeing in Salzburg!  I scheduled the "Sound of Music" tour on Saturday morning, and the "Bavarian" tour on Sunday morning.  However, while I was on the "Sound of Music" tour, the tour guide encouraged me to do the "Bavarian" tour that afternoon instead of waiting until Saturday just in case in started raining again.  I wasn't about to let rain interfere with my Salzburg plans again, so I happily agreed.

The "Sound of Music" tour included seeing the convent, the area where she sang "The Hills are Alive", the open area that she began "Do Re Mi" with the children, the mirabell garden area at the end of "Do Re Mi", the gozebo in "I Am Sixteen Going on Seventeen", the church where they married, and the Frohnburg (the place that I'm staying for the week).  We also had the opportunity to do some other activities on the tour.  He stopped at a place in Old Salzburg to let us ride a Toboggan, which I jumped at the opportunity to do so.  Someone happened to take a picture of me coming down the Toboggan, and said she would email it to me, but I haven't received it yet.  We also stopped for lunch in the old town of Salzburg and faced the area that I was referring to earlier where she began singing "Do Re Mi".  I have that picture posted below.

The Bavarian tour included seeing the eagles nest, and seeing the beautiful sights in Berchtesgaden.  It was an absolutely beautiful tour through the mountains.  As soon as I have better internet (probably not until next week), I will post more pictures.

That night I happened to run into a few people that were at the Orff institute for the International Orff-Schulwerk forum.  A number of people representing each countries Orff-Schulwerk organization had the chance to meet at the end of last week to discuss "hot topic" issues in this field.  The American Orff-Schulwerk president, Chris Judah-Lauder, was the one I ran into and invited me out to dinner with some of these people along with two ladies from Greece that just got in town for the summer course (the course that I am taking).  This was the first time that I had formally met Chris, and she was just as wonderful as I had always heard. I felt so humbled to get to eat with her and some of the others that were here for the forum.  It just made me realize how warm and welcoming Orff teachers are regardless of status and leadership within the organization.  

On Sunday, I decided to sleep in and do laundry.  In the afternoon I went for a jog to and from the city center and found Mozart's birthplace and statue while I was there.  It took me about 30 minutes both ways, but it shouldn't have taken that long.  I didn't know exactly where I was going, so it took me a little bit to find it and then on the way back I tried a short cut, but it definitely wasn't a short cut.  Like I mentioned earlier the weather has been amazing, so it was definitely a perfect afternoon jog.  I will also post some pictures from my jog later too.  I just kept thinking the whole time that my Tulsa jogs will never been the same after getting to jog around here.

On Sunday night we had the opening for the summer course, which included an overview of the week and a performance from Das Collectiv.  Das Collectiv is a dance group from the institute made up of both students and teachers.  They performed choreographed movement from excerpts from "Carmina Burana" (composed by Carl Orff).  It was incredible!  I had the chance to see them at the American Orff-Schulwerk professional development conference in Pittsburgh almost 2 years ago, so I was excited when I heard that they would be performing just for us that night.  After the opening I went back to the city center along with the two ladies from Greece and a girl from Finland that I had actually previously connected with via internet.

So as you can tell Saturday and Sunday completely made up for the dreadful Friday night I experienced.  Once again, as soon as I have better internet I will post more pictures from this last weekend.