Dashing through the Snow

It has been almost five months that I have been working in the UK. In this period I have not yet had a solid amount of time off. This, however, changed last week as my friend Maren and I went on holiday together to the snowy slopes of Austria.

Our first three nights were spent in the town of Feldkirch just a little ways from the German-Austrian border. We stayed in a hostel that was originally built in the 1200's and was used as the primary hostel for people with disease and the Black Plague (in the 14th century). Although the history of the building is not one of roses and rainbows, it was a wonderful place to stay with a lot of character that one should expect from a building of such age. It was also filled with some very interesting people whom Maren and I both had the chance to meet.

One person inparticular whom we met the first night we were in Feldkirch was named Mike. Mike was about our age and was originally from Vienna, Austria. He described himself as origianlly an athiest, but had an "enlightenment" (as he said) acouple years ago with faith. He was in the midst of a pilgrimage from Vienna to Portugal and was very interested in both Maren and my work in England. Due to his relatively broken English, it was hard to communicate fully with him and I wasn't able to ask him more questions on his own faith journey. However, we still were able to exchange a wonderful assortment of laughs and stories of our experiences thus far. Mike remained with us for much of the next day as we explored together the sites and sounds of Feldkirch. After our wonderful day exploring, Mike wished us well and hopped on a train heading west not knowing exactly where he was going to end up that night. I admired his "off-the-cuff" spirit and openess to knew things. His friendly smile and choice of living his faith through travel and adventure really struck me and warmed my heart. I wish Mike well and God's love in the rest of his travels.

After our few days in Feldkirch, we headed up into the mountains by train to the ski village of St. Anton. The village was somthing from a movie with spectacular Austrian archetecture, incredible mountians, and 4ft of snow! We met James, the cousin to Maren's Host Father, who showed us around and made sure that we were settled in with everything. James is a chef who works at one of the restaraunts at the top of Galzig Peak (one of the many in the resort). He is orginally from Belfast, Northern Ireland and came to St. Anton four years ago knowing almost no German. In that time, he not only has made a home here with his girlfriend, but has really become accepted by the local people.

Like a true Irishman, James started a tradition of having drinks with anyone who wanted to join after his long day of work. Thus, almost every day after the restaraunt closes up, all the employees ride the cable car down to the village. They then all then gather together at one local bar (or "lokal" as the Austrians call it) for a time of drinks and laughs. I was invited to acouple of these events and was amazed at the spirit of the place. I met many new people who all greeted me whether they spoke English or not. It was truly a community that was proud of their surroundings and welcomed anyone to participate in this sense of pride.

Bernard, another chef who works with James, was learning English and was excited to talk with someone who had another accent. He was a very solid, dark bearded man from a little village south of Vienna. "I have always wanted to go to America!", he exclaimed to me. "I just can't get those papers." James later told me that it is very hard for Austrians to get work Visas in the United States because of recent immigration laws after September 11th. "It saddens me to see that good people like these Austrians are outrightly denyed acess to your country", James said. For the first time in my life, I was struck with the hierarchy of citizenship. Here I was with a blue passport that somehow allowed me to go somewhere where others weren't allowed to go. I never chose to be an American citizen, but was born into it. Others don't have that luxury. It is people like Bernard that make me wonder why this has to be.

And so I am now back in London and getting ready for work tomorrow. It was fantastic to be in the snow and I feel very rejuvinated. After witnessing the spirit on holiday, it is now time to continue to observe the spirit of London.