I am back from our ‘work’ week in Austria. I had a really good time and it was really nice to get to know the 11 students as well as my colleagues. This group had a lot of really smart guys with a lot of potential. I can’t wait to see what they are able to accomplish after graduating the Master’s program.
Highlights of the week included white water rafting (Austrian style), playing some Apline golf, losing in 2 on 2 beach volleyball, watching the Germany/Austria Euro Cup Qualifying match, and wandering through nearby towns (Achenkirch, Maurach, Pertisau).
We rafted on Tuesday just outside of Innsbruck through 18 km of rapids. I had previously rafted on the Colorado River on our Senior trip in high school but had never experienced rafting like I did last week. My overall goal of the trip was not to fall out of the boat. I am not that strong of a swimmer and just preferred not to swim in the really cold rapids if I could help it.
That goal was broken in the first 5 minutes of our trip when the instructor made us all jump out of the boat 4 people at a time after a short tutorial (in German) of how to fall out and jump back into the boat. From there, we proceeded to play games that included standing on top of the boat and trying to walk around the raft while going down the rapids. If I had to guess, we all fell out about 3 times each playing various games in between the really intense rapids. I don’t believe you would be able to do this in America where the rafting companies are likely to be subjected to a more litigious legal system.
To cap it all off, at the end of the excursion we were instructed to purposely tip the boat over, swim to safety and help the instructor flip the boat back over in order to finish the trip. I was happy that it wasn’t too traumatic to get back to the boat and flip it back over. Needless to say, I was happy to reach the shore alive when the trip was finished.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the rafting (and me wearing a very attractive looking wetsuit.)
I will explain the rest of the week in pictures.
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| View from my Hotel room |
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| Our Hotel |
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| Hiking trip to Hochplatte on Sunday. |
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| View from Hochplatte (1800m) |
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| Achensee |
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| Gotta love the self photo from Pertisau. |
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| Breakfast. More bread than you will ever want to consume in one week. |
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| Nice view from the driving range. |
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| Professor Langer and me. |
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| Andreas and me. I agreed to carry his clubs up and down the hills if he let me use his left handed clubs. I saved €20. |
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