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From Abroad

In an earlier post I wrote about going to Prague with other ERASMUS (international exchange) students. One of my colleagues that went with me was Bénédicte (Béné) from France. She had great things to say about Paris (where she is from) and France in general, so I decided to make a journey there as a part of my tour around Europe. I have always been intrigued by France, from their pioneering culinary abilities, to how they carry their language worldwide proudly.

When I meet someone new, I pay close attention to their mannerisms (how they carry themselves). I noticed many things about the French that I wanted to get to know better. They are among the most articulated eaters I have ever seen! Every slice of the knife or fork seems to be deliberate, the transfer of food from plate to mouth (a bite) is made with such a precision I cannot help but notice (and try to imitate immediately (-: ). If you have ever spent time with a French person, perhaps you know what I mean! They have a specific technique for applying cheese to the baguette, a technique I am quite proud to have conquered (-: Another item worth mentioning is how the French greet each other- nearly everyone greets you with “monsiouer” or “madame” and the utmost of courteousness is practiced. The French etiquette is worth looking into, if only everyone in America could treat each other with such respect.

Well, enough about eating etiquette, let me talk about the food! The French really know a good meal, when I arrived at Béné’s residence around 10pm the day I flew in, her family had prepared a 4 course meal! We started with an aperitif of a sweet wine, with some light snacks. Then moved onto a kind of mashed potato casserole with ground beef called “hachis parnentier” with a salad and of course a robust red wine from the Bordeaux region (-: After that came the cheese course, and to my delight- it was a 4 cheese platter with sliced baguette! The French _really _know how to make a proper cheese (partly because the cheese is not always pasteurized- which can eliminate the flavor)! I would also like to note that it is not unusual for a French family to go to the “Boulangerie” (bakery) for baguettes and other items twice a day! The last course was an ice cream with fresh pear- absolutely amazingly delicious! Every evening we had a lovely home cooked meal- and on my last night we had a 3 course crępe meal!

Wow, writing that just made me really hungry (-; Béné’s family lives in Bullion, a suburb south-west of Paris and the commute into the downtown takes about an hour. Since I arrived on a Monday and departed on a Friday, each morning took the train to work with her father- Jacques and just kept riding further after he got off each day to go the office, it worked out surprisingly well (-: Her family was even gracious enough to purchase the train tickets I needed to get downtown. In fact, I was thoroughly impressed by her whole familys’ hospitality for my visit; they provided me with a roof over my head (my own room (-: ), great dinners with traditional food and wine, opportunities to sightsee (Jacques and Marie-Pierre took me to the palace of Versailles!), and pleasant company. Staying with lovely families is the only way to travel around Europe, it is all about the people you know (-:

The photo above is the Promenade Plantée- a former railway viaduct that has been converted into a park- perhaps one of the most romantic places to go for a walk in Paris (in my opinion (-; ) It has inspired other cities to plant their old railway bridges too.

The photos below are of the gardens at the Palace of Versailles- some of the most exquisitely maintained gardens I have ever seen, it is amazing the symmetry exhibited there. Clearly in former times, there was no shortage of absolute opulence for the king!

Above is myself, Jacques and Marie-Pierre

If you have had a lovely experience in France like I did- feel free to post a comment! I think many Americans stereotype the French as people who do not like us, this is absolutely wrong, take my word- they are a friendly, fun-loving people (just make an attempt at speaking/learning French when you are there (-: ).

Several weeks ago I was blessed with yet another tremendous opportunity to see and absorb the mountains of Austria. A friend of Doris, Helmut, invited me to stay with his parents and sister in the far western Austrian province of Vorarlberg on the border with Switzerland and Lichtenstein. So, without having met anyone in the family except Helmut, I boarded a train and rode for 7 hours into what we become pure bliss…

When I arrived I was greeted by some of the nicest, down-to-earth people I have ever met. They took me into their home, and I felt like I belonged! I have nothing but the nicest things to say about their hospitality! We had huge, delicious Austrian breakfasts, nice bag lunches for the hikes and a surprise for dinner each evening! The Moosbruggers- Marika, Helmut (remained in Vienna for exams), Stefan, Barbara and Peter really treated me well. They live in Gotzis, which is a few minutes outside of Feldkirch. I stayed for a total of 4 days, and pretty much each day we took hikes to all the best areas Vorarlberg had to offer. So naturally, I took as many Kodaks as humanly possible. I attempted to arrange them more or less in chronological order. Enjoy!

The first day we hiked to a peak (the name escapes me). Looking at the summit lodge, to the right and down is Switzerland!

Stereotypical photo of Switzerland, note the red and white gondola

On this day, there were more paragliders than I have ever seen!

A nice summit photo of myself Peter and Marika (-: This area is unique because three countries meet at the same place. Behind us is Feldkirch in Austria, towards the left of the photo is Lichtenstein and behind us is Switzerland.

On the way down, this was the view looking down to a beautiful valley in Switzerland

Sunset over the Bodensee (-:

The next hiking opportunity was at the Bregenzerwald, the area where Peter has grown up (-:

Cool Bregenzerwald galerie, structure to protect the road surface from natural hazards

Ah, that is nice to see!

I have a lot of respect for the farmers that work this land, it is steeper than it looks!

Always a real pleasure to hike through the snow, in the summertime (-;

Enzian in abundance!

Another summit to add to the list (-:

Taking the “breidl jausen” in magnificent surroundings (-:

Lucious flowers

Absolutely gorgeous (-:

And this is where I will live when I take my holidays from now on (-:

The next series of photos are from the last day of hiking, at the Montafon. This magnificent area is where Ernest Hemingway once spent a few years skiing (-: Check the photos, and you’ll why he was inspired to write whilst living here!

Me and the man himself- Peter, standing on goats peak (-: Look at that wall behind us, just absolutely begging to be climbed and conquered!

Wow-wee! If thats not a postcard Kodak, I don’t know what is!

Myself, the Germknodel and a cold beer, life is so good I can taste it!

Looking back to say farewell to the what IS the Montafon, you will be forever missed! (-:

I would also like to extend a special, whole-hearted thanks to the Moosbruggers who really made a dream trip come true! (-:

Ok, I could not go without telling you about a really neat excursion I had the pleasure of enjoying last week. For Field Camp II, we spent a week doing all sorts of wonderful things. We stayed at the bottom of a ski lift in a dozen, small alpine huts. The view from our hut was tremendous!

The first few days were spent collecting data to calculate the differences in carbon sequestration of 2 stands that had different silvicultural (manipulating the forest) treatments. Wow, this was quite labor intensive!

But that didn?t mean we couldn?t horse around in the forest a bit!

The next day we went to Gesäuse National Park in Steiermark. This park was recently apportioned in 2001 and included many peaks over 2,000 meters (-: We hiked to the Hesshütte which was about 1,700 meters, stopping along the way for brief talks by the professors to give everyone a taste of high-alpine forestry and how it has evolved. For this day, the Masters Programme in European forestry joined us, as you can see in the below photo, we were quite a long line of us (47 in all!)

It is much more slippery than it looks! Completely covered our boots in ?Gatsch? (mud)! (-; The higher we hiked up, the better the scenery got!

We made a quick pause in an area that remarkably black soil. A professor told us that in former times the people that lived on this alp used to burn the trees to make charcoal to carry down on their backs to sell. This was because it was very difficult to drag or carry trees from the alp. Of course, some goof ball has to smear it on his face (-:

After a superb hot lunch at the Hesshütte of nudelnsuppe and a cold radler (beer with lemon soda) we paused for a lecture here. If lectures were held in this location everyday instead of the classroom, I would have absolutely no problem attending! (-;

Also, the view from the Hesshütte, simply magnificent isn?t it? (please excuse the dark blur towards the bottom left-hand side, my cameras lens cover has been acting up lately)

Along the path down, a random cow blocked our way, I took a funny video of the occurrence, which I will attempt to load, but here is a photo of the moment:

The very next day, we had the privileged opportunity to visit a private property managed by a monastery. In order to transport all nearly 50 of us, some had to jump in the trailer pulled behind a truck, what a wild ride!

For lunch, these young lads who worked for the monastery brought up a most delicious ?breidl jausen? which means mountain snack (my absolute favorite meal to enjoy on an alp!! (-: ). It was served as seen below with red deer meat jerky in several forms, bergkaise (hard mountain cheese) as well as fresh rolls in a variety of sizes.

We paused a few more times for the professors to speak a bit, I am especially infatuated by high altitude afforestation (tree regeneration and planting). You see, at high altitudes trees are especially stressed for growing conditions, so the individual microsite in which a tree can grow is more important than ever. This also depends on the purpose of the tree, whether it exist for avalanche protection, rockfall prevention or erosion control, a forest can be designed to provide what is needed by man, all the while mimicking the natural processes which have evolved to balance the ecosystem. I would absolutely love to develop a masters thesis on this topic (I hope- fingers super crossed!!). A short exam was given and then we all piled into the trailers again for a bumpy ride back down the mountain!

Check back for more blogs, I update them as quick as I can and you enjoy them at your leisure (-:

A nice, big reason I came to Austria was because of the rather extensive climbing opportunities. Currently, the country is going through a bit of a ?climbing revival? and climbing in all forms is more popular than ever with the masses enrolling at the indoor gyms and getting outside.

Well, as any semester exchange student knows, time is precious and always too little. So, my excursions to climb outside have been faaar too few (-; The absence of rock in my life was really getting to me, so I succumbed and a few weekends ago, Ben (a ski-touring friend of mine from the climbing course) and myself journeyed to a location just outside of Vienna near an old castle. We had to board the train with our bikes (a first for the both of us) and then ride from the train station at Bad Voslau to Merkenstein.

We worked some tough problems that day. This one above I nearly stuck, but that last move was a shoddy side-pull crimp that you had to torque on juuust right with the thumb to prevent the outswing, brutal! (-: Ben nailed it like a champ, the photo is of just before the last move:

We tried a bunch more problems, but my fingers were already spent (I know- what a pony I am!).

The ride back towards Vienna. Hopefully there will be more chances to climb before I leave Austria!

Bye!

Ok, allow me to brag for a brief moment. This month I have a total of 6 excursions (I already have had 3! (-; ), that is more than 1 per week! They take me all over Austria, from the snowy peaks of Styria and Tirol, to the bottom lands of Burgenland, this month I am REALLY making the most out of my magnificent stay in Austria (-: While traveling so much does have its drawbacks; laundry, increased expenses and different accommodations all the time, I absolutely feel it is worth every waking moment (-:

When I finished that last paragraph you just read, I realized I had a lot on my mind about BOKU and WVU, so in this blog I will dabble into some distinct differences between BOKU and US universities. After reading feel free to comment! Having spent time in 2 very different forestry programs, I feel I am ready to make a comparison. Before I get started, it is important to note that I did not follow a traditional program here at the BOKU, I am an exchange student and my brief stay, as well my American mindset probably influenced my feelings, they are very subjective.

I just want to say that no other University that I know of has as many travel opportunities as the BOKU (if you love to travel like me, it is simply amazing!). You see, at the BOKU, they realize a well-rounded student is a prepared student (for the working world) and so accordingly, they seek to expose their students as much as possible to outside influences. Very similar to what can be offered by my program at West Virginia University (-:

Education is largely state funded in Austria, and not privately funded like a few programs in the USA, perhaps BOKU professors are less influenced in how they want to structure their teachings. It seems to me that professors at the BOKU can continuously restructure/improve their respective programs to best suit the needs of the students, and in a rapidly changing society such as we live in, this is absolutely crucial. The private industry of the USA also has enormous incentives to innovate itself, but the push for a certain study program comes from a different direction (-; Maybe an academic program in the US follows the traditional ideals and values of the industry that supports it (when I say ‘industry’ I mean the forestry industry).

However, I am not trying to assert that the Austrian system is better. The USA situation is different because academic programs depend on outside funding and often, they would not exist without it. So there are objective reasons for a biased curriculum in the USA. In many ways this is essential because the local forestry industry guides the local employment which guides the specialized training of individuals (-; Maybe somehow the global perspective is missed (however, there are MANY exceptions to this).

Austria has its own issues relating to forestry. For one, there is such a small amount of forester jobs scattered around the country (it is quite small compared to ours (-; ). A market currently only exists for timber-based products and a few alternative products/services, so growth within the field is very limited. As a professor told me on our trip to an excursion last week, the forestry community is also extremely tight knit in Austria, you have to know someone, get a good research position at the BOKU or already be in “the group” to become a forester in Austria- otherwise you have to go to a different country (this happens often).

At the BOKU, I feel their active inclusion of numerous beneficial excursions, team-taught courses, international professors and a student-based administration make for an absolute winning combination, one where all students can benefit.

Ok, to summarize, I feel it is crucial that students get exposed to as wide a range of topics as possible, but without losing the focus that drives their programs niche. I think we can improve at WVU. We can start by actively encouraging students to study abroad and create opportunities for them to do this more easily. At WVU we should expose students to more global issues of forestry, we can prepare them to see the bigger picture. Build international relationships at an early age, there is so much to learn from fellow colleagues! I am tremendously grateful for my opportunity to study here at the BOKU, I hope I can inspire students to gather a more global perspective on forestry, so remember, “Think globally, but act locally”.

Wow! I did not mean to be so long winded, but I have a lot more I want to say about this, I already feel like I have blogged my brains out tonight (-;

Gute nacht!

I am extremely lucky to be here for the right time of year for one of the biggest sporting events to ever have graced the Austrian soil! For those who don’t know, the Euro 2008 is a football tournament. The biggest and by far most popular sport in Europe, it unites all the nations of Europe in a contest that seeks to find the better team in an arena where the world’s best players compete against each other. It unites entire countries, creates and destroys rivalries and finds a common goal (ok, bad pun!) for all European countries.

Although I am way out of the European football loop, but having played for a large part of my life on a team, I can appreciate a fine game of football (-: Wow, it is absolutely a treat to be here for the Euro!

I mean you can smell, even taste the energy of the people here in Vienna. Just last night, Austria played Poland and I have never seen so many people out in the streets in my life, I mean the whole city was alive and pulsating to that game! Then, my mind got completely blown away when Austria got a penalty shot at 92 minutes, such a rush!!! This means early next week, Austria will play Germany! I do not know which side to take, my fathers side (he was born in Germany) or the Austrian side (my current residence and favourite country of residence (-: ). I guess I just have to root for both teams, what a game this will be!! They have not met each other in the international arena for 20 or 30 years!

The matches are every day, which makes it sooo hard to do work because they are on at 6pm and then 8:45pm at night, prime study time! Well, I better go, Romania is playing Italy, it is tied at 1-1 and there are just a few minutes left in the match! Lets go Romania!!

First, if you have not already noticed from my other writings, I am infatuated by the mountains here in Austria (-: . Any course (or excuse!) that will place me in an alpine zone completely rocks my world. My heart really is in these high mountain regions, it is difficult for me to describe- but I just feel this sincere sense of belonging when I am up there. So, much to my pleasure, this past weekend was spent in Styria- a region I have been yearning to return to (-;

A little background behind the course. The alpine region of Austria is hugely susceptible to natural hazards. Coincidentally, mountain forests play quite a vital role in the mitigation of these risks. Protective forests serve the purpose just as it says- to protect against avalanches, torrents, rockfall, erosion and even things we take for granted- clean drinking water (thats me drinking right out of the stream below- absolutely delicious and refreshing water too!):

One of the many beautiful things about BOKU (the University I am attending here), is the ability to take all these excursions, there is no classroom lecture- it is pure work out in the field! However, for this course, to receive a certificate of completion, students must submit a management outline based on the principles learned on the excursion, no big deal (-:

The BOKU actually has a funny slogan on posters around campus of a student pole vaulting across a large creek (in former times they used poles to cross natural obstacles), it says “Und was studierst du?” (which means “And what are you studying”). Honestly, if I could develop a study program for myself, it would be based around excursions and field work (-;

The first day of the course was focused on avalanche mitigation. The site we visited formerly had avalanches that were sweeping down the mountain into the river of the valley and creating difficulties for a small hydroelectric power station. You see, the area has a long history of human usage (mostly grazing) and consequently, the natural timber line is much lower than the potential timberline, creating problems. So, a lot of effort is placed into afforestation in higher elevations of Austria. I would love to embellish more into it, but the problem was partially solved by constructing these expensive devices (note the small tree regeneration beneath them!)

I am continually impressed by the sophistication of the protection measures here in Austria. It also worth noting the upkeep of these protection devices is done by a farmers association, who owns the land, use it for livestock grazing, and live nearby. So, since there is not much government intervention (perhaps for the initial construction), it is in their best interest to promote and maintain these protective forests (-:

The photo above is at the top of the ridge, the snow is still nice and deep- even on the 1st of June! It made for some fun snowball fights too (-;

The second day was spent looking at erosion. To sum up the lecture for the day, as quoted from Professor Pitterle, ” Once you know the erosion process, you can develop the regeneration (of trees) process”. Below is a photo looking across the valley at one of the many stops we made. Note the bare ski slopes on the mountain across the valley and on the right-hand side. That is Scladming and was just rewarded a week ago to be the site of the 2013 World Downhill Ski Championship (-:

At the end of the day, our professor payed us all drinks at an alpine Hutte, and it was quite a lovely scene (-:

I hope you enjoyed reading about my excursion as much as I had the pleasure of enjoying it myself (-:

How could one study in Europe and not incorporate Amsterdam into part of their travels?! For a long time I had been looking forward to the easy canals, bicycling culture and endless partying (-: I met a friend of mine, Danielle from Brisbane, Australia when I arrived in the city. Although the weather was rainy much of time, it was still a great time just wandering around.

We stayed at a hostel near Vondel park, which is the largest city park in Amsterdam and near the “Museums Quarter” area- both quite pleasant. Of course we visited all the sites we could in the few days that we had, including the van Gogh museum (magnificent!), the Anne Frank Huis as well as the Red Light District (speaks for itself) and other main attractions the city had to offer. One rainy day we made an excursion to the nearby city of Harlaam. It was quaint smaller city best known for its shopping.

(the bike parking lot near the Centraal train station)

The bike culture is worth mentioning though. Never before have I seen a city soo saturated with bikes! I mean they are everywhere, it is by far the most common form of transportation. In fact, in many areas, the road was half for cars and half for bikes! Granted the narrow canal roads are not so keen for driving a car, it would only make sense to travel everywhere by bike (there are hardly any hills or inclines). I was just fascinated and blown away by these bikes!

Well, to conclude I would like to extend an apology for my blogging absence, life has been extremely busy lately, I have only been in Vienna for a few days the past few weeks due to excursions. Look to the next blog for me to describe my recent academic excursion to the lovely Austrian state of Styria (-:

Bye!

So yesterday I ventured to the highest mountain in Niederösterreichs (the state of Lower Austria). It is called Schneeberg, meaning “snow mountain” and is the source of the wonderfully delicious drinking water we have here in Vienna (since 1873!). It is also the highest eastern-most Alp, as well as the closest “real” mountain to Vienna. So, naturally, it was high on my list to conquer as soon as conditions allow (-;

The train ride from Vienna took about an hour and half and let me off in the valley of the foothills of Schneeberg, here she is- in all her glory:

I chose not to follow to popular hiking trails to the mountain and just followed the valley directly as possible to the mountain. I passed through meadows wet with dew and bursting with flowers, rushing streams and fresh, green grass. Did I mention alpine valleys are wonderful?! Some friends I met along the way:

Schneeberg was definitely a climb I underestimated! I did a lot of online researching/ translating to get beta on this mountain, so I was pretty well prepared. Since I went by myself, I tried to go light and fast, returning to Vienna by 6pm. Well, I surpassed my own expectations, made it to the peak in 3 hours instead of 3.5 hours (although I was turbo walking) and an elevation gain of 1400 meters. I really like hiking by myself, I think I might actually prefer it over hiking with others! I can go at my own pace, stop to make Kodaks when I want and just generally run my own show (-:

There was quite a lot of snow at the summit by the way, enough for about a half dozen skiers (I was secretly jealous I wished I brought some tele gear(-; )! Here is me at the summit:

A photo looking down into the valley and at the meadows where my previous photos were taken. It is a nice feeling knowing only hours earlier you were so far away (-:

Coming down I took a really way by following the Salamander cog train. Since I was feeling good, and I was alone, I ran a good part of the way down. Jumping from rock to rock and jogging the rest, I covered about 12km in 2 hours, with a stop for a pastry at a hut on the way down (-:

Hope you enjoyed my travelogue for Schneeberg, perhaps I can inspire others to climb it!

Ok, in my previous blog I had a lot of built up energy I had to let out. I feel much better having elaborated a bit about my feelings of Austria, but I don’t want to put everything in writing. I encourage you to develop a picture of the scenes I try to paint on electronic canvas (as well as come see Austria for yourself! (-: )

The past two days were a holiday from uni and so myself, a cool dude from Belgium (Rob D.) and two other Americans studying Organic farming (Josh and Rob B.) all went to Landeck, in the Tyrol of Austria. Landeck is at the far west of the state of Tyrol in Austria. It sits in a valley absolutely surrounded by majestic snowy peaks, alpine meadows and fast-flowing rivers. It is truly a uniquely serene area!

We went with an outfitter called Sport Camp Tirol (http://www.sportcamptirol.at/wir.en.html). The camp was situated right on the river and was run by a lovely, very-well English-speaking older couple. They have been running the Sport Camp Tirol for 21 years- check them out on the website! They offer numerous activities including rock climbing, mountain walking, whitewater rafting, whitewater kayaking, canyoning, biking, hiking and other summer activities. The guides and everyone was extremely laid back, really a neat operation.

The first day we got on the super-fast flowing river. Myself and Rob D. got in a two-person inflatable kayak or IK. That thing was unbelievably hard to control! I have some whitewater experience, but nothing prepared me for class III rapids in a heavy boat that was extremely difficult to steer. So, of course we got tossed out a couple times in the gnarliest of sections, that run down the river really knocked some sense into me, but atleast we still have lungs (from Hannes)!

Josh chillin out at our rest stop, you can see the IK on the shore behind him, now imagine 2 people in there, dangerous!

I do not have any photos of what we did the second day (waiting for them- may post them at a later date), but it was canyoning. I have a ton of respect for those canyoning guys, it is INTENSE! Canyoning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyoning) is a sport where you literally follow a river through a canyon, overcoming unimaginable obstacles. You are abseiling (rappelling) down through waterfalls, and the pressure of that water is unbelievably strong! It throws you every which way, pounds and pins you down. Sometimes there are slides and jumps and you can jump off, which is fun. Also take note to what feeds the rivers, GLACIERS! That water was just above freezing temperature! The water that is slamming you in the face when you descend a waterfall was recently snow!

The last day, we climbed a peak, the Krahberg. Looking at it from the valley in Landeck, we’re thinking, “yea there doesn’t seem to be much snow up there”. Whoa!! We essentially made our own trail going up, busting through the woods until we slowed to a crawl at the snow line. Rob B. broke trail for a while, then I broke trail. It was hard work because you would “post hole” or break through the stiff crust and sink down to your knees or thighs. So each step had to pound down the snow, but they also had to be slow and deliberate, often you were walking over rocks and hidden crevices. You see, the trees and vegetation melt the snow from underneath, making sink holes a real threat! We overcame the snow, and I stopped to take a photo here, here we are, no shirts because it was blazing hot with the sun out. Then the sun would go away and instantly it was cold enough for a jacket again! I just love high alpine weather (-;

A lovely view looking south, pretty much into Italy.

On the way up and down we are greeted by these nice springs. It is so great just to be able to drink straight out of the streams anywhere, can’t do that in much of West Virginia. Perhaps we should take note to the idea of protective forests in the USA more.

Not sure if I have posted any photos of there “grave gardens”, but this alpine town had a well-taken care of cemetery inside of the church grounds. Granted we came on Mother’s Day, it was still lovely.

The next photos are for those who enjoy cool alpine-style architecture!

Look! Its a llama! (I love saying that (-: )

Bye!