1st Week

The first week here was a good week. We got to see many people from last year and got to spend a little bit of time with some our friends. Katy and I both agree that even though we were home for 3, 3.5 months it feels like we never even left. We just sort of snuck right back into things here and it has been great coming back somewhere we feel comfortable.
When we got here on the first day we walked into out apartment and expected to find everything the way we left it. Not so...but in a good way. The lady who is in charge of the apartments this year really put a lot of work into our place and totally made it feel like a brand new place. She painted almost every wall, brought in a new table, changed the blinds on the windows, brought some news rugs in and decorated on of the walls with some paintings. We were so surprised when we walked in as we had no idea this had happened. The place has a totally different feel to it now - the atmosphere feels much lighter and brighter, and much more comfortable to be in.
The weather here is a little bit different than it was back home when we left. Back home it was shorts and t-shirt weather, here it is a little bit colder. If you go out in the morning or in the evening you need to have a long sleeve shirt or sweatshirt on or you will get a little chilly. We had a nice weekend this past weekend and the people here say that it was probably the last nice weekend (it got up to 82).
So I guess the tranisition to fall starts will start a little sooner here.
Speaking of this weekend, we went swimming with some friends on Sunday. The air was nice and warm but when you got in the water it was cold. We went swimming in a lake about an hour away from here, just at the base of some of the mountains. I think a lot of the water comes from the mountains and thats why it is so cold. It was a very pictuesque place and we spend half the day swimming, relaxing and playing games by the water. It was a blast. It was interesting when we were swimming to see the other people. Here things are a little bit more open or free (I guess you could say) and there were little kids all over the place who decided their swimsuit wasn't needed. Maybe up until 4 years old or so little kids were running around with nothing on. I guess its not that big of a deal, just a little out of the ordinary if you are not used to it. Oh, and I thought I might be out of place with my swim suit and find myself in a land of speedos, but a lot of the younger people have swimsuits or board shorts on. Who knows maybe if we get lucky enough to have another nice weekend and some time off from bball we can try to go again. (After swimming we stopped at a little place to eat and you can see behind Katy the lake where we went swimming).
As far as basektball goes last week was a good week. It was nice to get back and see the guys from last year again and to meet a couple new teamates. We oficially start practice next Monday and 2 more guys will come in this weekend but it was nice to get some basketball work in last week with the guys we did have.
Other than that all is well from the land of Lederhosen, bubbly water and Schnitzel. I think we are finally starting to adjust to the time difference and are starting to be able to sleep through the whole night.....a definite positive.
Check back next week to see how things are and until then hope all is well wherever you might be.