Germany and Austria are Awesome!!!

My winter break has been awesome so far. My parents moved to Germany this year and my sister and I are visiting them over the break. We spent 2 days at their house in Weinheim which is in Badem Wuttemberg in the west central part of Germany. Where they live is awesome it isn’t super cold and they have mountains with hiking trails right next to their apartment. Everyone has nice cars in Germany too. I think at least 1/3 of the cars are Audi or BMW. For the past 5 days we have been downhill skiing in Innsbruck, Austria and it has been amazing!!! They had the 1964 and 76 winter Olympics here. It is a small city surrounded by huge snow capped mountains. There are over 15 ski resorts within an hour of town and a free bus to take you to them. Yesterday we skied at a glacier on top of a mountain at over 11,000 ft altitude. They had awesome snow. The longest run I did was about 14 km long!!! They also have XC ski tracks everywhere too. If you know me you know I say I want to move to nearly every place I visit and the same goes for here. It is probably about 5 times better than Colorado because the mountains are much closer to the city and they have way more places to ski. I have been practicing my German from high school with people on the ski lift too and am not doing to bad. I remember a lot more German than I thought I did and have been conversing with people about skiing, bike racing, college and American politics. I think everyone here really likes Obama.
So here I have tried a new kind of beer every day since it is relatively cheap at restraunts and costs about as much as bottled water. One of my new favorite beers is called Radler. It is a about 1/3 lemonade and 2/3 beer which may sound gross but it is actually amazing! In German Rad means bike so Radler is a beer designed to be drunk during breaks on long bike rides! Tomorrow we are going to Munich for 2 days and then we are going to the Netherlands to visit my cousins and then go to watch a Superprestige Cyclocross race!!

Finals Week

This is finals week. It is really hard to study for some reason. I only have one class that I really feel like I need to study hard for. Micronutrient metabolism really stinks!! It is very difficult and involves remembering lots of carrier proteins and enzymes. Hopefully I can pull off a B in the class. I finish up on Wednesday and then I am going to visit 2 dietetic internship open houses. the first one is in Cincinnati and the second is in Dayton OH. Hopefully I will find one that I really like and where they like me. I have narrowed down the places where I am gonna apply to 5. I am gonna apply to programs in Peoria, IL, cincinnati, Dayton, Chicago and Indianapolis. I find out on April 20th where I get placed. I am also getting pretty excited for the winter break because I am gonna go visit my parents in Germany! We are gonna go skiing in the Austrian Alps for a few days and go see a super prestige cyclocross race in the Netherlands. It should be an awesome trip. I hope I still remember some german from high school. When I get back it will be time to get down to some serious training. Hopefully there is some snow here too so I can do a little bit of cross country skiing! This past weekend was pretty fun we had over 20 people come to our house for a dinner party potluck! We didn't have enough places for everyone to sit but it was a good time and a lot of good food. My girlfriend came from Illinois to visit me too which was pretty awesome. I am leaving Sunday for Germany. Wish me luck on my finals!

I need to start training

Last week was more fun and relaxing. We not totally. I got a cold after the trip to kentucky and it just won't go away. I don't feel very bad but if I don't get a good nights sleep or I try to do a bunch of exercise I start coughing more. I was planning on doing a cross race in Chicago but decided it wasn't worth the risk of making the cold worse. I had a pretty good weekend though! I went to visit my girlfriend at the University of Illinois on Friday evening. Saturday we went ice skating and to a christmas parade!!! We picked up a bunch of candy and got interviewed for the local news. We got to be on TV for like 10 seconds which was pretty cool. Sunday I drove to chicago to return my and my roommates( Chris and Greg) bikes to Turin. Instead of racing I watched with some people for a little bit then had lunch in China town with a friend of mine high school who is going to IIT. I have 2 weeks left until the end of the semester and have some serious studying to do. Good luck to everyone racing cross natz!