Arrows and the Lusthaus

I've joined an archery club. They meet three times a week in the small gym of a school about a five minute walk from where I live. I think it's been the best life decision that I've made in Austria yet.

Archery is good. Archery is simple. Archery involves only one person, the shooter. Granted, all the pressure falls on you unlike team sports, where everyone shares the load. When you hold a bow, no one else is there to aim the arrow with you. It's a sport that forces you into independence. I love it and I am afraid of it. When the arrow flies astray, there's no one to blame but myself. But when the arrow hits the mark, there's no one to congratulate but myself. Give and take. Win and lose. There's a lot of pressure.

The other members of the club are really fun and encouraging. I enjoy being there because when I hit the mark, I get a thumbs up. The small things can sometimes lift the spirit the highest. There's also playful banter between rounds, lots of laughing as we collect the arrows. Then everyone is silent as we concentrate on the targets together.

The other day it was more pressure than normal because I somehow found myself snug in between the club leader/world champ and his wife and 10 year old daughter. They all were amazing. Even though I was the poor boob who never shot the yellow center, the only grading scale is the one you've created for yourself through previous shots. Still... BWAH!

Anyway, they've loaned me gear and I'm with them on Wednesday and Friday evenings. It's good to have something to do, to belong to a group - even if ever so superficially.

The weekend was interesting and slightly bland. I remember wishing that Saturday was really Sunday. Weekends with nothing to do are the worst.

I had planned to go to either Passau or Linz on Saturday but Friday night's shenanigans nullified that plan. With a couple of students, I went to a discotheque and danced the night away. It was a very hot spot for young people, named the Lusthaus. Don't get the wrong idea - it's not the sort of lust that you may be thinking of. The worn has different connotations in German. Although this place was full of drinking, dancing, and carousing, it wasn't... very dirty. I'm grasping for words when I can't really think of the best way to describe it.

Anyway, lots of techno and heavy music. I was quite tickled to hear a techno remix of the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean! Who would have thought it possible... The student who drove asked me what discotheques are like in America and I couldn't really answer. Springfield, Ohio, is not really the place and I've never been with friends in a city where it's possible to go dancing. We always just did it at somebody's house. So I had nothing to compare the smokey interior, flashing lights, wagon wheels and vines on the walls, of this discotheque with. The Lusthause I went to was divided into two rooms. One was the modern, techno, dance floor room and the other was... a mixture of the American West and the Austrian past. Saw a handful of my students and went home around 2am. Slept in late and didn't feel like I could utilize the day adequately with a trip. And very few trains run on Sunday. So plans were mooted.

Instead, I spent Saturday night walking around my town, window shopping and enjoying the fresh, crisp air. I had hoped that the Christmas lights would be illuminated but they weren't. I'm going to wander downtown again this evening to give them another check. It should be very impressive once they are lit up; the entire central square is bedecked with lights.

Other things I've done this weekend:
- Watched "The Hotel Venus"; an awesome Japanese movie (filmed in Russia with dialog in Korean - English subtitles!!)
- Crocheted an entire hat
- Read 80 pages of both Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down and Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
- Watched "Braveheart" for the first time and was not terribly impressed. Bagpipes are NOT musical! What was played throughout the entire movie were either hearthside pipes or Irish pipes. Blargh, my piping self was laughing quite a bit.
- Ran straight for 50 minutes and didn't feel pain at all. Today was a good day for the athletics.

Meanwhile, does anybody want a kitten? My parents are overrun at home with the cutest kittens you could imagine. I kid you not!