From Austria, With Love

I've been here four days now and I've just now found time to talk. In 30 minutes, I will board the media shuttle to the Opening Ceremonies. It's located at Innsbruck's iconic ski jumping venue, so stay tuned for those photos. My first couple days have been filled with training, interviewing and writing. I've filed three stories so far. Click HERE to read the first published article.

It's not too cold in the city. Even in the mountains, it's only freezing when the sun isn't shining. My hotel is very nice and the area surrounding it is filled with restaurants. I've already had pretzels, schnitzel, gulash and my share of beers - all Austrian/German delicacies. It's been great to meet the other "young reporters" and "mentors" again.

My first two assignments have been to report on training for ski halfpipe and luge, both outside and in the mountains. I think most of my days will be spent in the great outdoors, rather than inside watching hockey or curling. I've never seen halfpipe in person and it looks totally different than what I've seen on TV. Since training hasn't started, my job is talk to athletes and come up with a story. So far I've written about the different halfpipe tricks and interviewed a US bobsledder and US luge athlete.

Click HERE to see photos of my first few days.

German Translation of the Day: thanks = danke