Austria!!

We arrived in Austria yesterday!! Innsbruck is about 2 hours from the airport in Munich, so we took a bus up into the mountains, it was really cool to see as the mountains got bigger and bigger!

 some of the view from the bus on the way up to Innsbruck

there was a really cool train tunnel in the side of the mountain!

All the athletes are in an "Athlete Village", that only we can get into. In order to get in and out, you have to get your credential scanned, and coming back in you go through security, like in the airport except you get to keep your shoes on....anyway it makes it feel like a really big deal! Inside are a bunch of new apartment buildings with a few different countries in each one. We're sharing one with Canada!

 

the village 

 

my room

  

USA!

There's a tent next to our building for breakfast for everyone, and although there isn't a McDonalds inside like there was at the real Olympics, there are lots of CocaCola coolers filled with drinks that you just take for free, plus lots of bread, meat, cheese, cereal, yogurt, eggs, etc, lots of tasty food. For lunch and dinner there's a shuttle bus that takes us a few minutes away to a big cafeteria, also with really good food! I had vegetable strudel for the first time today!

This morning we got to go up to Seefeld to ski for the first time,  all the skiers got on a bus (like JOs!) to go over there. We drove down the valley, but then when we got off our exit the road switchbacked up a mountain, up to where Seefeld is. The roads are all really narrow, and this one had a 16% grade at times, so it was really exciting! As we got higher the view just kept on getting more spectacular.

The skiing up at Seefeld is awesome! There's a ton of snow, and the trails (that seem like they go forever!) and best of all, they were perfectly groomed! Our races will be on a 2.5k loop (for my 5k) and a 3.3k loop (for the mens 10k). We skied it a few times, its mostly pretty flat with a huge hill in the middle, and unfortunately a pretty straight shot downhill right after. The sprint course is only 1k, rolling with a big hill right before the finish lanes...they feel like they'll be really fun to race! Also, the ski jumps are right in the stadium there, so it was cool to be able to watch the jumpers practice.

Now that pretty much everyone's here, we have a welcome ceremony tonight and opening ceremonies tomorrow! It should be pretty cool...it was definitely a bit overwhelming at first getting used to everything, and seeing so many people, but I'm really excited to get to be here

 the jumps

 the village of Seefeld I think!

walking down from the venue

 

waiting at the bus stop....it's pretty beautiful here, and look how high the snow is!

Also, check the SMS blog (smsxc.blogspot.com) for more pictures and updates!