My Birthday and the Break / Reggie's Gone

On the 16th of February, I had my 17th birthday. The party had been in the works for a couple of weeks and the day right after that was a week-long semester holiday. Here are my pictures of both.

My night started off in Gösser Brau, the official restaurant of the Gösser beer brewery, classic Austria.

In the cellar, you could rent the room for the night, and aside from the big table was a Keggeln lane. Basically nine pin bowling.

This was dinner: Everything and the kitchen sink.

Most of my class made it out, it was really fun to mix exchange students and class mates.

And my favorite Austrian also came: My host cousin Matthias.

At the end of dinner, My classmates came together and got me a classic Steirish hat. If you walk five minutes where I live, you cant count on two hands, how many elderly guys wear these. it was really emotional and truly made the night.

THis was taken back at the house where we all came for a delicious chocolate and banana cake iris had made me for my birthday.

Garner how old are you bro.

My bro Thomas showing me up on the fiddle.

An obligatory selfie.

If there are enough girls, garner will dance. A true sight.

~

The very next day on Saturday, we drove up to Turrach, a ski area frequented by my host family. There's good slopes, a nice park, and some cool backcountry options. Even more so when you ride with someone whos way better than you i.e. my host brothers

Flo showing me how to wax skis

Me waxing my own skis

Avalanches don't scare me

Very cold

Whats the point without style?

A little after dinner fun:)

A not so helpful side effect of 2 feet of powder overnight

Powder buds 4 lyfe

You can find beauty without the human footprint. 

~

The last selfie

Well after a couple of weeks of talking about it, Reggie made the executive decision to leave for home. Based on medical reasons, it was a respectable decision, however, the loss of a friend is not taken easily by those left behind.
We had a dinner at his host mom's house and eventually migrated back to mine to hang out one last time in the cold, between the mountains. Due to the exchange of a power adapter earlier in the year, we had to once again exchange them, a final act that made his leaving all too real.
I had gone upstairs to get Reggie's charger and as I came down, he was standing right at the gate of the stairwell. I went to hand him the charger but he refused and said we got to go all the way to the door.
When got there he laid his charger down on a shelf and I did the same. I lowered my gaze because I felt tears prickling and he asked when I was coming to Kansas. I told him maybe the summer after this one and then he said well I guess the better question is when am I coming to Texas.
He said he could probably do it this summer.

"So this is it", I said.

"In 6 months you become one of the best friends I have ever had", He replied.

 We hugged and he opened up the door. Pausing to take a look back, I did my version of the boy scout salute.
Then he was gone.