the wonders of wine (6/20/11)

Skype is so awesome! I just got to talk to Apeksha (even though I'll see her in a couple of days!), and before that, I skyped with Lisa for 2+ hours about IV stuff for the fall :) definitely a lot to pray for and prepare, but I know God will provide. It was really encouraging, both IV-wise and personally, just to be able to talk to and pray with a fellow believer.
Otherwise, earlier this evening, I got my first real tastes of wine at my first ever wine tasting. Walter, the "head" of the household here, is really educated about a lot of things, including wine, so he held a wine tasting for us with five different wines from this region. He told us a lot about the history of wine-making and of the Tyrolean region, which was pretty neat, and then he described each wine as we tasted them. I still really can't stand the taste, but I was able to get them down. I wonder if I'll ever acquire a taste for alcohol...we'll see. They also served the crunchiest bread I've ever eaten (thank goodness my braces are off!) with salami and cheese, yum. There also happen to be several guests visiting the castle this week all at once, so we met a couple of them--both professors, just at different universities. I talked for a bit with Kirby, who teaches at University of Massachusetts, and that was pretty fun.
Tomorrow, we'll be making chili as part of Dr. Redman's "Texas in Tirol" tradition as a repayment of the hospitality and wonderful food we've been given here. I'm not the biggest chili fan, but cooking for a big group with a big group is exciting! And we'll get to use Brigitte's kitchen, so that should be fun.