Back in the Sattel

You may be confused by what you see before you.  Maybe because you're looking for a blog about funny things that happen in Austria and this looks to be a blog about a cycling trip.  Maybe because you're looking for a blog about cycling and this blog is littered with comical umlaut words.  Maybe because you never understood those silly bikes with one big wheel in the front and one tiny wheel in the back.

On a bike, in Austria

To address these questions: this blog was originally intended to keep my friends and family apprised of my life as an English teacher in Austria and to offer unsolicited lessons in German vocabulary.  It was called "Scott's Fingerspitzengefuhl" - a pun that was amusing to German-speakers with low standards of amusement.  It has since been renamed "Scott's Sattelsitzengefuhl" - a made-up riff on the original title that translates to  "the feeling of sitting on bike seat."  As this is a feeling that will be setting the tone of my summer, I thought it would make an excellent title.

Beginning on June 19th, I will set off with 30 other young adults from Portland, Maine en route to Santa Barbara, California as a Trip Leader with the group Bike & Build, which organizes these rides as fundraisers for affordable housing groups across the U.S.  I'll post info about my trip up here as often as I can this summer, but for all you impatient information junkies, here is a barrage of links:

-You can find more info about my route, Maine to Santa Barbara, here
-You can read my official Bike & Build Biography here
-You can make a small, but significant donation to the cause here
-You can watch a GIF of a dog wrapping himself in a blanket here

Thanks for checking out the new blog and I hope that you will stop by again soon!