Skiing Lessons and Other Weekend Adventures

Liz and I took to the Alps this weekend for our first real attempt at skiing (Liz's ski outings on fake snow with Youth Group in highschool excluded). Having purchased our ski jackets and pants in the US and having rented skis, boots and poles in Zurich (from a man wearing sparkle jeans) for the remainder of the season, I think enough time and money had been spent to actually convince Liz to get out on the slopes. The closest (and most crowded) mountain is only about an hour away by train, so we decided to book a lesson for Saturday and give it a shot. All of the locals wear their ski boots, which Liz said looked and felt like "moon shoes", from their homes to the slopes and back without changing, so we figured we should probably do the same - what a delight. We are packed into these things trying to make our train and when we finally get to the train, it is already filled with other people headed toward the mountains, mostly hippie-looking 16 year olds, gearing up for the day with their generic-label Red Bull.

We get to the mountain and navigate through the crowds. As we are waiting to meet our instructor for the 2 hour lesson, we realize that pretty much everyone else waiting with us is either under the age of 4 or speaking very good English (meaning that they are probably not from the area). We meet our instructor, who was very nice, and start to go over the basics (ie how to even get our skis on..), but by the first hour we were already doing well on the bunny slopes. Liz claims that she is better than me, but I think that I just let her think that so that she will keep going with me. The second hour got more interesting. As we move to some bigger hills our instructor says "just follow me for awhile down here". Well, we moved from a slope of about 15 degrees to a slope of probably 3 times that and let's just say that I wasn't too adept at stopping. I picked up some pretty good speed and realized that the only way this was going to end was with me on the ground, so I just made it happen. I believe that Liz was falling at the same time, but I was pretty far ahead of her, so she was able to deny it.... The rest of the second hour went well and we are now feeling pretty confident in our beginner skills. We will most likely go back next weekend and give it another try.

Sidenote: Our teacher, like many German speaking people, did not pronounce his V's very well. Even though, German has a sound similar to our V, most pronounce it like a W, which became evident when he said follow me into the Walley (Valley). We started to chuckle and talk to him about it (he was pretty easy going) and then what's funnier is that he said, "I should know how to pronounce it - I lived in Wancouver for 6 months". Obviously there are many German sounds we cannot yet pronounce, but still pretty awesome.

We are sorry we didn't have the camera along, but when we left Zurich it was overcast & crappy & we were afraid of falling on it & smashing it to smitherines. But, the weather was perfect, the Alps views Amazing, and us with no camera, no sunblock, no sunglasses....you live & learn I suppose. We will try and get some photos next weekend, we'll see.

Today we had breakfast and went for a hike up the Uetliberg (a small "mountain" just outside Zurich City) with our Australian friends, which was a good way to work out our leg pains stemming from our skiing on Saturday. It was a good hike and the weather cooperated for the time we were out (right at the freezing mark here - sorry to all of you in the Midwest suffering from Global Cooling). We had a small lunch and a few beers afterward - good Sunday as well.