Switzerland: Day Two

Ok, so day two in Switzerland (April 2) was our first day of Skiing, and my first time to ski in 5 years. That's too long!!! Anyway it was mostly uneventful except that it was crazy fun skiing. When we first arrived at the top of the Glacier (that's right, we were skiing on a GLACIER) we had to go down this HUGE slope, which I promptly fell on. So did everyone else. Bad place to start when you haven't been skiing. Then we had to push ourselves along a long flat area (because we didn't get any speed from the hill we fell down) and then finally made it to the lifts. I skiid with Marcus, Jamie, Natalie, and Bo. For a while I was with Jim and Dave but they were in a hurry and took off to the triple black suicide slopes while I was still trying to remember how to ski. Jason and Lauren (Cathcart) were with us for a bit as well but they took off before too long. So Marcus, Jamie, Natalie, Bo and I had lunch at the very top of this glacier, which was neat.

Natalie and Bo at the top of the glacier restaurant


Yeah. That's where we ate.


And that's where we were skiing

So we skiid for the afternoon, then we took the gondola down to the base of the mountain to meet our ride and found out that BESS BROKE HER COLLARBONE!!! To read more about this amazing saga, check out Jim's Amazing Power Blog. While you're there you can read the entire page he wrote, it's quite good. But to anyone who is a skeptic that I missed the train because of a slow italian... potete saltarli verso l'esterno il vostro asino perche io non sono bugiardo! But seriously, Jim tells a great acccount of the Swiss Miss-tery weekend, so read it.

After the ride down and the shocking news we went to the Swiss Thermal Baths where we learned some interesting things. First of all, the changing rooms are wet and cold and you have to get totally naked without being able to very effectively lock the doors from people trying to get in from both sides. Yeah, that's great. Secondly, nude saunas are kind of gross, and when you're at a spa with 18 people you know they can create awkward social situations. Thirdly, after sitting in a freaking hot sauna for a while you should definitely jump in the cold water dip or use the cold water bucket. It's good for your sleen or something. And it feels so wierd. Fifthly, I love the penguin room at the spa, its like a reverse sauna, it is foggy and cold and drips ice on you while you stand there in your skivies. Yessssss....

And sixthly, I read french. Yes it's true! That dirty forsaken language is now comprehensible to my italian, spanish, and english speaking mind. I sure as heck can't speak or understand that nasty tounge, but I definitely was able to tell where I was supposed to have my swimsuit on an off and exactly how they recommend you use the towels and where the floor is slippery and so on and so on all written exclusively in French. It's amazing. After I realized I could read the French in the Spa I decided I would try it everywhere, and yeah I can read it in the train station and on the ski slopes and whatnot. It's kind of like the way I hear Italian, I don't know exactly word for word what's going on, but I can just tell what the idea was. So if they say "You must carefully approach the counter, place money on the table, and spin in a circle" I would probably read it "Something about going to the counter carefully, then put money above the table, or... on the table, and rotate." So it's not perfect, but it certainly kept me from walking into the women's locker room and stuff. Well I probably could have done that anyway, but I seriously was able to read French. Cool huh?

Anyway after the spa experience we went home and made hamburgers. Jason and Jason and I cooked with some help from Jim and Lauren Cathcart. And it was good. No, it was amazing. Thus concluded day two, which brings me to Sunday Sunday Sunday, aka Switzerland: Day Three!