Attempting to Not Die While Skiing

  Zermatt, Swiss Alps, Switzerland
Monday, February 16, 2009

(For those of you who asked me to include more information about school, classes, etc. in my blogs, it's not going to happen for the rest of my time in Switzerland. My classes are too terrible to even mention, and it only makes me mad thinking about it ... so, enjoy the much more entertaining stories about my weekends ...)

Well, I accomplished my mission of not dying and not breaking anything while skiing in the Swiss Alps this weekend. However, that by no means implies that I did not hurt myself! Here goes ...

This ski trip was planned by the school, which was both awesome and not-so-awesome. The awesome part is that we didn't have to plan anything, make any reservations, and think at all really. The not-so-awesome part is that undergrads were involved. Now, I may be a million years old these days, but I wasn't an undergrad all that long ago. So, you would assume it wouldn't be that big of a deal. However, most of the undergrads that go to this campus are EXTREMELY "privileged." They seem to have endless amounts of money to blow on whatever they want and act like there is no one else in the world.

That being said, we got on the train at 2:00pm, and by, oh, I don't know, 2:02pm, they were slamming mixed drinks and screaming at the top of their lungs. I was on the trip with 4 other grad students, and we basically just watched the chaos for the next 4 hours placing bets on how long it would be until they started throwing up. In all seriousness it was like a car wreck ... you can't help but look.

We got into Zermatt at about 6:00pm, and quickly headed to our hostel to drop off our bags. Luckily, the total group, around 35 people, was split up into 2 hostels. We managed to score the nicer of the 2, but were sharing our room with 13 people! From what I heard about the other hostel, we definitely lucked out!  We had dinner, drinks, and went to a "club," but were in bed by midnight so we could be up early to ski.

At about 2:30am, the rest of the people staying in our hostel stumbled in. Clearly, they were not quiet about it. However, they were drunk, they were funny, and they were giggling (oh, I forgot to mention they were guys).

We got up bright and early to head out skiing. Erin and I were the only beginners in the grad group, but we joined 5 others and one of the school's "professors" who was going to "teach" us to ski. We took the lift all the way to the top, where we had heard the bunny slopes were located. Our "teacher" showed us how we should put our skis and then pushed us down the hill. Pretty much all of us wiped out. Some of the slightly more experienced/braver skiers headed down the next slope, b/c they assumed it was a beginner hill and would at some point end ... they were wrong! We didn't see them the rest of the day.

Erin's Frist Fall

I, on the other hand, was stuck w/ our crazy "teacher" the entire day. She basically screamed at us and belittled us all day long ... it was SO fun ;). The hills at the beginning of the day were difficult, but the longer we were on the hill, the steeper they got (and the more I wiped out). I was doing alright until I was flying down one hill completely out of control. Since nothing I was doing was helping me slow down, I headed for an embankment. I hit it going pretty fast and went flying. My skis flew off and managed to crack me across the top of my head. There was no blood, so the crazy teacher pushed me down the rest of the hill.

Maybe halfway down

The easiest part of our "hill"

By the time I got to the bottom (several hours after we left the top), I had a very nice sized bump on the top of my head. I decided I was definitely finished skiing and headed by to our hostel. When I got to the bottom of the hill, I found Sarah, who had a worse day than I did.  She apparently had a pretty horrible wipe-out and head to be taken off the hill by a medic. SAD!

FINALLY finished

Me and the Crazy teacher

I finally made it to the hostel about the same time Annie and Kieffer got back. They were a little concerned about the glossy-nature of my eyes and the giant bump on my head. We hung out there w/ some of the giggling guys from the night before, and decided it would be an awesome idea to go get a drink before dinner.We found a really busy bar (I used my Murphy's skills to get us a table), and we hung out there for a couple of hours ("drink" turned into "drinks"). We had a not-so-good fondue dinner, hung out for a little while, and then EVERYONE passed out early.

The Matterhorn on our way to drink

Sunday was very painful. I felt muscles I never knew existed before! Annie and I set up appointments for massages, and then we all walked around town looking at useless crap no one really needs. We had some delicious pizza for lunch and found a nice place to sit outside in the sun and drink hot chocolate. After that stressful morning, Annie  and I went to our massages. Pretty much immediately after, we went to the train station and headed back to Geneva.

That pretty much sums it up! In case you were wondering, Zermatt is the home of the Matterhorn. The shape of the Matterhorn is the inspiration/logo for Toblerone. Anywhere that is inspiration for chocolate, is fine by me

mmmmm Toblerone

Enjoy the pictures!