After the Culmann christmas party last night…
I got up at 5:50 am, showered, packed some foodstuffs, and headed off to meet Michael for a day of skiing. The train ride was fun, chowed down on some raw muesli that was actually amazing, and caught up with Michael. I was exhausted, but knew the feeling would pass. As we neared our destination, we passed an incredibly picturesque lake, slate grey beneath the sun-quenching clouds.
We hopped out, rented some skis–pricey! Made our way to the gondola, and arrived at the main ski area in time for a short lesson from Michael’s friend. Michael’s never done skiing before, so we worked on basic technique on the baby hill (literally, filled with Swiss parents and their cute little 4 year olds on baby skis). It was good for me, since I’d forgotten everything and I think I’ve only skiied once. Michael’s friend left, and we kept practicing.
After a while, I got bored of the baby hill and went in search of the T-bar. I made my way through rough snow and over random hills, finally reached it! The sun had come out and it was incredibly beautiful. I’m too lazy to insert the pictures, but go take a look at the image gallery! I finally updated it, it has all the pics going back to Venice :D
The hill was really fun! The first time I went down, I ended up going way too fast and was lucky not to wipe out epically. After that, I slowed down and got the hang of turns at incrementally higher speeds. I grabbed Michael, he tried to go down, wiped out a ton over a couple of efforts and went back to the bunny hill to refine his technique and avoid a frustrating mistake cycle.
I went down the T-bar a bunch more times. The weather oscillated from sunny to crazily foggy. At one point, I had a moment of sheer joy and euphoria–I couldn’t see anything but I could smell woodsmoke and feel the raw snow whip across my face :D :D
I went back, grabbed Michael, and we had lunch. We went inside a restaurant that we weren’t supposed to be able to eat inside and convinced the waitress to let us have a table, by letting her try to propose another option, conversing, realizing the other option wouldn’t work. This pattern is quite incredible (I noticed it back in Budapest)! People in positions of enforcing bureaucratic rules usually want to help you, so long as it looks like you have no other options, and they’re not being taken advantage of–legitimately you need help and they’re the only one who can help you (not some other restaurant you could equally well go to). I’d packed quite a smorgasbord of cheese and paprika chips and onion and bread and salami, and it was awesome! Michael’s incredible Migros butter biscuits for dessert.
We headed back out again; I tried the T-bar and noted with my new comfortable speed I’d get to the bottom in less than a minute! I decided to upgrade to a full lift ticket. Had a fun German conversation with the ticket attendant, a really nice old lady who was mad she had to charge me the full difference between my beginner pass and the full lift pass for the whole day (since the afternoon full lift pass was much cheaper than the whole day full lift pass).
It was getting late and I had to make the most of my new ticket! Went up the biggest lift–which I assumed was the beginner-friendly lift the ticket attendant had mentioned for some reason. It was absolutely beautiful. After about 10 minutes of ascent I started asking what I had got myself into.
Got off and started down! The hill was super steep and I wiped out nearly at the very beginning, and couldn’t get my ski back on. I worried that the binding was broken, and laughed at my predicament and risk appetite. But I was just doing it wrong, finally got it on, went down the rest of the hill, wiped out a few more times. The rest of the trail was awesome and terrifying. I kept wiping out but kept at it. Made it down, exhilarated, and boarded the lift again, with some Swiss dudes with whom I barely conversed in German.
The improvement was incredible! I barely wiped out at all, though my calves were feeling viciously exhausted by the end. I got the amazing feels of bottoming out on a steep hill with G-forces pushing one into the ground.
Talked to Michael, went down one more time. The snow was icier and it was a bit darker, so I wiped out more again, but soon cruised back to the lift station with incredible speed. Packed up my skis, made an asking for directions win, met Michael back at the gondola. Drank a beer at the bottom, then headed back by train. Learned a bit about Michael’s family and his past job–he worked on an oil rig, crazy! Chowed down on the rest of my food.
Got back to Culmann about 8:00, did laundry, made a quick and eggy dinner, commented on Brandon’s blog, started working on RandAlg sample exams. Then I wrote this log, and hopefully went to bed soon after.
Gratitude Journal
- The sun on the snow on the trees
- Leeroy lift run
- Moment of woodsmoke euphoria
- Delicious paprika chips
- Fun RandAlg exam questions
- Oh, didn’t mention this! Some people in RandAlg might be in for recreating a 33x style exam study session with the sample exams for the problem set, and getting food together into the bargain :D :D
Todo, Financial Edition
- Spend less money for the rest of the month ;)
- Get an internship and get more money (why, Google? Why?!)