Daddy, I'm dropping out of school and moving to Switzerland...

So Thursday afternoon we began a marathon train ride. The five of us, Trevor, Jenny, Bobby, Tristan and myself, were going to Gryon, Switzerland. But to get there we had to first take a 3+ hour train to Milan, and then a 3+ hour train Mountreau (spelling?) and then a 10 minute train to Aigle. All told, with train times and stops it took about 8 hours. Then we were picked up in Aigle and driven to the village of Gryon.

Elizabeth, the receptionist of sorts, showed us around the hostel and explain the (many) rules. We had a room to ourselves which was fantastic. Afterwards we were all outfitted with skiing/snowboarding gear. We called it a night pretty early because we had a 7am wake up.

At 7am we woke up to the most amazing sunrise I've seen in a while. The colors behind the mountains was fantastic. Definately a good start to a good day.



At 8am Matt ran a bus load of us out to the mountain...actually it wasn't a mountain at all it was a glacier. After a 45 minute to hour long ride we arrived at Glacier 3000 (as in 3000 meters high). The area was beautiful. I will have pictures posted but I'm not sure any picture could ever do the mountains justice. It was a bit precarious at first. They had some pretty easy runs for the beginners in our group but to get there you have to go down 2 rather steep hills. And if you don't go down the steep hills fast enough you end up stuck walking for quite a ways because it flattens out. The three beginners ended up walking most of the way, acutally i went ahead a little bit because I didn't want to pole the hole way to the first lift. I was able to do about 2 runs by the time they got there.

We did a bunch of runs at the baby hill. I felt bad, Jenny and I were the only skiers and I was really hoping I could help/teach Jenny a little bit, but know how to do something, and knowing how to teach something are 2 very different things. I couldn't help her nearly as much as I wanted to. But, that being said, Jenny knew enough to have fun so I was able to go off with Tristan and do a few intermediate/begginner hills. I didn't mind doing begginner hills because I wanted to stay with the group and the original plan was for everyone to ski the first day and then Trevor and I could ski some more advanced runs the second day. We had a lot of fun. The interesting thing about this mountain was that it only had 1 real lift, you pretty much always use T-bars...for long distances...which I hate! The second interesting thing was how spread out everything was...I ended up having to walk or pole a lot...which I also hate. By 2pm Tristan and I were exhausted and met Jenny and Bobby in the cafeteria. We had a pretty good lunch there and ended up meeting up with Matt, the owner of the hostel. We were supposed to meet at 4 at the van to ride back to the hostel but he wanted to do one more run and invited me with him. It was one of the longest runs I've taken. It started at the top of the mountain and went all they down to below the middle gondola stop. I didn't perform really which was kind of upsetting, I think it would have been better earlier in the day when the middle wasn't so icy and so many mogels hadn't formed yet...or if I had a few days or more advanced run to brush up...that was my first time skiing in more than a year! Although that run reminded me of one of my last runs, over a year ago...but the views were worth it...I think i held matt up because every once in a while I would stop and just take in the view.

We made it down to the van a little after 4 probably, but that was ok since I was with the driver. The drive back was significantly quieter than the drive to the mountain...everyone was exhausted. After showering up we went out to dinner...a 15 to 20 minute walk, uphill. I was impressed everyone was willing to walk after the day we had! The dinner was good...I didn't eat any traditional swiss food...mostly because the only traditional swiss food the restaurant offered consisted of bread and cheese...and I needed some protein so I had fajitas...but they were good fajitas...

After dinner we hungout in the house with the other guests and residents...a suprising number of people there were long-term visiters staying for months, the season or years. Many people started out like us, having visited for a week or weekend and then returning for a season after graduating college. All of the people were fantastic.

The rest of my group ended up going to sleep by like 9pm or 10pm. I, however, stayed up playing card games with some of the other people. Eventually we decided to head out to the one club in the area...and by area I mean 5 km away, or a 45 minute walk. ..not that we did walk...instead we hitched...now before you get scared or mad at me apparently hitching is part of the culture there, everyone does it and everyone picks people up, it's an accepted mode of transportation.

I was in the first car to get to the bar and we went inside and waiting for everyone else to show up. And show up they did, about the entire house minus my friends who were sleeping. We had a great night and everyone was really nice.

I ended up getting tired earlier than some people and started to walk home with a friend I had made from the house. At one point, about half way between the 2 villages we stopped on sidewalk and just looked up. There were no streetlights or cars or much ambient light from the villages and there were more stars than I have ever seen in my entire life. *

I thought I would get a chance to sleep in on Saturday because Trevor decided he didn't want to ski. I did want to ski but not enough to go by myself...I don't know the mountain at all, i didn't have my own equipment or helmet...not to mention I was exhausted. However we still woke up at 7am because of all the other people in the house getting ready to go out. So we graudally made our way downstairs and had some breakfast. After breakfast we decided to walk to Villars, the town I had gone to the night before and just walk around. So we walked the 5 km there and then wandered for a while. We had a cappucinno in a local cafe and wandered in and out of a lot of the shops.

After a while I realized how tired I was and I knew I probably was not much company so I decided to walk back. It started to snow when I decided to walk back so I ended up walking the entire 5 km in the snow, which was kind of fun. I was walking fast enough to keep me warm and it was remarkable how much the snow changed the view I had seen a few hours before hand.

When i got back I tried to read and tried to nap, both pretty unsuccessfully. When everyone came back we made some dinner and then just hungout in the Chalet for the rest of the night.

We played card games with a lot of the residents/guests and just chatted. I also participated in a "wine tasting" event which was definately one of the more interesting experiences. Apparently only a very small percentage of Swiss wines are exported so this was a nice oppurtunity to try wines I would not other wise have the chance to try.

I headed out of the wine tasting early because I know my limits and i was exhausted!

Today...although it already seems so long ago...we began another marathon train ride back to Venice, and this one was even longer. We took a train from Gryon to Villars and then a bus from Villars to Aigle, a train from Aigle to Montreau, a train from Montreau to Milan and finally a train from Milan to Venice. And once in Venice we had a half hour walk back to the house...which felt fantastic after an entire day of sitting.

All in all a fantastic weekend. The skiing was amazing, the views were even better and the people were the best, both the people I went with and the people I met there.


For pictures of the weekend click HERE

This movie is just a short clip of our train ride home from milan to venice...we had been traveling for at least 7 hours at that point, if not more...