Ski Week

Hello anyone. I say anyone because I have no idea who is even going to read this, but I thought it would be a good idea to make one in case people wanted to check to see whether or not I was still alive. Its been three weeks and I still don't start class for another week and a half. So for the last month its been skiing and looking at old European buildings and drinking. Thats pretty much it.

The ski week was incredible. I won't get into much detail about it because it I will just go on and on about how much fun I had and then I might get some hateful comments. Our hotel was literally on top of a mountain and there was a string of towns down a the bottom. You could ski down the mountain, and take lifts up the other side of the valley and ski everywhere. To get supplies (more vodka) you literally had to ski into town with a backpack, walk with you ski boots into the store, load up, and take a series of chutes and ladders to get back to the hotel. The whole trip takes about 2 and a half hours. If I remember correctly when it was my turn to go I was hauling 7 liters of vodka/chaser back up to the hotel. It sucked but it was a price we were willing to pay. I mean, we didn't know each other that well so the solution for that was to just drink and then get to know each other!

So our week consisted of waking up at 8, skiing all day, and drinking all night with 3 meals in between. There is a form of skiing happy hour I believe is called "apre shei" witch is a french/german word that means "after ski"; you pretty much hang out when the lifts close, drink scnapps, and watch the sunset over the mountains. The picture above shows just that.

Oh yeah something else: I almost died. I remember the most common piece of advice I got before I left was "don't die". This would be a typical conversation leading up to my departure:

Friend: Oh you're going to Austria for a semester. Sweet man....don't die.
Me: Uh, OK. Don't you mean "have fun"?
Friend: Oh yeah, that too. But seriously man...don't die.

So I started to take that to heart. But when I think "don't die" I think "don't get mugged in the Bermuda Triangle in Vienna like Kojich did (Oh by the way Bruce Murray brought up that story and told people he would rather they be home before 12. Obviously that won't happen but its amazing how Kojich's shenanigans and antics 2 years ago affect my fun in Vienna today). So anyways, back to my original story...

It was about day 2 or 3 of ski week where I hit some ice and just lost it. I had two options: Run into a guy I was skiing with and take him down the mountain with me or fall earlier and only take myself down the mountain with me. So being the nice guy that I am I sorta fell "on purpose" and prayed I would stop before falling "out of bounds" on the mountain. Well I'm here today so that means I did, but it was kinda close. My water bottle shot out of my pants and was never seen again (Those of you who are facebook friends with me can see Bode's lovely artwork of this happening). Anyways, it was a lot of fun but I had one close call. Thanks for the warning Dana...

Alright I'm sick of typing so I'm gonna go nurse my headache from last night. Next post's comments will involve Vienna, Prague, and my Iranian roommate Javad! In the meantime I leave you with a Dwight Schrute-ism:

"People say, 'oh, it’s dangerous to keep weapons in the home or the workplace'. Well I say, 'it’s better to be hurt by someone you know accidentally than by a stranger on purpose.'" - Dwight Schrute, Assistant to the Regional Manager

Peace