#ski week

Schladming - March 5 - 12

Okay, before I get into this, I want everyone to know I am mostly okay and only hurt my knee a lottle...

I cannot even begin to explain how fabulous this week was.                It started out a little panicky in trying to make sure I made it to the right trains and stops to meet up with people.                I was lucky enough to only have one train by myself (from Melk to Amstetton) before I met up with people. My ‘people’ was Grace! She met me at the top of some stairs with her family and together we made our way to the private room things.                We had a weird British guy who worked on the train talk to us for like 10 minutes. And I don’t mean weird, I mean weird. Like, 100% creep factor. I think he meant well but he just gave off the creepiest vibe ever.                We had a good catch up and listened to some music for the hour we had. Well... most of it. We stopped in Linz for a few minutes and Grace thought she saw Vytis and a few other students get on the train. Like, they were in the station and she just leaps out of the train and runs down to where she saw them then gets back on and walks through a few carriages to get back because we were leaving. She then walked the length of the train trying to find these guys but it had seemed they were on another train.                It was actually so funny. Like, she was puffing when she first came back, then she was dying from laughing because some lady talked to her and asked what she was doing because by that point she had walked past like four times.

At our next stop (Attnang), we got on a new train and ended up with oldies! And Vytis! We found space for our bags in one of the little room things then went to where the party was at. Seriously, it was just loud music and food and Hello Kitty champagne because we have no class.                In the little room thing that should seat no more than like six, we had at least nine people, plus bags. I think at some point we may have had like 10 or 11 people in there. It was carnage. Food was dropped. Drinks were spilled. People were sitting on people.                  In the room with mine and Graces bags, someone (I’m looking at you Grant) dropped a mostly full bottle of juice or something because the floor was sticky for the rest of the trip.                We had taken over three rooms. One was just South Americans. I can’t remember who it was exactly but there were four or five of them. Then there were the oldies (Grant, Hannah, Chloe, Jadon, and Sharon) in mostly one room. Then myself, Grace, and J-Max in amongst it all.

We had a half hour stop in some place where we just kinda sat and waited. Grant and I went exploring for a bathroom and Grant found a wonderful surprise. In the urinals were soccer goals. I’m not even kidding. He dragged me in to the toilet to show me the soccer urinals. It was ridiculous.

Our next train was more tame as we didn’t have any rooms. We were just in carriages with the public. Most people slept or tried to. I just listened to music and looked at the mountains.

After five hours and four trains, I finally made it to Schladming. We were the second to last train to arrive so a lot of people were already there. It was so great to see everyone again. You would not believe how much a missed them.                We waited around for about half an hour before everyone arrived. I think the newbies had all but two, it was originally three but Chelsea decided to surprise us. I met a whole bunch of people who I’ve been friends with on facebook and snapchat for months (shout out to Giulia who I’ve been friends with on snapchat since I first arrived in this country and didn’t know who you were).                We got on some buses and eventually made it to where we were staying (Feriengut Sieterhof) and slowly made it up to our rooms then into the little town where the Ski School was to rent our stuff (I think it’s called Rohrmoos-Untertal).                That was entertaining. I accidentally got ski boots that were too small and had to swap them the next day when I was near tears from pain.

At dinner that night, I can’t remember who I sat with but we had a good time. I think it was oldies because they said Doris was saying more details in German than in English when explaining what was happening that week.                After dinner, we all just chilled in the games room or our rooms and caught up with everyone.

Everyday was mostly the same so I’ll just give a general run through:

·         Breakfast at 7.15. We had free range of breads and meats or fruit or cereal.

·         The bus to take us to the school arrived at 8.30something so we had to have our boots on and our gear ready to leave the house at 8.15. We would then walk up the driveway and chill in the snow until the bus arrived.

·         Our lessons didn’t start for ages, I still don’t actually know what time they started, so we would put our skis/snowboards on the ground and stand or sit or have snowball fights until instructors arrived.

·         Lessons went until 12.15ish so we had time to either get to the bus or get down to the restaurant.

·         If we had lunch in the hotel, we were taken back to the ski school at about 1.45/2 for free time.

·         Dinner was at 6 and that was when we had to be back. Most went back at about 4/4.30 when the lifts started to close.

·         Free time until we had to be in bed. We couldn’t leave the building and we had to be in our rooms at 10.

·         Repeat the rest of the week.

Day one:

It was a mess.                I’ve only been skiing once before and that was like five years ago, so after changing my boots so my feet didn’t go numb, I went into the very beginner group. This was both the best and worst decision of the day. It was good because I was taught how to do everything from scratch but it was awful because the instructor was a butt and we went down a tiny little hill over and over and over again AFTER we had skied around in a circle for like an hour with one ski on then the other then both and no poles then both and poles. It was awful.                The next bad decision of the day was deciding to be in a squad with Brice and Connor, as well as Laura who joined in on our bad idea. We went down past the bunny slope we were learning on and followed a path to for a blue. But instead of following the blue and probably turning right, we turned left, like a bunch of idiots. Wanna know what was left? A FREAKING RED.                I have no regrets in doing sad red, it was hilarious, but the fact that none of us had every really skied before that day and the first slope we went down optionally was a red just really goes to show how smart we are.                The worst part is we went over a road really fast and had to go up a hill then stop just before the lip of the hill. I fell over trying to get over the road. Then we went down to the lip and only then did we figure out this was indeed not the blue.                So, being the stubborn people we are, we decided against the walk of shame back up the hill and tried to follow the road back to the top. When that didn’t work we decided to go down the slope. This was our next mistake.                It took us no less than 45 minutes to get down. This slope had three different parts, each varying in steepness. So, naturally, when I ate shit on the first part a third time and lost one of my skies, I just gave up and slid down on my butt to the next level.                On this level, we all had the same tactic: go slow, go almost straight across the slope, and when you get to fast, fall. This actually worked really well. Aside from Laura losing her skies a lot, we made it down with ease. And by ease I mean Connor and I were both covered in sweat and we all agreed we peed our pants at least a little. Fun times.                The next slope we did took about as long but it was my fault. Also, it was the redist freaking blue I’ve ever seen. We all ate shit right at the start and it wasn’t even steep. Then it got steep and it sucked. I threw my knee out a little and kept falling over and I just did not have the strength to get back up. I got down eventually then we headed back to the hotel because it was like 4.30 or something at this point.

The next day was a lot better.                I moved up a group and had a much nicer, more chill teacher. We also made it off the bunny slopes.

The next day was mostly the same only I moved up a group.                I liked this teacher a lot more. He was chill. He had us take a chair lift to a pretty long blue that had like three different ending points.                We ran that all morning, taking the different paths. We also had a wonderful time where he had us lay on the ground after a bad run and made us stand up both with and without our sticks.                After lunch, I think we just did that slope again a few times before calling it quits.

Tuesday was a lot better.                We made it halfway up the mountain! Our instructor had us go down a pretty chill blue a few times and made us lay down so we could learn to get back up after a pretty messy run.                Once he was confident in us, we went up the chair lift again but instead of going down the blue, we went up a slight hill, over a red, down part of said red, or maybe it was blue, to another lift. The red/blue to get to the second lift was actually pretty fun. It was kinda steep so you could get some speed without any effort. It was nice.                The chair lift took us halfway up the mountain to a few reds. We waited for everyone, had some stuff explained, then followed the instructor over a lip, down part of a red, onto a blue. It was actually pretty fun. There was a bumpy part for jumps and a few really straight parts you could get some nice speed on, and a few parts that were only mildly intimidating.                That afternoon, a group of us did the run again before calling it quits and going back. I believe it was that night we went to a Rotary meeting. It wasn’t really a meeting. More of a ‘here is some soda, go dance’. We sat for a little, some people spoke, someone sang (I FORGOT YOUR NAME I’M SORRY) and some boys danced very inappropriately then we were told to go party. So we did. It was actually pretty fun.

Tuesday was a good day.                We went straight to the middle level and did a red. Admittedly, it is the easiest red on the mountain and children were doing it but we did it. We went down a few times before doing the blue and a few other little slopes. We knew from the get go we weren’t going to do anything that afternoon, so we just went for it during lessons. I fell once and that was to avoid Connor (good job buddy) who was on the floor.                After lunch, a group of us walked into the little down to go buy some food and the likes. Unfortunately, the food shop was closed so we went and bought pizza and pommes instead. When the food shop finally opened, we bought chocolate and the likes then headed back.                It was actually pretty chill. I got to know some more people (Shout out to my fave Canadian, Jade) and I got to relax. It was nice.

Wednesday was… a day.                 We had our last lesson with an instructor and finally made it to the top of the mountain for lunch!                So, the first couple of runs we did were just going down the blue and red then we headed to the big gondola to get us to the top of the mountain. I should point out that even from the baby runs my day wasn’t going well. In one run, I crashed into a kid who would have been no older than 10. Neither of us fell, I managed to grab him so he wouldn’t fall down the mountain. Then, less than five minutes later, I crashed into someone, I can’t remember who. I literally went over her and lost a ski in the process and have a wicked bruise on my shin from it. At the moment it’s green and about the size of my hand.                When we got to the top of the mountain, we were 1852m high and could just see mountains and sky. It was honestly so pretty!                To get down, you have two choices: red or the sled track. We took the sled track to the restaurant, then a red to the middle of the mountain before following the blue back down. We did another run of the red then headed back up for lunch.                After lunch, we had until 2 to meet back at the bottom of the gondola to get sleds. I went down with Jade and Bri and somehow fell on a flat which was super awkward because I couldn’t get up without taking my ski off.                We all got out sleds and headed back up to the top and waited a few minutes for everyone to catch up. Once most of us where there, we took off and just made a mess. A lot of people were in pairs so they didn’t go slow and since most of us hadn’t done it before, we didn’t know how to stop or turn so the first corner had a pile up.                About three corners later I realised it was a bad idea for me to be sledding or at least really going for it so I slowed down as much as I could and just took my time.                It was a good plan until I saw Sarah and Chelsea just zoom past me, going full speed, then crash into the hill without slowing down. I immediately put my feet into the ground and tried to stop myself so I could see if they were okay (I was worried about Sarah’s ankle. Is it okay???). Instead of that happening, my knee did a thing and I ended up off my sled in intense pain. I won’t go into details but basically I’ve screwed my knee. Again.                Chelsea rang some people, I was picked up by the mountain people then put into an ambulance and taken to the hospital for an x-ray. I won’t lie, there were a lot of young and attractive nurses walking around. Most were with ambulances.                I was taken into a room; I took off my ski gear, explained some stuff about what happened to my knee last year, then went to get an x-ray. When that had come through, I was taken back into a room and people played with my knee.                No bones are broken, which is good. What’s bad is I’ve injured both the Anterior Cruciate Ligament and the Lateral Collateral Ligament. So like, the side ligament and the one in amongst the bones. One is less serious than the other, but it’s nothing too serious at the moment. I just gotta ice it and rest it, so don’t worry too much.                When I got back to the hotel, I was carried up the stairs (I’m really sorry guys, I told you I was heavier than I look!). I chilled in my room or in the games room or in one of the other rooms available for most of the night.

I was picked up on Thursday and since I couldn’t ski, I spent the day sleeping. A few others were sick so I wasn’t alone. I had Jenna and Jade to chill with. Admittedly, Jenna got up for breakfast then had a four hour long nap. She woke up for lunch then we (Jade joined us) watched some tv and chilled out in our room. Tv was Disney and it was in German but we understood most of it, which was great.

About an hour before I was due to leave, Jake and Brice came in and asked if we wanted to play Sardines. We only had one round but it was beautiful. Jake hid in the cupboard in his room and I found him straight away. Brice was about 30 seconds later. I hid next to the bed, Brice, however, tried to get under the bed and messed up so when Jenna came him, she had to lift it so he could get under further. It was one of the funniest things to happen all camp. He covered himself in a jacket and a blanket to try hide himself.

I left a few minutes after the second round had started. Brice was hiding and I wish I could have found him.

We had some other weird stuff happen in our time after dinner.                Gabe braided my hair, people slid down a little plastic slide on toy cars, we had a really intense massage circle on the Tuesday, a condom was blown up the same day thrown around, I’m pretty sure at least three people were given hair cuts, and Grace took the key from our door when it was closed and locked us in, so I grabbed hers after doing some balcony climbing and mass door knocking and locked her out.

But yeah, that was ski week.                I had an awesome time and am glad I finally got to meet most people here at the moment. I really love you guys, you’re all a ball and I cannot wait until Budapest for more chaos.

Monday Madness: Win a Ski Vacation

Image Courtesy of Shutterstock/gorillaimages

Welcome to Ski Week and the 2015 Ski Week Giveaway

Ski season is almost upon us. The leaves are falling, the air is crisp, and winter is on its way.

What better way to gear up for winter than with a ski vacation giveaway? We have two prizes perfect for families ready to hit the slopes.

Enter to Win a Ski Vacation:

Photo by: Shutterstock/hopsalka

Let…