Feb 23rd - Mar 1st

The trip to Chamonix:

Don't ask why but this one gets a title! The week at school leading up to the trip was basic, fell behind a little bit because of the changes I made with my schedule, but there is always time later to deal with that right? I left for the trip on Friday evening, I had class till 5 p.m. but didn't realize that I had a problem set due so I talked to the teacher and left before she went over it so I could turn it in on Monday for full credit! Man it is nice to be in a country where EVERYTHING is ok late.

I went to the Airport with my roommate Rosarinho, she was traveling to Milan the same evening so we went together. We ended up getting there a little late but both of our flights were delayed so it did not end up making a difference. It was nice to have someone to talk to while waiting, then it was time to catch the plane and get to Geneva. I had a bus transfer from Geneva to Chamonix for 10:30p.m. and ended up getting there at just past 10:40, luckily the van was waiting and I ended up being the last one to get on. The trip to Chamonix was really short, it was an hour and fifteen total. The driver was supposed to drop me off at the door but because the street sign on the road said dead end he would not go down it. He left me there on the corner and rambled something to me in French that I did not understand, but meant something along the lines of "trust me it is right down here". Well easy for him to say, hoping back in his warm van, I ended up using my cell phone as a flash light and wandering down the icy road a few hundred meters before finding the little cottage. I was by myself the first night, and Olivier arrived early the next morning.

Saturday Morning I was up at the crack of dawn and excited to hit the slopes. Olivier arrived around 7:45 with bread and Nutella in hand, we had a quick bite to eat and it was off to the rental shop to grab a snowboard. This apparently was the first clear day after a week of snow so by the time we got to the top it was awesome carving some fresh tracks down the runs. The resorts here are not to similar to back home, the runs were very vertical, and they used a lot of trolley like gondolas to get you from peak to peak or from the bottom to the top. We had a killer day of riding together in the morning, and then in the afternoon Olivier Skied up-hill. He had this set of ski's that he strapped some felt type stuff to the bottom of and went from the bottom of the resort to the top. Not my idea of fun, but for each their own. I ended up skiing down the run he was going up and ran into him a couple of times. We met back up at the top and then did a few more runs before calling it a day.

After getting down from the mountain, we cruised around the down town area and grabbed some mull wine and a beer. Nothing like hot wine to warm you up when it is chilly out. We were waiting to meet up with Olivier and Julien's other brother Christophe. Christophe and his girl friend ended up showing up around 7:30, we had a beer and some hors d'oeuvres and then we went out to grab a bite to eat. The next morning, Sunday, Christohe gave us a ride to the slopes and on the way there we stopped in at the rental shop that he works at to pick me up some Ski's...yes you heard me correctly, I decided to give skiing another shot after some 8 short years! The second day was not as nice as the first weather wise, as a matter of fact, it was quite awful. The weather could not decide if it wanted to rain, sleet, snow or hail, so it did some mixture of the four! Once we got up the mountain it was just snowing, but due to the high winds and low visibility the top of the mountain was closed. I was surprised at how quickly the skiing came back to me, the first run or two definitely were not pretty, but after a couple more I got the hang out if and was able to go down pretty much all the runs there. By the end of the day my legs were killing me but man did I have a great time.

After skiing all day we took the bus back into town and stopped by the grocery store before headed home. We made ourselves a dinner of cheese filled gnocchi with a sun dried tomato sauce, and desert of yogurt with some sort of traditional chestnut paste...now that's what I call a good meal. After dinner Olivier packed up his stuff, I took him down to the train station, and it was back to Paris on the overnight train for him. I called it an early night and first thing in the morning my shuttle was there to pick me up to take me back to Geneva...this time AT THE DOOR! The ride back during the day was nice, I dozed in and out of sleep and watched the scenery as we made our way out of the alps. The flight back went smoothly, and I made it home in time to go to class for 6 hours on Monday! Not the ideal way to end a trip, but man was it a good one.

Well I hope this finds everyone doing well back home and that you are all going to have a great March.

Much love from Madrid,


Phil


P.S. Good luck to Andrew at his broadcasting conference this week...Kick some Butt mang! I am really proud of you! Also, please enjoy the pictures that are to the upper right of this post, if you click on them it will take you to my Picasa Albums...there are a few new ones uploaded yesterday!