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Published: January 20th 2007
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Professional Skiier
Yes, that is me. Do I not look like a true professional skier heading to the top of the mountain? I know it has been awhile and no, I am not stuck in some snow drift. Believe it or not, last night was the first we had any snow for some time. It has been way too warm for snow (upper 30's). Even now it is not a lot, but at least everything looks white for a short period of time.
I was telling one of my friends about this greasy chemical (some sort of anti-freeze) they put on the roads so even when it is not raining outside, the roads are always wet so the cars and trucks are filthy! My driver washes the car every day and it does not do any good because by the time he gets back from the car wash, the car is dirty again. Not only does it get all over the cars, but on your clothes, shoes, etc. It washes off pretty easily (so far), but it makes everything nasty. I do not know if it works, but they sure do use a lot of it.
Okay, back to the log. As I typed briefly, there has been a lot of stuff going on, but I just do not seem to
Professional Skiiers
Jamie and I at the top of the mountain before I get ready to kill myself on the second ski run. make the time to enter it in the journal so hopefully I will not forget anything and post several logs so not one is too long. I know the pictures will take some time to load and I will try not to bore you with too many, but now that I have the new camera, I am taking even more.
Before I forget, I have not forgotten about the poem/song the Sales/Warehouse wrote about me. I finally got it last week and Svetlana is now translating it. I am being told it is not as funny without knowing the original song it was based on so I will see if I can get them both, but I still think you will get a kick out of it and some of you will be shaking your head saying, "They are so right, that is Vince." Also, I can not find the file of just my solo. For some reason everyone that posted their pictures/videos, they were all combined so it is this huge file that I can not send. I will keep looking and not that anyone really needs to hear my terrible singing, but it too is funny.
We Are Going Up There?!
Can I get off this thing now before it gets to the top? It was really nice at the top and well worth the ride just to see the view. About half way through the day, it got very foggy and we almost called off any more runs because you could not see the trail markers the fog was so thick, but then it cleared up again. So, for Russian Christmas, I headed to Zurich and met Jamie and Eric, two friends from the States, there for some R&R and Swiss Alp skiing. We went to a small resort called Hoch-Ybrig (http://www.hoch-ybring.ch) south of Zurich. The ski company we used selected it because it close to Zurich and was not very expensive because we did not have good ski weather. It has been warm in Switzerland as well so the skiing was sort of icey and they wanted to save us some money so for the same price we had two ski instructors, all day ski passes, rental, and transportation to/from the hotel. Since the snow was not like it was suppose to be, it is hard to compare, but I have to say, I like the skiing in CO better than I did here but again, that is probably not a fair comparison.
After meeting our instructors and going over some basic information, Jamie and I head to the lift while Eric stays back and works one on one with his instructor because this was his first time ever skiing. As we are about half way up and I look at the continue climb, I
Main Train Station
The Zurich main train station. leaned over to our instructor and said, "They did tell you we were beginner to intermediate, right?" She nodded her head and said this was the easiest slope. Well, let me tell you, it was NOT easy! The first drop was pretty steep, but not bad (after the first time down), but the second one...wow-it was scary! For a true intermediate or advance, it was probably nothing, but all I know, I only made it that section once without falling. Thank goodness they were all controlled falls to keep from going over the edge or all the way down too fast, but nonetheless, they were falls. I remember one time down, I heard our instructor yelling, "Slow down, you are going too fast. You are not keeping in control!" Like she was telling me something that I did not know but I could not get turned, I could not snow plow, I was just heading towards the bottom! On our last run, I finally made it down in control and without falling. I am sure I looked terrible, but at least I made it. She said that was good, we have time for one more run. I told Jamie he could go, but I wanted to end on a good note so I was putting the skies up.
Although not good for snow, the weather was comfortable, ~35oF and on the first run down, we had fresh snow which was nice, but it iced up very quickly after a few other people went down behind us. This was the first time I made original tracks in the snow so that was fun. The value was not there, but it was worth it to me and now I can say I have skiied in the Swiss Alps.
Back in Zurich, we had a lot of fun shopping and site seeing. It is a neat town and I think you will get a good feel for it with the pictures. Of course this is where I bought my camera and I also bought a Swiss watch. I had looked at them before when Alan and I went to Luginio. I can not believe I also spent $1000 on a watch. This one was still expensive at $200, but I had to be crazying thinking to pay that much for a watch. It was also fun with the camera working the discount. Jamie and Eric were both embarrassed by it, I think, but I figure all the sales person could do is say no and it ended up, I got a 5% discount on the camera and 10% on the equipment, plus my tax back, which was a pain in the butt and probably not worth the 27 CHF I saved, but I at least got it back as well.
I was surprised the camera did not come with English instruction manual, but again, the sale guy was very nice and told me he would have to ask permission, but thought he could print it off the web for me and I could pick it up the next day or he could even leave it at the hotel for me if we were not going to be in town before they closed. When I got back to the store to pick it up, he not only printed it but had it bound, which I really thought was nice. I can tell you, you will never get that kind of service here in Russia!
Another funny story while shopping. After I bought the camera, of course I wanted to use it to make sure it worked so as I was busy taking pictures, someone came up and asked me if I had something to trade for this cheap ink pen. At first I thought it was a homeless person trying to make some money, but then realized/believed the people they were playing some game with other couples that were visiting Zurich. They were given some pens and had to trade them for other items and then they all got back together to look at their new treasure. I am not sure who won or if it was even a contest, but I figure I had something. I started feeling around, I figured they did not want used lip balm or a dirty hankie. Then I remember I had some rubles, so I pulled out my wallet and gave her 10 rubles for it. At first she did not want to take it because that was too much for this cheap pen, but little did she know, that was only worth about $0.40 so I think it was a good trade...lol But we heard her and (assume) her husband say to another couple, "Look, we got some rubles for our pen!"
I am going to start adding the pictures and if I remember anything exciting, I will post more, but that was my trip to Zurich. More to come about my birthday celebrations!
Do not ask me how the other pictures got posted with the previous entry, but they did and it is taking WAY TOO long to repost them so if you want to see some more pictures of Zurich, be sure to go back one entry.
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