Studying abroad is hard, much harder than I anticipated. This was not something I thought about when I was in the application process last semester.However, I never thought about the fact that you are living. in. a. completely. different. culture. Living being the operative word. Living is different than visiting or vacationing. Everything is different. Obviously, language and culture, but everything down to grocery shopping, food, toilets, laundry, professors, its all different. At first, this is both new and exciting and incredibly unsettling. At first, I was half overjoyed that I was finally here, and half wondering what the hell I was thinking. There are a few moments where I thought I couldn't handle living and studying here. I would look at a plane in the sky and wish I was on it. As a result, I felt like I wasn't totally here. I was half here, and half somewhere else.
But standing in the clouds at the top of a mountain in the Alps made me feel like I was fully here, and the world was mine.
So.. last weekend I went skiing in the Alps! It was an IES organized trip, and all of my roommates went too. We went to Radstadt, which is in Salzburg, and about 4 or 5 hours away by bus. It was nice because everything, including 2 meals a day, rentals, lift tickets, and accomadations were taken care of. So all we had to do was ski!
Radstadt was not a big huge ski resort like you would find in the US. It was obviously a huge mountain, and our lift ticket covered several mountains close by, reachable by bus. But there were no huge crowds, few crazy snowboarders, and no huge cafeterias serving questionable food. The slopes were also a lot less crowded most of the time. And the snow was amazing. Because it came from the sky.
There is also nothing in between the bunny slope and the easiest runs. The easiest here is blue, and I would say its equivilant to a blue in the US. There is no such thing as green here. That made it a little daunting for beginning skiers. But I thought it was awesome. I haven't skied in maybe 2 years, but it came back to me. On Sunday we basically kicked the ass of 2 mountains. We went to the top of another mountain Zuchensee, at least twice. I did a couple of blacks, which are equilivant to US black diamonds, and it was amazing. It was like skiing in butter. But we accidentally went down some moguls in the afternoon, and since the sun was on the other side of the mountain, it was like skiing blindfolded.
We went back to Radstadt in the afternoon before we had to get on the bus and go home. We went to the top a couple more times before our bodies gave up. Overall, 6 hours of skiing on Sunday. And I didn't fall down once. I don't know how it happened. But at lunch, when people were recounting how many times they ate it and there skis flew off, I realized I hadn't fallen. So the rest of the day, I was on a mission, and I succeeded! It was exhausting though. Skiing in ungroomed powder, you have to plan your route about 20 feet ahead of time. But there were no major injuries to anyone on the trip! Apparently that is a first.
My body was pretty angry with me for the next few days...but it was totally worth it.
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