A Year Already?!?!

It's been a while. It has almost been a year since I first landed in Zurich, Switzerland. At that time I had no idea what to expect, whether or not I would like it, if I would make friends. Throughout the year, I met a lot of people, became friends with a few of them, had good and bad experiences, and did more travelling than I had in all the previous years of my life. Unfortunately I was unable to keep up with all my trips in this blog, but perhaps I will share them in person with you when I return. I certainly have a lot of photos ;)

Two weekends ago, I went on my what could be my last ski-trip in Switzerland. I can finally say I have been in a real Swiss chalet! 14 Canadians spent a night between two apartments in Nendaz and it was incredibly fun! I have to thank D so much for this, she organized everything and booked the apartments way back in December.

View from the apartment I stayed in, Les Genets

 The weather that weekend was beautiful, 18°C on Saturday and 25°C on Sunday! I went snowboarding on Saturday with everyone else. The snow was surprisingly good, down to about 1500 m (Verbier) before it started to become very slushy. The problem with slushy snow is that it is very slippery, when I try to turn, my snowboard tends to turn more than I intend it to. Then when I try to turn back, my board is too horizontal to the mountain, resulting in a painful somersault. I am glad I picked up snowboarding, I managed to go five times this year! I have definitely improved since the first time at LAAX, although I am still not very good at it. I'm pretty sure I still fall too much, hopefully I will still remember how to snowboard when I go in Canada next year ^^ I won't be bringing my board back with me though, it is a pretty bad board and not worth hauling back to Canada. That evening we had burritos thanks to A and her German boyfriend...there was guacamole, hearty salsa, lettuce, sour cream, and of course, cheese. Later in the evening we went out to the 'Canadian' pub which was not a pub but was actually a club. And the only thing Canadian about it was the decor (a giant, laser-shooting moosehead, a statue of a grizzly with a fur backpack, I didn't notice any beavers), there weren't even any Canadian beers. I didn't enjoy the music very much either, I left earlier than the others with one other person who also wasn't very psyched to be at the club.
The following day, we just hung around Nandez because it was way too warm to be skiing, there was still snow...but being sun-deprived for several months, we just wanted to sunbathe. Which is exactly what I did with M and another friend. And eat artisan ice cream. It was AMAZING, it was the cafe's own homemade ice cream and the flavours were oustanding. Between the three of us, we had apricot, pistachio, and mocha, my favorite was the apricot.

I have to start packing at some point. Thinking back, I brought so much useless stuff with me here. WHY did I bring a pencil case and not just one or two, but a whole pencil case full of writing utensils?! I definitely learned how to pack smarter in this past year. Maybe I'll write again soon. Or maybe I'll write in a year. Later!

Carving the Bunny Hill

I went snowboarding for the first time this past Saturday! I attended a 4 h snowboarding lesson at LAAX in Switzerland with seven other people. I can't believe I didn't do this earlier when I was in Canada. I was a little hesitant to buy all my snowboarding gear at first, because even though it was almost all 2nd hand, it was still quite a large sum of money. But it was worth every cent. The thrill of gliding down the snow-covered hillside with the magnificent Swiss alps as your backdrop is incomparable. And this is just on the bunny hill haha, I didn't go on the big slopes yet.

One of the incredible views from where I was snowboarding

My instructor was a Czech guy who grew up skiing/snowboarding in the mountains. He was cool, he helped me with my stance, pointed out what I was doing wrong and when I was doing something right.
There were three other ladies that were learning as well. Sarah was a German whose bf is an avid snowboarder, so she's trying it out. Jordynn is working for the American army and just happens to be stationed in either Germany or Switzerland (I can't remember). Her husband snowboards, therefore she's learning so she can join him on the slopes. I feel like there's a trend here. Priscilla (? not sure...) is a Brazilian who has always dreamed of snowboarding ^^
There was a Swiss-Canadian (born in Canada but moved to Switzerland) who was the Brazilian's partner? friend? Not sure, but he was a skier before attempting snowboarding. There was also a father and his son, and another young boy who was in my class. I didn't talk to them much, mainly because they spoke German and not much English.
I am so excited to go snowboarding again this weekend, I will be going every weekend up until Feb 9! I'll keep you updated on my progress in becoming a pro snowboarder =P

My class! (-2 people) From left to right: Peter, me, Jordynn, Andreas, Sarah, Swiss-Canadian guy, Priscilla?