Ski Vacation

In the first week of sport vacation I went to the Alps (Valhalla in east Switzerland near Chur). I went with family friends of my second host family because my second host family had to stay at home for Fastnacht (I will talk about Fastnacht in a later post). On the first Saturday of break I took a train direct from German course to Chur. By the time I arrived at the vacation apartment it was late afternoon and my vacation host family (Brigitte, Thomas, Laura, and Luc) were just arriving back from a long day of skiing. That Evening we played a big game of monopoly, som card games, ate dinner, and went to bed. The next day I slept in (first day of vacation is always great). For breakfast we had fresh bread from a local bakery. It was amazing, crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, heavenly carbohydrate goodness. I was also introduced to oval malting crunchy, it is pretty much Nutella with Rice Krispies inside of it, I am planning on bringing 200 jars home with me! It was too windy to go skiing, instead we visited a nearby town, Lenzerheide. Lenzerheide is a small, cute, touristic town made up of small restaurants and sport shops. It is located in the heart of the mountains and has the most wonderful view. Laura and I went ice skating and the others took a walk through the winter was so warm that the rink was made up of melted ice, it made for a very interesting ice skating experience! That aft noon we once again played games, ate, and slept (three of my favorite things). On Monday the weather was good and we were able to go skiing, I am pretty bad at skiing, however I improved throughout the day. For lunch we stopped in a small resturant, than continued skiing. At the end of the day I was tired and nearly passed out on the bed back at the apartment. The next day was once again to windy for skiing so we decided to spend the day in Chur. We spent the morning walking around the town and looking at various buildings, after a McDonalds break (surprisingly a lot better quality in Switzerland, they even have a veggie burger!) we went to the shopping outlets. We spent the whole afternoon looking through stores, I couldn't believe that they had a roxy store, sadly the prices were Swiss and not American. In the evening we did the normal routine and than slept. On Wednesday it snowed, and most of the ski lifts were closed. I decided it was the perfect weather to bake a chocolate cake and baked macaroni and cheese. After a morning of baking, family friends of my  vacation host family came to town. Laura, the daughter of the family friends of my vacation host family (also named Laura), and I went to the out door hot pool located in the mountains. We were able to enjoy the snow and views while still staying warm! In one corner of the pool it had underwater chairs with jets, sadly they were all full. After waiting for what seemed like hours I was able to claim a place. Laying on it felt like floating, I don't think I have ever been more relaxed! That evening we had fun by playing poker. After the first few rounds I had twice as much money as everyone else, by the end of the game I had lost. It was still fun! We went skiing the day after and the weather was amazing. Blue skies and a blanket of snow filled the valley like a daydream. That evening my second host mom came to meet up with us for the last one or two days. We all went out to pizza (and of course played games). I learned a game called f*** the neighbor (which I now call "not so nice to the neighbor" because I didn't want to be rude). It turned out that I was very bad, yet throughout the evening I improved. I will teach anyone who would like to learn when I get home. On our second to last day of vacation we took a gondola to the other side of the valley and went skiing in Arosa (probably spelled wrong). It was officially my favorite ski spot because the slopes were not crazy hard, yet still interesting and technical. Plus one of the ski lifts was shaped like Toblarone and what's not to like about that. At around lunchtime we headed back over to the other side of the valley to meet my host mom (she doesn't ski so she just went hiking). It turned out that while we were in Arosa, Valbella was brewing up a storm. It was cold and windy on the other side of the valley and we went strait home after eating lunch. That evening was casual filled with a lot of naps, more board games, and around the world ping pong. On our last morning Laura and I went on the Alpine slide. It was 3km long, the longest in Switzerland. The curves were very scary, but it was amazing. My hair whipped back in the breeze and I had to hold my hat in order to keep it from flying away. That afternoon we headed back home. I was sad to be torn away from the mountains, yet happy to be on my way to Spain and Engelberg in the next week of vacation.