We all have bad days every now and then. Monday was one of those days for me. Dennis and I both ended up working way too much over the weekend, so I wasn’t very happy about going to work anyway. I was planning to make breakfast cereal on the extruder in the pilot plant and I wanted to get an early start but that was not to happen. I procrastinated a few minutes at home watching CNN and then it took me a few minutes extra to get all the groceries loaded into my bike bags. I had done some grocery shopping for the lab over the weekend and had to haul the stuff to work.
So, I got to work schlepping the groceries and went to put them into the fridge in the lab. But the fridge was warm. WTF?! So, I found one of the techs and let her know that the fridge was on the fritz. We walked back to the lab and she just looked at it for a few seconds. Then, she picks up a big plug from the counter and says, “Isn’t this the plug for that fridge?” She plugged it back in and it immediately started running. OK, so I probably should have figured that out by myself, but who unplugged the fridge? It turned out that the electricians had gone through the labs on Friday evening to do a safety check and they unplugged everything. Maybe they wanted to save some energy, maybe they thought it was a solar powered fridge, or maybe – just maybe- they really are that dumb.
Next, I went to the pilot plant to see about starting the cereal project. The guy who runs the pilot plant told me that a customer was stopping by at 11:00 and he wanted me involved in the meeting. OK, so I’ll just start the cereal after lunch. I rescheduled with the people who were going to help me with the extrusion and got ready to meet the customer.
Naturally, the customer was late and we didn’t get started until 11:30. With no conference rooms available, they decided to meet in my office. They had to set up an overhead projector and point it to the wall. We used a couple of books to boost the picture over the tear in the wallpaper. Yeah, my office is a high-class joint! Finally, at 1:00, they took the customer to the cafeteria for lunch. I had no time for lunch because I still had cereal to make!
Back in the pilot plant, I finally got to make that cereal. Everything went pretty well except that it took too long. We finished about 5:00 and still had to clean up the huge mess. The cereal was the shape of Kix so the little round balls bounced and rolled all over the floor despite our attempts to keep them under control. Cleaning the extruder is usually pretty easy, but today there was a bunch of gunk burned on to the screw. I spent an extra half hour scrubbing it with a wire brush. I found out later that the people who used the extruder last had jammed it and then didn’t get it completely clean. Yuck!
I left work at about 6:00. It wasn’t raining, but it was pretty cold and windy, a nice head-wind for my bike-ride home. I am really ready for some nice spring weather.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Dutch Dental Care
Sorry it's taken a while to post this blog. I had been having some computer troubles at work for the last few weeks and they finally fixed it by rebuilding my user profile. Of course, that reset all my preferences and deleted the password for getting on our wireless network at home. Naturally I noticed this detail several hours after Dennis left for a four day company ski trip. He's back now and he gave me the password so I'm back on-line.
Here's the new post:
We’ve heard all the jokes about British people with bad teeth. When I got to the Netherlands I realized the jokes are true for Dutch people as well. Apparently the teeth-whitening trend has not made it across the Atlantic. What really surprised me was that even TV and news people had yellow teeth. Well, now I know why.
Yes, I went to the dentist on Monday. It had been nearly a year since my last cleaning and I don’t want to let my teeth get all European. People complain here about how difficult it is to find a dentist that takes new patients. I guess I was lucky that the first one I called had room for me. Better yet, the office is right on the corner of my street, only half a block away.
My appointment was at 8:30. I was on-time, which is easy when you only have to walk half a block. I sat in the waiting room for about a minute. They called me in and asked the normal questions about how often I brush and floss. I got some x-rays done. She blew air on my teeth and poked around a little bit. Then she said, “OK, now we’ll do some cleaning.” She scraped one tooth and polished about four more. Then she used an evil high-powered water pick that sounded like a drill around several other teeth. Even though I flossed just 10 minutes before my appointment, she flossed my teeth again. “Here’s the water. You can rinse and make your next appointment at the front desk. See you in six months”
I checked my watch – 8:45. I touched my teeth with my tongue and felt the plaque still stuck way in back where the toothbrush can’t reach. I asked around at work to find out if this kind of dental care is normal. Everyone agreed that 15 minutes is the standard appointment length. If the dentist thinks you need extra cleaning, they set up a separate appointment for you. I think I’ll just wait until I’m back in the US again and have my teeth cleaned properly.
Here's the new post:
We’ve heard all the jokes about British people with bad teeth. When I got to the Netherlands I realized the jokes are true for Dutch people as well. Apparently the teeth-whitening trend has not made it across the Atlantic. What really surprised me was that even TV and news people had yellow teeth. Well, now I know why.
Yes, I went to the dentist on Monday. It had been nearly a year since my last cleaning and I don’t want to let my teeth get all European. People complain here about how difficult it is to find a dentist that takes new patients. I guess I was lucky that the first one I called had room for me. Better yet, the office is right on the corner of my street, only half a block away.
My appointment was at 8:30. I was on-time, which is easy when you only have to walk half a block. I sat in the waiting room for about a minute. They called me in and asked the normal questions about how often I brush and floss. I got some x-rays done. She blew air on my teeth and poked around a little bit. Then she said, “OK, now we’ll do some cleaning.” She scraped one tooth and polished about four more. Then she used an evil high-powered water pick that sounded like a drill around several other teeth. Even though I flossed just 10 minutes before my appointment, she flossed my teeth again. “Here’s the water. You can rinse and make your next appointment at the front desk. See you in six months”
I checked my watch – 8:45. I touched my teeth with my tongue and felt the plaque still stuck way in back where the toothbrush can’t reach. I asked around at work to find out if this kind of dental care is normal. Everyone agreed that 15 minutes is the standard appointment length. If the dentist thinks you need extra cleaning, they set up a separate appointment for you. I think I’ll just wait until I’m back in the US again and have my teeth cleaned properly.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
kayak shopping and hiking
Little flowers are starting to bloom.
This windmill was one of the points of interest on our hike. These are the kind of windmills they use to pump the water up and out of the fields.
You can see that the sheep are in a soggy field. We were standing on top of a dyke with a bigger canal behind us. The water level of the big canal was about 10 feet higher than this farm field.
Dennis and I are thinking about getting a kayak. With so much water around, it would be fun to explore by kayak. I did a search on the internet and found a kayak store about 30 minutes drive from here. It’s just on the other side of Amsterdam. Dennis and I drove over there on Saturday just to see what they have. This store was HUGE! We found a very helpful salesman who showed us the different types of kayaks they have and told us about all the other junk you need to buy. We are still trying to decide if we want two single kayaks or one double kayak. We are checking with coworkers to see if we find a used one for sale. What we buy might depend on what’s available. We also have to figure out how to carry a kayak on the car. The Toyota RAV4 is big enough to handle whatever we buy, but it doesn’t have a rack on top. Dennis will have to get that sorted out before we buy anything!
While we were up north for our kayak shopping, we decided to do a hike nearby. The Dutch equivalent of AAA publishes walking routes for all over the Netherlands. There is a book with descriptions of the walks and then a one page map for each hike giving all of the details including where to park. We had done two of the hikes already and found the routes to be nice and the maps accurate. Well, for this trip, we chose a 9 km walk around a polder (reclaimed land with lots of small canals). Since we did a 9km walk last weekend, we figured it would be no problem – a couple hours walking.
We got to our hiking start point, the town of De Rijp. It’s a very Dutch little town along the canals with cute bridges and narrow roads. We started out by having a cup of tea in a café. It was pretty quiet in the café and we were surprised to hear the couple next to us speaking English! It was strange to find other English speakers in such a small Dutch town. We said hello, but we were impatient to get started. By the time we got going it was 1:30 in the afternoon. We walked for about an hour and according to the map we were about 1/4th of the way done. This was my first clue that this hike was going to be a bit longer than advertised.
We kept walking, really enjoying the little flowers that are starting to bloom and the warm, spring-like temperatures. At 3:30, we pulled the sandwiches out of the backpack, but decided to eat while we walked. At 4:00, we saw a road sign indicating that De Rijp was still 4 km down the road. How can this be a 9 km hike if we still have 4 km to go? According to the map we are way more than halfway done. OK, now we’re doing the math. If we walk at 3 miles per hour for 3 hours, that makes the hike more like 9 miles, not 9 km. What the hell? The map also gives an estimate of how long it will take. They claimed this hike would be 2 ½ hours. Dennis was using the GPS the whole time, so we know that we didn’t get lost. In the end, we hiked for 3 ½ hours and when Dennis calculated the distance according to the GPS, it was 10.1 miles or 16.8 km.
We were kind of tired when we got back to the car. We still like the walking route maps, but from now on, we will check the route on the computer to verify the distance before we go. There’s a big difference between 9 km and 16.8 km!
On Sunday, we woke up to the sun. Yes, I said the SUN! Feeling energized by the sun, we decided to get the road bikes out for the first time this season. March 1 is a cool date to start with outdoor cycling! Of course, by the time we were ready, the clouds had started to come over. But we still had a nice ride and it wasn’t too cold. We went about 18 miles – so a pretty short ride. It felt great to be out on the road bike and now I’m looking forward to more nice weekends.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Language Confusion - you think you know what it means but you don't
I know that I’ve mentioned language difficulties a few times, but I think it deserves a bit more attention. Nearly everyone in the Netherlands speaks English – probably better than a lot of Americans – but they speak British English, not American. This leaves a lot of room for confusion!
The one thing I have still not gotten used to is what floor I work on. I insist that I’m on the third floor. Everyone in Europe thinks I’m on the second floor. They begin counting with the ground floor, or floor zero. In the US, the ground floor is one.
The next troublesome point is the time – and this one is double-trouble. In the Netherlands they say half nine to mean 8:30. But when the British say half nine, they mean 9:30. In the US, we just say what we mean. I always have to confirm what time they really mean.
Numbers in general are difficult to translate between Dutch and English. In Dutch, they say the numbers backwards so 46 is said six and forty (of course, the numbers are said in Dutch). The Dutch suddenly become terribly dyslexic when translating numbers to English and many will translate six and forty to 64. I see it all the time on the TV subtitles, too. With money, you often get twice the confusion. Your total is 65.94 becomes five and sixty, four and ninety. My mind can’t translate the numbers and turn them around quite that fast, so I just look at the register for the amount or I mindlessly use my PIN card.
British people go on holiday, while Americans go on vacation. What we would call a holiday in the US, is known as a public holiday. Dutch people go on vacantie, but translate it as holiday.
I think the British got in too much trouble for their funny pronunciation of the word schedule so now they ask you to check your diary. I personally haven’t had a diary since I was 16 (unless you count this blog, of course). I chuckle every time I’m asked about my diary.
Children’s games are especially fun. I found out that Tic Tac Toe is called naughts and crosses in England. In Dutch, it’s called botter, kaas, and eiren (butter, cheese, and eggs). While I was in the B-section of the Dutch-English dictionary, I noticed that botterham trommel is Dutch for lunch box. Sandwich bags are called botterham zakjes. It seems that everything having to do with sandwiches is called botterham because they eat so many ham sandwiches with butter. And the Dutch favorite hagelslag (literally hail), translates to tens and thousands in British, but in American we just call them chocolate sprinkles.
I was impressed to learn that a backpack in Dutch is called a rugzak. Rug is the word for back and zak is a bag. In England, they call a backpack a rucksack – interesting how similar these words are.
You have to be careful at the market and know that an ounce in the Netherlands is 100g. For the non-cooks out there, an American ounce is about 30g and there are 16 oz in a pound. So if you order 8 ounces of fish here, you’ll be getting close to 2 lbs rather than half a pound! That could be an expensive problem. If you ask for a pound of something here, you will get 500g which is remarkably close to an American pound.
The British people that we went skiing with kept talking about one of the guys who lost 2 stones and looked really good. I had to ask the question, “What’s a stone?” Yes, it sounded pretty dumb when I asked it, too. A stone is 14 pounds. Damn the British for coming up with such stupid measurements!
By the way, I also had to ask, “What’s a quid?” It’s actually the language equivalent of a buck, so a quid is one pound (no, not the weight, the money!). And of course we haven’t even talked about lorries, lifts, trollies, and wellies.
The one thing I have still not gotten used to is what floor I work on. I insist that I’m on the third floor. Everyone in Europe thinks I’m on the second floor. They begin counting with the ground floor, or floor zero. In the US, the ground floor is one.
The next troublesome point is the time – and this one is double-trouble. In the Netherlands they say half nine to mean 8:30. But when the British say half nine, they mean 9:30. In the US, we just say what we mean. I always have to confirm what time they really mean.
Numbers in general are difficult to translate between Dutch and English. In Dutch, they say the numbers backwards so 46 is said six and forty (of course, the numbers are said in Dutch). The Dutch suddenly become terribly dyslexic when translating numbers to English and many will translate six and forty to 64. I see it all the time on the TV subtitles, too. With money, you often get twice the confusion. Your total is 65.94 becomes five and sixty, four and ninety. My mind can’t translate the numbers and turn them around quite that fast, so I just look at the register for the amount or I mindlessly use my PIN card.
British people go on holiday, while Americans go on vacation. What we would call a holiday in the US, is known as a public holiday. Dutch people go on vacantie, but translate it as holiday.
I think the British got in too much trouble for their funny pronunciation of the word schedule so now they ask you to check your diary. I personally haven’t had a diary since I was 16 (unless you count this blog, of course). I chuckle every time I’m asked about my diary.
Children’s games are especially fun. I found out that Tic Tac Toe is called naughts and crosses in England. In Dutch, it’s called botter, kaas, and eiren (butter, cheese, and eggs). While I was in the B-section of the Dutch-English dictionary, I noticed that botterham trommel is Dutch for lunch box. Sandwich bags are called botterham zakjes. It seems that everything having to do with sandwiches is called botterham because they eat so many ham sandwiches with butter. And the Dutch favorite hagelslag (literally hail), translates to tens and thousands in British, but in American we just call them chocolate sprinkles.
I was impressed to learn that a backpack in Dutch is called a rugzak. Rug is the word for back and zak is a bag. In England, they call a backpack a rucksack – interesting how similar these words are.
You have to be careful at the market and know that an ounce in the Netherlands is 100g. For the non-cooks out there, an American ounce is about 30g and there are 16 oz in a pound. So if you order 8 ounces of fish here, you’ll be getting close to 2 lbs rather than half a pound! That could be an expensive problem. If you ask for a pound of something here, you will get 500g which is remarkably close to an American pound.
The British people that we went skiing with kept talking about one of the guys who lost 2 stones and looked really good. I had to ask the question, “What’s a stone?” Yes, it sounded pretty dumb when I asked it, too. A stone is 14 pounds. Damn the British for coming up with such stupid measurements!
By the way, I also had to ask, “What’s a quid?” It’s actually the language equivalent of a buck, so a quid is one pound (no, not the weight, the money!). And of course we haven’t even talked about lorries, lifts, trollies, and wellies.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
eet smakelijk
When I buy lunch in the cafeteria, the person at the register always tells me to eet smakelijk. As I sit down, my co-workers say the same thing to me and each other. It is literally translated as eat tastily. In France, they would say bon appetit, or good appetite. So the question always arises, “What do they say in America?”
Here are some thoughts:
1) Nothing – we just eat
2) Enjoy your meal
3) Shut up and eat
4) Dig in!
5) Lord, we thank you for the food we are about to receive…
What else do YOU say before eating?
Here are some thoughts:
1) Nothing – we just eat
2) Enjoy your meal
3) Shut up and eat
4) Dig in!
5) Lord, we thank you for the food we are about to receive…
What else do YOU say before eating?
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Birthday Weekend
On Thursday, I celebrated my 40th birthday. Birthdays are a big deal in NL, so when I got to work I found my office had been decorated for the occasion. Everyone who walked by noticed the flags and streamers and wished me a happy birthday and gave me the standard three kiss greeting. I brought home-made American cookies and brownies to share at tea time. These were very popular.
For dinner that evening, Dennis and I went to the restaurant just down the street from the house. They serve typical Dutch food, but it’s usually pretty good stuff. For dessert, we got the Crepes Suzette with a huge sparkler on top instead of candles. I was one of three people in the restaurant that evening getting fireworks on my dessert. The 5th must be a popular birthday!
The fireworks reminded me I spent my last birthday here in the Netherlands also. I was here for business meetings and then Dennis joined me for house hunting. I remember that I was completely jet-lagged and was struggling to stay awake during dinner with the group. I had never seen a sparkler as big as the one they put on my dessert. I can hardly believe that it was a year ago!
My cat gave me a lovely birthday present by pooping on the dining room floor. I think he’s still mad because we left him for a week. We hired the neighbor girl to feed him and I’m sure she spent some time petting him, but he was still angry. At least we didn’t have to send him to the kennel again after he got so sick there the last time! The cat continued his naughtiness last night by breaking into his food container. I really don’t know how much food he got, but he wasn’t hungry for breakfast this morning. And naturally, he just puked because he must have known I was writing about him. What a brat!
For this weekend, the weather forecast was for a sunny Sunday. Dennis and I decided to drive over to another town and walk along the lake shore. We wanted to start exploring a bit more by car and also get out for a hike. The sun was out early this morning, but just as we were leaving, it started to rain. We decided the weather would change four times before we got to our destination anyway, so we left. Driving was a pleasure with very few cars on the road. We went across the lake to the recently created Flevoland. Flevoland was reclaimed from the lake about 50 years ago. We had biked there before, but always avoided the cities. Today, we drove through the cities. The architecture was very modern – as you would expect from a city so young. There was a building that looked like a spaceship, and another that looked like it was tipped sideways. Crazy!
We finally made it to our start point for the hike and the sun was shining again. It was cold, but it IS February after all. We walked for about 20 minutes when it started raining. Another 10 minutes and the rain turned to snow. We turned around, deciding that it was a bit too miserable for hiking. We stopped for tea at a coffee shop along the beach and we laughed as the snow fell harder and harder. Once we were warm and dry again, we headed back to the car. The snow was almost done by then, but it was colder. Yuck! We’ll have to try another hike next week and hope for better weather!
For dinner that evening, Dennis and I went to the restaurant just down the street from the house. They serve typical Dutch food, but it’s usually pretty good stuff. For dessert, we got the Crepes Suzette with a huge sparkler on top instead of candles. I was one of three people in the restaurant that evening getting fireworks on my dessert. The 5th must be a popular birthday!
The fireworks reminded me I spent my last birthday here in the Netherlands also. I was here for business meetings and then Dennis joined me for house hunting. I remember that I was completely jet-lagged and was struggling to stay awake during dinner with the group. I had never seen a sparkler as big as the one they put on my dessert. I can hardly believe that it was a year ago!
My cat gave me a lovely birthday present by pooping on the dining room floor. I think he’s still mad because we left him for a week. We hired the neighbor girl to feed him and I’m sure she spent some time petting him, but he was still angry. At least we didn’t have to send him to the kennel again after he got so sick there the last time! The cat continued his naughtiness last night by breaking into his food container. I really don’t know how much food he got, but he wasn’t hungry for breakfast this morning. And naturally, he just puked because he must have known I was writing about him. What a brat!
For this weekend, the weather forecast was for a sunny Sunday. Dennis and I decided to drive over to another town and walk along the lake shore. We wanted to start exploring a bit more by car and also get out for a hike. The sun was out early this morning, but just as we were leaving, it started to rain. We decided the weather would change four times before we got to our destination anyway, so we left. Driving was a pleasure with very few cars on the road. We went across the lake to the recently created Flevoland. Flevoland was reclaimed from the lake about 50 years ago. We had biked there before, but always avoided the cities. Today, we drove through the cities. The architecture was very modern – as you would expect from a city so young. There was a building that looked like a spaceship, and another that looked like it was tipped sideways. Crazy!
We finally made it to our start point for the hike and the sun was shining again. It was cold, but it IS February after all. We walked for about 20 minutes when it started raining. Another 10 minutes and the rain turned to snow. We turned around, deciding that it was a bit too miserable for hiking. We stopped for tea at a coffee shop along the beach and we laughed as the snow fell harder and harder. Once we were warm and dry again, we headed back to the car. The snow was almost done by then, but it was colder. Yuck! We’ll have to try another hike next week and hope for better weather!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Skiing in the Alps
Ski runs in the Alps.
One of the huge, bus-style gondolas.
Fancy-dress (this is really a guy).
Me with my new ski buddies.
Dennis and I had a lovely ski holiday in France. The ski resort, Le Trois Vallee, is the largest interconnected ski area in the world. We flew into Geneva Switzerland and the ski chalet staff picked us up in a mini-bus. We drove for a few hours to the chalet in the little town of La Tania. Once there, we started meeting the other people in the group and learning how the ski chalet works.
The chalet is like a big house with a dining room and family room with TVs. The bedrooms are very small, but have private bathrooms. Breakfast, afternoon tea, and dinner are served in the dining room. Lunch was the only meal we had to buy. The chalet holds 28 guests and there were about 5 staff members to take care of us. The staff took care of everything for us. They got our lift passes, reserved rental skis, and even took us on guided ski tours.
The group that we were with is a ski club from England. We got together with them through my co-worker, whose father organizes the trip. So, we didn’t know any of these people when we got there, but they knew each other. The ages ranged from 8 to 80, but Dennis and I were on the younger side of the average. It was a very friendly group and we felt included from the start.
On the day we arrived, it was snowing and it snowed the whole first night. In the morning, the sun was shining and we went out with the ski-guide to explore the mountain. There were only about 6 of us with the ski guide that day, including Heather, the octogenarian. Let me tell you, Heather is a darn good skier! I skied with her quite a bit through the week and she always had to wait for me at the bottom! Having a ski guide is a fantastic way to ski. He showed us the best ski runs, shortest lift lines, and the cheapest lunch options. Best of all, we didn’t waste any time looking at the ski map.
The fresh snow was brilliant, but with snow comes clouds. On the third day of skiing, the clouds were so thick that we could not even see the runs. They had poles marking the pistes (runs) set about 20 feet apart. At some points, we were only able to ski from one pole to the next. We tried to go up higher on the mountain to get above the clouds – no luck. We tried to go lower to get below the clouds – no luck. But, we still had fun and we only got lost once when we missed the turn-off to our chalet and had to ride up the list again to make it home.
The fourth day was completely clear and sunny. We decided to try to ski to the far side of the resort. The resort, despite the name, actually contains four valleys. When going this far, you have to remember to leave enough time to get back before the lifts close. We got out to the third valley by 2:00. We had a quick snack and headed back to the chalet. We really had to hurry to make it and I was really getting tired. To get where we wanted to go, we had to ski down into the valleys to catch the lift up to the next peak. As we got lower, the pistes became more crowded and more icy. One run was just a big ice slick that we slid down sideways. I was terrified! I was tired! And I was worried that I was going so slow we’d miss the last lift! But the group stayed supportive and encouraged me to hang in there. We finally made it up the last lift with a few minutes to spare. I started to ski towards the chalet and through my haze of exhaustion I noticed that we were headed right for the top of the gondola that we started from every morning. A quick check of my watch indicated that if I hurried, I could ride the gondola back down before it closed at 4:30. I was super-relieved to have an easy way down. My sister actually taught me this trick when we skied in Utah. The bottom of the mountain is usually icy and crowded as everyone is heading back down for the afternoon. When you are tired at the end of the day, it can be dangerous to ski in those conditions. Riding the gondola down is the safest option.
Dennis managed to find some people who wanted to ski hard stuff and I managed to find a group that I really enjoyed skiing with. We had tons of fun skiing. In the evenings, the group hung around the chalet talking and playing cards and stuff. One night, we did a quiz game in teams of 6. Dennis and I were recruited onto different teams. With most of the questions being British oriented, we were not very helpful. But there were a couple questions where Dennis and I were the only ones who knew the answer. See how you do:
What is the state animal of Wisconsin?
What sport is featured in the movie American Flyers?
What city is the headquarters of the Morman Church located in?
My team won the game and Dennis’ team was second place.
On the last night, the group did a “fancy dress” dinner. When we were first told about fancy dress, I was panicking because I didn’t want to pack formal clothes with all of our ski gear. A few days before we left, the guy who organizes the tour called to discuss the last minute details. He gave some examples of fancy dress: he had worn a kilt, one couple dressed as sumo wrestlers, men dressing as women etc. Dennis immediately decided that we should wear Hawaiian shirts and be American tourists. It ended up being a hilarious evening. The staff even dressed up and joined in the fun. The British are completely mad!
Now, we are back at home all safe and sound from our trip. We had so much fun that I’m afraid no other ski trip will ever be as good!
The chalet is like a big house with a dining room and family room with TVs. The bedrooms are very small, but have private bathrooms. Breakfast, afternoon tea, and dinner are served in the dining room. Lunch was the only meal we had to buy. The chalet holds 28 guests and there were about 5 staff members to take care of us. The staff took care of everything for us. They got our lift passes, reserved rental skis, and even took us on guided ski tours.
The group that we were with is a ski club from England. We got together with them through my co-worker, whose father organizes the trip. So, we didn’t know any of these people when we got there, but they knew each other. The ages ranged from 8 to 80, but Dennis and I were on the younger side of the average. It was a very friendly group and we felt included from the start.
On the day we arrived, it was snowing and it snowed the whole first night. In the morning, the sun was shining and we went out with the ski-guide to explore the mountain. There were only about 6 of us with the ski guide that day, including Heather, the octogenarian. Let me tell you, Heather is a darn good skier! I skied with her quite a bit through the week and she always had to wait for me at the bottom! Having a ski guide is a fantastic way to ski. He showed us the best ski runs, shortest lift lines, and the cheapest lunch options. Best of all, we didn’t waste any time looking at the ski map.
The fresh snow was brilliant, but with snow comes clouds. On the third day of skiing, the clouds were so thick that we could not even see the runs. They had poles marking the pistes (runs) set about 20 feet apart. At some points, we were only able to ski from one pole to the next. We tried to go up higher on the mountain to get above the clouds – no luck. We tried to go lower to get below the clouds – no luck. But, we still had fun and we only got lost once when we missed the turn-off to our chalet and had to ride up the list again to make it home.
The fourth day was completely clear and sunny. We decided to try to ski to the far side of the resort. The resort, despite the name, actually contains four valleys. When going this far, you have to remember to leave enough time to get back before the lifts close. We got out to the third valley by 2:00. We had a quick snack and headed back to the chalet. We really had to hurry to make it and I was really getting tired. To get where we wanted to go, we had to ski down into the valleys to catch the lift up to the next peak. As we got lower, the pistes became more crowded and more icy. One run was just a big ice slick that we slid down sideways. I was terrified! I was tired! And I was worried that I was going so slow we’d miss the last lift! But the group stayed supportive and encouraged me to hang in there. We finally made it up the last lift with a few minutes to spare. I started to ski towards the chalet and through my haze of exhaustion I noticed that we were headed right for the top of the gondola that we started from every morning. A quick check of my watch indicated that if I hurried, I could ride the gondola back down before it closed at 4:30. I was super-relieved to have an easy way down. My sister actually taught me this trick when we skied in Utah. The bottom of the mountain is usually icy and crowded as everyone is heading back down for the afternoon. When you are tired at the end of the day, it can be dangerous to ski in those conditions. Riding the gondola down is the safest option.
Dennis managed to find some people who wanted to ski hard stuff and I managed to find a group that I really enjoyed skiing with. We had tons of fun skiing. In the evenings, the group hung around the chalet talking and playing cards and stuff. One night, we did a quiz game in teams of 6. Dennis and I were recruited onto different teams. With most of the questions being British oriented, we were not very helpful. But there were a couple questions where Dennis and I were the only ones who knew the answer. See how you do:
What is the state animal of Wisconsin?
What sport is featured in the movie American Flyers?
What city is the headquarters of the Morman Church located in?
My team won the game and Dennis’ team was second place.
On the last night, the group did a “fancy dress” dinner. When we were first told about fancy dress, I was panicking because I didn’t want to pack formal clothes with all of our ski gear. A few days before we left, the guy who organizes the tour called to discuss the last minute details. He gave some examples of fancy dress: he had worn a kilt, one couple dressed as sumo wrestlers, men dressing as women etc. Dennis immediately decided that we should wear Hawaiian shirts and be American tourists. It ended up being a hilarious evening. The staff even dressed up and joined in the fun. The British are completely mad!
Now, we are back at home all safe and sound from our trip. We had so much fun that I’m afraid no other ski trip will ever be as good!
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