Week Two

Sunday, March 2/08

Ok, so this past week, we had a week long holiday from school (and in 3 weeks, we get another 2 weeks off for Easter!). The Kausches and I went to Grindelwald, about an hour and a half by car, for skiing in the alps. The 3 famous mountains we skied were Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. It was so amazing there. The mountains are breathtaking and overwhelming. All I could think about the whole time was the line from a song, `Saviour, He can move the mountains. My God is mighty to save, He is Mighty to save…` I love the mountains, and Verena (Mrs. K) said we might go back for a weekend because we are supposed to be getting half a metre to a metre of snow this week! So far the weather has been really mild – up to 10 degrees.

Back to the vaca, we got there on Saturday. I went in the van with Willi (Mr. K), Jana, and Timon (her younger brother, 10) while Verena, Maren (sister, 15), and Lorenz (brother, 18) took the train, because it would have been too cramped. They skied on Saturday, and we all skied together on Sunday. Lorenz had to go back to university for the week, but the rest of us skied everyday all day (about 9-4 or 10-4) until (and including) Friday. The first few days were really beautiful - not a cloud in the sky. Then it got a little warmer and the snow was really heavy and wet, but we still skied. Then it got overcast and everything got really icy, but we still skied. Then it got really foggy, so foggy that at one point, I couldn’t see the chair right in front of us on the chair lift. But again, we still skied. Then came the `final test` as Willi called it – when it was icy, foggy and snowing. It was quite difficult, especially because the hills are way more challenging than our Canadian hills (the 2nd level here – red – would probably be a double black diamond in Canada). But it was so much fun too, because there weren’t many people on the mountain when it was crummy weather, and we had to be careful and go slowly and stay close together. It was really neat.

On the Tuesday morning, the girls (Verena, Jana, Maren, and I) went to the `Top of Europe`- nearly 3.5 km above sea level, on the top of Mt. Jungfrau. We took a train ride I think 9.5 km from the Kliene Shidegg (where we would usually start skiing) and it took a good 45 minutes. The train went right through the middle of a mountain (I`m not sure which one, but I think it was Jungfrau). It was so cool. There was an amazing view at the top and it was a beautiful day (there are pictures on facebook). There was an ice palace that we walked through, and the remaining parts of a glacier, and the history of people who have climbed the mountain and set up everything. It was really neat.

On Thursday, we rented 4 `sledges` (really just sleds) and went `sledging` for the first ½ of the day. It was a lot of fun, and a lot like what Heidi does in the film (the one with Shirley Temple). You have to sit with your feet out in front of you and steer by gently putting your heals into the snow. One little nick and you really turn fast. It becomes challenging when your start going over bump and trying to steer (or brake) and your feet come slamming down (on a bump). I got flung off the path (which is not very safe to begin with) and down part of the mountain a few times.

The ski passes are really cool here – so high tech (along with pretty much everything else, I think Europe is a lot more advanced than we give them credit for back home… they have so many good ideas over here). Anyways, the ski pass is like a credit card and you keep in zipped inside your coat and just before the chair lift there are things where you lean up against a wall type thing and it senses your pass and a green light comes on and it lets you pass through. It’s sort of hard to explain, but I tried to film it once, and it was just as hard to film.
At the end of a day of skiing, we would ski all the way down the mountain, which took about 45 minutes! It was fun to go from really icy to really wet and heavy and then to no snow at all at the bottom. Then we took a bus a few kilometres to a set of stairs going up a different mountain (with no snow, and very mild) and we would lug ourselves up (ski boot, skis, coats, and all) a very precarious and steep path to our chalet. By then time we got there, we were really out of breath. Then we would all shower and Mrs. and Mr. would go out and get groceries for dinner and breakfast and lunch for the next day. A couple times the kids and I went swimming (which really finished me off, energy wise). After dinner, we usually played a few card games like uno (which is very popular here) and rummy and Dutch blitz, etc.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable week. Even though for a good ½ of it I was gripping onto my ski poles for dear life. Oh, there was one time when we went down Lauberhorn (a very famous run used for international competitions) and there was a sign that said `For Good Skiers Only` and I knew I couldn’t do it, even before I saw the hill (or better described, cliff). Well, they made me try it and a fell almost immediately and by the time I had slid all the way down I had lost both poles and both skis. I twisted my knee a bit too, but it ended up being ok. Needless to say, I did not try that section again.

Well, you are probably getting quite board of reading this e-mail, so I will bring it to a close now. Oh, actually I`m just going to copy and paste something I wrote to Becca on facebook here, giving a small description of everyone in the Kausche family.

Jana`s family is very nice. I like them a lot. Willi, the father, is funny and speaks English to me a lot because he says its habit to speak English when he hears someone with an English accent. When he speaks French to me it is really slow. haha. Verena, the mother, is very kind and soooo selfless and accommodating and a very hard worker. The family is a Swiss German speaking family (at home, but French at school/work/everywhere else) and I think she tries the most to speak French whenever I’m in earshot. Even when someone is speaking Swiss German to her, she will reply in French (for my benefit). I don’t get to see much of the older brother, Lorenz (18), because he lives an hour and a half away for university and is home on the weekends only, but he seems nice. He speaks alot in Swiss German, though. Jana, is awesome, obvi 6000. Maren, the younger sister (15) is so nice. She speaks French a lot too, and i like hanging out with her. She’s a lot like Jana, but at the same time a lot unlike her. She’s really fun and expressive, and for any of you who know Jaclyn Nicholson, she is exactly like her. Timon (10) (awesome name, eh?) is so cute and full of energy. I like having a younger brother. He really likes to explain things to me and he likes playing games a lot. Sometimes he reminds me of Kirstin.It’s so funny when they speak in German, because every work sounds so vulgar and mean. haha.
It is kind of funny going between French and English (and kind of Swiss German, but not really for me) all the time. Sometimes I get mixed up and speak the wrong language to the wrong person. And they listen to a lot of English music, so that throws me off too.

So now your really board. But thanks for reading. I hope you could have a glimpse of the awesomeness over here.