Les Alps

Welp there I am, on top of a mountain...feelin cooler than a polar bear's toenails.

This past weekend, Josh came to Luxembourg, and we went skiing in the French Alps with a group of people from E&Y here. The entire package was as follows : Leave our offices at 10pm on Thursday night on a chartered bus, drive through the night and arrive at our hotel Friday morning. Ski Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then head out on the same bus Sunday evening. Arrive back at the office on Monday morning. Included in the deal was your lift ticket for Saturday and Sunday, the hotel, and all the free food and drink (including all alcohol other than champagne and cognac) you could handle.

Everything went off without a hitch. This hotel was right in the middle of the Alps. All we had to do to ski was walk out the back door and go. It was almost too easy and convenient. The hotel even had a sort of locker room, where each room number had it's own boot rack and ski rack. So you'd leave all your gear down there, and then in the morning, all you had to do was get dressed, go downstairs to the locker room, put on your boots, grab your skis and hit the slopes.

Our days consisted of waking up in the morning, getting breakfast in the hotel's restaurant (full-on buffet, all you can eat), getting our skis and boots and then skiing all morning. Around noon, we'd figure out where we were on our map (this resort was gigantic) and then head back to the hotel for lunch. Again, full-on buffet (and I'm talkin like pot roast...potatoes...assortments of cheeses....deserts.....really good stuff) with a bottle of local French wine and all the beer, soda, water, etc you wanted.

After lunch we'd head back out for the afternoon and ski adifferent area of the resort. Around 4.30pm we'd start to find our way back to the hotel since most of the lifts closed around 5pm. Once we would get back, we'd drop our stuff off in the locker room and go to the bar for some apre-ski drinks. After a few cold ones, we'd go back to the room, shower (not together), take a nap and then go for dinner. Another buffet. More drinks. And on and on and on....

The mountain itself was not so much one mountain as it was about ten. I really can't do it justice, other than to say that the place was immense. We skiied for three days, and other than the slope we had to take to get home everyday, we didn't really ski the same part of the place more than twice. It was really amazing....you would go over one ridge, ski down, take a lift up to the top of the next ridge, and over the other side, you could see an entirely different network of lifts and slopes. This went on forever it seemed. I would guess that you could ski there for a week straight and probably not be able to hit everything. And it was beautiful. Everywhere we went, you could stop and take pictures and they'd be very scenic and such.

Random happenings: One of my buddies from work (he's Scottish) went as well, and he had never skiied before. He didn't have any clothes and was bummed when, once we got there, he found out that he couldn't "hire a jacket and some trousers" (translated "rent a ski jacket and some ski pants") for the weekend. So he dropped about 200 euros on new ski clothes. Ouch! But, with that being said, he picked up the skiing very quickly and by the third day really didn't fall at all, and this was on some semi-difficult and pretty steep slopes. By the end of the trip, we were already planning out something for next year in Austria or Switzerland (or both).

It was so sunny that, on the first day when we went for lunch, we were surprised that some people were actually laying out getting sun tans on the patio out back of our hotel. How can they be getting a sun tan in the snow? Well, we found out the hard way. As we skiied in for the evening on Friday, and as I took my sunglasses off for the first time all day, I was surprised to see a panda bear staring back at me through the mirror. None of us put sun tan lotion on our faces, and all three of us paid the price. You should have seen my tan lines. On Saturday at lunch, Josh couldn't even look at me without laughing. And if you check out my pics (see the link "Check Out My Pics" above), you'll notice that in the pictures of me toward the end of the album, my face looks rather white. I wasn't shy with the sunscreen on days 2 and 3! At one point, Robert's face kind of even started blistering. Just today was the first day at work that no one laughed at me (not sure if that's b/c it's getting better or if people are just getting used to how I look). Honestly, yesterday, I walked back in from lunch, and the receptionist looks up, her eyes get wide, and she blurts out "What happened to your face!?"

Other than me, Josh, and Robert (the Scottish dude), everyone else on the trip spoke French. It was a little awkward at first, but by the end of the trip we had learned very useful phrases from them, such as "I enjoy sex," and "You have a big ass." :-)

Had traditional French fondue on Saturday for dinner. Bread, cheese and wine. Sounds just okay, but I assure you, it was really good.

The ride was home on Sunday was fine enough....we pretty much slept the whole way. We made it back to Luxembourg around 5am, drove home, slept some more, then I went into work around 3pm (I had a conference call at 3pm...went into the office specifically for that and then it got cancelled...shocker! That's typical E&Y Luxembourg for you!!).

Now this weekend I'm takin' it easy. In fact, at this moment, I'm sitting here writing, drinkin a brew (this German stuff called Erdinger....brilliant!) and watching the Cubs v. Cardinals game over the internet. The plans include just working and getting things in order (i.e., laundry, cleaning, etc) because next Friday, I fly to Chicago for Easter (Fr: weekend la paque). Looking forward to seeing all of my friends there and having some Chipotle! I'll be in Chicago until Tuesday, April 18 (happy birthday, Josh), and then big Magnes moves over just a few short weekends later. Quality of life will sky rocket....

Well that's it for nizzow. I opened a personal photo page (see the link above) where I'm in the process of posting all my pics I've taken thus far. You can click the link to check 'em out. Otherwise, the site is http://matthewmarcum.shutterfly.com.

Peace!