Switzerland

Hi there.

So I just arrived back in Biel from Skilager yesterday (pronounced "shee'-logger"), along with the other Americans here visiting: Jen, Laura, Peter and Gillian. That's right, it's quite the party here. It was wonderful, of course... we stayed in a big ol' lodge in the middle of the Alps. The place we stayed and skiied was called Le Moleson (put a little hyphen over the "e" in Moleson) in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Over a hundred kids were there, so it was by far the biggest Skilager ever. We had an amazing time, it was wonderful to see all of their shining, smiling faces and give them big American hugs.

On Friday a few of us went for a trip to Wildstrubbel ("Veeld'-shtroob-el) to hike four hours up into the back country (10,000 foot peak!) and snowboard back down for an hour straight in pristine powder. Unfortunately, once we got there we found that the avalanche danger was too high for us to go, so we never used our snowshoes, poles, avalanche gear, oh well. But we still had a blast snowboarding all day.

Here's a few photos of my time there in the Alps.

Upon first arriving at the Wildstrubbel, we immediately saw this small avalanche coming down from a peak. Not a good sign:

Peter and I:
And Andreas whom you (perhaps) know and love:
Gotta love that macro setting... here's some frost, close up:

And of course, the lovely Swiss folks:

First and second year students:

Third year (current) students:

With my Swiss family: