Snowboarding, Shopping, and Biking

This weekend was the annual 'Snow Event', which is a two-day ski trip organized and sponsored by my employer. These trips are great for moral and team building. It's often on these trips that I meet coworkers from other offices who I wouldn't meet under other circumstances. This year we went skiing in Klosters and stayed overnight at the Berghuette Schwendi.

I don't ski often or very well but know enough to avoid black runs and how not to hurt myself. But this year I wanted to learn how to snowboard! I thought it looked difficult and learned very quickly that it is. I hired a teacher and highly recommend any beginner to do the same. He patiently spent the day with me working on the basics of stopping and turning. I fell often and have the bruises to prove it. I also had two or three spectacular falls that included somersaults and banging my head on the hard snow. Thankfully I was wearing a helmet! I received a beating and was shamefully happy that Saturday was a write-off due to rain.

I returned to St. Gallen on Saturday afternoon and promptly went shopping for the most important appliance: A barbecue! It would be wrong not to have one on this balcony. I put it together last night and fired it up this afternoon. Yum!

The weather is absolutely gorgeous today so I went out for a 20km bike ride despite the cramps in my legs, arms, torso, and neck. My legs are screaming so later I'll probably relax them in a hot bath. But that's after another barbecue, of course.