Reggio Calabria Ski Weekend

Feb. 17-20 - President's Day Weekend Snowboarding Trip
Fri. Feb. 17 - Hi, sorry its taken so long to get on here and write. I was just seeing if you were paying attention Dad:) Just kidding. It's been crazy around here though and I've been really busy. This weekend was awesome though. Friday at work was completely spent on getting ready for the trip to leave at 4pm. I was working in conjunction with Leah getting all the paperwork, waivers, hotel reservations, etc ready. It was all going really well and it was nice to finally spend some time with Leah. Her husband was coming along and Amber was rooming with me at the hotel. We had 22 people signed up and the time flew by on Friday. We were rushing around buying beer and stuff for the nights since there is NOTHING in this "town" where we were going. I packed the coolers and we got some food and snacks for the ride. I waxed and sharpened my board and had to bring Amber's and mine to the bus. Some people showed up 15 minutes late, but we left at good timing for 22 people. We called roll and Leah gave some basic instructions and details on our weekend stay. The bus ride up there was nice, I got to see Taormina from the highway and we had to go through Messina to get to the port. It took about 2 hours to get to that point due to rush hour traffic. We got in line for the giant Ferry and in about 45 minutes we were parked on the lower deck. The ferry ride took about 35 minutes so you're allowed to get out of your vehicle and walk around the decks. This was the largest ferry that crosses the Mediterranean at this point. It was 4 levels, had some restaurants and little pastry shops. Everyone got off the bus and by then it was really dark. I went by myself to the upper deck to watch it float across to the mainland. It was so peaceful and eye-opening. I've never felt so free and relaxed in my life. I just stood there facing the mainland with the wind blowing and the cold air hitting my face just smiling and realizing where I was. I was peacefully sailing across the Mediterranean and felt that I was completely alone on this ship. My mind blocked out all the sounds and all I could do was smile and think. I'm halfway across the world and hopping from the island of Sicily and getting to the mainland of Italy. The lights from both cities (Messina and Reggio Calabria) were gorgeous. I didn't want the ride to end. I only imagined how much more wonderful that ride would have been with some friends exploring Europe. At this point of this entire trip and internship did I feel the most proud of my self and independent. I could totally do this forever. I would enjoy other travelers with me, but just being alone and having no one else to help me or talk to is a big experience. I loved it. I know it sounds corny but I knew my life was changing at that moment in time. This was going to be a great weekend already. We docked and headed up for the town of Gambarie where the ski lift is. It was windy roads in a giant bus. Two things that don't combine very well. It was actually amazing that we didnt get in a head-on collision going up those curves. That was only another hour and a half and we had arrived. Things are so different at night. I couldn't wait to see it in the daylight. I was already anxious to see the ferry ride during day light. We got into the hotel, put our bags away, the rooms were really nice for being an Italian hotel, and the hotel had dinner waiting for us. I got my board all set up and we headed down to dinner with everyone. They had two nice big tables for us that we'd sit at the rest of the weekend for breakfast and dinner everyday. That was all included, lunch was on our own. When your snowboarding all day from 9:30-4 you don't even think about taking time out for lunch. We ate dinner, 4 courses, it was really good, and then headed up stairs to start the party. We played Cranium for a few hours and everyone was ready to go to bed. I found out that Leahs husband is a complete jerk and is a boardgame-Nazi. He pissed a bunch of people off that night so I dont think I'll be hanging out with them for the rest of the trip. Kim and Leslie called us to say HI and we all needed sleep for tomorrow.

Sat. Feb 18 - I woke up at 7am because breakfast was at 8. I went ahead and got dressed for the slopes since the lines are usually pretty long to get passes and get on the lift. Since we got in at night I didnt see the slopes. Before eating I went outside and took the only picture I took for the whole weekend. It was really inconvenient to take my camera up on the slopes. I'll have to get em from everyone else on the trip. I'll definitely find some though cuz it was beautiful and breathtaking at the top of the mountain. Breakfast was typical Italian, a pastry and a bunch of coffee. Shortly after I headed for the slopes and went with Amber. The ski lift was 18 eruo and it wasnt too busy. They only had two runs open and one of them is a toe-rope. I'll get to that in a minute. The lift was really long and the ride was awesome. You could see northest Sicily and just imagine how large the island really is. It was such a clear day that you could see Mt Etna peeking out of the clouds. That was the one picture I really wish I could have gotten. It was awesome, it literally looked like it was floating in the ski. The ride was interesting since you have to ride with the snowboard attached to your foot. That was an interesting first-time experience. The top and getting off the lift was hilarious. I fell as soon as I slid out of my seat since you have to go down this hill with one foot attached. I almost did the splits. I didn't care, a bunch of other people in our group had never done that before either. I figured I had all weekend to work on it. The slope was great and I realized I would really be able to work on the skills. It was powdery and not too crowded. I met up with the really good snowboarders in our group and started to hang out with them. I boarded all day and then a few of us got the bright idea to go down the slope with the toe-rope. I had no idea what I was in for but the guys who have been boarding for years said its really hard and frustrating. The problem was was that this hill was a 64* slope for about a mile. It was insane to go down, you couldn't even see the path in front of you sometimes since the slope was so steep. I did a lot of cris-crossing down that hill. I got the the bottom, it ended up being a really fun and long ride. The other run was too short. It took like 10 minutes to get down and then you have to stand in line for 35 minutes to get back up. I got to the bottom with some friends and started trying to get up the toe-rope. You have to have one foot in your bindings and then the other one has to sit on the center stomp pad on the board. Then you have to proceed to grab this pole thing with a little plastic disc on it which is all connected to an extending wire. The problem is that for snowboarders your riding this thing up sideways. Skiers have no problem cuz they just put in between their legs and ride up facing forward. I tried it 3 times and the furthest I got was a few hundred feet up this gigantic slope. I didn't even make it a 10th of the way up. I wanted to cry cuz I was so frustrated, but no one could really get it. I finally gave up and started walking up the hill cuz there was so other way to get back to that first run and the ski lift. Not a good idea. I felt like I was hiking Mt Everest with really uncomfortable boots, sweating, and carrying a 10 pound board. I was getting no where and every step I took I sunk into the snow. I was probably gonna go into shock or something if I would have continued to try and walk up this hill. My friend Josh came down and gave me some Gatorade and took my board for me. He was skiing, so he brought my board up the toe-rope with him so I didnt have to carry it up. I was hiking for about an hour, sweating and not being able to regulate my body temperature with the outside temp so I just layed down to rest for awhile. I still had another 20 minute hike to go. Josh came back down and told me he found me a ride. I just had to snowboard back down to the bottom and they would drive me back to the hotel. Basically, if you couldnt get up the hill you were stuck. Luckily the guy gave me and another guy from our group a ride b/c we could not get up that hill. The car ride was hilarious and all I wanted to do when I got to the hotel was take a shower, take a nap, and eat some lunch. I didn't get to take a nap cuz I got a 2nd wind so Josh and I went and ate lunch. The party started early but it was so much fun hanging out with this new group of people. Amber doesn't really like to party and these guys were all my age or near. They were so much fun and reminded me of so many people back home. It was nice to finally meet some people that live on NAS I with me. The two girls were really fun too, I'm gonna hang out with them more often when I get home. We partied, ate dinner as a group, it was alright but pretty much the same thing as the night before. After dinner we all made our drinks, played some board games and card games, and headed to the park down the street to keep the noise down at the hotel. Tonight was the disco at the hotel. The open up a room and hire a DJ and dancer. We all hung out there until it closed. Italian dancing is freaking hilarious. Its like perverted line dancing. If we would have taped all that dancing we could have won Americas Funniest Videos. They think they are soooo sexy, but its complete laughter. It went pretty late and I was dancing the entire night to the funny Italian music. After that, a bunch of people went to bed (the older ones) and we all stayed up to party. We played BS in the lobby for a few hours and just had an awesome time. It was 5:45am when we all finally went to bed. I knew tomorrow was gonna be painful.

Sun. Feb 20 - I woke up bright and early at 7:30 and headed for the shower and breakfast. I was actually feeling okay, just sore from my extreme mountain hiking yesterday. My groin was killing me too from constantly doing the splits trying to get off the ski lift each time. It was all funny memories though so I didnt mind the pain. Sundays are like holidays for Italians so needless to say, the slopes were packed. Amber was skiing today so I just hung out with all the "Cool Kids" all day. It took almost an hour to get my lift ticket today. The slopes were wonderful again, but the standing in line for the lift started to get really annoying. Luckily I had all these guys to entertain me while we waited. They are nuts. When your standing in a giant line with pushy Italians, you just stand there and make fun of them and yourself. I have never laughed so hard in one day in my life. They would just stand there and yell out crazy things in other languages and dance around and just be goofy. The Italians couldn't stop staring and laughing at us. Half way through the day, they made a giant ramp that was about 8 feet tall. We just sat there for a few hours and watched them all do jumps and stuff. I took a few runs down by myself to improve. I asked them all for some tips and by the end of the day I could do everything. It was a great feeling. I have everything figured out now and now the seasons almost over. I'll get one more weekend in for sure at Etna though before the ice really starts to hurt people. I got a phone call from Leslie saying that they had to Helicopter another guy off of Etna this weekend with our trip. Today was awesome and we were all surprinsgly more awake than we thought. They took some really cool videos and pictures of the day so I'll have to get them. I stood under the ramp while someone flew over me. That was pretty cool. We got a few more runs in and had a hundred snowball fights throughout the day. We also had some wrestling matches for the Italians' entertainment. They love the tricks the Americans do. Thats why the USA rocked the Olympics in snowboarding. We got down from the mountain, showered and headed to the pizza place. 6 of us hung out and ate pizza over there while everyone else were taking naps. We got everyone up and we started playing cards again and goofing around. The hotel was pretty crowded so it didn't matter how loud we were. We walked around the "town" which took about 10 minutes and later headed to dinner. I tried swordfish for the first time. It was alright, not fishy tasting. It actually tasted like really tender chicken flavored with lemon. Dinner was an absolute blast. The funnies conversations were going and everyone was so slap happy from being tired. We ended up sittting down there for awhile just laughing with everyone. After dinner we went up to play a final game of Cranium. I couldn't convince anyone to play Phaze 10 all weekend since it involved too much thinking. The Cranium game was intense and the whole gang played. Well the 12 cool people ya know. The older people and Leah and Amber were drinking wine in the restaurant all night. The game went for a few hours and then we all just went and hung out in the big quad room. We watched some Italian MTV and a weird movie while we were in there. The night ended pretty late, but we had nothing to do in the morning except get on the bus at 10am.

Mon. Feb 20 - I slept in til 8:30 and went and ate some breakfast. I had a chocolate croissant. Its really strange, but I really enjoy the coffee over here. I think in another way though I feel forced to drink it since there's nothing really else to drink. I did have some blood-orange juice though. That was tasty. Everyone met up in the lobby to check out and the lobby was a mess with all of our gear and bags. I played the cafe (espresso) game with 3 of the guys. Its really stupid but I drank 4 shots of espresso in like 5 minutes. I knew this was going to be an interesting bus ride home. We loaded the bus and I sat with all the younger people in the back this time. I really wasn't too happy with Leah and her husband so I avoided sitting up front with them. I knew I'd have an entertaining time in the back. The ride down the mountain took forever since you cant see cars coming around the bends. I took a few pictures coming down of the landscape, but the bus never stopped long enough to get any really good ones. It was gorgeous though, I just stared out the window for about a half hour knowing that I probably wouldn't see it again. The espressos started to kick in and a bunch of people were getting car sick from the curvy ride to the bottom. We got on a small ferry and headed back to Sicily. The water was really rough from the winds but it was a really cool view of both the mainland and Sicily. You could see Sardinia (the other Italian island) it was so clear. The ride was beautiful and the ocean was clear blue. It took a little longer to get across since it was smaller and the winds were pretty bad. After we crossed we stopped at an AutoGrille (truckstop with a cafeteria). I got some pesto pasta and everything was way over priced there. It only took about an hour to get back to Sigonella. The bus ride was fun but everyone was starting to get really tired near the end. We got back, I brought everything back into ITT (it was closed for the holiday) and unpacked when I got home. I had a massive pile of laundry to do. They offered me to go to dinner at this really good Chinese restaurant in Catania that night around 8. I had time to do laundry, shower, watch some tv, and take a nap. We left for the restaurant and were on our way to Catania. These guys have all been here about 2 years so they know all the fun things to do. This Chinese restaurant was really good and the floor of it was a giant aquarium all lit up with flourescent lights. It was a lot of fun and wrapped up the weekend nicely. It will be so nice to have these guys to hang out with now on NAS I. I think I'm gonna get a ride to Carnevale with them this weekend after we go snowboarding on Saturday. As soon as I got home I crashed. I was so tired. The weekend was so much fun and for $130 you couldn't beat it.