Review of expectations

We are finishing up week five of the instructor training program. I have been thinking of my expectations for this trip in the beginning of the year and if they are being met so far. If I had to prioritize, it would be improving my snowboarding skills, meeting new people, experiencing a slightly different culture, and finally passing the BASI snowboarding exam.

After five weeks, I can definitely say that my snowboarding is improved ten times. Switch riding is no longer a problem and I'm learning so many different freestyle techniques from kickers to halfpipe to slope tricks. Although I have been moslty hanging with the younger crowd, I feel that I have met some really good people with whom I can keep a life long friendship. Along with meeting different people, I'm experiencing new cultural things every week. There are so many different nationalities represented here. The red ski school instructors can speak English, French, German, and of course Swiss German. It is likely that I won't land a job here even if I wanted to. The red ski school rarely hire only English speaking instructors (and my German is questionable at best). There are a few students who are concerned about the BASI 2 exam coming up in three weeks. Although I want to pass, it won't hurt my experience if I don't.

Today we hit the half pipe for the afternoon. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but my heelside turn is a bit sketchy (maybe due to the ice). I'm getting a ton of air on the toe side though. Tomorrow, we are teaching the skiiers how to snowboard and likewise the skiiers will teach us how to ski. It has been about 15 years since I've been on skiis, so we'll see how it goes.

Side note:
The Swedish gals at the Northwall Bar are turning me on to some really good Scandinavian rock.

Pablo Watch: Pablo completely missed today's lesson (likely due to him getting pissed drunk or high). That was okay for the rest of since we did not have to look over our shoulders wondering if he would run into us.