Getting a PhD in Awesome!

To be honest I have been trying to draft an email that will capture the countless hilarious stories and just amazing-ness of the weekend but I have been failing all week. So instead I will share some stories and you too can earn your PhD in awesome!

It was a weekend filled with laughs, drinks, fondue, and soooo many fails and bails!  Now, I have really never skied before. I am not even sure that I have been in a reasonable proximity to skiing since I tried snowboarding when I was 14.  My friend Rachel's brother, who also resides in Switzerland, rented a hut in the mountains so we could all go skiing and just enjoy a lovely weekend away! There were about 35 of us at the height of the weekend, four aupairs and 30 people with PhDs or in the process of getting one! Rachel, Nicole, Anna, and I headed off for a weekend of adult conversations, beautiful views, and skiing. 

1. Rachel is (not) an excellent teacher. (To be completely fair I may have been a difficult student.)   I have NEVER touched skis in my life and in order to get up to hut we had to take a t-bar up the mountain and then ski down a bit to get to where we needed to be. I was terrified.  I asked Rachel for more specific instructions on how to put skis on than "Ok put your skis on."  I proceeded to the t-bar where a mean Swiss man yelled at me in German.  I assume he was telling me to move faster and after missing t-bar chance, he grabbed me and a bar and put me on it and up the mountain I went.  Without any knowledge of what I was doing, I successfully made it up the t-bar on my first try on skis.  Little did I know, getting back down the mountain would be much scarier! 

2.  Don't try to catch the last t-bar up and do not try to hold on with your hands.   Fortunately, I made it up because I was scared and refused to move any part of my body until my truly graceful dismount at the top.  However, my dear friend Nicole did not.  She had to catch a snow-plow like ride a couple hours later. We greeted her at the door with a much needed glass of wine. 

3. The mountains are gorgeous. I know this in theory but the views that surrounded us were just unbelievable. So learning to appreciate the cold and snow, just another step towards your PhD.

4. This is a short video of my second attempt. I am the small black blog that falls at the end.  The fall was much more graceful and I didn't scream the whole time, so it was definitely an improvement! My lack of ability to turn, brings me back to Rachel's teaching abilities.  My instructions were, "turn." And when I continues to not turn, my instructions were "TURN, Why aren't you turning???" In the end, I could turn one direction but never switch directions, which is how you can slow yourself down. 

5. Rachel does have what we can call "motivating skills."  I was not so much enjoying the walk up the hill to ski down for 10 seconds and fall so I lent my poles to someone so that they could ski and I had an excuse not to ski. As it it turns out, this was not a good enough excuse as apparently, like a child, I need to earn my poles as the children do.  So up the hill I went without my safety net of poles.  However, the result was the same, I started going to fast and bailed yet again!

I am the person in black that falls at the end!

6. Having adult conversations with people other than aupairs.  So my social circle is pretty small and while we try to avoid the topic of children and housework, we often times do find ourselves talking about.  This weekend was a reminder than we are all capable of having real adult conversations! 

7.  Apparently, skiing is like riding a bike...but when you haven't learned to ride, it is a difficult to begin.  

Photo courtesy of Olin and Nikki

8. Going up the mountain is easier than going down.  Now I can't say I am any better a skier than I was a week ago. I thought my motivation for learning to ski was that I would have to ski down the mountain so I put a lot into it on Saturday and was out there more than I wasn't However, Sunday I felt a bit defeated watching the three olds ski by me and decided the hut in the mountains was very pleasant place to hang out. I had also decided I would be walking down the mountain instead of skiing so the need to perfect my skill was lost.  

After several hours of trying to use all

the letters in bananagrams! 

Anna skied down with my skis so 

I could walk down! My hero!

Leaving on Sunday night

Making it down the mountain (walking) after a weekend of skiing without a bruise (at least a visible one) or a broken bone makes one memorable weekend in the Alps and each of us non-PhDs receiving a PhD in awesome for just being awesome!

*Title of blog is courtesy of Rachel's (on the left) mind after a few glasses of wine.