garmisch
2009-01-04 9:54 p.m.
im finally back online.
we moved from hamburg to a ski resort in this little unknown place called garmisch-partenkirscher, which is as obscure as it sounds and ALSO, when you pronounce it right, sounds exactly like garbage-part-of-the-church.
not exactly the greatest name.
but this is, apparently, the same place we came with sheila's family exactly 10 years ago!
i have so much more to write but i think we're getting chased away by the waiter.
(the only place we managed to find wi-fi connection was in a western restaurant, this place is insanely obscure.)
so taa!
im baaack again!!
and this time im back in SINGAPORE, finally.
but let me continue my entry from the garmisch-partenkirscher part.
oh wait i havent talked about new year's yet!
so in the end we didnt go to my uncle's party (much to my annoyance. poof goes the chance to see german clubbing) and stayed at my other uncle's house and really played board games all the way till midnight.
some party animals we are.
actually we missed midnight by 13 seconds because the game was quite absorbing so we didnt get to really countdown, but after that we went outside and set off our FIREWORKS!
the entire place was INSANE. the whole sky was full of explosions and color (a bit like a war zone, just more colorful) and you could smell all the burning and it was really total chaos everywhere.
the big groups of people from restaurants were responsible for the big booms and whizzes but it was the smaller teenage guerilla troops around that were really dangerous because they had the cheapo fireworks which, instead of going up like its supposed to, actually goes straight ahead horizontally so if you were in the way of the little whizzing thing you better jump away quick.
and there's also the fact that we couldnt tell exactly which fireworks were dead, because even when our own firecrackers (which were quite spectacular and impressive actually, not smallish like i thought they would be) were burnt out and smoking our uncle pronounced them still alive.
so at any moment they could weeeee again and release their final glory.
so it was pretty much like a minefield all around.
definitely worth doing again next year. singapore doesnt know what its missing out.
anyway after new year's we left our uncle's house and flew to munich where we drove to said obscure little garmisch-partenkirscher, an idllyic, christmas-card ski resort where nothing happens and you cant get wi-fi connection anywhere except the western restaurant where mean waiters reside.
there we finally got to the main point of our trip: SKIING!!
but it totally sucked because on the first day my sister and i were separated from our parents and spent the entire time looking for them, thus only taking the decent slope once or twice.
in fact skiing is a really high-maintenance, exhausting sport.
exhausting as in you are exhausted before you even start.
first there is all the gear to deal with; the insanely hard and uncomfortable ski boots, the stupid heavy skiis which we have to carry around, and waterproof jacket and pants and gloves which make you feel like a stuffed dumpling when you're fully suited.
then you have to take the cable car up to the second check point halfway up the mountain and from there queue for a gazillion years and take another ski lift up to the higher part of the mountain where the decent slopes are, all the while traipsing everywhere in said insanely hard and uncomfortable ski boots and carrying stupid heavy skiis.
then you whizz down the slope in about 5 minutes and repeat the cycle all over again.
the second day we managed a few hours of decent skiing before we left for lunch, during which i realized that my left big toe had been impossibly squished in my ski boot for too long a period of time and had thus protested by swelling up and turning my nail a creepy bluey color.
and the whole thing hurts like anything.
considering i wanted to snowboard the next day and come home to join semi pro at xen immediately a big painful toe wasnt exactly part of the equation.
but that's what i got.
so i didnt get to snowboard, and im limping around stupidly up to today.
%*&#@&*!
its a really dumb way to end your vacation.
and to think, school starts in just 6 days.
oh the horror.
