My Semester Break

Hey everyone,

So im just coming off my break and currently trying to get back in the swing of things with school. My break was without a doubt one of the most amazing experiences of my young life. Have a read about our trip to Zermatt, Switzerland and I also included a little bit about this past Friday night at the end of the blog. Enjoy!

Our Trip:

The gentlemen partaking in this trip of a lifetime were Benjamin Quinn, Keith Sproul and myself. Pictured below at one of the million summits: 

Myself, Ben and Keith at 13000ft!

Switzerland, in general is an amazing country. It was the best quality snowboarding I have ever done. The snow was perfect and the weather was perfect. Not too cold and not too hot. We only had one day when there was a blizzard and even than we only lost 1/4 of a day of snowboarding.

Good shot of how small the village looks (only half way up the mountain)

This mountain was huge. You would not believe exactly how big Zermatt is. Because its so big we spent a lot of time on chair lifts and gondolas. From the bottom to the very top took at least half an hour to 45 minutes. It equally took as long to snowboard down to the bottom. The grooming of the trails were 2nd to none. All trails were in immaculate condition and the terrain was so vast that you could go off trail for miles and still get to where you want to go. My only con was that none of the trails were overly challenging. Zermatt is more tailored toward family and intermediate skiers/ snowboarders. Regardless of this, everyday was literally a day in paradise for us.

This is known as Glacier Paradise, Heaven on Earth

The mighty Matterhorn piercing the clouds

I represented the X-Ring a lot. Still so proud to be a Xaverian Alum

StFX!

My first powder experience, I was so happy!

The apartment we stayed in was also fantastic. We all had to sleep in one big (I use that term loosely) room but luckily none of us were snorers. We had a kitchen with a stove so to save money we cooked a lot of our own food. It was Ben's birthday when we were there so on that night we cooked up some nice salmon with lemon and mashed potatoes. Simple but delicious. Not buying food every night definitely cut down on costs for us. In addition, the service at the apartment was tremendous. The gentleman owning all the apartments was named Richard and when he spoke he sounded just like gold member off Austin Powers :), he was the nicest guy though. He would deliver fresh bread to our room at 7:00am each morning and the day of Ben's birthday he delivered a cake to our room as well (with candles). I suppose for the money we paid that was the way we should have been served but none the less we couldn't have been more happy with the service.

Outdoor rink in the middle of the village. I wish I brought my skates to show the swiss how its done!

Fun facts about Zermatt:

1. The village itself is full of rich people who like to let you know they're rich

2. They have street meat vendors in the village but you can't get a coke to drink, you can only get champagne.

3. The village is completely car free, they use little electric buggies as taxis so people can get around.

4. The village is situated 1600 feet about sea level

5. Justin Timberlake was there...we think

6. We gathered that Swiss people are the most efficient people in the world. If they say "I'll meet you at 11:07", as the clock strikes 11:07 they show up. Extremely punctual and kind people made the trip pleasant for all 3 of us. Oh and their chocolate is to die for. Those of you that know me well can imagine the field day I had in the chocolate aisle at the grocery store.

7. To falsify number 6 a little, I broke up a fight in the middle of the street between a 50 year old and a 65 year old, I believe they were arguing about cab fair.

8. Zermatt actually lies directly on the Italian border. So on the 3rd day we were there we snowboarded into Italy and had real pasta for lunch.....As expected, the food was great and the service was shit. This was a full day expedition.

(I am noticing that as i type all of this up I am enforcing a lot of stereotypes hahaha)

Birthday Celebrations:



This past Friday (March the 9th) we celebrated 5 peoples birthday in our DDS class. It was an amazing night, we went out for a nice dinner and then myself and my friend Arnold left dinner early so we could get birthday cakes ready and let the other people joining the party into my apartment.  The birthday people walked in and we surprised them and sung happy birthday etc. After a couple hours at my place we had another surprise up our sleeves and had everybody go outside to find a limo waiting there! We rode around downtown Poznan for an hour in the back of a limo and had a blast. A little cheezy I know, but everybody had a great time and it was something none of us will soon forget. Shout out to Arnold and Martyna for helping out and making it possible!

That is all I have for now, The next couple months are crunch time and school needs to once again become the focus. I will tentatively be coming home to Canada on June 30th but that is of course subject to change. Hope all from home are doing well and missing you guys a tonne. Until next time! Cheers