Powder.

Brilliant. I had indeed recovered by my first day off, but I was a bit wary of heading up to the ski runs for the day. I borrowed Sydney's board again and hiked over the hill to the neighbor's tow rope. It's not amazing, but it does go quite a ways up a steep hill. It's also free and within fifteen minutes of home. The neighbors, by the way, are either farmers, complete with barns and cow aroma, cheese makers, or owners of other small chalets for travelers. There's also a family with a little girl that lives tucked away into the hillside, and a fellow way back by Bonderfalle who rides his horse everywhere. This is the house with the little girl; I saw her out sledging after the family made a snowshoe trek in the morning.

It was just me on the hillside for five hours, carving fresh tracks through thirty cm of powder. We'd just gotten a deep snowfall, so I had a lot to sink into. I really got the hang of snowboarding again. By the afternoon, I had my turns, could land a small jump, was able to dodge around a few stumps, and could lean pretty far over while surfing across the lower, flatter part of the valley. Around three, a few boys came by to build jumps. I smirked when they fell off the tow rope, but I helped the youngest one get the hang of it. I admit that it was a bit rough going when I first arrived in the morning, but by then I'd cleared a smooth way up.

I was feeling well enough by evening to go out with SAussie, Canuk, and Finn. We sledged down to Oey, in the valley, then hiked up to SAussie's flat, in Dorf center. She's moving out this week, and we needed a party to celebrate that. We tried Swiss Tell, Finnish and Aussie beers, and German Weissbier from the flat fridge before heading out to the Alpenrose. There, we sampled the Cardinal, absinthe, and Flying Hirsches. It was smoky, but not as bad as last time. It was nice to hang out outside of work. They're a fun group when they're not too tired. Toward the end of the night, the townie who supplies us some of our food recognized us and drew us into his group of Italians and Portugese. They bought us these weird blue vodka shots. Apparently, vodka comes in blue and red in Switzerland. I'll have to find out more about it. I tried to speak half Spanish and half German to one of the Italian guys. We sort of communicated, with Canuk helping on the German side and me trying to clarify his Italian. The sledge ride home was a bit tipsy, but we made it in all right. I think I'll go sledging again today, perhaps all the way down Holiebeweg if they don't clear it. I think I'll also see if I can concoct an extra rich hot chocolate out of the fondue chocolate.