Snow(Board)Day
ESN Winterthur

Vögeli, Martin: Snow(Board)Day ESN Winterthur; InCommon, 01/2004, p. xy.

Virtual Chat with the Pallomeri Spirit

Martin:: Hi Pallomeri! How are you?
Pallomeri:: I'm fine! How was your weekend Martin?
Martin:: Great! We went snowboarding at Flumserberg in Heidiland with our section. But I had to get up at five o'clock in the morning :(
Pallomeri:: Sounds interesting. Tell me more about it!
Martin:: We travelled by train from Winterthur. Most people were sleepy so there wasn't a lot of noise in our compartments. I did a little bit of talking though.
Pallomeri:: With whom?
Martin:: Karim is one of our section members. He and Lars organized the Snow(Board)Day. They both study at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur (ZHW).
Pallomeri:: What is the speciality of your university?
Martin:: We have four schools: School of Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering, School of Technology, Computer Science and Natural Science, School of Business and Management and School of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies.
Pallomeri:: What about your talk with Karim?
Martin:: Karim is a snowboard teacher and I was an absolute newbie. I tried to find out more about the technique I was going to learn. Finally, we arrived in Unterterzen.
Pallomeri:: Never heard of it.
Martin:: I didn't know that place before. From Unterterzen (455 m above sea level) we took a cable car to Tannenboden (1342 m).
Pallomeri:: Wow, that's quite an ascent!
Martin:: Yeah :) In Tannenboden some of our participants had to rent their boards and boots. Many of them were rookies like me.
Pallomeri:: Ready for action!
Martin:: Right! We then split up in two groups: beginners and intermediate and went for it. I must admit that I was a little bit nervous...
Pallomeri:: Why?
Martin:: Well I told one of our exchange students that I'd learn better to ride the board in five hours than she did in five days time...
Pallomeri:: Show-off! And how did you do?
Martin:: We actually started snowboarding at about ten o'clock. We just needed ten minutes to ride up with the chair lift and a hundred minutes down - mostly on our bottoms :(
Pallomeri:: Sounds cold and wet ;)
Martin:: Right you are! In addition, it was kind of snowing and raining at the same time. But it was a lot of fun anyway *g*
Pallomeri:: One can't argue with taste...
Martin:: :P
Pallomeri:: Did you have a decent lunch?
Martin:: Oh yes. It was great! We took another cable car from Tannenboden (1342 m) to Maschgenkamm (2020 m) and ate in a nice restaurant.
Pallomeri:: Who is we?
Martin:: Karim our teacher, Lisa, Sarah, Laia, Anneloes and me. In case you're wondering: Lisa and Sarah are English teaching assistants and the others are exchange students.
Pallomeri:: You are the president of the section?
Martin:: That's affirmative ;) ESN Winterthur is a small section. We have about ten members and an average of twenty exchange students per semester to look after.
Pallomeri:: That's nice! So everybody knows everybody?
Martin:: Mhm. It's like a family. And we have a lot of activities every semester: parties, sport events, city trips and so on.
Pallomeri:: What other services do you offer?
Martin:: We own a couple of bikes, SIM cards and mobile phones. We lend them to the incoming exchange students. They appreciate it very much!
Pallomeri:: Excellent! But back to Maschgenkamm...
Martin:: Where was I? Ah, lunch! The food was good and we had a heated discussion: Anneloes and Laia insisted that skiing is easier to learn than snowboarding.
Pallomeri:: Why is that?
Martin:: They both can ski very well and they aren't used to having any problems skiing. Snowboarding, on the other hand, was a different story.
Pallomeri:: What did Karim say?
Martin:: Karim's opinion was totally different. He claimed that one can learn to snowboard in three days whereas learning to ski would take a lot more time.
Pallomeri:: How was the descent from Maschgenkamm?
Martin:: Because there was a strong snow storm, only Karim boarded down to Tannenboden. The rest of us took the cable car :(
Pallomeri:: So you didn't snowboard anymore?
Martin:: Yes, we did. The weather was much better in the lower regions. In fact the sun had come out and we had a beautiful view of the forest and the lake.
Pallomeri:: Good! How did it go?
Martin:: Well, I split from the group and tried it on my own. Boy I hit the ground many times that afternoon! But I fell less and less...
Pallomeri:: And the others?
Martin:: They went on with their lessons with Karim. I met them from time to time on the course and thus was able to get some further advice from Karim.
Pallomeri:: After the boarding you all returned home?
Martin:: No, not immediately. We went to the Iglubar: a place with loud music packed with happy people and a lot of drinking. As a sportsman I naturally stuck to mineral water ;)
Pallomeri:: You don't ever get tired, do you?
Martin:: Not if I'm in good company! Finally, we took the bus departing from Tannenboden (1342 m) which followed a steep and winding road down to Flums (453 m).
Pallomeri:: Then back to Winterthur by train?
Martin:: Yes and like in the morning many people were sleepy and it was rather quiet in our compartments. Luckily, we found a big crossword puzzle in a newspaper.
Pallomeri:: A crossword puzzle?
Martin:: We nearly finished it by the time we arrived in Winterthur at half past nine in the evening. But one word caused some problems - maybe you can help?
Pallomeri:: Which one?
Martin:: Nine letters, across: "A Finnish word for a place filled up with many small coloured balls." Do you know the answer? I certainly hope so...
Pallomeri:: Yes, I do *lol*
Martin:: CU, have a good time!
Pallomeri:: You, too. Bye :)

Martin Vögeli <winterthur@esn.ch>,
President of ESN Winterthur

For more information:

Photos (click for big pictures):

Luis and Lisa in the morning

Tannenboden

Karim and Martin

Laia the photographer

Iglubar

The rookies with Karim in the Iglubar