A Class Reunion to Remember

This week I want to talk about something familiar, and something brand new. I spent the past weekend in Switzerland with a lot of people in the IB program. All of us are studying in different places, some on different continents. Seeing everyone was really nice and gave a nice break to the unfamiliarity of being abroad. And a quick warning, this one gets pretty long.

A lot of us keep in touch throughout the year, either over text or through IB events. A few wonderful people coordinated and suggested a weekend trip to Interlaken and there was a lot of excitement around the idea (shoutout to Jack, Alexa, and Etienne!!). This trip was basically decided before any of us left, so we all had a general idea of who was coming. The itinerary included eating a lot of good food, hanging out, and skiing.

I started out my Friday quite early on a FlixBus (the Spirit Airlines of buses), and had a long travel day ahead of me. One thing I enjoy for no particular reason is trying McDonald’s in every country I visit, so I decided to do that in Zurich while I had some time to kill before my (much nicer) train to Interlaken. I spent the first half of the day taking in the views of the Alps, which look so amazing that it’s hard to believe that they’re real.

View from the train!

Upon arriving in Interlaken, I put my stuff down in the hostel and met up with the other people on the trip. We had about an hour before going to dinner and spent the time catching up on our time abroad so far. We were all in agreement on fondue for the first night (thank you to Rylyn for the amazing spot and reserving tables). What none of us were expecting was dinner and a show.

Lots of Gamecocks here.

We get to the place, and they seat all of us outside. The dinner starts out normally. We order our food and then begin to wait. Then this man begins to come up to our table. Is he the waiter? Is he the owner? He obviously works at the restaurant but we all have no idea. He starts off with this massive horn thing, goes across the street, and plays it for everyone to hear. I look over another time and he’s waving the Swiss flag behind the bar. He’ll yell something random and we all yell back. I couldn’t tell whether to call him Tiger King or Florida Man, but I think either will do.

This picture doesn't do Florida Man/Tiger King justice.

The rest of the night was really fun, but soon I had to face the reality of what I signed up for. Here’s the issue with skiing. I have never skied before. I’m from Upstate South Carolina where it barely snows. I’m more of a beach girl to be honest. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I massively underestimated just how difficult skiing would be. The guys at the ski rentals kept saying that this was a pretty bad place to learn how to ski for the first time, and that’s when it really set in.

We got to the top of the mountain in the Jungfrau area, and it seemed that there was only one way down. It was this ridiculously steep mountain. Keep in mind, this was the first time I had put skis on in my life. I can’t even convey the genuine fear that entered my body as I started to slide backwards time and time again. This was probably the worst five minutes of my entire life, I can’t even lie. I think the best way to describe it would be a baby giraffe taking its first steps, except the giraffe is missing a leg and is also blind. I genuinely wanted to just lay in the snow and accept my fate at that moment.

The designated non-skiers of the group managing to get it together!

There were probably three things that saved me from bursting into tears while horizontal in the snow:

1. The kindness of the people that actually knew how to ski helping me up and giving me pointers. Genuinely thank you if you’re reading this.

2. The fact that I was not the only one new to skiing. If I was, the next few hours of my life would have been miserable.

3. This wasn’t the first time I have felt like this while abroad. On my train from the airport to Milan proper, I embarrassingly stumbled all over my luggage and had a thought of “what did I just get myself into?” A part of me wanted to turn around before reaching the city. I’m glad I didn’t.

Similar to the third reason, I’m glad I didn’t call it quits after the consecutive failures. Grant and I (representing the non-skiers of the world) decided to go down to the learners area by train where we basically struggled in the same boat. I can’t even lie, goofing around and trying different things was really fun. I spent a third of the time laughing at myself, another third taking in the amazing views, and the final somewhat learning to ski. By the end of the day, Grant and I actually somewhat figured it out. That alone made every fall worth it.

I think having the ability to laugh at yourself is important not only while abroad, but in life. It’s something my parents certainly instilled in me, and made me more resilient to challenges. In hindsight it sounds a little ridiculous to compare skiing to actual life challenges, but it works the same. I had a great time, even if I ended up with a million bruises along the way.

After continuing to spend time with everyone later that day, I found myself excited to see everyone when we’re all back in Columbia. I always have a really fun time when I’m with this particular group of IB majors, even though I see them pretty rarely. I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s abroad stories later on, and to see where my experience takes me. Like always, more from me next week!