Skiing in the Swiss Alps! And the Start of Classes.

By far the best skiing I have ever heard of, much less experienced. The scenery, snow quality, and length of runs were the best I have ever seen. We left Freiburg by bus at 5:30 in the am but it was worth it. Some of the runs took more than 30 minutes until we reached the bottom.

Partly since I don't ski black diamonds in MN, I chose to stay to the red and blues in Switzerland. This worked out because it allowed me to look up and see the beautiful scenery around ever bend, instead of fearing every hill that I couldn't see behind.

Halfway through the day, I discovered that there was a backside to the mountain, which gave a whole new perspective. This picture below illustrates that very well. You could see for sooo many miles. Incredible.

As promised. I also began classes this past week. As a requirement for the program, I have been taking a german course as well as EU Studies Integrative Seminar (the class that ties in our institutional field trips to the European Union). The other three classes, "Shifting Paradigms, From Domestic to European Politics: Germany in the EU", Europe- The Dynamics of Integration, From the Marshall Plan to the Eastern Enlargement of the EU" and lastly, "International Economics Relations of the EU" all are looking to be very interesting. The "Shifting Paradigms" class is taught in German, but shouldn't be too bad, since they understand that many of the students do not speak fluent German. This week should be good test to see how tough they will really be. We only have class Monday through Thursday and each day begins at 10:45, so it shouldn't be too stressful ;) at least not yet.