Schnee Schule

Austrians are great skiers, especially alpine skiers.  Those of you that are the age of Sue and I may remember, Hermann Maier ("the Herminator"), who won two gold medals in the 1998 Olympics (among many, many, other world titles).  And beyond their prowess in competitive skiing, you certainly get the impression that EVERYONE in Austria skies.  Maybe Anna, our babysitter, said it best , "when you live in Austria, why would you go anywhere else in the winter?"  Is it possible that she gets the whole month of February off of classes to provide Austrian college students a chance to go skiing for a month?  Anyway, when in Rome ... 

We enrolled Henry and Grace in three days of ski school (Schnee Schule) this past week.  This started as a way for Grace to gain some confidence ahead of when her school would go to ski school for a whole week in February (that's right, no class this week kids, we're hitting the slopes!).  But to be honest, I wanted both of them to learn when they were young.  I didn't, and it has always been harder for me to ski than my peers that learned when they were younger.  And like I said, we're in Austria, so it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Day 1:  Grace on the training course with instructor, Fabian.

And let me say, both kids did great!  Both went from having A LOT of anxiety back in October when we sprung this on them to feeling really comfortable skiing.  In between October and earlier this week their were periods where Grace and Henry both said, "I'm not doing it!"  This seemed to die down a bit as we bought them their ski outfits (they both loved those!), but you could still sense a fair bit of anxiety Thursday morning as we made the hour-long drive up into the mountains.  At the end of the Day 1 Grace said, "Dad, thanks for forcing us to come to ski school."  And Henry immediately chimed in, "yeah, Dad, thanks."  Color me a proud and happy parent!

Of course, as Grace is older, etc., she progressed further than Henry in the three days, but they were both on the bunny hill the last day doing really well.  Their instructor declared that Grace was ready for the "real" runs the next time she came and that Henry probably only needs one or two more hours before he'd be ready.  Can you believe that?  I still find it somewhat hard to believe even though I was there to witness the transformation :-)

And remember how I said that I wished that I had learned to ski when I was younger? Well, as Sue has never been downhill skiing, we decided to have her tag along with the kids in ski school. And let's just say that it didn't work out as well as it did with the kids. We'll have to reassess this plan of getting us all out of the slopes together.

Russ