3rd of January from Zell am See

I’ve had amazing time on and off the mountain! About 80% of my lessons have been in Russian so been speaking the language every day for nearly two weeks. What surprised me the most, I’ve been asked twice now by native Russians if I come from Russia. I guess my accent isn’t too bad. Also had a couple of lessons in English and one in French; that was my favourite! 

On Christmas evening I baked an apple pie, so we had a delicious treat before sleep. A few days later received a package from home, full with Latvian sweets, om nom nom! Went down town on the December 30 with some friends from Anwaerter course, had a great time there. As we continue working, on Silvester night I only made the room tidy and went to bed to wake up in the next year. I really needed that sleep; it’s actually amazing how good my body is trained now to wake up early. I wish I had this discipline while I was in school, haha! 

This paragraph is for native Latvians: my sister was checking the weather forecast and I asked: “Ko tam saka?” To which she replied: “Nezinu, pasmatries pati!” A nice conversation in Ratvian we had there. :D

The last two days had a private lesson with a 6 year old Russian girl. It was her first time in the mountains, but we had such an amazing time! She was very talented and amazingly clever. We even discussed other skiers while on the chairlift; she noticed the differences in techniques. And as I was saying that this or that is wrong she figured out why all by herself. Unfortunately as the season is on its peak there was no way I could continue skiing with her, the next days were already booked for me in December.

Now I’m having lessons with 4 kids aged 7 to 12, all have been skiing very long comparing to their own life time. Was going on red slopes in a polite speed and they kept following. We went over to a black run, did it half way down and as we stopped I answered the question that ‘Yes, it is a black run’ they would say ‘Oh, I thought it was red!’ So we even did some exercises and they still kept following me really close by. Will be having them for a couple more days, looking forward to it! 

The winter is surely flying by quickly, chasing it to enjoy as much as possible! 

Take care,

Lauma