As Rushabh and Mark have already stated (twice), there was a big massive ski/snowboard trip at Lake Tahoe this weekend. This was my first time going to Tahoe, and my first time doing the skiing thing. Well, my folks claim that I was on ski's when I was like 5, that time we took a family trip to the Poconos. And I think that I went cross-country skiing once, when I lived in Illinois. Anyways, I declare that none of those other times count, and that this is the first time that I have done real skiing in my adult life.

The skiing itself went okay. My first day, I batted down Rushabh's assertion that I was ready to head down the bunny hill right away, and held out for the beginner's lesson. That proved to be a wise choice, because the bunny hill was actually kindof steep. The instructor of the lesson was something of "an acquired taste". There was 9 people in the class when it started, and 3 when it finished. I stuck it out, however, and I think I learned quite a few things that helped me out on the slopes. I stuck to the green slopes my first two days of skiing, and I think that at this point, i am ready to take the intermediate lesson, before trying to conquer a steeper slope.

One thing about the trip that Mark only alluded to was the incredible array of people that were all housed under one roof. The first night that I was in residence, there were 14 people (myself included). For the next two nights, we had 19. That is a lot of people, all of different ages and interests. It led to a situation where there was a group of people who wanted to stay up late and have a good time, and another group that was tired and wanted to sleep early. So, I was pretty sleep deprived until the last night, when I found a quieter spot, and managed to get like 6 hours of sleep.

But, I learned an important lesson: when I travel in a group situation, I need to always make sure that I have earplugs with me. :)

-Andy.