study Abroad 2009: Karl in Milan-Week Nove

Week nove,

This past weekend I traveled to Sauze D’Oulx and Sestriere in Piemonte region of Northwest Italy. It was a 2.5 hour train ride from Milan stopping in Turin before arriving at the Oulx station. My hotel was located in Sauze d’Oulx but I skied in 2 other towns. The mountains were set up such that by going up the lift at Sauze d’Oulx one can ski down the backside into Cesana and then into Sestriere. All three mountains had prior Olympic runs of the 2006 Winter Games in Torino. Sestriere was one of the 3 Olympic villages. The men’s Olympic downhill course was on Sestriere and had some good snow so I skied that many times. I was surprised by the fact that there were so many old lifts on the mountain, primarily Poma lifts, which consist of a seat that you must grab and put between your legs. Since the Olympics were held there I would have thought there would have been a few more updated lifts, but it did not really matter, as the lines were not too long. A helicopter landed by the bottom of this lift at one point because there were 3 injured skiers on the run, one appeared to have a neck or back injury. They were lifted out. You don’t see that everyday. The snow was best on the top of the mountain where it was a bit colder. For most of the day I was overdressed with one thin jacket on and a t-shirt (Native American print which I bought in Rome). There was a surprising amount of British people visiting, I heard more English lads speaking than I did Italians actually.
All in all I enjoyed the skiing a lot and wish I could go skiing again but my economic council has urged me to decrease spending at the moment and save for the future. My next task is to find a safe method for earning money in Milan. I will have to ask my teachers if they know of anyone looking for a babysitter.

Calcio… I am unable to field for the team I am practicing with, as I am too old, but I could play for the older team although there would be a lot of paper work to sort out. So it looks like I will be a practice player for now.
I have not been to a Milan game in the past 2 weeks…I am going through withdrawal. They did smash Siena this past weekend 5-1, I had to settle for highlights on the Internet.

Pictures of the weekend…
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=254668479/a=157838589_157838589/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Ciao.

Karl