This is Cali

I never got the chance to show you how the Californian landscape looks like. I wanna get rid of this matter just now. It's an amazing nature out there. San Jose is surrounded by hills that look like as they would have been covered with cotton. You literally wanna jump in. The hills are bright yellow in summer and turn into green in winter by the time when the rain season starts. I never really appreciated that before I actually came to Australia and experienced one of the most contradictory nature in the world. Oz is still my favorite but Cali does not need to hide itself, it has its own charisma. The pictures actually ain't mine, a friend took them (Thx Ben).

Snowboarding @ Lake Tahoe

So here I go as promised in my latter post to report a bit about my first experiences into the field of snowboarding. We started on Friday after work. We picked up our rental snowboard gear consisting of snowboard, shoes and bindings for around 45 bucks for the whole weekend. That's a really nice offer and regarding to all the other prices around here a real bargain. So we spent barely 5 hours on a couple of freeways while passing Sacramento, the home of our governor Arny, until we finally reached South Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is an amazing region lying directly on the border of California to Nevada. So in order to do some gambling we just had to walk over the stateline to Nevada which goes straight through the city. Once crossed the street you were able to find huge hotels, casinos and people drinking on the street since it is allowed in Nevada, same applies for gambling. But that's not what we were craving for. The lake is surrounded by huge mountains, it is one of the most famous ski regions in America. We rented a room in a motel, motel 6 in particular. The same one that saved me and Arielle's life during our road trip. Next day we started early in the morning, well depends if you consider 8am as early enough, in order to grab some coffee and breakfast. I don't know if you guys have a picture of how such a mountain town looks like. It's way too neat and everything looks like it is 100 years old. I really dig that style. Anyway, I was visiting a ski exhibition almost 3 weeks ago where I gained a free lift pass for Heavenly, one of the biggest ski resorts around lake Tahoe. So I used it and saved 61$ for a current ticket. It's so expensive but worth every penny. We were lifted up to barely 10000ft (3000m), an 20 minutes ride with lake Tahoe in the background. It was so beautiful. Once arrived on top my knees started getting weak. I was really scared. I never stood on a board before and since it is really early in the season only a couple of trails, 5 to be precise, were open. All of them were category blue which means "more difficult trails". This is one below the black trails. I guess I don't need to explain what that means. Actually I didn't have any time to think about anything since I was pushed out the lift right onto the track. Oh my gosh, the track was going straight downhill. I was just about sh**ing my pents :) I never fell that much in my life, kinda a miracle that I didn't break anything. I always had Falk's broken leg in mind which wasn't really beneficial. But in the end it was the best thing for me to be thrown into action like this cuz I learned how to brake and steer of necessity. I had stunts where I jumped, or let me better say I flew a couple of meters, face first of course, right into the snow. But somehow I must love this sport since I kept going, even the next day and I made it. The first day I was able to go down smoothly with everything that belongs to but the right turns. But I got rid of that matter next day. Eventually I was just running down the trail, left , right, a little jump in between and of course some crashes. It's so much fun once you figured things out for yourself. I love snowboarding and I will definitely go for my own board since the next trip is already planned. I have a lot of gorgeous pictures and a video of me going down made by a friend. I will put it up asap so you guys have something to laugh as well. It was such a successful weekend besides the 40 bucks I lost again in the casino....I guess it is not my thing, at least not roulette. But hey, the dude next to me was betting 100 bucks onto black since there were 8 reds in a row before (well math guys would know that every next color has the same probability of less than 50%... superstition says hello). In the end he lost 500 bucks because of sticking to black...poor chap. So if it's about me I just enjoyed my new fervor for snowboarding and of course for the next trip to Tahoe.

Thanksgiving '06

This thanksgiving was supposed to be be the first one for me so far. Since thanksgiving is a big deal over here IBM was kind enough to give 2 days off work. So I purchased a flight to Indiana which was barely 3 times that much as usual, a quite pricey situation. Anyway it was worth since I got the chance to experience an original American feast. I left San Jose on Wednesday for Chicago where Arielle welcomed me with her sister. I was so happy to see her again plus to enjoy some good old turkey, baked beans, pumpkin pie (only god knows what the Americans like about that thing), garlic mashed potato and of course a lot of ice cream with whipped cream. I was so stuffed. It was kinda fun to hang out with her family and I am not underestimating if I say the house was packed. Moreover I brought some "Warsteiner" for Arielle's step-dad since he just drinks that low-carb beer thangy which actually does not taste that bad. Well, he pretty much liked it bc he finished 2 beers right after each other. Anyway I figured out that they sell Warsteiner in the closest Wal Mart as an import beer. Well done Marcus. Never mind, the effort counts. So it was a nice time. Unfortunately I started smoking again. It came quite sneakily :) But hey, thats only an exception. I guess someone just wanna check on me and thats a kinda test I have to pass. Hey and at least I need something for new years eve to take up. So I returned Monday morning in order to work 'cause there are a lot of bills waiting for me. My car needs a repair, supposedly more than a grand, Christmas is coming where I plan to travel to Hawaii or Mexico, not quite sure yet, both seem to be very pricey regarding the delayed point of booking. Oh I forgot, there will be a snowboard trip to the mountains of lake Tahoe next week. A beautiful area as you may know from movies. Damn, I need to increase my insurance if I wanna keep up to that trip :). Frankly I never stood on a snowboard or skateboard so far and that doesn't really let me look forward to it at all. Another event will be the going away party of some coops, mostly Germans, who are leaving San Jose for Germany at all since their internship finally ended. They are going to have a blast in two weeks. The last moving out and house warming party was a disaster cuz I embarrassed myself having a complete black-out. Well it just can get better