Mountain Town

Yesterday was a glorious day weather wise. I had swapped breakfast duty with Leisel, so at about 11.30 am I was the last to leave the hotel. After skiing the same black piste as before, I decided to try and find Avoriaz, a town built into the mountain.

You can ski through the streets.

The first time, I ended up back at the hotel, so decided to go a different way, and this time I saw the signs. So after that, it was very easy to follow them! I skied there and back twice before having lunch back at the hotel.

View from the Ski Lift back up

After lunch I went another couple of times with Leisel, Julia and Eva. Then we all had dinner duties so headed back for about 16.00.

Saw this sumo-wrestler do a back-flip off the last jump!

That night, we had our first shared-room argument as me and Alex were watching "Possession" and Andi wanted to sleep. Things got pretty tense at about 2 am in the morning but I think they're okay again now. I'm hoping it was all just a bit of a misunderstanding... We shall see!

Cleaning duties today are already over, so my day is free, however the weather has taken a turn for fog, and my muscles are pretty shattered, I had a little fall yesterday and on top of that it's the 4th day in a row of skiing for most of the day! I did get some video footage yesterday so I might spend today making a video.

We shall see,
Lucy xxo

The Black Piste

Yesterday I went Skiing with Leisel and Eva. Eva was on Skis for the first time since childhood (she usually snowboards) and Leisel was riding "fakie" (Riding the snowboard backwards from a normal stance) for the first time. So the pace was pretty good for me.

We started with about 3 runs down the nearest blue piste before heading up a little higher, going down a red and then deciding to continue down the black piste when the piste split into two ways.

This was actually my first ever black piste, if I remember correctly. Wasn't too bad, actually quiet enjoyed it and even did a couple of areas pretty fast. (Oh and the first half was in such thick fog that if Eva went about 30 m away, I couldn't see her anymore!)

After that we went back up the nearest blue piste, but next to this piste is a Snow Park, and yep, did my first ever Snow Park that day too. Did it as slowly as you possibly can, considering you have to get up 10 m ramps, but I am still proud of myself for at least trying!

I think I'd be a little more adventurous if I didn't know that if I break something here, my plans for Australia and the USA might get a little messed up! That and because last time I went skiing over a jump in the woods, I broke my thumb...

[Not my photo]
But these kind of signs indicate what kind of slope you are on,
for those of you who have never been Skiing or  Snowboarding:
Blue is Easy
Red is Medium
Black is Hard

Today it was my turn to clean the Teamers Private Bathroom Area (a rota where everyone cleans roughly once every 10 days) and later on I will be on the bar. I got a quick show around after breakfast, and my shift starts between 16.00 and 17.00 - depending on the weather - and I will be on my own behind the bar until 19.30... I have never been behind a bar before, I have very little knowledge of Alcohol in general, so this will be very interesting... I think I'll watch some "How to" videos on Youtube.com before I start.

Oh the joys of the internet!
Lucy xxo

Becoming "Teamer 4"

I got the train from Amsterdam to Cologne alright, and even managed to find the place where the night bus to Switzerland was leaving from, despite earlier fears that I was arriving in the dark and that on Google Maps, it looked like a lovely long, dark alley-way kind of place!

Getting on the "Pfiff Reisen" coach, I was introduced to Andi and Andi, both from the same German town... one is now a skiing instructor here and the other is another "teamer" like me. The coach left Cologne Messe at 23.15 and I think I only got about 2 hours sleep by the time we arrived in Les Crosets, Switzerland at 9 am. (I definitively missed 3 am, but I saw 2 am and 4 am.)

Just before we got to Les Crosets, we stopped off at a lake at the bottom of the mountain, a truly beautiful sight to see, even if it was at 7.30 am:

After everybody put their stuff in a room, we all had breakfast (buffet) - then the guests went off to ski and Andi and I joined the rest of the "Teamers". Saturday is change-over-day here so there are twice as many guests and twice as much work. Since we are new, Andi and I were put on cleaning the bathrooms. There are 30 something rooms here and I cleaned about 10 bathrooms during the morning.

After that, I went round with Liesel (the sort-of Service Team Boss) as she checked all the rooms, and I followed her with a cloth and multi-purpose spray, to finish off any areas she wasn't happy with.

Then I folded up all the deck chairs and put them in the right places on the balconies, and took in all the plastic chairs from outside that actually belong inside.

Break time for about 1 hour to 30 minutes.
Where I showered and brushed my teeth for the first time since Friday morning. YUM!

The slopes

Lay the tables for the leaving guests dinner - "Leavers Soup". Wait for them to finish eating, during which, Robert (the cook) showed me how to deep fry Cordon Bleu so I made about 100 for the arriving guests. Then prepare tuna salad, get all the dirty dishes, and re-lay the tables for the arriving guests.

Be introduced to the arriving guests. All the workers were individually introduced and I was introduced with something like "It's an incredible thing when someone whose travelling the world wishes to take a break and come and work specifically for you and that's why it's a great pleasure to introduce Lucy".

Now everybody thinks I am here to take a break from travelling, which I don't really get how that works, because well, I am "travelling" right now, by being here. Oh well!

Then prepare 100 dishes of chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce and ice cream. Serve the ice cream, eat an ice cream back in the kitchen. And then take in all the dishes and spend about 2 hours putting the items through the dishwasher and drying them afterwards.

Clean the kitchen surfaces, mop the floor and finally by 9 pm we were all finished.

The hotel

Stay in the bar until 10 pm where I found out that I get non-alcoholic drinks for free, except Red Bull, and Red Bull and alcoholic drinks for half price plus one "free-change-over-day-beer" or any other alcoholic drink, every Saturday. Since I can't drink until the 1st of April, I have "saved" my free Saturday drink until then! Win.

10 pm hit and I went to bed and fell asleep before I had even considered the notion of sleep.

6.30 am came along and, well, since I had breakfast duty, I had to get up and get the breakfast ready for 8 am. I was supposed to be down in the kitchen by 7 am but ended up being 15 minutes late. Woops!

But managed to get everything ready for 8, so not too bad. Ate breakfast, hired some skis (I get a free lift pass working here plus 50% off equipment hire) and then began to clean the dishes etc. By 11.15 am, my duties for the day were over and me and the cook Robert went off to ski.

Bit shaky at first since I haven't skied in about 5 years (since I broke my thumb) but by slope 4 or 5, I was confident again and enjoying myself. Though my muscles started to give up around slope 6 so we headed back to the hotel.

I don't have any duties now until tomorrow dinner time and then on Wednesday the whole place gets cleaned again (by us) and in the evening I am on bar duty... looking forward to that one!

Auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, zbohom etc.
Lucy xxo

Crossing Paths

This is Ben Cartwright and Myles Strickland. I know them from my A Level School, KTS. They have just begun their month long tour of Europe and with it, have started their own blog (http://bmceurope.blogspot.nl/) - something for those of you who prefer short and sweet blog entries!

Luckily our travel-paths crossed for today, so we met outside the Ann Frank Museum at 11.30 am and we caught up with our lives while enjoying the infamous vending machine burgers of Amsterdam.

Ben, myself and Myles

I took them to the Sex Museum and the Condomorie before showing them my parents flat (and the steep, steep entrance hall steps). We had sandwiches and Ben used my laptop to plan their next leg of their journey. (They're off to Berlin tomorrow!)

We said goodbye outside the local kind-of-post-office as they're off to the Heineken Tour and I am off to Cologne, in an hour, to get on the night-bus to Les Crosets, Switzerland. I had a really nice sending-off meet-up with some old school friends and now I am packed and ready for my 2 weeks in the snow!

Until next time,
Lucy xxo

Punta Ala and Follonica

Follonica, Italy

I am back in Amsterdam now until the evening of the 22nd of March, but I thought I'd just update you on my last week in Punta Ala, Italy, before I head to Switzerland. I have created a new video:

Italy [Part Two]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgumqhJJCo4&feature=youtu.be

So after the occurrence's of the video, on Friday the 15th of March, Silvia and I went to the Follonica Hospital to finally sort out my medical bills. After that, Silvia took me to a Sicilian style Bakery, it's run by a family from Sicily and they only make sweet food items. So ice creams, or fancy cakes, stuff like that.
Silvia makes clay based sculptures, but has recently started helping the Bakery with their sugar and chocolate sculptures. This is what she's made:

It's for the younger sons girlfriends birthday, apparently he is also taking her to Paris for a couple of days. The real Italian Stallion exists! Haha, the cake is just missing a mirror, final touches and then it's finished.

After they showed me Silvia's creation, we got some ice creams. Out in the shop front, there were a lot of Easter related cakes and other sweet things, but there were also these three statues, which are apparently made out of a special sugar. They looked amazing, like they were made out of frosted glass.

I got three tasters before picking my two scoops. Silvia got two scoops too and the younger son (in the picture above) wouldn't even let us pay! How nice : ) We then walked to the beach, which was just down the road. We ate our ice creams at the end of a long peer of rocks:

My ice cream, on the beach

Then on Saturday the 16th of March, I had my first riding lesson in about 10 years. I rode a horse called Nickolas, David rode Fifi, Cristina on her horse Voltan and another Italian woman whose name I can't remember rode on Tressa. We rode around Punta Ala and down to the Polo Field for about 30 minutes before heading back to the stables.

Nickolas and me

The horse-back view

Monday the 18th, my mothers birthday, I flew back from Pisa to Amsterdam. I did a very stupid thing at the airport... When you go through security, you have to take out your laptop and other electrical goods, as well as your liquids and take off your belt and shoes, etc. etc. etc.

Well I did all that, got through fine and dandy, I've done this at least 30 times now, so it's just routine. So I packed up all my things and left, all fine. 20 minutes later I went to the bathroom, and as I took my rucksack off, I realized that it was really lights.

So I reached into the back zipper where I keep my laptop and realized that it was missing. Oh crap! So yep, I had left my laptop and tablet on the side at the security check! Oops..

I RAN to the security desk, said "I'm really sorry, I left my laptop and tablet on the side here" to the guy checking the screens, he asked me what model it was, "a red dell" I said and he phoned somebody.

He then pointed me to an office just down the corridor, where a woman in uniform asked me into this office-y room where my laptop and tablet where lying on the desk. Relief flooded through me, they hadn't imploded them then..

So I was expecting some questions, or something, but no, she just gave them back to me, I put them in my bag, she said "be careful next time" and let me out again. I am pretty sure that kind of thing wouldn't be so relaxed in the USA or even in England, but I guess there are some good sides to the Italian government ; )

That's all for now,
Lucy xxo

The Big Adventure

So it is now official.

I am going to Australia

I leave Amsterdam on the 22nd of April at 15.30 where I have a 6 hour and 29 minute flight to Dubai. (Arriving at 23.59.)

From Dubai, I fly to Sydney at 2.15 on the 23rd of April and arrive in Sydney at 22.05 after a 13 hour and 50 minute flight.

In Australia I intend to spend about 4 days in Sydney, including a trip to Manly. Then go up to the Gold Coast where I will hopefully meet up with Nathalie (her first blog & her second blog). We will attempt to get jobs somewhere between Surfers Paradice/Bryon Bay/Mooloolaba/Brisbane/Sunshine Coast and spend about a month there, until Nathalie turns 19 on the 24th of May.

After that I intend to travel upwards, Nathalie may join me for this, she may not, it's not decided yet. I will attempt to go camping on Fraser Island, surfing in the Town of 1770, Partying in Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays, go to a Full Moon Party on the Magnetic Islands off of Townsville and then end up in Cairns, where I may just go and see some giant crocodiles at the Johnstone River Crocodile Park. 

The plan is then to fly back from Cairns to Sydney in time for onward travel.

I am going to the USA

I leave Sydney on the 20th of June at 13.05 where I have a 13 hour and 40 minute flight to Los Angeles. (Arriving at 09.45.)

The rough plan here is to fly or take the bus to San Francisco and meet up with Rachel (from IC11) then to fly to Nashville, spend a couple of days exploring, before taking the bus to Chattanooga, where my hosts will pick me up and I will spend about 5 weeks experiencing how a real film crew work in Cleveland, Tennessee.

After that, I will return to Chattanooga, take the bus to Nashville, and fly from there to Phoenix. From here I will hopefully take a day trip through the Grand Canyon, ending in Williams, Arizona. From Williams I would then take an over night train to Los Angeles in time for the Taylor Swift Concert on the 20th of August that I got tickets to last Christmas. (If anybody is interested in joining me for this, I still have a spare ticket). Hopefully somewhere before/after the gig I will also meet up with Iman (from IC11)!

I will then fly back to Europe.

I leave Los Angeles on the 22nd of August at 21.30 where I have a 10 hour and 15 minute flight to London Luton. (Arriving at 15.45 on the 23rd of August).

From London, I fly to Amsterdam on the 23rd of August at 18.00 where I have my final 1 hour and 10 minute flight before returning home. (Arriving at 20.10.)

I am going to University

After the 23rd of August, I will spend a few weeks recovering before packing up my stuff and flying back to London Luton, picking up more stuff from my best friend Abigail's house and then I will head up to Chester University for the end of September 2013.

So there you have it! My plans for the future, what are yours? So I've got a couple more flights, buses, etc. etc. to sort out, but the big ones are booked. (All the flights above add up to a whopping 1,540 euro, which is paid for by my 17th birthday, Christmas 2011, 18th birthday and my future 19th birthday). In my opinion, WELL worth the wait!

Until then though, I still have just under 2 weeks here in Italy, I am finally starting to feel un-sick again, so hopefully I'll get a riding lesson in there before I leave. A brief stay in Amsterdam, a train to Cologne where I will then take a bus to Switzerland for 3 weeks in the snow. Then a bus back to Cologne, a train to Amsterdam, and then please go back up to the top of this blog post!

Bye for now,

Hugs and kisses,

Lucy from the World xxo

Oh, and in case that wasn't enough, here's a cute picture of a cat:

Orazio stretching

Not even cats like Evil King Joffrey!

GAME OF THRONES SEASON THREE IS COMING SOON, O.M.G!

Almost more excited for this than for all my plans.... hmmm... maybe not. But almost!

Dad, you better record them for me so that I can watch them in September!!!