Its all downhill from here!

For the last week I have been in Silandro Italy. The first thing I thought of when my family said Italy was the alps, and than snow, and of course snowboarding. Little did I forget that it is still late summer, and there woudl be no snow, but it did not take away from the beauty of the mountains with their white peaks.

I usually am the type of person who likes to view things from a distance. I would be perfectly happy going on a vacation and sitting in the room and watching television, my parents can witness that fact about me on traditional family vacations where I am lounging on the couch with the remote. Its not that I do not love vacations, I just like to have the small fact that I have been there and thats it, I do not need to explore every oportunity to feel satisfied that I have been to that place, just sitting in it is good enough for me. My host family on the other hand likes to think other wise...so I have come to notice. We woke up at 2 in the morning to set off for Italy, I can understand leaving at night, or leaving in the morning, but it was such an irregular hour to leave that I half thought they were joking untill at 2 in the morning they came and got me, I think i slep walked into the van because i do not remmeber ever waking up or even opening a door, i just woke up when we were getting out of the vehicale to eat breakfast and by that time we were in austria. We stayed a little while in austria viewing some of the sites before leaving towards the alps. From a distance I could see their white peaks poking above the clouds, but as we apporaced closer i realized their true height. Once again I fell asleep and than we arrived at our hotel the montani residence. I half laughed when i saw the name, but the rest of the family did not catch the humour in such a name. I was expecting maids, or a dishwasher, or even at least towels, but none were present in the rooms. The rooms by no mean lacked beauty, but I would of enjoyed not washing dishes by hand or hanging the wet hand towels on the line, but none the less it was still a great place to stay. The montani had a pool, a sauna, and a fitness room, it also had a lounge place where there were tables for events that happended during the week. We attended a noddle dance, which was like how it sounds you ate noddles and you danced. I was even able to learn the Disco fox, and a folk dance while i was there. There was also cake served their in between lunch and dinner. The swimming pool was the place I spent alot of my time with my host family. Carina and I had an unanounced challange of who could hold their breath the longest, and I won by doing three laps in the pool in a single breath, Jona had a blast dragging me into the fitness room where i showed her how to work a treadmill, and she made me run on it.... alot. She would make an excellent fitness trainer some day because every moment that was not being used she would bring me down to the fitness room and tell me to work out as she watched, i actually have never worked out for so long in a fitness room before that or hard because she controled all the speed, weight, and incline buttongs on all the machines. Outside of the residence we walked down the markets where they sold fruits, and we went to outside stores, and a small shopping center, and ate Italian pizza. I am not a fan of onions but how they made them taste so wonderful was beyond me, i also had peperonie which was suprisingly spicy for the first time. I think that is because i have not had any thing such as salsa, or anything remotly close to being hot for a long time. I also even rode a mountain bike, which was really comfortable compaired to a regualr bike.

What made me realize however that my host family likes to experince a vacation and not just look at it was when we first arrived in Italy, the first thing they took us too, before the room, before lunch before anything else was the mountains. We drove to the base of the mountain where a ski lift was running. Everyone got out of the vehiccle and started putting on their hiking shoes so I did the same. We each got on the ski lift as starting out way up the mountain. I looked to the top of the mountain and saw that I would be on the ski lift for some time, and me being afraid of falling off of anything that seemed like an eternity away. Finally we reached what I thought was the top of the mountain and the end of the ski lift but as we reached the top I saw that we were not even a quarter up towards the end of the ski lift. Finally for what seemed an hour we got to the top. We started walking down our path and after 15 minuetes came to a barn, i was thinking this was teh end of the hike but as fast as the barn came into sight we soon walked the opposite direction. We hiked for 3 hours over water, snow, rocks, grass, and slim, winding, and not so friendly paths. Some of the paths were so small that if you stood with your legs shoulder length apart one foot would be off the side of the mountain, not a fun place for someone who like me has never been hiking before and was not to fond of deadly mountains. After three hours we came to a hut where we ate lunch, and had real apple stroodle, pepermint tea, and anything else to keep the cold away. I did not know we were hiking so I did not wear warm clothes, all i had on was a long sleve shirt with a vest and of course pants and hiking boots, but the bitter codl of the mountain could not be sustained by a mere cup of tea. We finished eating and the family said well we are almost half way there, my jaw dropped... almost half way there... My toes had no feeling, my knees felt like they were going to buckle and would need oil to losen them up and we were not even half way there. I did not once complain though even though there were moments where i was thinking of just rolling down the rest of the way instead of walking, but after all was done I was more proud of myself for that one day than I have been in a long time, becasue i had not given up. I was satisfied that I had finished and hade some great pictures to show for it, but little did i know that that was just the first day. The entire week everyday we went to new heights, new mountains, and the same agony of hiking. We hiked on Sonneberg which like the name meant sun, and after the first day i decided to be smart and wear nothing less than warm clothes, and when we got there it was so hot that i was getting sunburnt. Than another time i decided to wear medium clothes and i was freezing, it seemed i coudl never fit my wardrobe just right. The hike that stands out the most was when we were at the bottom of the mountain and my host father pointed towards a cross on the top of the mountain and said thats our goal, I though he was joking because the hight and distance to get there would take all day, but he was not joking we climbed the entire mountain to the top. I have never walked on such steep trails in my life, or climbed over rocks larger than me before in my life, every half and hour we had to take a break because we were so tired. My calfs felt like they were on fire, but i did not want to say that i liked it better when we went down the mountain instead of up because as hard as it is to hike down a mountain it is even harder to hike up. Finally we reached the peak and started to hike over snow and ice, we had made it to the cross but just as i thought we were done we started walking towards another even higher peak, we walked forever and the snow was getting into my hiking boots, when finally i saw the peak and the words i loved to hear it is all downhill from here. we tried and failed to make it over the top of that peak becasue the slim paths, the large rocks, and the steep drop of cliff side made it impossible and deadly to try to cross, we were temporarily stuck on the mountain as we watched carsten who is my host father try to fid a way out, i was without hiking sticks so i had managed to take to rocks and cracked them into the snow on the side of me to keep me from slipping. After a long while we had decided we had to turn back and could not go any further, it was even harder going down on ice and snow than it was coming up on it and it made it very tricky for us to get down, but finally after a few bumps bruises scratches and falls we made it down the mountain past the snow and ice and the rest was all downhill from there.

Even though at the moment I was not happy to be hiking, it really made me appreciate things alot more and it made the vacation more memorable, and my host sister todl me something that i think was wise for a 14 year old to say.. she said " as hard as it was at least we got some great photos, and can say haa I finished and have the photos to prove it" so Im glad that I went and that i was able to finish the mountain trails each day, even though I had to struggle to get up the mountain, just as im struggling to learn german i just have to think after that peak it is all downhill from there:D