Now that’s what I call a ski trip! Any outing where you come back sore, bruised, tired, dizzy, and sick to your stomach is a good one in my book. We should really think about doing this again sometime.

Don’t get me wrong, I really did have a great time. Five days ago, eight of us hopped in two cars and sped up to Encamp in Andorra. Encamp is the perfect location to station yourself if you want to go skiing in Andorra because the hotels there (including our La Solana apartments) are just a stone’s throw away from the Funicamp – the super-lift that takes you to the top of the mountain over 2km away! So once you’re there, there’s no need to get in the car. No traffic. No parking. No worries.

La Solana is my favorite place to stay in Encamp. Not because of their limited quantities of hot water or their elementary school-reminiscent cafeteria dinners, but because they are spacious apartments and not shoebox-sized hotel rooms. Having a large common room enables you to stay up late as a group while taking advantage of the very cheap price of alcohol and playing Charades, Dominoes, Jenga, and Wink Murder. The best part of Wink Murder was Andy’s addition of: whenever anyone makes an accusation, you must stand up, sharply point at who you think the killer is, throw your head back and cry, “Je t’accuse!” in your most outrageous French accent. I seemed to be the first one killed in every round.

And then there was the skiing. Or in my case: the snowboarding. I started snowboarding about six years ago and every year I get better and better. That’s the point, right? Well, last year I reached a point where I was able to say that I was “pretty damn good”. I go down the slopes now and leave all my friends who have been skiing for decades in the dust. This is because I have no fear. I love speed and big jumps. I’m always on the look-out for a jump to hit, a wall to climb, or a ledge to sail off of. I spent most of my time on the slopes this trip with Matt, a Barcelona friend from England. We can reach the same break-neck speeds so, when it’s just us, we don’t waste half the day waiting for friends halfway down the slope. We both managed to snowboard the entire trip without any major falls