birdy1976.com :: Martin Vögeli :: Homo Faber :: Multimedia

Virtual Chat with the Pallomeri Spirit

Martin:

Hi Pallomeri! How are you?

Pallomeri:

I'm fine! How was your weekend Martin?

Martin:

Great! We went snowboarding at Flumserberg in Heidiland with our section. But I had to get up at five o'clock in the morning :(

Pallomeri:

Sounds interesting. Tell me more about it!

Martin:

We travelled by train from Winterthur. Most people were sleepy so there wasn't a lot of noise in our compartments. I did a little bit of talking though.

Pallomeri:

With whom?

Martin:

Karim is one of our section members. He and Lars organized the Snow(Board)Day. They both study at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur (ZHW).

Pallomeri:

What is the speciality of your university?

Martin:

We have four schools: School of Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering, School of Technology, Computer Science and Natural Science, School of Business and Management and School of Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies.

Pallomeri:

What about your talk with Karim?

Martin:

Karim is a snowboard teacher and I was an absolute newbie. I tried to find out more about the technique I was going to learn. Finally, we arrived in Unterterzen.

Pallomeri:

Never heard of it.

Martin:

I didn't know that place before. From Unterterzen (455 m above sea level) we took a cable car to Tannenboden (1342 m).

Pallomeri:

Wow, that's quite an ascent!

Martin:

Yeah :) In Tannenboden some of our participants had to rent their boards and boots. Many of them were rookies like me.

Pallomeri:

Ready for action!

Martin:

Right! We then split up in two groups: beginners and intermediate and went for it. I must admit that I was a little bit nervous...

Pallomeri:

Why?

Martin:

Well I told one of our exchange students that I'd learn better to ride the board in five hours than she did in five days time...

Pallomeri:

Show-off! And how did you do?

Martin:

We actually started snowboarding at about ten o'clock. We just needed ten minutes to ride up with the chair lift and a hundred minutes down - mostly on our bottoms :(

Pallomeri:

Sounds cold and wet ;)

Martin:

Right you are! In addition, it was kind of snowing and raining at the same time. But it was a lot of fun anyway *g*

Pallomeri:

One can't argue with taste...

Martin:

Pallomeri:

Did you have a decent lunch?

Martin:

Oh yes. It was great! We took another cable car from Tannenboden (1342 m) to Maschgenkamm (2020 m) and ate in a nice restaurant.

Pallomeri:

Who is we?

Martin:

Karim our teacher, Lisa, Sarah, Laia, Anneloes and me. In case you're wondering: Lisa and Sarah are English teaching assistants and the others are exchange students.

Pallomeri:

You are the president of the section?

Martin:

That's affirmative ;) ESN Winterthur is a small section. We have about ten members and an average of twenty exchange students per semester to look after.

Pallomeri:

That's nice! So everybody knows everybody?

Martin:

Mhm. It's like a family. And we have a lot of activities every semester: parties, sport events, city trips and so on.

Pallomeri:

What other services do you offer?

Martin:

We own a couple of bikes, SIM cards and mobile phones. We lend them to the incoming exchange students. They appreciate it very much!

Pallomeri:

Excellent! But back to Maschgenkamm...

Martin:

Where was I? Ah, lunch! The food was good and we had a heated discussion: Anneloes and Laia insisted that skiing is easier to learn than snowboarding.

Pallomeri:

Why is that?

Martin:

They both can ski very well and they aren't used to having any problems skiing. Snowboarding, on the other hand, was a different story.

Pallomeri:

What did Karim say?

Martin:

Karim's opinion was totally different. He claimed that one can learn to snowboard in three days whereas learning to ski would take a lot more time.

Pallomeri:

How was the descent from Maschgenkamm?

Martin:

Because there was a strong snow storm, only Karim boarded down to Tannenboden. The rest of us took the cable car :(

Pallomeri:

So you didn't snowboard anymore?

Martin:

Yes, we did. The weather was much better in the lower regions. In fact the sun had come out and we had a beautiful view of the forest and the lake.

Pallomeri:

Good! How did it go?

Martin:

Well, I split from the group and tried it on my own. Boy I hit the ground many times that afternoon! But I fell less and less...

Pallomeri:

And the others?

Martin:

They went on with their lessons with Karim. I met them from time to time on the course and thus was able to get some further advice from Karim.

Pallomeri:

After the boarding you all returned home?

Martin:

No, not immediately. We went to the Iglubar: a place with loud music packed with happy people and a lot of drinking. As a sportsman I naturally stuck to mineral water ;)

Pallomeri:

You don't ever get tired, do you?

Martin:

Not if I'm in good company! Finally, we took the bus departing from Tannenboden (1342 m) which followed a steep and winding road down to Flums (453 m).

Pallomeri:

Then back to Winterthur by train?

Martin:

Yes and like in the morning many people were sleepy and it was rather quiet in our compartments. Luckily, we found a big crossword puzzle in a newspaper.

Pallomeri:

A crossword puzzle?

Martin:

We nearly finished it by the time we arrived in Winterthur at half past nine in the evening. But one word caused some problems - maybe you can help?

Pallomeri:

Which one?

Martin:

Nine letters, across: "A Finnish word for a place filled up with many small coloured balls." Do you know the answer? I certainly hope so...

Pallomeri:

Yes, I do *lol*

Martin:

CU, have a good time!