Lords of the boards

This post title doesn't imply I'm a snow boarder, but I had lots of fun at the snow retreat of our youth groups anyway :).
On saturday 22nd january we left at 8 am for an almost twelve hour bus drive to Bad Gastein, Austria. We took about 34 youth on our annual snow retreat, a time to have fun, hear about God's love, enjoy the snow and ski, ski, ski ... or board, of course. We arrived really late and after having watched "Grease" twice (!), but it was snowing, so that was great. After some pizza and Austrian food, Megen from Surrey talked to us about loving God and loving people - supported by stories, milk and cookies. It was great fun hanging out with Megen again, we met last year at the AICEMEA youth conference.
Sunday morning we did our best to get everybody's skis, boards and boots rented and then we took the gondola up on the top of Stubnerkogel. It was sunshiny and there were 20 cm of powder! We had a great time skiing. I skied with Kevin, Cindy and their daughter Michelle (great skiing buddy) and Sarah. And surprisingly, it went really well. Last years skiing school payed off :).
So, what was great: sunshine, powder snow, hot chocolate and soup, beautiful mountains, speed, watching some of the youth board and ski amazingly, getting warm after skiing (- 15° C), Megen's talks, doing red tracks with almost nobody around so lots of space and fun, tobogganing (das ist Rodeln :)), hot springs on Monday night and a full body massage, talks with some kids, ...
Downside was sharing a dorm with 14 girls! I'm not used to that any more :).
Tuesday it took us another eleven hours to get back to Bonn and "Grease" once more. Anybody interested in my two favorite quotes: "You're cruising for a bruising" and "You look like a beautiful blonde pineapple".
So, Grease is the word!