Hochficht is a relatively easy mountain compared to the Alps, but much closer and cheaper for Czechs, especially since Czech schools traditionally book accommodation in Černá v Pošumavi, a Czech town near the border of Austria. The accommodation was located right on a beautiful lake with the Šumava mountains in the background, which made for picturesque sunsets!
Each day we would ride the bus for about an hour to get to Hochficht and an hour back, which honestly wasn't bad at all. We occupied our time by watching films. When it comes to censorship and age-appropriate films in an educational setting, there seem to be no rules in this country. We watched The Hangover, The Hangover II, The Hangover III, and The Stranger, all American films dubbed in Czech. I've seen some dubbed films before, but it's always strange, especially when you know the movie plots. I've recently learned that all the famous American actors have specific Czech individuals assigned to them when dubbing movies. This makes for a more realistic experience and Czechs can identify more with the character and his/her assigned voice.
In contrast, American students may only watch G, PG, and PG-13 films. They cannot contain too much violence nor sexual scenes. Inappropriate language is forbidden (or as a teacher I must skip over the parts when I know a curse is about to be said). It's all very ironic as I hear my students from the States say inappropriate language on a daily basis (though I try to discourage them) and I know they watch these types of films all the time at home. These rules have become much stricter since I was a student, which of course, wasn't all that long ago! Teachers must be careful and follow the rules. My first year of teaching I received a warning because my Assistant Principal walked in while I was showing Recount to my U.S. Government class, which only had Seniors, and two curses (out of a total of five during the entire film) were said. Needless to say, I've been extremely careful ever since!
Anyway, back to the ski trip. Here's a trail map so you can see the type of mountain we skied. In the States the trails are marked green (easy), blue (medium), black (hard), but in Europe it goes blue (easy), red (medium), black (hard).
The class was split into three different groups. Based on my skiing abilities, I decided to go with the middle group. They were a perfect match! Most of us had skied previously, but none of us went all that often. In my case, I've been skiing since I was thirteen years old, but I usually only ski 3-7 days out of the whole year.
The ski trip consisted of us skiing a morning session from 9:30-12:00, breaking for lunch and relaxation (which is mandatory for the students) from 12:00-1:30, then skiing an afternoon session from 1:30-4:00. The teachers would meet back at the bus from 1:00-1:30 each day for a "coffee break", where we just talked, drank something hot, and ate some biscuits.
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| Teachers |
Let's be honest. I can't remember the last time I skied for more than three days. I took a short nap at lunch. I also only made it during the morning sessions for the fourth and fifth days, which was totally fine with me. This was a lot of skiing! While I was busy napping, Tomaš (one of the P.E. teachers) was busy taking pictures of his food or having someone take pictures of him tanning in the sunshine. He then sent them to his friends who were at work. It was all very comical!
My group mainly stayed on the easy and medium trails. Although it was February, as previously stated, we've had a relatively warm winter here in Europe. It was nearly 45F/7C and sunny each day. Honestly, I hate being freezing so the warmer weather was nice, but it made for terrible ski trails.
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| Ski Lift |
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| Riding the Ski Lift |
Each day it seemed to get warmer, and more and more snow started melting. The trails became smaller and smaller. Apparently, the snow machines can only be turned on and create new snow if it's below 32F/0C, which wasn't happening, even at nighttime! This was one of the worst trails we encountered:
In terms of technological advancement, Austria blows the States out of the water. They use key card ski passes, which you can just put in your jacket pocket, and they use turnstiles before each lift. Obviously, if you do not have a key card ski pass, you cannot pass through the turnstile. The key card ski pass has a small deposit fee. When you return it at the end of the day, or week, you get the deposit money back.
Instead of using chairlifts, the easiest trails have these pole things that kind of look like anchors. Two people at a time can use them. You grab onto the pole then put part of the anchor underneath your butt. It then hoists you up the mountain, but very slowly. I didn't particularly care for these contraptions. You can put some weight onto it, but it's more like you're standing and skiing up the mountain.
Of course, when going to the medium or hard trails, chairlifts were essential. The mountains were not extremely high, so no gondolas were needed.
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| On a Chairlift |
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| Skiing |
There was still a nice view despite the lack of snow.
Here I am, in the light blue Smurf-looking jacket at the bottom right, with everyone.
Ultimately, I had a great time on the ski trip in spite of insufficient snow. It allowed me to practice my Czech since two of the P.E. teachers do not speak English. More importantly, I was able to get to know this particular group of students on a more personal and individual basis. To date, these students are the ones whose names I remember the most at school. The students were friendly and included me in their discussions at lunch, on the bus, while riding the ski lifts, and during free time at night, when I played ping pong with them. They were courageous in speaking English with me and I was patient as they found their words and formulated ideas. It's not an easy task to talk freely and openly without a textbook dictating the conversations or activities, so for that, I give them a lot of credit!
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