Few things are as Swiss as the Swiss Alps. Recently, I went on a ski trip to Zermatt, which is probably best known for being the home of the Matterhorn – the mountain top that’s depicted on Toblerone candy.

It was a bit of a nightmare getting there. Frist, we had to rent our skis for the weekend. We found that it’s cheaper to rent skis in Geneva for the whole weekend then it is to rent them in Zermatt for one day. Renting them in Geneva though, requires that you carry them everywhere.

About 50 others and myself met in Gare Cornavin (the main train station), all equipped with skis, boots, helmets (it’s the Alps, helmets are called for), poles and luggage for the weekend. We boarded the train after waiting for about an hour and signing our “release of liability” for the school in case we died.

The trains here run on a tight schedule. The first one wasn’t so bad, providing us with about ten minutes to get everyone and all of their stuff onto the cars that had been reserved for us. We were also specifically told that if you get left behind that there’s not much that can be done for you, so the panic to not be left behind was real. We rode the first train for about two hours, there were cliffs, waterfalls, vineyards and all along it was Lake Geneva; it was stunning. Switching to the next train was not stunning though. It is, for whatever reason, traditional to get as drunk as possible on the first train. So not only did we have to get everyone’s stuff off the train in three minutes, but we also have to deal with the drunken people as well.

Even for as stressful as the train was, the trip was totally worth it. We rented out an entire hostel, and it provided breakfast and dinner for us as well. The advisor of the trip shared his favorite kind of shot with everyone that first night at dinner – tequila with hot sauce. Things are certainly different here than they are at Millikin.

On Saturday, we skied. I opted to go with the beginner skiers because I didn’t think I was good enough to set out alone on the Alps. I quickly realized that I had too much experience for the bunny slopes, but was not quite good enough to take on the real trails. Even the “blue” hills were challenging – it is the Alps after all.

Luckily, I only fell once, and that was the first time that I went down one of the real trails. Only it wasn’t actually meant to be a real ski trail. We ended up in a small town and had to take off our ski’s and hike to even see the trail that we should have been on in the first place. It was an icy, slippery mess. Then, on our butts, we had to slide down this very rocky “hill” (I’m using that term loosely. It was pretty big to be considered a hill) in order to get to the trail. After that experience though, it was smooth sailing. I showed off on the bunny hill a lot, and then would go back to the real trails and look like a fool – a good mix I figure.

The Matterhorn and the Swiss Alps were beautiful. It was an amazing opportunity, but once was enough for me, I think. The Alps might not be a great place to learn to ski, but Switzerland has been a great place to learn a lot of things.