It was 7:00a.m. on a Monday in Germany. The sun was just above the horizon and it was a cool crisp morning. All of the students from grade ten were in front of the middle school together with their parents. They were rubbing their arms to warm themselves. It was the day for the ski trip to Austria.

One of our teachers ran exhausted through the crowd of students, shouting, “Is everybody’s suitcase in the bus?”

“Yes!” shouted all the students as if one voice. “Can we finally leave?” said the half of the students who grabbed their suitcases to leave. “We have been standing here for fifteen minutes now! We are so ready. Can we go now?” said the other half of the students who were still standing together with their families.

“Okay, okay. I just want to make sure that everything is all set.” Our teacher counted the students again. We said goodbye to our parents and climbed onto the bus.

In the bus, the students were talking excitedly. I sat with Jenny, Jennifer and Sabrina. It was the first time for my friends and me to learn how to ski during the five day trip.

Jenny’s eyes were opened wide as she exclaimed, “I can’t believe that we are going to Austria. That’s so awesome!”
Sabrina replied, “Me either! I think we are going to fall down a lot but it’s going to be so much fun to be on the ski trails.”

We travelled on the bus for fourteen hours before reaching our destination. It was dusk but we could see the snow covered peaks of the mountains silhouetted against the sky. We arrived at the old building where we would stay for five days. All of us got off the bus and grabbed our suitcases and bags. No one was speaking, as it was cold and everyone was exhausted from the trip. We all had dinner and then went directly to our rooms. We were asleep by 8:00 p.m.

The next day started with a breakfast. Our grade was separated into six smaller groups consisting of two groups for beginners, two groups for students who could ski, but not so well, and two groups for advanced skiers.

After separating, we went up the mountain on a ski lift. Jenny and I were together. We looked at the snow covered mountains and the pine trees and thought how beautiful it was. The sky was bright blue and the sun was shining through. There was not a cloud in the sky.

“I am so excited to ski for the first time!” Jenny smiled.

“Me, too! I hope we will do well!

At the head of the ski trail, our school teacher, who had accompanied us, told us how to stand on the skis. By trying to do it, we wiggled our legs and feet to push our ski shoes into the boards. Our teacher saw that we were unsecure. He grabbed our ankles and helped us to press our shoes into the boards. Then we could finally hear the sound of the engaging shoes into the skis. We skied our first few meters. It was not as hard as I had expected. We had just to push ourselves forward with the poles to get enough swing for a short way. When we tried to go down a little hill, my legs were in the wrong position that my skis overlapped and I fell down but started laughing. Everyone in our group started laughing as well. The same happened to most of the students and they fell many times, but we all kept trying it again and again.
Until our last day in Austria, Friday, we practiced skiing. We graduated from little hills to bigger hills. Each day we went a few meters more. It became easier to stand on the skis and to hold our arms and legs in the right position. We lost our fear of skiing down long difficult trails.
On Friday we went up in the ski lift just as we had done the days before, but this time we had a race. We had to ski down the whole trail. The first one who had reached the end of the trail was the winner.

“Okay, guys are you prepared for the race? Is everybody wearing their ski goggles and helmets?” yelled our teacher in a megaphone. He went around and checked our clothes and skis.

“All right. Everybody is ready. So we can start. Have fun guys. Ready, set, go!”

We heard the sound of a whistle and went down the mountain as fast as we could go. In the middle of the trail I flipped over a little rock and I fell down in such a fashion that my skis flew through the air and landed next to me. I hurried up to stand up and put my skis back on. Jenny stopped and helped me.

“Thank you so much, Jenny!” I shouted as she went on down the trail. I also went on and I didn’t fall down until I reached the end.
“Jenny, Jennifer and we are the last ones to arrive at the finish.” Sabrina put her arms around me.
“That’s not so bad!” I said, “we had fun didn’t we? I think that’s most important.”

Sabrina smiled brightly, “You’re right!”

On Friday night, we packed our suitcases to leave. In silence we took our luggage to the bus and sat down in our seats as we did on the day we had left to go to Austria. We were looking out of the windows, wistful we saw the mountains going further and further away from us. All of us knew, it was a wonderful class trip and we had had a great new experience.