Waving Flag

Currently, I am in Solden, Austria.

I flew here on October first and arrived on the second. The plane ride was highly uneventful, which I am not going to complain about. I put on my eye mask

and ear plugs and got my beauty sleep.

The night we got here, I thought I would sleep like a baby because of the long travel day. I went to bed at 9:30pm and woke up after a sold 2.5 hours of sleep. My body was tired, but my brain refused to let up. I tried everything to get back

to sleep, using some of my grandpa's techniques. Finally, I had to take a strip of melatonin. Melatonin is usually a naturally occurring hormone in thebody which helps regulate the body's 24-hour clock.

The strips are used to mimic that hormone, making your body think that it is time to sleep. All in all, it worked like a charm.

We had our first day of slalom the next day. Driving upto Solden, I couldn't believe we were at the same place. The World Cup GS is in less than three weeks and it would be a miracle if enough snow fell before then.

I don't know if global warming has made it's mark this year, or whether it is just a bad year for snow. However, it was white and powdery when we were here last year and this year it is a sand pit. Most runs our coaches bring down rental skis, so we can ski from the course to the t-bar on them. There are deep holes in the snow surrounded by ice, that we try to avoid standing on at all.

However, our training lane is actually very good. We have had two really good days in a fairly long slalom course. We are hoping that the temperatures fall, so they can blow some snow!!