Ski Trip

Last weekend, we took a ski trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan. We rented a minivan, which was okay, but cramped with 7 people in it!!
And then we had a problem. . . about 20 miles south of Madison, WI, and 4:41am Friday morning, we got a flat tire!!! Uhhh ohhhh! Thats was really annoying, but Romy fixed it with the spare tire. Thats him on the picture to the right. There were trucks passing us going 70mph, and so close!! But we finally got back on the road in less than an hour.

The first day we went downhill skiing at BlackJack Mountain. Thats was fun, but we were really tired. We skied a half-day. The next day was cool. We downhill skied at Indianhead Mountain, and it snowed all day, putting fresh powder on the slopes. We were doing black-diamonds that day!

Later, we went out for a big plate of spagetti and meatballs at the Ore House restaurant. Mmmmmm. . .

Finally, Sunday, on our last day, we woke up really early to go cross-country skiing at ABR Trails. They have a huge web of trails, and they were freshly covered with snow from yesterday's snow fall (about 3-4 inches at least). We had a good time. Nicole and Marcel rented skating skis and me and Romy had our classic striding skis. Then at the end, me and Nicole switched.

$340 !!!

$340

Thats how much I paid for a roundtrip ticket (all taxes included) from Chicago to London for this summer! WOah! I still can't believe it!!!

Well, its was all because of STATravel's Bluesday Sale, the launch of their new flexible student and youth tickets. They had really insanely low prices on many destinations to Europe, but you had to book on Feb 7th.
We were so lucky that we got them! There was some real drama. We had to change the day of our wedding, but whatever. . .

Also, The Great Baikal Trail Association has released its dates. We want to do camp 17 (Holy Nose), so we already applied. Now lets hope we get accepted. Yes!

Future Planning

Some things we are planning are going okay, and others are not going so good. Right now, we are getting a list ready for camping in Finland and Russia this summer. We are also getting some gear ready for it too (should we bring climbing stuff????).
Hopefully that will be us!! --->
But soon the fun will begin! We gotta buy our air plane tickets (on Feb. 7th, theres a BIG sale at STA), and get visas, get train tix, book hostels, etc.
At that same time, we gotta get things going for our wedding, which now has shifted to July 8th. On Feb 15th, we must secure our permit for the park, and reserve a tent. Then there is the rest of the stuff to do.

And on top of all that, we're trying to make the student exchange to Denmark work. We are having trouble with the ABET accrediation stuff. More on that later!
Well anyways, the exciting stuff:
-We're getting a set of the Faraday Flashlights, the ones you shake and make power by induction.
-We're getting a First Need portable water purification system, so that we never run out of water. You can even purify a puddle of rainwater, and it'll taste great!
-Nicole is getting ready a homemade book/guide of the National Parks in Finland. I'm gonna put one together about Lake Baikal and the area. We have a book about the railroad, and we also have on on Moscow.

So thats about it for the update. Hopefully I can provide more details as time goes on!