Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Skiing in Austria

I postponed ever trying skiing because of gymnastics. I never wanted to risk getting injured outside of the gym and have it jeopardize my Olympic goals...especially with my history of knee problems. So, now that I'm retired I was looking forward to my first ski trip in the Austrian Alps.
I headed to Innsbruck over the weekend to visit a friend from the Austrian gymnastics team. He has been skiing and snowboarding his whole life, so I felt pretty safe going out with a vet. Unfortunately, what wasn't taken into account enough was my pathetically weak legs.
Riding the lift to the top of the slope I remember saying, "I am not a gymnast anymore." Aside from not training anymore and moving to another country, doing something like skiing helped remind me that I am in a new phase of my life. When I got to the top of the lift, looking out at endless mountains completely surrounding me and I felt fantastic...that lasted for about five minutes.
To make myself fell a little better, I'll mention that I wasn't quite starting out on the bunny slope at Hunter Mountain, which is where a lot of people from NJ/NY area start out. This was a real mountain with real slopes. My friend took me to where they hosted the 1976 Winter Olympics. It wasn't the exact slope of the downhill competition, but it was right next to it.
I headed down, listening to his instructions as closely as possible. I kept my skis in the arrow formation to slow myself down as much as possible. As I tried to turn to the left my right ski got caught. I twisted as a I fell and I felt my right knee in a very awkward position. There was nothing I could do to stop it. Finally, I heard/felt that lovely "pop" of my knee giving out. I just closed my eyes and thought "WOW...did that really just happen again." As I laid on my side, I tried to lift up my leg, but it just kind of hung there unnaturally. Not a good sign. My friend came over hoping that I was ok, but I quickly let him know that my skiing experience was over.
Fortunately, I was able to walk to the closest ski lift. We decided it would be a waste of a great day to just go home so we had some lunch at the top of the mountain, took some pictures, and just hung out for a while. I tried as hard as possible to stay in a good mood considering what had happened, but my mind kept thinking how bad I was hurt...
The next day was predictable...swollen knee, very limited range of motion. I guess one positive was that I was able to get around on my own the rest of the weekend without crutches. I could feel my knee give out if I moved laterally, so I tried to take small slow steps wherever I went.
Aside from skiing, I got a chance to experience downtown Innsbruck a little bit. One night we got invited to a drink tasting for a new bar that was opening. There were about 10 of us and what we had to do was drink whatever they put in front of us and then fill out a survey on whether or not we liked the drink. We did this for over 25 drinks!! Of course most of the drinks small, but by the end of the night we were feeling pretty good...
I also had a chance to visit one of the Austrian gymnasts who was in the hospital recovering from a recent leg surgery. The whole team went to spend time with him, and it reminded me a lot of being with my team both at Stanford and with the USA. Being around a team again brought back a lot of great memories from my past. That's one of the things I miss most about not competing anymore...just hanging out with the team.
I'm back in Rome now and my knee has been getting better each day. I'm planning seeing a doctor early next week, so I'll have more details on the severity of my injury then.

One more thing...this wasn't exactly my first ski trip. When I was about 12 I went skiing with a bunch of gymnast friends from NJ who were all veteran skiers. When we got to the mountain they all left me right away and I spent the day trying to figure out what I was doing. Needless to say it was awful. Here are some of the highlights of that trip...
-I took a "Ski Class" from someone that barely spoke English. I had no idea what was going on, so half way through the class I left and went on my own. By the way, I had to pay for the class...
-"A Christmas Story" is one of my favorite movies to watch during the holidays. I'm sure many of you have seen it over the years considering they play it for 24 hours straight on Christmas Eve. One of the classic parts of that movie is when Flick, puts his tongue on the frozen pole and it sticks. Well a similar thing happened to me on this wonderful ski trip. I was on the ski lift and I put my tongue on the metal zipper of my jacket...and it stuck. Yes, this actually happened. I was spared the ridicule of my friends since I was on my own, but it did take me a while to free my tongue.
-At the end of the day I finally found my friends and decided to go with them and take one ride down the more difficult slope. The ride started off well, but about halfway down, I fell forward to the point where I could tell my ski bindings were about to break away. When they did finally snap, the ski popped up and smacked me right in the face cutting my chin. At that point, I had had enough of skiing and I went down the rest of the slope on my butt...

So as you can see my first ski trip was not a great experience either. I'm pretty sure some higher power is telling me to stay away from the mountains. I've always been a beach guy anyway, so I don't mind too much. My ski days are officially over.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Florence for the Weekend

Over the years I've been to Italy many times. My first trip to Rome was when I was 2.  Growing up, summer vacations were either down the shore in Jersey or Italy.  I remember one year my sister and I actually complained about having to go to Italy again for our vacation...we were really hoping for a trip to Disney World!  Haha...I guess at the time we didn't know any better.  We always went to Rome for a few days and then to Pietracupa for the rest of the trip.
All those trips to Italy, but I never had a chance to see other parts of the country.
Over the weekend, I finally took my first excursion to a new city...Florence.

For years, I have heard just about every American who has traveled to Italy say that Florence was their favorite Italian city. Even Italians, who are all positive the city they live in is the greatest in the world, say that Florence is beautiful.

I traveled by train, which I’m finding to be my preferred way of travel more and more with each trip. Not having to deal with lines, baggage claims, weather delays, and everything else that is a hassle at airports these days is such a relief.

My initial reaction upon arriving at a train station in a new city is always...”Ok, now what??” I tend to just pick a direction out of the station and hope it’s right. Most of the time I’m wrong, but I like getting lost. I end up seeing things I would have otherwise missed. I wandered around the streets outside the Santa Maria Novella train station (main station in Florence) for a good half hour before I found the right way.

When I finally got to the hostel, I used my limited Italian with the girl at the desk who was relieved to be able to speak Italian for once. She let me know that I wasn’t really speaking Italian, but Romano. I didn’t know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult. In the end I guess I was just happy that she could understand what I was saying at all...MY ITALIAN IS IMPROVING!

Not only was the hostel it in a perfect location in the heart of downtown, but it also provided appetizers and wine every night before dinner...my kind of place. A glass (ok, multiple glasses) of wine with some bruschetta and a mortadella sandwich was my 6:00pm snack every night I was in Florence. Thank you Academy Hostel...best hostel I’ve stayed at so far!

One of the keys to traveling alone is being able to meet new people to enjoy the trip with. My first night I met some college kids from California who were just passing through while studying abroad and two girls from Brazil who were on vacation. We spend the next few days seeing the sites together during the day and partying at night. We all got along really well and it was nice to be able to share the experiences with some other people.

Florence is much smaller than Rome, but it is no less charming. To me, if Rome is equivalent to New York City, than Florence is San Francisco. Two very different places with a different style and energy. Florence might be small, but there are a ton on things to see. The Duomo (Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore) is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Aside from being massive, it’s made of white, green, and pink marble which gives it a very distinct look. I climbed the 463 steps to the top of the Brunelleschi’s dome and even with the hurricane winds and sleet storm while I was up there, it was worth the incredible 360 view of the whole city.

I also made it to the Palazzo Vecchio, Uffizi Gallery, Ponte Vecchio, Piazzale Michelangelo, and of course saw Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia. There was too much art and history to describe everything in a few sentences. All I can say is that if you do take a trip to Europe one day, make sure Florence is on the agenda. You will not be disappointed. I know I will be making more trips to Florence while I am out here.

I’m off to Innsbruck, Austria this weekend for some skiing with a friend from the Austrian gymnastics team. It’ll be my first time skiing...should be an interesting weekend.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Louis Vuitton Edition

  So, for the past month I put a hold on my travels and took a job at Louis Vuitton on Via Condotti. The director of the store is a friend, and he asked if I was interested in helping out during the holidays. Meet some new people and make a couple bucks...why not.
  This was the first real (non gymnastics related) job of my life. It was definitely a little strange going from just shorts at work each day while I was training, to wearing a black suit and tie everyday. In fact it was such a new experience, that I couldn’t figure out how to tie my tie properly on the first day. It was a definitely a little embarrassing having to ask for some help with my tie!
After getting a tour of the entire operation, I was brought to my work area where I would spend at least eight hours a day over the next month wrapping gifts and controlling the payments of ridiculously expensive bags, shoes, belts, keychains, luggage, watches, books, scarves, etc. Each day was basically me moving nonstop from one item to the next. Removing tags, wrapping, looking over receipts...never ending assembly line like repetition. I would normally work with a partner, and together we would try to get the bags to the customers as quickly as possible. I’m pretty sure everyone that works there hates this job. All of the other employees are required to do three hours a week of wrapper duty, and it is by far the job everyone despises the most. Those three hours were great for me though, because it gave me a chance to get to know a lot of the other LV workers. I ended up making some good friends, and since meeting new people was one of the reasons why I took the job in the first place, it worked out pretty well.
It's probably pretty boring being a wrapper during the other 11 months of the year, but during the month of December it’s nonstop movement. I actually lost weight over the past month because of my wrapper duties. Who comes to Italy and loses weight??!! The guy who spends eight hours a day doing wrapper duty at LV, that’s who (I’m pretty sure I put that weight back on though after my amazing eating display during Christmas and New Years...haha!).
Probably not surprisingly, the best part of each day was the hour lunch break. Most days I would eat in the employee break room. But every once and a while, when the weather was nice, I would take the short walk to Piazza di Spagna and eat my lunch on the steps. Being able to look out at Piero Bernini’s Barcaccia and down Via Condotti on those days was like a dream. It’s such a beautiful spot. I know whenever I go back I will always be reminded of my time at LV and those lunch breaks.
After the first few days of work I came to the quick realization that the financial crisis that most of the world is struggling with doesn’t really affect people who are able to regularly shop at Louis Vuitton. The amount of money that place rakes in is mind boggling. I won’t mention exact numbers, but I would leave most days just shaking my head when I saw the final total in sales each day. On top of that, there is another Louis Vuitton store about five minutes from where I worked!
The store has velvet rope with security at the entrance which was pretty amusing. It felt like the scene outside of a club in NYC. One day, two guys were waiting in line together to get into the store, and I remember thinking, “Those guys better gets some girls to bring in with them or security is never going to let them in!” Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but it was still a scene outside the store each and every day.

Some of the other highlights of my month were:
-Seeing a bunch of soccer players and other actors come through the store.
-The Pope driving past the store on Dec. 8th for the holiday, Immacolata.
-Louis Vuitton Christmas Party. Great location. Fantastic food. New friends...and a broken chair. Yes, I broke a chair that night while sitting during dinner. I still don’t know how it happened, but everyone saw me fall to the floor...not my finest moment. Haha!!
-Everyone realizing that I was an athlete after seeing some of my videos on Youtube. It was pretty funny seeing peoples reactions after finding out about my gymnastics career.

I will probably be starting up my traveling again soon, but this was a nice change that gave me a chance to see Rome in a new way. Thanks Max (Il Direttore) for the job...and thanks to all the other employees for making my experience at LV a positive one.