Ski Trip!
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Ski Trip!

By Jenny Sheng

It seems to be an annual tradition here at Caltech for each individual house to pile into a dozen cars and drive up to some of California’s best hills for a weekend of snowy bliss. This weekend, Avery House took advantage of the long weekend and 40 of us piled into a few cars and headed to a cabin near Big Bear Mountain. The first night was relaxing as we tried to play Majong.

For those of us who were familiar with skiing in cold climates, myself included, California skiing was a completely different experience. In fact, that morning as we got onto the slopes, we saw some people from Fleming house (their ski trip happened to coincide with ours). One of them was wearing only a t-shirt and shorts. I found the notion of skiing in such thin layers a bit absurd but once we got onto the hills it got so warm that I was entertaining the thought of skiing in a t-shirt as well. In fact, there were even people who were skiing shirtless! This was definitely a new experience. Skiing in California is definitely the best of both worlds.

Here’s a picture of us at the top of the mountain (courtesy of Sean Mckenna). I’m the second on the left in this picture. We were all smiling in this picture because it was before we took a few tumbles down the hill. The “after” shot would not have looked as pleasant :P The next day was spent in the cabin lounging around, sleeping, and attempting to do some work. The ski trip was definitely a defining freshman experience. It’s not everyday that you get to forget all about work and just enjoy being in each other’s company. However, heading back to Caltech was also a great relief. The air was once again warm enough so that we could not see our own breath.

We headed out to Lake Avenue to explore some local cuisine. We found Abricott a cozy little Thai-French fusion restaurant. The sun was shining and we couldn’t have been happier!

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