Friday Night’s Alright for Curling?

Last weekend I joined the YAGs group for an evening of curling — that’s right, the Scottish “sport” the Canadians made famous (at least from my North American perspective). I won’t lie and say that I went for anything other than the novelty, but it did make for quite a fun time.

If you haven’t caught this strange-looking event during the past couple winter Olympics, here’s the basic idea: there are two teams of four that compete against each other in something that’s a bit like bocce ball on ice. Each person wears a pair of special shoes, one slippery and one with traction, to move about on the ice. A “rock” or “stone” is slid out of a starting block and glides down the court, hopefully ending up in the concentric circles designating the scoring area. If it appears the stone will be short, teammates can rapidly scrub the ice in front of it with brooms to ideally give it some more distance. Scoring is based on the team closest to the center of the scoring area.

I had a bit of a rough go at my first couple attempts, but made up for it with a shot that our instructor said was pretty much the perfect curl (bypassed the other team’s guard stone and ended up close to the center). Anyway, enough boring writing. Here are some photos:


The instructor using a magnet board to explain the rules


Ollie, mid-curl


Darryl and I get swept up in the action (photo by Andrea Otte)


Stones


Me in action


The red stone in the foreground was my “perfect” shot.


weekend warrior

Ski Trip

A couple weekends ago, I finally made it to the slopes this winter for a bit of skiing. The YAGs winter retreat was held at Sam and Michelle’s house in Peillonex, France, this year rather than a random lodge situation like last. We had a really good turnout this time — I think something like 35-40 young adults. Of course, with the transient nature of YAGs and Geneva in general, it was a much different group than last year including a lot of people I hadn’t even met before. However, when I think about last year, it was pretty much the same situation since I had only been to a handful of group events before the retreat. So although I may have had a bit of premature nostalgia for good ol’ 2007, I had a great time nonetheless.

Saturday was the day for skiing which we did in Samoëns at a series of mountains called le Grand Massif. Unlike last year’s half-day whiteout, this time around we had clear skies and sun and a full day on the slopes. Only the last run was a bit rough with some slush accumulating. There were enough skiers this year to break into groups based on experience level, so for once, I didn’t feel like I was holding anyone back (due to my somewhat overly cautious pace). I basically stayed with my friends Chris and Sue (who I was in a bible study with last year but haven’t had a chance to see much of lately) which was a lot of fun. Couldn’t have asked for a nicer time.


Erkki consults the map


Alps


Faux-hero shot


Sue and Chris momentarily breaking from snowboarding




Getting my squint on

Retreat(s)!

At the risk of seeming like some sort of religious zealot, I figured I’d update this thing with some info of what I’ve spent half the weekends in February doing: that is, retreats with a couple of the church communities I’m part of here.

A couple weeks ago we had a planning retreat for Shema across the border into France in a town called Peillonnex. It was a nice time that allowed us to gather and not only come up with some goals for the “missional community” within the next year, but also just enjoy each other’s company. It was fun to be around kids for the weekend as well, since three of our families on the core team have them.

Here’s a picture of the crew from the retreat:

l to r, Row 1: Byung-Soo, Chris Vrieling, Julia Henke, Laura Case, Yannick (with Cody) Ries; Row 2: Josh Case (with Jacob Ries), Lammert Vrieling, Max Vrieling, Conny Vrieling, me, Sébastien Heiniger, and Andy Ries. Not pictured are Todd Dellanegra and his family and Antje.

Here are the posters I’ve done for the various series’ so far:







Next up: a logo overhaul…


This past weekend I went on the YAGS (the young adults group from the Baptist Church) winter retreat which was a lot of fun. A bit like being back in youth group. But still fun.

We headed to a town near Montreux called Les Mosses and had a pastor (who is currently based in Monaco) lead us through the book of Daniel in between meals, board games, skiing, and poker.
The weather was pretty dismal on Saturday morning, so despite our attempts at two different locations, skiing looked out of the question. After lunch we headed back to one of them and conditions had improved a bit so we were able to pay for a half day and get a few hours in. It’s been about 6 years since I last skiied, so I was moderately impressed at how (reasonably) well I did, only falling a handful of times and getting back into it without many problems.

Here are some pictures from the weekend (only the ones on the slopes are mine; the others are “borrowed” from Nathan and Filippa):


The place we stayed

Low visibility kept us from skiing Saturday morning

Jeanette, myself, and Frank, all dressed up and nowhere to ski

What to do next but play Scrabble? With Mary, Tyler, and Jim Beerley (who led our sessions for the weekend)

The weather got a bit better for the afternoon

On the slopes: Me, Austin Beerley, Tyler (in the background), and Jeanette

All that clearance stuff I got at Target over Christmas came in handy

Jeanette, Darryl, and me stirring the fondue for Saturday evening’s dinner. Mmm…

Evening poker. I was first out. Not a good night for me.

Filippa, Jeanette, and me waiting around for something to happen

Natalie (trying to pretend she’s not being photographed) and me at lunch on Sunday