The day I had been waiting for all winter had finally arrived . . . I was gonna go SNOWBOARDING!!! I love snowboarding it's so fun but I normally only get to go once a year. The reason for that is probably because I don't actually own a snowboard. Although, I figure with as much as I've gone with all the money that I've spent on getting a rental, I probably would have paid for one by now. THEN if I own one I would be more inclined to go because it would be less expensive. Welp. I know what I'm gonna buy when I get home! Not only was I excited about snowboarding but the cherry on top was that I was going to be snowboarding in ITALY! Very exciting. Allison and I decided we wanted to get as much time on the slopes as we could so we woke up early, ate breakfast and hit the trail by 9am.Hit the trail? Yes friends, remember when I said Allison didn't have a car? Well literally had to walk (what felt like) over a mile down the mountain (carrying Allison's ski equipment) to get to the ski slopes. It really wasn't too bad. The road was really curvy and steep so walking down it was never bad but walking up was another story. By the end of our weekend in Prato we must have walked up and down that hill like 10 times. It was a butt workout for sure that I did not mind. :)
We went and get my snowboard from the rental place and then stood in line to get our ski lift pass. We said we knew Simona so I didn't have to show my Id when getting the snowboard which made me feel really cool. We were doing pretty good by this time it was almost 11 and we were like "Yea got plenty of time!" Wrong. For some reason Allison's ski's were not working. She couldn't get them to lock and after struggling for a few minutes she finally went and got the guy and the rental place to look at them. When she finally got them on it was close to 11:30. Ok not bad, let's get on the ski lift, we'll be up there in no time. Wrong again. 
We stood in line for over 30 minutes just to get on the ski lift. There were soooo many people it was ridiculous. I felt kind of like the odd man out. Everyone around me had skis and I had the only snowboard. Haha! Way to represent! As we got closer and closer to the ski lift, I noticed more snowboards and Allison getting a little quieter and quieter. I suddenly remembered Allison writing in her blog how she doesn't do well getting on the ski lift. She's afraid that she'll miss it and it'll run over top of her while she's trying to sit down. I'm the opposite. I don't mind the getting on, its the getting off that I'm terrible at! I'm afraid that I'll get stuck getting off and the lift will just plow over me and then the people behind me will run over me as they get off. We are a pair.
As I was about to get ready to snowboard down the mounatin I couldn't help but notice my left knee was killing me. I couldn't tell if it was because of the awkward way you have to sit on the ski lift with a snowboard attached to you leg or if it was my old knee injury flaring up. Back in college we were doing West Side Story and in the middle of "Cool" I was doing my normal "Jet kick" when suddenly I fell to the ground like a spaghetti noodle. To my surprise my left knee cap was not where it was supposed to be but all the way to the side almost to the back of my leg. What did I do? Pushed it back in place and finished the dance, thats what! I've done all kinds of knee strengthening exercises but to be honest my knee has never been the same. 
I told myself, "You didn't come all this way to sit out on your snowboarding adventure!". So I decided to snowboard through the pain. Not the wisest decision I ever made. What made this even more scary was I was not used to this mountain at all! There was so many sharp turns that had like a 10 foot drop off and I was used to Wintergreen back home where you just go on down. I kept imagining myself going over the side of the mountain and be sitting in a pile of snow not able to climb back up to the slope because of my knee. UGH! I'd like to think I'm a pretty tough girl but something about that really scared me.
Once I got to the bottom, Allison and I decided to go get some coffee and a croissant. Good decision. After feeling refreshed it was time to try again. I was not about to be defeated because of some stupid knee. This time the ski lift wasn't as long of a wait and Allison and I both had a better ski lift experience gettin on and off. Ha! This time going down was more of a success for me so that was good. I believe we went down a couple more times after the first run so we felt like we got our moneys worth. Allison was brave and went down one of the more steep slopes and almost took out a child. Hahah TEN POINTS! I wish I had seen it! Towards the end of the day we noticed some of the kids were coming out to be apart of the Carnevale parade. This consisted of the kids dressing up and skiing down the slopes. Some of the costumes were pretty funny. The categories went from Dalmations to Butchers, go figure.
Allison and I then decided it was time to head back up the mountain up for the night. After our little naps we met up with some of the Au Pair's for "Appetivos" back down the mountain. In Italy they eat dinner around 8 pm so everyone goes to Appetivos for a bit of a snack before dinner time. By the time we left, it was dinner time with the Nonnes. We had some kind of pasta with tuna in it. Yea, I know what you're thinking. I thought it too but it actually was really good! I probably wouldn't make it as yummy as they did but it was still good. Allison and I then went downstairs to get ready for the night. We were meeting the girls to go dancing. I mean cmon, it's CARNEVALE! 
I put on my mask and got all cute, I was ready to go. After meeting up with Allison's friends I quickly realized that they were not into the whole "dressing up" for the night. They wanted to look cool. I mean I thought my mask looked cool but then again I'm a theatre person and have no shame. We then all headed down the mountain (I was in heals...I'm a trouper....or stupid) and we walked into this one place and again I felt like I was in a movie. I walked in and since I was the ONLY one wearing any type of costume everyone and I mean EVERYONE stopped what they were doing and stared at me. I might've heard the music skid to a stop. It was really awkward. I then saw these Italian guys in the corner pointing at me and laughing so I decided that I should probably take off my mask and hide in a corner. 
Later we went to this place called Snowfever which was like a club and I had so much fun. People were dressed up ther and I fit right in. Allison and her friends even found little glittery masks and wore them! After dancing around like an idiot, this group of guys came up and started talking to me. Low and Behold it was the very same group of guys that were pointing and laughing at me at the other place!!! Here they were trying to hit on me! Not feeling it. After calling them out right there on the dance floor they soon saw that they weren't getting anywhere with me so they moved on to Allison who liked the attention more than I did. It was funny to watch for sure.
We then decide it was time to go and caught a ride with one of the Au Pair's friend to the top of the mountain which was very nice. While in Italy my phone didn't work because it doesn't have a "global plan" and I hardly had internet while I was there. Thankfully that night I had a very weak internet connection and I saw where I had got some messages from certain friends that just made me feel like a million bucks. Thats all I'm gonna say about that. :) Allison and I then climbed into our little beds and moments later were fast asleep. It had been a very long and exciting day for sure. Recap: Snowboarding and Dancing, two of my favoritest things, Prato, you've been real good to me. -Jen
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