Email 1 - 14th April 2005

Subject: Still alive!

Howzit going everyone

Sorry to disappoint some of you but after all these months I am still alive! I have been planning on sending news for ages but there never seems to be time, and by now I think I have forgotten what happened at the beginning.

Anyway, after I graduated I left for America at the beginning of December and worked at Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe until the end of March. That was a blast. Snowboarding is awesome, and the better one becomes at it the more fun it is, until one can finally ride trees in fresh powder, which feels like you are floating. And the best part is, they paid me (kind of) to do it. Tahoe was a blast as well, there were 1000 international staff at Heavenly, including South Africans but mostly South Americans. Everyone just wanted to get drunk, party, and make out, so I fitted in pretty well ;). Having $1 any-drink nights a few times a week helped as well. Paying $1 for a drink in the U.S. is like paying R2 in SA, i.e. sweet. I lived in a house near the resort with a friend of mine from high school, a south californian girl, and a new zealand girl. I reckon I averaged 4 hours a sleep a night for 4 straight months. If you are still in University, then 1. Never complain to me about late nights again and 2. work at a ski resort. It is such an awesome experience. I have met people from all over the place, and if I ever go to South America, Australia, or NZ, I will always have a place to stay. Obviously a lot happened in Tahoe in 4 months, but when I eventually get home it will be easier to explain with all the incriminating pictures =)

After I finished work at Heavenly I travelled around California and the South with a Texan I met there and my high school friend. San Fran (alcatraz, golden gate bridge, winelands), Yosemite National park (unbelievable mountains all around one), L.A. (crap, too much traffic and mediocre beaches after cape town), San Diego (fun, a lot like Cape Town), Tijuana (in Mexico... scary, when you are stuck there for 5 hours at 1 in the morning with no money and no passport to get back into America!!!), Grand Canyon, Sedona, and much more. I even spent a few days in Texas. If you ever go to the States, go to central Texas!!! I stayed in a place called Waco which is a University town with a 4 to 1 ratio of girls to guys, and the girls are all incredibly beautiful blondes. And this is not like the lies about the 10 to 1 Cape Town ratio rubbish... this is just smoking hot girls everywhere you look. Think the birthplace of Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson. Damn...

Right now I am in Florida enjoying the hot weather... upper 20s at 9pm at night kind of thing. After this I go to D.C. and then to NY, and then I go to Europe for 2 odd months, and I'll be back in SA at the end of June... when my job starts. Yeah right... after travelling for so long, working in a real job seems impossible. To everyone that started work straight after varsity, you are missing out. Save some money and get out there, there are some good times to be had.

All the details about what has happened will have to wait til I get back, otherwise this email would go on for pages and pages, so until then, write back to me and let me know what is happening in your life... job, husband, wife, varsity, etc. etc. If you want to SMS me, my U.S. number is +1 323 304 7050 until April 30, then it will be my normal +27 83 253 5483 number while I am in Europe.

I'll send some pictures in the next day or two so you can all see where I worked and so on.

Sayonara for now.

Nicholas