Ludlow, Vermont

Last weekend marked the beginning of Spring Break, the last Spring Break of my college career. A friend from CSS, my major, invited a group of us to her house in Vermont for the weekend. So on Friday afternoon, three Americans, a Singaporean, a Puerto Rican and a girl from Hong Kong (a Hong Kongian?) left for a weekend of winter sports and mountain beauty.

I have to admit, at first I was a bit disappointed. Though I'm from Illinois, perhaps the flattest place on earth, the mountains I have experienced have been from places like Colorado, Patagonia and Switzerland (**pause, think about how lucky I am, squeal a little**). In comparison, the ancient, worn-down mountains of Southern Vermont seemed more like big hills. But then I paused to look more closely.

The morning after we arrived, my friends went to the mountain to try their hand at downhill skiing, many for the first time. I'd done it many times before and wanted to try something new, so I went to the nearby golf course turned Nordic Center for a three-mile snowshoe hike.** Standing on a hill in the woods behind the snow-covered golf course, I could see the ski mountain in front of me and the rolling green mountains all around it. The mountains in Vermont were smaller and less dramatic than the ones I'd seen before, but the complete quiet and peacefulness of rural Vermont, only a few miles outside of a major ski resort, was unique. Driving outside of town the following day, I figured it out: the beauty of Vermont isn't in-your-face. It requires you to slow down for a minute and just be. Between the rivers, the hills, and the winding rural roads, I'd learned to let Vermont wash over me.

We concluded our trip with a visit to Long Trail Brewery in Bridgewater Corners, about half an hour from where we were staying. Sitting on the back patio in the sun, next to a fire, sharing a pitcher with my friends, I thought, "I could get used to this."



**For your comic amusement, I should add that I also tried cross-country skiing for the first time. When I asked the man at the rental place if he had any tips, he shrugged and said, "I've never done it before." Just picture me on a trail of slicked-down snow, lurching forward, stopping suddenly, almost doing the splits in an attempt to keep myself standing. It didn't take long before I switched to snowshoes.