Zugspizte take one :)

First of all can I say I love what I titled this post. I think it is perfect and I'm very proud of my creativity.

We had to be at the train station/ gondola at the bottom of the Zugspizte at 7:30 and were supposed to bring clothes for snowboarding, casual street attire, crazy clothes for an MTV party (a Hawaiian shirt was recommended for Ryan), and an all white outfit. We didn't have all this stuff so we just threw random stuff in a bag and brought it. When we arrived they asked if I had a bikini. I did not nor did I plan on being in a bikini up in the snow. They made me put on a tank top under my snow gear. I was very confused. We ate breakfast, but this time out of the food trailer that last time the extras weren't allowed to eat out of. I had a few rolls and three shots of espresso that I got to push a button to dispense. It wasn't bad coffee though even though it was out of a machine like that. And they had Monin syrups. Oh if you don't know Monin you should. They are sweetened with natural can sugar juice instead of processed white sugar like corn syrup. They are so much better tasting and better for you than Torini and such.

After awhile of standing around we all got in the gondola and went up up up the mountain. It is quite the climb let me tell you. This is the tallest mountain in Germany and we went literally to the very top. And it was so awesome that we were not only going up for free we were getting paid to go up. It is fairly expensive normally. Once at the top be got in another gondola and went down a little. The ski area is in a huge crater type thing. It was absolutely stunning. You can't see down to the town or anything. All you see in every direction is mountains and snow as far as the eye can see. You will love the picture Ryan took I am sure. We waited for a little while, but it wasn't too bad of a wait before going outside and being placed on the set. At first Ryan and I were sitting at a picnic table in the back ground, but then they pulled us up by the camera. When things were rolling we walked across the camera and the actors to the edge of a balcony to pretend to take picture with Ryan's cell phone (ironically there is no camera on Ryan's cell phone) and pretend to be talking and looking at the beautiful view. Maybe when the movie is out you'll be able to see both of us now. Since our last extras experience I have started paying a lot more attention to extras in movies and tv shows I watch. I think it is pretty unlikely we'll be extras you can see because most are blurred out or maybe you see a back view. Of course I'll be on the edge of my seat watching for us and probably freeze it a lot to try and spot us and people we know, but I won't hold my breath to having any real face time. I also had to stand on the side of the camera for awhile but I think I was blocking the sun or something for the camera man. I don't know. Maybe my friend Megan who works in the film industry can tell me why, but I was definitely on the side of the camera. Some people work in front of the camera, some behind the camera, I work on the side of the camera. The actors were really nice this time, not that they weren't last time. This time there was a German guy, and a couple English girls, one of which is Felicity Jones and is the star of the movie, the "chalet girl" herself. She is supposed to be an up and coming actress in Britain. Ken was talking about going to a Munich-Bayern (Bavarian) football (soccer) game and was flying high because they won in the semi finals. It sounded so incredible. Apparently he is a big fan. During this scene they also had a few girls in their bikini tops with their snow pants in lounge chairs. I didn't get it. I hope it makes more sense when the movie comes out. It was a nice day, but not hot like that. Ryan and I both left with racoon eyes. That mean was got sun only on the lower part of our face because we had our hats and goggles on. We burned, we peeled, we are finally looking more human today. It has been hard to walk by a mirror that last few days.

After this scene we grabbed our boards and headed to the slop. The worst part of the Zugspitze is that everything except one run has a t bar. If you don't know what a t bar is go back to my post about our first trip to the mountain to board. This time up the bar Ryan rode with me and I made it. I think it helps me to have that extra weight on the other side or something. I rode it up with his three times that day and once we weren't together and I fell twice and had to ask someone who worked on behind the scenes production to ride with me. She was kind enough to oblige though. Maybe I should make it a goal to make it up solo before I leave. That might be pretty lofty of a goal though. We boarded, some people skied, part way down the hill. We all took off our boards and skis and got behind a barrier. This scene was Ken's character crashing during a competition and we were the spectators. They didn't film the crash he started on the ground, but we had to act like we saw it happen. Ryan and I got to do a little extra moving. When they said action we all reacted like it happened and ran to the barrier fence, then Ryan and I ran down the fence to get a better view. I'll have to go over all this again with you all when it comes out so you'll know what to look for. :) Eventually, around 2 we got to break for lunch, so we went the rest of the way down to the bottom of the t bar and took it up again to take a different run into the lodge.

For lunch they gave us meal tickets to eat in the lodge cafeteria. I thought the food was good and way better than what we ate for our first lunch as extras. I had a huge salad, German potato salad, steamed veggies, and some french fries. Ryan had a sausage he wasn't crazy about along with salad and fries.

After lunch we went back to the bottom of the same t bar. We sat here for literally an hour. Then they brought some candy by, which I remembered was the sign that we had 2 hours left and it made sense because it was 4 by this time. Finally we got to go up the t bar and then part way down the hill again. This time a guy arranged us I think by what we were wearing in a line down the slope. Gear off again. They had either Felicity Jones or her double, I'm not sure, on a trailer being pulled behind a snowmobile pretending to snowboard down the mountain and win the race. So we all cheered our hearts out as she passed. It was cheesy. After shooting that a few times the split us down the middle and said for half to go wait at the bottom and ride to the top and for half to wait there. This was when I couldn't get up the t bar by myself and I had to ask for someone to ride with me... embarrassing let me tell you, but she was really nice about it. When we got to the top they had sent the rest of the people to the bottom. Each group sat in their spot for half and hour until they decided not to shoot whatever they were thinking of having us do (I was assuming it would have just been a shot of us all going down the hill) and we all just went back to the lodge. Filing was then done for the day. They had water, cold coffee, and apfel schorle for us and then announced the train down (we took the gondola up and the train down so we got to experience both) wouldn't leave until 6:20 so we had a little more than an hour to wait. We hung out and talked with a nice couple from Munich for that time. On the train back we were in a car with a bunch of the young German extras. I don't know who brought it I guess the crew but there was a rack of beer that they passed out to us, which was great at the end of the long day we all had to kick back with on the ride down. We started talking with the Germans and they were helping me with my German. Then they invited us out that night for drinks, but when we got back to the Abrams we were so exhausted we could get up again to go out, so that didn't happen. But they did say they had seen Ed Westwich the guy from Gossip Girl a US show and the main guy character who broke up with Sophia Bush the first time we were extras. Anyway they saw him out at a bar one night and when he was in the bathroom at the same time as them he asked if they knew where he could get some cocaine. Goodness gracious.... what a stand up guy he is! Way to go Ed Westwick, doing yourself proud in Garmisch.

So that was our second and last day being extras for "Chalet Girl." They got so lucky that the weather cooperated the way that it did. It was a beautiful day! We are so thankful we had the opportunity to go up the Zugspitze and also that we got to be extras again. Oh and we asked Lara at lunch about the premier. She said that if they tell her when it is going to be that she has all the extras contact info and she'll send it to us and that if we pay our own way to London we should be able to go. I hope that works out because it would be incredible. The movie will most likely come out next winter since it is a snowboarding movie. So only time will tell if we get to go. Here's to hoping!