I am proud to say that I have done something that most people never get to cross off their bucket lists: I skied in the French Alps!
Day 1: Fairly uneventful. A loooong bus ride with some food and bathroom breaks. We got in. Got to bed. Done.
Day 2: AMAZING! I literally was on a ski-high. We woke up at 8. Our Chalet/Hostel was pretty basic, but nice (cozy lobby, great view, shower that you had to keep pushing a button to get water, bring your own sheets/towels) and all the food/lodging/tickets were included in the cost. As for gear, I had my winter coat, bought gloves and socks, and I borrowed my host mom's ski pants (lucky she's pretty small!). Once we got fitted for skis and stuff we hit the snow! Well, I signed up for the two hour lesson first. It was great! Two of the people in the group really needed some help with the teacher but I felt pretty confident in myself (despite my complete lack of ski experience). It was really funny though, because the slope we ended on was the easiest of the easiest (the order of difficulty goes: green, blue, red, black) and everyone else on the hill was either an instructor or under two feet tall. I swear, there were some kids who could barely walk but could ski better than I can.
The lesson ended perfectly at noon and we ate our bag lunches from the hotel. After practicing on the easiest hill, I moved up to the harder of the green trails, which was still quite steep. I had a little trouble controlling my speed but had a lot of fun ZOOMING down the hill! (don't worry, mom, I wore a helmet). It was such a rush and I felt really great at the end of the day!
Also, all day the weather was really warm! I kept my jacket unzipped for most of it and only wore my gloves when I was worried I might fall. The only problem was that the heat of the sun made the snow kind of slushy and then when the sun moved and the mountain was in shadows, it turned into ice. Luckily that marked the end of our day anyway.
That evening it took me and my three roommates only 40 minutes to get showed, dried, and dressed... that's averaging 10 minutes a girl! I think that's a record. Then the group went to the village which looked straight out of Beauty and the Beast!
When we got back, we had dinner (a cheesy/potato/pork dish) and an AMAZING chocolate mousse! There was an extra at the table next to ours so my table stole it (unfortunately we had already gotten rid of our spoons so we had to improvise a bit... it was a good laugh).
After dinner, some people had little parties in their rooms, but after a long day of skiing and another day of skiing ahead, my friends and I decided that drinking probably wasn't the best idea so we played cards in the lounge with some of the French students who came on the trip with us.
Day 3: Similar start, but a little more sleeping in because they didn't need to spend time fitting us for skis. I was a little sore (still am as I'm writing this) in my shoulders, upper butt, thighs, and calves but excited for more skiing. We got there and a few of us decided to go up the HUGE ski lift to see the top of the mountain (don't worry, they let you ride it back down too). I decided to try a short blue trail while I was up there because the study abroad director (who is a good skier and very nice) was going. Fun, but I think I fell 50 times and it took some serious effort to get down the slope. The director was so helpful coaching me down (I figured before hand that if I were to try, I'd want to have her there in case I needed help... which I definitely did). Luckily, I could catch the ski lift half way down the mountain and ride that back down to the bottom. I kept a very positive attitude through the whole thing, but realized that I probably wasn't ready for that yet. I also realized that I needed to practice on the green to learn how to control my speed.
When I got down, it was lunch, which was great because my body needed a rest. After lunch, I decided to take it easy. I did the green hill a little then went back to the top of the mountain with a friend for a drink (we had Perrier Menth which is sparkling water with mint syrup in it) and the amazing view! When we came back down, I did the green hill again and then it was time to go back to the hotel.
Unfortunately, the bus ride back kind of put a dent into the trip. To get the full extent of my frustration, here's an excerpt from my journal written on the bus:
I'm pissed this amazing weekend tarnished by this crazy ending. So we left at 5. Everyone was starving so they started eating on the bus and were dismayed that they had been given smoked salmon and goat cheese sandwiches. Now, I had heard enough complaining about the food when they gave us tuna for lunch on Saturday (which, I'll add, was the best tuna sandwich I've ever eaten). I agree that when dealing with a group, fish is probably not the safest choice, but please, don't call my sandwich "disgusting" because I'm going to eat that!
Most people now have calmed down and I just had a great conversation with a girl, Meryn, who I've really gotten to know well over this weekend. Then we stop for our dinner break at this dark roadside stop on the high way. The bathroom was (apparently... I didn't venture in) gross and there were only outside benches so it was a little cold. At this point someone goes around polling us if we'd like to stop at a fast food place on the way home. She got shut down by the tour director anyway, but this situation makes me upset on two levels: 1. It's not right to starve people after a full day of skiing. Fish isn't the most basic flavors. BUT 2. I have a tram to catch and don't want to walk back with a lot of stuff really late. That's not safe. Sticking to the schedule is important. Whatever. It was a non-issue anyway.
Then, the two kids who had gone to the hospital (they're ok, just a little banged up) met us at the road side stop which was good, but it meant that I had to move away from my friends to give them the seat near the door which kind of sucked.
So, I'm on a bus with a bunch of crabby, hungry, tired, college kids who don't know to deal with travel set backs. I wish they could just deal and not make it miserable for the rest of us. At this point, I'd like to thank Carl Mitchell for giving me songs by Explosions in the Sky -- awesome music without lyrics so that I can drown out the terrible movie and just relax.
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But, to end this on a good note, I really enjoyed the trip, even with its bumps, because I got to ski here:
As for the fortress, it was so cool! The only way to get there is by boat, which was 10 euros, but the fortress itself is free for students (if you have a European school ID... which I do! It also got us into Carcassonne for free!). The fortress was so cool - all the stones are bleached white from the sun, which was so warm. And even though it's on an island, it wasn't windy at all! I wish we could have brought a picnic because there were some great sunny and grassy spots around the fortress.
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