19

March 10, 11, 12

March 13, 14

Skiing! For a week! Yay!

We left on Sunday in a big tour bus with about 20 kids of varying ages. The youngest was maybe 12, and I was among the oldest. There were also 5 adults as ski directors. Our destination: a huge ski hill comprised of six smaller hills. Samoëns (Vercland) was the specific village where we were going to stay. There was an old wooden chalet where we ate, and across a snowy field another big wooden chalet where we slept. The bunk beds were classic camp Pringle style, and there was a shower in every room and nice sheets and stuff.

The first day there we arrived at about noon, ate lunch, then found out that we couldn't have our rooms until five o'clock so we decided to walk (more like hike) down to the village of Samoëns to be tourists and see some stores and such. On the way, we passed a house with a huge St Bernard dog sitting next to another tiny dog. It was comical to see two dogs of alarmingly different sizes just sitting there. And barking at us. The same house was also home to a scarlet macaw parrot that squawked at us. We also passed underneath many a gondola bring skiers up the mountain, and as there were patches of snow about, the logical thing to do would be to try and hit one of the télécabines with a snowball, so we did. None of us managed it, but it served as a neat way to start a snowball fight. The people in their gondola cabins looked at us strangely. 

After screaming down a steep ice-and-snow-and-mud-covered hill, we arrived at the Samoëns village. We split up into groups and set a meeting point for about 45 minutes from then. We walked around peering at all of the tourist shops, I bought a couple gifts for my family back home (no spoilers :), and we bought some strawberries cause they were on sale and they looked really good. 

Eating our strawberries, we slowly made our way back to in front of the pharmacy (the meeting point). Then as a whole group again we scrambled back up the hill, passed the animal zoo house and got back to the lodge at about six o'clock. 

We settled into our rooms at last, and then went to eat dinner. 

The next day we got up at 7:30am and threw on some ski clothes and ate breakfast and by about 9 o'clock we were at the top of the nearest gondola, ready to ski. From there we split into groups again: the super fast advanced skiers who wanted to go off track and never stop (Mathilde's group), the medium group with skill but who didn't want to break any limbs (Clementine's group), and me (my group). Manu was my instructor for the day, the first of four who would kindly accompany me on my slow, careful ski days. 

The first hill was the worst, and unfortunately it was one of the busiest routes on the hill. You had to take this path to get to anywhere else on the map, no matter where. I was snow-ploughing my way for the first bit, until I got the hang of parallel, turn in snow-plough, parallel once more.

The second half of that first hill was super steep with lots of bumps and people, and I sorta freaked out. The going went really slow after that. I don't know exactly why I was so scared, I think it was the masses of people zipping by really close to me and almost colliding. Anyway, Manu was really understanding even though it must have taken us at least an hour and a half to descend (I can do it now in about 15 minutes. That's how much I've improved in the week). 

We went slowly and carefully for the rest of that day, and by the end of five hours I had pretty much got the basic movement down and was hardly using the snow-plough. 

That evening after a good 5 hours of skiing, we returned to Vercland by télécabine. I was thoroughly worn out and was happy to get back to the chalet. We then had a snack of baguette, chocolate, and chocolate milk. It seems we would get a snack every day after skiing. 

Next hour (18:00- 19:00) was a free hour before dinner. My roomies and I took advantage of it to shower and rest a bit. 

Dinner was fine. I don't remember what it was specifically, so it must have been pretty average. Tartiflette, maybe (that's gratin dauphinoise). 

After dinner we could choose to just go right to bed or to stay and play some games with the group. I was boring and decided to go to sleep, but in my defense I was really quite tired and felt I needed the rest. 

The next day it was Cédrique. He is by far the funnest leader, and I had a lot of fun that day. We started slowly until I got the hang of skiing again, and this time on the big scary hill from yesterday we found a small track on the side to use. It zig zagged down the slope instead of going straight down and there was practically no one using it. I think it was normally for snowmobiles, but it served our purpose quite well. It was a lot easier on me. At the end there was about the last 200m of a red track, but it was fairly easy. It appeared I wouldn't have to try the big hill again unless I wanted to. 

From there we took various ski lifts and small hills to get to Flaine, a mini station within the Grand Massif mega station. We met up with the other groups there, except we got there a bit early so we settled down in front of one of those amazing high altitude ski restaurants. Pretty soon a waiter came and asked for our order. I didn't get anything as I had my water bottle. Cédrique got a coffee thing. The others got there eventually, and we ate our baguette sandwiches and apples and oranges for lunch. 

After lunch we took the longest gondola on the mountain to the Grandes Platiers: the very top of the mountain. The view from there was awe-inspiring. We could see Mount Blanc right in front of us, and so many other peaks with and without snow. For a little city-born 0m from sea level girl like me, it was very impressive. From there we took all blue tracks all the way back to Flaine. 

I had done about 4 hours of skiing by the end of day 2. 

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(Sorry just gonna take a moment here. I'm sitting writing this on my iPod in the recreational hang out room in lycée Pablo Neruda, waiting for my next class to start. I knew for awhile that there was a drinks machine in the back, but today I dug around in my pencil case, found 50 centimes and bought a drink. It's really neat. You can chose various types of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate and it will spit out a plastic cup and fill it with your drink. You can even choose how much sugar you want. It's something I think we need to get at esquimalt. Imagine: every time you think to yourself "a nice cuppa would really hit the spot right about now" and you have a couple quarters, you can get a cup of tea. I think I'm going to use this asset a lot more often in the next few months. The only thing I might change would be to allow you to use your own cup if you wanted to, so as not to use so many plastic cups.)

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Wednesday we all took a break from skiing, a rule they had adopted after too many camps where people would get injured on the third day due to lack of rest. It was nice to just hang out and play board/card games for a day in a chalet with a bunch of people. There was a really good collection of games brought in by Jeremy ("all of my games are good, otherwise I wouldn't own them"). He's the leader of the leaders, by the way. He stays back in the chalet and works or something. He's also really funny and always has something to say. 

Anyway so we played a couple classics like Pit and spoons, and I also got introduced to some wonderful new ones. Dixit for example is a board game where all of the cards are various fantastic other-worldly magic paintings/pictures, and the whole goal of the game is to interpret them and invent scenes with the other players. There are many other aspects which I won't get into here, but suffice to say that it's definitely one of my favorite games. There was also a game called Blitz (not Dutch Blitz) and one called jungle speed and many others. My Christmas list has gotten a little longer since then. 

That evening we played a game that the counsellors had been working on for a while. It was a three-teams type of game with various different phases/levels. I believe it was called "c'est qui qui c'est donc?!?" which is utter gibberish for those who can't tell.  

It had levels similar to charades, karaoke, trivia, what's in the bag, etc. and it was quite fun. My team came second, but in the first round we were first. After that really long game we all went to bed. I think it was about 11pm at that point. 

Thursday was the second to last ski day, and I was with Laurent. I was really starting to get the hang of the whole skiing thing now, but still was going fairly slowly and taking little breaks on the side of the tracks which was good because Laurent had an injured leg. I actually managed the big scary hill I couldn't do that first day, and I was pretty happy. It didn't actually seem that hard. We met with everyone at Flaine again and I ordered an iced tea while I waited. Lunch was average, and in the afternoon we did some blue runs in and around Flaine. Nothing too challenging. Again about four hours of skiing that day. 

Nothing special that evening, and dinner was fine. Went to bed at around 22:30. 

Friday was the very last day of skiing in this camp. I was with Yanu, the leader who normally accompanied the Saturday ski bus from Revel. We planned to do the longest run on the mountain at the end of that day, a blue 14km run by the name of cascades. After cascades we would end up in Sixt and would have to take a bus to get back to Vercland. I was looking forward to it, as the run went through a national park and it was always peaceful and beautiful. 

We started out slow again but I quickly sped up until I was not taking nearly as many breaks. We ate lunch at the Grandes Platieres under a clear blue sky and with a view of Mont Blanc. I made a little snow cat but it quickly got stepped on. I took a lot of pictures, and then we took a big group picture with all of us. Unfortunately there was a slight accident and like dominoes we all fell over into the snow. Clem hurt her knee a bit but she's alright now. 

After lunch we did a bunch of blue (and red!) runs above Flaine until we were ready to take cascades from the very top to the very bottom. We also did a sort of half pipe thing which was really fun. I basically had no problems skiing during the 4+ runs and lifts. 

You could say I'm actually an average to moderately good skier right now. 

We started our long voyage down the mountain at about 3:30. It was very nice and peaceful, until the last bit. By that point there was only snow on the track and nowhere else, and even the snow we did have was starting to turn into dirt, rocks and mud. There was one particularly nasty patch where I ended up falling face-first in to the dirty snow. My mask bashed against my left eye and left a bruise next to the eyelid, and I jarred my neck a little, but I got up without too much problem. After that I knew I was starting to get tired and went really slowly and carefully. There was a section of about 100m where we had to take off our skis and carry them, and then put them on again when we got to the snow once more. It was slow work, but eventually we made it to the bus stop at Sixt. There was practically no snow here, and the only skiers were the ones waiting for the bus after doing the same thing we had just done. We caught the last bus (17:30) and got back to Vercland just before snack ended. I was so tired, I took a nap before dinner. All together that day I did about 6 hours of skiing, but I went faster (and stayed in control) than I ever had in my life. 

I think we just played more board games that evening, but I don't really remember. 

Then next day we packed up and left at about 11:30, ate lunch at macdonald's on the way back and finally returned home. I can't remember the last time I ate at macdonald's. 

I was very happy to be back in my own bed that night. 

P.S.

We just got back a test and a lab write-up in chemistry. I got a 9.5 out of 20 on the test, and I didn't study at all nor was I present for 90% of the chapter in class. So it was mostly guesswork backed up by my general science knowledge. I didn't even have a calculator. The lab I did by myself and got an 18/20. Pretty good marks, I think :)

18

March 7 

Me, Mathilde, and Eloi decided to sleep in an igloo. 

It was an idea that Mathilde had wanted to do for awhile now, and it just so happened that Eloi and his parents had spent the afternoon a couple of days ago building one. Luckily it hadn't melted. 

First Mathilde and I put together two large backpacks with every article of warm clothing we could find, and two sleeping bags each. Then we put on ten thousand layers, three pairs of socks each etc. and marched out the door to the waiting car. We also brought our instruments: mandolin and guitar. 

After driving to Freydières, we unloaded and started walking down a trail with all of our stuff, and dragging sleds full of firewood behind us. Tattooine the dog ran back and forth along the path from person in front to the back very fast. 

After about half an hour we got to the igloo and dropped our stuff. We quickly set to work building a fire, as the sun was swiftly departing. Eloi's mum and dad went to gather firewood and pine branches, while us three stayed and made little snow seats around the flattened snow fire pit. Eloi cut snow blocks with a saw, Mathilde carried them and placed them on the ground where they should go, and I packed snow in between the layers and on the ground to keep it from falling over when sat on. It was a pretty good system if'n I do say so meself. 

When they returned, we made a bed of pine branches, placed a metal sheet on top, and made a fire on the metal sheet (it was completely dark at this point by the way). Next we placed three sticks in a tee-pee arrangement over the fire, and suspended a medium-sized caldron thing by a chain from the apex. There were about seven snow seats that were made in a circle around the fire. 

When I write it down it sounds like it didn't take that long, but it actually took about an hour and a half to go from snow to flattened snow with seats and fire and caldron. 

The next part is the yummiest. We all sat round the fire and cheese was dumped into the caldron. As it was melting, various spices where added and it was stirred vigorously. 

Next bread was provided along with fondue sticks, and we dipped the bread into the melted cheese and ate it on our snow seats in the freezing cold night. It was at once a tasty and messy experience, because the cheese strings left after you pulled your bread from the pot froze almost immediately, leaving you stuck with a very long frozen cheese string attaching you to the pot. It was super fun though. 

Later on, Mathilde's parents and sisters arrived and we got out our instruments and played some jigs and stuff. I played melody, Mathilde played chords. Olivier and almost everyone else started dancing as well (partly to keep warm, I think) and with a synchronized choreography even. 

Then it got really late and people got really tired (myself included) and so the Croisats left, Eloi's parents went to their tent with the dog and Mathlide Eloi and I prepared for a night in an igloo. Basically we covered ourselves with as much fabric as we could. 

I got to sleep in the middle, but unfortunately my head was slightly lower than my feet, so I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep. And I was very squished. I wasn't cold, though. 

Even though I didn't get a lot of sleep, the next morning Mathilde said she'd slept quite well and was feeling quite refreshed. We ate breakfast (hot chocolate and bread) as we watched the sun rise over the mountain. It was really beautiful. 

Then Olivier came in the car to pick us up and we drove home. It was a fun thing to do, but next time I would try to get a better night's sleep. 

17

Feb something- March 1st, 2nd

March 1, 16:00

Well since my last blog post I haven't done too much. I went to school for a week (which went by really fast) I got 18/20 on an English assignment (I cannot spell to save my life) and I wrote a history test, and a life science test. I get all the assignments in school now, and for march 18 there's a chemistry test and a monologue for French that's due. There's also an essay I should write for French, and some math exercises due at some point. Anyway, so lots of homework and somehow I can't just ignore it, even though it doesn't count for anything official back home. 

I haven't gotten really far on my work form home, which is bad because I've already been here a month (I can't believe it's already been a month. The days and weeks go by fairly quickly!). 

Today is the first day of a 2 week vacation here in France. The last class yesterday was nearly uncontainable, as everyone was really excited for the break. The second week of break I'm going on a week-long ski trip. The first week I plan to relax, because skiing is hard work. 

I woke up at 11am today and wolfed down some food and hopped in the car with Mathilde and Clémentine. We drove down to a parking lot in Revel where the bus that would take us up to Chamrousse (the ski village) was waiting. Currently I am sitting on said bus with my ski helmet in my lap on my way back down. It's 16:40. 

I am getting steadily better and more confident at skiing, but I'm still by far the worst skiier in the bus. I can now go down a slope using minimal snow-ploughs, and mostly zig-zags. Anything really steep though, and I get really scared and that's when I lose control and slam head first into a snow drift. It's still fun though, and I've improved since my last time. 

I'm also sitting here feeling really hungry. Note to self: bring food and water next time. Granted, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare this time. 

This evening there's a soirée, "Carnaval". Everyone (youth) dresses up and goes dancing. We did our costumes last night with Emma and Kestrel. Mathilde is going to be batman, I think Emma's being superman, Kestrel found this great colourful clown costume in Mathilde's dress up stuff (of which there is a lot), and I was waffling between gypsy (because of all the colourful cloth at my disposal) or detective inspector type thing. In the end I choose detective. It's slightly Sherlock-esque with a long dark coat, striped scarf and fedora hat. I also wear a shiny blue-silver mask. 

Well plans change, and it turned out I was so exhausted after skiing that I basically when right to bed and consequently missed the Carnaval. It's ok though, I got a lot of much needed sleep, and I've decided I'm going to wear my costume to school at some point instead. 

On Sunday March 2nd, we went on a 3 hour snowshoeing trip. We went to the same place as last time, but this time we made it our goal to have a picnic lunch at the little cabin near the top of the mountain. So we set out. We were with another family who was a friend of theirs, and they had a dog Tattooine. She was the same breed as Taiga (except brown-red instead of black-white), who we also brought along. Taiga, unfortunately, is very territorial and aggressive with other dogs. They got in a huge fight before we left, so we put Taiga at the front towing two sleds, and Tattooine stayed at the back. We had to make sure Taiga never saw the other dog even once, it was that bad. 

Eventually after two hours we arrived at the cabin. Everyone was really tired and hot, so we settled down in front of the cabin (it smelled funny inside. It was a tiny shepherd's cabin, with a small table and some candles and pots inside). Pretty soon we all got really cold, from sitting on the snow and not moving for awhile, so we put our coats and mitts and such back on again. 

Lunch was cheese and bread and a tomato and ham and tea. The tea was great and warm and the best thing in the world at the time. 

To get down the mountain again, Mathilde, Nadia, and I got in toboggans. Mathilde in one, me and Nadia in the other. We attached Taiga to Mathilde's sled and she promptly went speeding down the path. Nadia and I followed, and every so often we saw the tracks of a sled that had fallen off the side and been pulled up again, or that had stopped suddenly or gone over a bump (those would've been the tracks of the sled with Mathilde and Taiga). Our sled was a little more controlled, with me pushing and using my hands to stop us from skidding off the path, and Nadia happily relaxing in front of me. It was a real workout for me: I had to use my stomach muscles to keep from falling backwards, and at the same time use my arms and gloved hands to direct and push the sled. We went super fast at times, and eventually caught up to Mathilde. It took us about an hour to descend. 

I slept well that night.