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.