Monday, February 9, 2009

Ski Trip to the Alps!

We got back late last night from a weekend of skiing in the Alps! My program organized everything, and we stayed in a little town called Pelvoux. It was the most beautiful place I've ever been, our little auberge was surrounded on all sides by mountains covered in the most snow I've seen in my whole life. We got our equipment, and headed to the slopes. The morning started off a bit rough...me and my friend took the ski lift to the "medium" slope. Neither of us had ever really skiied before, but we decided we would probably be alright. Turns out a medium slope in the Alps is like a triple quadrouple black diamond at home (at least to me). To sum up, I lost a ski and had to get a french man to help me put it back on, i slid several hundred yards down a slope on my back in full view of everyone on the ski lift, got stuck in a snow drift about as tall as me and needed another french man to yank me out by my skiis, then attempted the last hill and wiped out once again. Thankfully, the last wipeout occured in front of a chair lift so i think they took pity on me and my friend (who had about the same luck as me) and let us take it the rest of the way down. At the time I feared for my life, but looking back its a reallllly good story to tell! and i like to think my habit of falling saved me from falling over the edge of several cliffs. One wrong move on one of these slopes would send you right over the edge. After that morning however, we found the bunny hill and stayed there the rest of the weekend. And after being scared out of our minds on the big slopes, the bunny hill seemed like a breeze and I actually was able to do pretty well. We took the ski lift up again the next day but only to take some amazing pictures of the area and we came straight back down on the lift. It was such a fun weekend, i wish the pictures could do more justice to how everything looked in person! And thankfully i survived without any broken bones, just a lot of sore muscles.
In other news, in typical french fashion my school is currently on strike. I have most of my classes through my actual program, bu the class I take with other french students at the university is postponed until further notice. Needless to say, all of us americans arent used to anything like this, students and techers are both striking for different reasons and hand out pamphlets about rallys and things all over campus. The nice thing is, for now I dont have class on tuesday! Im not sure how students here ever graduate on time, but for now im enjoying the little break!

1 comment:

  1. I would kill to ski in the alps. KILL. You don't know how lucky you are. Or maybe I'm just yearning for the other climate extreme, since my shoulders are sunburned from snorkelling all day.

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