thursday we went to an apartment thing set up for our school of different themed apartments, it was the biggest fail ever including basically only pastis which is impossible for anyone to drink and mainly walking around in the cold trying to find places that were too full to let anyone in, needless to say, went to bed early and got re-sick after all the cold :(
friday was hectic trying to get ready for my trip, couldnt take out the money i tried to take out, the sporting store i had heard of no longer exists and we are in the south of france so there are no sporting stores that have swish pants or gloves for snow or anything i would need to go skiing! i spent the whole day looking to find nothing and then barely having time to pack before taking a bus to get to the gare routière on time to meet the group!
however, i got there just in time and we had a 2 and a half hour bus ride to chabanon, a ski area in the french alps! on the way we talked about expressions in different languages, school systems, the popularity of sports… aka the usual topics really and tried to sleep some too. getting there around 10 we just hung out in the room and chatted before resting for the next long day!
got up really early saturday for the most disappointing breakfast of possibly all time. i really like breakfast, a lot, and especially a continental breakfast because you know its going to be a buffet of all your favorite stuff and you get to chose etc, NO. we got A piece of bread, like a portion of baguette, and coffee and that is literally all. it was so embarrassing (for them and for us) when they brought out a little more bread as people charged for the table grabbing as many pieces as they could for themselves and their friends. not ok
anyway, afterwards we went to get our equipment which was super NOT expensive and fun and intimidating to start thinking, WOAH we are actuallly doingg this! it was cool that it was a lot of our 'first times' skiing. i wore leggings, with jeggings over and just a shirt/hoodie/and my northface, it was really warm and sunny! sunglasses and sunscreen were needed
i first walked up the bunny hill and had a friend help me put the skis on, but he failed to tell me how to do anythign before so as soon as they were on i slid all the way down the hill and fell to be able to stop haha what a good start! but after i learned to 'pizza' and more importantly how to turn, it wasnt really too bad at all. the bunny hill was like a big practice hill with kinda 3 different levels, one that was basically long and flat, second was actually somewhat steep but short and went into the flat one, and the highest was even more steep then obviously going into the second and first. there was a ski lift that kinda pulled people up individually (not like a chair one) that brought us to these three stages, as pictured
every time i skied down the second or third hill it was seriously so much adrenaline, whether having to dodge little kids, the 'slow down' sign, just the speed of it, or just to not totally crash or spin out at the bottom… every time i stopped it was like i felt so relieved and my legs would be shaking. the more i built up this courage though the less i fell, and overall i really didnt even fall too much! Once going down the hill i had to bail before hitting a kid and lost a ski, and sometimes at the bottom id fall trying to stop cus i would spin out, but overall i got to the highest third part pretty quickly saturday and was so excited! i did a lot of turns down the hill to slow me down but could do it without falling and got better at dodging people too! Heres a video of me skiing the first day, i have a bright blue hood and black everywhere else… i think its the first time i went down the bigger hill so i am kinda goin cautious haha enjoy
but it was truly addicting, halfway through the day we stopped for sandwiches but continued on until the lifts stopped at 5. we went to the store and got groceries as there was a RACLETTE machine in our room… we bought potatos, cheese, ham, and bread and made a little dinner in our room! it was perfect
we all took a nap before going out for night ski, which turned out not to be as fun as it sounds, the slopes were SOOO icy that it was too difficult and scary as if you fell you were bound to have a huge bruise, and even experienced people were falling, soo i only did a few little runs and just hung out with everyone making snow angels, looking at the stars and just soaking in the mountains.
that night after getting back there was only freezing water left so we all skipped taking showers, gross i know… most people went to go party in another room but i was pretty much dying of exhaustion, partial sickness, and muscle aches so decided to skip to be able to 'profiter bien'. best idea ive ever had!
still woke up the next morning very tired and VERRRY sore, and little did my body know what it had coming for the day! again with the crappy breakfast and got outside by 9:30 to be one of the first on the 'fresh snow' again, turned out not to be so fresh, it was still very icy but i just went ahead anyway… i went the whole morning without falling from all three levels, it was suddenly so much easier, i didnt care to go fast/do less turns, just kinda bolted down the hills more and could control enough not to hit people! so my friend bri and sarah wanted to go on trails and i decided, ok what the heck!
the first one we did was intimidating at first but done again without any falls! very narrow and shaded by trees, very pretty and kind of short! definitely different than the bunny hill haha but we were all so proud that we headed off to find other Green trails! next one we did was a little scarier with some steep drops and sharp turns and still narrow paths with more skiers so we had to be a little more focused, again did SO well! all of us! it was awesome, one of the turn/drops made me lose my stomach i went so fast down it!!!! but it was sooo exhilarating :)
at the end of this trail was a real ski lift with the chair the one i was picturing in the first place so we decided to see where it would take us… i could NOT believe the view it was just insane, the lift took us to the very top of the mountain so it was a pretty long and beautiful ride, behind us we could see the little villages in the bottom of the valley and below were all the hiking trailes and ski trailes with prints of people past and anywhere we looked it looked just as beautiful as this:
it was so peaceful and quiet and…sigh… just wow
btw… the whole time were going up im like 'i am not afraid of heights really but this is terrifying!' and it truly was, the guy behind us though kept calling at us and pointing but we didnt understand… LATER to find out it was because we hadnt put down the protection bar! woooppss could have DIED, didnt, but now i know why i was so friggin scared just dangling up there!
we get to the top to meet up with all our friends and stopped to take a bunch of pictures! the view was amazing, and heartstopping! i was like… uhhhh how are we getting back down to the bottom of this mountain because there is no way there is a non STEEP way to do it! but there was a green slope so we went ahead! there were definately some tricky turns and hills but it was all fairly open so plenty of room for everyone! i only fell twice, once hitting the ski of someone else, and the other cus i went over a iced over rocky part instead of the more snowy part! haha but overall pretty good, afterward i wass soo tired but they convinced me to go again… so we did and this time no falls and soo much easier/more fun
we went up the ski lift a third tim this time to go down a different green that would bring us back to where the cabins are! i ask my friend teresa if shes sure its no harder than the other and she promises its not, so we daringly go on ahead! some verrryyy narrow places, but very pretty but then i see that sarah and becca are stopped up ahead. they call to me saying 'lindsey were going to have to get a helicopter to pick us up i think'… my heart stops… as i approach them i see that i cant see any land past them, but once i get right next to them i see there is a HUGE extremely steep and bumpy hill lying below us… uhh HEART ATTACK
so i flat out go on saying 'idk what were going to do but that is NOT HAPPENING, like literally no way, in my life, that is just not happening… teresa are you retarded? this is not a green slope this is impossible' in face we even saw some people choosing to take skis off and walk down cautiously! it really was the only possible way to go though so, we had no choice
sarah went down and made it after many turns, becca went down and totally bit it; skis flying off and all!; so i went next, ugh just retyping this is making my heart speed up, but i went down with many turns and zigzagging as much as possible but couldnt avoid building up some speed, however i finally made it all the way down WITHOUT falling and then just had to take huge breaths as i could not get over how much adrenaline it took to do it PHEWWW
becca was hillarious with her irish accent saying 'that was seriously difficult' and then deciding to slide on her butt down the next smaller hill, almost getting run over by other skiers but she didnt care cus she was gonna do it 'her way' hahaha we all sat on a flat area overlooking the valley to calm down after the descend to look at the map and realize it was part of a red slope, and the green was blocked off! we had just done a red slope… ooomg, luckily from where we were we could continue on a, now, much easier green slope to get back home. after that nothing felt scary:
we did another green slope on the other side of the mountain that we took a super steep lift up to but had a nice trail down, and i finished with 4 or 5 runs down the third level of the bunny hill but this time flying down so that my eyes had tears from the wind, sounds cliché but true, and easily dodging people and stopping at the bottom without any fear but just enjoyment… i didnt wanna stop i was addicting, but after a good several last runs it was time as we were on schedule and i took of my skis until who knows when the next time will be!
went in…SHOWERED… ate a sandwich (jambon cru avec les oeufs et salade) made by my mom here on the balcony and just tried to soak in how great it was… we then had to pack up, wash dishes, and head out… didnt wanna say bye but did and after what felt like a long ride home i had to walk home with my duffle and head back out for the superbowl!
we went to a local bar that was playing it, it was an ok time nothing to grand but im glad i watched it… unfortunatly they did not have commercials playing but the halftime show was sweet and just talkin with people was fun, got home at 5am our time though, ugghhh and died after haha
this makes 1/4 of my time here already over!
i love hearing from you all so keep it up, every little comment n message makes me feel at home
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