News

Hello Family and Friends,

First, I will write a blog soon about my winter vacations. As many of you know, I had my wonderful boyfriend Jon for a stay, as well as my sister Lizzie and her husband Aaron. Details soon!

I wanted to give everyone a concrete update that I have finally found out when I'm finished with classes. I will be at half time in March, and then all the way finished on April 1st. I haven't made any solid plans yet, but the idea is that I will travel for a few weeks before heading home, including a visit with Mom and Aunt Liz. Maybe I'll be home in time for some birthday cake in May. ;)

In any case, I am happy to have finally this long-awaited news, and I'm refining my last lesson plans for the rest of the semester. I am happy to be able to see you all again before June or July, since that seemed entirely too long from now. I miss you! This year has been great so far, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me for the next part!

Talk to you all soon,

Sarah

Weekend du Ski !

I just got back from a great three-day trip to Super-Besse, a ski station about an hour away from here. I went with the Rotary and had a great time! Photos to come soon!

Here were the attendees: 15 exchange students, more than half from South America (Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina), one German, and 3 North Americans (2 Canadians, 1 Californian). Two French kids--one the son of a Rotarian in attendance and the other an "Outbound" who did his exchange in Mexico 2 years ago. Over the weekend we had a total of 8 or 10 Rotarians, about 6 of whom stayed all three days. Plus me, and Aude, another girl from Rotaract (the young Rotary) and we were a complete party of 30!

The weather was incredible, and it was actually so warm that, at first arrival, I was worried if we would be able to ski at all (no snow in sight.) But, the ski station crews blanket the slopes every night with 30cm of fabricated snow. They use huge plows/snow machines and work from 5 in the evening until the wee hours of the morning! Incredible, huh? It has to get to at least negative 1 or 2 degrees celsius at night in order to make the snow, but the nights were chilly enough for that. 

I was worried because I didn't have a snow jacket or snow pants. But my clothes were perfect! Seriously, my little wind pants/sweats/running tights, heavy socks, and layered jackets system worked really well! I was actually too warm the first morning we went out, but that afternoon I ditched a layer and even left my under-armor out entirely the second day. 

The snow was amazing the first morning, and I had fun the first three hours getting readapted to skiing (it had been three years!) Thankfully, the snow was at its best when I was at my least-confident! I skiied with Aude and a Rotarian gentlemen, Jean Bernard. At first, I was pretty shaky, but felt great by the end of the morning.

Back to the lodge for lunch and a quick rest, then we hit the slopes again in the afternoon. The snow had melted and either refrozen (when it was on the shaded part of the mountain) or "de la soupe!" That soupy snow was better, though I admit I had a really hard time with "les bosses" which are the small bumps created by hundreds of descending skiers on a melting snow. I had a quick lesson with Jean Bernard, but didn't get the chance to practice too much on the humps before Aude and I hit a huge ice patch on a red slope. All of a sudden I realized I was skiing with my boot! Down, about 2 meters away, my ski drifted slowly to the bottom of the slope. A French monsieur kindly offered to hand it to me, but in the process, slipped on the ice and careened further down the slope. Mono-skied and very untrained in the arts of slalom, I butt-slid down the 10  meters to the monsieur. He still had to launch the ski uphill in my direction in order to get it to me, but get it I did. After 5 fruitless minutes of trying to get reattached to my skis on a very steep icy slope, I gave up (my dignity) and butt-slid the rest of the way to the bottom with both skis in hand. 

It wore me out! 

The second day was much better, and I finished the afternoon with a confident three runs down the slalom hill that had been a race slope the day before and one quick, non-stop "descente" from the very top of the mountain to the ski village at the bottom. The drive back was as beautiful as it had been on the way up. Reminded me of a less steep and more forested western Wyoming. Oh, plus little churches perched on the top of cliff-plateaus barely wide enough to hold them. Incredible. 

We ate well, too! Aligot, an Auvergne specialty, galette des rois (King's cake), sausage, lots of bread, and a little wine. Saturday night, each exchange student sang their national anthem. I sang with Aubrey, the American, our national anthem. No joke--ours was the best. It was funny, but we were not at all nervous singing that hymn. I could tell that despite our lack in vocal talent, we both sang very strong and clear... much better than the others! Perhaps ours is easier to sing confidently since it is so stately and involves a lot less trumpetting than Chile, for example :)

Lastly, we got to see some amazing cultural things in the evenings. This weekend was the 50th anniversary of the Super-Besse ski station. The first night, we did a torch-led walking tour through the medieval town of Besse, complete with actors in period-costumes telling us the story of Queen Margot, her stay in Besse, of Catherine de Medicis, of the Charter of Besse, and of daily life in the little village, all with a little humor. Fireworks, wall-projections, hot wine, a light snowfall, and the evening was perfect. My favorite part was at the end of the show when the actors gathered to perform a dance/ski mime as two golden skis--a golden dove painted between them--rose ominously behind them. Very amusing.

The second night was a concert with a band, and two English singers who did Michael Jackson impressions pretty well. 

All in all, the weekend was incredible. My skiing vastly improved, and I was invited to spend a week skiing with Aude and her family at the end of January! Now only if I can get my school to agree to rearrange my classes for that week... Wish me luck! How cool would that be to go skiing again? In any case, I will remember this always as a wonderful weekend of skiing on fake snow!

Love you all, and a bientot with more news!