School and The Alps

So I'm just starting the third week of classes, and things are starting to make a little more sense. Everything is in French, which is nice, but sometimes it's hard to understand things. In all the French classes I've ever taken in the US, when we didn't understand a vocab word we could always just ask the prof and s/he would tell us in English. However, in my class here, we have students from all over: China, Japan, Croatia, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and lots of other smaller countries that I don't remember. So, when we don't understand something, our professor can't just respond in English. Although most of the students understand a little bit of English, the classrooms are French only. Because of this though, we're learning to work around the language barriers instead of just relying on other English speakers. Another interesting thing about having so many different people in classes is that it seems like everyone has a very unique opinion on things. We talked about superstitions the other day and I was explaining to people the bad luck of walking under a ladder, opening umbrellas inside, and the #13. Most of the other students thought that the #13 thing was ridiculous, especially when I told them that there is usually not a 13th floor in buildings. One of the Chinese girls said that the #4 is unlucky for them because it's pronounced the same way as the word death. Also, Chinese people apparently wear white to funerals, and black to weddings. Hearing the differences in people's cultures was really interesting for me. It is kind of hard to understand some people's French though, because the accents from the different parts of the world are crazy.

All in all, school is going pretty well. My grammar class is kind of kicking me in the butt, but my professor reassured me today that it will get better and I can't expect myself to be perfect right away.

Both my host brothers are on vacation from school, so the apartment is a little quiet. I couldn't figure out why it felt different until I realized that it was because Léon hadn't been running around the apartment or complaining about having to do homework. Dinner was also a lot different without those two around. Usually they talk and argue, but when it was just me and my parents it got quiet sometimes. My dad really likes making fun of my French, too. They don't understand why I can understand it fine, and I can write it pretty well, but when it comes to speaking I'm not as good. I tried to explain that we didn't speak as much when we learned it in high school, but they didn't really get it. They have faith that I'll keep improving though, so that's good. Also, my host mom said she ate octopus today for lunch... too bad I missed out on that one! Ha. She said that some night she's going to make oysters, snails, shrimp, and other various seafood. I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy that dinner.

So, the French people really enjoy striking. I experienced my first national strike the other day, but I wasn't effected by it that much. The trams ran every half hour instead of every five minutes, and fortunately I caught one right when I needed it. I got to school and the front gate was closed, but there was a small door open where students were handing out fliers about the strike. It's a pretty common thing here, I guess, but I thought it was crazy that students could just not go to class. On my way home, the tram just randomly stopped and the driver said that we had to get off because of the strikes. We all got off and started walking home, which was rather annoying, but then another tram magically showed up. I'm not sure how effective the strikes are here, because they warn people ahead of time, but oh well.

Ok, now onto this past weekend: Ski trip to the Alps!
About 12 of us from the language and culture track went on the trip with about 20 of the integrated students. We loaded the bus and had no idea what to expect because the people in the office really never tell us anything. All we knew is we were going somewhere in the Alps for a few days and we had a hotel and food provided. Six hours later, after driving through rain that turned into big thick snow, we made it to our "hotel." Turns out by hotel they meant hostel. Oh well. I stayed in a very small room with Danielle, Jessica, and Huston. We basically had a long hallway for a room, and a moldy shower that leaked onto the floor. Oh, and they forgot to tell us that we needed to bring our own towels... needless to say, we were pretty surprised when we got to our rooms. We got over it quickly and even though it was midnight, we went for a short walk in the snow outside. There was more snow than I've ever seen in my life, and I feel like that must be a lot after the one Halloween blizzard in Minnesota. We stayed up too late talking, but ended up finally falling asleep around 3:30am since we knew we had to wake up at 8:00 the next day.

One of the most entertaining parts of the trip happened the next morning... after the alarm went off, Jess wanted to come wake me up so she came over and bounced a little on my bed. It was then that we discovered just how classy our hotel was. My mattress was only being held up by a small piece of wood, which broke immediately when Jess sat down. I felt like it was some sort of sign that I was definitely going to break a leg.

Once we got out on the slopes, those of us who are beginners stumbled around on the bunny hill trying to figure out what exactly we were doing there. I went on a field trip in elementary school to Buck Hill, but the Alps are a bit different. I didn't fall at all until we took the chairlift to the Blue/Green slope. I thought I was doing fine until I turned a corner and discovered that I really don't know how to ski. I totally wiped out, skis flew off, poles went flying, and I landed in some sort of a mess on the ground. Miraculously, it didn't hurt at all. I think it's because my host mom gave me a snow suit with extra padding. I did feel pretty awesome on the slopes in the snow suit, especially with the aviators...
Jess has a picture of me in all my glory on the ground after falling, I'll have to get it from her and add it.

After the day was over, we headed back to the hostel for a party. It was basically just weird music and drinks at the bar, but it was fun. We were all pretty tired, I went to bed around midnight to try and get rest for skiing on Sunday.

Despite the fact that I'd hardly ever skied before, Jess somehow convinced me to take the chair lift to the top of the mountain. After having almost died on that blue slope the day before, I had second thoughts, but the thought of the view from the top and Jess' persistence got me to go. It was a pretty long chair lift ride, which was beautiful in itself, and after awhile we finally reached what I thought was the top. Here's a picture from about 1/2 way up on the chair lift:


We got off the chair lift (without falling, thankfully), and then I figured out that we then needed to take a T bar ski lift to the TOP of the mountain. I was petrified that I would fall off the T bar, but eventually made it to the top after a stressful ride. Once I got off, I was completely in awe. The view was really incredible. I think I may have fallen in love with the mountains. The direction that I took this photo is the direction we skied in to start out... yes, it does look like it just drops off into nothing... yes, I did fall about 20 seconds into the run.


It took Jess and I an hour to get down the mountain. We obviously weren't skiing fast, but it was still a very good time. My legs were very sore after we got to the bottom, and I was relieved to take off my skis and walk around. I only fell four times on the way down, and none of them were major wipe outs... just minor bumps. I was pretty proud of myself, since I've hardly ever skied before, but I can honestly say that I really have no desire to ski again anytime soon... I've had my fill for a few years.

We were all pretty exhausted after the day, so the bus ride home was pretty quiet. Most of us slept or read the first stretch. We stopped for dinner, which was provided, and it was tuna sandwiches...... for those of you that don't know, I HATE tuna. Oh well though, I ate half of it, I was hungry. We got back to Montpellier around 930 and I was very happy to get back home to a bed that had a mattress that was thicker than a dictionary and that hopefully won't break upon impact. I also came home to all clean laundry. My mom did all of my laundry while I was gone, which was super sweet of her. She also folded all of my underwear into little squares and bunched all of my socks. Oh, and she also ironed everything because they hang dry everything here and she doesn't like when things are wrinkled. I'm just hoping my host brothers were gone when she was hanging up my very colorful underwear in the living room.

My camera died on the ski trip, but Jess has some really awesome pictures that I'll get from her and post on here later, just fyi.

Phew, long post again. Anyway, hope all is well back home, enjoy your snow and freezing temperatures!! Miss you all!
-Kelli