Sunday, January 7, 2007

I don’t ski like the Europeans do…

So, last week, Nanda, JR, Jason and I rented a car and drove to the town of Clermont-Ferrand where Nanda used to live. It was awesome!!! We stayed with her friend Yvan (eee-von) and he made us a fabulous, frenchified, five course meal complete with champagne. I almost died I was so happy. Plus his bathroom had a door on it, so that was just the icing on the cake.
The next day, Nanda drove Jason and I up into the mountain in our lawnmower type European rental car (it was a little scary). Jason and I went skiing at the Super Besse. I actually got our lift tickets in French, so I was very proud of myself. It was absolutely gorgeous. The day was clear and sunny and there was actually snow! On my first run, we went on the blue because it had a ski lift and not just one of the ropes that you grab to take you up which we were scared of (rightfully so). I ran into a french man who was stopped into the middle of the slope. Instead of being calm and trying to avoid him, I screamed a mixture of expletives and SORRY as I ran into him and bent his ski pole. He was not perturbed in the least. He just said, “whoa,” and skied me over to the side, since at that point I was on my butt, between his legs and tangled up in my own skis. Good work team. Then, I decided to warm up on the green slope with the ropes that take you up. Well, I tried to sit on the rope (don’t ask me why) and then fell and then forgot to let go and got dragged fifteen feet with the Frenchies yelling “LLEEEEEETTT GOO!” So, after that skiing was a breeze, except for the heart attack I almost had when Jason talked me into going onto a black slope. I didn’t walk down, but I did basically slide down on my side and scrape all the moguls off, as I went. There was plus de snowplowing going on.
After that Nanda’s friends had a big party where all her French friends came over to Yvan’s house and we had a gallet which is kind of like a king cake. It has a little toy inside and whoever gets it is the King or Queen. Since I am the youngest, I had to go underneath the table and call out everyone’s names, so that the gallet was given out randomly. The boys thought this was very funny. In the end, it’s not random, since I ended up with the toy, but I got to wear a Bob L’eponge (the French version of sponge bob square pants) crown and I was very excited. All in all, it was a good trip!

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