Who learns to ski in the French Alps?

Last Friday at 8am I boarded a bus with 28 other American students from NUIG and one Irish leader, an adorable tiny little Senior names Yvonne. After about four hours we arrived in Dublin, from which our flight left around 2. We landed in Eindoven, Netherlands an hour later. We then waited for another bus, this time a double decker with a bar halfway filled with Dutch and Spanish students. We were on that for 14 hours through the night (stopping in Luxembourg for dinner - how exciting) until 8am on Saturday at which point we finally arrived in the glorious and beautiful French town of Les Deus Alpes. The mountains were unreal - I have never seen such a landscape before.

We had orientation on little to no sleep and then went to town to explore and get some food since we couldn't get into our rooms until 5. It was beautiful out, insane blue sky and insane white mountains, a great pair.

We couldn't ski the first day, so we went to bed early after going to the pub at the resort for a little bit. I lived in a four-man with Meaghan and two people we met on the bus, Chris from Missouri and Jenn from Canisius in Buffalo, which was cool. We all got along really well and had a lot of roommate bonding time.

The trip for me has been the most challenging thing since I've come abroad. All my other trips have been for fun, kind of touch and go, see and do what you want, go to the beach, party, visit friends -- then I go to the Alps and yes there is an aspect to seeing the scenes and meeting new people and partying, but Meaghan had me out on the slopes at 9am the first day. I guess I didnt realize it, but when you learn to ski, you just go. You learn the basics (don't cross your skis, how to start and stop and turn, etc.) and then you just fly down a steep ass hill. I cried at the top of my first run, a green, which is the easiest, since I literally had just learned how to put skis on and get on and off the chair lift without falling, but I manned up and got all the way down without falling once! It was an amazing feeling.

I am not normally challenged in any physical aspect aka I don't like to work out, so to be presented with intense mountain sides and only one way to go down was really hard at first.

The first day after the green, we went back up and did it again until I was a bit more confident, but then Meg said we should go up higher. So, up we went to 3200 feet where she tricked me into going down a blue, which I thought was a green. I made it down that without falling again!! I was so pumped. The rest of the day consisted of two more blues which took me forever to get down since they were soooo hard and really icy. I fell like three times, but then realized that if I just trusted myself and went a little faster my turns would be smoother and I probably wouldn't fall. So it was a great learning experience.

Day two started with a green but then once I was back into things we took a ten minute gondola ride to the upper most part of the moutain where I then skiied down about 5 or 6 hard blues in a row. I only fell twice and once was not my fault, but a stupid out of control snowboarder's. I learned that if you just look about ten feet in front of you and not at the period sized people at the bottom, you can break it down and eventually make it down. My body was killing after day two, my calves and wrists (from using a stupid t-bar and a stupid rope pull) so I took the third morning off while Meg and Jenn went out. I got to go into town and use the Internet, etc. but by the time I got home for lunch Jenn and Meg were back because there was a literal whiteout on the mountain. It was too unsafe for them to take me up, so we watched Cruel Intentions and hung out instead.

Day four rained, and the entire mountain was closed due to conditions, which sucked, so we couldn't go out at all. We watched Shrek 2 and Crossroads, went into town and just hung out.

I was in bed before midnight every night and loved it. There was a pub crawl one night, a barbecue and sled race another night, chugging contests, dinners, a toga party, etc. We didn't do that much drinking or partying simply because we wanted to be up and out early. Everyone was really nice and got along well, so it was a lot of fun.

By the end of the week, I went down three reds, which is the equivalent of a single black in the U.S. I did these on the last day after a day of rain and snow leaving the mountains covered in about six inches of lovely powder. Meg and Jen have each been skiing for ten years and both said it was the best conditions they have ever skiied on.

So, all in all it was amazing and wonderful and totally great although my birthday began on the bus ride home and was spent mainly in the Eidenhoven airport...oh well. That's why tonight we're doing dinner and then going out.

I have a test tomorrow and two papers due on Friday and then Meg and I go to Amsterdam to meet up with a bunch of friends, do the Anne Frank house, Rembrandt museum, etc. I'm exhausted but it should be great.

Only a month left and then I'm home!