Samoëns

Wow, the Alps are pretty much as cool as theyre repped to be. I went to this adorable little ski town called Samoëns in the French Alps, leaving Paris thursday night and coming back sunday night -tanned, happy and exhausted.

First of all, the french actually have days of the year designated for strikes. So French. So, if it hadnt been for the quick work on Bertrands part we would have had to cancel our trip due to our train cancelation. Instead we rode in style- a huuuge "magic" bus with 15 beds and two couch areas to hang out. So nice. We were a tiny group of eleven so I feel like we all got to know each other pretty well over the spanse of the weekend, which I guess is what generally happens when you have the combination of close quarters and long drives (slightly reminiscent of my crew days.)

I was nervous cuz it had been several years (sadly) since I'd actually strapped into my bindings, but the first day wasnt too rough. On the contrary, it felt so good to be back on a board! I dont even pretend to be a dare devil, but just riding is one of the most liberating feelings Ive ever experienced- can't get enough! Suprisingly, only 3 of us out of the 11 were snowboarders. Apparently skiing is making a huge comeback (who knew?!) I guess what is really becoming popular is telemark skiing, a.k.a. people trying to achieve thighs of steel. Id love to try it someday but it has to be just incredibly hard- youre basically doing lunges the entire time. Ouch! So anyways, of us three snowboarders, one of them was Bertrand- our activities coordinator- and he actually used to be pro! He has also gone heli-boarding and all this other intense stuff. Needless to say, he was amazing. Even cooler, he gave me some advice on my stance so that actually really helped me out.

We stayed at l'auberge Savoyarde, which is kind of like a bed and breakfast.. and they made our dinner. But it was perfect because we could just get cleaned up and go downstairs and dinner was served. Saturday night we were all a little bit more comfortable with each other and we just sat around the dinner table for hours chatting and laughing with each other. It was just such a fun night!

Hard to believe but it is already the weekend again! This weekend is actually a suprise- I am packing an overnight bag tonight and meeting my friends at the train station tomorrow morning. For a birthday present they bought me a train ticket for a special weekend but they won't give me details until I have to actually have my train ticket in hand!! How great are they?!?! I have amazing friends. The only details they gave me was to bring my carte de sejour (visa, so we are leaving france??), pack light, have comfortable enough shoes to walk around all day but still look cute. And that is all they will tell me haha I guess we will see in the morning!!