The week of ski (2 March - 10 March 2001)

We began the week of sport Sunday morning with a teacher from the school Intersport. The official ski school in France is the Ecole de ski français but in each village, one finds other schools at cheaper rates. Chuchu screamed the moment she found herself sliding on the skis but I was to scream even more later.

We begin with the duck walk to climb up slopes and basic wedging to descend.

The first ski slope is a gentle one with an electric cord for the climb. Gotta hold on tight to the cord to pull yourself up and I fall several times on my bum. Then you have to get yourself out of the way cos the cord keeps on moving and pple could be coming up behind u.

La première piste: une piste avec une télécorde: quelle fatigue pour les bras! Je suis tombée souvent en plus.

At lunch, we eat our sandwiches but it's really cold once we have stopped exerting ourselves. The gloves and the clothes are all soaked through and we decide to return to the apartment. I take an afternoon nap while the rest leave after a while, esp since Chuchu would only be staying for 2 days. I watch a german film dubbed in french et I try to study a little. I don't get very far.

Nounou (noursnours means bear-bear in french) arrives that night and we have yummy chinese dishes for dinner.

The next morning, we start on the gentle slope while Nounou rents his ski equipement. Once he arrives, we adjourn to a steeper slope. I managed to descend straight down at a hurtling speed wedging all the way. Pretty proud of myself but not for long. Nounou advises that I try to turn. I realise that turning slows down the speed considerably and I don't dare to go straight down anymore. What's more, I keep falling while trying to turn and I get really disheartened after a while. The teacher had taught us to swerve but turning is really difficult for me, esp since I don't dare to put all my weight on 1 leg which is exactly what I have to do!

After a half-decent descent, Nounou brings me to the next slope, a green-blue one this time. The rest don't seem to follow us and he leaves me on the electric ski to look for them. I fall off and cause the line to stop functioning. A Parisian helps me up but I don't dare to follow her when she takes off on her snowboard. She advises me not be afraid, that's how accidents happen!

Tuesday morning was sunny. Florent Lamy (Toktok), Laurent (Lolo) et Philip (Philoose) meet us to ski with us. Toktok is assigned to me and he tries to teach me to turn. After several screams, I finally get the hang of it and we descend the green slope about 3 times at a breathable speed. He stays in the Alps and he knows how to ski, surf, monoski etc. He must have been like the little kids I see racing down the slopes. Ski courses are held for "colonies" of children during school vacations in France. It's an expensive pasttime but the children are occupied while the parents work.

In the afternoon, we give the guys a rest and our monitor takes over for our second lesson. He brings us on a scenic green route and he throws snowballs at me along the way. I have a lot more confidence when I'm with a professional and I dare to accelerate. The 2^nd time on the route, he leads us to intersect with a red slope shouting instructions at us all along the way. After each turn, it's esp important to look straight, ie parallel to the slop. I look down once and I feel my heart in my mouth. I have some trouble continuing after that and I stop after each turn. He threatens to whip me and when we finally reach the bottom, he says it's all in the head. Guess he's right.

The next morning, we try the same slopes with Nounou but I delay everyone with my snail speed. I fall several times and I even burst into tears. Luckily, the good skiers on the red slope avoid me.

Rainy Thursday 8^th of March and I feel like I have a slight fever although as usual, the thermometer doesn't agree with me. I mount with them to Super Chatel but I don't dare to ski in the rain and fog. I return to the apartment and they return several hours later. It's the International Women's Day and reports on discrimination flood the media. We celebrate in our small way with gratin dauphinois + salad of feta chees, cucumbers and tomatoes for dinner prepared by Nounou. Yabin cleaned up.

The last day of ski is here! We proceed to the Linga, the last area to which we have access which we had not tried yet. We find ourselves before a blue slope after the ride in the cable car. I am as usual the last one on the way down and I burst into tears once. Nounou tells me later that he almost lost his temper with me then. He wondered how could anyone be so clumsy. Well, that's me!

The Chinese had taken a green route halfway down without enough snow and they had had to descend the rest of the way in their ski boots. No surprise that they were really worn out that afternoon. Ski boots are the hardest shoes I've ever tried. I even had blisters on my leg, not foot, after a few days.

Nounou asks for permission to do some proper skiing and we make our way to the slopes we are more familiar with. Back to the peaceful, scenic route.

The 2^nd time on the route, I'm once again lagging behind when Nounou surprises me from behind. He suggests that we try the intersecting red slope again and I agree. Miraculously, I make it without falling and without screaming. I pretended to have a chewing gum in my mouth along the way. Goodness knows why but it worked!

The (slave)master demands that we advance since we're on a roll. Fine, I agree to try a blue route which looks gentle enough on the map. We go up by an electric seat that doesn’t stop at its destination and I fall off, causing the entire line to stop. An Englishman in the seat behind tries to get off during the stop and he gets a scolding from the technician. Oops!

Turns out that there're only 2 choices, a black and a red. Great. I exclaim "Oohlala" and a group of British (there were a lot of them on the slopes) make fun of me. Apparently, it's a typical French phrase and well, there is some existing mockery between the 2 nationalities.

Well, I have to go for the red and we do this slowly. After a few falls, I get the hang of it. It's a matter of getting used to descending really fast once we open the legs to turn. Well, as Nounou explains to me, the idea is to go down.

Despite my hopes, we don't find any blue slope along the way. I finally realise that falling on snow doesn't hurt that much and I even fall smiling a few times. The danger is when the skis cross each other. Panic but with a little maneuvering, they usually get untangled.

On the coach back, some girls next to us turn out to be from Paris and they are in the Alps for 3 weeks of ski school, i.e. school in the morning and ski classes in the afternoon with excursions from time to time. Cool!

Nounou treats us to crepes in a restaurant that night. All the restaurants serving food typical of the region were full but no matter since we had already tasted them in the comfort of the apartment.

For dessert, we try to understand and sing along to the concert of the Restos de Coeur, an annual concert in aid of the hungry in France. I have the CD now and it's amazing. Like the Telethon which aids genetic diseases in France, I'm impressed by this spirit of voluntarism. The Restos de Coeur was initiated by a French pop artiste and each year, several famous personalities come together to do their part. This year, Zidane, the French footballer who is the 2^nd most popular person in France, was included!

 A last round of Tarot, a French card game similar to Bridge, before I retire to bed. Boy am I tired!

Estimated cost of the week: 3000FF (S$750)

**Thanks to Nounou for bearing with my tears, my screams and my slowness throughout the week!!!