SKIING AND SPAIN

Hola mis amigos!!!

I'm back from the glorious Espagne (i.e. Spain) tour and my skiing holiday in the French Hautes Alpes!!! - God I never thought I'd say such an exotic sentence in my life.

So let me start with skiing. Being only the second time that I had slid down the side of a mountain with long planks strapped to my feet, I was still terrified of the concept at the start of my week in Vars (a little skiing village in the south east of France). And the first day there were no skiing lessons so I "snow ploughed" down the length of a blue slope without so much as a warning. But for the remainder of the week I took lessons each morning with two other families from England and Wales. We were all strangers at first but by the end we grew to know each other very well as we all struggled down the slopes at the same pace. At the end of the week, I was crowned top of the class and awarded my second star meddalion by the ESF (Ecole de Ski Français - the French ski school), which I was told was a big achievement for a beginner! I was doing red slopes easily by the last couple of days - v proud!

The evenings were spent eating, sleeping, talking and basically just vegging out in the chalet with the friends that I made there. The chalet belongs to my fourth host family and is arranged so that all the "young ones" bunk together on the bottom level. This was fun cause we had our own fridge and CD player and could chill there when we were competely buggered from skiing all day long. Staying with us were 8 adultes and 7 guys and girls my age so we were pretty cozy in our little chalet! One particular night we went up the mountain in a snow buggy to eat dinner at the mountain restaurant. We ate raquelette which is a meal specific to that region of France but I think it is a Swiss tradition where you have a half of one of those huge things of cheese constantly melting in the middle of the table and you scrape the melted cheese off onto your potatoes or meat on your plate. And the French just go for it. I coundn't eat much cheese cause there was just way to much of it! At the end of the dinner, 3 of us walked down the ski slopes at night while the others took the snow buggy. It was the most beautiful night ever...I have never seen the stars like that before cause there was only the moon to light our path, and it was snowing ever so lightly!!! And you could see the little lights of the villages below... SO pretty!!!

The dinners at the chalet were like that too - all big, cheesy and fattening. I don't think I've ever eaten so much food in one week but surprisingly i actually lost weight...must have been all that skiing activity.

So anyway, on to Spain... this was one huge week too. We only got a max of 5 hours sleep each night and we were constantly busy during the day so I am still recovering from the exhaustion of it all. We kicked the week off in Paris... YES PARIS!!! Finally!!! Truly the most beautiful city ever made. I got goosebumps when I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time...and that was during the day. I can't wait to see it at night ime with all its twinkling lights. We ate lunch on the Champs-Elysées and toured the shops a little before spending the night in a youth hostel in Dijon. We stopped of at the Pont du Gard and stayed in Nimes for one night before arriving in exotic Barcelona. Here we spent 4 nights in a hotel just outside the city and each day we would get the bus in to see a different part. We visited the Picasso and Dali museums, saw millions of beautiful old churches and on the last day we went to the theme park Tibidabo on the top of a mountain overlooking the whole of Barcelona city. So when you were hanging upside down from a rollercoaster, clinging to your seat for dear life, at least you had a nice view!!! And for the first time in my life I made myself go in the horror house. And this wasn't one of those really lame ones... it nearly had us in tears it was so scary. But luckily I had a Derek from Canada and Anita (another Aussie) to cling to. And when we got really scared we stared singing "Sunshine lollipops and rainbows" or "Don't worry, be happy..". The Grudge lady stopped halfway through her scary act and started yelling in Spanish at us for ruining the mood. It was hilarious!!!

So I've had a pretty awesome two weeks. Pretty different to school holidays in Australia I'd say!!! Hope everyone and everything is fabulous back home. Love you and missing you always,

Fub (- I've adopted a new nickname here cause when French people read my name that is how they say it unless you write it with accents on the e's)

P.S.

Postcards are coming so check your letterboxes!!!

P.P.S.

Pictures posted:

1) Vars - I never took a camera on the ski slopes so sorry no skiing pics

2) Me and Paris (a friend, not the city - she's an american and is the cutest girl ever)

3) The Eiffel Tower

4)Me and Jen at Starbucks when we were craving their iced frappacinos in Barcelona

5) Lauren and I and a view of Barcelona city

6) At our little Roman-themed dinner party one night (we are wearing togas)