Anyway, we left Lyon on sat morning and headed straight to the mountains when we reached grenoble. We went to mount Chamrouix, and since Sat was international womens day, Ski passes were 1euro for ladies.
It was a one hour bus ride up and it was quite awful. I got a little car sick.
Up there, The ntu girls and I rented skis while ben and ro rented snowboards.
Ro and Ben falling down from their snowboards.
Me and my skis. I also kept falling down. And what was worse was seeing little kids whizzing past me like pros. Gosh.
We took the ski lift all the way up to the peak.
Cable lift we took. It was quite a nice ride up. Wanqing and I were screaming away when the ski lift scooped us off the ground, much to the amusement of the other french skiers who must have been thinking "What swa-ku asians who have never been on ski lifts". We were quite scared that 1) we would fall off the chair, 2)our skis/ski sticks would drop off. Well, we managed to get up in one piece.
Peak!
It was really really cold and the wind was very strong at the peak. My ears felt as though something was pressing against it and my fingers really hurt (because my gloves were not water proof)
We had to endure the pain for a long time up there while searching for the easy slopes. It was only after a while we realized we made a huge mistake going up because the only way to go down was either by skiing or walking.
Wanqing falling down. Can see the clouds behind her. We were so close to the clouds!!! WOO!
The journey down was a really painful one. We kept falling down, and it is very very painful to fall down on snow because contrary to popular belief, snow is actually HARD. And when you fall, your legs end up in awkward positions because of the skis. Plus getting up is really tiring, but you still have to (get up) eventually. (Last sentence very applicable to life-skills.) I fell down so many times, I was quite worried I would break my hip bones or twist my legs.
We spent the WHOLE afternoon walking/skiing down. It was a real nightmare, but then again, you're only young once. I doubt I will be able sustain such falls like this when I am older.
I also spent lots of time skiing on my butt. Really funny.
We were quite touched by the french because many of them would ask us if we were ok. A few even helped us up and tried to teach us how to ski.
Our sun-burnt faces. Lesson learnt: wear sunblock because the snow reflects a lot of glare from the sun.
Taken while waiting for the bus back to Grenoble.
For dinner, we had chicken rice and curry chicken.
It's been almost 3 months since I have had chicken rice, and boy, it was sooooo GOOD!!! We even had a little sambal chili which we bought at the supermarket to go with it. The chili tasted wierd, but oh well, better than nothing.
***
Next day, we had a picnic! (yea, we are very fond of having picnics). Damn, things in Grenoble are cheaper too!!! ROAR!!!!!
Cheese, wine, chicken, potatoes, chips, grapes. C'est la vie.:D Yea, I will try to organise some picnics when I go back to singapore too. And cook more. And travel more around SE Asia over weekends.
After the picnic, we went up to the basillic of Grenoble.
Crossing river (I know, "crossing river" is a very literal translation from chinese, hur hur).
Along the small streets. Asians are quite a rare species in Grenoble, so I think we attracted some attention walking around in such a big group.
This Basillic used to be some kind of prison (or so I heard).
On the way up.
View from top.
That night, some representatives from the office of international relations of nus came to grenoble to have dinner with the students there, so we went to meet them. GUESS WHO I SAW?!?!?! CHRIS YAP, my thermo prof!!!! I WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!
The best thing was that he could answer some of my ME questions, and he seemed to understand fully what I was going through. I was soooo glad.
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FOOOOOOOOOOD. We managed to give our complaints and worries to a REAL LIFE nus rep, not some secretary through some email, which was a good thing.
***
I got back to Lyon on Sunday night with loads of bruises on my butt thanks to skiing. My whole body was aching and I had swimming on Monday. I told my korean friend "Hey I went skiing over the weekend!" and she replied "yea i know. I can see all your bruises".
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