Almost Half-Way

I don't have any new pictures, but I'll describe what's been going on lately. Today I went with my Rotary club to the most famous ski station here: Courchevel. Apparently, it's where all the celebrities and rich Russians go. Not too long ago, a Ukrainian billionaire had his 50th birthday party there and spent $50 million on it. Anyway, I didn't go skiing, the other exchange students and I accompanied the kids with autistic problems who we were having the day for. In the morning, we went to the skating rink and in the afternoon the kids went skiing with instructors and Mauricio, Keilah and I went sledding down the 1 km long sledding hill that descends 300 meters! It was very intense sledding and we had a fantastic view of the forest, the valley and all the mountains around. Courchevel is really high up, so it has fantastic views! Another good point: no teleskis!! Anyway, it was really fun. We ate at this really swanky chalet and watched all the skiers go by. I hope I get to go back there and ski another day! The villages were really pretty too, these snowy little streets lined by stone houses all in a row, or chalet-type houses made out of large stones and pretty wood. It was gorgeous. And they had everything! There are families that live there with kids who go skiing everyday or figure skating or rock climbing. That might get boring after a little while, having to spend an hour getting down to the valley and constantly being around Louis Vuitton bags (actually, there's a really pretty hotel there owned by the same guy who's president of Louis Vuitton), but for a week that would be really fun!
Otherwise, it's just been school... they're taking a practice-bac this week so I don't have school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday afternoon! I'm really excited for the break.

Winter Vacation!!!

So, where to start?? We left the first Tuesday of vacation to spend two days and then go on to spend five days in Bonn, Germany because my host sister's American host family (from when she went to the U.S. three years ago) live in Germany now.
But the adventure began even before that. I went skiing in the Alps! I went up there all alone to take a lesson because everyone here already knows how to ski and I wanted to at least be able to turn and stop. So, I was a little afraid for when I'd have to go skiing all by myself after the lesson but I'd hardly arrived when I ran into kids from school who I met up with after the lesson! It was really fun. One of the girls has a chalet up there so we went there and drank a lot of water afterward. I fell a couple of times, and once on the teleski (the thing where you stand up and put the bar in between your legs and it pulls you up the hill- like a t-bar, an upside down T).

I returned after vacation with the Canadian girl, Leah, and managed to go down two red hills (in between blue and black) without falling. However, I fell twice on the teleski, and refusing to let go and walk up the steep hill, was dragged along on my stomach. Although one time I fell off completely. The first time I made it to the top on my belly and the German man behind me had picked up my ski, which had fallen off, and gave it to me at the top. The other time I fell off completely, not even half the way up and lost one ski and one pole. So I retrieved them and walked up with some crazy guy who had decided to walk up the whole hill instead of waiting in the ridiculously long line. A guy going by on the teleski just looked at me and burst out laughing following this second fall. But it was a good-natured laugh... I think. And anyway I just laughed along with him and said "I fell", because it wasn't obvious enough already. Now, to the interesting part, pictures!!

This isn't me or anyone I know. It's just a picture from google to show you what a teleski looks like. Now, tell me that doesn't look a.) scary and b.) difficult. I have no clue why that guy's smiling, he must be some kind of sado. (But skiing down=big smiles for sure!)

Me in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier. I felt a little weird smiling there because it's serious, but after all, I was happy to visit it. I just really want to know who the soldier is. Like, I REALLY want to know.

Musée d'Orsay. This was an illegal photo.

Place des Vosges, constructed by Louis XIV (I think... it was some Louis), to be a little gated noble housing community.

I'm pretty sure this was done by the French street artist from the Banksy movie (not the main, annoying one, but his cousin). I think his name is Space Invader and then all of his work is with the little characters made from tiles.

Centre Georges Pompidou, a modern art museum. The different colored pipes represent their different functions (e.g. ventilation, air conditioning, the big red chutes on the other side are the elevators/escalators).

Smallest apartment building in Paris! (In the Quartier Latin.)

Street in the Quartier Latin.

Eiffel Tower at night, it sparkles for the first ten minutes of every hour. It used to sparkle all night long but now they're trying to save electricity/the planet.

Christmas trees made out of soda bottles.

Subway entrance made out of pop cans. (Near the little Chinese restaurant we went to the first night.)

"Stop! This is the Dead's domain." The entrance to the Catacombs is very welcoming... it reminded me of Lord of the Rings when they go to visit the dead king in the mountains.

One of the constructor's of the catacombs constructed these little dioramas of where he was imprisoned earlier in his life... or something like that, I didn't really get it.

One of the many inspirational quotes amidst the skulls and bones. It says something like: "Come, men of the world, into these silence realms and your normally calm soul will be pierced with the voice that comes from this domain: It's here that the greatest of masters, the tomb, keeps his school of truth."

La Mosquée de Paris was gorgeous!

The first night in Germany we went to the Christmas market in downtown Bonn. This is a big head sculpture laying at the foot of a church, with me, Laura, and her two American host siblings Karina and Dhillon.

Bar in the interior of the remains of the original city wall, half open to the outside, half closed in a semicircle. We had really yummy mulled wine.

Street in Bonn.

Guy selling beer.

I forgot to put this picture before- the Orangerie in Paris, a museum planned by Monet where he installed some Water Lilies canvasses meant to help Parisians calm down and take a break from city life. There are other impressionist works on the lower level.

In front of Beethoven's house.

The youngest American host sibling, Devon. In his Liederhosen for their family Christmas picture.

Devon in his new chef outfit, in charge of pancakes.

We also got the chance to go to Maastricht, in the Netherlands, which is a country I'd never been to before. This is a church in the downtown there.

Their Christmas market.

There were lots of cozy little pubs, cafes, etc. This one is called "At the White Sheep."

The town was very pretty- like a little doll village all decorated for the Holidays.

An altar off to the side of one church with its doors open to the street and passers-by. It's the Virgin Mary of the Sea.

A picture of Elvis I saw on some street there!

Even their lamps are cute.

A Nativity scene.

Church at night.

The other church right next door, literally just across this little alleyway. It's really intimidating because you walk right in between the two and they're both very tall.

Cool little street/archway right by the two churches. There was a placard in Dutch here and we were trying to read the Dutch when a guy walked by and read it to us- it didn't sound anything like what we thought. He tried to explain what it meant in English but I didn't really understand...

There really are a lot of bikes in the Netherlands.

Skating rink at the Christmas market.

Cathedral in Cologne, our last day in Germany just before going to the train station.

Cathedral.

Inside...

Altar, decorated for Christmas.

Underground chapel thing, it reminded me of being in the catacombs and both of them made me feel like I was in Angels & Demons are some movie like that.

Painted ceiling right above the underground chapel entrance.

Where the Three Wise Men are buried.

Another elaborate tomb.

Nativity scene with little miscellaneous action figures (notice the one in the neon green construction-worker vest in the center-right of the picture). I thought it was cool, like Jesus' birth is accessible to everybody.

Interior of the store of the oldest perfume maker in the world, started in Cologne.

Exterior, the name of the company is Farina. Their clients include various kings, Goethe, Beethoven, Voltaire, and Bill Clinton.

Street in Cologne.

Vaselopita, a Greek cake I made for the New Year's party. Half butte/half olive oil because I ran out of butter, lemon, almonds... it was good! And I put a coin and whoever got the piece with the coin has luck for this year although the probably don't know because I just left it on the table so I didn't see who got what and wasn't there to explain when the coin came up...

 

 

Happy Belated Holidays!!!