Dec 20 - left at 6:30 pm and drove until we arrived at 4 am 𤢠The drive was fine for me, because a 10hr road trip in Canada isnât much of a hassle. But, for the rest of my host family, it was horrid. We took my host dadâs car which is really small, but average for a car in Belgium. It was my host parents in the front and Alix, Mela, and me in the back. We watched Beauty And The Beast together, then I watched E.L.F on my own and tried to sleep. None of us slept well because we were all squished. I woke up at 2 am, I think my body woke me up just because it felt the mountain air again!! The air in Belgium doesât feel clean, Itâs heavy. The air was light again, and felt good when I breathed it in! I stayed up until we got there, watching the scenery change. There was no snow and then all of a sudden 3ft! Itâs hard to believe I had to drive 10hrs to see snow for the first time this year. When we arrived, we got everything up into our little apartment and went straight to bed.
Dec 21- The next morning, we woke up at around 10 am. We ate breakfast and went skiing for the remainder of the day. It was absolutely GORGEOUS! I was so tired, but it didnât matter. It was so beautiful, and the conditions were great. They had a big snowfall the night before. After we were done skiing we walked into town and took advantage of the little Xmas market. I love the Christmas markets in Belgium, but theyâve always been missing the snow! We sat outside in our snowsuits, having drinks and appetizers. We went back to the apartment and had spaghetti bolognese for dinner. Then it was back to bed for another mediocre sleep! This apartment is insanely tiny. Especially for 5 people. Thereâs a bunk bed in the hallway with a single on the top and a double on the bottom. I sleep on the top, Alix and her friend sleep on the bottom. The one-room is for my host parents. The kitchen is the size of a washroom. The washroom is the size of a closet. The closest? What closet?! Thereâs no closet. Also, there is no wifi. But why does that matter? Iâm in France! Skiing!!!
Dec 22- We woke up early because we wanted a full day of skiing, only to find out almost every lift and run was closed!! Thankfully the lift right by our apartment was still open, and we did the same blue run for 3hrs straight. We came back to eat lunch, and then went out and did the same run for another 3hrs! The weather was insane. I was literally getting swept by the wind. I couldnât see the people skiing in front of me. It was snowing so much. It was crazy. We squished up onto the couch, watched Frozen and made crĂŞpes.
Dec 23 - I have time to write about whatâs happened so far on the trip because today is somehow even crazier than yesterday. I canât see anything but white outside the window. Everything is closed. And if anything does open afternoon, itâll be the one run we went on yesterday. UPDATE itâs now 5:30... me and the other girls decided we werenât gonna sit in the apartment all day. We got all of our snow stuff on and walked to the lake. It took about 3hrs to go there and back, but it was lots of fun. Now weâre playing more card games, and for dinner, weâre having Raclette. I already know how thatâs gonna go for me... 𤢠UPDATE! It was ok, I ate salad. Then I taught my host family the card game âbullshitâ. They seemed to like it, but got mad every-time there was a double bullshit call... because I could say bullshit in 0.1s while they took a whole lot longer đ So I always won.
Dec 24- Today the ski conditions were better but still pretty bad :(
we were skiing from morning until about 2 pm. We were in a blizzard. I couldnât tell what was snow and what was the sky. It was realllyyyy trippy. I had no sense of direction and could barely see anything. So it was sorta dangerous. My jacket and pants got soaked through from all the rain/snow. When we got back to the apartment, we changed into comfy clothes, played card games, and ate food until midnight.
CHRISTMAS!!! it was a Christmas miracle. The sky was blue! I could see the mountains! We were up and ready for the first lift to open. We spent the entire day skiing. We went all the way from our little ski village called Val Claret, through 4 other little ski villages to get to one called Val DâIsre which means âplace to beâ in french. It sure was. I got to see the famous Mont Blanc of Chamonix! I didnât even know we were in Chamonix! It was so amazing! And thanks to technology I got to call my family while I was skiing on the hill and showed them around. Honestly, the day didnât really feel like Christmas to me. Just another normal day. Which is good I guess, I wouldnât want to be homesick. I watched The Polar Express at the end of the night. A tradition my family has. We watch it together every Christmas Eve, but the night before I didn't have any time. I'm happy I didn't break the spell and still got around to watch it.
Dec 26- The conditions were bad again :/ but we made the most of it.
Dec 27- We took the first lift of the day so we could ski all morning. The weather was bad and my host parents wanted to start packing up so we could leave. My host sister wasnât in the mood either. Me and Mela skied for a few more hours. We came back to the apartment, cleaned it all up, and we were on our way again. We left at 5 pm and arrived at around 2. I couldnât sleep this time so I just watched movies. I feel bad because my host parents were deciding between this week and the week of new years for so long. And this week, the week we are not there is just going to be absolutely gorgeous. Everyone on the hill gets to profit from all the blizzards we endured with nothing but blue skies.
Nonetheless, it was an amazing trip. I am so lucky and so grateful that I was able to do it. And I would absolutely love to come back. Thank you Brosius Family!
Bisous ~Z