First post from Bourg St. Maurice-

Wow, so my first blog since being here, where to start. I arrived 5 days ago and it has been nothing but good. It was a great flight sitting next to a really nice girl in her late 20s who was on her way to Turkey so we shared stories about traveling around the globe. For the first time I made the 'not so smart' decision to read a book on the flight instead of sleeping. Although The Alchemist was an amazing book and highly recommended, I had the worst jet lag I have ever had when I landed. I went ~28+ hours without sleep. That is in the past though, and I have learned from this experience...

Arrival, was late at night on January 1st to a very "Cosy" studio here in Bourg. Apart from ~5ft extra length, this entire studio is about the size of my bedroom in Chico last semester for those of you that saw it, and there are 4 of us living in it. Despite this, it is weirdly comfortable. There seems to be a nook for everyones things so it is not cluttered, and the layout isn't bad now that we moved the furniture around. The roommate situation is absolutely amazing. I really don't know how I got so lucky just finding this online. They are all British and nearly every night we are in tears from laughter at something I dont understand them saying. I never knew there were so many variations to the english language. This coupled with the accents put a real twist on communicating each day. We have been cooking really good dinners each night with a bottle of wine or 2, and then watch a movie before going to bed. Life is tough...

The town, is very french! It is not overrun with british folk or loads of english speakers. When you walk around all you hear is french. This may sound funny to hear me say this, but there ALOT of places in Europe where it is difficult to hear the native language dominating. It is VERY different from Switzerland though. There are unbuilt structures everyfew blocks, not too much landscaping, and lots of dog poop everywhere, it lacks the swiss perfection of charm I grew to love. Despite these negative aspects, it still has its quaint streets with the small shops and of course the towering 10,000ft peaks shooting up around it. It's funny becuase I seem to be somewhat of a novelty here being american as there aren't anyothers in the valley, its a great feeling! Oh, and the town has all the proper amenities of a good sized town. The food in the super marche is soooo cheap i'm stoked! I have alread eaten 10+ fresh french baguttes as well.

My french, it is coming along. It is nice because every interaction I have had with french folk I can survive in french. Examples are buying my season pass, insurance, cell phone, were all in french and were fun and rewarding experiences to be responded to in french as well. I found I am very poor at comprehension though which is what I am working on. Just this morning I had a tea with a contact I have here, and there are alot of things I can/will be doing in the future to learn. It's been fun to strike up conversations with french children and older french people on the lifts also.

Work, seems like I should be able to line something up. I may have some guiding work starting up at the end of the month into Feburary, in which I would get payed to guide clients around Les Arcs and La Plagne skiing and showing them the pistes. This would be sweet so I hope it works out, getting paid to ski!

The mountain, ABSOLUTELY HUGE. The amount of terrain blows my mind. I will go more in depth on the skiing once I get more pics, but picture 30 squaw valleys slammed together into one domain, with an elevation difference of 8,000ft from the valley to the summit and you may get an idea... The nice thing about Les Arcs is that nearly ALL the lifts are chair lifts and gondolas, opposed to t-bars, pomas, and other types of surface lifts found at alot of europen resorts. There is pleanty of snow which I am thankful for, and am excited for the next big storm to freshen things up! This picture is kind of random. Mont Blanc is in the distance left of the pic (Europes highest peak). And the mountains directly straight in the distance are the Italian Alps.


In the next couple weeks, I don't know yet. I still want to see my options for work. I may get a few km down the valley to La Roserie and ski into Italy for the day. I just lined up a free ride to Geneve in Switzerland on the 17th, and am going to hitch hike into the mountains to visit some friends. I am REALLY excited to hitch my way though!

In Conclusion, things are really good. I feel so blessed and lucky that I get to do this. I am trying to just love everyday because I know it is going to be over so soon. I am forcing myself not to think ahead about something to be excited about, and instead just trying to live for the minute I am in. I am lucky because I always have something to look forward to in my life, but I feel like I should be enjoying now instead of looking to the future. Up on the mountain the other day I was thinking, damn I cant wait for it to snow, and realized I should be stoked just TO BE on the mountain. I looked around at all the 3000m peaks, down the valley into Bourg that is my new home, looked at the blazing sun despite the sub 20degree air, and suddenly felt stoked on THAT minute in time, and was suddenly more than satisfied with the absence of fresh snow and ripped some more groomers for a few hours, taking in the brisk mountain air under the bright sun. This pic on the left I stitched from 4 separate files. I though it would portray how massive the mountains are...But its hard to even tell because you can barely make out the road down there on the left corner! If you look real hard, follow from the top center of the pic down to the first peak, and you can make out the top of the cable car on that far ridge.

At this minute, it is so freakin cold and I haven't taken a day off from riding so I may stay in today. It is snowing a bit for the first time as well, so tomorrow could be good! I will update this once I get some more pics taken. I hope everyone is doing well back home and does well getting back into the swing of school. I can't believe some of you are graduating in a few months.

Lost in translation of how fast time goes...

Cheers~

J