After packing my suitcase and trekking it to the Tilburg University train station with my flatmates Emma, Morris, and Simay, we met up with Landon, Gabe, and Luis, and headed to Eindhoven. After some confusion about where to get off, we made it to the Eindhoven Beukenlaan station where we met up with the rest of the Tilburg ESNOW participants and headed to the place where the bus would pick us up (after waiting an hour) at about 6:30 (or 18.30 as they say in Europe!). I sat next to a Dutch guy named Danny, and we set off on our 14 hour ride. On the way to France, we drove through Belguim and detoured through Luxemborg for the bus to get cheap gas. (Does that count as visiting a new country?) We stopped for some food and got Burger King at the most insanely busy Burger King I've ever seen. Getting to the counter was like trying to fight your way through a mosh pit since there were no lines, just giant crowds of hungry people.
We finally arrived around 8am and had to kill 9 hours before they would let us into our rooms, so we met some people studying in other parts of Holland, walked around in the cold and explored the city and mountains a little, and eventually found a cafe with some open seats that we sat in for the last 2 or 3 hours entirely because the room was heated. Then when were allowed into room, we headed over (luckily we had one of the closest rooms to reception area where the bags were being stored, because I don't know if I could have carried mine much more, and also, being this close means we're one of the very few rooms that gets wifi!). It's a little chalet with bunk beds (I'm staying on the lower one since I'm the least likely to sit up and hit my head on the upper bunk), a room with 2 other twin beds, and a pull out couch that the boys are sharing. It's a little cramped for 6 people, but we make due.
Every morning, two of us wake up early and walk to the bakery to buy French Baguettes (which taste WAY better in France!) or croissants for everyone to share. Then we get ready and head to the slopes. The first day, Luis gave me and Libby (a British girl studying in Lidon that we met) a refresher course on how to ski and showed Emma and Jeanette the basics. After a few runs down the small green slope, me and Luis went up the only open ski lift to a blue. It was REALLY windy and the snow was icy at the top. I summoned up all the courage I had and went for it. It seemed really steep and difficult at the time, but thinking back (only 3 days later) it would probably be really easy now. After that run, I was way too scared to do the same one again, but I also figured nothing less could possibly be half as exhilarating, so I called it a day around lunch time. Also, my ski boots were absolutely killing me. The next morning, the weather was really nice, so we went to the top of the other ski lift (the only one open that day...) and did an easier blue run a couple times (or at least I thought it was easier, maybe I was just better by then, I don't know). But again, the boots were murdering my calves, so I had to give up.
I finally got new ski boots the next day, and that made a world of difference, but the weather sucked, so I went down once and figured I'd rest for a day. Today was BY FAR the best day so far. We met up with a bunch of the Tilburg people staying in the other room and decided we would all ski together. We went up the ski lift I've been using for the last 2 days, but instead of going down, we went to another ski lift that took us up even higher and skied down a blue run to warm up. Then, when we got back down to the 2nd lift, we took it back to the top again, and went down a red slope!! Then we went all the way back down to grab some lunch and headed back up again with a couple other people this time. About half way down, we found a place off the path with fresh, powdery snow and built a huge snowman that we named Jacque Pierre, had a snowball fight, ate some snow, and just hung out for a while before heading back down again.
Tomorrow will be my last day of skiing, and then I'll trade my skis in for a snowboard to try that out for the last 2 days. I'm a little nervous because it seems harder, but I can't wait to try!
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