Ski Weekend at Courchevel!

I finally got a photo of my family! Christine (left) and Pauline (right).

 There's a photo of Pierre below. 

Well I just got back from skiing and Courchevel was awesome! I'm very lucky because my host mom's parents had bought an apartment there when she was 8, otherwise it would've been pricey. I've only skied two times back in middle school (which was mostly bunny slopes anyway) so I pretty much knew nothing once I got there. There wasn't a single cloud on Saturday and it was beautiful. Huge mountains surrounded the place and they were dotted with small towns. I rented skies and shoes there for 45 euro and bought a half day mini ski pass (meaning for only a section of Courchevel) for about 19 euro. Pierre taught me the basics and I picked it up pretty quickly, despite a few good falls. That night some of my family's friends treated us to dinner at a nice restaurant called La Fromagerie. It was very good and was basically a delicious salad, some other small appetizers, potatoes, and this amazing melted cheese that the waiter just kept serving us. I'll put a photo of it below. The restaurant was also in the expensive village/area of Courchevel where Porches and BMWs literally lined the streets. All the stores there had designer's goods and our waiter said that the hotel in the area costs upwards of $4,000 per night!

Hiking the Bastille almost a week ago

Tomorrow I'm going with my host family to a ski resort called Courchevel, part of les trois vallées which apparently is the largest linked ski area in the world. I'll ski tomorrow and Sunday and I'll be sure to get some good pictures. As for Grenoble, it has been very cold (between -5 and -10 degrees Celsius/14 to 23 degrees Fahrenheit) but it has warmed up the past couple of days. For now I'm just going to talk about the weekend before last when I went to the Bastille and Grenoble's art museum. I did both on Sunday (February 5th) and started off with the museum with my host mom. The museum was free that day and pretty impressive when considering the size of Grenoble. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it (I think admission is usually only 2 euros). Afterwards I met up with some other API students to hike up the Bastille, which is basically an old fortification for the city just on the other side of the river. It is perched on the mountainside and it's about a 40 minute hike, but the view is stunning, well at least for someone who isn't used to mountains/castles. And well, here's some photos. Oh yeah and I forgot to take a picture of the Bastille from the ground... Sorry! I'll get a shot of it next week

 Taken right next to Musée de Grenoble, also right by the river

Beautiful Day Today!

The view from my bedroom! It's hard to see when it's cloudy though, compare it to the snow picture

Class!

Snow from the first week (just outside my bedroom window)

Last day of Paris/Arrival to Grenoble 1/26

I took this one the day before... but it's the Eiffel tower nonetheless!

We spent the last day in Paris going to the Eiffel tower. It is absolutely HUGE and I could see the whole city despite only being able to go to the 2nd level (we couldn't go to the top due to the rainy weather that week). Afterwards we had a free afternoon, which I spent by seeing the opera house (just the outside) and hanging out at the hotel before leaving for Grenoble. We took the train at about 3:30 PM with 1st class tickets (which I guess meant we had nicer seats, more space, and a little table). I slept most of the way, but we finally arrived at about 6:30 PM. All the host parents were there to greet us and were ready to take us to their homes. Just my host mom was there and we left soon after. Pierre, my little 14 year old brother, was waiting for us at home, a comfy suburban house located just outside of the city of Grenoble. Unfortunately it was already dark so I couldn't see anything on the way that night. I spent the next few days adjusting a learning my route to school, which consists of taking the bus and tram. The mountains are just incredible and the city is very nice. I still need to explore the city (which I plan to do this weekend) and get some more pictures of the mountains (it has been very cloudy). It has also been pretty cold, but the good news is we got a lot of snow this past Tuesday!