Well yesterday was quite interesting. First off it was the day of our Christmas concert in Bourg St. Rice (je pense). So at about 3 in the afternoon we all piled into the van with Buan and Allan (our amazing co-pilot and driver) and headed to the alps. Yes I know we live in the alps, but we live in a valley where we can drive a bit down the hill and see the alps as a nice draping background. The town we drove to was about 2 hrs away from here and is literally in the alps. You are in a valley where you crane your neck to see the tops of the mtns. So no more beautiful view of the outline of the alps like were we live, we got the full affect of being inside them. This town is literally the end of the road, to get out there is only one way...weird. So we arrived in the evening and had a brief stint of waiting for Blain to get together gouter then headed to have gouter avec the students at a beautiful little chalet apartment thing. After we had our snack we headed into town, literally a 2 minute walk, for the annual Christmas tree lighting. It was beautiful, a whole little cobblestone street lined with shuttered houses and shops covered in lights and christmas trees. They even served a heated wine with orange peels...interesting taste. So we walked around looking into shop windows (discovered that the direct translation of that word in french is licking the windows) and drinking our little glasses of wine. Not only was it a quaint little town all lit up and filled with locals, but it was a nice little ski town, so imagine the cute little european ski village and that's basically where we found ourselves.
It was sooo nice to see DEFI again! we all freaked out a bit when we all saw each other after only three days. It was nice to get to catch up and hear about their weeks.
Then off to our concert. We practiced and decorated a little room and then we sang for a bunch of people. We all dressed in black with really pretty christmas colored scarves and sang a series of christmas carols and other french songs. We ended with everyone in the room singing Born Again and He's got the whole world in his hands...complete with hand motions :). A good concert, but the dessert afterwards was by far the best.
We got to serve and eat really yummy french snacks and talk to some of the people at the concert. I met a bunch of teenagers who are in essence being ski bums this year at the resorts in the area. They are through a program in Britian called Masterski and I totally want to do it! They are a christian group that sends teens to either the mediteranean for watersports or europe for skiing. They train you and then you work mornings and ski evenings. Most end up doing a whole year before or after college and they jump chalets working and countries following the weather patterns. SOOOO neat. Anyways I spent the whole evening talking to them and hearing about their experiences thus far. I love how these types of conversations go...a sample here:
Bonjour.
A few seconds of rapid french. Then silence. Someone says something in english. AHHH you speak english too. A discussion about where everyone is from, the languages they speak, the accents we all have, and then usually an agreement on which language we will continue the convo in...strange world of european gapies (the name for gap year kids). The rest of the convo will probably continue in german, english, or french and consist of why are you here, how are you paying for your year, and what kind of work are you doing. Then an exchange of info and probably a new email friend with updates each month as to how the other gapies are doing over there in ski bum land. I love connecting with other gapies.
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As I finished typing that last bit the bell outside began ringing and the buses pulled in bringing DEFI home. We have this tradition that whenever they get home we all run out and greet with huge hugs and laughs at how funny we all are for missing everyone after only a day!
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But back to yesterday. We then piled back into the van and continued with another bus ride back to camp complete with christmas songs and leftover jambon sandwiches. What a night.
..and that was our grand christmas concert. But now I'm off to hang out with DEFI since the family is finally home! Game night tonight!
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