got my butt kicked by snowboarding. and loved it.

So, this weekend I decided to take it easy on traveling and just go snowboarding with a school trip on Saturday. Before that on Friday I went on a school-paid-for tour of the Bofferding brewery, one of Luxembourg's favorite beers. I'm not a huge fan, but at the end of the tour they give out unlimited beer and I had wanted to try their Christmas ale that people have been going on about without actually paying for it. It was a very interesting tour because I knew almost nothing about how beer is made. Unfortunately I forgot my camera... but that was fun! The Differdange Christmas market also opened this weekend. Its been in the process of setting up for the last week (including a GIANT RAMP outside my window in the park for sledding, apparently. What the heck?) So I got dinner at one of the stalls and it was good.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early (5am) to get on the bus to go to Lac Blanc in France. I had my snowboarding coat and pants, but a lot of people had some pretty funny makeshift outfits to try to stay warm. The bus ride was supposed to be 3 hours long, but that was a joke. We didn't get on the slopes until about 12. Now, I love snowboarding and I did have a great time (I'll get to that later) but some things about this trip were just so ridiculous I just have to complain about them.

:: view over the only black diamond ::

First thing to mention: WORST. RENTAL BOARD. EVER. First they tried to give me a 144 size board (I ride a 152), and when they gave me a 149 I was like ok, no problem it'll just be a little slower and easier to turn. But it was also stomp-in bindings, which I haven't used since the first time I ever snowboarded and are notorious for having terrible support. The boots I got laced up but didn't have a mechanism for getting tighter or stiffer on the leg so there was a lot of give that made controlling the board hard. Finally, this board couldn't have been waxed in the last year and it didn't have any edges to speak of. Which brings me to the next problem. This mountain was very pretty (kind of small, say a little smaller than Holiday Valley, length-wise, but with fewer runs than Perfect North Indiana or Mad River Mountain in Ohio), but was in parts nothing but a sheet of ice. No edges on my board plus ice equaled lots of bruises for me. And since it was just a small place, they only had one chairlift and the rest where T-bar tow ropes. My first experience with one of those must have looked pretty funny because I fell twice and got dragged, but the second time I had gotten the hang of it and it was fine after that because those lifts got you to better runs anyways.

:: tow rope. lol ::

So despite falling down and getting mad at my board a lot, I did have a lot of fun! One of the coolest things we did was go through a back-woods path. It was really narrow, so you just had to toeside the entire thing, and then out of nowhere there was a steep drop and then a two foot wide bridge over a sizeable trench and a creek. The first time we did it, none of us was expecting it and I basically thought "OH crap, don't fall off the bridge!" and made it across, only to miss the sharp turn after the bridge and faceplant into a snowdrift. That was definitely the best fall of the day because it didn't hurt at all. After we made it down the rest of the wooded path, we found an open field run covered with powder. It was the best run of the entire day, even though it rejoined the iciest run on the mountain at the end.

:: best run of the day ::

All in all, it was a really fun, exhausting day and I'm definitely feeling it today. I have some pretty amazing bruises on my knees from the ice and on my thigh from the tow rope, and a scratch on my face from (I think) the bush in the snowbank I fell into. Battle scars, no big deal.

Today I have to start buckling down to do some real work. This is the last week of classes before finals, and I can't believe I'm going to be home in less than two weeks! It's too surreal.