We have now been living in Chamonix for one week. We have developed our routine, made some friends, tried our spread of bakeries, and figured out the buses. The more I learn about Chamonix the sillier i feel for not knowing it existed beforenour trip. everyone here lives a new level of outdoorsy. here, if you just rock climb or just mountain bike you wouldnt consider yourself an outdoor orieted person. the outdoor oriented people are mountain guides, and ultra marsthoners, and people summiting everest. we went to a flea market this past sunday ( we aquired great things like a patagonia for myself for 5 euros) and everyone was selling mountain equipment next to old lamps and curtain rods. We even did laundry yesterday afternoon in this cute little laundromat with free wifi. I wouldn't say we're anywhere near to being pros in this wonderful mountain city, but we have figured out our place and the basic ropes we need.
Speaking of ropes we have gotten quite hooked on rock climbing. Last week we went to the rock gym in Les Houches every day. We have learned the basics of lead climbing and even aquired our own pair of shoes and a borrowed harness. For those of you who domt know what lead climbing is, its climbing where you secure the rope as you go up. This is opposed to top rope climbing where the rope is fixed at the top of thenroute and you merely have to climb up. Unfortunately Saturday I sustained a bit of rope burn on my hand so were taking a break for a few days to run and hike. This isn't so bad though because the weather has cleared up nicely. This past week it was a little cloudy and rainy so the sunshine is a nice change.
This past weekend we explored more of the night life of Chamonix and even went dancing. We met up with our friends from French school and walked around downtown Chamonix. It was really fun to get out and see all the people of Chamonix. The bars and discotheques all vary in age from 18 to 30, but the wide range doesn't seem to be strange. Everyone here is just happy, happy to get out, happy to dance, happy to meet new people. While walking around we befriended this group of swedes who all work together at a bar in town and all were dressed up in 80's spandex and funky clothes, they put of quite the show of moves quite emphasized by their crazy getup. We visited them on sunday for a coffe at their bar and it was an interesting experience. Their homogenous appearance as a group when not dressed up in disco attire is a little intimidating but as a fellow blonde with blue eyes I don't feel extremely out of place, hopefully as we become better friends it will be less intimidating.
Our next big mission needs to be meeting more French people. Unfortunately all the French people our age are I'm school and have jobs and already established friends. I have a feeling when we go to Toulouse and Paris and other places it will be easier as we will have easier access to the exposure to French people our age.
As far as our classes go, they are going quite well. We have learned quite a bit of vocab so far and tomorrow are going on a class field trip to the mountain guide museum. Our class consists of us, a swedish au pair who we go out with, a mexican au pair, a russian au pair and a brittish chemist. we are quite the mix and our range in backgrounds makes cultural discussions fascinating. Our lessons are mostly conversational vocabulary focused, working on fluency, with some grammar and past tense verb conjugations thrown in. Our teacher Delphine is great because she never speaks in English and explains things really well in French. Come to think of it I don't think ice ever heard her speak anything I'm English ever. She has great patience for me when I struggle and stumble with pronunciation of strange new words and has stopped questioning the amount of tea we drink in class.
Our exciting big thing this week is that Arielle's parents Are visiting Chamonix! Today they met us after French class and took us up Aguille du Midi, which we had been up before but was just as amazing. We showed them our apartment and then they treated us to dinner at the only Indian restaurant in Chamonix. Tomorrow we have a hike planned, and it is quite nice to see them.nthey even were kind enough to bring the few things I realized I really missed from home, for example my funky printed pants that are fantastic because they can double as pjs and actual pants.
Lastly i would like to explain why we keep going out for for only ethnic cuisine and that is quite explainable by the fact that some of the best French food like bread and pasties we eat for lunch. We continue to cook for ourselves every night except for tonight and Saturday night, Saturday night because I was nursing bandaged hands, and tonight as a treat. We have mastered scrambled eggs, yes for dinner, and breakfast burritos, yes also for dinner, and last night even managed fried rice! We really enjoy cooking for ourselves and usually sit on the floor by the coffee table to enjoy our culinary masterpieces.
These pictures are from one of our favorite tea places in Chamonix.
These pictures are from the top of Aiguille du Midi, a spire that towers over Chamonix and is trumped then by mount Blanc( the tallest mountain in the alps).
This lovely picture is of Arielle's family with Mount Blanc in the background.
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