Luge!

I'm very tired right now, so this will be short! Yesterday I went up to Manigod, this tiny town about 30 min from Annecy to spend the night at my friend Eric's house with a few other exchange students. He goes to school in Annecy, and lives all the way up in the mountains, its quite a major commute, but its gorgeous enough up there that its definetly worth it. I just found out that I was supposed to be living up there, which weirds me out- I feel so lucky I ended up down by the lake, where it's easy to get to the city. As we ate lunch Eric and his host mom started talking about us going and riding luges. I got so excited, and then I realized that luge is the word for sled in French. Early in the afternoon we set off with sleds towards a nearby mountain. We scrambled up the snow covered hillsides for a few minutes and then stopped, ready to sled down. Then his host mom was like, "Why are you stopping? I'm going further." We ended up climbing up the mountain for a good 25-30 minutes, then sledding down the whole thing- it was a lot of work to get up there, but so worth it! The rest of the night we hung around and played many, many games of cards. In the morning we babysat his host nephews, who were adorable. I had a great time, it amazes me that that snowy wonderland is so close to where I lived. As we were walking back from the sledding mountain I realized that I was in the Alps, in France, and I LIVED there. The Alps were magical mountains I read about in Tin-Tin, not actually a place I'd ever see. I'm so lucky.

Four months ago today I left Seattle, time moves so fast. Tomorrow I'm heading off to Saumur with my host family for Christmas! Its a looooong drive. Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel!!