Lovelylovelylovely Cui and Weez accompanied me to A&E yesterday, and the v.nice doctor told me I've injured and might have torn my ligament. The swelling wasn't very terrible so it's not very serious; he just told me to put ice and take Ibuprofen + lots of rest. Oh wells! Let's talk about something more exciting -
It's amazing how much we've learnt in just 6 days, and I'd never expected to tackle even a bit of the red slope (It's green > blue > red > black, ascending in difficulty). Going down the blue slope from Flaine's summit was particularly scary. The fog was so heavy that we couldn't even see the path ahead of us, or how steep the slope was. All we could do was feel the ground under our skis and the velocity/direction of our descent, then shift our weights around based on that... couldn't even see the instructor in front of us! Ah, but it was all really fun. challenging! Parallel breaks, little steep cliffs and bumpy jumps through bits of the woods; we sifted through powder slopes, got our skis stuck in snow at least knee-high, fell off drag-lifts and slid down snow banks perilously, skiied off-pist and crashed into snow banks as well as err, skiied into rocks in such an amusing way... losing your skis on a steep slope was terribly straining on the mind and emotions! So many times when I just had to rebuke myself into calmness just to get myself out of the predicament by hook or by crook, even when I was panicking quite badly. Throughout the 6 days I felt so stretched mentally+emotionally... cheers to GREAT company + QT in hot showers + FABULOUS food.
Made many friends/acquaintances in that time... met Andy my year 1 housemate, which was nice 'cuz we were pretty close then and haven't been catching up much since. And got to know really lovely people like Faye and Sam in my ski class, and I guess through Faye and Andy got to know Tamara, Jamie, Gemma, Chris, the American girls, etc. Also met 4 other Asians in the group - 3 of them aren't students but are related somehow to a guy who used to study in York and went on the ski trip years ago; the other girl Sabrina is a postgrad at uni. And, well, the trip was really quite enjoyable also because of the group with whom I went. Weez, Rokey, Huimin, Nagisa and Shiao En all made such hilarious company, I don't recall laughing so hard for a long time... somehow the dynamics just worked, everyone felt pretty comfortable and easy with one another, and after hitting the slopes for a while, who wouldn't relish such delightful company?
The food was ABSOLUTELY fantastic. Mussels, fried potatoes and sausages, smoked mackerel and lots of salmon, prawns, loads of cheese and baguettes, beef steak and chips, Flan pudding and ice cream and yoghurt, various types of mutton stews and chicken drumlets, etc etc. Yumms. :)
Yeah like I said it wasn't an easy trip, emotionally - learnt so much about myself on this holiday and how incredibly prideful and spoilt I still was. And it took a twisted knee for me to learn humility, so in a sense I was ultimately thankful and at peace about it even though I was burning with tearing anger at myself and God on Thursday when I injured it. Spent a good whole day on Friday to rest it and just to sleep and spend quiet time with God, so that was good... though on Saturday I was slightly too keen and went on the slopes again, where I twisted the knee a 2nd time just when it was getting a lot better. Having said that, I'm quite happy to have gone on the green slope that Saturday morning, perhaps it eased my pride a little...... but I honestly felt all calm that morning when I decided to try the slopes again. Perhaps I should've been contented with the green slope, but I was greedy and wanted to do the blue; thank God for twisting the knee again before I had the chance to ski down and endanger myself even more. Sure I was sorely disappointed, but what can I blame but my own foolhardiness and pride?
(Thanks, you guys on the trip, for understanding, for the hugs, for your love and encouragement :))
