I`m going to Morocco!

As one of my friends put it eloquently, yesterday I had a girly day. I looked at shoes, went to a material store and made myself a curtain. Though I already have a curtain in room its quite ugly and completly blocks the light. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but yesterday when I had my window open I felt like my arm was being burnt so I needed some kind of thin layer to protect myself from the sun. I still wanted to enjoy the sun and thus was born my conundrum. I also now have a kind of privacy screen from the people who are going up the bastille in the eggs. I know for a fact that they can see into my room, though I imagine that most of the time they are admiring the view and not the rooms in Rabot. I still feel a little uneasy changing though.

In terms of my trip over Easter break I now have a way to get back! Hourrah. I was a little worried before that we might end up paying huge sums of money to leave Morocco because all of the flight would be booked up. Luckily this was not the case and for the entire Morocco excursion flights have worked out to $250 CAD. The leg from Barcelona to Marrakech is about 2 hours and from Agadir to Lyon the flight is about 4 hours.If you follow the route illustrated by Google maps (which we won`t be) its 2,666 km.

Anyways, that's all for now. I am meeting a friend from brunch shortly and then we are going to visit Vizille, which is 17km's south of Grenoble. It has a castle which is the main reason we`re going. I`ll have more details later, probably even some photos!

Summer? Or Grenoble's spring...

So, this is my second blogging attempt of the day.

I was sitting on a bench using wifi provided by the city of Grenoble tapping away on my iPod. It was going super well, that is until the internet crashed and I lost everything I had already written. It was somewhat frustrating but the sun is shining so it was hard to stay angry.


It is currently 21 degree out, in mid-March. I'm not sure if this is due to global warming or the weird pressure system that is created by all the surrounding mountains but the weather had been like this for the past while. Sadly, the temperature doesn't really remain constant throughout the day, this morning it was 3 degrees. Ideally I would have two outfits. One that I would wear from 8-11am and then again from 6pm onwards and a second outfit for the midday. For example when I set out this morning it was pretty chilly and I was comfortable wearing my wool winter coat. In a normal climate I would just have been able to unzip it and that would have been appropriate for the afternoon. IHowever, while I was waiting at the tram stop at 11am, I was way too warm and had to remove my coat. This afternoon I lay in the sun on one of the many lawn type areas at Rabot with some friends. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get a tan this year if I start in March. I already have a rather impressive watch tan so I can only hope that the trend will continue.

Even more surprising than this warm weather, is the fact the weather is consistently nice. It hasn't legitimately rained in quite a long time. I think the last time was early last week, and it only rained during the night. Definitely a contrast from the wet coast. The only downside to all this beautiful weather is that it's not very good for the snow. I opted to not go skiing this week or weekend, partially because I was feeling a little bit sick, and partially because I imagine that the snow will be lacking. I've already experienced skiing on slush and it isn't an experience I'll be rushing to repeat. That being said, I am going to head down into Grenoble tomorrow and purchase a book I've been eying up for a while that covers all of the local hiking trails. Now that most of the snow is melted on the low altitude mountains/hills surrounding the city it's time to work on climbing up inclines instead of zooming down. It'll also be cool to see the reverse view, instead of looking up at the mountains in  awe I will soon be gawking at them from amongst their peers.

Aside from that, not much is going on. I'm currently working on my travel plans for Easter break (I get 11 days off) which involve Peripignan, (south-east of France), Barcelona and Morocco. At the moment I only know rough details, but I was invited by one of my friends to spend Easter with her. She has relatives who live in Peripignan, who are gracious enough to have two guests join them for Easter weekend. From Peripignan we are going to Barcelona for a couple of days and then onto Marrakesh(central Morocco) via Ryan Air. We don't have a return flight yet, but hopefully that will all change tonight as we have a flight eyed up that we want to book that flies. It flies from Agadir (coastal Morocco) to Lyon. Aside from that I don't really know what we are doing, but I will definitely update you all about what's going to happen because I'm pretty excited about this trip and probably couldn't keep my travel plans to myself if I tried.

Also, as a charity update my earning were rather stagnant for a time. I imagine that was completely my fault because I think that earnings are largely dependent on how frequently you post as advertisers don't want to put ads on a Blog that people aren't likely to visit. Now that I have re-started blogging more regularly I have nearly reached the $8 dollar mark. Good news, because it would have been a little embarrassing to send a charity $4.56 (my earnings as of 5 days ago).

Les soussignés

This is how the letter begins:

Les soussignés Genevieve Lenfant, veuve  de veu Jacques Boniface Rousselin, marinier demeurant en la Commune de Poses, d'une part. De Caisimir Cyrille Lenfant, marinier, domicilé au dit lieu de poses, d'autres part ont arrêté les consentions qui suivent: 

Le dit sieur Lenfant ayant fait récemment construite une maison au dit lieu de Poses fur une propriété qui lui appartient comme acquéreur de Sieur pierre paul lecharbout, a établi un larmier de cette maison, d'une taille de vingt centimetres sur la propriété de la dite veuve Rousselin qui se trouve contigüe à la ferme.

Mais attendu qu'en cet endroit, la muraille qui sépare les propriétés des dites parties, est en grande partie mitoyenne entre elles, suivant transaction den date du vingt-un juillet mil huit cent trentes deux, faite alors entre le dit Sieur Lecharbout et le dit veu Jacques Boniface Rousselin; qu'une partie supérieur seulement de la dite muraille, se trouve encore appartenir au dit Sieur Lenfant, et que la dite saillie du larmier de la maison de celui-ci, ne peut faire aucun tort à la muraille mitoyenne, qu'au contraire elle contribuera à sa conservation:

I know that some of you are able to read French so I included the first two paragraphs for your reading pleasure. If you don`t read French (or don`t read French well) you were probably confused by those first few paragraphs. Don`t worry, your french comprehension hasn't got worse, its just the letter. As it's from nearly 180 years ago there are some weird spellings and verb tenses that have fallen out of use, furthermore the language is very formal so things are expressed in unusual ways. Also, since its a legal document there are lots of phrases like 'the said' and other such legal jargon.

Anyways, the actual content of the letter is pretty dull. I have understood that Widow Rousselin (Lenfant) had planted a tree near a property boundary and these are the conditions detailing what has to be done as far a propertly upkeep goes. There is also a fence involved, so this contract type things also outlines fence upkeep and mention of a gutter is thrown in along with who will get the drainpipe draining onto their side of the property. It seems to me like someone had a bit of a tiff with the neighbor. Or perhaps these things were standard at the time, I have no idea.

This is an embossed seal type things, this photo doesn't show it very well, but it looks like a greek man (he's wearing a toga) holding the scales of justice and the executioners sword

Here you can see that just above the embossed seal there is a timbre royal (royal stamp), which apparently cost 35c. I'm not sure how much that was at the time, but I do know that it would have been in Francs, and 33 francs=1 euro.

At the end of letter you can see the signatures of the two people involved. I am guessing they had this drawn up by a notary because neither of the signatures matches the writing. I also imagine that Veuve Rousselin did not get much schooling as she was a woman and it wouldn't have been considered important

Somewhat fuzzy close up of the timbre royale.

letters

I just found out, while reading through my letter that I bought at the flea market that one of them if from 1834. 1834!!! Its really awesome. I will have to photograph it later.

Marché des brocantes.

Today by total fluke I stumbled upon an antique/flea market. I had not planned to go at all, but while walking down into the city I couldn`t help but see it. It started at the gate to the road that leads up my hill and extended all the way past the stairs up the hill. So no matter how I left my hill top abode I would have been forced to be a participant.

It was much like a flea market you would see in North America, but it seemed like all the stuff was a lot older and less garbage like. There were also no car parts in sight, which would have disappointed several people I know. Everything also seemed to be very expensive, I saw an old love seat that was 450 euros. It definitely did not look like it was worth that much, but then again I am not an antique expert. It's almost a good thing because I wasn't tempted to buy anything as it all seemed quite expensive. There was lots of silverware, china, old cloth (linen and lace type stuff mostly) and much much more.

Here is some normal stuff you might expect to find, and then a box of deer skulls. I`m not actually sure they were deer, because they were quite small, maybe European deer are smaller?

 Other miscellaneous things, and some old wooden skis, complete with leather strings to attach your feet

 Some rather unusual art. This is of a lady/cat. If you look closely you'll notice that the black thing to the bottom left is a statue of a mouse in a skirt underneath a flower...

 As rather large collection of china dolls. I`m pretty sure this was more of a display to promote a business than anything. As there were many signs saying you weren`t allowed to touch

 Some cool chairs made out of what looked to be tractor seats, but I looked to find what kind and they said «san fransisco» and some other stuff I don`t remember. So I think they might have been replicas

 The above photos are just to give you all an idea of how large/ how many people were at the market. The one at the bottoms is taken several hours later though, as I was headed back up the stairs so the crowd had thinned out quite a bit.

 Now, these last photos may seem to be unrelated to the rest of the flea market, but just wait. While I was walking around I noticed a large box of letters. I was originally interested in them because of the old stamps they had on them but then I was struck by inspiration. My room is not super interesting so I have been on the lookout for decorations that I could put up to make it more interesting so i decided to use some of the old letters and their envelopes because they are all quite cool looking.

The earliest letter I had (that I have noticed at least) is from 1912, and appears to be a letter from a student to one of his. He apologises in the letter for not having gone to visit said friend, his excuse is that he had to stay home because the river was rising and his dad wanted him to stay home in case it flooded and they needed his help to move all of the stuff out of the basement. After that there is a pretty big gap and most of the rest of the letters are from 1950-1958 with a few from the 60`s and the most recent being from 1971. Its pretty cool to look through them, but I can`t help but wonder why a family member doesn't have these as they all seem to be addressed to the same family of people.

I also have some negatives that were mixed into the letter that I am also going to use to decorate my room. They are pretty cool looking and are mostly of some people who seem to be on vacation. My favourite is of a older man standing in a lake in his bathing suit, my second favourite is the same shot, but this time the man is accompanied by a friend, also in his bathing suit and they appear to be standing in a field. These both seem rather comical, especially when compared to the rest of the negative that I have, which are mostly of women and men posed in very modest dresses, that appear to be from the 50`s given the styles, though I am no expert. I am going to try to think of some way that I can hang them so the light from window will shine through them and everyone can enjoy them. I also have 3 actual photos, two of children and one of a car, all from 1957.

It also occured to me that you might all like to know what my room is, not super interesting and rather basic but I working on making it more interesting.

 This is my bed, and the chair where I spend the majority of my time.

 My desk and shelf where I store all my food and dishes

My closet and door post decoration.

In tartiflette we trust

Since I have disappeared off the grid (figuratively) what have I been doing? I definitely haven`t been writing on my blog. You would think that in the week time I didn`t write anything I would have come up with something interesting to say, but this is not the case.

I have recently been trying to devote a lot more time to studying than I have since my arrival. This is quite difficult because I tend to study better with a deadline looming, such as a midterm or final  (I am a procrastinator). Since 4/6 of my classes have final worth 100%, no other work is assigned, my profs don`t even really assign readings. So I am faced with having to review my notes of my own volition. As you can imagine almost anything is more interesting than this option. Also, I am in Europe, so the distractions are oh-so appealing. For example, I considered going skiing today but decided in the end that even though the snow is only going to be present for a limited amount of time thanks to 20 degree days, failing a class would be worse than missing a possible ski day. Though today I did succeed in typing some of class notes before I decided to do more interesting things.

My parents jokingly tease me that all I seem to do is ski. For anyone else that might be thinking this, I can assure you all that this is not the case. Though I can understand why you might all think this. As it is one of the more interesting things I do, I tend to mention it more frequently then say, how frequently I sweep my room (about 3 times per week, my black floor really shows crumbs and all other dirt).

Now to kind of contradict everything I just said, I did go skiing this week which will probably only serve to reinforce everyone`s perception of me disregarding the academic obligations in my life. Anyways, this time it was a different type of skiing. The École de Glisse had a special outing to Chamrousse (another ski mountain) for night skiing. Since it was international women`s day I got a great deal and was able to enjoy a 1/2 day lift pass, transportation, tartiflette and 2 drinks for 10€ (guys had to pay 17€50). So basically, night skiing is almost exactly the same as day skiing, except for it`s at night. Chamrousse has one day per week where they light up one of their runs for people to enjoy skiing at night. It was lots of fun, but a little bit challenging near the end because my ski goggles are a fairly dark tint so all the snow ended up looking the same. This was a bit of a problem because I had a hard time telling where the icy patches were before I was upon them, I also wasn't able to see bumps in the snow before I was ontop of them. I only fell once though, and it wasn't even because of not being able to see. It was my last run of the evening and my legs were so tired that I ended up crossing my skis in the middle of a turn, whoops.

It was also my first experience skiing in actual winter weather, because up until now I have enjoyed only sunny skies with no wind while I have gone skiing. Thursday night it was snowing and visibility was not particularly good a) because we were in a cloud ( the base is at 1650m, 5400 feet) and b) because the wind was blowing snow everywhere. It was the wind that really got to me as I did not think to bring a scarf to protect the area of my face that is exposed between my neck and ski goggles. On the way down it wasn't a problem because I was moving but in the chairlift it was pretty brutal. When snow is hitting your face at a high speed, things get cold. In my expert opinion (based on Ottawa winter weather) we were enjoying a windchill of between -15 and -20.

As for the free dinner it was delicious. We  were served outside so the dining facilities left something to be desired (standing up, or if you were brave, sitting in the snow) but we got served very quickly because with that kind of windchill food doesn't remain hot for very long. I enjoyed my first tartiflette experience. For those (all?) of you who don't know what tartiflette is, I shall enlighten you. It resembles scalloped potatoes, except for the potatoes are in small chunks, and there are also little chunks of bacon (called lardons). In the traditional French fashion it also includes a specific kind of cheese (Reblochon) and cream. It was quite delicious. I was also finally able to understand the stickers that I see in various places around the city.
 They say "In tartiflette we trust" and since the slogan's creation for skipass.com it has kind of become a slogan of skiiers in this area. This confused me initially but upon refection its quite catchy, as I recently learned that tartiflette is a typical skiing food. I'm not quite sure if all the French catch the reference to "In God we trust" but for those who do, I'm sure they also find it quite witty. On a side note, another French word play on english I am quite fond of is "Shakesbeer", which is a local bar that I walk by frequently (no, I have never gone in).

Not only we were all served tartiflette, we were also served drinks. Everyone got two coupons for drinks with the option of Coca-cola, Red wine or white wine. I got quite a kick out of this, because only in France (actually probably Europe) would those be considered equivalent beverage options. I would have expected something more like Coke, 7-up or Dr Pepper. I opted for the white wine because I don't like soft drinks, and because to me it seemed like it would taste better with tartiflette than coke.

Aside from skiing, I have mainly gone back and forth between my classes. I am actually quite frustrated with one of my teachers because she shows a complete disregard for the class schedule. Last week we were supposed to have class Tuesday from 5:15 to 7:15pm, she announced she couldn't make it in the previous class and so she moved it to Friday from 8 to 10am. Though I was not happy about this arbitrary schedule change I showed up at 8am only to discover that late Thusday night she moved the class the next Friday. Then, when I showed up to the make-up class yesterday morning she was 15 minutes late. Obviously this class is not her first priority.

Other miscellaneous things going on in my life. I purchased a rose bush last week but it doesn't seem to be doing to well. I forgot to water it for a few days, then it wilted. So then I watered it consistently for the next few days hoping to bring it back to life. This didn't have quite the effect planned, as it now seems to be loosing a lot of leaves and some have even turned brown and fallen off. I might have research plant care online to ensure I do not kill it.

Ski update

I'm sure you are all on the edge of you seats waiting to hear how my ski shopping when. You're all in luck. Today is the day you get a full update of what I have been doing on the mountains.

Ski shopping was not as successful as I had hoped, what I didn't realize is that the ski store was holding an end of season clearance sale so they had no skis in my size/ability level. For all of you skiing newbies you buy skis based on your height and ability level. So all the skis in my 'length' were too rigid (meant for advanced skiiers), and all the ones for beginners were too short or too long. I did find ski boots though which I am quite happy with. This means that I won't have to deal with ill fitting boots that smell like other peoples feet now. Since I know absolutely nothing about ski boots or what to look for I had one of my friends come with me and he helped me pick out a good pair. So my boots have metal fastenings and according to on of my other friends are made by a excellent company. I don't know if Lange means anything to you guys, but my boots are made my Lange. They are quite used (scratches, paint/logo coming off) but I got them for 20 euros so I was quite pleased. Even more so when I googled the prices of new Lange boots and realized that they sell for anywhere between 80 to 650+ dollars new. Following are a few pictures so you can appreciate them for yourselves.

Now, for where I have been skiing. I have been to 2 different mountains, my photos are not particularly good as I have had excellent weather all the times I have gone, so they were all taken with quite a glare. They were also taken on my iPod so that probably didn't help. Without further ado, here they are.

 So all the photos above are from 2 alpes, but only from the village and lower part of the hill as I wasn't good enough at this point to do any of the runs at the top. Deux alpes is one of the higher mountains though these picture are all from the 1650m station, but the peak is 3200m. You are able to ski at 2 alpes all round actually, I believe its glacier skiing in the summer but I'm not completely sure about that. If anyone is interested in looking at an interactive maps of all the slopes click here.

 This picture is not on the mountain at all, while I was waiting for the bus yesterday to go up to 7 laux this was my view. I figured it was too good of a photo opportunity to pass up. This is right downtown in front of the prefecture.

All of these photos are from 7 laux, I really have no idea exactly where I was so I have idea what altitude these are at, but the runs span from 1350 to 2400m. As you can see some ground is visible. It was incredibly hot yesterday and at the bottom there was slush.

In terms of my skiing I have improved exponentially. Mostly because of the lessons I have been taking. As I mentioned before you are allowed to take as many lessons as you want for the membership fee of about $40. They divide all the people who want to take lessons into 6 groups (A-E + slalom) with A being you have never skiied before and slalom being very good. Because of the way the groups get divided I have ended up with basically private lessons twice (the instructor, myself and another student) so I am taking full advantage of the lessons because I know I could never afford lessons in Canada.

Thus, I am much much better than I was initially and yesterday I made quite a bit of progress. Our instructor decided that even though we were in group 'B' we were too advanced, so I went from doing green runs to red (The rating system goes green, blue, red, black). I would like to say that I had no problems but that would be a lie. Because of how warm it had been in almost all of the red runs had huge bumps (with some smaller ones) in the run and that you have to navigate around. This presented a problem when I wanted to turn I would end up not being able to turn, gaining a lot of speed and inevitably crashing into the ground. That being said I only had 4 crashes , though I didnt actuallly crash in the traditional sense, just mainly fell on my butt with my skis at awkward angles beneath me. It paid off in the end though, by the end of the day I was able to go down the bumpy sections very slowly while staying upright the whole time (controlling my speed!).

I would say that my accomplishment of the day was when we went down quite a long steep straight section. Our instructor first asked us if we were afraid of going fast, we both said no so down we went. After he told us that we were probably going 50km/hr. Not that fast compared to how fast you could be going but neverthless quite fast. To all of they people who are worrying, you shouldn't. I was wearing a helmet and remained in control the whole time.