St. Sorlin d'Arves

Last weekend was another crazy exchange student get-together and it was fantastical! (If there are any college admissions out there reading this, pretend I just said 'incredibly stupendous' instead of fantastical.) Carolina, my Brazilian chica who lives in Aubenas, slept over friday night and there wasn't a silent moment between the two of us. We were screaming and laughing and crying, and now that I think about it, we probably woke up the whole neighborhood. It had been at least 2 or 3 months since I had last seen her in person, and we certainly made up for lost time with endless storytelling.

The next day, my host parents drove us and two other exchangers living in Valence to St. Sorlin d'Arves, a ski resort city in the Alps. The ride was about 4 hours long and between the broken English, Portuguese, and French, we all babbled on and on without a moment's rest. My host parents were probably pretty happy to drop off the raucous group of teenagers who might as well have eaten Energizer Bunny batteries for breakfast.

The station was absolutely gorgeous. The mountains were steep, dramatic, and blanketed in snow. The 48 of us were staying in a youth hostel and we spent the whole afternoon (and night) talking and talking. I was so happy when I first saw Pruthvi; we hugged continuously for about ten minutes before we could even pull away and look each other in the face. I grabbed a room with Pruthvi and Eleanor, an exchange student from Minnesota, and as soon as we settled in, we broke out the Reese's and the cameras. Pruthvi taught me how to wrap a sari and we played dress-up in her beautiful Indian clothes.  

After dinner, a talent show, a snowball fight, and a bazillion more pictures, everyone headed upstairs for the 11:30 curfew. However, Pruthvi and I decided to take a little detour, and we snuck into the kitchen on the second floor for hot chocolates before joining everyone. It was so beautiful; all the lights were off, but there was moonlight streaming through the curtains and we watched the snow falling while we sipped our hot chocolates in a corner where no one would find us. 

I honestly don't think anyone got any sleep the whole night. Tons of exchange students congregated in the Brazilians' room at 11:30 and we stayed there until 3:30 before heading back to our own rooms. After that, we continued talking until about 6:30. We had several people throughout the night coming in through our balcony window, staying for a few minutes, and then balcony hopping to the next room over. No one wanted to sleep, and we all had plans to stay up for the sunrise. Unfortunately, the sunrise was mostly hazy blue and gray, so there was no more point staying up after we discovered that. I got an hour of sleep and woke up at 7:30 for breakfast. (I could have slept an extra 2 hours, but believe me, I am never one to turn down food!)

On Sunday, we all took a snow-shoeing excursion in the mountains. This one only lasted about 5 hours, and it was so much easier than the one I went on with my host family few weekends earlier. No one actually wanted to go after pulling a successful all-nighter, but I actually had a really nice time, and the scenery in this picture speaks for itself. 

Needless to say, by the end of the weekend, we were all exhausted. My host parents came to pick us up and we reluctantly said our goodbyes. Danny and Daniel (the two exchange students living in Valence) were asleep and snoring before we pulled out of the driveway. Carolina and I followed soon after and for   the first time all weekend, all was quiet.