LES VACANCES D'HIVER
Monday is made for chilling out, Tuesday we're going to the Oasis concert at Zénith before we Wednesday morning are leaving for the holiday trip.
We start with Marseilles (and possibly Aix-en-Provence) before Avignon and Nîmes gets a visit. We'll be back Sunday evening, ready for school on Monday!
What has been:
I had the last day of school today. A real drag, long and ineffective lab session. FX and I mostly played around with the Scanning Electron Microscope. Here you can see the result of our productive day:
Doesn't it look like fun? I think this kind of stuff is really interesting!
I should get to bed, have a great weekend/holiday, everyone!
SHOPPING SPREE?
Inspired of this I'll do the same, but I'm not talking about my new shoes nor my new pants. I'm actually writing this post in a semi-desperate attempt to justify the fact that I spent a lot of money today.
On what you might say?
Well, after the great trip to Luchon-Superbagnères I understood that I needed a pair of goggles! I bought Oakley's A-Frame Matte-Black Irdium goggles.
My new Oakley goggles (Photo: Oakley.com)
Prizetag: 135€ (a bunch of money in my economic day to day life).
I also received a package from Threadless.com, my favourite online shop! The two brand new t-shirts remind me of yet more money spent, but then again. Two brand new t-shirts! One of them is green, perfect for tonights's Boom party!
The green design is shown above, the other one (a gift), below.
"Extra pulp" (Photo: Threadless.com)
MANIFESTATION!
Anyhow. Yesterday INSA showed their discontent with Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to reduce the amount of money given to research and universities in France.
In strike
This meant that there was no lectures given after 10 o'clock and it was a "manifestation" at Capitole from 14h. I joined in the "manifestation" and we paraded through Toulouse to show how unhappy we are about the proposal!
Today it was a "assemblage générale", a meeting where "the cause" was discussed. I didn't attend, but it decided that INSA is at strike. That means there will be no lectures tomorrow.
Kristian looking a bit lost in the crowd
A HINT OF SPRING
It was also BEE's Potluck evening, an evening where everyone make a dish from their country that everyone can try out. A lot of people showed up at P'tit Kawa creating a great atmosphere!
Later I met Philippe, Jonathan, Jean and Pierre for quiz at Bar Danú. They have the "Quizathon" this week, meaning they do a bar quiz each night! It was really fun and we did quite well, second place before the final round. The final round was a disaster and we ended up in fifth position (of about 20 teams).
Velo Toulouse (Photo: fr.zil)
After this success we met Malena, Fadia, Annika and a few others at Bar Basque for a beer before we rented Toulouse City Bikes (Velib) and biked home! The weather was still warm, even at 2 o'clock, I hope spring is coming soon!
SUPERBAGNÈRES
It all started early Saturday morning. The bus set of from INSA at 07h00. After about 2 hours of driving the bus started the climb towards the station. It was snowing heavliy and the roads were slippery. The bus driver just barely managed to get the bus up the first (non-steep) hill.
It was obvious that we would need chains to get further.
But the bus driver continued, he drove slowly (stupid) towards the next, much steeper hill, where we of course started slipping. Instead of backing back down (about 100 meters) to put on the chains, the bus driver continued to push the gas and the bus started sliding out. The situation got really tense and climaxed as the rear part of the bus hit the crash barrier, the only thing stopping us from sliding off the road and down the valley.
Crash barriers, a good invention
Seriously! A professional driver SHOULD MUST know that it is irresponsible to drive a bus on non-spiked tires with 50+ passengers up a steep hill in heavy snow around zero degrees centigrade! I am strongly provoked by the driver and his lack of sense.
A chaotic situation
First, when we had already hit the crash barrier (freaking us out), the driver realized that it was time to put on the chains *@$£%#*.
So he spent about 30 minutes getting the chains on and the bus continued in a slow trotting speed towards the top. We finally got to Superbagnère and was ready to ski around noon, about 2,5 hours late.
Enough complaining about the French driver's driving skills. From now on this is a happy story! As I said, it was snowing quite heavily, so the visibility and contrast made it hard to see much. BUT: The slopes were amazing! I had, without a doubt, the most amazing day I have EVER had on skis! It was 20-40cm of powder everywhere, making it an incredible experience!
Heavy snow and low visibility (I'm buying goggles as soon as possible)
I spent most of the day with Kristian, Sindre and the other "INSA Norwegians". We had great fun cruising down the red and black slopes. The perfect stretch we found in the end of the day (see map above). Only a few skiers had been there before us and all we had to do was to lean back and do the perfect turns! An amazing feeling I won't forget for a long time!
Kristian cruising down Powder Lane!
This post is getting really long, so I'll cut the last part short. The trip home also took a long time and it took us 3,5 hours to return to INSA. After a fast taco dinner at Synnøve's, Kristian, Cate, Fadia, Synnøve and I went to Sindre and Erik's house warming party (crémaillère). They have a great apartment, and we had a good time!
Shortly summed up. Thank you for reading!