14 teenagers, no chaperones, a week in France on a ski vacation. What could go wrong?
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| Val Thorens, nestled in the breathtaking French Alps |
Such
a thing would have been unthinkable in the US, but in Germany (some)
teenagers seem to be given a bit more freedom. I was super excited
about this opportunity, even though my boyfriend didn't have the kind of
parents who allowed such a thing. It was a long, overnight bus ride
through Switzerland and France, into the Alps, to the ski village of Val
Thorens. We passed through Albertville where the Winter Olympics had
recently been held. It was so beautiful and looked much different than
Lake Tahoe as it is located above the tree line, in fact it is the
highest ski resort in Europe. We stayed in a large hotel, rather than a
cozy cabin. I was in a room with Manuela B and
Sabine D and I was
so excited about the bonding experience I was sure to have with them.
The skiing was tough for me because most of my classmates had been
skiing for their
entire lives, whereas I had really only started skiing during my
freshman year in high school (2 years experience). Furthermore, my
experience thusfar was at Badger Pass and Pinecrest so I was literally
going from the bunny slope to an expert slope - yikes! Luckily, Thilo
B. skiied at about my level so we spent a lot of time together, skiing
and improving greatly that week.
After
a long day of skiing, the evenings got a little nutty. Lots of
drinking, lots of obnoxious behavior. The song of the moment was
Killing in the Name of and it is a very angry song, but even if you are
not angry, there was something really fun about being 16, standing on
the balcony of the room with a bunch of German guys, and screaming,
literally screaming along with the music... Fuck you I won't do what you
tell me! This is an actual song lyric that gets repeated like 15 times
in a row. Fun stuff! Not at all obnoxious! I remember feeling the
slightest bit embarrassed, but also that we were teenagers being
teenagers - isn't that what it's all about?
