Last Year As A Teenager

I'm not even going to mention anything about my absence...

But yes, it's true. I survived my first year as an 'adult'. And for the first time ever, I celebrated my birthday away from home. It's weird knowing that this is my last year as a 'teenager'. I still feel too young, immature, and weird to be turning twenty next January. The older I get, the faster time goes by.

For my actual birthday, I hung out with my French family. We didn't have a huge party (I've never been super big on having a large birthday celebration). But after dinner, Sophie brought out a cake for me. I had no idea she even made it. And they got me a watch, that I love. All I had was a white watch that was surrounded by little diamond studs. Well more like rhinestones. So I kind of needed a more sophisticated watch. It was very nice of them. And after Sarah and I watched The Smurfs movie. En français... Les Schtroumpfs. Yeah, try sounding that one out. Not gonna lie, I was very skeptical at the idea of watching The Smurfs, but it was actually kind of cute. And it was nice spending time with Sarah.

Avec mes amis (with my friends), I went to play in the snow. For my 18th birthday, my parents let me take the car to Flagstaff with my friends and little sister to play in the snow. I had such a blast with my friends. So when my Frenchies asked me what I would like to do for my birthday, I asked for the snow. For a little bit, I wasn't sure if it was actually going to happen, but my friends pulled through. The great thing about living in Pau is that I have the beach a little over an hour away, and I have the mountains a little over an hour away as well. It's perfect!

In my last post, I mentioned a little bit about Maruata and Christophe. They are my friends from Tahiti. And for those who don't know, Tahitians speak French. I didn't know that until I met them... Then there is Pierre/Peter/Gabou. But I will refer to him as Gabou so he doesn't get confused with my host dad, Pierre. The four of us went to Gourette. For a while we weren't sure if there was actually any snow, but the further up the mountain we went, the whiter the ground looked. The roads going through the small, little city were tiny. Like, you really can't fit two cars at the same time. Not even the two tiny European cars. And there would be sharp turns all of a sudden. The whole time I kept picturing a car speeding down the mountain around the next curve. But Gabou kept tooting the horn to say, "Je suis là!" (I'm here!)

 After we parked, we had a little lunch. Which was some hard bread, slices of meat, and chips. Then we picked up our plastic sleds, and starting walking up the mountain. Before the trip, I had bought special, but cheap, snow shoes and pants. My shoes were terrible! Yes they kept my feet warm and dry, but I slipped ALL the time! I partly blame the snow. It wasn't really snow, more like ice. So on our first run, we wanted to go on a hill that no body else paid attention to. It was a very gradual hill. Not steep at all. Maruata, Gabou, and even Christophe, who was wearing skate shoes, made it up the hill with no troubles. But for some reason, I could not get up the stupid hill! The first try I fell. Second try I made it a little farther up, but then fell and slid back down. Third try I got a little farther, but then slipped once again and slid down. It was hilarious. I tried to stop myself from sliding down the hill, but there was nothing to stop me! Okay, so the fourth try I made it so close to everyone, but then I slipped again! This time, there was a tiny little hole that I held onto. I didn't want to fall again! Seriously, this hill was hardly even a hill. You would think that it was a cliff by the way I latched my fingers into that small ditch. I was hanging on for dear life! Christophe was coming to my rescue, but then he slipped and almost kicked me in the face. It scared me so I let go and a few moments later, I slid all the way back down the hill. By this time I was weak from laughing so hard. I finally decided to try a different route, so I went all the way around and up another side. And I finally summited the stupid hill! And right when I sat down, everyone wanted to go down...

Sledding was very fun, even though the sleds were absolute trash. I have pictures, but my iPhoto is being a bit lame en ce moment. So soon I will repost this with pictures included. But if you have seen my Facebook, then you have seen the photos... (And now it is working! Woo!)

We tried having a snowball fight, but as I have mentioned before, the snow was ice. Therefore, it was more like an ice ball fight. It really hurt! So I ran up a big, steep hill until none of the ice balls had enough 'umph' to hit the target. I escaped the snowballs, but as I turned around and looked down the hill, I regretted running. I was so high up! I had no idea I was going to get back down without dying. Okay that is an exaggeration, but with my shoes and clumsiness combined, it was a very likely possibility... Anyway, I almost made it down the hill safely, but at the end I slipped. I think I slid into a rock or something because I seriously thought I broke my leg. I've never broken a bone so I didn't know what it would feel like. I just rolled on the ground saying ow. Maruata tried to help me, but I didn't want anyone to touch me. Ha, I had to go through my pain before I could be helped. I stayed on the ground for a while, even though my leg was not broken, and after I got up, we decided it was about time to go. I was very happy I was not driving, because I was completely exhausted. Getting home and into bed never felt so good.

P.S. Just a little update from the current day events. We have more pets. We bought two gerbils. And one is named after me so I could stay with my family even when it comes time for me to go back to The United States of America.