We really did arrive into a Winter Wonderland, covered in about 2 meters of snow. It was beautiful. (The only downside to note is that there was no internet, so that made it difficult to make the final arrangements for our arrival in Chambéry). Either way we had a ton of fun with the family, and we played cards (Oh Well) every single night with all 8-9 of us. It was great fun, and I am proud to announce that I won almost every time, and pity points can go to Costa who came in last almost every game except the one she won, ironically.
For New Year's Eve we went over to party with the "young people" as Dario said, which was a group of people between the ages of probably 17-25 who were friends with the Fabbro family. (They were however all Italian, so the entire night was in Italian, but a very exciting news for me: I can understand sooo much! This is just a little linguistic deviation: because the two languages are so close, French and Italian, due to my extremely high level of French I can actually understand entire sentences that are spoken in Italian. Therefore that, in combination with occasional bits of English with my cousins, David and I participated quite well in the discussion.) Luckily though, most of our concentration was on the food. We ate a huge quantity of communal Raclette, which I know my family is familiar with, but for the rest of you: Raclette is a very particular form of Swiss cheese that melts into a gooey wonderfulness very easily. A Raclette table will have a Raclette "device" in the middle of it which has a hot grill plate on top and a lower shelf where the eaters put a little tray thing that holds a chunk of cheese to be melted. Therefore you can grill your veggies and fine meats (prosciutto etc) up top while you melt your cheese down below, and when both are ready you combine them on your plate and eat. It is delicious. And while you can do this in the States, you will find that Raclette cheese is quite expensive, however, out here in France it is so cheap it is practically free so we ate so much it was unbelievable. I definitely do not want to do a caloric calculation for that meal... For dessert we ate more Pandoro and Panetoni, two different FANTASTIC Italian holiday breads that you can only buy around Christmastime. Anyway, David and I started eating it on our arrival in Italy on the 20th and didn't miss a day until we left on the 3rd of January. If I can buy it back in the States I think I will add it to our Christmas traditions.
At Midnight we drank plentiful amounts of champagne with the rest of the family and everyone went to bed very full but very happy. And now I can't remember if it was the next day or the day after that, but all of us cousins got together and rented some sleds at a local ski-rental place and went super-sledding. And I say super-sledding because the hill was E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S. Unfortunately it was also a little curved so very frequently we found ourselves shooting off the path and tumbling into the unpacked-snow and trying to traipse our way back up (actually that most frequently happened to people in the red sled so I think it didn't turn as well). Anyway this massive track has to be at least 50 maybe75 meters long (perhaps even a 100 if you count how far some people when on the flat if they did fall off the hill, hit too big of a bump, or fall off their sled before the bottom) and it was extremely steep. Overall we had an absolute blast, and got quite the workout because that was a long walk back up. I have included some pictures below.
Finally we left Bessans for Chambéry which David and I were both excited for. We had been carting around 10 pieces of luggage from Le Havre, through Paris, to Turin, then to Bessans, and then again from Modane (the closest train station to Bessans) to Chambéry. We were so ready to be done living out of our suitcases and moved into our new apartment. But that is where my next update will pick up because now it is morning and David and I are going to eat breakfast and go shopping - the famous sales have started up in France and I want to see what they are all about. They last three weekends and supposedly each weekend has better and better discounts and it is more or less equivalent to our Black Friday except that there are more days than just one. So yeah, I am excited.
This is us on New Years enjoying our Raclette.
This is a nearby town that we drove to for a little walk with Dario and Giulietta (that my parents have also been to but whose name I forget) and I took a picture of the quantity of snow. There were some paths that we uncleared where the snow went strait up and touched the bottom of the roofs.
David and I in the unnamed town.
David and I trekking up the mountain after our two-in-one-sled decent. We went so quickly with the extra weight, and I was in the front, I was so so so lambasted with snow it was not even funny. Oh, and David and I both had bruises on our butts after the sledding day, and perhaps it was this run that did it. Anyway mine was ok, but David's bruise could have possibly some kind of butt-bruise record.
Fili, David, Sisi, and I. Got to love it.
David and Fili about to have a head to head race. I assume Fili won because as I mentioned earlier everyone who used the red sled always ended up crashing in some way or another. And the hill, was so fast and tall that everyone only went a couple of times each, maybe 5-6, and I only ever managed to use the red one, so I don't know for sure, but I can tell you that I never made it down to the bottom except the time with David. Haha, perhaps I am just bad, but really, everyone who used red consistently lost.
Sisi and I before our race. I lovingly call this my "death run" because I went shooting off the side of the hill at an incredibly steep part due to a bump that I hit and I completely flipped head over heels and landed on my head/neck/shoulder after about a meter fall (thanks to the steepness of the hillside). My neck was sore for three days because of that. But it was fun nonetheless.
David and I all warmed up from the intense exercise and taking a picture before retiring for the day. I am wearing the sweater that Gabi got for me for Christmas since she knew that I would be participating in outdoor winter sports. It is a little big but I really like the pattern.
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