Most of you are probably wondering why I've written "Awiela and Yenni" in the title. Well its very simple. One day, on our field trip to Segovia, one of the students said to me "Si Yenni, si." Because for some strange reason spanish people call me Yen, Yenni or Yennifer. Ariela thought this was hilarious (I do now too, after the fact.) To get back at her, I decided to call her Awiela, since when she was little that's what she called herself!
Anyhow. Early (5am) on Saturday morning, Ariela, Carlos and I headed out toward the Spain-France border, to the ski resort called Formigal. It was about a 4 hour drive, but on the way back it was about 4 and a half or 5 because of insane traffic all the way home!
I had been very, very excited to go skiing, ever since the idea first came up in conversation. Living in Lethbridge now, Sunshine and Lake Louise are farther away, and therefore I didn't even go boarding at all last year.
So I went about organizing a little weekend ski getaway. Carlos supplied the car (and his driving skills of course), Ariela and I brought the food, and booked the hostel. We rented our skis/boards here in Miranda for just 15 euros/day.
The drive felt really long since it was so early in the morning, but we made a couple pit stops, and slept along the way. Ariela decided that she would just ski on Sunday since she was pooped (and sadly, the weather wasn't very good on Saturday). So we all had something to eat together at the hostel and then Carlos and I headed over to the mountain.
We met up with his brother Jorge and skied with him for a while, before he headed back with his coworkers. Then Carlos and I just went about finding new runs and different paths to take down. I noticed one surprising thing at Formigal, and that was the lack of trees. There was no stimulation at all on the runs, just white snow, everywhere. I guess at Sunshine there are a lot of trees and little mini forests. Those are always my favorite places to go.
Saturday night we all hung out in the hostel, we watched a movie and drank some Heineken's, then ventured out to the local bar for something to eat.
Sunday we all skied together, and luckily it was beautifully sunny and gorgeous out. We tried to find new runs from the day before, and we did a great job. Formigal has 4 different bases (each with its own lodge and parking lot) so we got to 3/4 of them. We had lunch at Anayet base, which had great music played at the lodge and the sun was just shining down. In the afternoon we took a little break up on the hill and took some goofy pics in the snow. Ariela and I had some good laughs at our ridiculous attempts to jump with ski equipment on, and making weird faces and poses. By the end of the day we were pretty tired, and just piled back into the car and got ready for the ride home. Most of the way we listened to classical music, for lack of any other radio stations (and Carlos' car didn't have a CD player!)
Overall it was a great trip to a really nice mountain! I have to admit it made me a little homesick, missing the rockies and home for sure. I promised myself that I would get out more next year, because snowboarding has this secret way of taking my mind off everything, just relaxing in the fresh air is a great feeling. Definitely have to do that more!
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