La Setmana Blanca (ski week)

The kids in Andorra are super lucky. Most of the schools have a week devoted entirely to skiing (weather permitting), where they can choose from downhill skiing and snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and ice-skating. A whole week of free lift tickets, free lessons, and no normal classes. So after coming back from Christmas vacation, I had two days of teaching and then ski week with the school.

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I was planning on renting equipment for the whole week, taking advantage of a discount the school had arranged with one of the local shops. However, on Saturday I couldn’t find the store, despite the fact that Andorra is TINY, so after over an hour of searching I gave up and went home. It was cold outside.

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It turned out okay, though, because it freed me up to try different things. The first day I just went up to the lodge and hung out, using the extra time to check out prices, find where the ski school was, and spend some time researching Berlin (we have a Fulbright conference there in March). On the way back there was a mix-up with buses. Although I thought I was with the same people that I’d been with in the morning, the teachers informed me that I hadn’t been with them and asked me what group I’d come with. I honestly couldn’t remember, and remarked that even if I could remember, I didn’t know any of the other teachers’ names. It was a little embarrassing for everybody, and after that all the teachers on the bus introduced themselves to me. Haha, it’s not like I’ve been working at that school for four and a half months already.

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Despite being terrified of skiing for the first time, I decided I needed to try it at least once. So Tuesday I rented skies, signed up for a lesson (a very expensive lesson), had a café amb llet, and went out to meet my teacher, Valentí. We stayed on the beginner slope the whole hour, but I felt comfortable enough with what I learned to continue skiing the rest of the week. And after only an hour or two of skiing on the bunny hill, I already knew I liked skiing more than snowboarding.

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On Wednesday I was invited by Carol, the teacher I tutor in English, to go cross-country skiing in La Rabassa, at the other end of Andorra. I thought La Rabassa was much prettier than Arcalís because there were more trees, it was more peaceful, and it had such incredible views. One thing I noticed, though it was true for the whole week, was that the atmosphere was so much different than normal, with the teachers being friendlier and the kids behaving for the most part. When we were skiing we met up with some students and they stayed with us on the trail, and one of my worst students who had been expelled from my class weeks before was actually being nice. Of course, Meri warned me that everything goes back to normal once we get back to regular classes.

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Initially the school had told me that there were no beginner skiers this year at the school, so if I wanted lessons I would have to continue to pay for them. Luckily, though, there was a new student who needed lessons, and I was allowed to tag along. That meant that Thursday and Friday I got free lift tickets and six hours of free lessons. I skied with the beginner student, Cristian, our monitor (teacher) Beatriz, Aina and Cristina, two special ed students, and their teacher, Ivan. I was definitely the worst of the bunch Thursday morning, but by the end of Friday I think I’d caught up. Aina was hilarious and kept reminding me to ski parallel, even attempting to tell me in English.

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At the beginning of the week I figured I’d try skiing at least once and then take the last two days off. But Friday came and I went skiing again. Who would have guessed? After my first day snowboarding I vowed I’d never return. After my second I only confirmed that it wasn’t my thing. But I skied three days this week. I was still nervous, but the weather was beautiful and I had fun. So ski week was a good thing. I learned something new, enjoyed it, and I feel a little more comfortable with the teachers. And now January is halfway over and I’ve only taught two days.