Busy Bee II

So Saturday was not over with the skiing. Saturday night we had a Soirée Crepes at Malou’s place. All the calories I burned skiing were regained with the countless crepes I ate. The first round consisted of the salty crepes with a delicious mushroom and jam cream sauce in two different types of crepe mix. We each had to flip our own crepes so I can now actually flip crepes like in the movies. The second round consisted of sweet crepes. Of course there was Nutella, but also apricot jam, honey, sugar, the works. The funny thing is that the third kind of crepes mix we tried, the so-called “Crepe Alsacienne,” is identical to the American pancake. Funny things of the world, Malou swears it was a very ancient recipe passed on by her Alsatian grandma. All this accompanied by nice sparkly cider. All in all an amazing evening.

Sunday was boot camp for me: Sortie Scout! The first of the year, in the freezing -7 degrees cold of Strasbourg’s magical park. Well, it was not so magical for me this time. The Sortie was actually nice, like always. First we went to mass and heard the lovely sermon about the importance of love and charity. Then it was so cold that the parents of a louvette lent us their basement to eat and we had meat ravioli, salad, cheese, and dessert. It was almost like eating at home. Then…then came the park. We had to go out because the whole point is to connect with nature.

At first it was bearable, the louvettes had to build their own village with the elements of nature – that is of course, snow, snow, and snow. But after an hour I body decided to stop acting like it likes the cold and I was shivering for the next 3 hours. On top of that some girls forgot their gloves so we spent half of the time warming their hand and wet feet after the snow penetrated through their boots. To top if off. Our head cheftaine, Akela, was officially becoming Akela so we had to remove all the winter clothes and remain in our uniform for the ceremony in the freezing cold. At least they let me keep my gloves. Then 4:30 pm came and it was over. By 7:00 pm I had regained feeling in my fingers and toes. My host mom made me drink some hot soup and tea and by 9:00 pm I was tucked into my warm bead until today. It was hard, but it is an experience that I would not have rather done anywhere else but here.

Next stop is the UK, two WHOLE weeks in the land of Britons for the February break. Yes, we get two weeks off now and two weeks off in April. Sometime in between I am supposed to learn 5 subjects in international law and pass my exams. So I shall see you all end of feb, hopefully the sun will be out for my next sortie scout!

A fin fevrier!