A final FINAL word!

As you may have read in the last post, I have to admit that I have had a ghost writer on this blog!  Although my name has appeared at the bottom, Mr. Suter has been the man behind the words.  I'm sure you'll all agree he has done an outstanding job keeping everybody updated.

So thank you very much Mr. Suter for all your hard work with the blog, it has been very much appreciated by everybody.

Only a small number of the hundreds of photos on camera have made it on to the blog.  After half term I will endeavour to send out digital copies.

We are now one hour from our departure to Bahrain - expect to find some very tired children (and staff) at the airport.  Once again, thanks for your support in getting this trip going, let's hope we can do the same next year!

Il fine del viaggio (the end of the trip)

The days have just got better and better as the week has progressed, and today was another crystal clear day out on the slopes.  Despite the heavy fall of snow we had earlier in the week, quite a bit has melted around the base of the slopes and has become icy in patches, but out on the piste conditions are still near perfect.

Testament to the progress of our skiers this week, the Beginner’s Bowl was empty of our pupils as they all headed off to new challenging parts of the mountain.  Bassil, Jacob and Suzy were off skiing black runs (Mrs. Carroll balked at those, although she has been keeping up with everything else they have skied), while Omar was snow boarding down some other black runs (Miss Hunter balked at those, although in fairness she has been having trouble with her boots and lack of feeling in her toes); pretty much all the group have been at least on a blue run and nearly everyone has been down a red run.  Considering we had several children who had not even seen snow before, and a large number who had never skied before, that’s some progress. 

It was another great day on the slopes, but several of the instructors commented on how tired our students were, and some took the option his afternoon to follow in the steps of Jacob and Mr. Suter by visiting the viewing platform at the top of the mountain.  Several were dropped off at base camp in the morning as tiredness kicked in, but there were still 16 who insisted on going out for a final hour’s free ski after lessons had finished.

It was Layan’s birthday today, and so as an extra treat this evening we had a special cake delivered to the hotel and we celebrated with that and hot chocolate.  We had the skiing awards last night, but tonight we had our own in house awards for special stand out moments for the week:

Best Tree Hugger – Jacob

Biggest Drama Queen – Georgie G

Photographer Of The Week – Nadia

Best Male Artist – Findlay

Sloth Of The Week – Rami

Biggest Posers/Duck Lip Club/Best Shoppers – Alia, Christina, Lynn, Myrna, Civene, Zeina, Mrs. Carroll, Miss Hunter

Best Linguist – Martina, Mrs. Annoni, Chloe

Best Female Artist – Noura

Most Impressive Wipeout – Aboudi, Eoghan and PJ

Best Icicle Impression – Aboudi

Blackberry Award for Most Calls – Yulia

Most Questions Asked – Suzi and Khaled H

Most Gloves Lost – Munisa

Messiest Room – Noura, Loulia, Ayra and Carina

The Mafia Award – The Josephs

Best Injury – Jessica

Biggest Slice of Pizza Eaten – Georgia L

Speed King – Omar

Most Improved Snowboarders – Richard, Dylan, Jessica and Khalid K

Most Improved Skiers – Hala, Lucy, Zoe and Stefan

Most Miles Walked on Mountain – Troy and Mr. Suter

Skier of the Week – Bassil

Best Disco Outfit – Ami and Ridha

Perseverence Award – Salman

Most Unfair Person – Mr. Whitaker

Most Vomit Cleaned Up – Mrs. Suter

So what a marvellous week we have all had.  The children have been a credit to themselves, their parents and the school.  They have pushed on when they didn’t want to, or thought they couldn’t, and achieved far more than they thought they could.  They should be proud of what they have managed this week.

So that’s it.  A big thank you to Mr. Whitaker for all his hard work and efforts in organising the trip; to Mrs. Suter for her ministrations to the sick and injured; Mrs. Annoni for her linguistics; Miss Hunter and Mrs. Carroll for their herding and cajoling; Mr. Suter for his blog entries.  The children are now in bed; the staff are sitting down together for the first time this week.  We’ve had a fabulous time, but we are looking forward to handing over on Monday – don’t be late!

We’re checking out of here tomorrow, and going off to Aosta for a bit of sightseeing and shopping before heading off to the airport in Geneva.

Arrivederci!

Parents: just a quick note.  We keep getting notes from parents asking for more photos of their children on the blog.  Internet here is a bit intermittent, which doesn't allow us to post up as many pictures as we would like.  Hopefully, you have seen your child at least once, but when we get back we will collate Mr. Whitaker's and Mr. Suter's photos from the trip (many of which you have seen this week) and get copies of them to you.

"Good cold"

Fay, our resort sports coordinator from Interski, hit the nail on the head this afternoon when summarising the day’s weather: “Cold, but good cold.”  The resort today looked fantastic; once again, crystal clear blue skies, no wind and no snow, and the sun blazing down from above.  But it was probably the coldest it has been all week.  The ‘Beginner’s Bowl’, where the majority of our pupils found their boarding and skiing feet this week, was reputedly -4⁰C today, and obviously the higher up you went from there, the colder it got.  Jacob, after his altercation with a tree yesterday, and Mr. Suter went up to Cresta D’Arp (at 2755m the highest point in the resort) and Jacob will testify to the fact that the feeling didn’t come back into his toes until back at the ski hire centre!

We did once again have some ‘sicknotes’ today.  Eoghan stayed at the hotel, having won the prize for the best vomit seen for a long time last night (pure exhaustion), while Georgia L. didn’t ski as she felt she might (although if you see the size of the pizza slice she ate at lunchtime you’d know she was feeling better).  Jessica managed to wipe out on her snowboard, and instead of landing on her backside, which she usually does, she landed on her wrist.  Wrapped and strapped, she’s hoping to get back out on her board tomorrow.  What was more embarrassing for her was the sling Mr. Suter made her wear as she made her way down the slope.

It is difficult each day to comment how the children have been doing: we’ve six different groups heading up in six different directions each day, doing their own thing under the expert tutelage of their instructors.  Each child has overcome obstacles that have tested them, challenged them, exhausted them, frustrated them, but few of them have thwarted them, and the general consensus from their instructors is that this group of children have done really well with their snow activities as the week has progressed.  This was emphasised this evening, as we had an awards ceremony that recognised their progress during week: each child received a certificate stating the level they have received, and a brief eulogy from their instructor about their progress.

In a lovely touch, at the end of ceremony, Noura sang her own ‘eulogy’ back to the instructors, with a parady of ‘Dynamite’ by Taio Cruz.  We’ll post the lyrics later but here’s the chorus:

I put my poles up in the air sometimes,

Saying Ay-oh, Come on let’s go,

I wanna ski down now in half the time,

Saying Ay-oh, I feel so pro.

So on to the last day tomorrow.  Hopefully, the conditions will be as good as they have been today, and we can finish our holiday here in the snow with a fantastic final day on the slopes.

What a difference a day makes...

As you may have noticed from yesterday’s pictures, visibility was poor, it was cold, and the relatively early night that we had after our quiz was very welcome indeed.  This morning, despite not being promised, the sun was shining, the wind had dropped, and the day was as near perfect as we could ever have hoped for.

Didn’t get off to a great start for Salman, however – he managed to fall out of bed when Mr. Whitaker called him for breakfast this morning.  Our morning briefing from Mr. Whitaker included a reminder, after yesterday’s shenanigans with inappropriate clothing, for everyone to wear at least four layers.  As Aboudi had been one of the culprits, Mr. Suter turned to him, with one hand spread and five fingers displayed, “How many layers for you Aboudi?”  to which the response came, “Seven.”

After four days on the slopes, things are starting to come together for our skiers and boarders, and the confidence they are exhibiting is tremendous.  After yesterday’s poor weather, it was understandable that there was some reluctance by some to go back out, foremost among them Myrna, who distinctly wanted to stay at home in bed.  Nurse Eileen, who was in her vicinity on the slopes, however, reported that Myrna had the biggest smile as she flew down the slopes, and even elected to stay for an extra hour at the end of the day.

In fact, after our lessons ended this afternoon, only 15 of our children came down off the slopes, with the majority electing to stay for an extra hour.  At the top of the ski pull in the beginners’ bowl, there are signs not to congregate, and so Nurse Eileen was somewhat surprised when arriving up at the top to find all the skiers and boarders busy organising themselves in their own downhill race!  Such bravado!

We have had a couple of casualties today: Martina never made it to the slopes this morning as she was sick (although she did get off her sickbed and appear on the slopes this afternoon) and Jacob managed to ski into a tree!  The tree is fine; Jacob is somewhat bruised and sore but will live to ski another day.  The resort liaison happily reported that Jacob is the fourth skier this week to pick a fight with a tree and come off worse!

This evening we enjoyed a short walk towards the village for an evening of ice skating; somewhat surprisingly, many of our students didn’t seem to equate the ice rink with cold, not quite managing to make the connection between frozen water and sub zero temperatures, and thus cold!  A little word with Science teachers across the school when we get back, methinks!

And so now, tucked up in bed, we’re looking forward to our fifth day of skiing tomorrow as you all enjoy the end of your Saudi weekend.  Not sure what the weather is due to do (although there was seemingly a promise of -13⁰C temperatures on top of the mountain tonight, including wind chill!  Bet it’s warmer than that in Saudi…

.