More Ski Pictures!

A shot of the Eurotunnel taken through the windows which were full of condensation. Basically it is a train for cars and buses that goes under the channel from England to France, it's like an MRT train for SBS buses. Anyone has a better picture of the eurotunnel?!


Much clouds on top of those snowy mountain tops. I'm just wondering if the clounds are as dense as that and they are like right on top of the mountain, what can the people there (if any) see? Anyway these are the wrong mountains.


These are the CORRECT mountains. Shot taken on the way up the winding mountain road to La Plagne, our resort at 2000m. Quite scary when the bus has to take a two lane two way road. And the most traumatising part is when the driver wants to turn, the bus looks like it's going to overshoot the turn all the time!! haha.


Can you see how small the houses look in the "valley"? and we're still on our way up!!


Vivian pointing to.... a tree branch! anyway i think this picture looks really sweet. =)


The action really began after the checking in. The checking in was really busy. Cos the grouping was quite complicated. And the numbers didn't seem to match like ALL THE TIME. haha. It was so hectic that i didn't realise that.... the receptionist whom i was helping, standing next to me, was chio. haha. Really she was. Welcome to France.


This picture was taken on Melezes. One of the blue pistes (difficulty from easiest to hardest: Green, Blue, Red, Black). Went up on it alone because got abit bored of the green, and yc and gang have already long gone. And expectedly, i veered off the route and got lost in a deep off piste snow. I mean it's OK to ski off piste, but to get back on the correct route, i had to walk upslope off piste! #$*@&!!!


Cumarran, all 1.9m of him, in the favourite pose of the debutant snowboarders. Anyway, poor cumarran actually broke his arm on the second last day....


and edwin and i were actually laughing at him on the first day. tsk tsk tsk.


from left: Melvin, Edwin, Me, and Vivian. Edwin really looks like that hongkong actor here. What's his name?! dammit i keep forgetting his name. will put it up when i remember.


We were just trying to look cool.


Sunrise from the resort.


Sunset from top of one of the red slope. Actually... who can tell a sun rise from a sun set? So when you look at a picture, and it didn't tell you what it was, would u think it was a sun rise, or a sun set?


Vivian and me on the chairlifts.


Snow spray in action.


Edwin, Melvin and Vivian on the cable car. Vivian's the only person in the entire mountain to have pink ski pants i think. =P


This picture looks dangerous. Optical illusion making it look steep, and vivian is trying to point up the slope with her pole.


Picture taken while waiting for Edwin to get off the slope. Crazyboy and me went off piste together. I fell a couple of times, Edwin quit skiing and went snowswimming instead.


Crazyboy back from a swim.


My instructor, Fabien, and me, taken on the last day of instruction.


brought melvin(the cameraman), vivian and edwin up to one of the mountain tops on the last evening of skiing. as you can see, we were so busy taking pics that it was getting rather late. we actually reached the resort after the sun set. Well done everyone!


There was this performance down one of the red slopes at night, where instructors and students of the ski school held fire torches and skiied down. how do you ski down a red slope in the dark?!?! so pro.


Minghao and me. Minghao's studying in france, some french students joined up with us over there. He's actually from RI and my PSL batch. Which means that when i was in sec 1, he was in sec 4. no wonder he looked familiar.


Yong Cong and me!


Last morning of skiing. It was a good experience organising this trip. There was so much i've learnt. but seeing everybody have fun made all the hard work worthwhile. I probably won't be the organiser next year, would have passed the torch on to the next exco. But it is good to know that all the roads to organise a trip have been opened, and it will give them a platform from which to organise an even better trip.

ICSS Alpine Adventure 2005: Reflections

I just realised that my last blog update was on the 5th Dec. That's almost one month ago! So i'm back to update about what i've been busy with over the past month!! It's mainly one thing, the ski trip which i organised. it really is quite abit of work... but i'm really glad it's almost all over now. I hoped everybody enjoyed themselves. but there were a few unfortunate incidents/accidents along the way, of which i hope i can try to help the poor guys involved in accidents to get the most of their insurance money. Take care of yourselves Grace, Marvin and Cumarran! We also missed the excellent company of Cheuk Ka and Bingliang due to unfortunate circumstances.

The trip was pretty good, but to be honest i never really got to ski at my level. Most guys were pretty anxious, and that was really curious to me. They seem to be allergic to the word "debutant", like it's a terminal disease, or it's something shameful, which is so untrue. To me, everybody starts from somewhere, and the word "debutant" really just means that it's your first time. Many were just too anxious, joining classes beyond their level. Let's face it, skiing/snowboarding is a sport, and in every sport the most important thing is sound basics. But the sad truth is that basics can be rather boring, and definitely so totally uncool. Some of the ones who formed the majority of an intermediate class were lucky, because their class simply got transformed to a debutant class anyway. I was in one of those classes, so i guess i joined an intermediate class which became a debutant class.

To be fair, most of the guys were really nice about it, like Sydney and Rachel who apologised for causing my class to convert back into a debutant class. and to you guys, thank you for being so wonderful and understanding. However, there were a couple of guys who were just unrepentant. They were still quite "zhuai" (smug, in english)... when i told them that they were kinda jumped level, they would say "but i think i'm quite ok wat." and literally sniggering at my every little mistake. i'm not exaggerating! he really went "Hnn..." with a lopsided smug smile when i fell! hahaha. but i'm ok with it if it made him feel better about himself.

I've had a discussion about this with some of my closer friends about this before... and i must say that while some people may think that it's OK as long as they have their own fun, it was disappointing to see that there was no consideration whatsoever to the enjoyment of others who were affected by their decision. A more important factor is the lack of consideration to the safety of themselves and those around them. Forgive me for not being "nice" in saying all these about a small minority, but i think i've been quite patient in tolerating some of the boasting and showboating that was going on. To the rest, thank you for all the cooperation and encouragement you have given me along the way to make this trip a success. All i can say is that everything that was done has shown exactly the kind of person that you are.

Didn't really get to explore alot of La Plagne area, nor did i get to ski with yc and gang... but i had the pleasure of the company of many people whom i didn't know that well before the trip, and the happiest times of my trip was when i went skiing with Vivian, Edwin and Melvin. Even though they were debutants, i am so proud of them because they embodied what i felt was the real desire to learn. They didn't jump level, they were humble yet brave, and they were hilarious on the pistes, especially Mr Edwin "crazyboy" Leong. It was also really heartwarming to see so many of the guys and girls who fell, and got up and kept going. It's not a shame to fall. We fall so that we can learn to pick ourselves up again. (meaningful quote from Batman Begins! =P)

All in all it was still good fun over the week. Hope it was even better for those who went. I'll leave the group shot first, other pictures will be up soon!!

missing from pictures are the bai ka bai chiu's: Grace, Marvin, Cumarran. and Raymond who came abit late.

You may see a pig, but all i see is luncheon meat.

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