Hiking Bonanza

So this week I did a lot of hiking. I walked along the river and ended up at the Plan D'Eau which is like a mini (I'm pretty sure manmade) lake in my town and it was nice to see so many families just playing around. The river was frozen though and for some reason everyone was taking turns throwing stuff at it to break it, but it never did. I also ended up going to the highest town in France, Briançon, because one of my teachers forgot to tell me she was sick and wasn't coming in today 🙃. But the town sits between 3,829–8,333 ft. It's a cute town with a lot to do, unfortunately, it was Monday which means everything in the area is closed, and it didn't help that it was around siesta time, so pretty much everything is closed. The only thing that was open was the restaurant across from the Gare. I got my usual of a Savoyard pizza, but it did not taste good. The yogurt sauce was cooked and curdling which isn't normal, and the potatoes looked liked they were boiled, and the still had the skins on it! I ate it, and it satisfied my hunger as I was walking up and down the side of the mountain, so I was STARVING! But all day on Tuesday my stomach was hurting and by the end of the night I was crying because my kidneys started hurting, I don't know where the correlation is but nonetheless I was in major pain 🙃.

I also decided to climb the mountain behind my house and found it to be quite easier than the first time I went, I'm getting accustomed to these hills /mountains finally. I don't have asthma attacks anymore and need to take so breaks. It made me so happy. I told my teacher this, and she offered that we climb up one of the other mountains that I hiked up! I'm scared to walk up that one though because that one has been the hardest hike I've done here. It's all up hill, and it's on the north face of the mountain, so you're freezing will also sweating as you ascend. But the view and the air is so refreshing, I think I'm ready to try to hike it again. In other news, the same teacher gave me a mango, and it was such a small gesture, but I really appreciated it! I was telling her last week, will snowshoeing that I don't find too many things in the grocery store appealing and that I could really go for a good mango. And though the mango she bought me is almost entirely green I'm going to eat it and enjoy it (and you're probably thinking, Aboni just wait to eat it and let it ripen, but the thing is already soft, so I gotta eat it now or never because fresh produce in France goes bad fast!)

Ummm, Oh! I finally got my Wi-Fi back, so I'm typing this up in the comfort of my bed on my own computer 😌 and I decided with the return of the Wi-Fi that I'm going to try watching Skins, a lot of people are having arguments about Euphoria, and it's portrayal of teens and a lot of people source Skins as being more realistic, so I'm gonna try to check it out so that I can be of better assistance on my utter disagreement of Euphoria using literal adults in adult situations to act and behave like kids... how do y'all feel about that. Speaking of which, my teacher gave me one of the most racists books to read. I love her but like 1) I'm not African and I wish she would stop trying to share with me African things because I really don't know much about that life (like obviously I know a little something something, but not enough to relate with other Africans in that way) and 2) realize that not all representation is good representation. The book she has me reading is about a black family from Cameroon that have moved to America. I liked that in the book they speak pidgin, but yet again because I'm not Cameroonian I don't really understand it. And also the book blantly talks trash about African-Americans saying things like "oh they should respect white people more and try to seem more civilized in front of them" whatever that means...and that rich white people are the peak of society, but little do these ignorant African immigrants know that white people have problems too (can you sense the sarcasm??). It's infuriating to read, and I'm hoping that at some point the rhetoric in the book will change, but I'm not optimistic. But that's all from my week.