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Year 8 Ski Trip - A Student Review

On Sunday 19th February 2017 a group of girls from year 8 made their way to Andorra for a trip of a lifetime.  We departed from Shottery at 5:30 in the morning (!) and slowly made our way to Gatwick airport in London.  From there we took a 2 hour flight to Barcelona, and then a second coach journey until at last we reached our destination!  The travel day was very long but it was definitely worth it!!  We checked in to our hotel at 8:00 Spanish time and made our way to our rooms. They were awesome!  We had a balcony, a TV, a fridge, everything a 13 year old girl could want!  Except perhaps for the Wi-Fi - it was terrible!  As we arrived early, we went down to the ski rental and fitted our boots, skis, helmets and poles. It was a laborious experience but we got there eventually.  We then returned to the hotel for dinner and then off to bed. We had a full day of skiing tomorrow after all!

On Monday, we had our first go on the big ski lift that took us up to resort.  It was by far the best part of that day!  We started our lessons at 9:00am. I was a beginner and had only done a little bit of skiing before and I was put in a group with lots of my friends and our training began!  We started on the smallest slope, learning the basics and trying to stay upright - no mean feat!  We stopped for a well-earned lunch at 12:00pm (by far the best meal of the day!) and got back on the slopes again at 1:00pm.  We finished our day of skiing at 3:00pm and went back down to the ski lift ready for the day's Après Ski activity… PIZZA PARTY!  Afterwards, we returned back to the hotel from the restaurant for a good night’s sleep, and by that I mean we stayed up and chatted for a while before practically collapsing from exhaustion...

Tuesday was a normal day on the slopes.  We had our lessons and started to move higher up the slope.  We had lunch, finished our lessons and went back to the hotel.  Our afternoon was for our own activities so most of us spent the time socialising and trying to get a Wi-Fi signal!

On Wednesday we went up to the slope and had our lessons.  Some of us in the beginner group even got to go on a chair lift to start on the green slopes!  When we got back to the lesson we were told that today’s Après Ski activity was bowling! We left the hotel in a coach at 8 o'clock and arrived at the bowling alley half an hour later.  Everyone really enjoyed themselves and you could hear shouts everywhere whenever someone scored a strike or spare.  The results were submitted and everyone did really well! We arrived back at the hotel at 11 o'clock and all but collapsed into our beds!  

Thursday was another full day of skiing, and by the end of the day my group had managed to progress onto Blue runs.  We got back to the hotel, only to find out that the teachers were very kindly hosting a quiz night for us at the hotel! We had little sheets with different categories of questions. We got into teams of four and began. There was everything! Sport, Geography, history etc… Everyone did really well with the points coming really close with tied 3rd at 29 points, 2nd at 20 points and my team coming first with 31 points!  It was a really fun evening and we returned to our dorm with a cream egg proudly in our hands! 

Friday was our last day of skiing!  We had a last full day on the slopes and managed to get on to a Red slope!  At the end of the day we had a little presentation with our ski leaders and were all given a certificate to show us all what we had achieved - and there was free hot chocolate!  We went  back to the hotel, savouring our last ski lift of the trip. We returned our ski equipment and started to pack.  We went to sleep as quickly as possible to get as much sleep as we could before the early start for the journey home.

We all had to be downstairs at 3 o'clock the following morning with the rooms completely empty of our things.  The first coach journey was 100% silent on the way to the airport!  We finally got back to Gatwick just after 10 o'clock English time and hopped onto the second coach of the day - excited at the thought of getting home at last!

Everyone absolutely loved the trip and we all learned something new.  It was exhilerating and exausting in equal measure and I can't wait to go skiing again.  Thank you so much to all the staff that made it possible.

Lily Olsson, Year 8