Warm Welcome to Winter

Just a quick one as its fairly mental here with not much time being spent on the computer. We are focusing on learning about our jobs, making friendships, having fun and trying not to get sent home before we even start the season. (I think five people have been booted already). 

We have been here for a few days, and this coming Monday we will be heading off to our resort of La Rosiere. My initial feelings are that is going to be an amazing experience- its like being at uni for the first time, with a few differences.

The similarities are easy to spot; we are a group of people from a range of backgrounds, thrown in to an unfamiliar location, who know that we are going to be spending a lot of time together in the future.

I would say that the biggest difference to the first week of uni is the lack of drinking. There is a bar where we are staying but I have been having about one beer a night (and bear in mind this is a modest 25cl in France). This is refreshing since as an 18 year old at uni, Fresher's week was a crazy routine of drinking every night, drinking games, going out, then more booze more and having very late nights.

In this case, I am 24, have been drinking a lot for the past six or seven years and have enjoyed the chance not to feel like wanting to drink. I fully understand that there will be drinking during the season, big nights out and friendships strengthened by inebriated antics but so far most of us have been having a great time as we are.

In situations like this I always like to try and remember the first time that I see someone. There is a fairly high chance that we will become close friends over the course of the season, regardless of different personalities, interests, and past experiences. I like trying to remember a face when they are just a person, rather than someone who you care about: because even though their looks don't change, the way you see them does. (Wow, so deep).

It is rare that you meet someone for the first time knowing that you'll probably be good friends in a few weeks (or less). Usually I meet new people who are friends of existing friends and there is as much chance of us hitting it off than as not really getting on and never seeing each other again.

I am always up for making friends but sometimes you don't really connect and nobody makes a big thing about it. But in this setting its nearly like we are forced together, more so than at uni because we are colleagues who are living together, rather than a group of people who aren't necessarily studying the same course at uni. We have had some good experiences team building and that always brings people together in a unified sense of achievement.

Pack mentality brings people together. Sometimes not for the best outcome but likewise it can be a positive force. The situation here is akin to a university hall bonded sometimes by the sole fact that they live together. I remember boisterous slagging matches between my hall and our rivals at the union on campus, where there are no real bad feelings between the two groups but we did emerge with a heightened sense of comradery amongst our hall mates.

This is similar here, as it is the training week and we are up in arms against losers who do not have the privilege of going to La Roserie. Other resorts' chants are met with a team barrage of "LA ROS, LA ROS, LA ROS IS ON FIRE! LA ROS, LA ROS, LA ROS IS ON FIRE!".

It is fun to try and be the loudest and have the most attitude, and things can go back and forth until our voices hurt. Regardless of who we were before, we are now all La Rosiere.

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