Skiing - Day 5

The weather was much cooler today, which was a welcome change.  As the week is getting on, the mornings are getting quieter as everyone leaves it as late as possible before getting out of bed!  Even those who are feeling weary or slightly injured still want to carry on skiing and generally they're being great at just getting on with it because they don't want to miss any time on the slopes, which is brilliant.
It's so great to see them all out on the mountain, and as the weather has been fairly warm most are choosing to wear their hoodies instead of their ski jacket, so it makes it really easy for us to spot one of our groups on the slopes!  At one point there were two groups skiing together wearing their hoodies, it was like Fair Oak was taking over the mountain, it was great!
As each group is gaining confidence they are trying new things and pushing themselves to do better.  Most groups have been through the boarder-cross course with banked corners and bumps to go over.  Some have also been through the snow park and over some of the small kicker jumps that are made from the snow.
Our evening meal tonight was a French theme and earlier on in the week students were asked if they wanted to try any snails or frogs legs as part of their meal.  Some were brave enough to try, with most saying the frogs legs just tasted like chicken!
This evening during free time the female staff were challenged to doing handstands against the wall on the patio area... not one to turn down a challenge from the students we did what we had to do and felt like 14 year old girls again!  A great evening was had by all as we headed over the the slopes after dinner for bumboarding and snowballing fun!  They all successfully slid down 100 metres of the mountain on their backsides, after spending the past 5 days trying their hardest not to!
The effort award this morning went to Liam Jones, who has had times when he didn't always feel confident but still did everything the rest of his group were doing and challenged himself to carry on.  The flame award went to Frazer Livingston as his group were taken down a red run for the first time and Frazer and Ella were the only two in the group who wanted to go again and he did really well.  This afternoon the effort award went to Niamh Bowdler who, despite having several falls and bumps and bruises does not complain and picks herself up and carries on... she has literally been a star!  The flame award was given to Aaron Morris for his consistency and great technique.