Comment ca va?

I have now spent over half of my allocated time abroad. Three and a half months of pain au chocolat for breakfast, of bodged conversations in shops, of attempting to instil the basics of English into rebellious students. Three and a half wonderful months of cultural, linguistical and physical adventure (of the sporting variety, you filthy-minded bunch!). At this point, it's probably appropriate to see how I'm doing with my aims for my year abroad:

Improve my French
Ben...oui quoi...Fin, je kwah que c un 'tit peu mieux. Qui sait.

Eat lots
Well, this is one area in which I've been spectacularly consistent and, if I may say so, a bit of an overachiever. My greatest discoveries so far have been 'merveilleux chocolats' - an enormous ball of meringue covered in chocolate creme and lavishly garnished with sprinkles.
- I've just counted and there are 7 sorts of cheese on my shelf in the fridge.
- I've tried raclette, tartiflette, croziflette, 3 types of fondue, (meat, cheese and chocolate), diots, polenta and many other local specialities.

It doesn't end with French food, though. We had a house meal the other week to celebrate the international nature of our floor. One dish from each person representing their country.
Starter: frogs legs (France) and haggis (of sorts) in stuffed peppers (well, would you want to stuff a sheep's stomach?)
Main: salmon and boiled potatoes (Norway)
Pudding: flapjack and Brazilian bombons (giant strawberries coated in caramel and chocolate).
Of course, some silly person had to go and spoil it all by eating too much, then spending the rest of the evening sat on her balcony in the freezing cold trying not to be sick....ahem....

Climb lots
This started off really well with a frantic mission to cram in as much climbing as possible before the dawning of The Cold and the fleeing of The Motivation. Fear of Fred and meatballs aside, I've had a great time exploring Orpierre, les Dentelles de Montmirail, les Calanques, the Vercors (albeit in the dark and fog), the cliffs above Lac d'Annecy and a variety of local crags, none of which were as esoteric as feared. I've introduced friends to via ferrata, bumbled up (or nearly up) some local mountains and have befriended/bribed/fooled sufficient numbers of people to make good use of the free climbing walls in town and the excellent centres in Grenoble. It's been brilliant conditions for ice climbing this season and I've been playing around with different axes and doing my usual job of cursing ice screws as they attempt to anchor into my leg.

Ski lots
I think this deserves its own post, but needless to say I am slowly getting better at downhill skiing, having gone at least once every week since Christmas.
Cross-country skiing is coming along very nicely. I wonder why I have this obsession with going up things the hard way, rather than just enjoying the ride down.