White Water Rafting in the French Alps

            Hello everyone!! Today we woke up bright and early and headed into the mountains again for some "kayaking."  It was rainy and cold when we got there...the water around 40 degrees.  We put on our wet suits (which took 3 people to get mine on) and attached our helmets and life vests.  At this point we were all still under the impression that we were just doing a simple kayaking trip down a river.  We took one look into the water and rafts and realized we weren't going on a leisurely kayaking trip--we were going white water rafting.  I have been on plenty of canoeing trips, but never white water rafting.  We were in kayak rafts which were basically two person rafts.  I was in the front and my friend, Joe, was in the back.  We started off and within 5 minutes our raft flipped and Joe and I were submerged into the freezing cold water.  We managed to get our raft and paddles back and got back in.  During the second set of rapids, our boat flipped again when we hit a rock.  This time the raft landed on top of me which really freaked me out being under water with a raft blocking my way to air.  I managed to push the raft away from me and get up to the air and start floating.  Joe and I made sure we were both okay then looked for our raft.  Well, considering how fierce the rapids were, our raft was wayy down the river already.  The instructors told us to just swim until we found it, but we felt like hypothermia was about to kick in so we eventually grabbed onto someone elses boat and walked along the bank for a little while.  We got back in and continued to float until we found our boat and instructor.  After those two flips, we were determined not to fall in again because it was just too cold!  We had several more rapids, dodging rocks left and right.  Our instructors would collect us after every major rapid course and tell us about the upcoming rapids and which side to go on and which side to avoid.  At one point, our instructor looked at me and said "go on the left side of these rapids--if you go on the right side you will die, five people have died on the right hand side."  Comforting, right?  Needless to say, Joe and I went on the left side...as far left as we could go.  We made it through the rest of the rapids without tipping over again, although there were a few close calls.  Almost everyone flipped once or twice so it was comforting to know we weren't the only ones.  It was definitely tough but so much fun.  They compared it to a level 2 white water course with some parts maybe being a 3.  I feel very accomplished and it was so exciting!  I know my dad would have loved it!!  Thanks mom and dad for all the canoeing experience--it helped me and Joe a lot :)  Love you all!! Enjoy the pictures!