"This is gonna be interesting..."

I looked at the windsock today and shrugged. The wind was basically from the North. That made it almost 90 Degrees crosswind to the runway. My job once again was pattern work. Today would be different because we had the crosswind takeoffs and landings to deal with. It would be a real confidence booster if I could get them right. Once we took off from One-Zero we entered the right-hand pattern. My pattern work was improving despite the wind and some bumps. Then "it" happened. More crosswind on the landing than I had prepared for. As we descended to the runway the wind was blowing from left to right. I needed to get my left wing down more as the numbers began to slide to my left. As we continued down we were very close to the ground and rounding out. It was almost time to flare as the runway slid further and further to my left. A little goose of the power floated us up and then we bounced and started heading right. We were already past the midpoint because of the float and I was fighting with the yoke and the rudders to try and bend the plane to my will. It wasn't happening. I chose to try and go around rather than salvage what was left. I applied full power on the throttle as we continued floating down the runway. A little pitch up produced the whining of the stall horn. I looked over and saw my flaps were full. I needed to gain speed to climb but dumping the flaps would also dump the lift and I would sink down into the runway which by the way was now 3/4's gone. As I began to start to get really worried I heard my instructor over the intercom, "This is gonna be interesting..." I prayed for speed and some lift. The speed built and the lift started as I crossed over the opposite end of the runway. I gingerly began to retract flaps to build more speed and get some altitude. I got a better look at the tree line past the field than I really wanted to. Once a positive climb was established I retracted all the flaps and tried to remain calm. I admitted to my instructor that I was scared and we debriefed and set up for another landing. Several more landings followed as we as some go-arounds. For the most part my problems with speed in the pattern were subsiding. Now I had to work on my sight picture for flare. I found that I needed to move my aiming point from in front of the cowl to down the runway during the pre-flare. Once I did that my flares started coming together. The only problems I dealt with for the rest of the session was that pesky crosswind that was trying to blow me off of the runway. Let's hope next lesson has better winds.