Skiing

Today, for the first time I went skiing. Before going into much detail, let me just say, I sucked. And now, onto the narrative.

The story really starts last night when, knowing I had to wake at 5am, I attempted to get an early night. I don't think I could have failed at this more if I had tried. I lay in bed for about an hour trying to go to sleep before I came to the conclusion that I was getting to sleep anytime soon. So I went back to the computer and did some writing and played some Starcraft (when in Rome). At any rate I was still going strong when my alarm clock went off at 5am.

I got prepared (and opened one of my Christmas presents early, since I thought a beanie would be useful today. My family need to be less descriptive on the customs declaration forms.) and met up with the other teachers who were going. For the first time in Korea I got to say "Good Morning" to someone. We caught a taxi to where the bus to the ski resort was picking us up.

The bus trip was about two hours, and I did manage to get a little bit of sleep on the bus up there. Once we arrived, the tour organisers distributed ski clothes and boots. This mostly went without a hitch, although my boots were a little too small, but they quickly found a pair that did fit. The ski clothes fit and were pretty warm. I wouldn't have minded keeping the jacket actually.

So after getting kitted up and putting on my skis, I started trying to move. Good arm exercise to say the least. A little bit of time at this, and I thought I might try the slope that was front and center. There was a small travelator that would take you up a little way, so up I went. I fell over getting off the travelator. Then after the guy manning the top of the travelator helped me up, I went about a meter and fell again. After I got up I tried going down the hill sideways, but almost ran into a little girl being taught by her father. He pushed me out of the way and a little bit away. I slowly slid down the hill sideways, but would sometimes get some forward momentum and would then end up falling over. After one fall where my ski came off, I was unable to get the ski back on properly and decided to walk down the hill. An inauspicious start.

After that I took a break for a while with a fellow Australian teacher who was doing about as badly as I was. After this, some of the other teachers who were more familiar with skiing (a Canadian and an American) who took us all the way up the same slope and taught us a little. I got a little control. But not enough to turn or slow my descent if I went more then a little more than moving perpendicular to the slope.After a number of falls, including one where I was stuck bent over with my legs spread and my hands on the ground in such a position such that if I moved a hand or foot I would start sliding down the hill and I couldn't just fall over because the boots were attached to the skis and I couldn't bend my ankles enough to put my body on the ground. After some more sideways sliding and falling over, I took a longer walk down the hill. On the way down I noticed a large very flat area behind one of the buildings that turned out to be the very beginners area.

After another break we went over there and were much more able to control ourselves than on an actual slope. After some practise stopping we tried the small slope from the beginner lift. I managed to get all the way to the bottom and only fell down once, and managed to repeat the feat a second time. After this the day was getting on and those of us who were newer to skiing called it a day, while those from the American continent kept skiing a bit longer.

That was not the last piece of excitement for the day. On the bus trip back our bus driver caused a three car accident. He rear-ended a car into the back of another car and destroyed the rear window of the car it hit. Apparently his driving had been reckless for most of the trip, but I hadn't noticed as I was half asleep and listening to my iPod. Anyway, no one on the bus was hurt, although several were really pissed off at the driver.

And that is my skiing trip

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