Shout out to Sarah (Canada) who turned 21 today! Happy Birthday!!
I have quite a bit to tell and not very much time to type right now so this will probably be an ongoing post. The newest and biggest news is that I went cross-country skiing today for the first time ever! I ended up having a great day, though it was much harder than expected. We left around 9:45 this morning. It was a long train ride up the mountain to the ski rental at a place called Winter Park. We rented skis, poles and boots for about 40 bucks and simply had to return them by 5pm. We took the train back down the mountain a little ways to Homeikullen (I spelled that wrong, but it's the place with the big ski jump). They were actually having some sort of races today which we were unaware of so that complicated things a bit. We just had to be more wary of where we were and who was around us. And we had to walk a little ways to get to the place where we could ski.
Let's see...The first time I attempted to actually attach the skis to my feet, it took me probably five minutes. There is a latch/hook type thing on the toe of your boot that you must click into the corresponding part of the ski. Once I got that figured out (and how to push the button to unlatch it) it only took me one or two minutes to get them on and off. Good start, eh?
Cross country skiing looks really easy. How hard can it be? It's like walking through the snow, but smoother. Right?
Wrong. I was hoping maybe I could just pick it up, but being on skis for the first time is kind of scary. I couldn't stay in one place at all. We were on a slight hill and I kept sliding sideways down it. We had to cross a part in the track where professionals were going around and it took every part of me to get myself to the other side without getting plowed over. One of the women we met suggested we walk down the hill until we got past the actual race track. Good suggestion. The trail we went on was a lot of up and downs. Not many huge hills, but some that were decently steep, so it wasn't like I was learning on a flat surface. Going up hill I was working the hardest I have in a very long time. I was sweating from all parts of my body, using every once of upper body strength to try to pull myself up the hill, while my feet were slipping and sliding. Eventually I figured out how the other skiers were doing it and improved my technique a bit, but it was still exhausting. When I reached the top of the hill and looked at the slope downward I was relieved...but not for very long.
For anyone who knows me, I like to be in control and I am particularly not in favor of being in situations which I have the ability to be in control but cannot be. For example, picking up speed down a slope on skis I had never put on before that day and not knowing how to stop. My attempts to slow down were pretty futile, so usually I just bailed. Hard. Most of the time I ended up so my butt hit first, though a good chunk of time I landed on my right hip. I got in the shower after we had gotten home and it is visibly swollen and will certainly bruise (see later posts for visual aid). My knees also took a little bit of a beating, but not quite as bad. I'm interested to see how stiff I am in the morning, however.
We ended up walking back most of the way when we turned around, which was fine with me. Then we got hot chocolate ("kakoa") and returned our equipment. All in all it was a really good day. I had a lot of fun even though there were some rough patches. I'm not sure how much I will be skiing while I'm here, but I'm definitely okay with another run, but maybe on a flatter landscape.
One of the best parts was the landscape though. The ride up to the skiing area was breathtaking. The track is lined with cottages and small houses nuzzled into the mountainside. They must have the most awesome view ever. You can just see everything!! And the place where we were skiing was equally incredible. From certain places you could see down into the city, and other places it was just like the whole mountainside was pine trees, huge green-green pine trees. I wish I had the opportunity to take more pictures, but believe me. It was indescribable. I would imagine that this kind of beauty can only be found in places like Norway and it's sad that many people miss that amongst the cold and other factors. It's crazy how amazing our world really is.
To be continued...
I have quite a bit to tell and not very much time to type right now so this will probably be an ongoing post. The newest and biggest news is that I went cross-country skiing today for the first time ever! I ended up having a great day, though it was much harder than expected. We left around 9:45 this morning. It was a long train ride up the mountain to the ski rental at a place called Winter Park. We rented skis, poles and boots for about 40 bucks and simply had to return them by 5pm. We took the train back down the mountain a little ways to Homeikullen (I spelled that wrong, but it's the place with the big ski jump). They were actually having some sort of races today which we were unaware of so that complicated things a bit. We just had to be more wary of where we were and who was around us. And we had to walk a little ways to get to the place where we could ski.
Let's see...The first time I attempted to actually attach the skis to my feet, it took me probably five minutes. There is a latch/hook type thing on the toe of your boot that you must click into the corresponding part of the ski. Once I got that figured out (and how to push the button to unlatch it) it only took me one or two minutes to get them on and off. Good start, eh?
Cross country skiing looks really easy. How hard can it be? It's like walking through the snow, but smoother. Right?
Wrong. I was hoping maybe I could just pick it up, but being on skis for the first time is kind of scary. I couldn't stay in one place at all. We were on a slight hill and I kept sliding sideways down it. We had to cross a part in the track where professionals were going around and it took every part of me to get myself to the other side without getting plowed over. One of the women we met suggested we walk down the hill until we got past the actual race track. Good suggestion. The trail we went on was a lot of up and downs. Not many huge hills, but some that were decently steep, so it wasn't like I was learning on a flat surface. Going up hill I was working the hardest I have in a very long time. I was sweating from all parts of my body, using every once of upper body strength to try to pull myself up the hill, while my feet were slipping and sliding. Eventually I figured out how the other skiers were doing it and improved my technique a bit, but it was still exhausting. When I reached the top of the hill and looked at the slope downward I was relieved...but not for very long.
For anyone who knows me, I like to be in control and I am particularly not in favor of being in situations which I have the ability to be in control but cannot be. For example, picking up speed down a slope on skis I had never put on before that day and not knowing how to stop. My attempts to slow down were pretty futile, so usually I just bailed. Hard. Most of the time I ended up so my butt hit first, though a good chunk of time I landed on my right hip. I got in the shower after we had gotten home and it is visibly swollen and will certainly bruise (see later posts for visual aid). My knees also took a little bit of a beating, but not quite as bad. I'm interested to see how stiff I am in the morning, however.
We ended up walking back most of the way when we turned around, which was fine with me. Then we got hot chocolate ("kakoa") and returned our equipment. All in all it was a really good day. I had a lot of fun even though there were some rough patches. I'm not sure how much I will be skiing while I'm here, but I'm definitely okay with another run, but maybe on a flatter landscape.
One of the best parts was the landscape though. The ride up to the skiing area was breathtaking. The track is lined with cottages and small houses nuzzled into the mountainside. They must have the most awesome view ever. You can just see everything!! And the place where we were skiing was equally incredible. From certain places you could see down into the city, and other places it was just like the whole mountainside was pine trees, huge green-green pine trees. I wish I had the opportunity to take more pictures, but believe me. It was indescribable. I would imagine that this kind of beauty can only be found in places like Norway and it's sad that many people miss that amongst the cold and other factors. It's crazy how amazing our world really is.
To be continued...
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