It's 6:30 AM, and everyone is gathering at the bus in front of the school and getting ready to head out at 6:30. I, on the other hand, am just waking up and beginning to run around in a frenzy due to the fact that I did NOT wake up to my alarm clock. (I knew it was a bad idea to reset it after waking up at 5:30 to turn the alarm off on the halls for students leaving for sports. I should have stayed awake. Oh well.)
Alas, I made it to the bus just before 6:30 and we set out on the road to Muju. On the way there our group stopped at a place to rent ski gear and it's here that I tried on my very first pair of snowboarding boots. There was a glow around me as they fit snuggly to my feet.. and I do believe I heard angels singing. ha.
Anyways, we reached Muju and a group of us "chaperoning" the trip decided to head up to the slopes. Not really understanding which are the easiest ones, we go to the one called "rookie" and figure it's easy enough. First, we wait in a line that looks like this:
My reaction:
Well, Dains and I have NEVER done any skiing/snowboarding in our lives and so everything about this venture to the top of the hill was slightly more than intimidating. I click my snowboard to my boots and I'm READY! Err... Ok, and.. GET UP! ....Hmm... Something must be wrong with my board because I can't for the life of me stay up. Or maybe it's because we're not really snowboarding on snow, it seemed to me like we were boarding down a huge slope of concrete with a bit of powder SPARINGLY sprinkled. It was solid ice! Hmm.. I eventually get up and me and Dains pose for a picture:
Alright, so let me, again, just say that I've NEVER gone skiing or snowboarding and so the entire way down the first hill it was .. UP.. DOWN.. UP.. DOWN.. UP. DOWN. UP. DOWN. UP. DOWN. And so forth. My arms got a workout.. that is FOR SURE.
What's today? Wednesday night.. So 4 days after that fateful day, I'm STILL having trouble using the muscles in my arms. Ha.. It's funny because you'd think that my legs would be sore, but no, not at all. It's all my arms and wrists.
HOWEVER, I was determined to get this thing, and so gradually I could stay up on my board for a few seconds, and then a few seconds more and then there was a moment where I actually stayed up for a good 30 seconds! Breakthrough, FINALLY! So about halfway down the hill (after much humilation from the many stares from Koreans passing me on the ski lift right above me) by Joe, I GOT IT! I didn't really do anything fancy, but I could actually stay up on my board and slowly move down the hill. This was monumental, folks.
So we reach the bottom, after a good 40 minutes, and realize that that was actually an intermediate course. Ha.. awesome. So we find the BEGINNER slope and all of us feel MUCH more at ease, and I could stay up for most of the way down. I did have some nasty spills.. face planting into the snow. But hey, I'm still in one piece! :D
Oh, and here's a picture from the top of one of the slopes. As much as I'd like to say I did THIS one, I actually had a hard time moving to the edge of this one.. seriously, it looks like it just drops off!
It was an amazing day, indeed! We ate Domino's pizza for lunch and only had a few injuries on behalf of the students. I'll definitely go again, but, maybe after my arms are fully functioning again.
Hugs, Blessings, and muscle spasms,
Sarah
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