I woke up at 0700 and walked down to the bus stop again this morning, but they still don’t have buses until 0824 and it was freezing cold this morning so I walked back up and carpooled with Josh. We barely got there in time for the training at 0845.
Today my group did a balance exercise I’m familiar with: skiing with the boot buckles fully open so your leg can move around. I have pretty strong legs, so that's actually quite comfortable for me. It warmed up a bit later on in the day, as it was very sunny. They had not opened any more runs.
We “learned” to ride a chairlift, and skied down a green run in a wedge. Skiing in a wedge is actually hard work! I think this is a good exercise even for experienced instructors, since it reminds me just how scary a beginner lesson can be when you try to do big wedge turns across the hill with fast skiers and snowboarders zooming past on every side of you to try and take you out. Much of the day was spent perfecting our wedge.
Today we saw the first Santa skiing on the one open slope. I thought they didn't start that until the end of this week, but people who dress up in full Santa costumes ski for free.
On one ride up the chairlift, one of the funnier guys in my class turned out to be Christian - against "organized religion" he said but "spiritual" - and tried to pontificate to me, or at least talk me into reading the New Testament in hopes I'd convert. I didn't have the heart to break it to him that as far as religion goes I'm actually an Atheist, not a Jew.
Back at the button lift, we took turns and each did one small part of a first-timer lesson: the first person taught about the gear, another taught the basic stance, another taught how to glide with one ski, and so on. I got possibly the easiest part; teaching how to glide straight downhill on two skis. I think our coach expected more from me; he wanted me to throw in balance exercises as well. I never spend a lot of time with just gliding. Since other than me it was most of our class’s first shot at teaching, if we had tried to teach a real first-timer class the way we did, they would be falling all over the place in a tragic mess.
Towards the end of the day we learned some games and themes to use with kids, to get them excited about the lesson and integrated as a group. We played “human knot” where everyone stands in a circle, grabs two other people’s hands across from them, and then tries to untangle the resulting pile of arms. It would make a pretty good dating or party game, since we were twisting all over each other before we got untangled.
I took a few more people up for a last run and we sped down pretty fast, which was fun. All the new hires had a brief meeting in the locker room at the end of the day: mainly just a reminder to “be there tomorrow at 0830!” Josh offered me a lift home and waited while I took the phone number of Emily, one of the two girls in my group. He dropped me off at the supermarket near our house so I could go grocery shopping.
The highlight of my day was the dinner I cooked for myself (after buying all the fresh ingredients.) I stir-fried chicken strips with vegetables and Serrano peppers, which have that kind of spiciness that starts mild and sneaks up on you until your lips tingle. I also had a side of white rice and a big mug of oolong tea to go with it. It was so tasty that afterwards I even poured myself a double shot of Scotch to savor, as we all watched “America’s funniest home videos” on TV. That’s a very American show that mostly features people (and things) falling down, or getting hit by objects between the legs. We Americans are very proud of the stupid among us.
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