I went to sleep very late last night and woke up around noon, to get to the resort on the 1:00PM bus. I felt better already. It was very sunny when I got up, but cold on the mountain. My last pair of goggles is in my work jacket in the locker room and I forgot to take them up, so I skied in sunglasses and my mask though I wanted goggles. There weren’t many clouds but there were a few snowflakes drifting through the sunny sky all day. I thought they were blown off the roofs or trees by the winds, but I caught some and by their shape judged them to be new.
I didn’t ski for very long: only got up 9990 and came back when I got cold. I returned through Deshutes, a double-black I’ve wanted to hit for a long time. Though I think I wandered over to Grande from there, it was wonderful and I’m glad I did it. There was loads of snow where I went, so all the rocks and bushes were covered and my skis survived. I chose paths between trees with no tracks, because I am a lunatic, and had fun ripping through the powder though I was very careful and kept slow all the time. At one point I broke a branch of a fallen tree with my arm when I ducked under it, and decided to turn back. Once I stopped above a pair of trees and couldn’t rotate sharply enough to turn between them, and when I tried I heard a sound like the snapping of a dry twig and my skis popped off. I incongruously found myself sitting down comfortably on top of the snow with my skis buried in front of me: That means my weight must have been far back.
I stopped at the Red Pine Lodge to thaw out, drink lots of water, and eat my "starving student's mix", then went to the rough to switch jackets again. Dan was helping Augusto fill out a shadowing report sheet they made him do, after he shadowed Dan (that is, followed him around to learn how to teach.) I thought it was really funny that they had Augusto shadow him because this is Dan’s first year here and he’s not even a certified instructor. They expect to be really starved for instructors, if they’re going to recruit the assistants and press them into classes. I hung around with them for a while, distracting them.
Today was my last day off until the end of the month. I might get one more day off this season unless I quit a few days before I leave. Chris said, “Now you’ll be working for the rest of the month and making thousands of dollars!” I looked at him skeptically until he said, “Well... tens.” He told me a great joke that I’ve been telling everyone: “What does a ski instructor do when he wins the lottery? He keeps teaching until the money runs out.”
On our last run someone I don't know suggested that Dan and I join him to ski down Badlands. Dan was tired and stuck to Doc’s Run, but I went down Badlands because it’s a black run I haven’t tried. It was fun, steeper than Silverado with lots of big, powder-soft moguls, though it ends up on Willow Draw and I had to take the tow-lift back.
I got home, showered, and went back out to the Christian Center for their free “international dinner.” I won’t be going back: It was certainly decent fare, but I believe in the time I spend busing to there and back I could cook something at least as good. Tim, the director of the Christian Center and a very nice guy, preached for a few minutes while we ate. He likened us to refugees, since we are away from home, with very little means, we may not have gotten as much work as we expected and may not be sure where our next paycheck is coming from, and are losing more money than we’re making. He said that the Christian Center is trying to provide tangible manifestations of God’s love, like these dinners. As refugees who are so poor, we can take some strength from God, and the support of the people around us. As an Atheist of course that offends my beliefs but I kind of expected them to work that sort of thing in, so I wasn’t angry. Tim asked if I got the turkey he left me in front of my door for Christmas (he lives near me and drove me home one day.) I didn’t get it but didn’t have the heart to tell him... probably he left it in front of the neighbor’s door or something like that, and in the spirit of Christmas our neighbor greedily grabbed it.
They told me I was the only Israeli: it seems I’m the only Israeli employee at any of the resorts. Just as I expected, only Spanish was spoken there. They even began reading off the ticket numbers for the door prizes in Spanish at some point (they give away some items like toys and chocolate.) The best part was probably where they had four guys put on helmets and whack each other with pillows to win a pair of headphones. None of them succeeded in breaking a pillow and they asked us who took the most punishment. It was obvious, because three of them spent most of their time beating up one.
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