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…Really!
So… “it” started yesterday. “It” is what I would like to refer to as, the apocalypse. I was walking home from work, but the wind was so strong that I could barely keep my footing. Little did I know, it would get worse. I in the past two nights, we’ve gotten 10 centimeters of snow within the course of an evening. This morning, I was surprised to walk out of my door to find the hallway near the exit of my apartment building plastered in snow. The wind and blown the door open in the night and showered the inside wall with the equivalent of a paintball-gun shootout – except frozen. I went outside in my boots and trudged off to work with almost no visibility in a complete white-out. The wind and snow were nailing me in the face the whole way there. When I came in to the office, one co-worker who was near my locker taking off his boots greeted me with “Oh! Sugoi!” (oh! wow!) upon seeing my matted hair and wet face. I went on to learn that a number of schools had been closed due to inclimate weather. Then… the walk home was the WORST! We have a good 2 feet of snow that has been on the ground since it fell. It’s packed down tight, so people just walk on top of it. On the way home, I tried to walk on top of it as usual, but to my surprise, i fell through. I got stuck in one spot, waist-deep! The wind had been blowing the powder so hard all day that some areas had solid snow, and others only appeared to have solid snow underneath. Instead, they were the remnants of snowbanks and layers of snow that had blown off of roofs. Buildings all over the city were plastered in snow all on the sides where the wind had slammed piles of snow into them with suck force that it stuck. As I walked between buildings, aside from the struggle through deep snow in some areas, I was mostly OK. But, when I came to intersections of the streets, where there was open space and no buildings to block anything, it was basically just a wind tunnel. I couldn’t keep my footing at all. I’m guessing the winds were at least 60mph, and on ice, it was just impossible. It got knocked down 3 times on what is usually just a short 5 minute walk home.
Needless to say… I’m in for the night! That’s enough of that. I’ll be camped out in front ofmy heater until the blizzard moves on out of here!! Tomorrow I have to teach at Wakkanai KouKou though… and it is up a NOTORIOUSLY steep and icey hill. That walk ought to be interesting…. I think I may need climbing gear.
So, I recently tried out snowboarding (and loved it), and today I had a chance to give skiing a shot. Because it is winter and the waters between here and Rebun Island are icey (yes, the ocean can freeze, we get a freshwater stream down from Russia, and yes we get ice drifts), turbulent, and generally temperamental, the ferry only goes out and back once in the day. That means that instead of leaving Rebun Island when my school visit is over, I have to stay until 5:30 (I’m off work at 5) and then take the 2 hour ferry back at that time. Sooo… I have a lot of time to waste! Usually, the schools stick me in a room with a book to waste 2 hours (unless I manage to convince them to let me visit other classes or club activities). Today, however, the vice principal, who has a ski instructor’s license, offered to teach me to ski. So, I brought my gear along with me and headed out to the town ski-jo. It was supposed to be just me and the teacher, but I managed to convince him to take some of my elementary school students along too. They all have the necessary gear because they all take skiing in gym class anyway, and I thought it’d give me a chance to interact with them outside the classroom.
We got out to the slope, which isn’t very big, and I saw the un-sophisticated rope-lift they use. I was a little worried about figuring out how to use it, only to find out that I wouldn’t be anyway! It turns out, because it was my first time, I had to start at the bottom of the hill and walk up. I didn’t have to go all the way up, he just wanted me to learn down at the bottom, not to far up. I can say this much – side-stepping up that hill was painstaking and not especially rewarding. Skiing is a lot harder than snowboarding and there’s a lot more there to deal with! Also, it didn’t help matters that my 7 year old students went flying past me. Also, it didn’t help that they felt they REALLY needed to encourage me as I wobbled down the hill. “Oh! You’re doing so great!” It should have been the other way around, right? Me telling them that? Haha, oh well!
So, I guess now that I have experienced both, I have to say that I definitely prefer snowboarding to skiing. Also, my students are too cute for words in their little pink snowsuits and bunny-ear hats. Ok, that’s all for now… I’ll let you know if I take up any new extreme sports while I’m here.
If you don’t understand the reference in my title, please go to I Can Has Cheezburger?!
So, yesterday Chris and John came up to Wakkanai so that we could go snowboarding on the ski-jo (ski slope) here. It was really fun, really painful, and probably exactly what I needed. Getting out and being active felt really good, and I definitely tired myself out pretty well. I am borrowing a board and boots for this season from a co-worker, but I have all my own gear other than that.
At first, I nearly died on the ski lift because no one explained to me how it works! Luckily, the attendant helped me out a bit. Then, I sat at the top of the slope for about 20 minutes with John while he explained the basics (this was his 3rd time to go boarding). I didn’t really realize how steep those slopes are, though, and looking down the “beginner slope”, I was pretty sure that there was just no way. I needed a little hill to practice on! As John tried to convince me to go down the hill, a curious, stout, loud Japanese woman began peering at us and immitating our English (this happens kind of frequently. A lot of times when I speak English out in public with my friends, some nosey stranger starts immitating it or yammering on in English to see if I notice them. Of course I don’t mind speaking English with interested people, but I am generally turned off by obnoxious people who butt in). Then, she came over and started trying to “help”, which made me REALLY angry. “OK, You, and Go!” she said that, among other various choppy instructions, and she kept touching me! She grabbed my arms and started pushing me down the hill and she kept trying to stand me in the proper position, but I wasn’t ready to go dwn yet! She wouldn’t leave me alone though and kept proding me, and I had zero interest at all in her help. I certainly didn’t need anyone shoving me and grabbing me. I slapped her hands off of me and said, “No!” and “Don’t touch me!” but she just kept saying “Yes! Yes!” I didn’t want her help and she was being really pushy and trying to showcase her (lacking) English ability. With the recent slump I was in and my disenchantment with Japan since returning from vacation, the last thing I needed was to be grabbed by some woman carrying on to me in Japanese and broken English. For whatever reason, I found it really terrifying.
Finally, only in an attempt to get away from her, did I follow John down the hill. I avoided her the rest of the day there, and actually got pretty good at snowboarding. I can turn around both heel-side and toe-side now, and I can stop and control my speed! I still get scared when I get going really fast, so when that happens, I intentionally crash (which is one way I earned a lot of bruises). Both Chris and John seemed pretty surprised! Chris even said I did the best out of any beginner he had seen, adding “Even compared to the guys!”
I also ran in to a few teachers from the local high school and some students out on the slope. At first, I was really intimidated by that because they are REALLY good, but they didn’t seem to mind at all that I was a beginner and crashed a lot. They just seemed really excited that I was out there doing it, despite all the bruises. Whenever we spotted someone we knew down on the hill, we usually yelled down to them fom the ski lift. John and Chris were doing some pretty cool jumps, so it was fun to be able to watch them and other snowboarders when I was on the lift. Once, they yelled down to me when I had just turned toe-side (which is pretty difficult at first!) and I [stupidly] looked up. Immediatly, I face-planted into the snow. They both had a pretty good laugh about that!
Anyway, I felt so good after doing it, despite all the pain, that I think I want to start boarding regularly! It’s great exercise and a good adrenaline rush -so it’s a great way to de-stress. We are hoping to take a trip down to Nayoro in a few weeks because it, apparently, has the best slopes. It’s also a great way to pass the time in the winter and to learn not to hate the weather quite as much. It’s cold, and we have a LOT of snow, and it sucks, but snow means snowboarding! I guess it isn’t all bad.
I didn’t take any pictures of it because I wasn’t sure how dry the inside of my ski suit would stay, and I didn’t want to ruin my camera, but it was fine, so next time I will definitely bring my camera and take pictures!
