They Make Me Keep Skiing

We were in Bruneck for five days and four nights...that is a lot of skiing. Especially for someone who does not particularly enjoy it...(me.)

The ride to the ski slopes in the morning was unpleasant; as are all journeys that take us somewhere we don't want to go. Especially when you have to watch/listen to the "Peppa Pig" cartoon. In Czech. Over and over. And over.

The queasy tedium was occasionally broken by the lovely scenery, like this random castle perched on a hill by the side of the road.

Or I listened to Lukas, seated behind me. Here is a video taken in the dark (so just audio) on our way home from the ski mountain one night. I have provided a transcript because his accent can be a little hard to understand at first.

Lukas: Five little monkeys jumping on the walls. One fell off and wumped his head. Okay!

Cameron: Momma called the doctor?

Lukas: Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, 'Yes, please, monkeys jumping on the wed.'*

Cameron: Did a monkey fall off and bump his...shoulder?

Lukas: Tummy.

Cameron: He bumped his tummy?

Lukas: Bumped his tummy. Momma called the doctor, doctor said, 'Yes, please, monkeys...'

Cameron: Where else do the monkeys jump?

Lukas: House.

Cameron: They jumped on the house?

Lukas: Jumping on the house. Monkeys jumping on the walls...Five little monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head...

*He likes to play with sounds. He was into a "w" noise for this one: "wumped" and "wed." He also prefers for the doctor to encourage the monkeys to jump on the bed; hence the "Yes, please, monkeys jumping on the bed" instead of "No more monkeys..."

When I arrived in June he didn't speak a word of English. It was a struggle to get him to say "hello" or "push, please" as you may remember from this blog post. Now he amuses himself by chanting nursery rhymes and changing them around to make silly expressions! Hurray! I miss that little adorable rascal.

As Mike and I made our way to the gondolas one afternoon, we saw two people wearing skis and giant orange parachutes. So we paused, naturally.

As soon as they took off we hurried to the gondola so we could follow them down. Here they are gliding. Sorry that you have to view it through the dirty and scratched gondola.

So cool! They were airborne for about fifteen minutes before landing on the slopes and skiing the rest of the way down.

I did not attempt such a stunt, but my pitiful skiing did get better every day, fortunately. Peter was an excellent teacher and he quickly figured out that I did not want to go barreling down the slopes. On the third day during our lesson he took me to some nice gentle slopes and we skiied down and took the lift back up several times. My main issue was keeping my upper body still. I kept trying to fling myself around using my shoulders instead of skiing with my legs. I did get better with turns and the good 'ol pole plant, though. I actually started to enjoy myself at the last (third) lesson. It was fun to ski with a buddy. Especially a cute buddy with a German/Australian accent. I was sad when Peter skiied off into the distance at the end of our final lesson...sigh.

Here I am swishing down the slope. Vancouver 2010, Baby!

On the final day we were in Bruneck I did not have a lesson with Peter. Though I was rather inclined to just "pretend" to go skiing and instead hang out with a cappuccino all morning, I forced myself to try the big bad slope again. I had learned that I did not have to go straight down the slope and could instead ski across it until I found the easiest, gentlest path. I had learned how to slow down more effectively, and I was no longer terrified of making right turns, which then made me scared to make left turns because I knew that eventually I would have to make a right turn or otherwise ski off the mountain. Weird, huh?

So I skiied down the slope that had almost brought me to tears the first day. I took my time, repeated my instructor's words in my head as I went, and actually made it down. I took the lift up (see video--it was so cold and snowy!) and got myself a cappuccino. Reward! I went down one more time to meet everyone for lunch at the same restaurant where we ate lunch every day.

Here is the restaurant:

And here I am with Lukas right outside before we ski to the chair lift.

The group as we ski down.

Here are Eva and Lukas on the chair lift.

I don't have much urge to ever go skiing again, but at least I left the ski mountain not hating the sport. If I have to go skiing in the future it won't be so terrible.

The ride home was, well, seven hours. That's about all I need to say, I think. But it was beautiful, at least for the first hour or so.

Then Peppa Pig numbed my brain and time slowly ached on until we arrived in Nove Straseci. Odd how one can be so desperate to get to a place that one is normally so excited to leave....