Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Lessons - week 3

This week brought yet another beautiful snow day.

Brendan has obviously made good friends in his group, as we heard yells of "Brendan, we're over here!" as soon as we approached the meeting area. Those cheers always warm a mother's heart.

Have I answered the number one question I get, "How's your knee holding up?" Well, my knee is doing just fine! I have a sports brace for it, so I'm actually not at all worried about my hurt knee. I did/do worry about the other knee though! The first couple days, I was very cautious skiing. I have slowly come to realize that my shredded ACL was the result of a freak accident and not something that I'd easily repeat. For one, I fell from a practically standing position, so my skiis didn't pop off. I can now reason that if I crash on the slopes, my skiis will pop off and chances are that I'll be fine. So in theory, going faster would promote a better fall -- or at least that's what John is trying to convince me every time he waits for me at the bottom of the hill! I'm beginning to regain my speed and confidence -- and remember how much I love skiing. Plus, I tell myself that the whole reason I had the surgery and 3 months of therapy was so that I could ski again. Not skiing would defeat the purpose!

People tend to be more safety conscious over here. I don't think I've seen a skier without a helmet. Many people also wear back braces. We haven't gone that far, but I could see the desire/need if C.J. starts doing tricks on his board! The flip side is that I haven't seen a single ski patrol on the mountain.

This week, John and I decided to skip the evil t-bar and head to the chair area of the resort using the trail that C.J. takes. It seemed like it would be easy enough. Let's just say that I got quite the workout and next week, I'll happily ride the t-bar to the top!

We met up with another couple and skied with them for most of the day. John and the other dad went off-trail for a bit. They said the first 1/3 was a bit rough, the middle 1/3 was mostly fun, and the final 1/3 was a lot of hard work, skiing in a gully and trying to get back to a lift. Considering they stuck with the girls on the groomed, easier runs the rest of the day, I'd assess that the extra work wasn't worth the thrill. Either that or they are getting old and tired. Once again, we had lunch on the mountain. This time we had bratwurst with our fries. The best part of lunch was the gorgeous view of the Alps.

It's fun to see all the different lesson groups out and about. The instructors really understand the kids and what they enjoy. We saw groups of kids following their instructors through wooded areas, and other groups going off jumps. Abbie said that her group went off a jump 4 times. She made it off the bunny hill this week. We spied C.J. practicing a 180.

We ran into C.J.'s group on the final run and had a lot of fun seeing his progress and his interaction with the instructor. If you ask C.J. what he thought of running into his parents, he'll tell you all about his mom taking out a kid. Obviously, not my greatest moment. Why can't kids remember the good stuff about you? The final trail has an uphill component. I tried to maintain my speed to make it to the top, but I just couldn't get there. Just as I started to ski backwards, I thew out my poles to stop me. Of course, some 5 year old takes that moment to ski next next to me. My pole hit him across the knees, and, according to C.J., he practically did a full summersault. C.J. thought it was quite comical. I felt a little bad. Fortunately, he popped right up, gave me a good glare, and continued up the hill.

We're really going to miss these lessons when they are over. We can obviously sign the kids up for lessons at other times, but they won't be surrounded by their friends. And the biggest issue -- the lessons won't be in English, unless we arrange for private lessons and request an English speaking instructor. When we're out skiing with all the other international families, it's easy to forget that we are living in German speaking territory -- Swiss German just to complicate matters a bit more. We are loving living over here. It's gorgeous and we are doing things we wouldn't normally do, but it isn't without its challenges.

1 comment:

Craig said...

Sounds like so much fun.