Daily Archives: January 6, 2010

Ski trip For The Win: Sunday of stiffness

Adventures, Food, travelling in Korea, , ,

There is something particularly peaceful about waking up late on a Sunday morning with the sounds of skiing outside the window and the sun filtering through the not-quite-meeting curtains over the sleeping forms of friends huddled under excessive amounts of yellow bedding on the heated floor. Everything was quiet and warm in the room. I sat for a while jotting down thoughts and memories of the evening before, from Zanzibar the ladybird to cotton-producing sheep. At about noon, the first of the other room to emerge, Erin, came and joined me in my peaceful little spot and eventually, as we chatted quietly, other people emerged from their yellow cocoons. The process of 12 people waking up and getting organised tends to be a slow, noisy and sometimes humorous one. This one was notably highlighted by the series of groans as people moved sore arms, legs and asses in their attempts to stand up. It took a little longer to get moving than usual. I wasn’t horribly stiff from the waist down but my arms were ridiculous. It hurt to lift them at all. Even writing caused twinges of stiffness. Reaching for food from the cupboards at home that night was not fun. In fact, by the end of Sunday sitting still hurt.

This did not deter us from heading out, however. Largely because we were in need of food. We had all also reached the outer limits of our capacity to eat KFC or the same five Korean meals even once more. So we took the plunge and headed off the resort in search of lunch. Down the hill and past the cheaper ski rental place we went, all the while enjoying the incredible and for me (although less for those who have seen it before) somewhat breathtaking views of a snowy-wonderland world under the bright lunchtime sun.

A little way along the road, we spotted a galbi place. Just the thing for lunch. We headed inside, took off our shoes and sat at our table. A disadvantage of eating Korean food when incredibly stiff is that it may require sitting on the floor. Actually, sitting on the floor isn’t the worst part. The worst part is standing up afterwards. The galbi was good, with the usual array of side-dishes and some particularly good onion-y-type-salad. The galbi cooked over hot coals in a little braai set into the table. The coals were a little hot so some of the meat caught a little, which was actually particularly yummy.

After lunch, we rose with moans and groans and headed back up the hill through the snow to our warm and cosy youth hostel room. Everyone flopped down on a sleeping mat and/or burrowed under blankets in front of the TV. Some people napped. We flipped through channels, searching for more of the figure-skating which had dominated the occasional TV viewing of the weekend. There was a documentary on rodeo clowns and barrel men, in which inexplicably became enthralled. Then we happened upon the movie Stardust and settled there for a while. Desultory conversation and  laughter drifted back and forth.

At  4:30 we packed up for the last time, gathered our luggage and set off on the trek up the hill to where the bus-driver had dropped us off and would pick us up. After rearranging the seating and luggage set-up, much to the driver’s not-entirely-happy surprise, we squeezed everyone in without anyone sitting on the floor and set off for home. The drive back was long and chilly – except for the feet next to the heater-outlet. Almost 4 hours later, we arrived back in Daegu in the middle of a conversation about super-powers. We were all tired and sore as we tumbled out and gathered our belongings. I was so exhausted I could barely organise myself enough for the last little bit of the trip. Luckily, I shared a cab with someone could give the driver directions – I’m not sure I would have made it home alone.

Finally home in my freezing cold apartment, I had some dinner, checked mail and spent some time just sitting around – blobbing as one of my friends put it. Monday would be back to work in the cold, windy, snow-less wilds of Daegu but for a while it was nice to potter around, downloading photos and generally decompressing in the last glow of what had turned out to an exhausting and stiffness-inducing but truly enjoyable weekend filled with snow, fun people, trying new things and plenty of crazy memories.

Postscript: As is turned out the wilds of Daegu were not, in fact, snow-less on Monday but that is a whole different story.

Ski trip For The Win: Night-skiing

Adventures, travelling in Korea, ,

After an afternoon of snowboarding fail, I was quite keen to go sledding and soothe my bruised ego with something I was reasonably competent at. After a pseudo-Japanese dinner of chicken, cabbage with ramen noodles at the pseudo-Japanese restaurant, we were all sitting in the room resting. Everyone was talking about snowboarding and planning their runs and Julie caught the excitement and announced that she was going skiing. I was not going to miss out on that chance, even if it meant feeling even more useless. So, as the rest went off to brave the intermediate slopes on their snowboards, we went down to the cheaper rental place and acquired skiing gear.

As an absolute beginner, it was interesting to note the differences between skiing gear and snowboarding gear. The first difference is obviously that instead of one board you have two skis and two ski poles, which are a mission to carry up hills – as you invariably end up doing a lot of the time. The boots are also different. I found the snowboarding boots uncomfortable because I felt like I was constantly leaning forward. The ski boots, on the other hand, were actually pretty easy to wear. We didn’t try and wear them walking up from the off-resort rental shop to the slopes, however. Instead we carried everything and then changed at the bottom of the slopes and put our own shoes into a locker.

As usual, I had no idea what I was doing, but Julie showed me how to clip the ski boots into the skis and how to take them off again. That seemed reasonably easy. We headed up the little “bunny-hill” under the bright flood-lights and I tried it out. It did not seem impossible. We then to the beginners slope, having by this stage discovered that we could join the slope half way down just near the Youth Hostel. Skiing was much easier than snowboarding. Much, much easier. The technique was instinctive and there were ski-poles for balance and crossing the skis meant being able to stop. I was much happier. We started off down the hill, going a few metres at a time. I was completely absorbed in concentrating on keeping my skis close together so that I could stop when I needed to, but I was much more relaxed and happy than I’d been in the afternoon. I was also having fun. Julie was struggling a little but we eventually got down the slope.

At this point, we had two options: we could walk up the hill a little and practice again or take the lift to the top – where we’d failed at snowboarding that afternoon. I’m clearly a slow learner. We took the lift without knowing how to get off at the top. Luckily, we managed to get onto the same lift-seat as a ski-school instructor who was able, in broken English, to tell us what we were supposed to do. Of course, we both still fell down, but no injuries, so no harm done. The slope again looked a lot steeper and longer and more scary from the top than it had from the bottom. The snow also seemed more slippery, although that may just have been in my head. We went down a way, both falling over a few times. I had one fairly spectacular wipe-out when I discovered that it is possible to cross the skis to far and went over them head-first, landing rather heavily on my hands. I was a little shaken by this, so I didn’t mind walking for a bit. We turned off the beginner’s slope through a short-cut to the central practice area, hoping we’d run into the others. I got back onto skis as soon as we hit slightly less steep ground with something a little like glee. We still hadn’t found the others by the time we reached the bunny-hill but I had great fun going up and down a few more times. Although I need lots more practice before I try a big hill again, I am really quite taken with skiing.

Around 11pm, they started clearing people off the bunny slope, so we headed down – me still on skis because I was determined to get the most I possibly could out of the experience. When we saw Tim at the bottom, he told us that most people had gone back to the room after a long and difficult run down the hill on their snowboards. We got our things together and returned the rented gear, catching up with the others on the way. Some people wanted food – hotdogs here we come – so they got that while two of us headed to the little shop and picked up some supplies – mostly in the form of maekju, soju and chips – before heading back to the room.

Everyone gathered slowly in room 301, in between hot showers and related attempts to avoid the incredible stiffness which was inevitably going to set in in just a few hours. Outside it was freezing cold and midnight skiing was just beginning. Inside the room, however, it was warm and congenial and cosy. People sat around in little groups. Some played games, some did magic tricks, some just chatted. The guitar came out and provided the background music we’d all been missing as a result of everyone forgetting to bring speakers. As the evening progressed, randomness ruled. Eben’s game kept everyone entertained for ages but not for nearly as long as Zanzibar, the ladybird. The beer half-froze on the balcony. There was a long discussion about cotton from sheep.

Much later, we all crawled into bed, most of us already feeling the soreness from the skiing and snowboarding attempts, and slept warm and comfortable (at least I did) in our cocoons of yellow on the heated floor.