First time - Skiing~~~

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I went to Bristol Mountain for skiing today with all my housemates ( Jinhee, Zerene, & Chen-Hiu) and other friends whom we all usually hang out with ( Preety, Emmanuel, Moo and Elliot). I volunteered to drive to the place but because I was a little bit nervous with highway ( I didn't drive on highway for a long time since my trip to Boston & Buffalo) I missed noticing the sign 390 and took the wrong turn to NY Thruway and headed west of NY instead. It was a long ride until Chile as we ( I drove Emmanuel's car + Elliot + Moo) couldn't find any exit and we were afraid to make a u-turn since it is illegal. * amazed* later did we find out that jinhee made a u-turn to the east cos she followed me on the road. Anyway, funny thing is , we thought we were back to Rochester but we got back to 390 South to square one of the trip. So, the whole trip took me 2 hours to drive and Jinhee the others were already there in Bristol Mountain. Another funny thing is we passed by our church on the way to Bristol. So, the way of coming home was easy because it lead us back to our house and RIT locally.

Almost at the end of the drive, we reached a mountainous area. From far, at the view of seeing three lanes of white snow blanketing the bare mountains decorated with lamps on each side, it was a breathtaking site. I wasn't very keen about the idea of skiing because I am aware of my lacking in agility. However, after seeing how exciting and fun it was for others to do skiing, and to me it look so easy, I let myself to try the 'extreme' sport. It is definitely not easy as it seems to look like from far. It was hard to control the ski because my leg is well grounded in a thick paded hard boots. I had to step on the clips attached to the ski to have my boots secured. (The clips can be adjusted to the size of the boots. The length of the skii should be according to your size). Once I secured my boots, the fun and fear of it comes right away as I started sliding down the hill. It was really hard to move the heavy skii on the snow. I had to use all my arm's strength to halt me from sliding away, using the two hooks. The hooks are actually to stabilize you in case anything happens but other than that it is not useful in pulling you up or stop you from sliding. There was this conveyor rope which I could hold on to , to get myself up to the top of the hill. It was so fast that I lose my hooks and just ski up to the hill. When I stopped, I was lounged forward because the skii had slided downwards before even I make a turn. After I get myself positioned ( I had to take out my boots from the ski) , I whoosh down the hill in increasing speed because i had not idea how to use my hooks or stop ! In the end, and maybe i was dumb, i bent my knees and I slided down the grassland with my back. I guess I didn't want to hurt my ankle anymore after my skating incidence two years back. After that slide, I surrender and head back to the resting area with my other friends.

Thinking about tonight, it was a fun night. I realized that I am so blessed for being able to do something extreme like that, especially in US! I won't be able to do such thing if I were in MY. Thinking about other things that I had done over the summer, this is what American life is. Heheh.....

Photos coming soon~~~