June 14, 2010

I went skiing for the first time today! The weather’s been good for it but first I didn’t have boots, then we got boots, but the boots weren’t fitted for the skis. This morning, we all had the day off so the boys took me out. I was going to go with Jackie but she had to go to Jindabyne and the boys were pretty much ready first thing. I haven’t been skiing since I was maybe 10 and did most of my skiing on Mount Brighton, which is NOT the snowy mountains, the tallest mountains in Australia. Needless to say I was fairly nervous and the guys, being hung over, didn’t really give a shit. I think they thought that when I said it had been at least 10 years since I’d been skiing, that maybe 10 years ago I was 16 or something. Being 10, I don’t remember anything. Anyway, we went up two different lifts. Probably sat on the lifts for a good 10-15 minutes. Beautiful scenery. The village isn’t covered in snow... the mountain isn’t even covered in snow, but it was still an incredible view. At the top of the first lift I notice that there’s a cafe and another lift. The guys weren’t giving me the game plan so I was blindly following them hoping that they knew what they were doing and that they weren’t taking me somewhere to die. They put on the skis, watch me fumble putting mine on, and we slid over to the lift. There’s a tiny little slope to get to the line, so I actually had to use some of the skills I may have once had. I sort of had to panic to stop but didn’t hit anyone and we hopped on the next lift. I was trying not to be too nervous. I figured I could probably snow plow if I had to, even though I was at the top of a mountain now and if I didn’t do it properly (since I hadn’t really practiced) I’d stumble down the mountain. Anyway, at the top, it doesn’t look too steep so I think I’ll be okay. Riding up I was watching people, trying to take notes and remember. I understand the gist of HOW to ski, but it’s different doing it. We started down and I wasn’t doing too bad. I was sloppy I’m sure, but we stopped a short ways down and they said I was doing really well. I was taking it slow so the guys went past me. They’d get down to a certain point, stop, and wait for me to meet them. They’d ask how I was doing, give me a tip or two about my poles or bending my knees, and then continue on. I made it to the bottom without falling. YAY! Next time up I fell twice. I figure the first time I was concentrating really hard on just making it to the bottom and the second time I wanted to actually think about what I was doing making me fall. We took a break after that run so Paz could get a drink. Being hung over was making it tough to ski properly. We did two more runs, no more falls, and I called it quits for the day. I certainly wasn’t bending my knees the way I needed to be, so my legs were killing me. I think in time I’ll get the hang of it again and I’ll enjoy it more. Today was more of a test and a struggle so the enjoyment level wasn’t that high. I didn’t remember my lip stuff so they were dry and getting burned. I didn’t bring sunscreen and it was very sunny so I was concerned I was going to get a silly goggle burn. I was thirsty but didn’t have money to buy water at the café at the top of the mountain. I’d never had an option to buy things at the top of a mountain before so I didn’t think money was going to be necessary. I did bring a museli bar though, so I did have a snack. I was out for maybe 2 hours. The boys later said they were impressed with how well I did. I think they are just being nice or they were expecting me to be horrible. Walking to and from the mountain was the worst! To get from the apartment to the mountain we have to go down our super steep driveway, down the road, down 2 sets of steps, across a bridge, and then across some snow to the lift. All of that carrying skis and poles. Getting home, after being already worn out and sore I had to do it again, this time UPHILL! Not cool. Scot says we can store our stuff at Squatters, so I’m going to look into that next time I think.

Other than that, I started planning what I'll be doing when I leave Thredbo. I know it's crazy early since I just got here, but I figure it'll give me something to work toward. I'll need to figure out how much money I can waste while I'm here. As of now, I'll have enough time and money to do the following: Melbourne, Phillip Island, shark cage dive, outback, Mission Beach, Whitsundays, Fraser Island, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Surf Camp, Sydney. I think I can get 4-5 more scuba dives plus the shark dive. I'm actually thinking I can see some of Cali too when I get back to the US. My flight is from Syd to LA, but I don't have the next flight so we'll see. I'm very excited.

June 6, 2010

I've been in Thredbo for almost a week now. I spent my last few days in Sydney hanging out with the roommates and watching some NRL. Fun stuff. I left Monday afternoon from Syd. I woke up around 8am and it was POURING down rain. I wish I looked out the window because it sounded like someone was dumping buckets from the sky. I was mortified that I was going to have to cart my luggage to the train station in that kind of weather, but luckily when I woke up it had stopped. I had to take a bus, train, bus, and car. I think I left Sydney at noon and got to the room at 8pm! Awesome. Unfortunately it was dark by the time I got to town so I couldn't see anything.I'll be working between a hotel and vacation apartments and am staying at the hotel. There's an apartment in the basement around back with 4 bedrooms. It's really small, a little bigger than MB and sleeps 10 people. I'm pretty early for the season, so there was only one other person here when I got here, Angel. He's from the Gold Coast and has worked here for 5-6 winters so he's familiar with the area and the people. The next morning I helped Angel clean a room, got a tour of the apartments (where there aren't any guests, only people that live in some of the units), and then he showed me around town. There's no snow yet and the winter season doesn't officially start until this weekend so the whole town is dead. Town is crazy small. MAYBE one "block" length of shops. There's one main road with said shops, mostly touristy places selling gear, cafes restaurants, and hotels. I think I got the full tour of town and the mountain in twenty minutes. It's a beautiful town. It looks like most of it was built right around the same time and it all looks like similar architecture, which is cute. I can't wait to see it in the snow. Snow makes everything look so beautiful! The next day, Wednesday, I started training at reception. It's pretty simple, but there are a lot of dates and prices to remember, so that'll just take time. After a short time of training Scot left me alone to play around. Since it's not officially winter and there isn't any snow, we don't get much activity. Friday night we went out to the pub. I don't remember the name of it, but there were pool tables and a lot of locals. Angel knows pretty much everyone so I had no trouble making friends. All were over 40, but good guys. I decided that this was the perfect place to learn to like beer. I'm not a fan, but I managed. My footy team was playing so we watched half of it at the one bar and left to another for the rest. The second bar was much smaller, like really small. One room, 3-4 tables and one employee. I liked it. There weren't many people there either. A few of the guys from the last place came over so we all became friends. Angel was pretty drunk and I was tired so I started walking back but he wanted to go out again. I left him and went back and he was shortly behind. We ate some food and called it a night. Saturday was spent watching movies and doing nothing. Sunday I figured we could go for a walk. We woke up with a little bit of snow at the top of the mountain and it was a little rainy, but I figured after a full day inside we needed outside time. We got our season passes and walked a bit loop through town. From the main road there are two roads to get to Thredbo, we walked a full loop. It was nice.