Mar.19,2005 
I didn't like skiing when I was a kid.
That feeling stemmed from my painful memories of ice-skating, I guess. There were ice-skating classes twice or three times a week in winters when I was in a primary school. In those days kids needed to have their own pair of skating shoes for racing, which had a flat straight blade on the soles. The ankle-length shoes were made of leather, which got cold and stiff under zero degree and was always biting my feet to be numb! Needless to say that I got minor frostbite every year..
From this trauma (yes, it was trauma!), winter sports always meant ordeal to me ! No matter the difference between skating shoes and ski boots! Doing something under freezing weather did matter.
However.
It has been nearly 20 years and I think I have overcome the trauma.
I went skiing today.
My friend Tanya called me the other day. She said she and another friend Maggie were going skiing on Saturday (means today). Yoshi and I joined them. It ended up that seven people got together. Tanya, Maggie, Maura, Ji Hee, Bor and us. (see "about my friends")
The ski resort we headed was called Mt. St. Louise and Moonstone.
It is funny the place have a word "mountain" in its name but actually they are two big hills sitting on flatland. As the one who comes from Nagano, one of the most famous mountain ski resorts in Japan, I felt like they were so small. .... Oh, yes, small is fine by me because I am poor at skiing. The hills aren't high but horizontally wide.
Yoshi is a skillful amateur. He is really good at telemark ski that he had won some of the competitions years ago. I find him coooooooool (!) when he skies!
The other girls were all beginners. They took 1-hour ski lesson first and then went for slopes. Maggie and Bor were brave that they eagerly tried the slopes for beginners many times. I didn't see Tanya skiing that much. She gave up and took off the ski early. Maura was so cute to confront her fear at the skirt of the slope for a long time. She was trying to get on the lift but too scared to step forward. After all she gave up. All the way back home, she kept saying "I am a loser!!!"
As for me, I had fun without falling down. Thanks to curving ski I rented, making turns was much easier than wearing regular ski with pointy tips. I felt like I improved a lot. .... Actually I looked like a toy robot going down automatically. I hardly had my joints relaxed. I was scared.
We had a blast! Wow, time flies, the fun time was quickly up and we headed back to Toronto..
友達とスキーに行ってきました。
シーズン的にこれで最後？ ←今シーズン初めて行ったスキーなんだけど。。
私のスキーは年１回ペース。。
トロントから北へ２時間ほど車を飛ばしたところにある、マウントセントルイス＆ムーンストーンというスキー場です。…山って言うより丘って感じ？なスキー場なので、スキーが下手クソな私でもだいじょうぶーv （生まれも育ちも長野のくせに。。）
ところで、Yoshiはスキー上手なんですょv
テレマークスキーっていう、つま先だけスキー板に固定されたビンディングのスキーをします。
かかとがフリーなので、ひざを深く落としてターンする様が美しいスキーですょv
毎年惚れ直すよー！
一緒に行った友達５人は、ほとんどが初心者でした。
ビギナー用の１時間レッスンを受けた後、勇気ある子はどんどんリフトに乗ってゲレンデを楽しみ、用心深い子はなかなか踏み切れなくて、性格出るなーって思いました。私が初心者だった頃は、もちろん後者（笑
友達に無理矢理リフトに乗せられて、ゲレンデデビューしたものでした（笑
I didn't like skiing when I was a kid.
That feeling stemmed from my painful memories of ice-skating, I guess. There were ice-skating classes twice or three times a week in winters when I was in a primary school. In those days kids needed to have their own pair of skating shoes for racing, which had a flat straight blade on the soles. The ankle-length shoes were made of leather, which got cold and stiff under zero degree and was always biting my feet to be numb! Needless to say that I got minor frostbite every year..
From this trauma (yes, it was trauma!), winter sports always meant ordeal to me ! No matter the difference between skating shoes and ski boots! Doing something under freezing weather did matter.
However.
It has been nearly 20 years and I think I have overcome the trauma.
I went skiing today.
My friend Tanya called me the other day. She said she and another friend Maggie were going skiing on Saturday (means today). Yoshi and I joined them. It ended up that seven people got together. Tanya, Maggie, Maura, Ji Hee, Bor and us. (see "about my friends")
The ski resort we headed was called Mt. St. Louise and Moonstone.
It is funny the place have a word "mountain" in its name but actually they are two big hills sitting on flatland. As the one who comes from Nagano, one of the most famous mountain ski resorts in Japan, I felt like they were so small. .... Oh, yes, small is fine by me because I am poor at skiing. The hills aren't high but horizontally wide.
Yoshi is a skillful amateur. He is really good at telemark ski that he had won some of the competitions years ago. I find him coooooooool (!) when he skies!
The other girls were all beginners. They took 1-hour ski lesson first and then went for slopes. Maggie and Bor were brave that they eagerly tried the slopes for beginners many times. I didn't see Tanya skiing that much. She gave up and took off the ski early. Maura was so cute to confront her fear at the skirt of the slope for a long time. She was trying to get on the lift but too scared to step forward. After all she gave up. All the way back home, she kept saying "I am a loser!!!"
As for me, I had fun without falling down. Thanks to curving ski I rented, making turns was much easier than wearing regular ski with pointy tips. I felt like I improved a lot. .... Actually I looked like a toy robot going down automatically. I hardly had my joints relaxed. I was scared.
We had a blast! Wow, time flies, the fun time was quickly up and we headed back to Toronto..
友達とスキーに行ってきました。
シーズン的にこれで最後？ ←今シーズン初めて行ったスキーなんだけど。。
私のスキーは年１回ペース。。
トロントから北へ２時間ほど車を飛ばしたところにある、マウントセントルイス＆ムーンストーンというスキー場です。…山って言うより丘って感じ？なスキー場なので、スキーが下手クソな私でもだいじょうぶーv （生まれも育ちも長野のくせに。。）
ところで、Yoshiはスキー上手なんですょv
テレマークスキーっていう、つま先だけスキー板に固定されたビンディングのスキーをします。
かかとがフリーなので、ひざを深く落としてターンする様が美しいスキーですょv
毎年惚れ直すよー！
一緒に行った友達５人は、ほとんどが初心者でした。
ビギナー用の１時間レッスンを受けた後、勇気ある子はどんどんリフトに乗ってゲレンデを楽しみ、用心深い子はなかなか踏み切れなくて、性格出るなーって思いました。私が初心者だった頃は、もちろん後者（笑
友達に無理矢理リフトに乗せられて、ゲレンデデビューしたものでした（笑
めっさ体育会系な滑りでした…。（11時から4時半まで彼らは休みなし！
5年ぶりだっつーにどんどん最上級者コースにひきこまれ…。（止める間もなく滑ってちゃうんだよ！
私は
おっかなかっただ～よ～。
半分背中で滑ってました…。かっこわる…。
文化系のぬるさが身にしみました…。
でも、ちゃんと教えてくれるしフォローしてくれるので、楽しかったけどね。
もう一回くらい行きたいなー（まぞ？）。ケベックとかファイナル後に行けないかしらん？
私もブルーマウンテン一回くらいは言って見たかったなー；
Mt.St.ルイスは来週でクローズらしいよ。
結局ウェアはどうしたのー？
っていうか、普段着で滑ってたら、着替えが何枚あっても足りなかったよ…
ということで、もう一回くらいスキーに行きたいよう！（←全然懲りてないね…）
ファイナル終わったら、ケベック行こうよ！ケベック！
シーズン的に無理？ケベックのほうが寒いんでしょ？？？
って、さっきＹｏｓｈｉさん（おー、照れる！この言い方。）にお会いしたので、話してました。
そして、バナナケーキをいただいて（奪って？）しまいました。ご馳走様です。ココナッツフィリングがおいしいねぇ。
ということで、そろそろ授業に行きます。
坂が怖いあまり全身を硬直させ、ぜんまいおもちゃのように機械的に坂を下りて行きまする（笑
。。。まーでもスキーは日本に帰ってからでもできるからねー。長野に遊びにいらっさいょｖ
ところで今日はマフィンを差し入れますたょ～