Jack Frost is a sky spot at PA and the CUCSSA always buses Chinese students there for a winter break. I never take the trip before, partly because I am not a big fun of snow and partly because I think it is kind of expensive sport anyway. While I watch the Winter Olympics on TV, I have a thought , why not going this time and see my potential? Maybe I am a latent "flying tomato" per se. So be it, I join the hundred of other Chinese students marching toward JackFrost.
It is actually quite close to town and it takes hour and half to get there. Today is a sunny but chilly day and the temperature catches up only after 1:00pm. Due to the Presendent's Day , the long weekend attracts tons of people here. There is a line for everything, buying group tickets, checking out snowboots, checking out skies and poes, even using the lady's room. While after all these warm up, it is already 12:30pm. The lessons for beginners starts at 1:00pm, so Yu Zhan and Xiaohong show me some basic survival tricks, such as how to get up when you fall (which happens quite often and you see people lying there hopelessly for help), how to move forward instead of backward, and how to climb the hill and stop with a wedge position.
The class size is huge due the huge crowd today. I forgive myself as a slow learner since I know how to skate, and people say skaters always have trouble to learn ski. Guess what, I have a pretty strong head start. But, the story becomes complicated once I finish successfully small tricks such as moving, walking and doing wedge. I can not make a turn! It is really terrible that I can not relax my knee and make a simple turn. I begin to fall and fall and fall out of coach's reach. One time, I even run into the construction site. With such a terrible preparation in making turns, I encourage myself to brave to "down the hill" and pray for a miracle. As usual, there is no miracle. On the pretty flat blue track, the rest of my classmates freely down the hill with beautiful turns and I either rush to a big fall or left far behind. In the end, I am alone. It is a terrible feeling to be in the middle of a hill and know you can not make it. I am nothing but a "flying frog" with big toes and urgly turn.
It makes me think why am I coming here and what I try to conquer. Nothing but my fear for skiing and falling down. Before all these falls and turns, I don't know how worse it could be like if I fall out of reach. Now I know and I learn. Maybe I can not make good turns and stop beautifully, maybe I can not even walk properly, but at least I am here and in the middle of a hill. The rest of the mountain is still a mystry for me, which I won't be able to know today. Somehow the fear for failure, for the fear for the fear of failure leaves me. I am lying here on my badly hurted knees and hip, while the sunshine is so warm and I feel something inside me is growing and flying.
The lifter takes me back to the top of the hill. I try to remember what was like when we climb up the mountain in rainforest, El Yunque, in the last December. I go to mountain to see my own limit, simple as that.
2006年2月19日星期日
Flying frog
Jack Frost is a sky spot at PA and the CUCSSA always buses Chinese students there for a winter break. I never take the trip before, partly because I am not a big fun of snow and partly because I think it is kind of expensive sport anyway. While I watch the Winter Olympics on TV, I have a thought , why not going this time and see my potential? Maybe I am a latent "flying tomato" per se. So be it, I join the hundred of other Chinese students marching toward JackFrost.
It is actually quite close to town and it takes hour and half to get there. Today is a sunny but chilly day and the temperature catches up only after 1:00pm. Due to the Presendent's Day , the long weekend attracts tons of people here. There is a line for everything, buying group tickets, checking out snowboots, checking out skies and poes, even using the lady's room. While after all these warm up, it is already 12:30pm. The lessons for beginners starts at 1:00pm, so Yu Zhan and Xiaohong show me some basic survival tricks, such as how to get up when you fall (which happens quite often and you see people lying there hopelessly for help), how to move forward instead of backward, and how to climb the hill and stop with a wedge position.
The class size is huge due the huge crowd today. I forgive myself as a slow learner since I know how to skate, and people say skaters always have trouble to learn ski. Guess what, I have a pretty strong head start. But, the story becomes complicated once I finish successfully small tricks such as moving, walking and doing wedge. I can not make a turn! It is really terrible that I can not relax my knee and make a simple turn. I begin to fall and fall and fall out of coach's reach. One time, I even run into the construction site. With such a terrible preparation in making turns, I encourage myself to brave to "down the hill" and pray for a miracle. As usual, there is no miracle. On the pretty flat blue track, the rest of my classmates freely down the hill with beautiful turns and I either rush to a big fall or left far behind. In the end, I am alone. It is a terrible feeling to be in the middle of a hill and know you can not make it. I am nothing but a "flying frog" with big toes and urgly turn.
It makes me think why am I coming here and what I try to conquer. Nothing but my fear for skiing and falling down. Before all these falls and turns, I don't know how worse it could be like if I fall out of reach. Now I know and I learn. Maybe I can not make good turns and stop beautifully, maybe I can not even walk properly, but at least I am here and in the middle of a hill. The rest of the mountain is still a mystry for me, which I won't be able to know today. Somehow the fear for failure, for the fear for the fear of failure leaves me. I am lying here on my badly hurted knees and hip, while the sunshine is so warm and I feel something inside me is growing and flying.
The lifter takes me back to the top of the hill. I try to remember what was like when we climb up the mountain in rainforest, El Yunque, in the last December. I go to mountain to see my own limit, simple as that.
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