The first day of
December was spent watching a Christmas program in the business district of
Beijing. It was cold outside, but we were bundled up tightly in warm coats and
new bought scars. Oh, and we saw Santa Claus!! I mean, he wasn’t as fat as I remembered…
and suddenly Asian, but I would recognize that phony beard and red suit
anywhere! Hearing Christmas songs sung by a choir of small children and seeing
Chinese people dancing to Christmas music just made my day. As the final part
of the program, they lit up a giant Christmas tree. I was surprised that it not
only was beginning to look like Christmas, but to feel like Christmas. When we
thought things couldn’t be better, we woke up the next morning to find it
snowing!
I have had a lot of firsts here in China, but having lived in Utah and Idaho, you probably wouldn’t have guessed that skiing would be on that list! My teacher Zhao Laoshi is a frequent skier and occasionally gets special deals. In class this past Wednesday my teacher invited me to take a few friends to the opening day of skiing at Beijing Yuyan International Ski Resort. The best part? It was only ¥20! (Which is only about $3 US)
Tina’s
Blog:
It started when I
was sitting on my bed, studying. I heard Adam and Josh walking past for lunch and
I heard, “something, something,
something, Tina, something…” and then they backtracked to my room. They
each poked their head in and Adam asked, “if I were to get a hold of tickets
for 20 kuai to go skiing on Saturday, would you be in?”
“Oh, most
definitely.”
And that was that.
Apparently, since
Saturday was the first day of the skiing season for this one resort, they’d
sent out texts to a bunch of their regular skiers offering a day of discount
tickets exclusively available to them. Adam’s teacher happened to be one of
these people, so Adam got a hold of four skiing tickets through her. (Teacher’s
pet? haha)
I was talking to
them about it later, and we came upon the question and I asked, “have any of
you even been skiing?”
Adam grinned. “Nope.
That’s why we’re taking you.”
Waking
up early Saturday morning we set off for the resort on a charter bus. I’m still
not sure how anyone was able to sleep during the hour and a half bus ride
there. Not only was the bus driver smoking cigarettes, but he was also blasting
loud music from the radio. (Well, more static than music. haha)
I
can’t tell you how excited I was to step out onto that snow! My hanyu teacher
and her snowboarding buddies made sure our skis were strapped on correctly and
after a few words of advice, we enthusiastically took off up the foothill.
Today was so much fun! Skiing came a lot easier than I thought it would. The
hardest thing about the slope was avoiding the other skiers and snow boarders
that were crashing all around us. (It was apparent that we weren’t the only
ones learning to ski today, and it seemed that many of them hadn’t had much
experience on snow and ice.) After watching someone careen out of control,
smashing into the net fence, I couldn’t help but smile a little as I helped
them back on their feet. 加油
“They
actually learned really quickly. I was impressed. The only thing was that since
they had no problem speeding down the hill, it took a little bit to convince them
that they needed to slow down long enough to learn how to turn… I love skiing. It
was great to strap those two planks to my feet again! I’d have to say my favorite part--if not just the
feeling of finally being better than Adam and Josh at something (is that a
sin?)--was watching the Chinese people trying learn to ski.” (Tina’s
Blog)
Today was an unforgettable day! Spending
time with my sister was a definite highlight, and before we left I even tried
to challenge my teacher to a race, but she wouldn’t take me up on it. Getting
back on the bus I realized just how tired I was, and slept all the way back. Todays round-trip bus ride, clothes rental, and an entire day of skiing was only about $15! You will never find a deal like that in the United States!
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