Day 209

Up early and ready for breakfast by 7ish. Josh went next door to get ready, and I sat around waiting for everyone else. When they were all ready to go, we went downstairs, I refrained from having all the delicious bacon, eggs, sausages, breakfast quesadillas, and hashbrowns, and stuck to fruit and yogurt. The boys on the other hand, had pretty much all of the above, plus baked beans and waffles too.

After breakfast we came upstairs, I got ready, piling on layers I'd later find out I didn't need. It was SO nice out. Mind you, it was probably good that I had a little extra padding. I put on nylons, leggings, ski pants, a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie, and my coat. I was definitely sweating once I got outside...but that was the last thing on my mind. I helped the boys get ready, we got on the bus, and headed to the lodge.

When we got there, we all headed to the locker room. I helped Zach get all of his gear on, and then went to pay and register for my lesson. I was sooo excited!!! But was also getting nervous. I filled out the appropriate forms, and walked to the next building to get all my gear. Boots on, helmet, and board in tow, and I was on my way. Ok, not quite. I had about an hour before my lesson. I perched my board, and took a seat on a bench. I noticed one of my nails had ripped back, and was afraid it would rip off the first time I fell. This gave me something else to be nervous about. I sat there for about 45 minutes trying to decide how to get rid of it, until I finally came to the conclusion that I'd have to go in one of the stores and ask if they had clippers or scissors. They had scissors...that was a little bit harder than I thought. Mission accomplished in plenty of time though. I headed back out to the meeting place, and started getting more and more nervous. I spoke to a lady who had just started the day before, and then went to wait where another instructor told me I'd be.

When I got there, a lady in her 50's walked up. We talked for a bit, and she told me this would be her first attempt as well. THANK GOD! Our instructor walked up soon after. He asked how we were, and when I said alright, he repeated it, as though I should have been better than that. I told him how excited I was, but that I was so nervous. He was a good looking guy from...I'm gonna say New Zealand. He was super nice. One more person walked up. It was a guy who said he had never been before, but was a skier. He said he was nervous, but after hearing him talk all day, and seeing how he acted on his board...I'm thinking that wasn't true. He was nice enough...but you could tell the instructor was even getting frustrated with him. Which I completely understood. We went over to the hill, and my instructor, Joe, showed us how to decide which foot we'd put in front while riding. Once we figured that out, we made our way to the crazy carpet, and rode our way up the hill.

At the top, we all sat down and Joe began to teach us how to stand up. Something I could not grasp. Great way to start haha. He helped me up, as I was the one who volunteered to go first, and he showed me how to go down the hill. I can't remember if I made it down the first time or not, but even if I did, I can tell you there were definitely quite a few falls to come. After a couple of runs, Joe told me to try a different way of getting up. He said some boarders find it better to hold the board as they get up. When I first grabbed it, feeling completely unflexible, I asked if he was sure. Then I did it! It was SO much easier! AWESOME! Now I could get up all by myself after falling :p We did some more runs, first it was toes up going forward, and next it toes down going backwards. I felt that part the hardest, but bailed the worst going forward. However I fell, I ended up flying backwards, landing on my tailbone, and smacking my head on the ground. It hurt soooo much, but I got right back up. The second time I did it, I think I hit my head harder. I also landed on the exact same part of my tailbone, so I took a second longer to recover. Joe asked if I was ok, I said yes, and up I got. I continued to do runs until lunch, then we broke, I went to grab a coffee and a couple of cookies, and sent a bunch of texts talking about what an amazing time I was having. I couldn't wait to get back out there.

Lunch was over, and I was ready! I went back out to the meeting spot. The lady had left at lunch because she had to catch a bus to Jasper, and judging by the way she was talking to me about being out of shape and hurting, I think she was glad she was only doing half a day. Joe met up with me, we talked a bit, and waited for the guy to show up. When he did, we went back to the hill to get started again.

It seems my body seized up a bit, and I was feeling it! For some reason my tailbone was hurting even more, to the point where I couldn't put the pressure on it to get myself up on my board anymore. Joe was helping me up, and I finally got the toes down move! I was loving it more than the heels one. I could direct myself, and most of my falls ended up being at the bottom where I couldn't come to a complete stop. A few more tips from Joe, and by the end of the day I was making it to the bottom, where he told me I should be ending up, and I stayed standing! It was AWESOME! SUCH A GREAT FEELING! He gave me the thumbs up. By this time, the guy that was taking lessons had left. Joe said he had been doing his own thing anyway, (clearly meaning he wasn't paying attention to the lesson), and apparently this guy had decided to go off with his fiance. Muppet. Oh well, I didn't care. It meant private lessons for me for the last like 20 minutes. I had such a good time, and I had apologized to Joe earlier for being so bad, he told me I was definitely not the worst person to teach. He was really nice :D We talked after the lesson, and off I went to meet Heloise, Tim, and the boys. They contemplated going skiing, Zach said he was only going if I was going too. I thought that was so sweet! None of them actually ended up going, but it was still nice to hear. Nathaniel wasn't there yet, so after Josh took a picture of me (I thought he took 3 or 4, but later found out he had only hit the button once...and cut off half of my head), I went to return my rental stuff. When I came back out of the building everyone was walking towards the lockers. We hurried there, and then up to catch the bus back to the hotel.

Zach had asked to sit with me on the bus. We sat together and continued a conversation he had started with me moments earlier about Jack. His imaginary friend. He has green hair, and likes to live in your mouth. I learnt over the next day, that Jack can be quite scary. You see, I can't hear him, but Zach does a wonderful translation, and just yesterday, Jack said he wanted to eat Nathaniel. Let me just say, I'm glad Jack's on our side. When we got back to the hotel, Zach wanted to hang out with me. The two of us went into my room, talked a little bit more about Jack, and watched TV until dinner.

For dinner we walked up to a pub. The food was great, but the portions were so big, even after just half of our dishes, we couldn't move. The meal defeated us all. I ended up getting my quesadilla wrapped up for the next day's lunch, and so did Josh. Tim didn't finish his nachos, I don't think Heloise finished her salad, and Nathaniel and Zach didn't even come close to finishing their burgers. The two of them were falling asleep before we all gave up, so Heloise walked them back to the hotel, and Tim, Josh and I soon followed. When we arrived, Josh went to bed, I watched Anchorman, and then I went to sleep too.