My friends and I have been trying in vain to find a time we can all go skiing together for the past few weekends. Skiing in Korea is both affordable and accessible because there are so many mountains and most of the snow is fake. Also, Koreans love anything that gets them outside and moving. Anyway, this weekend my friend and I just decided to go ourselves and arranged a time (6 a.m. -- ugh) and a place (Seoul Station) to meet to begin our journey.
Although there are a number of shuttles to the various ski resorts in the nearby province of Gangwon, my friend prefers to drive since he brings his own equipment. It was a nice drive through the mountainous countryside once we got out of Seoul, and the two hours or so passed quickly despite a little traffic closer to the resorts. It was a perfect morning for skiing -- or at least what I presume to be a perfect morning for skiing as this was my first venture into the world of snow sports (beyond sledding and shoveling).
Since my friend works for the government, we were able to bypass the long lines to buy tickets and went to a special office instead where we got two admission tickets and then tickets to rent skis and gear. "We rented the gear, then got dressed and packed our stuff into a locker" doesn't do justice to the ordeal that was getting ready to ski. Overall, it took us about two hours to get everything situated and finally get outside, locked and loaded.
As I had never been skiing, my friend told me to watch some videos before we went, but I settled for reading a how-to article that covered the basics. This is the point when I told him that. He was not impressed by my studiousness. We got onto the lift and made it to the top of the bunny hill before I realized I was legitimately excited and he realized what a bad idea this was.
At the top, I bent my knees, pizza'd my skis, and took off going way too fast and not knowing how to stop. It was... exhilarating. There was a moment of genuine panic when I realized I really didn't know how to stop, but I improvised and threw myself onto the ground; problem solved!
I had read about how hard getting up is, but using the poles made it pretty straightforward, if not easy. Thank goodness I figured out a routine for getting up, because I would be doing a lot of that.
The second time down the bunny hill, I figured out how to slow down, stop, and turn, but staying slow was still a challenge for me. The third time down, I was having a blast. Being able to control the skis and turn made all the difference (at this point, I had fallen about five times in three trips).
Beginner's hill is on the left, then intermediate, in the middle and advanced on the right, with a half pipe in the middle right.
I was feeling confident in my bunny hill skills, so we (read: my friend) decided it was time to advance to the intermediate hill. This was probably not the best idea, but hey I survived, so it wasn't the worst either.
If I thought going down the beginner hill was too fast, going (read: falling) down the intermediate hill without mastering slowing down was ludicrous. It was so fun and scary at the same time. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded on the bigger hill, so I wasn't endangering anyone when I regressed back to throwing my body to the ground to stop.
By the time we went down the intermediate hill three or four times, I was pizza'ing and turning and going at a nice pace instead of just barreling down the hill like a 13-year-old girl chasing Justin Beiber. Or like me chasing Justin Beiber.
Anyway, I finally got the hang of it and my friend said I didn't look so dangerous anymore, so we broke for lunch.
After lunch, we went a few more times, then my friend decided to try the advanced hill and I decided I wanted to live, so I called it a day.
It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it, but my foray into the wide world of snow sports was not without its consequences: my arms and legs were jelly the rest of the day and so sore the next few days. And, since I didn't know what I would need for our skiing adventure, I had stocked my wallet with my passport, foreigner ID card, and plenty of cash so I would be ready for anything. This had dire consequences when I later decided it would be a good idea to lose my wallet at dinner.
And so began the busy and stressful week that is now thankfully behind me, but took precedence over my blog-writing. I spent this week canceling my bank card, trying to get a new one, reporting everything lost/stolen, applying for a new passport and foreigner ID card, and doing all this in another language with no official identification and no access to money.
I do not recommend it.
But alas, all's well that ends well: after jumping through hoops to get everything re-issued, my wallet was found and returned to my school, complete with my cards, documents, and cash. Yes, even my cash was incredibly there... along with a few bobby pins I was really going to miss and a few coupons whose value is incalculable (or about five bucks). This story should probably be a PSA for living in Korea. I'll get to work on that.
Since my friend works for the government, we were able to bypass the long lines to buy tickets and went to a special office instead where we got two admission tickets and then tickets to rent skis and gear. "We rented the gear, then got dressed and packed our stuff into a locker" doesn't do justice to the ordeal that was getting ready to ski. Overall, it took us about two hours to get everything situated and finally get outside, locked and loaded.As I had never been skiing, my friend told me to watch some videos before we went, but I settled for reading a how-to article that covered the basics. This is the point when I told him that. He was not impressed by my studiousness. We got onto the lift and made it to the top of the bunny hill before I realized I was legitimately excited and he realized what a bad idea this was.
At the top, I bent my knees, pizza'd my skis, and took off going way too fast and not knowing how to stop. It was... exhilarating. There was a moment of genuine panic when I realized I really didn't know how to stop, but I improvised and threw myself onto the ground; problem solved!
I had read about how hard getting up is, but using the poles made it pretty straightforward, if not easy. Thank goodness I figured out a routine for getting up, because I would be doing a lot of that.
The second time down the bunny hill, I figured out how to slow down, stop, and turn, but staying slow was still a challenge for me. The third time down, I was having a blast. Being able to control the skis and turn made all the difference (at this point, I had fallen about five times in three trips).
I was feeling confident in my bunny hill skills, so we (read: my friend) decided it was time to advance to the intermediate hill. This was probably not the best idea, but hey I survived, so it wasn't the worst either.
If I thought going down the beginner hill was too fast, going (read: falling) down the intermediate hill without mastering slowing down was ludicrous. It was so fun and scary at the same time. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded on the bigger hill, so I wasn't endangering anyone when I regressed back to throwing my body to the ground to stop.By the time we went down the intermediate hill three or four times, I was pizza'ing and turning and going at a nice pace instead of just barreling down the hill like a 13-year-old girl chasing Justin Beiber. Or like me chasing Justin Beiber.
Anyway, I finally got the hang of it and my friend said I didn't look so dangerous anymore, so we broke for lunch.
After lunch, we went a few more times, then my friend decided to try the advanced hill and I decided I wanted to live, so I called it a day.
It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I did it, but my foray into the wide world of snow sports was not without its consequences: my arms and legs were jelly the rest of the day and so sore the next few days. And, since I didn't know what I would need for our skiing adventure, I had stocked my wallet with my passport, foreigner ID card, and plenty of cash so I would be ready for anything. This had dire consequences when I later decided it would be a good idea to lose my wallet at dinner.
And so began the busy and stressful week that is now thankfully behind me, but took precedence over my blog-writing. I spent this week canceling my bank card, trying to get a new one, reporting everything lost/stolen, applying for a new passport and foreigner ID card, and doing all this in another language with no official identification and no access to money.
I do not recommend it.
But alas, all's well that ends well: after jumping through hoops to get everything re-issued, my wallet was found and returned to my school, complete with my cards, documents, and cash. Yes, even my cash was incredibly there... along with a few bobby pins I was really going to miss and a few coupons whose value is incalculable (or about five bucks). This story should probably be a PSA for living in Korea. I'll get to work on that.
Anyway, I have everything back now, but still have to follow through replacing everything I canceled so I have plenty of errands to run this weekend. I'll also be visiting a palace and eating some traditional Korean food with my friends tomorrow so I'll be sure to be more diligent in my blogging this week :)
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