Groovy

I just got back from the most awesome two-day weekend ever! We had two days off for the Super Bowl, which showed at 7:00 AM Monday morning in China, but I didn't watch the game, I went snow boarding instead!

Me, Stephen, Chris, and Jason (left to right) headed for the slopes of Wan Lan, one of China's finest ski resorts, about 4 hours outside of Beijing. Wan Lan has nothing on any of the resorts in Colorado, or New Mexico, or Utah, my friends tell me, but it was still beautiful and tons of fun! The time I went boarding on Christmas day I spent more time on my arse than on my feet, but now I feel much more confident and I made most of my runs on Monday without wiping out once.

Snowboarding is counter-instinctive. Nothing was clicking when I went on Christmas day. This is what happened: When I am sliding down a mountainside on a piece of plastic I cannot control which might flip me at any second, I want to start off slow. I also want to keep from being flipped, or at least when I do, to keep it from hurting very much. Instinct told me to lean backward, so that I fall to the rear an not flat on my face, but in order to go slowly I have to be able to cut in and out by turning, and to turn a snowboard, I has to keep my weight on my front foot, but I was afraid of falling on my face, so I leaned backward, and just kept sliding faster and faster, until I either lost control and wiped out, or gave up trying to control this piece of plastic with a mind of its own, and sat down to stop of my own accord.

This weekend though, I finally started to trust my board to do what it is supposed to when I do what I am supposed to... and snowboarding is so much fun! I don't know when my next opportunity will be, either here or back in the states, but I can't wait to get out there again!