SKIING

Just some pics from over the holidays when I went skiing in the Adirondacks with my family. :)

Being December on the East Coast, not much on the mountain was open and it was pretty icy with freezing rain, but it felt so good to get back out on the slopes and spend time with my family (+ some family friends on my last day up north too)!

I'm really hoping this can happen again sometime this winter while I'm in the Midwest.

Skiing In Wisconsin

Not that it's impressive or anything, but over MLK weekend I visited my 17th state: Wisconsin! Joe's med school class was going on a ski trip and I got to be his +1 :D

We drove up to Wisconsin on Friday night with our friends Max (who's in Joe's med school class) and his girlfriend Anna, and spent the evening in Madison. I'm sad we were there for less than twelve hours, but it's such a cool city. I'm really looking forward to revisiting it (perhaps in warmer weather) when I relocate to Chicago this summer. 

Even though we had less than twelve hours in Madison, we definitely made the most of it. Soon after we dropped our bags off at the hotel, the four of us met up with the other fifteen med schoolers/their significant others on the trip at The Old Fashioned. I seriously haven't fallen head-over-heels for a bar in a while, but I did there. The O.F. had good vibes, tasty snacks (cheese curds...I'd never had them...omg), a huge beer selection, great cocktails, lots of seating, and good music you can still have a conversation over.

 We started out with cocktails, but then a group of us got flights of Wisconsin beers. They actually came on a board that was shaped like Wisconsin. Details like that always make me so incredibly happy. 

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to go skiing. We didn't see much of Madison in the daylight, but I can confidently say that I liked everything that I saw. More reasons to go back...

The trip to the mountain was easy. In addition to it being my first time out this year, it was my first time on rental skis since elementary school and I was pleasantly surprised. Even though they weren't my own, the boots, skis, and poles were all user-friendly and in really good shape. Skiing with them was a breeze. 

Since it was Joe's third time ever on skis, we started at one of the beginner slope for a few runs to warm up.

 It just so happens that he's pretty amazing at stuff and picked up skiing right from where he left off last year so we decided to head up the mountain for some greens and blues. You might not believe it, but I was actually the first one who fell! Between the combo of getting used to rental skis and looking behind me on flat ground, I ended up tipping over when I wasn't even moving! I don't know why, but 90% of my falls have always been on flat ground, often when I'm not moving or moving very slowly.

Just a few obligatory shots of our fun ski group for the day. 

 At the end of the day, we warmed up by the fire in the lodge for a little, returned our rental equipment, and then drove back to Chicago. On our way home, one really fun thing we did was listen to comedians instead of music. Amy Schumer (my fave) and Aziz Ansari on Spotify. We were all tired, but laughed most of the way back to Chicago.

A Final Lesson

Two Sundays ago I taught what is likely my last ski day of the season, and likely the last official ski lesson I teach ever. Since my sophomore year of high school, I've been working at Gore Mountain as a ski instructor. That's eight ski seasons! It's kind of hard to wrap my head around that number because most of the kids I teach are 4-9 years old, which means many weren't even born yet when I started teaching. But for the record, I still get mistaken as a sixteen year old so I guess some of us aren't aging...

Honestly though. I  have aged. A lot. Even if others don't realize it. And even if it's hard to believe myself. When I started ski instructing I was a high schooler who hadn't even applied to college or been in a relationship or gotten a learner's permit yet and now I'm an adult who has a full-time job and a boyfriend and a full drivers license. This shit is cray. Talk about being a new person. I can hardly even.

Even if it doesn't feel like it, it's been eight great years...

Of skiing. Sometimes. But a lot of other times standing in my ski boots coaching or chasing after kids or skating up the hill with skis on to pick up kids who fall. But more skiing than anything.

Of hot cocoa breaks where I had to break the bad news that there isn't any marshmallows in Gore Mountain's hot cocoa.

Of my three first years instructing (when I was in high school) flirting with all the other high school age guy skier co-workers. I can't even pretend that didn't happen. Haha.

Of watching kids grow up. Or going on to ski black diamonds and glades. Or going on to race.  

Of weird names... Like Satchel, Pearl, Leland, and Gilad.

Of trainings that take all day.

Of a PSIA Level 1 Certification.

Of weekends and holidays spent happily working on the slopes.

Of cute kids in puffy snowsuits. And cute kids in puffy snowsuits making snow angels.

Of skiing backwards. Sometimes with hula hoops.

Of magic carpet rides and snow trains.

Of everything else that has happened in the 100+ days I've worked over the past years at Gore.

It's been eight great seasons and I've been really lucky to teach what I love for so long.

More Gore (From 2015)

This past weekend up at Gore Mountain was a pretty one. And a freezing one (like we're talking negative ten on two of the mornings!). But a pretty one. Especially on Sunday when it was twenty degrees all day, which sounds really cold, but really isn't when you're all bundled up. I started coming down with a cold Saturday night and actually thought I was getting a fever on Sunday because twenty degrees feels so much hotter than zero or negative ten.

As for this weekend, it was a long one. Long as in I took the day off on Friday from advertising work to get in an extra ski instructing work (and skiing) day. Besides for skiing, I relaxed a bunch when I wasn't (8:30 pm bedtimes for the win... I can only ever get myself to do those on days after skiing, and usually they're not at all planned... I usually just wake up at 7:30 am the next day feeling confused... and refreshed). I also spent Saturday night hanging out and eating Italian with the family friends, and came back to the city on Sunday and spent the night moving some more things from home into my apartment, trying to ward off my cold (no luck :( ), and video chatting with Le Copain.

Hope you all had fun weekends!

Winter Playground

Skiing this weekend... incredible. There were dustings every night, blue skies everyday, and Gore was blowing snow everywhere. They even opened up "The Rumor", their steepest trail, and omg, it was so much fun! After I made it to the bottom each time, I would just stand there for a few minutes waiting to see everyone else's reactions after coming out of the snow gun cloud that covered most of the trail. Everyone had these huge adrenaline-fueled smiles across their faces. It was kind of the best.

Here are a few other bits from this weekend...

This side of the mountain is called the "Dark Side" for a reason, but it's always been one of my favorites. 

Sometimes when I ski by myself I take chairlift selfies... 

These trails are so steep that sometimes it's hard to figure out which way is up and which way is down when looking back at pictures taken on these. I'm pretty sure down is the direction coming out of the page. 

I was originally excited to have a weekend off from skiing this coming weekend, but after this past weekend, I'm kind of itching to go back already. Only a few more weeks!

MLK Weekend (& A Video!)

I can't believe it's almost the weekend again!
Can you?

There's one day left, but this week seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
Even though I was just there as recently as Monday, I'll be in Adirondacks again this weekend too!

Last weekend was really fun.
I did the usual ski/ski instruct thing, but on Sunday night Gore had its annual torchlight parade/firework show. It was so good! (And was the only thing I took pictures of all weekend haha.)
I also took a video since I've decided to try my hand at videography a bit more in 2015.
Any feedback would be appreciated! Hope you enjoy! ;)

A Ski Lesson

Over the weekend Le Copain and I went skiing.
Me for the 400th time (the number actually is somewhere near there). Him for the very first time.
I was excited. He was terrified.

Le Copain borrowed some skis, some boots, and a helmet too, and let me teach him to ski against everyone's advice (and possibly their better judgement too) that you should never teach your significant other how to ski. But I did anyways because when have I ever been good at taking advice?

The first time down the bunny slope was difficult and I started wondering if I should've listened to everyone's advice, but we tried again, and each time after that was better, until we were suddenly heading up the real mountain (!!!). 

(Not this trail quite yet though). 

Once at the top, we took the easiest way down, appropriately named "Lover's Lane", and did it a bunch until Le Copain was pretty much a skiing pro. 

Here he is post-skiing and in one piece AND smiling! 

On our way home, we made the obligatory stop at the Red Rooster in the town of Brewster for fries and soft-serve to celebrate because Le Copain did pretty darn great. You can see for yourself if you'd like (he's the one in the blue coat). This is him after only an hour! I'll be taking lesson requests all week ;)...