Tuesday, December 13, 2005
snowboarrrrrdin', baby!
just back from my snowboardin' weekend this evening! 3 days and 3 nights in whistler mountains conquering the slopes! NICE!
anyway yeah. just a recap of the trip on fri. i went with 3 guys - shawn, weiliang and kweelim. and YES. they treated me like a princess (coz i was the only girl! wahaha.) when we shared the hotel room, i got the whole sofa bed to myself, i got priority in showering, and they carried all the groceries when we bought stuff from marketplace, even when i tried to wrestle for the groceries.
so these are my 3 companions - from left, shawn, me, weiliang and kweelim. all three guys are econs students here on exchange from singapore. and shawn's also a crazy sports fanatic and triathlete/marathon runner who does full marathons in 3 hours and aspires to do an ironman. more power to him!
anyway tt was taken at the ubc bus loop as we were waiting for the bus to take us to the terminal so tt we could take the greyhound up to whistler.
it was a 2 and a half hour ride up to the mountains. by the time we got there, it was past 8pm, dark and very very cold. we checked into our lodge at market pavilion, which had 1 double bed, 1 sofa bed and a tv. well. it also had a kitchenette and a microwave and a stove, so we pretty much made good use of everything we had there.
for one, we bought kfc (it's kfc in whistler too, not pfk) for our dinner. they had an amazing offer of 12 pieces of chicken for $12.99. and another 5 pieces for just $5.00. so we bought 17 pieces of chicken and shared it all between the four of us. we ended up with 4 pieces each (except for kweelim who had 5). we also went to marketplace to buy sustenance (i.e. lay's potato chips) and pcl liquor store to get cider and red wine.
so here is us in our room toasting after dinner. basically, our after-dinner activities consist of playing bridge and daidee, and watching tv. for some reason, we get to watch the simpsons and south park every fucking night.
we had to wake up early on sat morning to get our rental equipment and check in for our sessions.
but first: early morning photo time, as we walked from our lodge to the village!
whistler village - me and shawn.
and whistler village again - me and weiliang.
so we checked in for our lessons, got our lift passes and our rental equipment...
- me and my snowboard! ready to conquer whistler! hahaha.
...and then we took the gondola - it's the whistler cable car - to the olympic station midway between the village and the peak to learn the basics. shawn, weiliang and kweelim were all learning how to ski, so i was the only one learning how to board. it was strange tho; it was 7 degrees out, and we were all wearing so much clothes tt everyone was perspiring even though there was snow. talk about strange.
my instructor was this really cute aussie guy called eddy. he taught us how to skate, side-slip, and tried to teach me how to turn. but i suck at turning, and because my snowboarding boots were half a size too small, my toes had been squished so tight tt they hurt so much they'd gone numbed. eddy had to keep coming back to me and helping me along. not tt i mind of course. ;) aussie snowboarding instructors can be hot.
anyway we went up to the peak for lunch, and then he decided to let us try the runs! on day 1! which was amazing, but i was falling all over the place. on my butt, on my knees, on my side...
but being able to attempt a real slope on day 1 is amazing! even though eddy got us lost coz he's only been at whistler for 1 month and he didn't know all the slopes too well, so we ended up taking a gondola down to creekside and having to take a bus back. and we also had to take this run tt was actually tougher than the usual whisky jack slope tt i've been doing on the 2nd and 3rd day, coz it was steeper with slighter sharper turns and a narrower face. tt was really freaky for a first day when my sense of control was just completely whacked.
i was almost an hour late in meeting the 3 guys after our lessons coz of the bus ride and all tt. kweelim was really tired after one day of skiing. after we walked back to our room, he crashed on the bed and we stayed in the rest of the night watching tv (and the simpsons, south park and the family guy) and playing bridge and daidee. and shawn is amazing at talking cock. he totally cracks me up. and he totally bullies weiliang and kweelim too. haha.
in the end, we took for dinner the groceries tt we'd bought from the marketplace - hot dogs with bread and cheese. coz i was still hungry, i cracked a couple of eggs and scrambled them with mushrooms and sausages. my first foray into cooking. wahaha. but it was pretty good, if i must say so myself. weiliang agrees. then again, you cannot go wrong with eggs, sausages and mushrooms.
when i woke up early on sat morning, my body was aching. my arms from carrying the snowboard around, my knees and thighs from the controlling of the board and the moving around, my knees (also) and my butt from all tt falling (got orh che liao!), and my toes were purple.
we ate a hearty breakfast (we always do), then made our way down to the village for day 2 of lessons. shawn had picked up skiing pretty quick, so he decided to forgo lessons. for me, my instructor for today trevor, took us right up to the peak and let us do a couple of runs to practice our turning. but the problem was tt i never really learnt the basics in the first place, so i had huge problems trying to keep up with the rest of the class. literally. oh, and i fell like never before. i have fallen in every way possible.
hard on my butt (coz the snow was icy and therefore fucking HARD today), on my side, on my knees, and once on my face. the face was was amazing. i overbalanced, tripped over my board, flew into the air and landed hard on my left cheekbone and skidded a couple of meters, leaving my gloves, beanie and ski goggles 2 m behind me (after i recovered, i had to suffer the embarassment of scrambling back upslope to grab my stuff). OW. more orh che to add to my collection. like someone gave me a shiner. BAH.
but it was still pretty fun. we did the whisky jack and pony trail runs today, then took the chair lift back up. so i learnt how to get off a chair lift with a snowboard strapped on without tripping over the board. tt was cool. i have a 50% chance of successfully skating off the ski lift without doing a split in the process.
met the 3 guys back at the village after my class. this time i was the early one. heh. we decided not to waste our eveining by staying in (considering tt according to some of the people in my class, whistler has a couple of clubs and pubs worth checking out at night), so we deposited our ski and boarding stuff back in the room, then came back out to explore the village.
well, besides the shops and expensive eating areas.. we found a cinema!
so after eating dinner (we cooked more of the stuff tt we bought from marketplace; the three guys cooked their own noodles; i used campbells' soup to make clam chowder with bread)... we went to catch the 9.30pm "the chronicles of narnia: the lion the witch and the wardrobe" movie!
me with the movie poster. and my mal-adjusted beanie. HEH.
i'm not going to say tt much about it, but i didn't really like it tt much. on the upside, i can finally say tt i watched it. but still, it feels like an imitation of lord of the rings, right down to the suspenseful epic battle scenes and all tt. and the actors didn't really convince me; and the characters portrayed didn't really win me over. and shawn and i were like: "hello? there's a battle going on. what the HELL are the two sisters doing sleeping with a dead lion for so long?"
more interestingly, when we got back to our room, weiliang and i were watching southpark... and they were spoofing azlan from the movie! was tt karma or was tt karma???
this morning we had to wake up early to pack up and check out before riding for the third straight day. this time, all of us decided not to take lessons and just attempt all the runs on our own. so yeah, here's weiliang, kweelim and me as we take the gondola up to the peak!
and here is me and shawn, almost ready to ride and ski. YES. i wear the goofy goggles when i ride. it keeps the sun out of my eyes and my upper cheeks warm. esp since today it was -5 degrees... and we were ALL wearing a lot less than we were on day 1. plus my gloves keep getting snow in, so it isn't tt warm. and you should be there when snow gets into my PANTS. talk about 'wooooooaaaaah'.
yay! me and my board. with all the snow on it. the snow on the board is like evidence of how many times you've fallen. me? i fall A LOT. like i said, hard on my butt, on my side, on my knees, and today, 2 more times on my face (once more with the flying goggles and beanie). yeah. talk about the ultimate unglam. conquered the whisky jack 4 more times today just to practice out. am ok, if you count not being about to turn (!!!) as ok (wahaha), and was trying to actually go fast. yeah, once again, putting the cart before the horse. i can go fast... except tt i can't stop. explains why i keep falling, esp on my face.
it got foggy in the afternoon coz cloud settled towards the mid-station, and tt's not good coz all you see is white-out, so you can't really distinguish the terrain. i couldn;t actually judge the steepness of the slopes i was tackling, which was a little scary coz i didn't know how fast or slow to go.
but it's all good. like luke said, no matter what, you always end up with a huge smile on your face.
tt is true.
so after the 4th run, i met kweelim and weiliang back at the olympic station, and we took the gondola back to the village, where we met shawn. and then we returned our retals, collected our bags, and caught the 4.30pm greyhound back to vancity.
and for dinner, we busted $24.00 each on a sushi buffet dinner at b.c. sushi. we ordered 30 pieces of sashimi, 3 pieces of tuna, 6 pieces of lobster, and 4 pieces of abalone, sea urchin, alaskan, sharks' fin and soft shell sushi, 3 pieces of futomaki, california roll, tuna and salmon sushi, 1 piece of elephant clam and toro sushi, a few other kinds of sushi, 6 pieces of bbqed beef ribs, 3 pieces of mutton chops, 1 unagi don, 3 mozarella cheese sticks and gyoza, agedashi tofu, teriyaki chicken, 6 pieces of motoyaki, fried fish, salmon belly shioyaki, 6 pieces of chicken wings, ebi and vegetable and red snapper tempura, deep fried scallops, miso soup, and among us 12 servings of mango pudding...
yes. and i am stuffed.
but happy. wahaha.
for posterity. ;)
now playing: hotel costes - cafe de flor
anyway yeah. just a recap of the trip on fri. i went with 3 guys - shawn, weiliang and kweelim. and YES. they treated me like a princess (coz i was the only girl! wahaha.) when we shared the hotel room, i got the whole sofa bed to myself, i got priority in showering, and they carried all the groceries when we bought stuff from marketplace, even when i tried to wrestle for the groceries.
so these are my 3 companions - from left, shawn, me, weiliang and kweelim. all three guys are econs students here on exchange from singapore. and shawn's also a crazy sports fanatic and triathlete/marathon runner who does full marathons in 3 hours and aspires to do an ironman. more power to him!
anyway tt was taken at the ubc bus loop as we were waiting for the bus to take us to the terminal so tt we could take the greyhound up to whistler.
it was a 2 and a half hour ride up to the mountains. by the time we got there, it was past 8pm, dark and very very cold. we checked into our lodge at market pavilion, which had 1 double bed, 1 sofa bed and a tv. well. it also had a kitchenette and a microwave and a stove, so we pretty much made good use of everything we had there.
for one, we bought kfc (it's kfc in whistler too, not pfk) for our dinner. they had an amazing offer of 12 pieces of chicken for $12.99. and another 5 pieces for just $5.00. so we bought 17 pieces of chicken and shared it all between the four of us. we ended up with 4 pieces each (except for kweelim who had 5). we also went to marketplace to buy sustenance (i.e. lay's potato chips) and pcl liquor store to get cider and red wine.
so here is us in our room toasting after dinner. basically, our after-dinner activities consist of playing bridge and daidee, and watching tv. for some reason, we get to watch the simpsons and south park every fucking night.
we had to wake up early on sat morning to get our rental equipment and check in for our sessions.
but first: early morning photo time, as we walked from our lodge to the village!
whistler village - me and shawn.
and whistler village again - me and weiliang.
so we checked in for our lessons, got our lift passes and our rental equipment...
- me and my snowboard! ready to conquer whistler! hahaha.
...and then we took the gondola - it's the whistler cable car - to the olympic station midway between the village and the peak to learn the basics. shawn, weiliang and kweelim were all learning how to ski, so i was the only one learning how to board. it was strange tho; it was 7 degrees out, and we were all wearing so much clothes tt everyone was perspiring even though there was snow. talk about strange.
my instructor was this really cute aussie guy called eddy. he taught us how to skate, side-slip, and tried to teach me how to turn. but i suck at turning, and because my snowboarding boots were half a size too small, my toes had been squished so tight tt they hurt so much they'd gone numbed. eddy had to keep coming back to me and helping me along. not tt i mind of course. ;) aussie snowboarding instructors can be hot.
anyway we went up to the peak for lunch, and then he decided to let us try the runs! on day 1! which was amazing, but i was falling all over the place. on my butt, on my knees, on my side...
but being able to attempt a real slope on day 1 is amazing! even though eddy got us lost coz he's only been at whistler for 1 month and he didn't know all the slopes too well, so we ended up taking a gondola down to creekside and having to take a bus back. and we also had to take this run tt was actually tougher than the usual whisky jack slope tt i've been doing on the 2nd and 3rd day, coz it was steeper with slighter sharper turns and a narrower face. tt was really freaky for a first day when my sense of control was just completely whacked.
i was almost an hour late in meeting the 3 guys after our lessons coz of the bus ride and all tt. kweelim was really tired after one day of skiing. after we walked back to our room, he crashed on the bed and we stayed in the rest of the night watching tv (and the simpsons, south park and the family guy) and playing bridge and daidee. and shawn is amazing at talking cock. he totally cracks me up. and he totally bullies weiliang and kweelim too. haha.
in the end, we took for dinner the groceries tt we'd bought from the marketplace - hot dogs with bread and cheese. coz i was still hungry, i cracked a couple of eggs and scrambled them with mushrooms and sausages. my first foray into cooking. wahaha. but it was pretty good, if i must say so myself. weiliang agrees. then again, you cannot go wrong with eggs, sausages and mushrooms.
when i woke up early on sat morning, my body was aching. my arms from carrying the snowboard around, my knees and thighs from the controlling of the board and the moving around, my knees (also) and my butt from all tt falling (got orh che liao!), and my toes were purple.
we ate a hearty breakfast (we always do), then made our way down to the village for day 2 of lessons. shawn had picked up skiing pretty quick, so he decided to forgo lessons. for me, my instructor for today trevor, took us right up to the peak and let us do a couple of runs to practice our turning. but the problem was tt i never really learnt the basics in the first place, so i had huge problems trying to keep up with the rest of the class. literally. oh, and i fell like never before. i have fallen in every way possible.
hard on my butt (coz the snow was icy and therefore fucking HARD today), on my side, on my knees, and once on my face. the face was was amazing. i overbalanced, tripped over my board, flew into the air and landed hard on my left cheekbone and skidded a couple of meters, leaving my gloves, beanie and ski goggles 2 m behind me (after i recovered, i had to suffer the embarassment of scrambling back upslope to grab my stuff). OW. more orh che to add to my collection. like someone gave me a shiner. BAH.
but it was still pretty fun. we did the whisky jack and pony trail runs today, then took the chair lift back up. so i learnt how to get off a chair lift with a snowboard strapped on without tripping over the board. tt was cool. i have a 50% chance of successfully skating off the ski lift without doing a split in the process.
met the 3 guys back at the village after my class. this time i was the early one. heh. we decided not to waste our eveining by staying in (considering tt according to some of the people in my class, whistler has a couple of clubs and pubs worth checking out at night), so we deposited our ski and boarding stuff back in the room, then came back out to explore the village.
well, besides the shops and expensive eating areas.. we found a cinema!
so after eating dinner (we cooked more of the stuff tt we bought from marketplace; the three guys cooked their own noodles; i used campbells' soup to make clam chowder with bread)... we went to catch the 9.30pm "the chronicles of narnia: the lion the witch and the wardrobe" movie!
me with the movie poster. and my mal-adjusted beanie. HEH.
i'm not going to say tt much about it, but i didn't really like it tt much. on the upside, i can finally say tt i watched it. but still, it feels like an imitation of lord of the rings, right down to the suspenseful epic battle scenes and all tt. and the actors didn't really convince me; and the characters portrayed didn't really win me over. and shawn and i were like: "hello? there's a battle going on. what the HELL are the two sisters doing sleeping with a dead lion for so long?"
more interestingly, when we got back to our room, weiliang and i were watching southpark... and they were spoofing azlan from the movie! was tt karma or was tt karma???
this morning we had to wake up early to pack up and check out before riding for the third straight day. this time, all of us decided not to take lessons and just attempt all the runs on our own. so yeah, here's weiliang, kweelim and me as we take the gondola up to the peak!
and here is me and shawn, almost ready to ride and ski. YES. i wear the goofy goggles when i ride. it keeps the sun out of my eyes and my upper cheeks warm. esp since today it was -5 degrees... and we were ALL wearing a lot less than we were on day 1. plus my gloves keep getting snow in, so it isn't tt warm. and you should be there when snow gets into my PANTS. talk about 'wooooooaaaaah'.
yay! me and my board. with all the snow on it. the snow on the board is like evidence of how many times you've fallen. me? i fall A LOT. like i said, hard on my butt, on my side, on my knees, and today, 2 more times on my face (once more with the flying goggles and beanie). yeah. talk about the ultimate unglam. conquered the whisky jack 4 more times today just to practice out. am ok, if you count not being about to turn (!!!) as ok (wahaha), and was trying to actually go fast. yeah, once again, putting the cart before the horse. i can go fast... except tt i can't stop. explains why i keep falling, esp on my face.
it got foggy in the afternoon coz cloud settled towards the mid-station, and tt's not good coz all you see is white-out, so you can't really distinguish the terrain. i couldn;t actually judge the steepness of the slopes i was tackling, which was a little scary coz i didn't know how fast or slow to go.
but it's all good. like luke said, no matter what, you always end up with a huge smile on your face.
tt is true.
so after the 4th run, i met kweelim and weiliang back at the olympic station, and we took the gondola back to the village, where we met shawn. and then we returned our retals, collected our bags, and caught the 4.30pm greyhound back to vancity.
and for dinner, we busted $24.00 each on a sushi buffet dinner at b.c. sushi. we ordered 30 pieces of sashimi, 3 pieces of tuna, 6 pieces of lobster, and 4 pieces of abalone, sea urchin, alaskan, sharks' fin and soft shell sushi, 3 pieces of futomaki, california roll, tuna and salmon sushi, 1 piece of elephant clam and toro sushi, a few other kinds of sushi, 6 pieces of bbqed beef ribs, 3 pieces of mutton chops, 1 unagi don, 3 mozarella cheese sticks and gyoza, agedashi tofu, teriyaki chicken, 6 pieces of motoyaki, fried fish, salmon belly shioyaki, 6 pieces of chicken wings, ebi and vegetable and red snapper tempura, deep fried scallops, miso soup, and among us 12 servings of mango pudding...
yes. and i am stuffed.
but happy. wahaha.
for posterity. ;)
# posted by Kitana @ 12/13/2005 03:44:00 PM 
