Wednesday, March 9, 2011

3/9/11: The I-Triple-Ski Conference

Today was ski-day. We woke up early and went to breakfast as usual. Then, we split up. Matt, Mr. Feenstra, and Mr. Biron, the more experienced skiers of the group, went to go skiing, while my dad and I went back to the condo for some much-needed R-and-R.

After some nice relaxing relaxation, we went to our ski lesson that we had booked for 1:00. We met the others at a restaurant called Yeti Dog and had some absolutely amazing hotdogs. Then, we went to the equipment rental store and got skis, boots, and poles.

The ski lesson was pretty fun. Our instructor first put us on one ski and had us glide around with our poles. He did this for both feet, and then put us on two skis. We first learned how to "walk" with them. Then, we learned how to glide along flat surfaces, and then how to slow down using the Snow Plow technique.

We were brought to a secluded, private ski-school area with a "magic carpet" (a moving strip of rubber along a hill) and some short slopes. I learned how to control my speed fairly quickly, but never quite got the hang of stopping. We also learned how to turn and when and how to use the poles.

After that, we were ready for a small slope right near the section we were in. We walked over, and got on another "magic carpet", and then another, and skied down. We all went pretty slowly, because at the end of the slope there was a steeper drop that would have led us speeding into the conference building. I was a little nervous to do it again after the first time (as this was the first time I was ever on skis), but I did it again, this time, with the help of my instructor, going down in a slow but steady S-shape curves, allowing me to stop well this time (the last time I had to have a little help from my dad to stop me from going down the hill). That concluded our lesson, and we went back to the condo where the others were waiting.

After that, my dad, Mr. Biron, and I used our condo's hot-tub for the first time this week. It was pretty weird being in 98-degree water and >30-degree air at the same time. I took another shower, and then relaxed a bit. Eventually, the time came to go to dinner.

We went to the conference hall and had dinner, which consisted of a wide variety of food, including but not limited to vegetarian casserole, London Broil, and fried chicken. We then watched the second plenary session of the day (we had missed the first one), which was about bacteria that helped form rain and snow in the atmosphere and how we could use them to help areas with long droughts.

After that, we decided to go home, because we have to wake up early tomorrow. So, I'm sitting here writing this before I go to bed.

And yes, I know I promised to have videos and photos today, but they aren't quite ready yet. Tomorrow they will be.

Whew, tomorrow's going to be awesome.

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