Snow Virgin

I know you've all been waiting for these, so here you go... I got up enough nerve to try skiing Thursday night. I didn't realize just how much nerve it was going to take until I actually got to Brandywine Ski Resort and looked up. A giant hill covered in fake snow loomed above me, and I was completely out of my element. I rented some gear, somehow figured out how to get my feet in the ski boots, and wandered out onto the slopes. My lesson wasn't scheduled for a while, so I waited around watching little kids ski around like they were born with skis on their feet, and other folks on snowboards making the surfers down near me look strictly amateur. The instructor finally came around, and it turned out I was the only person in the sub-beginner lesson. (Remember, this is only the day after I saw snow for the first time, yet here I am taking a ski lesson...) He tried his best, but I just couldn't get it. For an entire hour, I'd struggle up a very slight slope, only to slide back down (sometimes backwards!) with little or no control, unable to stop or turn until I either fell over, or, on one spectacular occasion, smash into the split rail fence that separated the slopes from the meltwater stream below. Of the three rails in the fence, I broke two of them clean in half. It wasn't long after that incident that I decided I wasn't going to pick this up quickly enough, and I limped off to the rental return spot with my ego firmly tucked between my legs... (Big thanks to Wendy, an instructor at the resort, for these pictures. Now I know why she didn't want to be my instructor...)