Saturday 24 January 2015

Lessons from America #2 - Snowboarding

It is crazy to believe that 365 short days ago, I was in New York. It seems so surreal to believe that an entire year has passed by since the end of my American Adventure but, as the phrase says, time goes on, no matter how much we want it to, which is why I'm glad to be looking over this adventure and refreshing my memory on how much I accomplished last year.




The first day I got to Denver, I was a wreck. I was tired, jet lagged and emotional and speaking to my family only made it worse. I'm not going to lie, I spent a large portion of my first day crying in my room. However, I composed myself and that evening, I went out for dinner to a place called California Pizza Kitchen with my cousin and his family. I had a spaghetti bolognese and let's just say I was blown away by how big the portion size was, but I managed to eat almost all of it!
On my second day, I went to a local sports shop to hire a snowboard and boots before settling down to a concoction of pasta, bacon, sweet potato and some other flavourings. I wasn't taken by the food but I was impressed with myself that I had tried it, especially since I also tried apple crumble and apple cider earlier in the evening (and disliked both of them too...)


The following morning, we all woke early and headed to Keystone for some skiing/snowboarding, though the journey took an extra two hours than normal so instead of having a full day at boarding school, I only had half a day. I was absolutely fascinated with the signs and landscapes that I saw on the way there as I have seen interstate signs and the like in a lot of films, but they're not common in England so I was fascinated. I was also taken with the houses that seemed to be placed in the middle of mountains... They looked so isolated, I really wish I could have gone to have a look around the places to see what it would be like to live there since they all looked so beautiful.


The first day of snowboarding was a lot of fun as I got to grips with the basics. I fell a few times but (luckily!) didn't hurt myself seriously, in fact there were a few times when I fell to stop myself from going too fast! After an exhausting day of travelling and learning the basics of boarding, we went back to the home that we had rented and had an early night. The house that we stayed in was so unbelievably nice and unbelievably far off the road but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. Boo!


When we woke on the second day of snowboarding, it was crazy to see how much it had snowed during the night and how much it was continuing to snow. In England, it doesn't tend to snow and when it does, it only snows for about half an hour where I live - in fact, the last time it properly snowed where I live was 2010!


Snowboarding on the second day was a lot less successful than the first simply because of the terrain. With the wind and the snow, visibility was poor and the terrain was hard for me to move on comfortably so I got frustrated with myself. It was also ridiculously cold and at one point, my instructor sent me inside to warm up. I hadn't been scared or nervous until I took my glove off and felt ice that had formed on my cheek... yikes! I warmed up and went back out, however, since I was determined not to let the weather bother me. When the boarding lesson had finished, I went for coffee with my family to warm up and I realised just how cold it was!


The resort that we snowboarded in was so cute, it was almost like its own little isolated village and it really reminded me of Beauty and the Beast for some reason!
Also, shout out to the guy I rented my helmet off, who started calling me Monica for some reason, before changing it to Victor when he saw the sticker on my rented snowboard!


The journey back to my cousin's house took four hours, which was the result of standstill traffic due to the horrific snow. We stopped in and had a McDonald's on the way back to the house and as soon as we all got in, we collapsed and went straight to bed! Overall, I hadn't snowboarded for very long but my legs were already starting to hurt with the exercise!


Again, I felt so incredibly proud of myself for a series of reasons.
  • I tried the spaghetti bolognese at California Pizza Kitchen
  • I also tried the pasta, bacon and sweet potato concoction, as well as apple cider and apple crumble (note to self: you do not like warm fruit!)
  • I went to a day and a half of snowboarding lessons all by myself
  • I didn't quit snowboarding!
  • I didn't get too upset about missing my family and boyfriend
  • I took some pretty awesome pictures...
Now that's not bad for three days! Don't forget to check back for the next Lessons post in a couple of weeks!

- Taisie ♥ | Bloglovin ♥ Twitter ♥ Tumblr ♥ Pinterest ♥ Instagram

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