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16.01.2008
Ski trip
Ski area Holiday Mountain on the 15th of Jan 2008Today nearly all the international students took the opportunity to go skiing or snowboarding instead of going to school. We left at 7.00 by bus and arrived at Holiday Mountain at about 9.15. My total snowboardnig time was 5 hours and 20 minutes. It was fun! (and my butt isn't suprisingly hurting at all)
I would be snowboarding longer, but we had to return the borrowed equipment and the plan was to head home at 4.00, so the teachers forced us to stop snowboarding at 3.20 – so early! In fact there were other strange rules we had to obey – everybody had to wear a helmet and no jumping was allowed. Canadians will once lose all the joy, because of so many rules. The highest allowed speed at highways – 70 mph (110 kmh) is terrible.
There were two big differences compared to Europe. Firstly, there are no safety bars at the lift chairs. It's a pretty strange feeling while you're going up for the first time, but then you get used to it. The lift goes very slowly, so the bars aren't necessary and then it becomes psychology problem in your head only – the other Canadians obviously had no problems with it. Secondly, there are no tourniguets for tickets check. Skiers only were a sticker on their jacket. In case of us we were also marked as beginners, intermediates or experts (red, blue or black) and depending on what category you were, only certain slopes were allowed for you. This means the instructors first looked how strong skiiers/snowboarders we were and they gave us the red, blue or black mark. If you got red, you had to stay at the practice hill untill you improved. With blue or black mark you were allowed to go anywhere you wanted (with exception of jumping or skiing in free terrain). Although I suck at snowboarding, I received a blue mark. They even considered me expert before the end of the day :) It's so easy to be said to be "good" here in Canada. No matter how you do, they will always say: "Good job!".
Eventhough the ski area was called Holiday Mountain, you have to think about the mountain in Manitobian scale. That means it's not a mountain at all. There were five slopes nearly the same length as in Vitkovice, two double chair lifts and one "moving pavement" at the practice slope. However, one of the lifts was out of order.
I was also speaking in German with my friends aus Bayern und Berlin. At first it was a mixture of German and English, but after a while it switched to German completely. I was amazed that I could say a whole meaningful sentence in German. However, I realised how much vocabulary I'm missing. The exams from German in September will be interesting.
There were amazing pictures of the Rockies hanged on the walls of the cafeteria. Despite the fact that the pictures always look much better than the reality, I'm really looking forward to the ski trip to Fernie, British Columbia.
P.S. I've taken couple of pictures, so if you wanna see them, just send me an email request. I'll see what I can do then :P
Comments
(Honza - Mail - WWW)
What about including a picture into the article.
btw.. "much more better" - are you sure?
(Hekko [openID] - Mail - WWW)
Honza: So many people use this terrible construction in Czech... ;)
(Ted - Mail - WWW)
Well, as I'm looking at it once again I'm not. It rather sounds like a direct translation from Czech. I've changed and also added another paragraph :)
To the pictures: Do you know any simple software for decreasing the size of the pictures?
(Honza - Mail - WWW)
Well... try http://irfanview.com or http://faststone.org or you can also use online image editor like http://www.picnik.com
(Ted - Mail - WWW)
To "much more": I've found a sentence on a Canadian webpage that uses that: "...kayaking, hiking or much more." It's kind of different, though, but its strange usage migh have its origin there.
(Ted - Mail - WWW)
I've got another one to "much more". I was watching a movie a Mat Damon clearly says there: "It's much more fun doing this." Therefore, I guess this expression is ok.
(Silvie - Mail - WWW)
I think the problem is not that there is much and more in one sentence, but "more better". I'm not sure, if it's really a mistake, but it sounds pretty strange. (Usually there is either "more" or "-er" and not the two of them.)
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