Learning and Travel #2: First Falls

First ski lesson, Pyongyang, South Korea

Has everyone but me lost all the weight they may have gained during Covid lockdowns? I definitely have not. There are twenty-five more pounds of me now as compared to pre-Covid. I'm not ashamed of myself. I know the why and the how of it. And while I believe as Sonya Renee Taylor writes that The Body is Not an Apology, I also believe my future eighty-year-old self will appreciate a healthier me. 

Still,  additional weight or not, Americans like me can have trouble finding clothes that fit in South East Asia. So when I got tapped to chaperone a skiing field trip to South Korea, I knew I'd need to find clothes from elsewhere. I thought I'd prepared enough: Burton snow pants from REI, hoodies and pullovers from LLBean (via Goodwill), borrowed thermals, beanies and wool socks. I was set. 

Except I wasn't. The puffy jacket I'd borrowed from a friend wasn't quite waterproof. Our guide from Adventure Korea told me I should rent a ski coat when we stopped to outfit the students.  

Our bus pulled over just a few minutes before we reached the 2018 Winter Olympic Resort Area of Pyongyang. We unloaded: thirty teenagers, three chaperones, two guides, a bag of travel trash and  a checklist. 

"Make sure you have goggles, a helmet, ski gloves, a coat, ski pant... hey, helmets, everyone," our guide Michael called out as we walked into the warm road-side rental store. 

Crammed full with racks and racks of colourful coats, ski pants, bins and bins of helmets, walls of gloves, gaiters, ski masks, the small space suddenly filled. 

Michael waved me over to him and introduced me to the Korean shopkeeper. He spoke to her in Korean, turned to me and said, "Min will help you find a coat. Follow her."

She darted between racks of mens' coats to the front of the store. Reaching up with a hook on a poll she started sliding coats to the right. She selected a red and blue one and brought it down for me to try. 

Size L, I saw on the tag. There's no way that will zip up I thought to myself. Large in Asia is medium in the United States. I slipped on arm into the coat, then the other and bent down to zip it. With a big inhale I tried to bring the ends together, nope, not happening, I thought. Min stepped forward. For a minute I thought she was going to grab the coat and sausage me into it. 

I shook my head while freeing my arms. Looking down the rack I spotted XL written on card stock  mounted further down the rod. I walked that way pointing to a bright pink number. If I fell down the mountain in that, surely someone would spot me! 

Min got the coat down from the rack and I slipped it on. The sleeves fell a good 4-6 inches beyond my hands and the bottom hem nearly to my knees, but guess what? 

It zipped up! Sold! I smiled and tucked the coat under my arm as I made my way to the helmets and check out counter. 

Flash forward a few hours to our first ski lesson. Prior to leaving Singapore, chaperones had asked students about their skiing experience. We'd sorted our thirty kiddos into 3 groups: 9 intermediate skiers, 8 8 beginning with some experience, 8 new-to-skiing beginners and 5 novice snowboarders.  I went with the new to skiing group. My friends Silvia had the experienced beginners, Tim, who has taught in Switzerland and has loads of skiing experience,  took the intermediate skiers and our guide, Michael, taught the novice snowboarders. 

In purple snow pants, the hot-pink rental snow coat, and two layers of thermal, I wedged my foot into my snow boot and tried to buckle it. My God, how do people move in all these clothes?  Silvia and I laughed as we tried to help each other get our boots on. One of our guides, noticing we'd not clicked all of the buckles hustled over and did up the top of our boots for us. Smiling she sent us out to meet our ski instructors. 

"Ready?" Silvia asked.

"Ready!" I replied grabbing my skis and poles. 

Head up. Eyes forward I spotted the door. Now to get there. Clomp. Slide. Shuffle Clomp. Clomp.

How do people walk in these boots? Somehow we made it to sidewalk outside. 

Pyongyang's ski complex contains several resorts, twenty-four runs and a large food cart, shopping area. Our instructor Soo met me and my group of beginners on the snow just outside.

"Okay, Ms. Lee Ann, are all the kids here?" Soo asked.

I scanned the group, counting, "Yes, all here."

"Follow me." She skied out in front of us and crossed the ski lane, stopping in an area out of the way on the other side. "Okay, everyone, lay your skis and poles down next to you. Watch me." She got first one boot and then another out of her skis by pushing the back latch down with a ski pole. Now, first, you click your boot into your ski. 

Click. Click. Click. Clank. Clank--"Why won't my boot go in?" one student said. "I can't get mine either," another replied. "Oh, shit!" someone said as they hit the snow.

First fall. Now worries. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." the student started apologising for their language. 

"No worries, you okay?" I said, adding, "My first thought when we stepped out on the snow was an "Oh Ship" myself." We all chuckled and then doubled down on trying to click our boots in. 

Click. Click. Click. Click. With Soo's help, we all clicked into our skis. 

"Okay. Good. Good job," Soo praised. "Now, grab your poles and let's practice getting out of our skis."

The kids bent down to pick their poles off of the snow. I followed their lead reaching toward the poles I'd left on the group. Reach. Reach. Come on, why can't I reach them? 

"Ms. Spillane, you okay?" a student asked.

"I can't reach my poles. I think it's the coat!" There was so much coat around my waist and the coat hemmed in my legs. "Cannot!" I laughed using the Singaporean expression.

"Let me help you," said the student reaching over for the poles. "Look at me, in sweatpants! I might be cold, but I can move" he grinned right before one ski slide behind another and down he went.

Both of us humbled from the start. 

Big thanks to the team at Two Writing Teachers (TWT) who hosts Slice of Life Story Challenge every day in March and on
Tuesdays throughout the year. Swing by TWT to serve yourself up another slice or link up your own and join us!