I Learned to Ski in China

Wei's cousin, me, Wei, another cousing in-law, and her daughter.

Of all the places to learn to ski, I happened to learn to ski in China, thanks to Wei's very generous cousin, Weng Meng Sheng, who we refer to as 'jiefu,' basically, 'my older sister's husband.' Like a cousin in America. In this part of China, cousins are referred to as brothers and sisters, though in some other parts, Wei thinks maybe the South, cousins would use a different word. Regardless, it's all based on the fact that every relationship has a hierarchy in Chinese culture, so each different position in the family, everywhere for that matter, has a rank, roughly by age.

Anyway we had a blast! Of all the things we've done in China, this will be one of the most memorable. I think of it as a "New China" kind of thing. The experience, including the hour and a half through the countryside, ranks up there with meeting Wei's family members, and a tea tasting that I should be able to write about shortly.

We both learned to ski, but I fell less (ha!). Anyway, it's true we never went all the way to the top, but we weren't just on the bunny slopes either. I made it down a couple times without falling, with some good speed, and mostly going in the direction intended. I recommend that Wei find an instructor who only speaks Hindi. Not understanding your instructor, or possibly the other way around, seems to help. I could understand only a few words that my instructor was saying, but it was fine and he didn't stop trying to talk to me, so I caught something every now and then. For the most part, "No" and "That's right" (dui or "dway" with a slight 'u' after the 'd') came in handy and suited us just fine. The "no" when spoken by him usually came within a long string of them. Such as "Ohhh, noooo no no no no" when I started to do a split or some other action disastrous to my fertility, or possibly his.

At first I could only turn to the right for some strange reason. I tried and tried to get my weight over the left foot and pivot, but all I did was gain speed....toward the fence. It didn't take long to run out of room so I had to figure something out. Mostly by accident, I discovered that speed was the answer. With some speed, it became much easier to pivot the ski, and easier to change directions in general. And so the rest is history. Mammoth Mountain here we come!

Which way to go?

Ah, that makes much more sense...

Somehow we made it. Helps to have a good driver from the company jiefu works at.
Nice little place to learn to ski. It even has a snow boarding bowl in the middle there.

Wei prepares for battle with Old Man Winter.

One small step up from the bunny slope.

Lin Hai and I (If it doesn's ryme, you're saying his name wrong, sorry.)