30/1/07
Well, man, I am slacking. I get on holiday, and I take a holiday from everything. But I did keep calling my mom every week.
School started up and came faster than I wanted it to. I thought I still had a week, but the start up day changed to 3 days earlier. I was told, “Hey, see you on Saturday,” and fear gripped me. I felt like I should be at school right then. I had that same anxious feeling at the beginning of second semester. I felt like I don’t know anything. However, I did get through 2nd term; so I know I can get through 3rd. I got put in the slow class too, but I hope to get better and improve my attitude too.
I am teaching the boys at scouts woodcarving. That has been fun. With school starting I hope I can find the time to finish it up. We are going camping soon. If the weather is uneventful and nice, we are going for 2 nights. Most of these kids haven’t gone on a two-dayer so it should be fun to see how they survive. One of the parents went to the scout master and asked if he would make her son patrol leader so he can have enough requirements to advance in rank. The scout master had a hard time explaining that it isn’t dependent on the scoutmaster but on the maturity of the scout. If this kid were made patrol leader, no one would respect him. He would have no weight of his own behind him. He would constantly be having an adult leader keeping his patrol on track. He is one of the kids on the low end of the totem pole in rank. Speaking of totem poles: in a week I will be on an Eagle Scout board of review. That is intimidating.
I have cooked a few things while on break; and kids, you should always believe your mother when it comes to cooking and follow her instructions to the letter. I was cooking a “brisket” (well a piece of meat like a roast close to the ribs). She told me not to put barbeque sauce on it and to put it in the oven, and that I should not add any water. It would all come out of the meat and be enough. You should add the barbeque sauce afterwards. Well, it tasted good but we had too much liquid and none of that nice juice that you get because the barbeque sauce was mixed all in it. Then I tried to cook cornbread. Instead of corn meal I had corn flour. My cornbread is white not yellow. So now I wonder what to do with the rest of the corn flour I have. On the up side, I have cooked my angle biscuits a few times and they are down to an art. I have made a lot of hot sauce, but it never comes out the same color and never like back home. It tastes good– especially with that special ingredient. Ask Max.
Go bears! I hope I get to watch the super bowl.
1/20/07
Well, it’s been a while. I really have not done much–just some maintenance for the center. That was fun and nice to actually use my physical labor skills. Just going to school is stressful, because I’m not good at it. But I am good at maintenance work and I don’t often get to do it.
I have also been bringing friends over because I live so far out. It’s been nice. Most of them are from school or the gym and now they want to come every night. An interesting note about that: when I walk around in my neighborhood nobody knows who I am and they ignore me–just let me pass by unnoticed. But once I brought a couple to my house and it was so different. The people strared hard and the small kids (who used to say hello sometimes) chased us up and down the street walking with us everywhere which caused more attention to us. And I’m thinking “Wow I am a people person.” But that’s just weird that I would be treated so differently when there are people with me than when I am by myself.
1/1/07
Well what do you know. Today we went snowboarding. I have been waiting 3 years for this. We flew to Lebanon at night. It was great. They take American dollars from you–no need to exchange money. It took me an hour and a half to get to the airport and the same time to get to the ski lodge. It only took 40 minutes in the air so only about 4 hours of travel. That’s like going to Angel Fire, but just a bit more expensive. The first day I was doing alright and then we went all the way to the top. I took off, made it half way down and then biffed it hard–hard enough that I can still feel it. Even now my chest feels like I broke a rib but hopefully not. We had 2 newbies but they did well, though one of them just used their snowboard for a sled half the day. Now raise your hand if you have ever done that and be honest. Another bad thing was I also lost my cell phone on the slopes.
The “New Year” party consisted of about 20 young kids in the hotel getting drunk and setting off fire works. Trouble was they decided to do it in the sitting room right outside my door, but I slept well anyway.
1/2/07
Well today we went to a whole new part of the mountain to ski. It was nice. A bit too nice. We went on a run that was just powder and I could not stay on top of it and fell about 3 times. It didn’t hurt until I fell into a thorn bush which seems to be the only thing that grows up on the mountain. Not a single tree except the ones they planted. For lunch yesterday we had cocktail weiners. That didn’t go over so well. Today I packed beef ravioli and chips. It was great. I didn’t realize how hungry I was till we dug into the can. As we were going to the new part of the mountain, my board broke. The binding ripped off the bolt. But I was a good boy scout, and had brought along my tools that my brother had given me. I fixed it in 5 mins and off we went. It was nice. Before that I had put hot water in my camel pack, so 2 hours into boarding I drank hot chocolate. It was nice. My chest still hurts mainly when I jump which is sad because that’s what I wanted to try and do more of this trip. Maybe next time whenever that will be.
1/3/07
Today was just nice. The newbies gained more confidence and went down some harder slopes, some blues and they loved it. I hope tomorrow we can just fly up and down the mountain and I don’t have to stop so much. Stopping and waiting is okay, because I have a camp chair that I brought along and it works great. Oh and today I did try some jumps. I pulled a 180 but that really isn’t anything special. I have definitely gotten better at carving up the mountain. Even though I hurt, I am having a lot of fun. I did great except for the last run going home. It was terrible. There were rocks everywhere. I was tired and kept getting out of control. Luckily I didn’t hurt myself again.
1/4/07
The day was mixed. looking back at it I’m not sure if it was good or not. So for all intensive purposes we will say it was good. We will run through the day then you can make a decision whether it was a good day or not. I now know why we only did 3 days of snowboarding instead of 4. I made a lot of runs but man 3 would have been enough. If I would have been on my own snowboard I definitely would not have gone the last 2 days. There were so many rocks exposed but don’t worry. “It’s a rental.” (Quote from previous snowboarding trips) You can get cell phone reception on the mountain which is funny but annoying, even scary –to watch someone going down the mountain at full speed talking on their cell phone or trying to get off a lift. So about on the 3rd run I didn’t have my backpack and I was barely going. It was one of those wrecks where you just go about an inch every second and your center of gravity is over too far, so plop– down you go. Well to keep my beautiful face from hitting a rock I jerked up my head and hurt my neck. It wasn’t too bad but as the day progressed it got worse and worse. We went on a few more runs then we headed home because it was just way too rocky and the skiers were complaining. It was only rocky at the very top and bottom. In the middle you could go off the trail where the wind had blown all the loose snow. It was nice and fun, almost like you were the first to be there. So we went home and turned in our stuff. I showered at my place then hurried up to catch the free ride to the other’s hotel. We ordered pizza and played a game called Settlers and I won. It was the first time I had ever won a game so that was nice. But then I had to walk home. It was about a mile and half all up hill. It wasn’t too cold and the wind had died down. On top the mountain it had been blowing and was terrible. When we tried to ski, it would just push us into the rocks. So good or bad day?
Oh — before I forget– when locals here would approach me they spoke in French. Do I look French? I always thought of French people as slim and tall with dark hair and a small moustache with the rest clean shaven–I mean just a sharp looking guy. They would tell me something in French and I would speak in Arabic. They would look at me confused and respond in Arabic sometimes again and again while I try to understand wanting to practice my Arabic. Then they would try English, so I would act like I spoke Spanish. Just joking–I would use English. So good or bad day?
1/5/06
It snowed this morning, the day we are leaving. That is all I have to say.