Learning How to Ski

It’s the middle of March already and winter is finally showing some signs of ending. Because of the winter and because of school work, I haven’t done much traveling since my last post. However, over the last few weeks I did go skiing a couple of times, and took some beginner’s lessons with some friends. Here in the Northeast there isn’t much else to do in winter other than skiing or snowboarding. I got my first taste of skiing a year ago, and I wanted to get better at it instead of falling all over the place. There were plenty of skiing hills not far away from my location, and some of them were very reasonable in terms of pricing. I also joined the school ski club which offered much lower rates on equipment rentals. We had three lessons, and they definitely helped. I was able to ski down from the top of a mountain (a small one) through a blue trail and not fall in the process. Of course, I was skiing quite slowly, but it was a significant improvement compared to before the lessons.

 

At this point, I think I’m fine on green trails, but I might still take a tumble on the steeper sections of blue trails. Skiing is all about making the turns and using that to control speed, and I still need to improve in my turns in order to handle the more difficult trails with more consistency. Falling does hurt, and I got pretty sore, but overall I think skiing is a very fun activity. It’s very late in the ski season and I don’t know if I’ll go again this season, but I’ll be sure to head back to the hills next winter.

Skiing for the First Time

This week was my spring break. I had a lot of work to do and spent most of the break working, but it would have been pretty sad if I had to work the whole week and not do anything fun. So one day, I went with some of my friends to ski on a local ski hill. This was the first time I have ever skied, which is actually kind of weird given that I’ve lived in Vancouver for well over a decade. Vancouver has a couple of ski hills nearby, and the world famous Whistler is not that far away either.

The day we went, the weather was very nice and it was sunny the whole day. However, it is March and spring time has come, and so it was quite warm and thus the snow was a little slushy at the base of the mountain. Given this was my first time skiing, I went and took the beginner lessons to learn the basics. On the bunny hill I actually wasn’t doing too bad. I could turn and had some control over where I was going, and I didn’t fall while skiing. It did take me a few tries to figure out how to get off the chairlift without falling though. After a few times down the bunny hill, I then moved on to try the novice hill. I found out the hard way that the novice hill was way steeper than the bunny hill, and on my first trip down I ended up falling 4 or 5 times. I can’t seem to control my speed on the steeper hill and end up going too fast and then losing control. After a couple of tries I did make it down the hill once without crashing, but I still haven’t really figured out how to control my speed. I tried the “pizza slice” stance and that doesn’t seem to work.

Despite the falls and the slushy conditions, my first ski experience was pretty fun. I expected to fall a couple of times as a first-timer, and I think I did better than expected. The weather is getting too warm now and my spring break is over, so looks like my next skiing experience will have to wait until next winter.

2010 Winter Olympics Wrap-up

Canada!!!

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Games is finally coming to a close after two weeks of world-class competition. Despite the shaky start with the protests and the unfortunate death of the Georgian luger, plus the persistent weather problems (it was more like the Spring Olympics), it’s been a good Olympics games. Canada has done a good job as a host and also in the games. We didn’t exactly “own the podium” as the Americans and Germans have more medals in total, but Canada did win more gold medals than any other country this time. Canada’s 14 gold medals set the record for most gold medals won during a single Winter Olympics by any country. The total haul of 26 medals is also Canada’s best showing at any Olympics, summer or winter. Canada really came on strong during the last few days, capping it all off with a dramatic 3-2 overtime win over the USA in men’s hockey. Congratulations Canada!

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Olympic Break and School Term Impressions

I turned this website into a blog a month and a half ago in order to encourage myself to write more, but that hasn’t worked out so well. Anyways, for next two weeks, I’ll be spending nearly all my time at home. This is because of the Winter Olympics, which prompted my university to extend our usual one week break to two weeks. The break is by no means vacation though, since I have three projects and a couple of assignments to work on. Still, not having to commute to school and go to class should free up some time for me to watch the Winter Olympics… on TV. Having lived in Canada for so long, of course I’m rooting for the Canadian team, and also the Chinese team as well since I’m Chinese. I certainly hope Canada’s “Own the Podium” program will produce great results, but if that doesn’t work out, many of us Canadians will probably be happy if Canada wins the men’s hockey gold. GO CANADA!

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JP’s Badminton Portal

This is a completely separate website that is focused on the sport of badminton. I designed this site in order to put my father’s numerous badminton articles online. His articles talk about many aspects of badminton, such as tactics, skills, training etc. There is both an English and a Simplified Chinese version of the website, and visitors can switch back and forth between the two languages. The articles were originally in Chinese, and were translated into English by yours truly. This website has also been recoded completely to take advantage of PHP and MySQL in the December of 2006. Click here to visit.

“Becoming a Good Badminton Player” Essay

This is another one of those essays written for my grade 10 summer school essay writing course. I didn’t post it earlier with the other summer school essays due to the fact that I didn’t know where I put this essay. I wrote this essay because I am (or was) a frequent badminton player. I still play, but not as much as before. This is a pretty general essay about badminton. If you want more in depth information about the sport, please visit the badminton portal. Of course, I got an A for this effort, like all my summer school essays.

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