Reveillon & New Year's Day

From Edmonton, I took the express bus to Calgary and spent the long weekend with my Brazilian friends. Originally the plan was to spend 3 nights with a different family than usual, but I ended up only staying there 1 night because of plans that made it easier to be in the same house as the people I was doing stuff with! I felt kinda bad....

Saturday night we had a pizza party, which was loud and fun. Sunday I went to church with the C family, and was asked if I was Jim's sister and later if I was another daughter! Yikes. We had fun with that one... now they want me to live with them and be their nanny. Right, my dream come true. :p I had the new experience of eating lunch at IKEA - hadn't tried that before, but it was yummy. For New Year's Eve, I went to the Calgary Zoo for their "Zoo Lights." It was basically a bunch of Christmas lights in different designs all over the place and then fireworks. I didn't get to see many of the lights because I went with a later group of guys who weren't really into that. ;) But we did see some ice sculpting (done with a chainsaw!) and about 10-15 min. of fireworks... at 8:30pm. We thought that was funny as in Brazil it would only be at midnight. :D I guess they want kids to be able to go.

By the time we left there, did a bunch of driving, and stopped at the C's to visit and eat some leftover turkey dinner (it's never a quick stop with these talkative boys! ;0)), it was just before midnight. So we saw in the New Year even though we didn't really plan to.

I spent the first day of 2007 getting up waaaay too early - 5:30 - to drive to Banff to go skiing! Now, understand that I had also not been skiing in about 12 years, so I was little, and more importantly, it was in Saskatchewan. So basically I was totally unprepared for the mountain slopes - even their green (easiest) runs were more than I wanted to start with. NOR did it help that we started on a super high run that was actually blue (harder) before it turned green. Let me tell you, it was the most ridiculous and frustrating 1.5-2 hrs that I've had in a loooong time. To start literally hitting the ground skiing was super scary, especially when I had to keep going because I couldn't turn back to an easier one. I was so out of my element! On those steep angles I felt like I was learning sooo slowly (shockingly enough!), and I felt really bad for the guy that was stuck behind with slow-moving, rookie me. It seriously took us foreeeever to get down. I fell constantly and every time I had to get back up it took forever to get all adjusted again. Even better, on one of my last falls my legs twisted weirdly and I heard my left knee pop! Aaaack. I was able to get up and keep going, and as I walked down the last slope (I was too frustrated to try it again) the other 3 I was with came out to meet me. I think they had been able to see me from the Lodge for quite a ways, because when I sat there later I could see pretty far. Awkward....

I rested my knee for an hour while the others did some more runs. Then we waited and watched for the adults that were supposed to be coming up to the Lodge with a lunch for us. They didn't show up so we finally bought super expensive food so we wouldn't waste too much time. We went out to do an easier run... even though I was frustrated I knew I couldn't leave it at that horrible experience (plus I had to get some of my money's worth!). It went quite a bit better, and the third time was definitely the best - fewer falls and more control over my speed! (Most of my falls were purposeful - to stop when I would get too fast and start to panic....)

From there we did meet up with the others and had a snack and break. The boys went to do some more and I ended up quitting there. I was sooooo tired. It's very exhausting to balance and control your speed and direction with your legs for so long, esp. when unused to it! Plus I wasn't having a huge blast doing it! :p

That night we were all exhausted as we drove back and ate supper. I wasn't too hungry but was still feeling dehydrated when I went to bed, even though I'd drunk tons of liquids during the day. It was a weird feeling. Once again I had to get up early to come back home the next morning... back to work on the 2nd! I was soooooo stiff, plus limping from my knee. Not so fun with stairs to go up & down all the time and sitting & standing often. Thankfully it only keeps improving, and the doctor I went to Wednesday said it looks like just a sprain. I even got X-rays. :) (This is so odd for me, because I never hurt myself like this! I was a bit scared it was worse, but praise God it's not! This is why I never do extreme things. I'm not really a risk-taking kind of person....)

Anyway, to sum it up, I don't know if I'll ever go skiing again or not. While some people try to start the New Year off on the right foot, I started it off on my left knee! :p