Although I’ve given a lot of free ski lessons since I qualified, to people displaying various degrees of talent and attention to instruction… yesterday was the first time people paid for my advice.
I’m still kind of shocked that it’s worth anything, given that I couldn’t ski until I was 21.
But, now I have my level 2. And that feeling gradually went away. First the little English girl, who was very sweet and whose dad was watching the whole time. He started off a little annoyed (there had been a mix-up and her lesson had started late) but by the end of the hour he was thanking me saying her improvement had been amazing.
Yay!
Next up, I ended up with two little girls, sisters. They were pretty good skiers already so we went up the mountain. Apart from an incident at the chairlift (next time we’re going slower and all getting on together) and one of them getting stuck in a hole and having to be lifted out… it was all good.
Finally, I had a little French girl, first time on skis. She was super cute, but a little scared so at first what we did was she’d slide down a little and I’d catch her. And I was allowed progressively further away, as she learned to slow down and eventually stop by herself. But even as I’m holding her up, and my lower back is howling with pain, she’s pointing to the big lifts and asking if we can go up, and if she can go up with daddy!
| By the end of the day, 3pm, I was exhausted. But all in? A pretty good day and a great break from doing what I normally do.
It didn’t start off that well though. I was supposed to have a group in the morning, and the woman in charge told me to be there at 10:20. I was, but I should have been there for 10, so they were gone. I felt terrible, and horribly embarrassed that I’d screwed up and got the time wrong – honestly I wanted to burst into tears and go home… until she later apologized and said she’d realized it was her who’d mixed things up. Oh the relief! First days – really hard. First days somewhere completely different? Even harder. No computer to hide behind! But so worth it. Teaching a child in French – big hurdle for me. Made it! |
How was your weekend?