The inversion lasted for about a week, and I drove up and out of it into the sun to ski every day but one. Even though I hardly cook, never bake and make very little mess, I still have to do laundry once in a while and sweep the kitchen and hallway every week or so. And then there’s grocery shopping and a few other chores that have to be done sometime. The patterns of many years are slowly changing, and it’s not all bad.
Seung A and Jun Yung, my Korean students are fun to teach. I have each of them for an hour a week; of course the class goes overtime. At $20.00 an hour, which Mela informs me is what her cleaning lady makes, I won’t get rich doing it. But I do love teaching, and these kids are ideal. They’re serious students, but looking for fun too. Their mom is lovely. She is having a difficult time at the moment recovering from eye surgery and living in a strange land alone with her children. Her husband stayed in Korea to work. She’s beautiful and looks delicate, but is actually very strong, I think. They are only here for six months, and she wants to make the most of it. She does a lot to get the kids into situations where they will speak English. My friend Mi-Sun and I were laughing about it because she is just the opposite. Working at the car wash, she is constantly forced to deal in English with people who speak only English and are often not too understanding of a person who doesn’t immediately understand them and satisfy their needs. She can’t believe how they stare at her and don’t seem to know what on earth she’s saying when she knows she’s speaking English. But her pronunciation is often just enough off to make her incomprehensible to people who are not used to accents other than their own. Every Friday, she brings me lists of words and expressions dealing with everyday car wash matters and we struggle to improve her pronunciation and knowledge of idioms. Consequently, when she has time off she rushes to places where she will be with her Korean friends, many of which involve church, which I can’t get her to stop calling ‘churchy’.
Rees and Shae were good this week. Rees skied better; although, he hardly stopped talking about his new favorite movie, ‘Cars Two’. He gave a DVD of ‘Cars One’ to Jenny, my fellow teacher and me. Now we have to watch it and report back, especially our comments on Mater, the tow truck. Shae arrived in her pajamas with her mother who was clearly close to cracking. Shae had been crying on and off for no clear reason all morning. The mom wisely left, and we distracted Shae into her ski boots and actually got her skiing; although, she was much more interested in looking at the snow sculptures, of which there are many in the village now. When we returned to the SSASS room 2 hours later, her mother appeared rested and ready to tackle the rest of the day. We may not teach Shae to ski, but I think we will play a small part in saving her mother’s sanity.
I have just returned from a Sunday SSASS training session that started at 8:30am on a warm sunny morning. The morning went well. The instructors who offered the class are fun and full of helpful techniques. The conditions were a bit icy, but things seemed to be softening in the sun by noon, so I decided to carry on to the afternoon class. That was a mistake. On the first run I was involved in a crash that threw me into the air and down on my right shoulder. The pain was so intense that I knew I’d dislocated it, but I had to endure the lengthy procedures that the Ski Patrols are obliged to go through. They are especially concerned about broken necks, backs and concussions. Then it took ages to get me wrapped up in the meat wagon and down to the patrol shack for more tests. Fortunately there was an emergency ward doctor on the hill who came down, identified the problem and gave me a shot of morphine and some other drug. As the patrols had already given me ‘laughing gas’, I was feeling light headed and dizzy but the pain was still intense. Finally Mo, who had stayed with me the whole time and is an angel, was able to get me ready to get into her car for the ride to Vernon Hospital. It was so much like the time Jim drove me from Liz and Ross’s camp to the Thunder Bay Hospital, dripping wet with a dislocated shoulder after diving into Loon Lake. I’m accident prone, and Jim had resigned himself to being the one to get me out of scrapes or if possible prevent them from happening in the first place. I miss him daily for this and many other reasons. His earthy, dry wit often put things into perspective for me. But my new friends were very helpful. And after going through the same procedure that I had experienced in TBay, the anesthetic and the goon squad, I awoke almost pain free, Mo drove me home and now I am resting in the haze of painkillers. If I’m smart, I’ll ‘process’ this information and modify some of my more reckless behavior.
Sorry, no pictures this week.
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