Skiing in the Clouds...

So I think I have figured out a few things about Scotland and it's people. First of all, these people are crazy drivers. I would be scared to death to drive on these roads. They are narrow, people come flying by, they pass whenever they feel like it, and they drive very close to the center line. In the few times that I have ridden on the buses, I have been absolutely terrified when we pass other buses or 18 wheelers. I'm surprised side mirrors haven't crashed yet because we have had some very very close calls. I would be scared if I was driving a small car (like my Civic) and another small car was coming in the other lane. That would be too close for me...I can't imagine what it's like driving a huge charter bus. The second thing has to do with drinking over here. At our orientation meeting at the beginning of the semester the international student director warned us that Scottish people have a drinking problem. He said it as a joke and as a warning to watch ourselves in pubs. I think what he meant is that he has a drinking problem, or that he is one of the biggest contributors to Scotland's drinking problem haha. But I think I have figured out why Scottish people drink so much, and why pubs are such a huge part of the culture. First of all, drinking is an entirely different culture here than in the US. And here's my theory about why people drink. In the US, especially in the South, people go to bars/honkytonks/whatever you want to call them, to "drink their problems away." Here people drink to drink the cold away. That has to be it, I'm sure of it. It's so dang cold here, especially at night, so people drink to keep the cold out. It's my theory, and while it's kinda a joke, I think there may be some truth to it haha. Oh, and don't worry Mom, I haven't developed a drinking problem haha.
Well Keith and I went skiing today. We hopped on a bus at 7:00 this morning (which means I got up way too early), and headed up to Fort William. People have asked me why I chose to study in Scotland. Drive through the Highlands of Scotland and you'll see exactly why I chose to come here. The hills and lakes and valleys and snowcapped mountains...it is absolutely incredible and quite possibly the most beautiful landscape I have ever witnessed. Well we had some complications on the way up because we couldn't understand our bus driver and we thought we missed our ski resort, but we ended up making it to a place. We got our tickets and our rentals and we started making our way up the gondola to the where the slopes start. The views from this mountain were incredible. We could see for miles, and all we could see were huge mountains covered in snow. Absolutely beautiful.
Skiing was interesting. I guess I've gotten too used to snowboarding, so getting back into skiing was rough. I'm not comfortable enough yet snowboarding, and I wanted to enjoy my time rather than fall down the mountain, so I decided to ski instead. It took a while to get back into it, and I don't think I ever fully got back to where I used to be. So the first couple runs were a little rough, but it started getting better. Then Keith had this idea that we should go all the way to the top of the mountain and follow this one trail he saw that was supposedly still open. So we went all the way to the top. It was so windy up there, snow and ice were blowing everywhere and stinging our faces, and to top it all off we were so high up that we were in the middle of a cloud and couldn't see a thing. So we had no idea what was down in front of us, and we couldn't see exactly where this trail led. Some snowboarders passed us and took off down this one area, so we decided to try to follow them. Bad idea. We immediately sank into about a foot of pure powder. These places don't make fake snow, they rely totally on what falls naturally. So we immediately knew this was a bad decision, but it was too late to turn back. We soon found ourselves in the middle of huge patches of rocks. Like big rocks. And we constantly found new rocks that had been covered up but we hit them with our skis anyways. And we still couldn't see a thing. So we're in the middle of nowhere, on a trail that isn't supposed to be open, with little to no visibility, and both of us are struggling trying to get back into skiing. Not a good combination. I felt utterly hopeless and desperate...I was getting very frustrated. But we eventually wound our way through all the rocks and finally found the regular slope. It was frustrating and a little scary at the time, but looking back on it we laughed...a lot. We had a great day, an exhausting and very cold day, but a great one. Keith and I had a great time trying to learn how to ski again, winding our way through rocks and trails we weren't supposed to be on, and enjoying the beautiful scenery around us. I love having Tuesdays off school...