Visitors

We have been happy to host a number of visitors in our time here. For those of you who didn't make it, you missed a great opportunity to ski free/cheaply with some real professionals (I mean us), to make snow angels in the Colorado powder, to see the many sights of grand old Granby (no, you've never heard of it), and to pet the wild elk that live in our backyard. Here are some of the people who did love us enough to come... :)
Photos!


Snowshoeing with Stacey and Ryan (early feb):


Skiing with Q+A (late feb):

Skiing with Megan's sister Jennie (early march):

Skiing with Megan's parents and friends Jack and Jane (mid-march):

Check out the new...

...statistics in our sidebar (to the right).

By the way, we will be out of internet contact for the next week or so as we travel West (before traveling back East to travel even further West). We'll try to update, but who knows!

Last Day

Last days are always a little sad. We may anticipate the end of something, eager and excited, but when that end finally comes, we inevitably feel a sense of loss. I do not know if it's the leaving of the familiar or the stepping out into the unknown, but I suspect it's a bit of both.

Today is our last day teaching kids how to ski. We may do this again someday; we may not. We certainly don't expect to be doing it full time, and I honestly doubt we will find ourselves back in the mountains and able to ski or be on skis nearly every day for a few months. I have no regrets with taking the time to do this "trip" before our big one. It was refreshing to have shorter weeks and workdays and a job where I was able to pull myself back out when I felt myself caring too much about my performance or success. I think that is why it suprises me that I am feeling a bit nostalgic on my last day.

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Josh and I have been looking forward to leaving our jobs here for a few weeks. When we first arrived, a bit of early-morning grumbling would creep in, but we both (more or less) enjoyed the work. It felt a bit hollow at times, teaching wealthy children how to acquire skills for a very expensive sport. But on certain days, the days when only one of your 3-year-olds was a crier or when half of your middle schoolers starting turning parallel for the first time or when a first grader finally understood that tipping her skis would keep her from sliding down the hill, the job was rewarding.

After a few months of this, however, attitudes start to change. We are a bit slower to get up in the morning, a bit more likely to drive in rather than take the shuttle, a bit slower to gather up the kids on our class lists. It just gets old. Not to mention the sore feet, sore muscles, sore joints... A few weeks ago when we started counting down the days we had left, I didn't expect to feel this sad about leaving.

This week I'm in the green room, which means 3 and 4-year olds, and I've had fun with the little ones. I still get frustrated with the criers, but we have been stealthily keeping watch for fire-breathing dragons in the rental room, having tea time on the snow with Teddy Grahams, and trying to keep straight faces since smiling is not allowed in ski school (and most definately no giggling). After work yesterday, I ran into a kindergardener I had taught two days ago sitting with his mom. We chatted about skiing and whether he should take lessons next year, and his mom said that of his three days of lessons, he had enjoyed and learned the most with me. He told me that he would miss me and gave me a big hug. I think it's just human nature, but I like it when the kids like me, even though I know I am their coach and not their friend.

I should be greatful that my last few days have been good ones; they very well could have been as frustrating as some of the days I've had in weeks past. But it makes me a little sad to be leaving this place. I like parts of this job. I enjoy hanging out with some of the people I work with. I take pleasure in watching the sun rise and set over the mountains. I love quiet mornings sitting in Coffee and Tea with Josh and weary evenings free of responsibility. I even like the sleepy morning shuttle when we share a set of headphones and a podcast of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. But then, when I had to get up this morning at 6:15 and pull on those same old ski boots one more time, I knew I was glad to be done.

New Favorite Team Name

Ski-woks.

This was conceived by a 6 year old who I thought had wisdom beyond her years, then she started crying because she fell over...

P.S. Additionally for any star wars fans I also had a kid named Anakin last week...

Our Flight(s) to Hong Kong

Ok this is really just our flight itinerary to Hong Kong from Grand Rapids... but it is still mildly noteworthy. We ended up being able to pay for the whole thing with frequent flyer miles, but in order to make that happen we'll take an interesting route. We are leaving from Grand Rapids (after my brother's wedding) then going to Dallas (for another wedding) and then to Hong Kong... but of course it's never quite that simple.

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So the route...

To:
Grand Rapids --> Minneapolis
Minneapolis --> Houston
(Rent a car in Houston and drive to Dallas)
Houston --> Los Angeles
Los Angeles --> Seoul
Seoul --> Hong Kong

Return:
Hong Kong --> Tokyo
Tokyo --> Minneapolis
Minneapolis --> Grand Rapids

So for those of you keeping track, that makes eight flights (which happen to be on three different airlines) to get to and from Hong Kong, but when it saves the cost of an expensive ticket it's worth it... I say this now but we'll see how I feel after it all!

P.S. The reason we are flying into Houston to attend a wedding in Dallas is because there are only a few places that Northwest will allow you to take a multi-day layover and still have it be part of a single ticket and somehow Houston counts while Dallas does not.

P.P.S. Working these flights out wasn't the easiest thing; it involved three seperate calls to Northwest, each about half an hour long, and each involving talking with the agent, Meg, and my Dad at the same time.

Just a post about a dog...

I thought for a while about trying to make a point out of this post but in the end that seemed rather silly and forced. Instead this is simply a post about a dog doing something I thought was rather odd...

So Meg's folks have been in town for the last week. We haven't been able to write much, but we have gotten a decent amount of skiing in. Our last day was spent at Steamboat, and after the day of skiing we were driving around town and saw a dog in the middle of the road.
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The dog was rather big and seemed quite content to just lie in the middle of the road. We stopped the car, honked the horn, and waited, but the dog seemed just as immobile as before. We waited a bit longer, befuddled at this odd moment (how often do dogs just decide to lie down in the middle of a side street and not get up, after all?), before finally carefully passing it. It was one of those moments where I expected the dog to bolt and crash headlong into the car, much like passing a deer on the side of the road.

In the end that never happened. We passed the dog, while it looked at us with the same puzzled expression we must have had, as if we each thought the actions of the other quite out of place. Here are pictures of said dog:

(Us waiting for the dog to move... or even respond to the horn)

(Finally deciding to pass)

(His/her look of confusion at our bizarre actions)

Asia...

Well in case you didn't know, we are heading to Asia in about a month. We are going to be gone for about 5 months (I know only five!) and in that time will see a decent amount of stuff over there. I've already talked about why we are doing it but we never really discussed what we are doing...

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To put it bluntly we are traveling. We are taking time, loading up backpacks and working our way through a part of the world we know little about. We will be traveling overland as much as possible (yeah for trains, buses, and tuk-tuks!) and working our way west from Hong Kong (give or take... its not quite as simple as that) to our final destination in Bangalore India.

In general we will spend most of this time in transit as well because despite the five month length of this trip we are covering alot of ground and in order to see what we'd like to we have to keep moving. The advantage of this is that we will get to see alot of places and experience alot of new things, the downside is that we won't be spending much time in each place (a week to two for most). There are different mindsets when it comes to travel, most people either spend their entire time in transit or find a far flung exotic location and stay put for a period of time... needless to say this trip is the former. I also find it rather odd that we will be gone for so long and yet our excursion is really a series of week/two week trips. We've talked about cutting out some of our destinations in order to spend more time in the places we do have but we always decide that we'd rather see what we can, even if that means that we feel a little rushed at times.

Anyway, here is a basic layout of where we are going, first the list of locations/countries (in chronological order):

Hong Kong
Thailand part I
Cambodia
Vietnam
Laos
Thailand part II
Malaysia
Singapore
Indonesia
Thailand part III
Burma (Myanmar)
Bangladesh
India part I
Nepal
India Part II
Sri Lanka (Maldives)

The basic idea of this trip will be starting (and ending) in Hong Kong. From there we will fly into Bangkok and work our way overland and counter-clockwise through the southeast Asia. So after a brief stay in Bangkok we'll take off for Cambodia and then carry onto into Vietnam. We'll work our way north in Vietnam and then head west into (and through) Laos. This brings us back into Thailand, where we will work our way south to Malaysia. We'll spend some time in Malaysia and take some shorter trips into Singapore and possibly Indonesia. Then we have to head back to Bangkok because we'll have to fly to our next location.

From Bangkok we'll head to Burma(or Myanmar... the name depends upon the regime and I don't really like present one). Burma is a pain in rear country in several regards... most of which involve their oppressive government. But we have to fly into Burma as they don't allow border crossings via land. So we will have to fly into and out of Burma on our way to Bangladesh. (Side note, almost everyone we know keeps asking why we are going there. Our pastor (who is Indian) asked "Why are you going to Bangladesh?" When we were at the travel clinic our nurse muttered under her breath "Bangladesh... no one goes to Bangladesh, why would they go to Bangladesh...)

From Bangladesh we will work our way north and into India. We'll only be there a bit before we head off to Nepal. We'll head out of Nepal going west and back into India. Once there we'll hit parts of northern India and then basically hug the western coast as we work our way south. We'll end up in Bangalore, where we have some good friends. This last place we'll go is to the Maldives to scuba dive and sit on a beach for a while. Then back home for two weeks before heading off to England for a year... wow.

P.S. All makes me think "Man I'm going to look forward to having a house someday...."

P.P.S. A map of this will be made sometime... just not now

Uniforms... in case you forgot what we look like.

Storms (and closed ski resorts and how to use a truck to shuttle 6 people)

It feels odd to post this now that it's about 70 degrees in Denver and almost 50 here. The snow is slowly (or quickly in places) melting. We were waiting to post this story until we received some photos from the characters you'll read about later, but since The Storm was now a month ago, we will just post this and show photos later...

So in Michigan there are plenty of snowstorms. White outs are not unheard of, and a few feet of snow just means better snowball fights. We figured things would be similar here. Well a few Fridays ago, we had a hoot-a-nanny (can I pretend that's really a word?) of a storm roll through here. This is a little late in coming because we were waiting on some photos from some new-found friends from Kansas (you'll read about them soon), but on February 16, Winter Park and surrounding area experienced a real-live blizzard, including car-wrecks, closed roads, shut-down mountain passes, and the first-ever closing of the resort due to wind (that everyone we know can remember).

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I think the day really began with the night before. Our roommate had some friends visiting, and due to the weather, they didn't make it in until around 3am. They were up until around 5 getting settled in. Fine, except that we had to be up at 6am for work! So we grumbled our way through the unusually-windy drive to the shuttle, talking about calling in sick. We should have.

The morning started as usual, with Josh having 5 and 6 year olds while I had 3 and 4 year olds. Since I got Level 1's (beginners), we spent some of the morning inside learning how to walk in our boots and skis. Then we went outside to try out the mountain. They lasted 15 minutes. I think each kid made it down once before falling over in the wind and complaining of cold cheeks and fingers. I didn't blame them- it was cold! I had never experienced winds like that while still at the bottom of the ski slopes. We went in early for lunch, where I saw Josh. I heard from the other instructors that many of the lifts had been closed due to high winds and that some trees had even fallen on the Zephyr lift. I also heard that they had closed the pass (the only road up from Denver). Apparently the resort was experiencing 65-70 mph winds!
Just as I was thinking about braving the winds again with my kids, a rumor spread that the resort was closing. Before long, the rumor was confirmed, and suddenly our not-so-large lunch room shrank to an even not-so-larger size, as classes began coming in and not going back out. This included a special program with 120 kids bussed in from Denver. We were instructed to remain with our kids until their parents picked them up.

I was lucky- my parents came within the first half hour, just as the 3 and 4-year-olds were beginning to tire of coloring the same dinosaur and Dora pictures and just as the smell of hundreds of kids who just ate lunch was growing stronger. The parents of Josh's kids didn't come for another two hours. Not that it mattered- I quickly learned that not only was the pass closed, but the road out the other way to Granby was closed, too. That road doesn't go through any mountain passes, but it crosses a long, wind-swept valley. It just so happens that we live in Granby. It also just so happens that the road being closed doesn't mean you just take another road. This is the mountains-there IS no other road. Fantastic.

Eventually, those of us who lived in Granby began to gather together, discussing the rumors of a 6-car pile-up and white-outs and predictions for winds subsiding and the road re-opening. There was talk of a Red Cross shelter, cots and all, in the elementary school gym. We were given a map of how to get there. There was talk of putting us up in a room at one of the resort lodges. We were told to sit tight and wait for word. Eventually, there was talk of the police barricades coming down and an employee shuttle heading for Granby.

Finally, around 7pm, they announced we would be leaving soon. We went out to the dark green school buses that serve as shuttles, where we, living in Granby Ranch/SilverCreek, were separated from our ski school buddies who lived in Granby proper (ha-ha, if you knew of Granby, that would be a funny thought). Our bus (which happened to be a short bus) took the lead. I find the shuttle drivers very trust-worthy when it comes to driving, and this old-timer was no exception. A number of "natives" sat up front with him and reminisced about one other possible time the resort closed due to a power failure on Easter in the 80's, but you could tell we were all a bit nervous. Out the window was a sea of white. The winds were blowing drifts into the road and visibility was horrible. We passed cars in the ditch and were thankful that it was dark- at least it meant headlights were easier to see. Over the radio, our driver would joke with the other drivers to break the tension. "So just how long do you think this road will be open? How long before they realize that they opened it too soon?" they asked each other.

To distract myself, I asked the other group of younger people on the bus how they got from Granby Ranch to the resort that morning, since I didn't know of any shuttle but the employee one. They explained that they had driven over from the midwest for a week and were staying at a condo near ours. That morning, they had decided to drive to the resort and ended up as part of the pile-up we had heard about. Because they weren't hurt and emergency vehicles were in short supply (what with the road going both ways closed!), they had had to wait in their car for two hours. Eventually, a policeman took them to the resort instead of back to Granby Ranch, since the resort was closer. Unable to ski as the resort was closed, unable to rent a car as there were none to rent, and unable to drive back anyway as the road was closed, they had waited around all day until this shuttle was announced. We chatted. We tried not to look out the front window. They took photos of their totaled van as we drove by. And eventually we made it back.

End of story? Nope. Not yet!

Josh and I park our truck at the hotel at the base of Granby Ranch and drive the two miles back into the hills to our house since the shuttle goes no further than the hotel. Well, these four people had driven down the hill, only now they didn't have anything to drive them back up. So, taking charge, I walked them into the hotel to ask about the shuttle I know runs up that hill. "Not this time of night and especially not this night!" the woman told us. Hmmmm...

So... Josh and I offered our truck as a shuttle- we could fit one or two more. Unless... they would want to ride in the back?? Despite their long day, they laughed, threw their skis/boards in the bed of the truck and climbed right in with them. We left the hard top up as far as it would go and took off! We could tell they were doing alright by the camera flashes we saw coming from the bed of the truck. It must have been so cold and windy for those five minutes- we passed cars that couldn't even make it up the hill! Before we got to their condo, Josh offered to do some donuts. They declined. I don't know how they made it back to Denver where they could rent a car, much less back home, but I did get an email a few weeks later that they made it.

After that long day, we finally made it home around 8pm, only four hours later than usual and seven hours after they closed the resort. Of course, we almost didn't get in as the door was practically iced shut (see photos from the next morning and notice the beautiful blue sky!).

I shaved!

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(Before: Ok if I look tired I did this before work one morning, so it is at about 6:10 am)

(During: I was attempting to look mildly scary... instead I look like I was beat up I think. That's what happens to child-molester-look-alike-Josh, I guess)

(And its off: Still feels weird not to have it but I think with the weather warming up and a possible tan line forming it was good to take it off.)

Tunnels and Transition

There is something bizarre about the end of an era, the moment where you see the end of the current phase of life and the beginning of the next. These moment are often odd times because you are(or at least I am) having to deal with present realities meanwhile looking ahead to what lies next.
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In the past, these moments have often been overwhelming-as the phases of life were large and all encompassing, i.e. college. But in shorter periods, or at least this present shorter period, the break feels quite manageable and almost comforting. College and Grad. school were such monolithic events that trying to figure out what to do after them was nearly incomprehensible (maybe that's why so many graduates spend the first several months in an utter state of limbo upon graduation. Or at least that's what it felt like to me...). Often these moments are so intense and encompassing that upon completing them and entering the space on the other side, there is a momentary pause as one(we, you, or I)tries to (re)evaluate the last several years of their life. On a personal level at least I remember the time right before the end, knowing that these moments wouldn't last, and seeing the light and the end of the tunnel and not being able to think anything other than "What do I do next?" But I think alot of that was due to the size of the era and a few months feel much different than a few years.

However after two months of work out in Colorado and the end of the season in sight I find the end of this phase a welcome event. And unlike previous moments, I find solace in the impermanence of this present phase (every phase of life is rather impermanent after all isn't it?). I think I am able to enjoy this phase because for one of the first times in my life I have a job that won't affect my future. I'm not going to do this again. I don't' need to impress the people here and at the end of the day the only person that really needs to be satisfied with my work is myself. (This is a rather new concept, for while I have always worked to the best of MY ability striving to do MY best there were always consequences, positive and negative, to my performance.)This job lets me work and find enjoyment in what I do because I know what I will (and will not) get out of it. It also lets me look to the future and find comfort in knowing that I will end well and enjoy the end. Its just relieving to finally have an end of something and to enjoy that end. It will be good to be done with this, its been good to be here and good to work for a season but I think I'm ready for a change... especially when that change is a five month trip to Asia followed by studying in the UK for a year. I don't know if any of this constitutes growing up or if its a wise move in the long run but it makes sense now and that's really all I have.

Shots!!

Yesterday we spent over 600 dollars at a travel clinic... and we aren't done yet. But now we each have four more immunizations. That has to be good for something right?

Since we got four apiece with more coming we are thinking about adding a running statistics tally for this and other things for this trip, so if anyone has a good way to do that in blogger let us know...

Names

Ok, so we lead around herds of kids each day and because of the necessity of keeping track of all these kids (haven't lost one yet!) we often end up forming team names. Now these team names started off as typical ski group names devised by 6 year olds, "The Skiers," "The Super Skiers," "The Snow Lifters" etc...

Now those of you that know us better know that we prefer something more... creative than your traditional run-of-the-mill names, so we thought we'd share some of the more interesting ones, that our kids have come up with. We have been:
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The Great Eight (there were only seven of us at the time)

Pigs in a Blanket (don't know where this came from)

The Pictures (this was suggested after turning down the idea of "the tigers" 5 times. They also suggested "the dolphins" to which I said, "lets get away from animals" and a little boy said back, "But the dolphins are a football team."

Fillet Minion (another random one... don't ask me)

The Un-nameables (this was one of Megan's, who is much pickier and therefore couldn't settle on one name when there were ten kids offering suggestions)

The Dudes (another all boy group... though they became the Dudettes because they kept misbehaving)

Team Team (a 6-year-old suggested "team" for the team name to Meg... it did evolve to Team Team Cheetah by the end of the day)

The Sparkles (this was a group where Josh had six four year old girls...needless to say they came up with the name)

The Cry-Babies (a group of Josh's though he never dared call them that to their faces but in his head the team name rang true...)

and The Burritos (another Megan group and it was really short for the Burrito Super Skiers... so the Burritos for short)

Needless to say there have been many others (but the less interesting ones have been omitted to save reading "the wildcats," "the dolphins," or "the cheetahs" Ad nauseam.

P.S. There is great fun to be had with 3-6 year olds by asking them what noise a wildcat makes. I'm not sure on the sound but their faces look like Olive's during her growls in Little Miss Sunshine.

Night Photos

Friends of ours went skiing at night in a backcountry park and asked us to come. We decided not to go because we thought it was too cold (it was... and I was sick from our previous cold experience, see former post). However, the moon was out in full effect and making for a very bright and a very cool looking night.

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P.S. I wasn't planning on being out there long so I didn't think I'd take that much stuff to wear... it was in the negative single digits and I'm standing outside without hat or gloves holding a metal tripod, while sick. Man I'm brilliant.

P.P.S. I like my horizons in the middle. :)

On our day off today we went to Steamboat...

...and it was cold.

Oh the Wonderful People You'll Meet...

So there is something fascinating with the dominate culture(s) of ski resorts, specifically in contrast to the broader American culture that ski resorts set themselves up in contrast to. We always talk about "real jobs" or "when I'm done..." as a means of setting this time and place as separate from the rest of the culture, a counter voice to the scream head that can be American materialism.

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Here (e.g. ski resorts) there is an intentional focus on "play" and "fun" with the passing acknowledgement that such foci means a nominal pay check (maybe it should be called a "play check?). There is a continual understanding that we are all doing this for "fun" or "to feel alive" or "to feel complete and happy." But there are still a variety of reasons we find ourselves here.

Most of the people who work here fall into a couple of dominate mindsets... the first are the "uber-skiiers." These are the folks that came out here solely to ski- skiing is part of the reason all of us came out but these folks show a worshipful devotion to the sport. They find no greater joy than skiing that hard line (specifically when others cannot), becoming the best skiier possible, and pursuing as much of the white stuff as possible. Skiing is the be-all and end-all of life and their jobs here are simply ways to get to the purest form of that life (oddly enough sounds kind of like drugs right now doesn't it?) Needless to say that isn't why Meg and I are here. We like thinking too much and, to be honest, don't like skiing enough. I like skiing, I really do, but some mornings I want to sleep in or read a book... not something these folks think about.

In addition to the "uber-skiiers" are the short term drifters-the gap year folks. These people tend to include most of our international contingency (Aussies en masse, Brits by the bunch, and even some folks from South America-who knew Peruvians skiied as much as they do!). They are normally late teens and early twenties, seeking to find themselves in the world... though they more often find themselves in a beer bottle. They tend to be the dominate group here (the drones of the ski resort hive). Loud and voracious, they live in the moment, forgoing future responsibilities and concerns to pursue their dreams of... well they aren't totally sure yet.

Another group like these short term-ers are the long term employees/drifters. These folks find this work the pinnacle of their existence and their relationship to the mountain is similar to that of a lover. They have fallen in love (quite literally sometimes it seems) with the place, and like all lovers, they willingly forgo the unnecessary frills of life to be with him/her (a car, a house, a person to love them back) in order to be with their lover. These are the folks who put in 35 years at a resort because, for them, it is the utmost life has to offer. This group includes those who do back to back seasons in the USA and Australia/New Zealand. One of my co-workers has done back to backs for 8 years in a row now- that's 17 seasons... and 8 years of winter. wow.

Then there is a small, marginal group who don't fit quite so well into any of the above mentioned groups. This is where we tend to find ourselves. This last group tends to be later twenties to early thirties and previously held respectable jobs and positions only to leave for a variety of reasons. Those of us in this group are a bit more "normal" than the rest, as we've had to spend at least some time assimilating to society, and we are an ultimately short term designation. We either are trying this lifestyle out (at which point in time we begin to fall in love or out of love with the mountain) or are doing this as a break from our "other" lives.

Because of this vague and varied staff, the culture of this place is very open and accepting (as are almost all drifter communities) but it is also a culture that lacks direction. If I feel critical of dominate American culture for its zealousness in success, gain, and goal-driven mentality, then I am equally critical of this culture in its antithesis. While broader society seeks happiness in materialism or success, here happiness is found in fun or escaping from broader society. It strikes me that being aimless, goal-less, and hedonistic are as meaningless as being materialistic. Perhaps instead I can find meaning and value in a tempered middle, where work and goals are present but not the entirety of life and where there exists a counter-rhythm (seeking fun, exploring, relaxing) without becoming aimless.

But then again, maybe being content and finding joy in life runs separate to vocation and calling, maybe it's just the ability to be happy where I am... not worrying about what else I could be doing.