Sunday, Sunday...

So it's been several days since training has ended and I have been left with not much to do. I have used that time to ski some as well as learn a my way around the resort a little. Although I still can't find the donut shop. As some have seen, I have discovered that the resort's small grocery store has pint sized soy milk bottles, which made me pretty stoked. Only drawback is they are overpriced, but with recent news my roommate may be getting a hold of a mini fridge. This would be great as I could then buy soy milk at either Safeway or Target by the half gallon for a whole lot cheaper. So come next blog you may hear of the great news. Because honestly it's expensive eating out every meal and I can only handle so much with peanut butter and crackers.

Last Friday was an adventure to say the least. My goal for the day was to familiarize myself with more of Summit County using the public transit system. So the day started out fairly mild and seemed like it wouldn't be a massive change in the weather, so of course I dress fairly modest with a base layer and my leather jacket. So first place I hit is Target in Silverthorne, when I leave Target the snow is starting to come down pretty good. I then head over to Dillon to recognize the location of a few places like Borders and the movie theater. Originally I was going to check out some of the outlets but at this point the snow and being outside were a little much. I also received a text from one of the fellow new hires from training if I wanted to go ski for a little bit, so I figured I would just do that. I got back to Copper around 2:00 and the slopes close around 3:30, so we didn't have much time to ski but we definitely made the most out of it. First started out on a few blue runs out on the south-side of the mountain then headed over to the north-east side where mostly green trails are found. We then started going through some tree sections,  it was my first time going through trees but it was really exhilarating. You just take your time and try your best to keep your skis from sinking down in the soft. less tread snow. It wasn't really rare to fall down but if you did the snow was so soft it wasn't a big deal. So we rode the slopes until the lifts closed and called it quits.

That was only the beginning to the day, because it didn't become an adventure until after that. One thing I meant to do on Friday was to get some groceries in Frisco and since I went skiing I didn't get any on my way back to Copper the first time. Frisco is the next exit east of Copper, only about a 10 minute bus ride. It was still snowing pretty good at this point but I had planned on being out for about one hour. So I leave Copper at about 5:00 and I am over at Safeway at about 5:25. The bus I was going to catch ran at 6:34, which gave me plenty of time to get what I needed. I took my time and got some cereal and granola bars then made it over to the bus stop at around 6:20. At this point the snow was coming down pretty hard and it was already dark. Despite the weather conditions lots of cars were still out and about, I guess they are used to driving in this kind of weather. So 6:34 came and went and there was no bus in sight. Luckily, there is a number you can call, so I did, and they said they wouldn't be running for at least an hour due to visibility purposes. "Great", I thought, I guess I'll go find some place to warm-up for a little bit, I take about a 10 minute walk over to Wal-Mart carrying four Safeway grocery bags. This walk was pretty tough simply because it was really starting to get cold and with no gloves and just a leather jacket with bags of groceries in my hands, you could imagine this fun picture. I'm there for about half an hour and I try the station one more time and they said they still aren't running. So it appeared I'd be sleeping at Wal-Mart, fortunately the people I skied with today lived in Frisco, so I called one of them up and they said I could come chill at their place until the buses were up and running. Sweet, only thing is their vehicle was only front wheel drive and I didn't want them to risk coming out to pick me up, so next came a really long walk. I would say it was a good 20 minute walk before I met up with them. They met me out on a main street and then it was about an 8 minute walk to their house. At this point I was definitely cold, mainly my fingers. So I met their roommates and we chatted for several hours and I called the bus station about every 45 minutes and they kept saying the Frisco to Copper buses were not running try back later. By 11:30 I called one last time and they said call back at midnight....really? Anyway the people I was hanging out with said I could crash on their couch, which I was truly grateful. I didn't sleep very well, but I had a place to sleep. That morning I hit the 9:35 bus and literally crashed the rest of the day. I was just exhausted.

Last night was the best sleep I have had in a long time and it felt so good. I tried to ski a little bit today but the ski conditions were pretty awful. There was some freezing rain in the air and it kept getting on my goggles which I would have to continue to scrape off every few minutes. I also took a spill on the choppy powder and discovered the snow on the ground was really sticky and it wouldn't come off my pants or jacket. After a couple of runs I called it quits and figured I'd just enjoy the rest of my day indoors. Tomorrow, all the new ski and ride school employees get to tour the school and Union Creek area where we will be centralized where we work, so I'm looking forward to getting a better idea of the environment I'll be in most of the time. Then I won't have anything to due until the weekend in which I should be shadowing two actual ski classes and get the hands on approach. After that hopefully I'll have a real schedule and be teaching on my own.

Hopefully the next blog will have some newer pictures, maybe I'll get one of my uniform because they are pretty cool looking.

- Thomas