Activities (1)

It has been a while since my last blog post due to an excessive workload and various midterm exams. A valid reason for not having to write my blog posts…which I missed writing a lot *cough cough*. I have decided to dedicate this blog post to write solely about some of the activities I have participated in so far. Also this blog will be separated in two parts, as it is simply too much for 1 blog.

BUT WHY IS IT WRITTEN IN ENGLISH ALL OF SUDDEN?!?!

Welp, first of all, HAKUNA YOUR TATTAS… there is absolutely no need to shout, and secondly I am an aspiring English teacher who happens to study in America so it might not be an atrocious idea to write in English.
BTW: I am writing this blog at an outrageous time so I might have made some mistakes concerning grammar, sentence structures etc. Hopefully it will not influence thy reading experiences ;)
Also these activities might not be described in a chronological order, but if you are going to be nit-picky about stuff like that I suggest you find another blog to read ;) <3
Let’s start with the activity with the highest potential of me injuring myself or doing something outlandishly foolish. The ski trip!

The ski trip.

The day started off rather hectic and chaotic with me sleeping through my alarm and Femke and Jillian waking me abruptly by knocking on my door with a passion as if Justin Bieber was to be on the other side of it. Sadly, for them and every (teenage) girl in the area, it was just me ninja-rolling out of bed trying to franticly find my clothes and belongings, before storming out my room so we could catch our bus. We had left earlier than we were expected to check-in, so we could grab some breakfast. I know this definitely is futile and fascinating information and therefore should be shared with everyone…
Okay, so we arrived at Collins Circle, after we ate breakfast, (the giant roundabout in front of main campus, google it yourself if you want to see it :P) where we had to wait for the buses to arrive. Meanwhile a large amount of people started to gather at the respective meeting point. Being as bored as I was I decided to skip around… yeah you heard me SKIP…Don’t judge me! And meet and talk to some randomly chosen “new people”. Femke decided to join in and we made it a game, trying to get to know everyone and having small talks with as many people as we possibly could. Which was a fun activity to kill time till the buses arrived. The buses, that took us to the skiing location, were the stereotypical high school buses you see in Hollywood films.

Let me start by writing about the actual ski trip (about time…) and start off with me already having my gear on and praying to all known gods to guard over me so I wouldn’t break an arm AGAIN. Everyone who was new to skiing had to partake in a crash course where you learn how to brake by applying “the pizza-technique” and accelerate by straightening your skis. I mastered these techniques by watching the Nickelodeon show: Rocket Power for many years when I was younger. Just to think people used to dispute that I was wasting my precious time watching these “useless” cartoons… Okay, we are getting side-tracked again: So yeah, I had to partake in the silly and childish tutoring where you were ought to glide down a petite hill. However, after going down the microscopic hill (yes, it is getting smaller with the sentence) two times the instructor took me and four others to the “big-boy-mountain”. Where I was taught more advanced steering techniques and skiing in general. After their tutoring time was over (1hour) we were told we should practise some more on the hill we were on and have fun and that we probably should not go up the mountain by ourselves as we were considered unexperienced blablabla… So of course the first thing I did is going up with the ski lift… not realising how astonishingly high the mountain actually was when I was at the foot of the mountain. Whilst riding the ski lift up the mountain I was struck by a flashback of approximately six-years ago. In the flashback I saw myself in a very similar situation, standing on a slope for the first time, only this time with a snowboard. *Spoiler alert* It didn’t go that well. The first time I went downhill I broke my arm, as my friends told me knowing how to break was not a necessity at all… (they were wrong). Apparently I had learned very little from this painful experience as I was yet again on a slope ready to race down, having little to no know-how on the matter.
The first time going down the mountain was slightly scary, and I was rather anxious as I wasn’t around any experienced skiers and had no clue where I had to go. Nor did I have a clue which slope I had to pick. As there were various directions I could go. I saw a sign with “bunny hop” and I figured that would be the easiest slope to go off. Which it happened to be. Seems rather obvious on hindsight, one would have to be truly devious and vile to call the most difficult slope “the bunny hop”. Anyway, the first time I went down I made a lot of zig-zag manoeuvres in order to try and slow down as I went downhill.
I shall conclude my actual experiences as I am taking way too much time describing meaningless events and thoughts. I had no clue skiing is actually something I could do (without breaking any bones) but I enjoyed it a lot. I did not fell a single time, which is surprising as I am fairly clumsy by nature. I definitely would want to do it again in the near future, and try more advanced techniques and slopes.

Hockey - The Albany Devils versus Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

I finally got to see a real American (ice) hockey match. I was extremely excited on forehand and looked forward to it a lot. I have been wanting to attend a hockey match for years and when the opportunity to actually go to one arose I took it without thinking about it twice. I went to the match with Alex, a friend from America, to Time Union centre which is Albany’s stadium. We arrived at the stadium rather early to get the best seats in the stadium, which are in the middle of the rink behind the penalty box. Before the game started, we (of course) first had to sing the American anthem whilst facing the American flag. The match itself was marvellous and had a spectacular closure.
The first half of the match I was too excited to pay attention to the actual match as I could not believe I was there. The Albany Devils were quite dreadful the first half and should be grateful it stayed 0-0. The second half was slightly better as both teams played better and seemed to play with more passion than before. Sadly, enough The Sound Tigers managed to score two goals and take the lead. The third half started-off with a literally striking fight. It was bound to happen as the two players had be at it ever since The Sound Tigers scored their first goal. The rest of the third half was fantastic as The Devils made a miraculous comeback by scoring two goals just before it ended. By this time all the Devils fans were cheering and rooting and everyone was on the edge of their seats. The sudden-death period started and the entire rink was roaring and rooting, in contrast to the first two halves whereas the Devils’ fans had been rather quiet and placid. Shortly after it started the Devils broke through Bridgeport’s defence and won with a truly amazing slap shot.

The Bowling trip.

The bowling trip was decent. Let us not waste too much time to this activity. I mean it was fun and I won every time but it was not spectacular. I mean it is bowling everyone knows it, everyone has done it and everyone loses to me ;) Yes, I won every time!

To be continued...