The Epitome of "Being Spained"

Today we went skiing. It was Kerline's first time in the snow and Jolie and Eva's first time skiing. It was also the ultimate day in "being Spained."

We have coined a phrase since being here, it's an action phrase, "to be Spained," and we conjugate it just like any other verb. Let me pre-empt what I'm about to say by explaining that we do, in fact, really like Spain, Spaniards and all things Spanish. Sometimes we merely appreciate the differences and other times we truly like/love/enjoy something on a personal level. An event that causes us to use phrases such as, "We got Spained," or " That is totally Spain," is not necessarily something that would only happen in Spain, but it is something that we are beginning to not be surprised by. Take today for example.

It all started 6 days ago when we got a letter home from Kerline's school saying basically that, oh, since next Tuesday is a holiday we've decided to organize a ski trip. Spaniards are spontaneous. Forget that 4 months ago any given American would have already scheduled out a plan for a four-day weekend, Spaniards fly by the seat of their pantalones. So, since we've started to kinda sorta get the hang of this spontaneity we hadn't planned anything but we were beginning to, so they caught us just in time.

We thought, wow, what a great opportunity to maybe meet some of the fellow families at Kerline's school, show our faces, give K her first shot at snow and all the girls their first skiing experience, not to mention our first skiing experience in Spain. But convincing the girls was another thing. Good thing we had about 4 days for them to get used to the idea that we were "making them go." You'll have fun and LIKE IT! Each day was a little less resistance, so this morning they got up, got ready and we were out the door on time.

So here's how the day went:

We met at school and all boarded a bus chartered by the school. Comfortable, scenic bus ride out of Valencia into Aragón, near Teruel, to a ski area called Javalambre. It was about an hour and 45 minutes to get there and for an hour and 35 minutes we didn't see any snow. Then the last 10km we started to see some and finally, at the ski area, there was some man-made snow covering the slopes. The weather was sunny and maybe 35 or 40, so it was beautiful.

Step one: changing clothes. We had a tough time finding bathrooms, and when we did they were tiny little stalls; nowhere to change comfortably. Ugh.

Step two: lift ticket purchase. It was 12:08pm when we got in line for the lift tickets. Half-day prices started at 1:30 and it was only 3 euros cheaper, so we bit the bullet and bought full-day tickets.

Step three: ski rental. We waited in line for 20 minutes. After we got our equipment, went to the slopes and got everyone put together, we realized that only one of Eva's ski bindings fit her boot. So Eugene took her back to have it adjusted. They came back, same problem. We realized that the bottom of her boots were not equal, therefore they had to adjust both skis to different sizes. That took two extra trips to the rental shop.

Step four: no lockers? We realized that this particular ski area doesn't have lockers. So we had to brainstorm about what we were going to do with our stuff. The bus fortunately was open and we could leave some things there, but Eugene and I both ended up skiing with backpacks on.

Step five: learning to stand on skis, move a little and snowplow. Nothing to do with Spain, but entertaining nonetheless. A good 45 min. of basics.

Step six: going up a little straddle-a-pole lift. What the heck is this thing called in English? It's a pole with a small disc at the bottom that you sit on/straddle and it pulls you up the hill with your feet on the ground. Anyway, took our first lift at 1:40, yes, that's 10 minutes after the 1/2-day rates started.

Step seven: the people-mover. They have this lift that is like a people-mover at an airport, or a narrow, long treadmill. You ski onto it and just stand as it cranks you up to the top of the slope. Jolie, Kerline and I get on no problem, I got off, turned and verbally coached J & K off. Both fell in the way of others getting off. The belt stopped. I thought the belt was stopping for us, but maybe not. At that moment something was happening with Eugene and Eva that we did not yet know about. Eva's instructions for the people-mover was to just stand, that's all. Anyone who knows Eva, knows that is impossible, simply cannot be done, period. Eva was standing in front of Eugene, caught her ski tip on the passing snow bank, fell and took Eugene and three other people out with her. Eugene scrambled to get the casualties out of the way of the oncoming traffic. We didn't see any of this because 20 seconds after the pile-up was when the belt stopped and it happened to coincide with J & K falling at the top. After I got everyone on their feet again, I looked down the hill and saw Eugene and Eva getting back on the moving people-mover, midway! I'm thinking what is that man doing???

Step eight: one actual run! The kids wanted to play in the snow, not only ski, so with about 45 minutes to go we told them to play over in a certain area and we would come back after a real ski run. We got to take an actual chair lift and ski for a continuous 4 minutes. I got me some rusty skilz.

Step nine: rental return, to top off the day! Right before we were going to turn in our stuff, the intercom announced some school to come return their things and many of them beat us to it. The ski area employees were trying to do crowd control, while asking where all the kids supervisors were. My guess, having a beer in the cafeteria. They had no handle on the situation. The employees couldn't organize the kids or the other skiers in any kind of fashion. I muscled my way through the crowd of kids and was told to wait. After waiting, we were going to be let in and they said, no, your boots have to be off. Um, sorry do you see me carrying three pairs of skis and a helmet already, not to mention my backpack and keeping track of three kids??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? These people had my passport so there was no way we could just ditch the stuff. So we took the freak show off to the side and got everyone's boots off, shoes on, backpacks rearranged and now we also had to carry five pairs of boots in addition to all the other crap. I hated life at that moment. I carried three pairs of skis, three sets of poles and a pair of boots, just to give you an idea. Chaos reigned. It was really incredible.

Step ten: home. Uneventful bus ride home, thank goodness!

Can you pick out the "we got Spained" events from this chronology? Yep, you got it, anything that had to do with "organization" or bureaucracy pretty much fit the description. But, we actually had changed our expectations so we weren't too surprised by any of this, still frustrated at times, yes. I guess that just shows that I hold out hope that my normal expectations might be met someday.

I'll add pictures later...