Just couldn't get enough

Does this photo looks familiar? Compare it with this one.

No, it's not the same, look again.

Notice the date
Gondola is the cable car from the Village to the skiing ground, Bear Paw and Arrow are the name of skiing trails

Hehe...yes, one week after the first skiing trip, I went to the same place doing the same thing again. What's more, this time I paid twice as much for the same thing because the 70% discount promotion was over. I paid $45 this time; got the price of $50 by purchasing using a coupon from my company and a friend is kind enough to sponsor me 10% of the $50. *smiling widely

My huge blister is still filled with water when I decided to revisit the place. What I did was to poke the blister and let the water out, if not I'll not be able to put the ski boots on. Disgusting~

This time around, leaving San Jose at 3am on Saturday. Stop for a McD breakfast at 6am, which I'm not sure where it was because I was sleeping all the way. Reach Lake Tahoe at around 7.30am. It wasn't snowing that day, which makes the snow not as nice as the first time I was here.

The Village@Northstar, Lake Tahoe

We proceeded to fill-up forms, change our coupons for tickets followed by equipment rental and heading to the Gondola towards the skiing ground.

I thought I'd do better this time around but I was wrong. The major fell I had was I crashed into a net, just like a fish landed on a fishmonger's fishing net. As my ski got entangled on the net while my body laying on the snow, I lay there waiting for people to come and save me (Imagine the net still standing after I crashed over it, my body on the ground, my leg hanging on the net). That was a horrible fall I tell you. Another fall related to the net was when I slide under the net, I wasn't able to stop nor control my direction and ended under the net. I was falling all over the place from 9am till 12.30pm when I decided I've had enough of falling down. After lunch, I sign-up for the beginner class.
(I did sign-up for a class the first time I was here, but the class consist of 10 person under one instructor, how much attention can you get from the instructor with such a big class? Which is why I still can't ski well after the first class)

I guess I was being lucky that day. I was the only person to sign-up for the afternoon session, so I get to have a private lesson! :) One-on-one lesson with the instructor, Steve.

After 2 and a half hours with him, I can ski! Even though my left and right turn is still not as good as I've hope for but at least I can ski from the trail head to the end without falling down. I'm so proud of myself. ^_^ And I can ski in 'S' shape, which can help to slow down on a steep slope.

Not as nice...still couldn't figure out how to set the camera to take nice photo of snow

At 3.30pm when the lesson ends, I braved myself up the Arrow. That is the steepest and longest trail under the beginner level category. Standing at the edge of the trail head, it looks so steep. My heart was thumping, just like how I feel when I'm sitting in a roller-coaster about to blast off. 3...2...1 and off I go, giving a little push with my ski pole. On my way down, I talk to myself, repeating the steps I should be doing as what Steve has teach me.

"Keep the wedge open", "Stand tall, don't crouch", "Pressure on your right leg", "ok, now transfer pressure to your left leg" and after a few minutes I'm smiling to myself and congratulating myself being able to reach the end WITHOUT FALLING!! And it was such a long way...

It was 4pm and the sun was about to set

Things to remember:
1. Saw someone fell from the chair lift, head first into the snow. Luckily the snow was soft where the person fell and he had a helmet on.
2. Me, like a fish being caught in a net
3. One friend strained his thumb when a snowboarder crashed into him