Eeeeek assessment week! I was slightly apprehensive about the week due to having our assessment Wednesday, Thursday & Friday, but upon meeting our new instructor and having our groups mixed up we focused on ski improvement and preparing for the level one course. Our instructor was amazing, he kept the pace moving all week, spending as much time as possible on the slopes. It was also great skiing in a new group and learning from one-another.
Tuesday was a huge revision day, recapping on ‘fast track to parallel’, the ‘five skills’ and ‘key competencies’ regarding skiers. We spent some time watching members of the public on the slopes and analysing their technique, making sure we used the correct terminology. Tuesday evening we had a house revision session, reading up anything we had missed out on in our CSIA handbooks.
Wednesday morning we met at the earlier time of 8.30am, making sure we were ready to begin. We had our register and then began the assessment indoors, watching videos and talking about the standard expected for CSIA level one and what was expected from us. It definitely was a lot more chilled than I anticipated, but you could absolutely feel like every ski-stroke was being observed. It was a mad day and we ended up losing one of the boys from the group; thankfully it was late in the afternoon so we did not have to waste any time on a man hunt, instead we regrouped in the village and concluded the day with a diary entry. The assessment didn’t stop us missing ‘Wings Wednesday’, and with one of our housemates going home the following Monday we made sure he had the best night everrrrr. We started with Tacos and then moved onto wings in Sam’s, (the mountain bar which is quickly becoming our second home). Because we started pretty early we were back pretty early, downing water before getting into bed; in an effort to keep focused for the next two days.
We were back in business Thursday, meeting at the slightly later time of 9am in more layers than usual as the temperature was dropping. We started the day as we finished the previous, loosing another student, the instructor absolutely did not find it funny, but we definitely did. Thankfully she had just taken the wrong turn down a run, so we found her pretty quickly and decided to start day two again. Thursday night the girls and I had arranged a trip into Kelowna to visit the shopping centre, it was an amazing way to spend the evening off the slopes and away from the worries of the final assessment day. Managed to spend a lot of money, but at the same time thought about my sale purchases and how much I had saved too; always wanting to put an optimistic spin on a situation.
Friday was focused on teaching and personal ski improvement, the temperature continuing to drop but because we were on such a tight schedule there was no time to stop and warm up, instead we were dancing on chairlifts and trying not to think about the Arctic conditions, (which are apparently normal for Canada this time of year), with the blood pumping we skied like pros. Friday evening was the ski and board level one presentations, everyone passed (yayyyy) and were therefore in especially high spirits for the weekly NBS meal. It was a pretty wild one, drinking with our friends and making new friendships with the ski and board instructors. Naturally gravitating towards Sam’s once again. Saturday was chilled. I didn’t ski and instead spoke to my best friend back home. I had a massive realisation of how much of an amazing time I am having, speaking to her and listening to her telling me about working made me appreciate this adventure even more so.
To celebrate passing level one NBS took us tubing late Saturday afternoon. Honestly we are all such big kids, going down slopes on rubber rings and playing in the snow. Straight after everyone came back to ours and we hosted a get together, BBQ going on the balcony, tunes playing and drinks flowing….
Sunday was our last full day with our housemate who is only on the month long programme. After the tidy up process in the morning we went for house ski until last lifts, the fresh air aiding our soar heads. The ski was followed by a hot tub session where we made the plan to go out for dinner. Sunday night was nothing but chilled, the planned civilized ‘last dinner’ turned into another crazy night in Sam’s as we had completely forgot to take into consideration the Superbowl. I absolutely appreciated everyone’s fancy-dress efforts and enjoyed talking to the now familiar faces of Big White. Scary to think that is the first month done.
Hannah