"Skiing"

Today my wife and I did what people in this province call skiing. It was quite an experience. The ski area was actually in a district of the city. However, it was far out in the countryside; a 45-minute drive. We were treated by the school to the ski trip. The ski area was pretty nice. It had a big lodge, a roller skating rink, an ice skating rink, a (frozen) pond, a dormitory, a hotel and restaurant, an indoor pool, snow, tubes and ski rental. The only thing missing was the ski slope.

Oh, there was a slope of sorts but nothing so steep that the Illinois highway commission would put a “Danger, Steep Grade” sign beside. If you pushed really hard with the poles, you could get up to a pretty decent speed for a bunny slope.

Not to say I was bored. I had a really great time and so did my wife. The slope was good for her since she had never gone skiing before. She didn’t mind the slow rate of descent; in fact, it was about as fast as she wanted to go. She did her happy little dance, which some of you have had the pleasure of observing, every time she reached the bottom. That probably has something to do with the reason that her skis kept falling off. In fact, the reason she fell over once or twice was probably that she was so happy she started to dance up and down while she was still sliding down the slope (but that is just my speculation).

The place was quaint. At about noon a lady came out to the side of the slope with an ampliphone and said that it was lunchtime. The whole slope emptied off as all the people herded into the dining area. Even the lift turned off for a short time. But my wife was so enjoying the slope that she asked me, “Can I play one more time? Can I play one more time?” So I my lunch had to wait for later as she went down one more time.

For supper tonight I made some onion-egg-garlic fried rice. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. My wife liked it so much she had three helpings. She also requested that I pull out the stinky tofu, a side dish that you eat in small amounts along with the main dish. Stinky tofu is one of those foods that you wonder: who was the first sicko to discover that it is edible? It is ashen-grey, the color of a corpse, and it smells like manure.

It actually doesn’t taste too bad. In fact, it brings back fond memories. As I chew it I feel as if I can smell my grandfather's pig lots in Iowa. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of eating the tofu in the bedroom. Now the whole room smells like poop. If you walked into our apartment right now you would think that the smell you smelled was coming from the bathroom and not from the meal.

I think now we will call my wife’s cousin in Japan. G’bye.