5 years ago, (plus a couple of days) I left Barcelona to finish my university degree in Lund, Sweden. That was one of the best decisions I've taken, and I really loved my time there and all the people I met there.
This is not the first time I had a similar experience, and probably not the last.
When I was 17, I participated in an exchange program in my high school. For a week, I had a Swedish girl (Marianne) living in my house and visiting my high school (together with other Swedes). This was the first time I was in such an international environment, and the first time I had to actively use English to communicate. The ones that participated in it also got to skip some classes, and it was really awesome. I made a friend, and I keep contact with her more than with most people in my high school. When we visited Sweden in return, it was also a great experience, seeing another culture and other ways to do things while using another language that was not our own.
That same year I did Santiago's way with my parents. This is a 740 km long route in the north-west of Spain, done in around 30 days. The origin is religious, but we did it just because we enjoyed walking and visiting new places. While doing it we met lots of nice and different people from all around the world, and one of the people I met was a girl from U.K, that introduced me to the fact that English music is fucking awesome. I already knew that, but I was not fully conscious of how bad the music in Spain was, I believe. This also increased my curiosity regarding U.K, and made me want to visit it and even live there some day. After the way, we lost contact with most of the people, even if we still keep in touch with a few. I realised a simple thing there: Doing the same path again would not feel the same way, because the people walking with me would be different. This way was done, and it would be impossible to repeat it. However, that does not mean you need to stop enjoying walking, or that you need to become obsessed with that single time when everything was so good and the people were so nice.
When I was 18, inspired by last year's meetings and trips, I went to England alone, and visited several cities there. I had great experiences, and I had a first contact with a country that has a wide range of defects, but also has quite nice qualities. After the first trip, I returned quite shortly to attend a music festival with the girl we met during the way and other people. It was great, and I repeated the trip a few more years. I lost contact with that girl, but I met great people while in the festival, people I never met again but oh well.
After this I had to study hard at university, but I did manage to make some nice trips, like the year I went to China for a month with some friends. The cultural shock was quite brutal, but it was really interesting and we survived somehow, even when we were basically backpacking around the place and searching places to stay from one day to the next.
Finally, before ending university I wanted to enjoy university life to the fullest before starting to work, and I went for an Erasmus, as I mentioned.
During an Erasmus you meet lots of people from all around the world, and you really have incredible amounts of fun. It is incredible to call some people you know, just grab the bike and go to some party somewhere. At least, to learn if you enjoy these things or not, and also to learn how to live by yourself and take care of things, organise events, meet and communicate, and all that.
I met my wife there, thanks to a Japanese common friend that I met on the very first day, while trying to find a supermarket to buy some basic survival food. We started dating later on, but without living there, without meeting by chance a person who was just also looking for food, that would have not happened. We always have fun with the fact that a Lithuanian girl and a Spanish boy met in Sweden, obviously. It confuses people a lot ^^.
The first semester was amazing, but of course most people left, and therefore it's the same as in Santiago's way, not possible to really repeat even if we lived there again.
After the Erasmus, I found a job by pure luck in my current company, that offered me the option to continue travelling. I visited Vancouver, and after some years I had (finally) the chance to go and live in U.K., in London.
While working for London Olympics, again I met people from all around the world, and every week there was some party at some pub (even if I didn't go to most of them, there was the option). It reminded us a lot of an Erasmus, actually. In London there were also people I met in Sweden, so my wife and I managed to keep contact with them and meet them, while meeting others who were there working with me. It was also a great experience. London was not as nice as I thought when I was 18, but it was still pretty awesome, the music still was way better than in Spain, and in general we had a great time there. We got married there, and we have an English marriage certificate, as a matter of fact.
Our London life was strangely similar to an Erasmus, and we enjoyed it a lot too. Afterwards, most co-workers went to their separate ways, and we had the chance to move to Russia and work for Sochi Olympics.
Here again we have met lots of nice people. Here again we have had great experiences.
Our first son (that's the official opinion) will be born here, in a month or even sooner. We will have fun explaining that we're a Lithuanian-Spanish couple that met in Sweden, married in England and had a child in Russia (obviously).
And here again we will leave and it will not be possible to repeat it, but we will take this great experiences and know that we have enjoyed them a lot.
And later on, maybe there will be other countries to visit, other places to live, new people to meet...
Without travels, without Erasmus-like experiences, I would be different. I am married because of Erasmus. We will have a child because of Erasmus. Without Erasmus I might have done these things...or maybe not. But because of Erasmus, these things have happened. And every trip, every second, or third, or fourth Erasmus or pre-Erasmus we have, we enjoy it as if it was the first, even when the people and the places are different and the same conditions are always unrepeatable.
I believe that all these trips and meetings make you open your views, make you learn new things, make your life change for the better. I believe that everybody should have such experiences, if they could. We would be smarter as a society if we would do so.
Finally, I believe that these trips and meetings are really, really funny and nice^^. So don't miss the chance to do them, if you can.
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friends. Show all posts
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Adulthood
For those of you that do not know yet, my wife and I are going to have a child.
This is, of course, an important step, probably one of the most important things we'll ever do. There's still some time until birth, but we'll need to prepare, be ready for it, and it will change our daily lives.
Thinking about it, we're "young" for it, at least among the people we know. We're not the only ones who have children at this age, but most people I know that have studied something in University have kids and stable couples later. That does not happen in every culture, of course.
In Russia it seems most people are married and with kids way before reaching 30. In Spain it's otherwise, with people delaying these things until they become 30. I think in Lithuania it's something in the middle of this positions, while England is closer to the Spanish situation, but slightly younger.
Of course, an important factor is the security one feels in that culture or country. Spain right now has a terrible economy, and it's hard to afford some of the things that come with stable couples and kids. However, I think that in Spain it's also very important the cultural factor.
For example, for lots of people of my generation, we passed from the need to get married to the philosophy of not getting married, and seeing marriage as a terrible thing.
I hate stupid traditions. I believe that to do things just because "it has always been done like that" it's a really bad idea. For example, the idea that when you get married you need to do a wedding where you are the centre of attention and where you spend a huge amount of money to make it as impressive as you can. I'm not saying you cannot do it, or that it's very stupid to do it. I'm saying that you should think about it, to see if it's really what you want to do, and analyse the pros and cons it has in your personal opinion. To do it because it's proper, it's what everybody does, without thinking, is stupid.
And not to do it because everybody does it is equally stupid.
Anyway, right now I believe there's people that are not getting married or having kids because they don't feel ready. They also look around and see the same thing happening to other friends, so they believe this is normal, and by that it becomes normal.
I believe lots of people are not doing these things because of a mixture of rebelling against the past traditions, the current lack of economic security, and that feeling of not being ready.
My current generation (people with similar age, similar level of studies, similar economy, etc.) has been the result of a number of coincidences that has made our lives quite easier than for other generations. We have lived in economic prosperity, with nice houses, with all this new "toys" at our reach, and I believe that we've all been...well, spoiled. Not in a bad way, but still, our lives have been relatively easy (even if some people have had it harder than others).
I believe that this kind of environment makes it easier to not have big responsibilities, or even if you have had them, to not easily think of yourself as an "adult". Well, I know I have trouble with this thought at least. It's not a matter of being immature or anything, it's just that, mentally, we all believe to be somehow in our last teenage years, or beginning of our twenties (and maybe that can be applied to everybody).
It's kind of the same reason why some hobbies are considered "childish". We put labels and categorize things, and we expect that things that we like as a child will latter seem silly, when the truth is that if we really like something, there's no reason to stop doing it, since we're the same person than before. Our tastes may change from time to time, but there are no childish hobbies, we just need to learn when can we indulge in them or not.
So, in this change from young to adult, since we're in the last teenage years, we're still having fun. We're not ready for some of those big steps that would clearly be something only an adult does.
What I mean is that sometimes we're somehow waiting for a change in our mind, that will switch into "adult" mode after that. And this is the problem. This does not happen. We're the same person at 15 that at 51. Sure, we'll have more experience at 51, and we may be wiser because of this experience (or not), but we're basically the same person. It's very well said in the movie American Beauty. The main character says that he could tell to his teenage daughter that the insecurities and problems and doubts she's having will pass away after adolescence, but he does not want to lie to her.
Therefore, while we're waiting to be adults, we try to avoid marriage, or having kids, or buying a house, or any other thing that we believe only an adult, centered, stable person will do correctly. Because we do not feel specially centered or stable sometimes, and we've been told hundreds of times this is just a phase that teenagers pass after some time.
Is this a defense of traditional things? Of course not. As I mentioned, I hate to do things just because. I'm just saying that delaying things because we're not considering ourselves "adults" is something that we should try to fight back. We won't get a sudden revelation telling us this is the right moment. We won't know with stone-written certainty that we're ready. We will not avoid contradictory thoughts about these things.
And we should get used to that and get on with our lives. I'm pretty sure everybody has had the same thoughts, maybe just in different ages. The other people we know that are considered adults by us did these things in a way that seemed they had a different mind than our own, that they knew more than we do. And I believe that's not true at all.
Basically, we should not expect to have a huge different mentality some point in the future. People do not change much. So do not wait for some spontaneous change in your mind.
Just think about what you really want to do, something that makes you happy, plan for it (don't just randomly do or avoid doing things), and do it.
This is, of course, an important step, probably one of the most important things we'll ever do. There's still some time until birth, but we'll need to prepare, be ready for it, and it will change our daily lives.
Thinking about it, we're "young" for it, at least among the people we know. We're not the only ones who have children at this age, but most people I know that have studied something in University have kids and stable couples later. That does not happen in every culture, of course.
In Russia it seems most people are married and with kids way before reaching 30. In Spain it's otherwise, with people delaying these things until they become 30. I think in Lithuania it's something in the middle of this positions, while England is closer to the Spanish situation, but slightly younger.
Of course, an important factor is the security one feels in that culture or country. Spain right now has a terrible economy, and it's hard to afford some of the things that come with stable couples and kids. However, I think that in Spain it's also very important the cultural factor.
For example, for lots of people of my generation, we passed from the need to get married to the philosophy of not getting married, and seeing marriage as a terrible thing.
I hate stupid traditions. I believe that to do things just because "it has always been done like that" it's a really bad idea. For example, the idea that when you get married you need to do a wedding where you are the centre of attention and where you spend a huge amount of money to make it as impressive as you can. I'm not saying you cannot do it, or that it's very stupid to do it. I'm saying that you should think about it, to see if it's really what you want to do, and analyse the pros and cons it has in your personal opinion. To do it because it's proper, it's what everybody does, without thinking, is stupid.
And not to do it because everybody does it is equally stupid.
Anyway, right now I believe there's people that are not getting married or having kids because they don't feel ready. They also look around and see the same thing happening to other friends, so they believe this is normal, and by that it becomes normal.
I believe lots of people are not doing these things because of a mixture of rebelling against the past traditions, the current lack of economic security, and that feeling of not being ready.
My current generation (people with similar age, similar level of studies, similar economy, etc.) has been the result of a number of coincidences that has made our lives quite easier than for other generations. We have lived in economic prosperity, with nice houses, with all this new "toys" at our reach, and I believe that we've all been...well, spoiled. Not in a bad way, but still, our lives have been relatively easy (even if some people have had it harder than others).
I believe that this kind of environment makes it easier to not have big responsibilities, or even if you have had them, to not easily think of yourself as an "adult". Well, I know I have trouble with this thought at least. It's not a matter of being immature or anything, it's just that, mentally, we all believe to be somehow in our last teenage years, or beginning of our twenties (and maybe that can be applied to everybody).
It's kind of the same reason why some hobbies are considered "childish". We put labels and categorize things, and we expect that things that we like as a child will latter seem silly, when the truth is that if we really like something, there's no reason to stop doing it, since we're the same person than before. Our tastes may change from time to time, but there are no childish hobbies, we just need to learn when can we indulge in them or not.
So, in this change from young to adult, since we're in the last teenage years, we're still having fun. We're not ready for some of those big steps that would clearly be something only an adult does.
What I mean is that sometimes we're somehow waiting for a change in our mind, that will switch into "adult" mode after that. And this is the problem. This does not happen. We're the same person at 15 that at 51. Sure, we'll have more experience at 51, and we may be wiser because of this experience (or not), but we're basically the same person. It's very well said in the movie American Beauty. The main character says that he could tell to his teenage daughter that the insecurities and problems and doubts she's having will pass away after adolescence, but he does not want to lie to her.
Therefore, while we're waiting to be adults, we try to avoid marriage, or having kids, or buying a house, or any other thing that we believe only an adult, centered, stable person will do correctly. Because we do not feel specially centered or stable sometimes, and we've been told hundreds of times this is just a phase that teenagers pass after some time.
Is this a defense of traditional things? Of course not. As I mentioned, I hate to do things just because. I'm just saying that delaying things because we're not considering ourselves "adults" is something that we should try to fight back. We won't get a sudden revelation telling us this is the right moment. We won't know with stone-written certainty that we're ready. We will not avoid contradictory thoughts about these things.
And we should get used to that and get on with our lives. I'm pretty sure everybody has had the same thoughts, maybe just in different ages. The other people we know that are considered adults by us did these things in a way that seemed they had a different mind than our own, that they knew more than we do. And I believe that's not true at all.
Basically, we should not expect to have a huge different mentality some point in the future. People do not change much. So do not wait for some spontaneous change in your mind.
Just think about what you really want to do, something that makes you happy, plan for it (don't just randomly do or avoid doing things), and do it.
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Snowboarding in Russia
I'm not very good at sports in general. I have resistance and I'm not specially weak or anything, but I do not enjoy them as much as other people, and I do not have much skill on the first place. These things could be solved with training, but then again, as mentioned, I'm not fond enough of them to spend time practicing one. Right now at home we do some exercise with an elliptical bike, and the only reason we do so is because we can watch series while running, which makes it quite pleasant.
However, since we're next to the place where the winter Olympics are happening, we decided to try something snow-related: Snowboarding.We had never skied before, so we thought it may be fun to learn it, and we were told it was easier than skiing. Jordi Nadal (a coworker here in Adler) had never tried snowboarding, and wanted to take some classes here and try it. He convinced us to go with him, and we went all together with another friend, Misha.
We had to wake up early to take a bus to get us there. The mountains are close, but with the roads and traffic that they have here, it takes at least 1 hour to get there, and that's if you don't find many cars. It took us around one hour and a half, but Jordi told us it had been a fast trip this time.
We went to the ski resort called Gasprom-Laura. I believe it's where they're going to do Cross-Country and Biathlon competitions, but it also has normal tracks for alpine skiing and snowboard. The learning tracks are quite simple, so it was the ideal place to start. Arriving to the place takes a while, but the installations are brand-new (probably made thinking about olympics), and there was lots of space and facilities,
First thing was to rent equipment. We had clothes, but we were missing the snowboard itself and the boots. We asked for second-grade equipment, since it's cheaper and we're just learning. The process of selecting is kind of funny, since they make you stand still and push you to see which foot do you use to stop yourself (and consider that to be your dominant foot). It seems there are better ways, but oh well. According to my size, I got a table for a dominant right foot. The boots were rather nice, with a wheel that tensed a metal cable to adjust them(they're very thick and hard. even if softer than ski boots). It was a very easy-to-use thing, and I liked it. Not all of them had this system, though.
With the equipment ready, we paid the entrance fee valid until 16:30 and we went to the top of the mountain. The mountains around Sochi are quite high and they go up quite fast. In a small distance there are huge height differences. To go up, we took one of the cable cabins, and it was quite impressive. We climbed fast and there were really good views. Jordi told us that in other stations the views were even better, since they were higher.
The main starting place of the track was covered in snow, but the temperature was quite high, we believe it was between 3 and 6 degrees. That means that with our clothes we were actually rather warm. Once we had to start moving and falling, we'd probably sweat...but well, at least we checked and we really did not notice the humidity of the snow with these clothes.
We hired an instructor for 2 hours. This way we would get some introduction to snowboarding and we'd still have time to play around with the snowboard by ourselves. The instructor was a nice guy, that started with very basic things, like how to properly put on the snowboard, how to make sure it doesn't start sliding without us, what position to take when we had only one foot strapped so we can move around, how to fall properly, what posture to get when moving, etc...Of course, it was relatively easy to do all that while not moving, and even then I needed lots of corrections.
After a while of that , and a first try sliding in a flat place, we went to a blue track. For those of you that have never skied (like me), green tracks are for learning and beginning, blue tracks are faster and harder, red tracks are almost professional, and black tracks are really fast and hard, only for professionals or people who know what they're doing very well. Anyway, a blue track, for a beginner like me, is already quite steep.
In there, we were supposed to put the board horizontally, and slide frontally and backwards, by balancing ourselves with the snowboard edge. This way, if we didn't raise one side of the snowboard, we would start sliding quite fast. If we started raising one side, we would slow down, until stopping if we raised it too much. The idea was to achieve a controlled slide, with the instructor in front of us to stop us or grab us, if necessary.
There I remembered something that I already knew, but I had not think about it in a while: I have not much balance. Sure, I managed to slide down, and after 2-3 tries I improved, but I need much more practice with balance to really control it. Somehow, it was easier for me when I was balancing the board backwards, with my back to the ramp while looking towards the start of the track. I was told that most people have more trouble with this way of balancing than with the other way around, face towards the end of the track. Anyway, I was not doing very well in both cases, and the instructor thought that we wouldn't be able to do a whole green track with me around, so he tried to teach us some freestyle tricks instead.
That was just a little bit of fun, where we tried to jump around with the snowboard. We fell quite a lot, but we were in a flat surface and we were standing still, so it was not a problem. Eventually, to finish the training, we went to the start of a green track, the simplest one, accessible next to the starting point of all tracks. He taught us how we were supposed to turn left and right, to do so with one foot unstrapped from the board. Then he told us to go down the green track.
I had not done very well all this time, but when I started going down the little slope, I managed to not fall and move around for quite a long while (actually longer than the others). Then I had to actually turn around some obstacle, and I lost control and fell. Oh well. I managed to go down all the way, falling several times, but it was rather fun after all, and I did ok.
At the bottom of the green track we entered the queue to go up till the top again. The instructor, still with us at this moment, told us how to use the ski lift. With a snowboard you cannot "sit" on it, so you need to grab it from one side and let it pull you up. It's not easy at all compared to using it with skis (or so I've been told), and it was sometimes hard to keep the balance while the lift was pulling you. Right at the start was probably the most unstable part, with little bumps of snow moving you on unplanned directions all of a sudden.
Anyway, we went up, the instructor left and we had lunch to take a little break (by the way, if possible, bring your own food, they have overpriced bad-quality food, but well, it's normal in these places). We believe another hour of instructor could really help us, but that day we had enough, so after lunch we just went to the initial green track and went down several times.
After doing that, I discovered several things. First thing, I do not know how to brake with a snowboard. The instructor didn't clearly explain this section, I guess assuming that if we knew how to turn we'd be able to stop. Well, the others managed, but I didn't learn how to do it yet. So, most of the time I was going down at quite a high speed for a green track, maybe not turning enough times, and just launching myself to the floor when it was time to stop. It was not the best way, but I survived it and I was ok after the experience.However, I really need to learn this vital part before I can try other tracks than the green one. Falling in the green track when going fast is not that much of a problem. Trying the same in the blue track would probably break something....
Another thing I noticed is that the theory had been quite nice....but I needed to get used to the feeling of sliding first. In the last 2 times I went down the green track, I finally started to notice things, how to incline myself to do this, how to change weight along the board, what happened if I did that, etc. Before that, my spinal cord was taking care of everything, and my brain had not much to say about it. With more practice, I'd be able to think about what I'm doing and change it if it's incorrect, but during these first tries, I was just going around with instinct mostly, and my instinct is rather incorrect when it comes to using the snowboard. Anyway, as I said, I had fun and managed to control things better after a few tries.
Third thing was that all the moving around, putting yourself in position (which was always bending everything a little), getting up after falling, putting the straps on and off...well, it adds up. It was a lot of exercise, and I sweated a lot. Besides, with the exercise and the falling, I ended up very tired. When we finally decided to leave, at around 16:00, we were all pretty dead.
It took us a while to reach the bus stop, between the cable car and finding the right spot. The bus also took some time to arrive, but the good part was that this station was at the beginning (or end) of the bus route, so we managed to get seats. It took us a long time to reach Adler again, and when we arrived home we were destroyed.
Next day everything hurt, but in a good way, like after going to the gym for the first time in 6 months. Since then I recovered. We had fun in there, and we'll probably go again soon. I was lazy to repeat it last couple of weekends, but we'll try to go again tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes. Lately there were several stations closed (since they're doing competitions to test them for the Olympics), and temperatures are stupidly high for winter, but we hope we'll be able to enjoy it a few other times before the season ends.
Maybe we'll like it so much that we'll get our own equipment in the end....
However, since we're next to the place where the winter Olympics are happening, we decided to try something snow-related: Snowboarding.We had never skied before, so we thought it may be fun to learn it, and we were told it was easier than skiing. Jordi Nadal (a coworker here in Adler) had never tried snowboarding, and wanted to take some classes here and try it. He convinced us to go with him, and we went all together with another friend, Misha.
We had to wake up early to take a bus to get us there. The mountains are close, but with the roads and traffic that they have here, it takes at least 1 hour to get there, and that's if you don't find many cars. It took us around one hour and a half, but Jordi told us it had been a fast trip this time.
We went to the ski resort called Gasprom-Laura. I believe it's where they're going to do Cross-Country and Biathlon competitions, but it also has normal tracks for alpine skiing and snowboard. The learning tracks are quite simple, so it was the ideal place to start. Arriving to the place takes a while, but the installations are brand-new (probably made thinking about olympics), and there was lots of space and facilities,
First thing was to rent equipment. We had clothes, but we were missing the snowboard itself and the boots. We asked for second-grade equipment, since it's cheaper and we're just learning. The process of selecting is kind of funny, since they make you stand still and push you to see which foot do you use to stop yourself (and consider that to be your dominant foot). It seems there are better ways, but oh well. According to my size, I got a table for a dominant right foot. The boots were rather nice, with a wheel that tensed a metal cable to adjust them(they're very thick and hard. even if softer than ski boots). It was a very easy-to-use thing, and I liked it. Not all of them had this system, though.
With the equipment ready, we paid the entrance fee valid until 16:30 and we went to the top of the mountain. The mountains around Sochi are quite high and they go up quite fast. In a small distance there are huge height differences. To go up, we took one of the cable cabins, and it was quite impressive. We climbed fast and there were really good views. Jordi told us that in other stations the views were even better, since they were higher.
The main starting place of the track was covered in snow, but the temperature was quite high, we believe it was between 3 and 6 degrees. That means that with our clothes we were actually rather warm. Once we had to start moving and falling, we'd probably sweat...but well, at least we checked and we really did not notice the humidity of the snow with these clothes.
We hired an instructor for 2 hours. This way we would get some introduction to snowboarding and we'd still have time to play around with the snowboard by ourselves. The instructor was a nice guy, that started with very basic things, like how to properly put on the snowboard, how to make sure it doesn't start sliding without us, what position to take when we had only one foot strapped so we can move around, how to fall properly, what posture to get when moving, etc...Of course, it was relatively easy to do all that while not moving, and even then I needed lots of corrections.
After a while of that , and a first try sliding in a flat place, we went to a blue track. For those of you that have never skied (like me), green tracks are for learning and beginning, blue tracks are faster and harder, red tracks are almost professional, and black tracks are really fast and hard, only for professionals or people who know what they're doing very well. Anyway, a blue track, for a beginner like me, is already quite steep.
In there, we were supposed to put the board horizontally, and slide frontally and backwards, by balancing ourselves with the snowboard edge. This way, if we didn't raise one side of the snowboard, we would start sliding quite fast. If we started raising one side, we would slow down, until stopping if we raised it too much. The idea was to achieve a controlled slide, with the instructor in front of us to stop us or grab us, if necessary.
There I remembered something that I already knew, but I had not think about it in a while: I have not much balance. Sure, I managed to slide down, and after 2-3 tries I improved, but I need much more practice with balance to really control it. Somehow, it was easier for me when I was balancing the board backwards, with my back to the ramp while looking towards the start of the track. I was told that most people have more trouble with this way of balancing than with the other way around, face towards the end of the track. Anyway, I was not doing very well in both cases, and the instructor thought that we wouldn't be able to do a whole green track with me around, so he tried to teach us some freestyle tricks instead.
That was just a little bit of fun, where we tried to jump around with the snowboard. We fell quite a lot, but we were in a flat surface and we were standing still, so it was not a problem. Eventually, to finish the training, we went to the start of a green track, the simplest one, accessible next to the starting point of all tracks. He taught us how we were supposed to turn left and right, to do so with one foot unstrapped from the board. Then he told us to go down the green track.
I had not done very well all this time, but when I started going down the little slope, I managed to not fall and move around for quite a long while (actually longer than the others). Then I had to actually turn around some obstacle, and I lost control and fell. Oh well. I managed to go down all the way, falling several times, but it was rather fun after all, and I did ok.
At the bottom of the green track we entered the queue to go up till the top again. The instructor, still with us at this moment, told us how to use the ski lift. With a snowboard you cannot "sit" on it, so you need to grab it from one side and let it pull you up. It's not easy at all compared to using it with skis (or so I've been told), and it was sometimes hard to keep the balance while the lift was pulling you. Right at the start was probably the most unstable part, with little bumps of snow moving you on unplanned directions all of a sudden.
Anyway, we went up, the instructor left and we had lunch to take a little break (by the way, if possible, bring your own food, they have overpriced bad-quality food, but well, it's normal in these places). We believe another hour of instructor could really help us, but that day we had enough, so after lunch we just went to the initial green track and went down several times.
After doing that, I discovered several things. First thing, I do not know how to brake with a snowboard. The instructor didn't clearly explain this section, I guess assuming that if we knew how to turn we'd be able to stop. Well, the others managed, but I didn't learn how to do it yet. So, most of the time I was going down at quite a high speed for a green track, maybe not turning enough times, and just launching myself to the floor when it was time to stop. It was not the best way, but I survived it and I was ok after the experience.However, I really need to learn this vital part before I can try other tracks than the green one. Falling in the green track when going fast is not that much of a problem. Trying the same in the blue track would probably break something....
Another thing I noticed is that the theory had been quite nice....but I needed to get used to the feeling of sliding first. In the last 2 times I went down the green track, I finally started to notice things, how to incline myself to do this, how to change weight along the board, what happened if I did that, etc. Before that, my spinal cord was taking care of everything, and my brain had not much to say about it. With more practice, I'd be able to think about what I'm doing and change it if it's incorrect, but during these first tries, I was just going around with instinct mostly, and my instinct is rather incorrect when it comes to using the snowboard. Anyway, as I said, I had fun and managed to control things better after a few tries.
Third thing was that all the moving around, putting yourself in position (which was always bending everything a little), getting up after falling, putting the straps on and off...well, it adds up. It was a lot of exercise, and I sweated a lot. Besides, with the exercise and the falling, I ended up very tired. When we finally decided to leave, at around 16:00, we were all pretty dead.
It took us a while to reach the bus stop, between the cable car and finding the right spot. The bus also took some time to arrive, but the good part was that this station was at the beginning (or end) of the bus route, so we managed to get seats. It took us a long time to reach Adler again, and when we arrived home we were destroyed.
Next day everything hurt, but in a good way, like after going to the gym for the first time in 6 months. Since then I recovered. We had fun in there, and we'll probably go again soon. I was lazy to repeat it last couple of weekends, but we'll try to go again tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes. Lately there were several stations closed (since they're doing competitions to test them for the Olympics), and temperatures are stupidly high for winter, but we hope we'll be able to enjoy it a few other times before the season ends.
Maybe we'll like it so much that we'll get our own equipment in the end....
Thursday, 24 January 2013
New Year Vacations
I have not written in a while...
The explanation to that can be found in the new year´s vacations. We went back to Barcelona for 12 days to celebrate New Year, and it was a great time. We managed to see friends and family, even if we missed people that we didn´t have time to meet in the end, and we had friends from Vilnius around most of the days.
All these things meant that for 12 days we were rather busy. We scheduled our days to the last minute, and we spend most of the time visiting people, meeting people or walking around the city. We did that for 12 days. And we loved seeing all the people that mattered to us.
However, Olia and I are not the most sociable people. So even if we enjoyed it, afterwards we were destroyed. As in completely tired and wanting to do nothing and not leave the house for several days. It hit me specially hard, and I didn´t want to do anything apart from reading, watching series and movies, or playing games.(things that do not require very high mental processes).
We have to say that we were "lucky", and we got a couple of extra days of isolation to rest and recover. When we were going back, our flight with Turkish airlines (a very good company, with big seats, a tv in front of you, and food during the flight) was going to pass through Istanbul, were we had to wait a couple of hours. It seems that during these dates, there was quite a big snow storm in there. We didn´t know, and in Barcelona´s airport they told us that, and that our plane had not left Istanbul yet. There was a 2 hour delay.
Of course, our first thought was that we were screwed, since the other flight was 2 hours after the first landing. However, they told us that the chaos was general, and that the other flight would be also delayed. With this reassurance, we went inside the airport and waited in front of the Gate. The plane arrived as expected, and we were ready to board....but we didn´t. Time passed and passed. Eventually, we boarded the plane, and had to wait a looong time before taking off. When we landed in Istanbul, we spent looots of time in the airport tracks, waiting for a place to stop the plane and get out.
Adding it all up, we were 4 hours late at least, and it was 1:45 am. Our plane to Sochi, even if delayed as well, had already left some minutes before that, and we were, in fact, screwed. Considering that, we went to claim new tickets, since the airline should help us in these situations.
After a big queue with all the people of all the flights that got delayed because of the snow, we were told that next possible flight was in 2 days, but that the airline was giving us a room in a hotel and had paid for our food and transfer. With no other option, we went to enter the country.
To our surprise, Olia passed without incidents but I was told that I required a Visa, for being Spanish We tried to go back, but they didn´t want to let Olia, since she was officially inside Turkey now, so they kept her passport. We went to an office 20 meters away, and were told that Visas were all for 90 days. We asked for the price, and it was just 15 euros. We paid, they stamped a little thing in my passport, which took 5 seconds, and the police control was happy to let us pass. It was quite embarrassing, not a real Visa, just an entrance fee.
Next thing was to recover our luggage. We went to the office of lost luggage, and we were told that it could wait in the airport for 2 days. We needed it back for our stay in the hotel, so we asked them to bring it to us. They said it would take very long, like 2 hours, but we had no choice. It was rather stupid too, since they should have an easy way to keep track of baggage in transit, and in other circumstances they are able to transfer the baggage from plane to plane in less than 20 minutes...but well, airports are terrible disorganized messes everywhere it seems....
After 2 hours waiting, we were able to reach the desk of the airline in the airport that would transfer us to the hotel. They told us, again, that we would have to wait an hours or so until the shuttle arrived. So we waited some more, taking the chance to have some kind of breakfast (after all these queues and waiting it was after 8 am already). We finally got the shuttle and the transfer to the hotel, we checked in (10 am), and we just went to sleep. We woke up to eat (it was paid by the airline), and continue sleeping, for the whole day and part of the next. We also read, and stayed in bed for a long time. It was quite awesome, actually.
On the second day, after lunch, we decided to actually go and visit something, and we found out that the hotel was right in the centre of the city. We were able to see the blue mosque, and to pick a cache in the process. It was quite nice, even if rather cold. We spent an hour or so walking around, and then went back to the hotel to rest some more and get ready to go to the airport.
We managed to give our suitcases, after having to transfer some weight from one to the other, since we were forced to put duty-free things inside and the total weight had increased. We went to the plane, and this time everything went fine, although the plane took a little longer than planned to take off.
We arrived to Adler, and spent lots of time trying to pass the border and get our suitcases. We didn´t have any problems, but it just took extremely long. Eventually we arrived home, dead, and we went to sleep at 6 am. I had to wake up 2 hours later and go to work, so I did. I had missed 2 extra days of work, but at least it meant that it was Friday. I survived the day, and with that weekend and several days of rest we got used again to live here in Russia.
Now that I have recovered, I´ll write sooner I hope. There´s lots of things that have happened in the world that I´d like to rant about, and I have lots of new computer games that I´d like to comment.
We´ll see....
The explanation to that can be found in the new year´s vacations. We went back to Barcelona for 12 days to celebrate New Year, and it was a great time. We managed to see friends and family, even if we missed people that we didn´t have time to meet in the end, and we had friends from Vilnius around most of the days.
All these things meant that for 12 days we were rather busy. We scheduled our days to the last minute, and we spend most of the time visiting people, meeting people or walking around the city. We did that for 12 days. And we loved seeing all the people that mattered to us.
However, Olia and I are not the most sociable people. So even if we enjoyed it, afterwards we were destroyed. As in completely tired and wanting to do nothing and not leave the house for several days. It hit me specially hard, and I didn´t want to do anything apart from reading, watching series and movies, or playing games.(things that do not require very high mental processes).
We have to say that we were "lucky", and we got a couple of extra days of isolation to rest and recover. When we were going back, our flight with Turkish airlines (a very good company, with big seats, a tv in front of you, and food during the flight) was going to pass through Istanbul, were we had to wait a couple of hours. It seems that during these dates, there was quite a big snow storm in there. We didn´t know, and in Barcelona´s airport they told us that, and that our plane had not left Istanbul yet. There was a 2 hour delay.
Of course, our first thought was that we were screwed, since the other flight was 2 hours after the first landing. However, they told us that the chaos was general, and that the other flight would be also delayed. With this reassurance, we went inside the airport and waited in front of the Gate. The plane arrived as expected, and we were ready to board....but we didn´t. Time passed and passed. Eventually, we boarded the plane, and had to wait a looong time before taking off. When we landed in Istanbul, we spent looots of time in the airport tracks, waiting for a place to stop the plane and get out.
Adding it all up, we were 4 hours late at least, and it was 1:45 am. Our plane to Sochi, even if delayed as well, had already left some minutes before that, and we were, in fact, screwed. Considering that, we went to claim new tickets, since the airline should help us in these situations.
After a big queue with all the people of all the flights that got delayed because of the snow, we were told that next possible flight was in 2 days, but that the airline was giving us a room in a hotel and had paid for our food and transfer. With no other option, we went to enter the country.
To our surprise, Olia passed without incidents but I was told that I required a Visa, for being Spanish We tried to go back, but they didn´t want to let Olia, since she was officially inside Turkey now, so they kept her passport. We went to an office 20 meters away, and were told that Visas were all for 90 days. We asked for the price, and it was just 15 euros. We paid, they stamped a little thing in my passport, which took 5 seconds, and the police control was happy to let us pass. It was quite embarrassing, not a real Visa, just an entrance fee.
Next thing was to recover our luggage. We went to the office of lost luggage, and we were told that it could wait in the airport for 2 days. We needed it back for our stay in the hotel, so we asked them to bring it to us. They said it would take very long, like 2 hours, but we had no choice. It was rather stupid too, since they should have an easy way to keep track of baggage in transit, and in other circumstances they are able to transfer the baggage from plane to plane in less than 20 minutes...but well, airports are terrible disorganized messes everywhere it seems....
After 2 hours waiting, we were able to reach the desk of the airline in the airport that would transfer us to the hotel. They told us, again, that we would have to wait an hours or so until the shuttle arrived. So we waited some more, taking the chance to have some kind of breakfast (after all these queues and waiting it was after 8 am already). We finally got the shuttle and the transfer to the hotel, we checked in (10 am), and we just went to sleep. We woke up to eat (it was paid by the airline), and continue sleeping, for the whole day and part of the next. We also read, and stayed in bed for a long time. It was quite awesome, actually.
On the second day, after lunch, we decided to actually go and visit something, and we found out that the hotel was right in the centre of the city. We were able to see the blue mosque, and to pick a cache in the process. It was quite nice, even if rather cold. We spent an hour or so walking around, and then went back to the hotel to rest some more and get ready to go to the airport.
We managed to give our suitcases, after having to transfer some weight from one to the other, since we were forced to put duty-free things inside and the total weight had increased. We went to the plane, and this time everything went fine, although the plane took a little longer than planned to take off.
We arrived to Adler, and spent lots of time trying to pass the border and get our suitcases. We didn´t have any problems, but it just took extremely long. Eventually we arrived home, dead, and we went to sleep at 6 am. I had to wake up 2 hours later and go to work, so I did. I had missed 2 extra days of work, but at least it meant that it was Friday. I survived the day, and with that weekend and several days of rest we got used again to live here in Russia.
Now that I have recovered, I´ll write sooner I hope. There´s lots of things that have happened in the world that I´d like to rant about, and I have lots of new computer games that I´d like to comment.
We´ll see....
Saturday, 14 July 2012
Until next time!
A great part of living some time abroad is meeting lots of nice people that become close to you. The bad part is that plenty of times you have to leave them, or they have to leave. That's life, but it's still a sad moment.
9 years ago I participated in a two-weeks student exchange with Sweden, where I met lots of nice people that stayed in Sweden afterwards. Shortly after that I did the way of St. James, a walking route were you make bonds with the people that walk with you day after day, resisting this little nomad life.
4 years ago I went to finish my university studies in Sweden, and the international environment made me interact with people all around the world. There I even met my future wife, and we actually started dating after being apart first...
2 years and a half ago I went to Vancouver to work for a short time, and I met curious people who worked around the world. And just one year ago I joined that people and moved to London to work with some of them.
All the previous times, I had to say goodbye without guarantees of seeing the person again, and in some cases there was a lot of drama involved, because it really felt that the time spent together was great and unrepeatable. However, there is something that I always thought, and that is true: The world is actually very small.
It takes us less than a day to move anywhere in the planet. That is just awesome, and not many people realise about it. Sure, it's not cheap, and it's not something you can do every day...but the point is you can. We're lucky, we can take a plane and in 2-3 hours cross countries and meet again with friends. And the internet just makes everything easier, allowing us to talk with far-away people as if they were next to us.
One of the people I met 9 years ago is still one of our best friends. My wife and I met lots of friends in the end of my studies in Sweden, and we see them regularly, even if sometimes months or years pass between meetings. When we meet, it's like it was yesterday that we last saw them. Living for so long abroad means as well that the friends from our home cities are harder to see, but again it doesn't matter how long, we always meet again and have fun together.
Soon enough we will leave London, and we will move again, to Sochi in Russia. We will meet new people, and we will make new friends. But first we will have to say goodbye here. We have already started to do so.
And we do that with an "Until next time!". Because we will see you again. The world is very small after all^^
9 years ago I participated in a two-weeks student exchange with Sweden, where I met lots of nice people that stayed in Sweden afterwards. Shortly after that I did the way of St. James, a walking route were you make bonds with the people that walk with you day after day, resisting this little nomad life.
4 years ago I went to finish my university studies in Sweden, and the international environment made me interact with people all around the world. There I even met my future wife, and we actually started dating after being apart first...
2 years and a half ago I went to Vancouver to work for a short time, and I met curious people who worked around the world. And just one year ago I joined that people and moved to London to work with some of them.
All the previous times, I had to say goodbye without guarantees of seeing the person again, and in some cases there was a lot of drama involved, because it really felt that the time spent together was great and unrepeatable. However, there is something that I always thought, and that is true: The world is actually very small.
It takes us less than a day to move anywhere in the planet. That is just awesome, and not many people realise about it. Sure, it's not cheap, and it's not something you can do every day...but the point is you can. We're lucky, we can take a plane and in 2-3 hours cross countries and meet again with friends. And the internet just makes everything easier, allowing us to talk with far-away people as if they were next to us.
One of the people I met 9 years ago is still one of our best friends. My wife and I met lots of friends in the end of my studies in Sweden, and we see them regularly, even if sometimes months or years pass between meetings. When we meet, it's like it was yesterday that we last saw them. Living for so long abroad means as well that the friends from our home cities are harder to see, but again it doesn't matter how long, we always meet again and have fun together.
Soon enough we will leave London, and we will move again, to Sochi in Russia. We will meet new people, and we will make new friends. But first we will have to say goodbye here. We have already started to do so.
And we do that with an "Until next time!". Because we will see you again. The world is very small after all^^
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