I’m back! I’ve had the most wonderful holiday skiing up on the mountain. Now I feel the down after a great holiday. Being at home feels quiet and lonely after the energy and excitement of new experiences with fifteen friends. *sigh*

The snow was thick and powdery. In five days, I went from klutzy beginner who hurtled down green runs to slightly klutzy intermediate who cautiously picked her way down blue runs. This past week, I fell down a lot. I thought that surviving lots of falls would make a person more fearless but that’s not true at all – I got more scared.

I went with fifteen people, most of whom I didn’t know very well before. I adore them all now. I was excited and hyper the whole week. We chatted about everything, skiied together, fell together, cooked and cleaned, played games like Bartog, Cat-opoly, Billionaire and Pictionary, sung songs from musicals and danced like maniacs to bad ’90s pop and cool swing music. I was so happy to be around friendly, interesting and helpful people.

One of the highlights of the trip was the food! We had organised ourselves into “food groups” so that the dinner responsibilities were shared fairly. What an effort people put into meals! We had pancakes, herb sausages, fried eggs and toasted sandwiches for breakfast, then homemade pizza, curries, goulash, cabbage rolls and pastas for dinner. Meal times were something to look forward to.

There were some minor dramas on the trip. People got lost in the snow (during whiteouts, when we could see only 10 metres ahead!) and getting kissed by random strangers dressed up as Santa (a very creepy episode). Here I will reproduce a comment from lildrummergal from the entry “Delayed Teenage Angst“.

Wait a second — this story sounds familiar! Joan never finished this episode. The Girl ended up being turned down when she pressed for an “official” answer. Apparently, having been scarred in a previous relationship, The Boy was not intending to start another one for quite a while yet.

After much counselling from very good friends, The Girl was well on her way to getting over the whole thing, despite having enough teenage angst to write an Avril Lavigne-esque song.

However, it doesn’t end there. The ski trip following further compounded matters. The Boy declares on the first night to The Girl that she was “making him change his mind” and asked whether she “still wants to go out with him”. She refuses to give a straight answer, unsure of his sincerity and unwilling to become vulnerable again so quickly.

Determined to get things straight for once and for all, The Girl writes and email to The Boy as soon as she got home from the trip, asking for a definite answer. She’s tired of being confused.

An answer has not yet been received. She suspects it will come either in the form of a phone call or a face-to-face conversation. And so the melodramatic saga continues… (The Girl needs to start her own blog or something)

Yes, that definitely was the most soap-opera-like episode of the week. At one point in the ski trip, a person pointed to the The Girl and Boy (wrapped up together on the couch) and loudly said, “Can someone tell me what’s going on with them?”

Heck, even they don’t know what’s going on! 🙂

Key word of the trip: Communal. See glossary.