My boyfriend is Lee Min-ho

Chapter Eighteen - Skiing for the first time and ...

We woke up early in the morning at seven since we turned in quite early the night before. It was cozy to cuddle up under the warm blankets in this cold weather. I thought I heard him murmuring in his slumber but since I was too tired, I couldn't very much be bothered.

He made me put on my thickest clothes for fear that I might catch a cold and it would definitely be cold on the ski slopes. When we walked past the day before, the temperature gauge was showing a freezing temperature of minus two degrees Celsius!

We caught the first shuttle into the Dragon Plaza to rent our skiing equipment for the day. For a pure beginner like me, I knew absolutely nothing about skiing. So I simply followed his lead.

It was amazing that nobody really recognized him even though I caught a few people taking double turns to look back at him. He was already in his ski jacket and ski pants. He had his jacket zipped up to his neck which covered to his mouth hence he was barely recognisable. He got me his sister's ski jacket and pants as well which somehow fitted me nicely. At the rental shop, we rented our ski boots, goggles, ski gloves and he even got me gators to keep me on. Next, we moved on to grab our ski equipment which consisted of skis, ski poles and helmets. He held on to our poles and skis as we headed out into the snow. Since it was my first time, I found great difficulty walking around in those boots. But they did somehow reminded me of roller skates.

Out at the base of the slope, he checked out the trails to see which were the ones suitable for beginners. A friendly guide came along when he saw us with the maps.

"Need help?"

"It's her first time skiing," Min-ho answered still with his jacket zipped up, causing his voice to be muffled. "I'm trying to see where the beginners trails are."

The guide pointed out the trails which I could try - Yellow, New Yellow, Slider as well as the snow sledge. He also pointed out the directions to get up there. When he offered to come along so as to teach me, Min-ho declined his offer politely saying that I would be fine with him. We bade farewell as he went on his way.

We decided to head for the New Yellow since it was nearer to where we were standing. Approaching the slope, I saw many young children as well as other beginners (mainly ladies) like me who were accompanied either by their friends or the guides. Quite a number of them were actually on their butts on the snow. I guessed falling was part of the learning process...

We found a less crowded area which was flat and stopped to put on our skis. He helped me to step into the skis while he locked the latches on. On the other hand, he slipped into his pretty easily. Then he proceeded to teach me walking in my skis.

With the two long things underneath my feet, I felt more clumsy than a penguin. I stood there not knowing how to move at all. Unlike skates where you pushed the wheels forward and worried about falling because it was 'slippery', skis were completely different. The pushing technique still worked but I had to engage the help of the poles. We practised walking around until I was pretty comfortable to move about on my own.

Next, he taught me the basic skiing position which was bending the knees and leaning slightly just like how I had seen it on TV. Since the ground was flat, there was nothing much to practise on. Once he was assured that I had got the position correct, we moved slightly upwards where there was a gently slope. He demonstrated a couple of runs before allowing me to try it. Initially, I was pretty nervous about what was going to happen. But I sort of figured out that it worked somehow similar to skating except that instead of a V-shape, you had to keep them parallel.