Snowboarding & Amish Village

Yay I'm finally done uploading all the pictures!

For the umpteenth time, it's really late and it doesn't look like I'll be getting my nine hours of sleep again tonight. However I do want to get this post going while the memories are still fresh.

I had to say goodbye to my carpet flooring on Monday because my parents decided to change it to a wooden surface.

It's so odd to be walking on hardwood now. When I first moved here almost seven years ago, the carpeted floors took some getting used to. I had always imagined carpet to be the dirtier of the two surfaces. Over time though, it grew on me and I began to appreciate its insulation in the winter. However now that the floors are wooden, I can't help but miss the carpet and yet admire the new clean feeling at the same time.

This past Monday morning, Ash and I took off in the late morning after the blizzard was over and the roads were cleared.

We went to the Blue Mountain Ski Resort upon a friend's recommendation. The whole drive took about an hour or so, which wasn't too bad considering that we had to move slower than usual due to the icy roads.

We got there around 13:00 but because I was missing all sorts of snowboarding gear, we spent a lot of time gathering all of it, driving to a nearby store to get snowpants and ski goggles... By the time we got started, two hours had already gone by!

Ashley had already been snowboarding before and she's quite good enough to even do some things in the terrain park (with the special barriers to jump over). As for me, this was my very first time snowboarding and so she had to teach me all the fundamentals.

I lost count of how many times I'd fallen down, but I fell backwards twice and hit the back of my head. By the end of the third hour, my wrists and forearms were entirely sore from having to push myself off of the ground again and again.

We practiced on the bunny slope all through the late afternoon and eventually decided to rest when evening came.

Fortunately, we had packed a lunchbox of sushi and leftover Christmas ham to eat. We were absolutely starving by this time and Ashley bought us a little thing of fries too.

She liked the honey mustard and mayonnaise so much that she made her own mixture to dip sushi in. We tried our sushi dipped not only in honey mustard and mayonnaise, but also barbecue sauce and ketchup...

After dinner my body sort of shut down temporarily and I knocked out on the table.

When I woke up, we weren't quite ready to hit the slopes again so we took some silly pictures in the cafeteria.

Hehehe...

This was supposed to be our "Pennsylvania face". Not sure what hers signifies, but I was trying to be a deer in headlights.

Thanks to Ashley's repeated efforts, I'd learnt how to stop facing forward on the slope without falling over. She also tried to teach me how to stop facing backwards but I was just too sore to do much by that point.

We left the place feeling high from snowboarding. Ashley had her fun up on the difficult terrain park and managed to "get her groove back" after a year of not hitting the slopes so in all, it was a fruitful day for the both of us.

Had to stop for hot chocolate on the way back at Wawa- the best convenience store ever!

We noticed the security tv and decided to take pictures of it. Obviously the cashiers and the other customers were looking at us like we were crazy. Or maybe they really wanted to take a picture of themselves on the security TV too but didn't want to look silly. Who knows?

After we left the first Wawa, I took a sip of my hot chocolate and realised that because that machine was out of hot chocolate, I'd filled my bottle up with warm water instead! Disappointed, I drove to the next Wawa to get a refill. Turns out that the hot chocolate was gone there too, but someone refilled it for us so it was fine.

And of course, we had to take another security camera picture.

Finally got home two hours later even though the drive seemed a lot faster on the way back than on the way there. I think it's because we spent so much time playing around in the two Wawas that it took us two hours instead of less than an hour to get home.

Woke up the next morning on the 28th December and could barely lift my head because my entire neck was sooooo sore! Not only that, but my arms, back, and calves felt like lead. Ashley said this was pretty normal for a first time snowboard experience, but all it did was get worse throughout the day.

Drove to get Khadeen from her brother's house this afternoon so that we could all visit the Amish Village in Ronks, Pennsylvania together.

For some reason, the drive there was brutally long. Not just because of the somewhat icy roads and bad traffic in places. My CD player had died and now makes a horrible stuttering sound again and again. It's really irritating and quite drove me up the wall! The only thing we could really listen to was the FM radio and there wasn't much to listen to since you don't get much good reception deep in the heart of Pennsylvanian farmland.

After what seemed like a million years and an eternity of loud stuttering stereos, we arrived at our destination.

The guided tour of the Amish Village is a dollar cheaper in the winter, but we didn't feel like we got any sort of value for our money this time. We got there almost an hour before it was supposed to close so the tour guides were rushing through the tour and trying to get us to leave as soon as possible so they could close shop and go home.

I'd been through this tour before a few times so I could tell that this lady was just skipping through a lot of things and not giving us the full thing. They usually show us the main room, the kitchen, the bedrooms and the basement. This time, they actually skipped the basement which was a little shady to be honest.

The Amish people are descendents of persecuted Christians, predominantly from parts of Germany who fled to America so that they could live their simple lives in peace. They are known as the "simple people" because they do not use electricity or most modern technology. This is a wood-burning stove which they use instead of the familiar gas stoves in our kitchens.

This lamp operates on propane gas and is on a little cabinet which can be wheeled around the room for light.

Instead of a sewing machine which plugs into the wall, they use foot-operated sewing machines like these. I bet this one's worth a lot of money. It's practically an antique! The Amish make all their own clothes which look like they came right out of the 16th-17th century.

This iron runs on gas as well.

I always enjoy the Amish tours because I learn something new and inspiring each time I go. This time, I was struck freshly by the fact that the Amish hold church services in each other's homes every other Sunday instead of in a church building. They will draw up to the selected house in their horse and buggy with benches and line them up in the main room for the assembly of men on one side and women on the other side.

How fun! This sounds similar to Acts 2:44-47: "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

The only difference is, I'm not sure they have "everything in common" because they do have their own belongings. They did not meet everyday and I'm not sure that saved persons are added to the Amish community on a daily basis. I'd love to live with an Amish family if only for a short period of time, just to see what it's really like.

The drive home was brutal. I felt like sleeping the whole entire way and the stuttering of the stereo just got louder and longer each time.

To be honest, although it didn't seem like we did much today, I feel quite burnt out. Just being around other people burns me out. Does that make sense? Maybe because my body is completely sore from snowboarding and I didn't get much sleep last night either. I don't know. All I know is, I'm feeling really tired, hungry and thirsty tonight. I need time alone with myself, with God. Desperately!

I really need to pray about tomorrow; or rather, looking at the time now (it's 01:23), today. I was just telling my dad this morning that increasingly, I feel as if I couldn't function without prayer. From the simplest smallest things like finding parking, to the bigger things like being nice when I don't feel like being nice at all. For all things, prayer is just the first and most important step I have to take. Without it, nothing ever seems to go right. Without God, nothing can ever be right!

Ok I'm gonna go now.