I remember when I was a couple of years older than Lydia I came to the conclusion that the chain link fence in the All Souls School playground would be a perfect to stop a bike. I tested this theory by riding head on into the fence. It turned out there are less painful ways to stop a bike.
Aidan and Lydia are on winter break which lasts about five weeks here. This means they are home all day and since it is quite cold outside they can’t get out and play. Yang and I made an effort – my part was to complain – to get the kids into more winter sports activities. Last week we started them on skating and this week we took them skiing.
The ski resort is about an hour outside of Beijing, a place called Nanshan. Since it doesn’t snow much here and not at all this winter they make their own snow leaving a snow oasis on a backdrop of dry hills. We got there maybe around 10am and got an instructor for Aidan and Lydia (Elisa did not make the trip). This being the second time I’ve skied and the first time in 10 years, I went for the bunny slope. Yang has been skiing every week for the past five with friends and kept me company for my first few runs. I did better than I expected and managed to stay upright most of the time although looking quite silly I’m sure. Lydia begged off of lessons about half way through saying she was tired and indeed she did look tired. After lunch we hit the slopes again, this time with the kids. Lydia and Aidan were natural on skis, sliding down without fear. We tried the first bunny slope together and then the slightly more difficult one. The four of us flew down without at hitch with Aidan counting down “4 3 2 1 go!”.
Then came the interesting part. We took a lift to a higher part of the mountain where Yang said there was a flat path down the backside. The four of us got up there and Aidan and Yang were the first to head down the slope while Lydia and I were still struggling to make our way from the lift to the the beginning of the slope. Lydia was making her way bumping into a snow boarder and who was not so happy at first until Lydia charmed him with her Chinese. Then the next thing I knew Lydia turned her skis and she was off down the slope; I quickly turned mine and followed. The slope was steeper at the than the other slopes and Lydia was going fast and approaching a left turn. It then became clear she did not know how to turn – the teacher had taught Aidan after she left the morning session – and was going to crash into the mesh net which surrounded the run. She slammed into it and immediately started wailing. I also don’t know how to turn or for that matter stop so I crashed myself, unbinded my skis and walked over to her. The net had done it’s job and outside of a welt on her cheekbone she was fine but very, very scared. We gathered our stuff and walked down to a flat section of the slope and got back onto our skis. I told Lydia to go very slow and if she was going to hit something for her to just fall on her butt first. When we came to the next turn she did exactly that.
When we got to the bottom of the slope Lydia said something that surprised me. She wanted to go back up the same slope and ski it again. I certainly could not watch her slide into the fence again so I told her no, we would keep to the bunny slopes until she (and I) learned how to turn. She protested a bit but then was good with it and we skied for another hour until it was time to hit the coffee shop with the rest of the troops.
On our way back Lydia and Aidan fell asleep in the car and when I took a picture a British friend who joined us said “mission complete”. Indeed. Later, Lydia woke up and had the most loving look for Aidan and I asked her to pose for a crazy look at well.
