Bumped my head, scraped my face, and sprained my ankle

Being a first-time skier has many advantages. People help you put on your ski boots, no matter how many times you undo them to get your pants just right; if you fall down on the bunny hill, somebody will help you up; the ski lift attendants are forgiving if you go the wrong way when getting off; and most importantly, you can make a total ass of yourself by doing something as simple as trying to get your lift pass to make the turnstile work.

I did all of these things and then some. Kyle gave me some quick and dirty lessons on how to go down hill and turn, but I failed to learn how to stop quickly, which would become a major disadvantage later. After a couple hours on the bunny hill, Kyle encouraged me to try the steeper one.

"The view is great from up there," he said. My curiosity peaked and I agreed to go. As the second lift whisked us away, I had a moment of doubt, but I decided to ignore it.

Even though I had itty-bitty nightmares of my lift seat breaking off the half-inch cable and plummeting into the snow and pine trees below, it was a cool ride. I looked behind me briefly and saw the whole of Erzurum and the low flat valley it inhabits. In the distance were more mountains, equally as white as the ones we were on. It's so cool how far the human eye can see when given the opportunity. I made a mental note to bring my camera up here before leaving.

And the skiing commenced. At first the trail was really wide, and Kyle told me to just follow him and everything would be fine. Before I could make any significant distance, I found myself going way too fast for my own good. I panicked, forgot to turn, and crashed right into a baby pine tree. One of my skis fell off and I had one hell of a time trying to get it back on. I felt like giving up right there and then, but there was no other choice but to continue. I couldn't "walk" back, sideways up the hill, to take the ski lift down and there was no way I was gonna face the embarrassing walk down the hill, so I persevered. I managed a hairpin turn and a super fast straight path for a bit. The latter was the coolest because I got to ski on virgin snow! It was exhilarating.

Then came the home stretch before the bunny hill. It was a little steeper than the first stretch and in the shadows of the mountain. Halfway down, I started to go too fast again, and tried to remember Kyle's words of not panicking, because that is when you freeze up and forget what to do. It worked for a bit, but then I sped up and totally freaked out. Next thing I knew, I was sliding down the hill face first. Images of blood and broken bones passed through my mind as I felt my head bang around and my legs flopped as much as my skis would let them.

Then I stopped.

I was on all fours. My hair hung in my face. I was breathing heavily. My face was hot. My left ankle hurt a little, but I didn't break any bones.

"That was spectacular!" Kyle beamed. "Here are your glasses." I looked around and saw the remnants of the Nicole-explosion scattered about. My left ski, my cap, my ski poles, my glasses. I hugged the cold snow, not thrilled about going the rest of the way down. Eventually I got up and skied down the rest of the hill. I was shaking now, and definitely needed a break, so we headed to Chalet Polan.

Back in the Chalet, I briefly checked out my face, which was burning by this time, and saw that no damage had been done. Thankfully snow is soft, so I didn't acquire any scrapes or cuts. Kyle was still eager to get some more skiing in, so we agreed to stay a couple more hours. Since my clothes were wet, I decided to also get some more time in on the slopes before my body temperature cooled, but as I walking to the lift I could feel my ankle speaking to me. Sure enough, on my first post-wipe-out run, I wiped out again, but this time I lost both my skis! This was a sign from the universe, encouraging me to quit for the day, so I headed back to the chalet and iced my ankle. Afterwards I went back to the tippy-top and took some photos. I didn't dare ski down this time, but took the lift down instead.

It was bitter cold on that lift, but I swear, coming down slowly like that, floating above the trees and other skiers, is like descending from heaven. If I had had wings, I would have been an angel. It was breathtaking.

Erzurum itself is a pretty nice place. Even the coal cloud hanging over it isn't overtly noticable between all the buildings, unlike Trabzon. The people are friendly and helpful when we ask for directions. They either take us there or give us enough directions to memorize and then instruct us to ask again. Last night, one man was so eager to help us that he changed direction of where he was headed and took us to his favorite restaurant. Then he called his brother in Denizli (southwestern Turkey) who had lived in the US for some time and had me speak with him. His brother wanted to talk with me more, so he gave me his email address.

The water here is simply amazing. You can drink the tap water because it comes directly from the mountains. I could drink gallons of it. The bread is also wonderful. It's a bit wider than in Trabzon and softer, but not in a WonderBread way. In a light and airy way. Anyway, it's really good, too.

Tomorrow we head back to Trabzon and hopefully we'll be able to get some sightseeing in before we leave with my bum ankle. There are several cool things here, one of them being the Ethnography museum. Yeehaw!