Ice Skating (Diary Entry #1)

Have you ever seen the movie "Ice Princess?" I have and it gave me a really false view of what Ice Skating would be like. Last week, a lady named Jessica asked me and Kari (my sister) to come Ice Skating with her and her daughter, Tiffany (same name with me - automatically cool).  I got SUPER excited, seeing as this was my first time ice skating since Ireland when I was like 8 or 9. I didn't remember the falling over and the clinging to the wall. I just imagined myself as an Ice Princess.

Anyway, we go to this ice skating place which was really cool, but was basically just a rice field filled with ice. Then we go into this tent to get our Ice Skating shoes. So this guy looks at my feet and pulls out a size 250 (in Korean size) which I know is too small for me. I start to object, but then Kari points out that they probably aren't going to have a bigger size because Koreans have small feet. So I start to put them on and my foot won't even go half way in. I tell the guy that they are too small and Jessica translates it to him. He shakes his head and then comes over, loosens the shoes a LOT, stuffs my foot inside and then tightens them back up. Now it is squeezing my foot, but I remember from when I was 8 that it is supposed to be tight, so I just go out with these uncomfortable skates on. The whole time we are walking over to the rink I have to balance on Jessica and her husband because I cannot stand up at all. Then we go down and there is this little hill that we have to go down to get to the ice. I can't move and I have to be half carried down this hill and as soon as I hit the ice I slide and end up on my butt. Then I can't get up and have to be lifted by Jessica's husband. It was so EMBARRASSING. Then I get on the ice, still unable to move out of the fear that I am going to fall and Jessica brings me this chair. I then realize that I am supposed to use the chair as like a "walker."

It was actually pretty helpful because I didn't feel like I was falling over. Some of the time I actually sat in the chair and pulled myself along with the bottom of the skates- that was probably the easiest thing I did all day. Anyway I go on like this for like an hour or two and then we go inside the tent for lunch. Lunch is spicy ramyun  and a Korean version of Oreo cookies. Delicious!

 This is when I take off my uncomfortable shoes to find a GIANT blister on one of my feet. That is when I DEMAND bigger shoes and it turns out that they have a pair that fits me perfectly. Then  we go out again and I am still VERY ungraceful, BUT I can walk on the ice with no chair and I can skate FINE with the chair. It was SO much better!

Picture: Jessica holding up her daughter Tiffany. Me and my sister standing together and holding up the two fingers. This is with my boots on - no ice skates because so I can stand up normally.

Comment. Love me. Go Ice skating.