On ice-skiing and feeling rather lost & disoriented (#projectBrno blog post)

[lproven]

This weekend just gone brought another of the now quite familiar “I am VERY far from home” moments. Back in February, a student in a suburb to the north of the city cancelled her lesson when I was already on the tram there. I decided to stay on and take a stroll by the lake, or rather, reservoir. It was a ghost-, erm, reservoir, mostly deserted,

Comments

[a_cubed]

Interesting post about the disconnect of the emigre. I don't often feel that strongly disconnected, but then I'd studied the language (and culture) of Japan for a number of years before moving here.

You might find Eva Hoffman's book "Lost in Translation" an interesting read (nothing to do with the Sophia Coppola film). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Hoffman

Could you learn to use lj-cut tags on long posts?

[lproven]

Thanks!

I didn't think anyone much used their actual friends view any more. You do? *Surprised*

I did study the culture and so on, but only trivially shallowly -- but then again, it's much more European, and indeed, more Westernised than many of the Slavs, I'm told. Czechoslovakia was the easternmost extreme of the European beer/wine belt, for instance -- east of here, and indeed north, it's vodka land. Do Not Want.

[vatine]

I suspect the snow cover on lakes is heavily dependent on "size" and "local geography". I'm used to most of the "not withing 5-10 metres of shore" of Lake Mäaren being essentially snow-free simply from low-level insistent wind transporting the snow shorewards, leaving at most a very thin snow layer. Unless it's been a recent and heavy snow, of course.

You might want to consider trying long-distance skates, they're slightly less prone to "falling over" than either figure-skating or hockey skates are (the former have interestingly sharp bits to intentionally bite into the ice for some moves; the latter have a slight curve, to facilitate turning at speed). The long-distance skates tend to have very long and flat runners, for speed and stability.

And for everything that is precious to you, always carry a probe pole with you, the ice cover should always be considered of unknown (and probably too thin) thickness until you have disproven that fact (although with skis, you do exert lower ice pressure).

[lproven]

Interesting! Depends on the windiness. This is a sheltered country -- I've never felt what I consider strong winds, and anything more than a gentle breeze is very unusual. Probably comes from being so far from the sea, and the ring of mountains.

I'd not try ice skiing anywhere there weren't already hordes of people. I was nervous enough already and this is far outside my experience or skill zone as it is!

I suspect that my middle-ear bike-crash damage means I'll never be able to learn to skate, on ice or land. My sense of balance is badly damaged, and assymetrically across both ears. It took months of physio to be able to stand and walk without randomly falling -- I didn't notice and couldn't tell I was going over until the world started to go sideways.

[lproven]

Sounds amazing!

And thanks. :-)

[hobnobs]

>I found them in a box labelled “BOOTS”

I thought about labelling everything wrongly, and turning any unpacking into a treasure hunt. ;)

[lproven]

It already is! There are a few things I've still not found...

But I really should have spotted BOOTS versus BOOKS. It was the wrong shape and not heavy enough for books...