Well, I had more hair back then and more hair now. Anyway, I mention the pic because I'm not the image of your average snowboarder. More than usual a snowboarder looks like this


So you would sooner see a white guy, between 14 and 30, who grew up near a mountain on a slope with a board strapped to his feet than a 20-something black chick from a tropical island. But you know what I did it and I had the time of my life.

First of all, this is one of the things that is on my Bucket List, which is one of my pages. At the time I didn't have a Bucket List, but I had a strong desire to snowboard. It was one of the things I would think about and get an instant thrill.

This happened while I was doing a study abroad in Florence, Italy. I'm a funny bird, where as I might say I'm going to do something, then I chicken out, but then there are times when I make up my mind that I was going to do something. Whenever I made up my mind, I would move mountains to get it done. So I found a store in Florence that sold snow boarding clothes (still my favourite piece of clothing and I still have them). Then I looked up the nearest mountain and the snowboarding school on it. I made an appointment for lessons, got the schedule for the bus to the town.

The day of my first and only ski lesson, I woke up early and trudged to the bus station. I bought a ticket and off we went. I slept a little, read my book a little, but for the most part I just looked out the window and watched the landscape change from slightly chilly Florence to snowing mountain town.

I got off the bus and it was snowing, okay, I can handle this. So I made my way to the ski school and experienced what I had grown accustomed to in Italy. I stepped into the office and identified myself and everyone stared. Just great, they're not used to seeing a black person. Anyway, my instructor identified himself (may I add that he was cute, unfortunately, I convinced myself that he wouldn't be interested. Boy was I stupid, back then.)

So I followed my instructor to rent the snowboard and buy lift tickets and this is where I met dirty, old Italian man #2. He so happened to be the owner of the rental. At this point, I had developed the ability not to take on people treating my differently because of the colour of my skin and because I was so psyched to learn to snowboard I was so friendly and nice. So I ignored even the leery looks from the owner of the rental.

After finding a comfortable pair of boots and an appropriate board, we hit the slopes. We started with the basics where I'm edging down the slope with my board horizontal to the slope. I'm not going to lie, I fell a couple times and I laughed it off. Soon I was getting the hang of the basics and a couple times I ended up going down the slope veritically. Do you know how good it feels to do it well? To feel every ounce of your body controlling your descent and not falling? God, it felt fricking good.

Now here is why I called myself stupid girl earlier in the post. I had a certain amount of time for the lesson, and during it the instructor and I would be making small talk. Then he asked me if I had a boyfriend back in Florence, I don't remember what I said, but I did shut him down. What an idiot I was, here was a perfectly cute guy asking if I was available and I closed him out. Can you imagine all the possibilities, including free snowboarding lessons, ugh!

Anywho, after the lesson was over, I spent a couple more hours going up and down the hill. Here is the funny thing about snow boarding, you lug the board to the top of the hill. Strap that bad boy on your feet, wiggle up into standing position. Make your way down the hill, where you will plop down on your arse and take the board off. Make your way to the ski lift, hop on holding your board for dear life. Hop off and do it all over again. Trust me, it was worth it.

After I had enough, I had no more tickets for the lift and had snow squished in places it wasn't suppose to reach, I returned my board and boots to the rental. I paid my money and the owner being nice offered me a piece of his orange which I took, being the polite person I am. Then he started to make advances, I took that as my cue to make my exit.

I went to a little restaurant and had hot chocolate and a little something to eat. The unfortunate thing was snow got to my skin and into my bones, so I was in a state of euphoria from snowboarding and shivering like mad. I waited a bit for the bus then made my way back to Florence. Another funny thing about me, when I do something like that I don't really advertise. If someone asks, I'll tell them, but I'm content with knowing I did it and it's something I can think back on and get an instant rush.

Perhaps you can say, this is the first thing I ever accomplished on my Bucket List. The cool thing is I'm glad I went down memory lane because it really has me psyched up to do something else on my Bucket List. I wonder what that will be?