Hot water, Humongous Trees & San Fantastic-isco

It took me a while to write this…it seems holidays are harder to report as one is far too busy being on holiday than one would be in a working, “serious” environment. I have begun several attempts but then I have fallen asleep in the Irish sun or been called to other frivolities or been summoned by the presence of a still guitar, beckoning me to play it. “You can do this later, Mary, later, later.” It is getting onto almost a month of “laters” as doing nothing slowly seems to breed doing nothing even slower and for now I am trying to revel in it. We all exist in many modes, I am very good at existing in that of presto and now I am floating in adagio and yes, it is working.

So I left Hood River. Willing and unwillingly I was driven away to the promise of more beautiful things but my heart felt as if it was slowly breaking, leaving a place before I was ready, while my heart was still firmly rooted in the people I had met and come to love in this beautiful American town.

And I was tired. I was tired for living the life I had lived for 5 months, rushing, waking up early, meeting, greeting, making money, trying to make more money, making plans, snowboarding and hiding from the cold. So I slept. On a road trip to some delicious hot springs I was allowed to sleep while my companion drove me to paradise. There we found a forest, some mountains and some hot springs. Magic pools, filled with magnificently bright coloured water, we found a little place to camp and eat and spent two days soaking in this magnificent paradise. I am not very good at soaking being my only activity but for then, that was good, good for me to soak and to digest the last part of my life. We made some glorious food, and for the first time we felt spring, I was barefoot and I had shorts on my glowing white legs. And the following day I lay in the hot springs enjoying the sun on my body while I suddenly realized that snow was falling. The term “monkey’s wedding” seems foreign to Americans (when it is sunny and rainy at the same time) and I have continually asked whose wedding it is when it snows and is sunny at the same time? I have decided it is the wedding of the elk, the snow falling with the sun streaming on it is a regal scene, some great powerful animal is getting married for powerful thing is happening.

We continued on our journey down the coast into California and the redwoods. I love trees, I have always loved trees. But to be in the presence and to love a tree when you are standing next to something great as the Redwoods is something else. It was as if all my strength or stature I have ever felt was diminished, I had become tiny and these majestic trees let me feel my sweet insignificance. I felt like a pixie, playing on the trees, walking along them, on them, touching them, feeling the power of age, of life.

I met up with another friend in Coos Bay named Sonja and we headed down to the fabulous city of San Francisco. I had booked a flight out of San Francisco for the express purpose of forcing myself to go there as I had heard it was comparable to my dear city of Cape Town. My intention was clear, I wanted to go there and say, “Sure it’s cool but you should see Cape Town.” But well. I was more than astounded at the magnificent beauty and freedom this city offers. It is a bicycling city, bikes are taken on the train, there are nice bike routes and bike lanes and cars take care to stop for bikes and you cycle along like the king of the road, king of the city (Ok, one of many, many kings).

We stayed in the old Spanish district called the Mission which is littered with fabulous Hispanic murals and “trendy” people. It’s a city of course so everyone chooses their subculture and sticks in it but it’s also a place where everything goes. The gay district (Castro) is very fun to watch all the outfits there and one feels that in San Francisco life is easy forever. We were taken through the city, over the golden gate bridge to, ah, some other place by the water, over bicycle routes all the way, forests and ocean, water and trees, prettiness, and more prettiness, like Cape Town, you are in a city but there is enough beauty around for you to breath, to be, to feel on top of the world and within and without it all. We took the ferry back to the Mission(yes you can take your bicycle on the ferry) and tired out, we passed out, a little tanned and joyful with the day.

Maciek (our fabulous host) told us that sunny Sundays was the day for Dolores Park and so, armed with cheese, bread and wine we went to the Sunday hub of the city. People were protesting on one side of the park against the war (although everyone in San Francisco agrees so everyone just got riled up together) and the other side of the park there were people simply picnicking it up. People dressed in funny costumes for birthday parties, people practicing poi (fire spinning) and a whole bunch of people had set up a slack line. So I made friends with the slack line guys and I tried to learn how to walk across it with some success. Some of them did this every week and were learning to dance across it, juggle and spin balls. An Australian who was very good at juggling on the slack line invited me to go climbing with him that evening and so, very sunburnt and tired, I scaled some walls then went home to another fabulous supper and a comfy couch.

The next day I ambled alone as people had things like work to attend to and I went to visit the mother of a couchsurfer I once met in Cape Town. He promised me fabulous things about his mother and I wasn’t disappointed. Immediately she made me a heavenly sandwich for lunch with some tea and took me on a bike ride around the Berkley Marina. She must be in her 70s but she doesn’t own a car and cycling is her only mode of transport, to shop, to visit people and go to her ballet lessons. Fabulous, I enjoyed her spirit greatly and then returned to dear San Francisco to have dinner with my new Australian friend. The next day passed with lots of admin-y stuff, a lovely sunset walk and view of the magnificent city, some Mexican food (cheap cheap yum Mexican food) and I flew off, away from San Francisco, the Redwoods, Mexican Food, Hood River, Snowboarding to the green green green fields full of cows and sheep that is this ridiculous country of Ireland.

Straddling Seattle, baddest Bachelor and faring well

The last couple of days was a weird sort of torture, i had lost all zest for being a liftie and i tried some final doubles to push through the end of work and subsequently my 3 months holiday. Looking back at it, 2 weeks later, it was the doubles that were making me crazy and I could do it again now but then it was only a strange sort of delirious mood that pushed me through right to the end. So

It was time to explore.

On my last day of work, myself and 4 friends jumped into two cars and made our way to Seattle. (So close to Canada, i wanted to just hop into canada at a whim -oh terrible visas, why do you keep me from crossing joined land?)

Ah Crystal mountain. steep steep mountain. Only when i got there did i realize how gentle dear Mount Hood was. The powder was deep, the back bowl was exquisite, we hiked further up and got new lines. Magic.

The next day we found our way to that of Stephen's Pass (ski exchange again is heavenly- we saved a good $63 and $79 - there are definite perks to our minimum wage). While Crystal had been misty and overcast, Stephen's pass rolled up clear and sunny. How can i really describe what some days are on a mountain with a sliding vehicle under your feet? We were exstatic, riding in a hoody we hiked further up the mountain in the sunlight, At the top we threw off our top gear and relished in the sunlight. A ski patroller walked up at that point to see 5 topless people on top of the mountain revelling in the magic around them, he smiled and said "well now i've seen everything" as he conceded to take our photo and then take his own personal photo to show off to other people during his day. It was St Patrick's day, i called a St Patrick's day greeting to some lift attendents having a Braai on a balcony and I think they thought I was Irish with all the crazy hand gestures I saw behind me as i descended off the lift.

So yes, St Patrick's day was upon us and i got excited about dancing in green and soaking in general revelry in Seattle. I wore my green jeans and pigtails, wrapped some green ribbon around a friend's beard and we headed to some promising looking street. Well the first place (Named the Dubliner like my dear Cape Town Irish bar) asked us for 6 dollars to enter which we pronounced as ludicrous and continued to another bar who requested an unholy 8 dollars and on our third strike they laid down a whopping request of 12 dollars. Somewhat totally dissatisfied we decided to find the gasworks park of seattle which overlooked the water, buy a box of wine and dance to some Irish music which my green ribbon bearded friend had on his phone.

so we bought the wine, tried some unsuccesful dumpster diving outside a bakery and sang merrily alng the way to the gasworks park, looking at the space needle, Seattle's symbol which i recognised from Frasier and on the left across the water my friend pointed out the house where the guy in "Sleepless in Seattle" "lived" and we were actually in the park where the "10 things I hate about you" paintball fight was. This is all irrelevant information to anyone who has not watched these shows but honestly (and i suppose this is somewhat embarassing) when i thougth about Seattle i knew it was rainy and that Frasier lived here and i was pleased to find out that one of my favourite movies "Ten things I hate about you" was filmed there. Also i saw the famous troll which the characters climbed on on some date that they had had. I am supposed to care about the troll for the troll's sake, and it is cool, but when i went back to Hood River and watched the movie again I was more exicted that the troll was in the movie than merely that it exists. It is strange how movies really do skewer our perceptions of things.

So Jay (my green bearded friend but not green bearded anymore) bought a monkey (not a real one alas) and we took the monkey around Seattle the next day and took pictures of it with various items which amused us all greatly. Later when we arrived at this rad farmers market with the name of Pike Place market centre in the city and we met Miss Teen Washington and Miss Washington herself we were further pleased to hand the monkey to both of them and take photos with ourselves, the monkey and the beauty queens. They were pelased with my accent and I was pleased they held the monkey and quite simply, it was a pleasure all round. Another interesting thing that was happening at this market at the time (the real reason why both Miss Washington's presence was there) is that this market was welcoming their famed Rachel the metallic piggy bank back from her absence. Rachel had been brutally injured in a road accident and now she was fixed and was being restored to her orginal station at the market. It was all very exciting and Rachel the giant piggy bank made alot of money as people scurried to put money in her money slot so that they could be in full view of all the media and the important people (like the Miss Washington's and ourselves) who were around. I enjoyed the hullabaloo and for a second indulged in the possibility of making a mettalic piggy bank suite so i could reap the benefits of Rachel's return but i suppose the Mary fund may not be as important as the fund that Rachel's benvolence goes to (though it should be).

SO the party continued ... I returned to Hood River, thanked my friends for their merriness all round and a day later was off, back to Bend for another heavenly trip to Bend, and Bachelor mountain. Now the first time I got to ride Bachelor i was so excited and amazed by the amount of snow inbetween the trees and all the frolicking to be had. But the second time in Bachelor, was literally the one of the most beauitful experiences of my snowbaording lifetime so far. We rode for 2 days, with the first day being vaguely dismal. Visibility was near none, at the top of every chair the first few minutes was a somewhat blind experience where i simply hoped i was not going to fall down some sort of steep cliff because there was no way from telling bettween cliff, flat snow or tree. We did not ride for long and when we went home (well, to the place we were staying) we were pleased to be there.

But the next day, 9and i am sorry to harp on about snowboarding so much but i mean it this time) was probably the maddest baddest truly, raddest riding day of my life. Bachelor (as said previously) is a mountain that is known for a somewhat snobby management and somewhat snobby clientale. Thus, many lifts are closed on days when they don't need to be closed as the mountain does not care to keep lifts running when there are not enough people riding the mountain to make it worth their while. Furthermore, they have this chairlift called the Summit. As one can imagine this chairlift takes you to literally the top of this awesome mountain and if you have further energy one can hike to the very very summit of the summit (about 10 minute walk from the top of the chairlift) and ski over the backside to the lowest part of the mountain. I have never seen or indulged in such beauty, simply, all to myself. It was sunny, it was clear, the summit chairlift for once was open and the mountain was free to those who cared to hike a little and find the fresh lines and gorgeous trees on the other side. I cannot even begin to describe the feeling i had riding in this place, with barely anyone around, the trees, the snow, the far off mountains, the colours of pure madness. but i know it's moments like this which attach themselves to my mind, where i will always come back to these adventures under my feet, in my dreams, in my reality- the peace of real flight.

We left Bend, and i navigated my final week in Hood River. Goodbyes and goodbyes and "Oh i thought you were gone" and "Oh i heard you were leaving" and "What. aren't you working tomorrow?" and lots of confusion and some people being sad and other people who i just didn't want to be sad around and oh. goodbyes. And i snowboarded and finally got my 180 jump down, rode it out YES (yes i should have done this ages ago but i can be very ungutsy when i know the fall can bring grave injury). Went on a rafting trip (cold, early Spring water) jumped in the Hood River itself (FINALLY), had a vaguely raucous farewell party and started smelling and seeing the unfolding of Spring all around me.

"Ah," they told me, "the Winter may be great but you have not seen anything if you have not seen Hood River in summer, why can't you stay? What? What does Visa mean? you mean you can't stay here forever?" They didn't understand and i didn't either, it is hard to leave a place before you are truly ready

Some somewhat sad and maybe a touch tearful goodbyes later i jumped in a car away from Hood River to continue another pretty trip of more beautiful things, my heart gently breaking and simultaneoulsy excited for what is more to come.

Bending round some roads, Bending through more trees

only after we had left the mountain and were driving for some time did i realize how ridiculously long it had been since i had been on a road besides the one the brings me from home to the mountain and from the mountain back to home. work-home-home-work-work -work....The trees were closer on both sides, the colours was different and soon we were wooshed into pseudo dessert land. Out of the lush forresty colours of hte gorge and into a dry arid land of rocks and dry shrubs. I felt myself breathing again, finally getting away, finally seeing something new.

My partner in crime, Cale, decided that we would take the scenic route through the Indian reservation, a very strange part of non-America within America which, when i have described to Americans how Lesotho is a country inside of South Africa they liken it to the Indian reservations. Which is not a comparison at all as these pleaces are not countries just really strange delapitated areas which no cares about. They are not centralised or governed and Americans can pass in and out of them as they please. When i entered it i immediately felt that i had descended into the Eastern Cape, goats and cows were hanging out on the roads, fences were broken, houses were falling over. In the dessert-y landscape, all dry and uncared for, my mind was transported back to home and similarily fascinated to see the extent to which homes and gardens were littered and uncared for. The drive was eerily unpeopled, just broken houses and animals and (for once) not a sinlge McDonalds sign in sight.

We have this great system at our mountain called ski exchange where we can ride a bunch of neighbouring mountains for free. So myself and my buddy Cale got hold of two exchange letters and took a trip 2 hours away to the town of Bend so we could ski Hoodoo and Mount Bachelor. Bend is a apparently a bigger Hood River, but I saw way too many McDonalds signs to truly appreciate any sort of similarity between the places. However, it didn't really matter as i judge most places on the homes of the people i experience and we entered the house of Cale's friend's familys and immediately greeted with warmth. Such a friendly house full of interesting things like wooden dragons hanging from the bathroom ceiling, architecture plans, tjembe drums, guitars, shakers, cartoons of obese waiters and pottery, lots of pottery. They were potters and they loved to feed and had made some Sangria for our arrival. We got very merry over spaghetti and we played some drums and were told that, as we were snowboarders, that they had lots of snowbaord videos for us to watch. As our lives revolve around snowboarding and the wealth of snowboarding videos, we had to politely decline the suggestion a couple of many times.

The next day we woke up to the offer of bagels and smoothies for breakfast and were soon on our way to the mountain of Hoodoo. Hoodoo is a very small hill, and it was a Monday and we were, pretty much, the only people there (I think we counted 6 other people at one point but they could have been employees). The whole mountain was ours and we sped up and down in a silly fashion, drinking in the mad rock cliffs from the view at the top on the mountain next door. We came to this mountain as Cale had been working here for 7 years and when i saw some employees riding down the mountain on snowbikes I asked him if it was possible to "get us in there" as it were. After a free drink at the bar (it's good to know peopel) the bartender took us out on the snowbikes warning us that the guy he took before us had dropped the bike off the chairlift (the bike costs about $4000 = R28000) so we better not do the same. I gripped onto the heavy thing tightly and soon was sliding down the snbow on a bicycle sled contraption, going faster and faster and trying to figure out how to stop a bicycle that has no breaks and no pedals. The trick is to do a tight stop with the handlebars to either side depending on your direction and you have to lean your body accordingly. At one point i was really excited because i was doing some amazing stops and then all of a sudden i put some soul into one of my stops and i was flying over the handlebars, through the falling snow and onto the snow below. Luckily snow is alot softer than gravel, and it hurt, but it didn't HURT and i laughed a little and continued down the hill. new experience= YAY

The snowbiking bartender with the name of Trampis invited us to stay at his house in Bend that evening and after a visit to the a tea room (apparently the local hipster hangout of high schoolers - we saw a few 15 year olds on dates) drank some lovely chai tea and found oursleves in another fabulous house. This house was an explosion of textures and colours. Every piece of the wall you didn't just want to look at, you also wanted to touch, full of dark rich colours, quotes, clouds with hidden messages, it was an exploratory house, where things were forever still to be discovered on further inspection. We wined and dined and went on a dark forest walk to escort a friend home, went to sleep, woke up early, thanked our lovely hosts (who thanked us back for some reason) and continued on our way.

So Mount Bachelor. according to people who work with me at Mt Hood, is comparable to Mt Hood but it is a snobby mountain, full of rich people and it's a terrible place to work. Well regardless of all the millions of things that people love to say, the moutain is stil fabulous and it was another ghost town day, we owned the mountain, with mad powder flourishing between the trees and our lines we rode in the morning were filled up with the falling snow by the afternoon. I don't think i have seen such an excellent snow day all season, we were ecstatic, in snowy trees, flying through, up down, finding air and overall, happiness.

I had been in a horrible mood the week before the trip, in a weird funk where i was not happy to be at work and counting down the days till i was done with it. I entered my last week of work in so much of a better mindset, loving the mountain again and enjoying my days. It could also do with being my last week but nothing like getting away from it all to be happy to be back with it all.

And i woke up this morning with the intention of going to work and then realizing i'd overslept f0r the second time all season and considering it was optional work today, it really doesn't matter

Hood River is sunny and lovely and I'm going to enjoy my day, my one day fo work tomorrow and then 2 and half months of glroious unemployment.

Too much work (too much play)

and i look around and another more-than-a-month has passed, the weather has changed and the world looks like a new place. Today the biggest, wettest snowflakes i have ever seen are streaming from the sky in mesmerizing torrents. It is a perfect excuse to do nothing except watch the beauty and eat lots of food. It also started snowing on the mountain again. We cried with the rain in January and now we rejoice with the powdery perfection lying on the mountain daily. It is lighter, I awake with the light and watch gentle sunrises on the bus and see the sunset after I am home. Light is good. Light is light.

I turned a year older (well a day older but a year when i tell people) and yes i am displeased about being 23. I feel like at this age there is a semblance of maturity and responsibility i am supposed to display. And occasionally i feel like i am up to this task BUT i . don't. want. to be. Sometimes i hear myself having sensible responsible thoughts, safe thoughts, sort of "stop and look before you jump over that" thoughts and i think "WHEN did this happen?" so yes, i am displeased but similarly excited because it is change and change is good.

Regardless of my displeasure of being 23, turning 23 was radical. i had an amazing birthday party. My friend Tim told me a few days before my brithday that he and a friend, Bailey were having a surprise birthday party for me. I was surprised when i was told i was to have a surprise but then, well, it's weird to know you are having a party and then you wonder if you should do anything like inviting people to your "surprise" party. Anyway, it worked out fine, rad people showed up, Tim had decorated his house with balloons and streamers and I got presents which consisted of a fake tattoos, 6 bottles of wine, a metal lizzard and a drawing of hippopotomi (and i don't think anyone could want anything more). It is amazing to have friends, people i did not know existed a few months ago turning into people who are so important now- I am so blessed. It was delectably raucous and we danced and did silly things and i tattooed anyone in my vicinity.

My biggest problem with time moving on, is that in moving on it was slipping away and it became apparent that I had to start thinking about what possible path i could take after this American stint. And the problem I had, have and will probably always have comes from the root of all evils. that is, money. If you have a bunch of money then there is the security that you could go somewhere, fail in finding a job or anything good and then move on somewhere else where prospects are more possible. But if you don't have money then figuring out the next step is pretty pivotal to whether it will be possible to even make a step after that.

So i hummed and haad and internetted and found a job on a cruise ship that promised a ridiculous (and i mean ridiculous) sum of money for waitressing for something like 6 months and going to all sorts of exciting continents. And my eyes lit up at the possibility of saving money and not having to worry so much in the future and then i realized that i would be stuck and i would be WAITRESSING.

I have tried waitressing before, in many different contexts, for many different time periods and most experiences has gotten me in a whole lot of trouble, repeated trouble littered with lots of tears. Remembering details in order and time is not my forte and the idea of doing this in an enclosed place for a couple if months with no quick escape route was mortifying me. So some worries later, I saw an email from a friend from Ireland and i thought, well, I want to go to Ireland. Work on an organic farm and go to Italy in June. The thought took route and i said goodbye to the buckets of money I could earn and to the caribbean and the idea of being warm again and decided Ireland it is.

But with the prospect of not obtaining any income for 2 and half months led me to realize that i need to definitely pick up some extra money right now where i am. So i started picking up a series of double shifts at the mountain. This is a good deal most of the time because i spend a good 2.5 hours a day on travel time to and from the mountain so if i spend that much travel time on 13 hours of work it is more worth it. So one week i picked up 3 doubles in a row (where i get home at 11pm and get up 5.45am) and a single shift but when i almost punched a friend of mine for being annoying i realized that too many doubles in a row is not a safe way to live your life, even if you are raking in more cash in less time, you are still never receiving any downtime to just sit on your couch or enough sleep time and it is precarious to relations with the world around you.

So now i am trying to complete 7 shifts a week and summon the energy on my 2 days off to do exciting things. But it is hard to do exciting things when you are exhausted. But not to worry, work is still a good pass time so it isn't simply pain and torment,. Yes there are days of monotony and mad cold but there are times when one does, literally, get paid to ski (well we aren't supposed to, but we are). The night lift attendants, for some reason have more people stationed on their lift in the evenings and so invariably people become obsolete and so one just takes turn to ride the mountain. I had to evenings where I was tag teaming with another liftie, I took half an hour to ride, then he took half an hour and we completed our shift in joyness. One of those nights i hired some skis and improved my skiing ability, somewhat out of control, getting paid to rent free skies and learn another silly mountain sport.

And yes snowboarding continues to be precarious. There's this section of the mountain called Private Reserve and it's full of cliffs and crazy terrain. To give you an idea, one of the sections of private reserve is called "S&R cliffs" which stands for "Search and Rescue cliffs". Anyway I made a proimise to myself that i would never go in there alone which i promptly broke one day and sooner or later i found myself sitting inbetwen two cliff drops with ice above and ice below and well, nowhere really to go unless i wanted to risk hurtling down onto some little trees. I sat there, somewhat amused at how i am so good at getting myself in sitautions and then i realized that my cellphone had reception and furthermore, i knew the extension for ski patrol as i phone it all the time for people at work. So i phoned them and explained my situation and the Ski patrol dispatcher was like "You work here right?" and i replied "Ummm... yes" (Lifties shouldn't be calling ski patrol for their own needs, that's just embaressing) and he said "You're that South African girl right?" and i knew tha t my accent had blown any semblance of cover i was trying to have and by the time the ski patroller had thrown a rope to me and helped my haul myself out of my cliffed-out status and i had made it back to the lift operations building all the managers were asking if i was alright because ski patrol "had to" phone lift operations to let them know what happened and who it was (of course). However i have never been officially rescued before and i enjoyed the experience and the trees were really pretty where i was waiting for them to be rescued.

I have 2 more weeks left working at this mountain and then new things await and hopefully I will be able to make it comfortably to Ireland to learn about beekeeping and I can eat millions of honey and live a sort of Winnie-the-Pooh esque life with the simple wisdom he displays.

In the words of Cake; "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps..."