七転び八起き

I went skiing for the first time today with my school. (Northern Japan is lucky enough to have skiing as a required P.E. activity) It turns out that skiing is much different from snowboarding, at least that's what the bruises are telling me.

A few weeks ago, our P.E. teachers split us into groups based on level of ability.
This next part is important:
There are 5 groups, A through E. A being the "I skied out of the womb" group, and E the "We really don't belong here" group. (Keep in mind that most people don't even know group E is in existence) My teacher put me in D group, thinking I would be okay since I know how to board.

I knew I had a problem when I slipped and fell down the first tiny hill leading from the parking lot into the ski area.

I thought I would be okay though because D group was supposed to be for beginners. However, only 5 minutes into the lesson the instructor was already ushering us onto the ski lift. (Which I found to be the only thing easier on skis than a board; you don't even have to pray before dismounting.)
The instructor had me go first down the slope behind her, which I thought was a terrible idea. I fell half-way down and since I didn't yet know how to stop or get back up I slid down the rest of the hill in this really odd, awkward squatting position. The rest of the way down she made me go first so she could keep an eye on me. At some points she would even grab my skis and pull me along which resulted in her falling on top of me several times.  I'm pretty sure she was frustrated to have someone like me in her group. I could tell that the rest of my group could have gone at a faster pace too. When I fell, even though I would laugh at myself, they would all look really concerned and say things like poor thing, is she okay?, etc.

As you can probably tell, I'm making lots of friends at this point.

Needless to say, after about an hour and a half I was quickly demoted to E group.
E group only had 4 members, but 2 instructors. One of the girls said something about being half blind. I'm really hoping that was a joke.
They had just started the ski lift, so I felt like a pro. One of the instructors was actually my P.E. teacher, who turned out to be infinitely helpful and a lot more patient. I fell a lot less and even managed to get down the steep ending slope by myself. (Mostly)
It took me about 15 minutes while other groups zipped past in seconds, but I did it and all my bones are intact.

I'm calling it a success.
I love E group.