First Trip to the Hospital, Among Other Things

In the last couple of weeks I had managed to finish my igloo. It got fairly big. In the back I had a sort of bed area, to the left was an entertainment centre and to the right was my dungeon. The dungeon was never really completed, since I needed icicles to make the bars and my house was void of such things. Anyway, after it was completed I had a little igloo party with my friends. I invited some people over and we watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on my laptop. A day later, the igloo caved in from the heat, so it was a good thing we had the party when we did. Now it looks a bit like a house from the Flinstones in the back, and in the front it looks like a cave.
I also finally managed to go out with some of my Japanese friends, Haruna and Yuriho. We went to Sapporo eki and saw the movie Valentine’s Day. It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, and I actually recommend it. After the movie we went to the game centre, took puri kura and played a shooting game in the arcade.

A few days ago I went snowboarding with my host dad, my counselor and Dylan. It was Dylan and my host dad’s first time snowboarding, so they went to a different slope for a couple hours to take lessons while me, Demura san and her boyfriend Kevin stayed at Teine. I practiced my front edge a couple of times before they decided that I had mastered it and that I was ready to go down Paramount and try doing S-curves. So we did that. Paramount is a fairly straight and easy-going slope that runs down the back side of the mountain, with some steep parts. A good place to learn s-curves. The first couple of times I fell, but after about the fourth try I was doing it perfectly. Both Kevin and Demura san were amazed at how well I was doing - and this was just my third time. The snow on the mountain was very chunky and hard. It hadn’t snowed for a couple weeks. As I was going down the final stretch of Paramount, doing perfect turns and picking up some speed, I hit a very jagged patch of snow and went back on my heels, lost balance and fell backwards down the slope. The fall would have been fine if I hadn’t put my wrists down so hard to break my fall. But I did, and when I did I heard a definite crunch, then felt said crunch a few seconds later. After a little while, I tried to get up and continue down the dozen or so meters to the bottom of the hill, but I fell again, on my wrists again, and it hurt even more. This happened a third time until I finally just took off my bindings and walked the rest of the way down. Since everyone has asked me this, you’re probably wondering too; no, I did not cry. So, we got down to the bottom and went inside a little rest shack. Had some coffee and watched my right hand swell up as Demura san called for a paramedic guy. Said paramedic guy came and looked at my hand, then gave me a ride on the special paramedic skidoo (which was fun). Then we took the lift down to the bottom of the mountain. It didn’t really hurt at all by this point, so I was fine. When we got to the bottom he put my forearm in a splint and I was free to go. Dylan and my host dad had finished their lesson and were waiting for me in the main building of the ski hill.

So the snowboarding day finished pretty early, sadly. We decided to get lunch. Off to Jimmy Browns! I love that place. It has the best almond cappucinos and BLTs that I’ve ever had. We spent maybe two hours in the café, talking about random stuff and having a pretty good time. After dessert we decided it was time to take me to the hospital. At the hospital, I got some xrays done on both wrists, and was sent home in a better splint. They suspected it was just a sprain, but since there are so many bones in the hand they couldn’t be sure that I didn’t break or fracture anything.

So today I went to another hospital again after school and got some more xrays. The doctor was concerned about a certain bone near my thumb, but couldn’t see very much from the xrays. He wanted me to get an MRI. Yay! My first MRI! So, we went to lunch before my appointment to kill the time. They have special new MRIs now. Instead of a long scary tunnel of darkness, it’s just a large cylindrical thing that they move over the part of your body that they want to do the MRI on. It took about 40 minutes, I’m not quite sure. I fell asleep for most of it. Afterwards, they ruled out the possibility of a fracture, but did discover that I had bruised the end of one of the bones in my forearm. I can’t remember it’s name. The bigger one, closest to the thumb area. So they put my wrist in a cast, and it takes a very long time to type on my computer.

Oh, another noteworthy thing before I finish. The day after the snowboarding incident, I was waiting for a friend in Odori eki and had a very long and interesting conversation with some Mormon missionaries. One was from America, and the other from Newzealand. Surprisingly good looking guys, too. The one I talked to the most was named Eric (USA), and the other one was Danny (NZ). They have been living in Japan for several years, and everyday they wander around the Odori area and just talk to people. Spreading their Word. That kind of thing. We actually didn’t talk about religion at all until about five minutes before I met my friend. They didn’t seem at all upset by the fact that I’m very non-religious, and they didn’t try to convert me. I did learn some interesting things about Mormonism, like how it was started and such. I even got the number of one of them, though I’ll never call him. You know, my fear of talking on phones. It was fun though. And I guess that’s it for a little while. I’m going to go concentrate on healing my wrist now.