Blue Mountain requires you to submit a master form, which, of all things, requires each member of your group's name, age, weight, height, and shoe size. This is the conversation I have had with one girl the first time I was the organizer.
Girl: Ok, so it'll be me and 2 of my friends.
Me: Good, I will need your age, weight, height and shoe size.
[Pause]
Girl: You will need my what, what, what and what?
Me [thinking she had bad hearing]: Age, weig-
[Click]
It soon dawned on me that some girls really have a problem about disclosing their weight, shoe size and height to a guy they hardly know.
The resort is 2 hours north of Toronto, and we need a certain number - 20 - for the group discount. Skiing and brown people are usually foreign to each other, so no matter how rude some people can get, we can't casually dismiss people who could go. So when the above girl called back (eventually, after doing a background check on me I presume), I took down her information (given rather reluctantly with plenty of suggestions as to what we really do with the information).
Second year, I was bit smarter. Another girl.
Girl: Ok, so it'll be me, my boyfriend, and his sister.
Me: Good, I will need everyone's age, weight, height and shoe size.
[Pause]
Girl [in a strict tone]: Why?
Me [unsuccessfully trying to use some big words]: It's a required information I have to solicit for the master resort rental form.
Girl: Are you sure you need this information?
[pause as I digest her bluntness]
Me: Yes, if you want I can email you the rental form.
Girl: So now you want my MSN email as well.
Me [panicking]: Well, how else should you receive more information on the trip? Unless you give me your telephone number -
[Click]
This was not going well. She didn't call back.
By third year things were better, as people knew the drill by now. This year, since it was Esha who did all the information soliciting, I don't think she had any trouble.
Then ofcourse, there remains the challenge of getting Bengali people to show up at 6 am in the morning ...
Tags: Ski Trip BSA Blue Mountain
HAHAHA... another classic Mezba post. Keep it up :)
ReplyDeletehahaha mez...a truly remarkable post... the second one was hilarious...that girl has potential to be a desi lawyer... :)
ReplyDeleteIf you had asked a blonde, then she would have given you her date of birth, her phone number and all other vital info as well... :)
- Behbood
Well.... I don't know why would anyone ask for height, weight and age?? I think the white girls whom you guys may think a lot more understanding would walk away, too!
ReplyDeleteI would like to know the details about *why * you had to ask for height and weight. Even though our driver's license has them, I still would not feel comfortable sharing those info. I am just surprised because skiing here (US, at least in the west!) wouldn't make me share those info.
I wouldn't have any probelm with giving out phone number, email... those are simple stuff!
~just a desi (?) girl's opinion!
It's not just desi girls, girls as a whole :-) BSA ski trips always had lots of our non-Bengali friends joining in as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen we reserve rental equipment (skis, boots, poles, snowboards) for our group, we need to let Blue Mountain known in advance what equipment to reserve, so it's available for us when we get there.
Shoe sizes to reserve the proper boots, height and weight to reserve the proper skis (taller you are, the longer the skis are), age I guess to ensure you are legally able to sign the liability waiver form.
here is some suggestions, from a person who is not really familiar with this kind of stuff, however, reasonably familiar with "skiing and snowboarding". At the risk of sounding too officious. here I begin.
ReplyDeleteJust start doing an internet registration form so that people wouldn't feel that their personal privacy is being violated. Should you do that telephone or in person registration, instead of asking for exact age, group them in different age-groups. So you can say "18-25", under 18, so on and so forth. For the height thing, you can also just have like a range of height, but I can imagine that some folks still may not be comfortable sharing that. Because they would have to come and see for themselves for the "right" length of their ski,all you 'd need is an approximate idea about how tall they are. Someone is aroudn 6 ft, you know what type of ski they should have in reserve for them. I still don't know why we'd need weight. Maybe I am missing something or just didn't run into any problem for weight and skiing.
Shoe size is not bad to ask! Although, often times I found that ski boots are different and they are not necessarily the same size as our regular shoes. But then again, you'd need just an idea about that.
But, if not anything, don't ask exact age. I don't know about men, but women are very sensitive about this. And as they get older... oh GOD!
lol
i still find it strange that the info has to be provided in the first place. i guess the americans could learn a thing or two about homeland security from y'all... :)
ReplyDeleteThat was hilarious...! I think the bigger problem might be girls who *tweak* their measurements ever so slightly. =)
ReplyDelete