A TEACHER'S BLOG
Welcome to Ms. Bielefeld's Blog! This was my classroom webpage! I created this website to enhance the communication between school and home. Here students and parents found reminders, important handouts, homework assignments and helpful websites. I now use it to blog and post my own stories! Take a look around!
Make love, not war.
— Anonymous Saying
— Anonymous Saying
Zorbing - The First Thing I Did Once I Retired
Don’t let that picture fool you, it’s been taken a long time ago. The past two years it became a chore to get to school every day and hold my classes. But alas I’m now finally retired and I can take care of what I find most important, the soul.
I used to go on trips often. But most of them were with my students and it felt more like an obligation than actual fun. But no more. Now that I have all the time in the world, I finally decided to do something that I really wanted to do for a long time. I packed up my baggage, paid for a plane ticket to New Zealand, and went to Rotorua to try out zorbing for the first time ever. What is zorbing, you might ask? Well let me tell you.
I remember I first saw zorbing on YouTube a few years ago when a fellow teacher sent me a viral video about it. It was a clip of some guys splashing around inside a giant inflatable ball made of transparent plastic rolling down some grassy hill. I did my research and I found out that this was happening somewhere in New Zealand, the place where the sport was invented by the way.
But what exactly is this all about? What is this activity? In essence, it’s a sort of extreme sport, or so they call it, in which you have to get inside a huge plastic ball that resembles somewhat an oversized hamster ball. There are actually two balls, one inside the other and they are linked with many tiny plastic threads that keep them together. The space created between those two balls is filled up with air. This makes a cushion that prevents the passenger from getting hurt while the ball rolls free down any slope. This thing can reach huge speeds almost like a car. I read somewhere that the record was somewhere around 60 miles an hour. This is pretty much what zorbing is. And this is what I wanted to attempt for a long time.
And so here I was in New Zealand on top of a hill right next to a huge plastic ball, ready to go zorbing, asking myself what the hell was I doing. But you know what, it’s been a long time coming, and I really wanted to try something out of the ordinary. The guys here had two types of rides that I could try. One is called hydro-zorbing or something like that. It means that they would pour water inside the inner ball and I would float around while the sphere rolled down the hill.
But I didn’t really want to get myself wet, so I wanted to try the other thing they offered. This second type of ride meant that I would use some straps mounted inside the inner sphere that would keep me tightly in place. This sounded way more interesting and since I always thought of myself as an adrenaline junkie (as I enjoy things like skiing and even snowboarding from time to time), I decided to try out this one.
I had no idea what was in store for me. I buckled myself in, and the ball started rolling down the hill. I might be an adrenaline junkie myself, but this was pretty intense, I have to admit. It was way more disorienting than being in a roller coaster. I lost all sense of space and time and the ride seemed to last forever. Don’t get this the wrong way, though. I was actually having a lot of fun.
When the ball came to a stop, and the guys there helped me unbuckle and get out, I have to say that my legs were feeling pretty shaky. So what do you reckon I did? I sat down for a while, ordered a drink, and guzzled it up. The instant I finished my drink, I was back up on top of the ramp ready to go again.
Finally, after so many years of trips with my students, to places I didn’t really want to see over and over again, I was finally exactly where I wanted to be! Zorbing was awesome, and I can’t help to go there again, this time with some of my friends.
I used to go on trips often. But most of them were with my students and it felt more like an obligation than actual fun. But no more. Now that I have all the time in the world, I finally decided to do something that I really wanted to do for a long time. I packed up my baggage, paid for a plane ticket to New Zealand, and went to Rotorua to try out zorbing for the first time ever. What is zorbing, you might ask? Well let me tell you.
I remember I first saw zorbing on YouTube a few years ago when a fellow teacher sent me a viral video about it. It was a clip of some guys splashing around inside a giant inflatable ball made of transparent plastic rolling down some grassy hill. I did my research and I found out that this was happening somewhere in New Zealand, the place where the sport was invented by the way.
But what exactly is this all about? What is this activity? In essence, it’s a sort of extreme sport, or so they call it, in which you have to get inside a huge plastic ball that resembles somewhat an oversized hamster ball. There are actually two balls, one inside the other and they are linked with many tiny plastic threads that keep them together. The space created between those two balls is filled up with air. This makes a cushion that prevents the passenger from getting hurt while the ball rolls free down any slope. This thing can reach huge speeds almost like a car. I read somewhere that the record was somewhere around 60 miles an hour. This is pretty much what zorbing is. And this is what I wanted to attempt for a long time.
And so here I was in New Zealand on top of a hill right next to a huge plastic ball, ready to go zorbing, asking myself what the hell was I doing. But you know what, it’s been a long time coming, and I really wanted to try something out of the ordinary. The guys here had two types of rides that I could try. One is called hydro-zorbing or something like that. It means that they would pour water inside the inner ball and I would float around while the sphere rolled down the hill.
But I didn’t really want to get myself wet, so I wanted to try the other thing they offered. This second type of ride meant that I would use some straps mounted inside the inner sphere that would keep me tightly in place. This sounded way more interesting and since I always thought of myself as an adrenaline junkie (as I enjoy things like skiing and even snowboarding from time to time), I decided to try out this one.
I had no idea what was in store for me. I buckled myself in, and the ball started rolling down the hill. I might be an adrenaline junkie myself, but this was pretty intense, I have to admit. It was way more disorienting than being in a roller coaster. I lost all sense of space and time and the ride seemed to last forever. Don’t get this the wrong way, though. I was actually having a lot of fun.
When the ball came to a stop, and the guys there helped me unbuckle and get out, I have to say that my legs were feeling pretty shaky. So what do you reckon I did? I sat down for a while, ordered a drink, and guzzled it up. The instant I finished my drink, I was back up on top of the ramp ready to go again.
Finally, after so many years of trips with my students, to places I didn’t really want to see over and over again, I was finally exactly where I wanted to be! Zorbing was awesome, and I can’t help to go there again, this time with some of my friends.