Cross-Country Snow

     So when I first told a fellow classmate today that I was finally going to blog, she told me it was the most boring story ever; it was just a plotless story about guys going skiing. This encouraged me to blog even more, so here I am. The reason behind this is that I just went skiing four days ago with a few guys, so I am now totally inspired to write about what I just read.
     The first thing I love about Hemingway is his appreciation for the outdoors. The opening page of the story is all about the mountain, how serene it is up there in the snow and whooshes of the skis through the fresh powder. I've always been a lover of the outdoors myself, and am never more relaxed in any other place. Obviously here in Texas it isn't the snow that I'm around all the time, but the fresh smell of cedars and the sound of the soft river in the fall cannot make me a happier man.
     Like I said earlier, the placement of this story in our reading schedule is perfect. Hemingway seems often to write of gender behavior. Male mostly, but female too. In this story, he hits it right on the head. Guys going out and doing something that can easily be competitive, making fun of each other for falling, and going out for drinks afterwards; this seems so alike to what men do for fun today. Honestly, this is exactly what my chums and I did on our ski trip, except sub the drinks for pizza and a trip to the Hot Springs. And it was great, really great. Even though he wrote these so much earlier in the century, it's strange to see how similar it is to a man's life today. Oh, and the "bro talk," as we call it, or talking about women in any way, shape or form; after a hard day's fun, it's essential to any gathering of good guy friends.
     I also noticed Hemingway's connections to himself in the story. These could very well be wrong, but it just seemed too obvious. The men talk of how the American mountains just aren't anything as great as those in Europe, those of which I have to believe to be the Alps. This has got to have some connection to Hemingway being an expatriate and going abroad to Europe to write. Lastly are the women (it always seems to be like this with his writing...); there seems to be some sort of conflict between Nick and a pregnant lover of his named Helen. This instantly brought me back to the trouble Hemingway seemed to have with women throughout his lifetime.
     Whatever this story is meant to mean or whatever connections we are supposed to establish, I just love it for how true it rings to the masculine lifestyle and how well Hemingway portrayed it even years and years ago.