2011 Ice Challenge Blog #3

Hey everyone!

This morning I had the pleasure of waking up at the wonderful hour of 5:15 a.m. to catch the 6:15 a.m. bus for our 6:50 a.m. practice. The breakfast doesn’t open until 6:30 or 7, so we grabbed a power bar and headed over. We had a very quick warm-up, and then it was practice time. Once again, FREEZING! I know my short dance dress isn’t much, but even with my jacket on I was severely cold. It definitely got me to wake up fast, though!

After practice, we went to the hotel and grabbed our yummy breakfast yet again! Since the shops don’t open until 9:30, we had a pretty long and relaxing breakfast to regain our energy for, you guessed it, shopping. Once we finished up our muesli, I was no longer cranky, and we headed to the shops!

Before going out, we had a list of stores we wanted to hit which grew as we went. We hit boot shop after boot shop driving the women who work there crazy, with no luck unless you wanted to pay 500 euro. At the end of our trip we ended up grabbing a few things (even Ian!), but no boots. (As in we grabbed souvenirs; we did not grab Ian himself.) I did find two sweater dresses that I have been on the hunt for, for around two years now. I finally found the perfect ones!

After our shopping excursion Ian and I headed back to the hotel to relax, and Karen went back to the staircase up the mountain for her daily exercise. She’s been going every day since we’ve gotten here, and the cold weather has yet to stop her!

After a quick nap and some food, we were already heading to the rink for our short dance competition! Once again, it was freezing, but this time I brought two shirts and two jackets which kept me from freezing while I warmed up. Layers layers layers! As the week has been going on, I find that I care less about style and more about warmth. I think I have mix and matched everything I could to look as outrageous as possible. Crazy-looking American? Yes. However, I am warmer than the stylish European!

I was very pleased with Ian’s and my short dance today! I think my face probably lit up when we finished those twizzles — and I mentally said “PHEW.” We skated a strong program that Ian and I were happy with, and I am very excited to compete free dance tomorrow!

So far Team USA is doing a great job in Graz, and I hope tomorrow brings the same results! =)

Talk to you soon!