RACING DAYS! Friday & Saturday

So I'm combining these two. Cause, I know, I'm still behind. First off, Mike Kooreman is giving AWESOME commentary on the races. And I mean in detail too. Better than I can do, I'd say. Check his out here. But I'll give you the condensed version of the past two days, here, with, as always, my spin on things. Haha.

Well we woke up FRIDAY and did the whole breakfast routine, but I made sure I had half a liter of water in me before I left the room for the rink. We left for the rink, tried a new way to get there, but it was locked, and we led the British guys that were following us, astray. Oops. Lol. We finally got there, ans stared jogging and warming up. We got on the ice and did the 10 min warm up, and we all felt really good. We obviously did, cause we all made it out of our 1st round of the 1500m. Erin and I only made it to the next round, but Aly made it further to the semi-finals. The boys did well. Walter got DQed, but Kyle and JR both made it to the A final.

We had time to hang out after we got eliminated, and chatted a bit with those Canadians again, and I tried out my Dutch on the Dutchies in our locker room. They were impressed. Lol. Mostly by my knowledge of not-so-nice words rather than my actual knowledge of the language. Thank you Niels. Lol. ( Dutch senior skater that came and trained with us over the summer.) We also chatted a bit with those British guys, and we were very excited to have someone that spoke our language fluently, even though sometimes we can't understand them through their thick accent. We also decided we needed to bring some febreeze for our locker room. The stench was unbearable. But trust me, it wasn't us. Promise.

We skated our heat for the relay, we tried our hardest, had awesome exchanges, but it just didn't work out. The boys floated through theirs. With ease. They all looked so comfortable, like they owned the ice. After they were done, we headed back, ate dinner of the same sort, and went upstairs to converse with back home, and then headed to bed. Pretty boring day other than the skating, but that's how it's SUPPOSED to be while your racing, right? I mean, we DID come here to skate.

Anyways, SATURDAY started out the same, Aly definitely did the reflex's like a mongoose slap at the clock, so that I woke up to Erin turning on the bathroom light and Aly and I both asked if the alarm went off. I really wanna see her do it once. Lol. we headed to breakfast, pretty much did a repeat of the day before, and once we got to the rink, we got nice and warm with accels and mock starts and such getting ready for that 500m. Whoo. Lol. Erin and I both skated our hearts out, but that wasn't quite enough. I almost made it out, but I don't quite know how to complete an outside pass, instead of passing one girl and then ending all my momentum and hoping in behind the other girl. Agh. Oh well. Something to learn for next year. So after that, Erin and I were done, but everyone else made it through. Aly made it 3 rounds and Kyle and Walter made it 3 as well, even though Walter had that spill. Jr made it to the semi's, but was just short of 2nd which made it to the final.

The surprises of the day were Kristie from GB who not only made the final, but got a silver!All of the Korean girls either fell or got DQed as well as one of their boys. So that mixed up the overall points a bit. And in the boys, a new record was set by the Korean Han-Bin by a time of 0:42.1. CRAZY FAST! At lunch, we sat down at talked with the Great Britain skaters, which was very exciting to talk to English people once again. We talked about how chips are french fries and then well what are chips? They are Crisps. And cookies are only with chocolate chips. the rest are biscuits. Then what are biscuits? That confused them and we tried to explain the yummy flaky goodness, but it didn't work. After that, Erin and I had some time, which we were not very happy about since we both felt awesome in the 500m, so we went up in the stands and started talking with the Aussies and the Kiwi's and then the great Britain guys joined us as well. I t was a very hodge-podge mix of people, but again, found each other through the fact that we are the only countries that official language is English. Lol.

The Kiwis asked if America was like in the movies and everyone gets shot up and Big Macs are humongous and everyone drives ridiculously large cars. We told them in some places its kinda rough, A Big Mac is pretty big, but we all hate McDonalds, and yes, unfortunately. Lol. By now, Aly had joined us as well. They asked what we thought of when we thought of Australia, and we all said kangaroos, koala bears, and Aborigines. Haha. then the Kiwis asked what we thought of New Zealand, and we replied, Kiwi birds, zebras (Erin?) and Australia (Aly?). Haha. It was quite a fun conversation.

We continued to watch the boys skate, and they were doing so good til they went down! Ah! all of us girls cringed. It was sad. After that, we headed back, but not before we checked on one of the Dutchies who had fallen earlier in the day and chipped both of his front teeth. Poor jongen. Lol. We got back to the hotel fairly early, Erin and Aly got massages, and I got on the phone with my mommy and then with Spencer. We headed to dinner, conversed with more countries, since we have been nice Americans and making friends, then headed back upstairs to la around and do nothing. But I guess only being able to skate 1 500m let us regain our strength and some of that energy we weren't able to exert all day since we didn't move on, came out.

The amazing pic that Aly caught of us. I think this was to "Everytime We Touch".

This was to a rap song, if you can't tell the diffrence. "My life be like ooh ahh..."

Ok. I got really bored.


So did the Australians. they put this in front of our door. And that was heavy!

We eventually wound down. Aly on the phone with the boy... Hmm!

Well now we are headed to bed, long day tomorrow. Wish us luck! Ill try to keep you updated, but no promises! racing all day then banquet tomorrow night then leave at 2am. So I'll try, but for now, Bona Note!

-Ciao di Cielo

Thursday

Day before racing! Stared as every other day. Breakfast of the same stuff, back upstairs to hang out before morning workout. Today I actually got to do the jog! But the boys went off on their own and we went a much slower pace with Tricia. we jogged down a cool bike path they have here and at one point we went by this wall with really artistic graffiti, but not so appropriate. Actually it was quite disturbing. No details. And this part of town is mostly industrial, so it was pretty boring other than that. After our light jog, we came back, and we had to go right over to the rink cause we had blood doping testing! they took a whole vile full of our blood! NOT FUN. But even us girls survived.

After we returned to the hotel, we went down and had lunch, which was the normal food, except some really good chicken stuffed with herbs and veggies was there too. That was delicious. After lunch we had a ton of time so us girls went to the store to get some things to take home, and a hair straightener for the last night. we came back, napped go ton the computer, listened to the pod, called home then got ready for practice. Practice was pretty good, but my legs felt like crap whenever I tried to move them fast. But I figured the problem was that I was dehydrated, so I knew I just needed to drink some water. Any if any of you know me, I need water to operate.

So we finished up, came home, and pretty much passed out. I know, not much to tell, but that's how we wanted it for the day before racing started. Hope you are going to keep up with the racing! Ill try to post but again, ill be pretty busy! OK. Ciao Ciao for now!

-Ciao di Cielo.

Wednesday (finally catching up!)

I feel like i need to start off this post by letting you know that Aly might be going home. Well not seriously, but she has been continuously threatening Kyle, JR and Walter. Kyle has told Tricia about a sharpie-to-the-head instance that could have caused serious damage. Walter feels extremely fearful of his life. Tricia has warned Aly, but the punches and dirty looks keep coming. Hopefully she will get her anger under control and no one will get hurt. As Always, we'll keep you updated on how this story unfolds. Now back to the regular scheduled programing.

WEDNESDAY started out with a slightly slower slap to the alarm clock. We all shuffled to breakfast and ate the normal fruit salad and croissant with nutella and come sort of cold lunch meat. We immediately came back upstairs and passed out again. Erin had gotten confirmation that her bags would be there at 8.30, and sure enough, SHE GOT HER BAGS! We all were excited for her. She could skate! But even with this excitement we fell back asleep but not before we set the alarm with just enough time to wake up and slap some shoes on, and out the door to jog.

I went and did a very quick bike/band workout with Mike, so I was back soon and got to talk to Spencer who stayed up just to talk to me. Score. Then the girls got back and Erin and I went out in search of phone cards, which we found and I've been enjoying ever since. When they work. Lol. By the time I got done at the post office it was time for lunch, which consisted of whoa, more pasta. And bread. And veggies. But it was good. Very good. As always. The boys went and got pizza. And they ate lunch. Haha.

After lunch we came back upstairs and went back to sleep for a bit, then got ready for practice at 2. Practice was with New Zealand and their 2 skaters. We did some relays, now that we finally had Erin back. We did some quick stuff too and JR hit a 8.5. Aly hit a 9.4 and I was close behind with I think a 9.5ish. And that was on extremely debreeish ice and then we even found a ciggy butt in the ice. Lol. We stayed on for a good bit and then got off, did our jog, gave the Canadian boys a smile after they said, "Allo. 'ow a' 'ou?" and then ran out the door for cool down.

It was about 4 when we got done and we hurried home to go change and get ready to go shopping in the city! I was excited cause we rode the bus, which was an adventure trying to remember which bus it was and then once we were on, trying to read the signs to see if we had passed the stop. Lol. Eventually, my friend I made sitting next to me had us get off at Piazza Whalter. It was like we had stepped into a different world. Everything was so picturesque and just so well like Aly said, "Italian". Lol.

The cathedral that was the first thing we saw when we got off the bus.

More of the "Italian" street view.

And another view as it's getting darker.

Its just so beautiful, no matter if you're in the alps or down the street!

We separated out and were meeting back at 7, so we had 2 hours to shop. we explored a but and found that the Europeans, or maybe just Italians really like their styles and will pay a pretty penny for them. So after we ahhed and ooed over this heel and that dress, we finally found a few stores in our price range. I bought a skirt, a dress, and some boots all for really good prices. Aly bought some shoes and a pretty scarf. And Erin bought some cologne and a a sweater and a necklace. Good shopping for us girls! But as soon as 7 rolled around, we found the boys, and they're shopping almost beat ours. Not by the quantity, but Kyle and JR both bought some pretty things for the girlfriends. I'm not going to say what, because I don't know who all is reading this, but the boys did a good job. As soon as everyone was back together, we headed to a pizza place and got some amazing pizza margherita and some other choices, and then Aly had some tiramisou to top it off. Man let me tell you. Aly out eats the boys. Maybe that's why they are scared of her. Hmm. Anyways we were all completely beat after that, and went to go catch the bus as Walter's parents drove up! I guess he had given them directions. Pretty sweet huh? Well once we got back to the hotel, we pretty much passed out as soon as we got through the door. It was an awesome day, skating and exploring. I know all of us are getting super excited to skate. We can't wait to get out there and kick some major foreign butt! til next time!

-Ciao di Cielo.

P.S. Thanks to Kyle for the awesome pics! The cord didn't make it here so you'll have to wait for those awesome sledding pics!

T-T-TUESDAY

NOTICE: SKYLAR HAS BEEN EXTREMELY BUSY SKATING HER BUTT OFF AND ENJOYING TO THE FULLEST THE AMAZINGNESS OF ITALY. PLEASE EXCUSE HER TARDINESS ON THE BLOGS. SHE WILL TRY TO WORK HARDER TO RECORD THE ACCOUNT OF THE TEAM IN A MORE TIMELY FASHION. THANK YOU. =]

Well this morning started out fun. Poor Erin, still bagageless. She had been up since 4 and finally called her dad around 6 not knowing what to do. He assured her they were on the way, but that's what we've been hearing for awhile now. anyways, we tried to go back o sleep to awaken at our 7.52. Well I got on the computer (big surprise, I know) and I lost track of time til about 8.20 then ran like a chicken with my head cut off downstairs. Tricia was none too happy, to say the least. I hurried and ate breakfast, which consisted of a croissant and some fruit, yum, then ran back upstairs to crawl back in the amazing, cloud-like, comfy beds. This hotel really is awesome.

Like 9.30, 30 minutes before we were going to go jog, Colby came and told Erin and I that we had to go do the elliptical and bike cause of my knees and her shoes were a couple of sizes too big so he didn't want her running in them. So while everyone else went jogging, we went upstairs and enjoyed a lovely bike/elliptical workout. I had 30 sec on 1.30 off bike sprints. Fun. After that we went back up to the room and Aly joined us for some stretching then we sat down to enjoy some peace and quiet before lunch.

There are only 3 channels that are English, and that's Bloomberg, CNN, and Some resort channels. So because we didn't want to know about the stock market and exotic places we couldn't go to, we chose the news, which was fairly disappointing too along the lines of all we saw was Hilary and Obama and the primaries occurring in New Hampshire. So we kept that on, but mostly traded off turns on the computer.

Lunch was the first time we got to see the other teams, but only Canada and Korea joined us. And the general conclusion about both were that the Canadian boys are very funny after they're comment of " we a' 'ungry" in a very cute French-Canadian accent. And the Korean girls look 10. No lie. The food of choice was , you guessed it, pasta. And bread. And like Salisbury steak, not so good. But the food seemed to be getting much better, as in the things athletes need, so it was exciting for us.

After lunch we headed upstairs for a needed nap and then I woke up a little early to sharpen the blades and get ready for the ice practice that we shared with Italy. first time on the ice and first time seeing what other countries brought to the table! We left for practice at 5 but we did a bit of a warm up of jogging, stretching, and watching the Koreans who had the ice before us. Oh and member those 10 year olds? Yeah, they did a 8.8 and kept up with their boys. All of our mouths were open. Trust me. So we got on the ice, minus Erin as she still didn't have her bags, therefore no skates. The rest of us did warm up relays, and then we did 2x10 laps slow and 2x15 even slower. And were struggling in the mid elevens. At least us girls were. Yay for new ice. Lol. There was a resurface and we had to get off and jog then get back on and do some crazy 3 person passing drill. Walter biffed it within the 1st lap. He was fine but we sure got some looks from the Koreans that were cooling down. I mean Walter gets looks anyways, just from his size, but that's another story. After that we got off the ice and cooled down and headed back to the hotel.

Dinner that night was some sort of salmon pasta dish and veggies. As I said, getting better. dinner concluded with some people getting work from Colby, including me for me knees, and a couple others engaged in a lovely, relaxing, soothing ICE BATH. Yeah.

Afterwards Aly stayed in the boys room and played some cards, Erin and I talked to the boyfriends, and then Aly came into the room when we were almost asleep, and we for some reason fed off her extreme hyperness and stayed awake til 12 and at one point there was jumping on beds between gossip stories! We are having a blast! Stay tuned more to come!

Monday

I'm starting off this post with something I forgot happened yesterday that was quite funny. Some guy came up to Kyle and told him he looked like he had a "little Italian" in him. But when he retold the story, i took it as the guy called him "a little Italian". So now Kyle is the "Little Italian". Then some guy, not sure if it was the same one, asked him where he was from, Kyle said the US, and then the guy replied, "From Kentucky?" We laughed a good couple of minutes at that one. Honestly, what better state for some random Italian to know than Kentucky?!?

Anyways, MONDAY started out with poor Erin jumping out of bed and exclaiming, "I've been awake for 5 hours. This sucks." Apparently, the non-arrival of her bags is causing some insomnia issues. (And yes, currently at 10.30pm, she is still awaiting a phone call saying her bags are here. Every time the phone rings, "OH MY GOD MY BAGS ARE HERE! Oh Aly, it's your mom.") So we got up and headed down to breakfast and had some delicious pastries, again, and apparently a little more than we bargained for. As soon as we got to the rink, Aly was doubled over in pain from stomach pangs. Colby is pretty sure its the live cultured milk. Again, more than we asked for. So the rest of us jogged and warmed up, well attempted to get warm. Erin still not having her skates did a awesome band workout, while the boys and I did our ice workout. Aly was still in a ball in the locker room. So we started out doing a warm up relay, then the boys did a fast relay and I did 2 2 lap accels. All of us are looking better, even though the ice was still breaking out pretty bad. the boys then did 3x7 laps and I did 2x7, again, all by myself. Yay for 7 lap time trials. We ended practice with a cool down relay and concluded an overal good practice. We all looked good and nobody fell! Well, ok, Tricia did, but we wont talk about that. Lol.

We were excited to eat some yummy lunch but found out we had to wait til 12, so most of the guys and girls got flush massages via Colby, but I declined and took a nap. Lunch was served and a lot of us passed up the spaghetti for the ricotta, only to figure out it was pretty much rice. But pleasantly it was some pretty good sauce on top making it very yummy. We enjoyed it, and we also enjoyed the chicken or omelets that we had as the second choice.

After lunch we hurried off to get packed and ready to leave. After everything was out of the rooms, I was extremely tired and took a nap, again, in the lobby, but I'm told that the other guys and Aly went into town and got some extremely delicious pizza. Luckys. Well as soon as 2 rolled around, we began to load up the bus and started our 4 hour drive to Bolzano. The drive was very scenic and we at first were driving through the mountains via tunnels (the Italians like their dynamite) but after a while, and a few Zzzzzzs, we found our selves on twisty, narrow, fall-off-into-oblivion roads that climbed the mountains. It was gorgeous and at one point we were above tree line at a ski resort. Simply amazing.

About 7 o'clock we all work up to the front of our amazing looking hotel, the Sheraton. We clambered off the bus, most of us with only one eye open, checked into our gorgeous rooms (extremely spacious for Europe) and got ready for dinner. Which was kind of disappointing. We've been used to your 3 course meals, and here, at the nicer hotel, we got salad and a snack size pasta bowl. But it may not have been filling, but man was it goooooood. Leaving the table a little heavier than when we sat down, we decided the hotel and its amenities make up for the change in food. By far. And we're hoping breakfast tomorrow will be much more stellar.

Now I'm winding down in my room. Erin and Aly are asleep, and I'm soon to be as well. We've all talked to the parents and the boyfriends, so we are good to go, not too homesick. Tomorrow we wake up at 7.52 (random, thanks Aly. Lol.) to have breakfast at 8 and a light jog at 10. Then we have ice from 4.00-5.50pm. Hopefully we will finally exchange money tomorrow and maybe even go shopping! Til tomorrow!

Ciao di Cielo!

Sunday night (well kinda Monday morning)

Wow. Even though I left you guys only a couple of hours ago, one of the most amazing days ever has occured. Haha. So the main topic at lunch was the lost luggage, and how Mike and Erin still don't have any clothes. We discussed this over ham and spaghetti, the choices I had chosen, some others got a couple of other things, including Walter with his cheese platter. Yes, we made fun. Anyways, I wasn't feeling to great and I was going to lay down when everyone decided to go to town. This was about 2 and I knew all the shops would be closed, as the Italians observe some sort of "siesta" (if you've been to Mexico, you know what I'm referring to) and the shops are closed til 3.30 pm. Well I guess they got the best of me and I decided to go. Yay for Ugg boots in melting slush, trampling through town. Yay.

Our journey commenced by going into town to go through the shops, looking for any open. As I thought, no luck. But then Mike got a light bulb above his head and decided to turn down some stairs and go further into the older part of town. Mike has been here a few times in the past for some world cups and such, guess he was good or something. Haha. Juuuuuuust kidding Mike! So as we are now looking completely like tourists with our USA stuff on and snapping pictures at EVERYTHING, I noticed how unique this town really is. It is very old, with amazing
architecture, dating back to what looked like the Dark Ages. We climbed the cobblestone road, pausing here and there to take group photos with the amazing backgrounds of the buildings and the mountains, as this is a village in a valley, completely surrounded by mountains. soon enough we were on the opposite side of town, the side that was home to the ski slope. As you can guess, this pleased the boys very much, and us girls were pretty happy too when Walter got the idea that we needed to rent a sled. And low and behold we came upon a store that was not only open on the Sabbath, but that rented sleds for 5 euro a piece!

We of course did it, and then ran to the slope, that seemed to be open to the public. We then continued to have the time of our lives, first doubling up, girl and boy per sled, then switched around partners, then the boys raced, then the girls raced, then we partnered up again to go skeleton. I will say Walter and I were the only ones to make it to the bottom with girl still on top of guy in on piece. The others ate it. Hard. Mike was our photographer, and the pictures really do speak louder than words. (As I mentioned previously, the camera that the pictures are being taken with, the memory card doesn't fit so there wont be pics til Wed. when the cord gets here via The Rusks) But i will tell you there is an amazing one of Walter and I getting air of this awesome jump, it's so perfect. But the way our tailbones felt afterwards, not so perfect.

So now that we were drenched to the core and laughing til we wanted to pee, we decided to retire the sleds and attempt to meander our way back to the hotel, since we only had a little bit of time before practice. It was hard, but very scenic (again, there WILL be pictures. Promise) but we finally made it back, changed out of the wet clothes into dry ones, and headed off to practice, hoping Tricia wasn't too mad.

We got to the rink, and to our dismay, it was just as cold as we left it. So we attempted to warm up, and then got on the ice, and got lucky cause we only had to skate about 45 min of excels and 2 lappers for Aly and I and a relay for the boys then a 10 lap passing drill to cool down. Just getting the crap out of the legs. So we hurriedly packed up and took off to the hotel to eat a dinner of pasta of cheese and spinach rolls, which the latter was my choice and grilled turkey or the prawn, which our waiter Marino, who by the way is the only guy in the restaurant part that speaks a lick of English, described as "big shrimpies". They were ok, but I pretty much lost my appetite after those, but quickly regained it once I had a bite of dessert, the best fruit tart I've ever had! Soon after I went to go ice my knees and get on the computer, talk to the boyfriend and the mom, which I'm currently still doing. But now its time to hit the sack. We have practice at 8 and we leave for Bolzano around noon. I'll try to get on before we leave, but it probably wont be til tomorrow night.

Big shout out to everyone who is tuning in! Hope you're enjoying yourselves! And I want to give a special shout out to Wilma Boomstra and Kelly Springer, my coaches, none of this would have been possible without you. And to my Daddy. I love you! Miss everyone! Til next time!

Ciao di Cielo!

Friday-Sunday

BUONGIORNO di ITALIA!

So this blog was a brilliant idea of mine to keep my mom, Sonya, and my boyfriend, Spencer, and whoever else meanders their way here, up-to-date on whats happening here in Italy. For those of you who don't know, I'm here currently in Bormio but soon continuing on to Bolzano, IT for the JR World Championships for Short Track Speedskating. I'm here with two other girl teammates: Aly Dudek and Erin Bartlett; three boy teammates: J.R. Celski, Kyle Uyehara, and Walter Rusk; our coach: Trisha Stennes, our blades guy: Mike Corman, and our trainer: Colby Lash. Nine of us Americanos, who all of us put together speak no more than 10 words of the language, against the world of Italians.

My interesting journey started on FRIDAY morning at about 8.30 am when the flight was supposed to leave LA for Newark. We didn't end up leaving til 9.45 (apparently there was a weather delay. In L.A.. which is absolutely absurd but I was later told by Spencer was completely valid as it miraculously torrentially downpoured all day.) which gave us 20 min to make our flight to Milan once we got to Newark. Yay. *shaking head* So after we got to Newark, we ended up having 30 min to get on the flight, which was fine because we were all there. Except for Erin who had been held up leaving Cleveland. And according to Mike, if all of us weren't there, nobody was getting on. And even better, the next flight to Milan didn't leave til 2 days later on Sunday. AHH! After this we were seriously NOT happy, even with the opportunity to spend a few days in the Big Apple. we wanted to get to ITALY! But five minutes before the plane was supposed to take off, we got the go ahead, that Erin was being rushed there, and to get on the plane. PHEW.

The flight was pretty good, watched House and C.S.I. Miami. I probably should have slept more, but only the last hour or so of the 7 hour flight consisted of Zzzzzzs. If only I had known about the long day ahead. Once we got to Milan SATURDAY morning, we went to claim our luggage, but everyone wasn't so lucky. Mike and Erin both didn't receive their bags, which turned into a hoo-rah of over 2 hours of trying to figure out where they were, and when they were getting here. They found Erin's, and I guess they are coming today, but they honestly have no clue what happened to Mike's. *shaking head again* If only US Speedskating took a tip from inline and gave us a translator, Tricia's headache and the bus driver waiting 3 hours for us, probably would have been kept at a minimum. I of course attempted to help in my span-italian, figuring most of the words were fairly similar. And my handy dandy pocket sized Italian book proved very useful for the unknown vocab. I at least calmed down the bus driver, even though I understood not a word of his reply. Haha.

We finally got on our way, minus the lost luggage, and the bus drive to Bormio took about 3 hours. and there are no freeways here. there are two lane roads, and the higher up we got, the rain falling in Milan turned into some heavy snow. Oh fun. It was very beautiful countryside, truly a winter wonderland. The features that are distinctive of Italy became more apparent, as we passed aqueducts and continuously were traveling through mountains via tunnels.

Once we got to Bormio, we checked into our hotel Sant Anton, which was the idyllic small village town nice hotel. Erin and i got to the room, and asked for jogging clothes, as remember, she only had the clothes on her back. We went back downstairs, ate a lunch of ravioli and eggs which was the safest two choices we could get from the menu. Walter and J.R. thought they'd be adventurous and got the cold meat plate. Not such a good idea. Lol. they were asking for everyone else's left overs. Colby asked for coffee and got good ol espresso instead. We are in Italy.

After lunch, we went jogging to the rink and back, then us girls accompanied Trisha to the store to get water and fruit and bread, the essentials and i got some shampoo and conditioner. that was a challenge in itself. we finally gave up on finding the conditioner, til Aly was brilliant and figure the other word on the 2-in-1 bottle (champoo and balsama) had to be conditioner. so i found that and got it. we hurried back to the hotel dropped off our stuff, stretched and headed out again to shop.

The Street with all the shops was called VIA ROMA. And lemme tell you was it packed. After going in a few stores, seeing the designer name tags of Dolce and Gabbana and Armani and a few others, and the prices to match, we ran back out as eagerly as we came in. Finally amiss the hoards of people, and humorously just about as many dogs with cute sweaters on, we found a cute underwear store. Good for Erin, seeing she needed those. We were bracing for prices to rival Vickys, but were pleasantly surprised to find that a spazio was occurring, hence the state of the store which was almost impossible to move through. Nevertheless, Erin got her undies, I got 2 cute bras and a shirt to wear to the banquet no one told me about. And amazingly, all were super cheap.

We were exhausted after that, so we headed back to the hotel for dinner of pasta in tomate sauce and salmon, again the safest choices. After we had a meeting, I got online and video chatted with the boyfriend for a few minutes, and then we all headed to our rooms to sharpen, shower and sleep.

SUNDAY, started off with a ring and 5.30am, thank goodness, from our wake up call form the front desk who I swear didn't understand a word i said the night before when I set it up. We got ready and headed downstairs to leave at 6 to walk to the rink. It was completely dark and snowing pretty heavily. Ew. and we had to walk on like a gravely back road that was all downhill for about a half a mile to the rink. once we got there, it was locked so we jogged and stretched then headed inside to do band and then got on the ice at 7. We did relays all practice. And let me tell you. The ice was great, but that was the coldest rink I have ever been in in my entire life. My fingers got so cold, in between on of our sets of relays, I ran into the locker room and exchanged my tipped gloves for my puffy ones. Figured I shouldn't be going fast enough to pivot anyways. And it warmed em right up so that by the end of practice, they were toasty. Haha.

We headed back to the hotel, had an AMAZING breakfast of pastries, nutella, fruit bowl, and scrambled eggs (best meal yet so far) and after that I headed into town, did a little shopping, and got back here just in time to get worked on by the trainer. The knees are still hurting. and NOW you are all caught up! I'm downstairs sitting in the business center while I've been told the boys made a gigantic snowman. Walter is going to let me use his camera and I'm going to hopefully use Colby's cord to upload them. so next time there should be pictures explaining not just my words. and as for my words, I promise there will be less next time I get on. I just wanted to catch you up, that's all! well I'm headed up to lunch, its 1pm now, we have practice again at 7pm. I'll try to be on MSN (skylar.usa@homail) if anyone wants to chat after I get back to the hotel. So that will probably be around 9 or so, which is 3pm east coast and noon west coast. So weird the time change. I'm pretty much already used to it. Which is always good. So arrivederci til tomorrow probably! Stay Tuned!

Ciao di Cielo!