Lessons from the Czech Republic

1. We are a little challenged in the directions department
   
2. Czech children are adorable
   
3. Not speaking Czech is highly inconvenient
   
4. If you're ever in Nove Mesto, try the apple turnovers
   
5. Hold onto your clips!
   
6. The other teams are out to get you...just kidding...but not really...
   

So lessons learned from todays adentures...first off. As a group Tara, Carly, Ray, Sean, and I don't have the best sense of direction. In our defence Nove Mesto is not the simplest of places to get around, in fact, it's damn near impossible if you don't speak Czech (see point c). We were on a mission to find a bakery we had seen on all our trips to the range. We must have gone in 6 different (wrong) directions before someone noticed a familiar landmark and we headed in the right direction. The bright side to this adventure is, we got to see a lot of cool stuff we probably would not have otherwise seen. We did eventually find the bakery (it was closed) and we will definitely be going back there.

Did I mention that Czech children are adorable? Today while we were jogging (and by jogging I clearly mean walking) we kept passing people, and kept being passed by people in cars. Everyone just stared at us continuously. It was as if we were from another planet. Admittedly when you are dressed head to toe in USA team gear, you don't blend in, but this was as if we had a neon sign about our heads that said "foreigner!" We were honked at by numerous cars as they passed us, and we would watch people stare as they passed. The children were my favourites. They would make no effort to look like they weren't staring, their jaws would just drop. At one point a boy, probably about 12, passed us and turned and yelled "I love you!" as he passed. I'm fairly sure that was almost all the English he knew. We all immediately started giggling, and I turn around to wave to him. I wish we had something American to give him, even a little flag. I know when I was little that I would have been super pumped if someone had given me something.

As I mentioned earlier, not speaking Czech is highly inconvenient. Carly has a nut allergy and she carries around a slip of paper that says "I'm allergic to nuts" in Czech. She gave it to the cashier in the market in an attempt to find out if the treat she was buying had nuts in it. This was a complete fail. The woman just looked at us with a confused look on her face. After numerous people tried to figure out what she was asking, a young man helped her out. Carly got her treat and everything was ok. This combined with our inability to ask for directions has been a bit of a pain in the butt.

Ok, despite striking out at the bakery, we walked into the grocery store to find a great bakery section. My teammate and I split an apple turnover and it was fantastic. Just saying, it was totally worth the calories that I will have to carry up the hill with me tomorrow.

Don't drop your clip. This is a just a little lesson that Kelly learned on the range today. She dropped her full clip down the range today during the race. She had to get an official to grab the clip for her. So that's a lesson for us: No Dropping Clips!

Finally, not even kidding, the Czech team is trying to kill us. We were walking back from town, and we heard a honk right behind us. We turned to look just as the Czech team blew by us in their van. They passed us so closely that Carly had to move out of the way. They waved as they passed, but we're still convinced they are out to get us.

Tomorrow is the second race of the Czech Cup and my first race since I got here. Hopefully I don't wake up unable to breathe again. I'll let you know how it goes!

Day one...

Let's see...What can I say about the first day of any trip? There's the jetlag, the scraping of all your skis, the realization your shampoo exploded in your bag, the aches from having spent 24 hours sitting down, and of course, there's the realization you don't speak a word of the language you're hearing and you have no idea where the bathroom is. The nice this about this trip is, it wasn't my shampoo bottle. The first day of any trip involves constantly feeling like you're falling. You have so many things to do, and yet the only concept you can possibly comprehend is sleep.

It usually starts first thing in the morning when you realize you have no idea when or where you are supposed to be that day. You remember the coach telling you, but you were so damned tired from the trip that when the coach told you the night before it went in one ear, and out the other. This feeling doesn't go away, for the rest of the day you always feel like you are falling behind....probably because you are. You have so many pairs of skis to scrape, and so little time to scrape them. Not to mention, you were in such a rush when you got up that you forgot to pee, and now you don't know where the bathroom is. If you manage to get through all of these wonderful moments, then congratulations, you are one step ahead of me. That leaves you roughly 5 steps behind everyone else.

We went out the range today for a ski in the morning and went back in the afternoon for some shooting. Good news: I can still hit the targets. Bad news: So can the 5'3" 95lbs Russian girl beside, and I'm going to risk a guess here and say that she climbs those hills a little bit faster than I do. Other than that though, I'm feeling OK. Trying to ditch the cough/cold I seem to be acquiring by skipping tomorrow's race, and hopefully making Sundays race a little more worthwhile.

Some pictures from today's adventures:

Yeah, that's me on the far left, that's about as high as I jump...

Tara and I at the Venue, looking snazzy in our USA kit.

Lost bags? Missing rifle parts? CHRISTMAS!

Must be another day with the US Youth Team. The good news is, Tara found a spare part to put her rifle together and...well...Ray's bags are still missing. I'm sure they'll get here tomorrow...or the next day...

We are all settled in here in Nove Mesto, and are awaiting the last piece of this World Juniors puzzle: The Snow! There is very little snow here in our section of the Czech Republic, but there are people working hard to make and move snow out across the race course so that we will be able to race on Saturday.


While we wait for enough snow to race,the skiers are happy that there is just enough snow on the ground that our second Christmas was a white one. Our second Christmas was brought to us by Adidas and the USBA, and we are very very appreciative. Here's a rundown of our gear for this trip:Just in case we thought we might have to go topless we have:

• A winter Jacket
• A sweater
• Race suit top
• Warm-up jacket
• Warm-up vest
• Puffy vest
• A polo shirt
• A t-shirt
• A long sleeve shirt
• A turtleneck

A disproportionately low number of pants leaves us with:

• Race tights
• Warm-up pants
• Snow pants
  (Not to worry though, we'll tooooootally do laundry....)

Our ears and fingers will be warm with our:

• Fuzzy hat
• Brimmed toque
• Toque
• Race hat
• Headband
• Gloves
  

And just in case the jumbotron screens were going to blind us we have Adidas sunglasses with three different lenses!

It really is like second Christmas here in the Czech Republic. Now we just have to worry about fitting it all in our bags on the way home!

Delayed flights. Missed connections. What's new?

I’m becoming convinced that it is not possible for me to travel to Europe without facing any of the aforementioned problems. On this particular trip, the issues started before we even left Vermont. A delay leaving Vermont left us stranded in Philadelphia, searching for another flight to Europe. In the end grabbed seats on a flight leaving a bit later headed to Munich.

Now looking on the bright side, the plane flying to Munich was huge and mostly empty. I had 4 seats all to myself, and I was able to sprawl right across them for some sleep. This almost makes up for sprinting across the Philadelphia airport with a huge backpack, only to miss the flight anyways.

I am now chilling in the Munich airport, which I have to say, is among the less exciting airports I have flown through. However, since it is currently 10:15am here (4:15 am in VT) and I have had 1.5 hours of sleep, I am really appreciating the free coffee. I’ve already had 2 cups so jet lag can kiss my ass.

SLU Carnival...

Let's take a poll:
Which do you think I can do faster: Classic? or Skate?
If you said skate you are.....**drum roll**...Wrong!

At this weekends Saint Lawrence University Winter Carnival I actually went faster per km doing classic than I did skate. Needless to say I am less than impressed with myself. Why you ask? Because I didn't actually go very fast classic.

Despite that fun fact, I am really happy that I finished my first classic race in 9 years with all my limbs....even though I did fall 100m from the finish (classic skis are too long), I feel like I managed to avoid embarrassing myself too badly, which is pretty much my criteria for a good classic race.

As for the skate race...what skate race? In all seriousness I have never finished a race feeling as beasted as I did after that race. I will say that I enjoyed climbing the van hoe trails without a rifle on my back, but that feeling went away quickly when I hit the 2km mark and realized that there were still 8km to go. I was just happy to finish and put the race behind me.

Race Shout Out: goes out to Gabby who brought the heat in the Skate race finishing 54th.

Right now the team is back at school preparing for the Colby Carnival while I start preparing for World Juniors in biathlon. Looking forward to the Czech Republic, and hoping for some good races!

The SMC Womens Nordic Team

So I lied...

Okay, so last time when I told you I would update more often? I was totally lying...
I had good intentions, I really meant to update, but alas, I did not. On the bright side...I'm here now! And I'm blogging!

Since the last time I updated the season has really revved up, and things are in full swing both in Biathlon and Nordic. The first North American Cup of the season was a success...for everyone else...between the jet lag, the lack of sleep, and the knee injury I had a less than satisfactory race series.

This was more than made up for at the US Youth Team Trials where I managed to put it together despite a month of inconsistent training. We leave on Wednesday for World Youth Championships in the Czech Republic. It was a strong field and applause goes out to all of the kids who raced for the few slots on the team.

I will do my best (not necessarily all that good...) to keep you updated about biathlon over the next few weeks. Cheers.

I'm not the most consistent of bloggers...

OK, I'll admit. I'm not the best at blogging, as evidenced by the last time I updated. It was April. Since then so much has happened. My goal is to catch you up in this post, then get a little better at updating consistently.
School: I survived high school! I survived College applications! My reward? More homework! I'm currently skiing for Saint Michael's College in Colchester,VT. I'm also doing my biathlon training with the Vermont Collegiate Biathlon Team. It going well. I really can't complain. I have amazing teammates, amazing facilities, and amazing coaches.
Skiing: See above? What else can I say? I'm spending this lovely thanksgiving weekend in Foret Montmorency, Quebec. Have snow, will ski. Our goal is to ski as much as possible. Lets see...3 hours a day(minimum) x 4 days = 12 hours of skiing. Jealous? You should be.
Life: I'm in college...I am a college student...I live a life that is polar opposite to the college student stereotype, with the exception of the ramen noodles. I definitely still survive on ramen noodles.