SEPTEMBER 1, 2006

Greetings from Great Britain! Thanks for checking out our website!

My skating partnership with Mark has been a great adventure so far! My mom and I arrived to live in England May 28, 2006. The differences between the U.S. and Great Britain were amusing even from our first arrival at the airport! My mom & I had loads of luggage since we weren’t visiting back home in Colorado Springs for over 3 months. Mark met us at the airport, but the cars in Great Britain are so small that the car didn’t fit both us and our luggage! Huge difference number 1: Colorado could be called the SUV capital of the world, so seeing all the tiny, Mr. Bean sized cars was a radical change! Lol! I really enjoy seeing all the cute mini cars while I wait for the bus, although it will be nice to see all the SUV’s when I go back and visit. Back to the story: our luggage didn’t fit in the car, so my mom and I took the train from Manchester to Sheffield while Mark drove our luggage to our hotel! Then Mark picked us up from the train station.

The train stations are really quite nice over here, which has been great since we’ve been traveling by train a lot lately. When my brother, Will, visited recently, we took the train to Edinburgh, Scotland, where the Edinburgh Festivals were taking place. We went to a street dancing performance and saw a hilarious comedian named Ed Byrne. It was my 2 nd trip to Edinburgh. My first was when I tried out with Mark and where we spent an awesome New Years Eve with some of Mark’s friends at an outdoor concert. At midnight there were spectacular fireworks over the Edinburgh Castle! It’s amazing that it takes only a few hours and not too much money to travel to another country! We’ve also been to London a few times for costume fittings and to visit the magnificent city. It’s only a 2¼ hour train ride to London, so it’s really easy to go there for the day. There’s always so much happening there, from street performers in Covent Garden to the bustling streets and the busy but ever so convenient Tube (subway for Americans)!

Of course, there isn’t a lot of time or money for traveling. But that’s okay because skating has been great! Mark and I are good friends, so practices are always enjoyable. We are both positive and optimistic people. We love working hard, and fun mixed with hard work is a great combination! It’s also great that Mark is so flexible! It’s always intriguing and entertaining to see what types of positions we can twist our bodies into! Our coach in Sheffield is Jimmy Young. He’s just wonderful to work with! When Mark & I train in Colorado Springs for short periods of time, my coach, Sandy Hess, helps us so much! It has been so great to have two excellent coaches on different sides of the ocean! Even better yet is that they have very similar teaching styles. Mathew Gates choreographed our programs for this season. He has a real vision of our style and is great to work with!

We’re going to have a really busy schedule this start of school term! We’ll be busy training and competing. I’ll be attending Rotherham College and working on my BA in Performing Arts. I’ve always enjoyed performing arts, and I’m really looking forward to taking drama! My mom will be a student as well. She is getting her master’s degree in early childhood studies while she lives with me until I’m 18. Although it will be a full schedule, I’ve always been an active person and enjoy a busy lifestyle!

I hope you’ll come back and visit us soon! In the next journal entry, you’ll be hearing from Mark!

Cheers!

Chrissy