Monday, February 16th, 2009

After all the practices, workouts, off-ice practices, study tables, team bonding, and much more, the Western Michigan University Synchronized Skating team is finally off to Miskolc, Hungary to represent Team USA in the senior division at the Jegvirag Cup! 

The past couple weeks have been filled with hard work to get ready, and we're all excited to finally travel overseas and compete!  Last night we spent an hour with a WMU professor learning about the Hungarian culture and language so we'll know what to expect when we get there.  Following our lesson, we had our send-off party, with USA themed cake, USA scarves made by one of the local parents, USA water bottles, pins, and much more! 

So, now that all our bags are packed with dresses, make-up, hair spray, American snacks, SKATES--the works... we're heading off to Hungary and hoping for safe travels for all!

Stay tuned for more updates as we meet up with Ice 'Kateers overseas and document all our foreign experiences both inside and outside of the rink!

~Amanda France~
Team USA Senior
Western Michigan University

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

I'm proud to report that all eighteen Bronco skaters, coach, team managers, and our team leader have made it safely to Miskolc!

Our journey began later than we had anticipated, as our plane had "mechanical issues" causing a quite substantial delay at the Detroit airport.  We all made it through our eight hour flight to Amsterdam, but missed our original flight to Budapest.  Luckily, we were all able to get on a different flight to Budapest about two hours later, giving us a chance to re-group before getting on another plane. 

We saw some familiar faces in an unfamiliar country as we ran into Team Braemar junior at the Amsterdam airport while they were on their way back to Minnesota from the Spring Cup in Italy.  Congratulations on the 2nd place finish, Braemar, and to all other teams that competed and represented Team USA at the Spring Cup!

Upon arriving in Budapest, we got a bus tour of the city, seeing a lot of beautiful and unique architecture downtown.  Unfortunately we weren't able to get many good pictures of the city, since our bus never stopped!  We had our first encounter struggling with the language barrier as we all tried to order food at a mall in Budapest.  Ordering off a Hungarian menu is quite the challenge!  Luckily there were many friendly and helpful people around, and we all managed to eventually get [mostly] the food we ordered!

Fighting jet-lag, we all fell into a deep slumber during the two hour bus ride from Budapest to Miskolc.  We've gotten settled into our hotel rooms and now finally get to really rest (in actual beds instead of on planes or busses!) before stepping on the ice for the first time tomorrow afternoon! 

  jó éjszakát!

  ~Amanda France~
  Team USA Senior
  Western Michigan University

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Day two in Hungary! 

Starting with breakfast this morning, we experienced our first real Hungarian meal.  We all found things we could eat, but were surprised to see lots of things like vegetables and pepperoni in the buffet! 

We took a nice walk as a team and got some fresh air and sunshine.  Despite the cold and snow, it was quite pleasant as the sun reflected on the snow and warmed things up a little.  There was a nice path down to a pond where there were ducks and swans that were very intrigued by our big group and followed us where ever we went.  There was also a well-known cave bath along the path, and we were all surprised to find that you can rent swimsuits!

We had our first practice today at the official competition rink.  We were happy to be led to a nice, large warmup room complete with mirrors on the wall!  We only wished we could have such nice, spacious warmup areas at competitions (or even our home rink for that matter) back in the states!  Unfortunately the slush from outside tracked into the room, making the floor slippery.  We moved our warmup to the hallway so we wouldn't slip, but couldn't bring our boombox out there with us, so we sang the Chris Brown song that we do our dance to!  It was quite the scene! 

Our practice was a great chance for us to get acclimated to the European ice and Olympic-sized rink.  We started off with circle cycles, and then took time to get our legs underneath us doing spread eagles, bauers, 135s, death spirals, and pair lifts.   We experienced a bit of difficulty with the music as the sound system was much different than ours back home.  The bass was blaring and we could hardly hear anything else.  Luckily, we figured it out by the time we started working on our short program!  Doing a couple run throughs and many sections, we had a few falls and stumbles here and there, but it was good to get the kinks out before we have to compete! 

Now we have downtime at the hotel for awhile until the Ice 'Kateers get here around 8:30!  We're excited to have another US team here with us!

~Amanda France~
Team USA Senior
Western Michigan University

Thursday, February 19th, 2009 

Today we got to take a trip to the City Center, which was a nice mall in downtown Miskolc.  While many things looked the same with the exception of the Hungarian language, it was neat to see all the different things that are true to Hungarian culture as well.  We did a little better with the language barrier as we all ordered food successfully and paid with forints.  It's weird that a simple meal at a food court is over 1,000 forints, when in the U.S. it would be under $5.00! 

We've come to realize that Miskolc doesn't seem to be much of a tourist city, so for the most part our biggest souvineers have been European chocolates!

After going to the City Center, we took a nice walk through the city to head back to the rink.  We sped through our off-ice warmup so we could watch the last half of the Ice 'Kateers' practice and show our USA support.  Immediately following, we had an hour of ice time to work out the kinks of our long program. 

Two of our seniors are at the rink right now participating in the draw ceremony for short program.  We are awaiting their return so we can find out what order we skate!  We'll be watching video from today's practice when they get back, and then we'll probably all be heading off to bed!  We're all exhausted!

 ~Amanda France~
Team USA Senior
Wesern Michigan University



Thursday, February 19th, 2009

The ICE'Kateers have officially gone International!

Our Hungarian adventure’s first day started off by sleeping in late then meeting for hair and makeup in the team moms' hotel room. We then went downstairs to the hotel's restaurant where we enjoyed a big breakfast that consisted of food similar to what we eat at home, such as cereal, eggs, and pastries (my favorite was the stack of thin pancakes layered with nutella!). After breakfast we left for unofficial practice at the competition rink. It was fun seeing teams from other countries. As we would pass by we'd attempt to wish them good luck, but the language barrier gave us some difficulties! We cheered on WMU, and watched them skate an excellent practice, and then walked to lunch at a restaurant behind the rink. 

After our meal we went to the mall, originally for a short trip inside to exchange money, however the bus driver didn't realize that we would be coming back quickly, because he drove away and told us that he'd come back in an hour! So instead of returning to the hotel, we walked around the mall with our guides asking them to teach us how to say certain phrases in Hungarian! Unfortunately we still had our Team USA jackets on, so we got quite a few stares from the locals in the mall! Our bus driver finally returned to take the team back to the hotel, first stopping to drop off the coaches and the co-captains, Kim Kelly and myself, to draw for our short program skating order. After the draw we went back to the hotel for a quick dinner, followed by a team meeting in our coach's room. Finally we were able to return to our rooms for a much needed good night’s rest after our first day in Hungary!

Wish us luck for our short program performance!

Taylor Walker
Team USA Junior
ICE’Kateers

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Today begins competition!

After half of us getting a ton of sleep and the other half hardly getting any, we woke up and ate breakfast at our normal time of 9:30 am.  We're all getting used to the food here and finding things we like.  We especially love all the fresh fruit they have!

We left at 10:30 to go watch the Ice 'Kateers skate their short program official practice and cheer them on.  They looked awesome and had wonderful expression and enthusiasm!  After we watched, we went to the basketball gym to warm up.  Two other teams were there as well, and it seemed like a music war as the other teams were both blasting their songs!  The Hungarian team was next to us, and we found ourselves singing along to their music, since they skate to Aerosmith "I Dont Want to Miss a Thing." 

Our locker room was a little *jankier* than the other locker rooms we've been in, and we all hurried to get out of it as quickly as we could.  The floor was dirty, it smelled interesting, and it was SO hot! 

Our short program official practice went pretty well.  We were happy to have the Ice 'Kateers there to cheer us on...  it always helps to have fans there to support us!  The first runthrough had a couple bobbles and one fall at the very end, but all in all was not too bad.  Even with the casual mistake, it still was better than our last two practices!  Our second runthrough was very good, and we were happy to end on a good note.  We had a minute left after our runthroughs to work on anything we wanted individually, so we all left the ice feeling prepared and ready to compete!

We went back to the hotel and ate lunch there.  It was pretty good!  One of the Ice 'Kateers, Kiwi, taught us their USA cheer, and we all practiced it together at the table. 

We had a chance to nap for a little while, and then started getting ready to compete!  We had a minor panic when we realized our team bag was missing... the freshmen left it on the bus!  Luckily it was the same bus that came back to the hotel to pick up the Ice 'Kateers and two of our seniors for the awards ceremony, so we got it back just in the nic of time! 

Now our hair is all slicked back and BLACK with our streaks of silver glitter.  Our make up is fierce, our tights are on, our skates and dresses are packed, and we're ready to go compete!  We're all feeling pumped and ready to go!  Hopefully we will represent the United States and Western Michigan University well with a strong short program!  Wish us luck!

I'll be back later with results and competition details! 

~Amanda France~
Team USA Senior
Western Michigan University

Friday, February 20th, 2009... Part II!

We all left the rink feeling great and excited!  After a clean short program, we are currently in first place with a six point lead over the other teams.  This puts us in a great position going into the long program, and we're fully ready to skate our hearts out tomorrow to our fun "I Want to be a Rockette" program!  Ice 'Kateers also had a great skate, which I'm sure Taylor will update you all on shortly, and all-in-all TEAM USA has had a great showing today! 

Tomorrow is a big important day for both teams, with long program official practice ice in the afternoon and competition in the evening.  We drew to skate second, which is perfect.  We skated second today, and decided it was lucky!  Hopefully Team USA will continue to thrive and bring our best to the ice here in Miskolc! 

~Amanda France~
Team USA Senior
Western Michigan University

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Congratulations ICE Kateers - second place after the short program!!

We woke up today in good spirits, excited to perform our short program to Celine Dion's sassy "River Deep, Mountain High"! After sewing up buns and beautifying ourselves, we left for the rink to skate official practice. Overall it went well, and we left the ice feeling confident. We watched Western Michigan skate a great practice, and then returned to Hotel Kitty to rest up for tonights competition.

Kim and I left early for opening ceremonies, which was a fun experience...mostly because they spoke Hungarian! While we waited for the rest of our team to meet us, Coach John brought us "MagDonals" (which is the Hungarian way to say "McDonalds")! Once the rest of the team came, we progressed to the warm-up area. We got our blood pumping with cardio and then got down to business with off-ice run-throughs. At the end of our warm-up, John had us do the program with heads only, working especially on our expressions which had everyone cracking up! By the time we left for the locker room, we were hyped for our performance and eager to do our best. For the first time in ICE`Kateer history we stepped onto the ice hearing ourselves announced as "representing the USA!" 

Our amazing performance earned us second place in our first international competition! We watched Western Michigan do an equally incredible performance and cheered them on, changing one of our cheers to say "USA" instead of "ICE 'Kateers"! Later we returned to the hotel to rest up for the long program tomorrow!

~Taylor Walker~
Team USA Junior
ICE 'Kateers



Saturday, February 21st, 2009

It's been a very successful competition for the WMU senior team!  After our first place finish in short, followed by our fabulous first place finish in long, I am proud to announce that we will be bringing home shiny gold medals and a very unique champion cup!

Our day began at the usual time of 9:15 with a wake-up knock from Leslie on all our doors.  We got breakfast and then headed to the rink to watch the Ice 'Kateers' beautiful long program official practice, and then warmed up and had our official practice.  There was added distraction in the warmup area today as there was a darts tournament in the other side of the gym!  Their hungarian loudspeaker announcements were just one more thing making it hard for us to hear our own music, but we managed to make it work anyway. 

Our official practice went pretty well.  We started out with a full run-through, which had a couple of minor problem spots, but all in all was not too bad.  We ended the practice on a good note.  We did the second 2/3 of our program with a very successful intersection, a nice block, a lovely moves sequence, eight successful pairs lifts, and a strong wheel.  We left the ice feeling quite confident and ready to compete!

We went back to the hotel for lunch and a little time to rest before we began hair and makeup. 

Competition time came around and we loaded the bus to head to the rink.  We went into the gym and did our warmup routine and stretched.  Ice 'Kateers were at the other end of the gym still, and when they finished, we made a tunnel for them to run through on their way out.  We took a break from our warmup to go watch them compete, and they looked dazzling as usual, with a very strong program leaving them in second place in long and overall!  Congratulations, Ice 'Kateers!

After watching, we headed back to finish our warmup with a mental runthrough of our program.  Then we headed to the locker room and got ready to skate!  Leslie passed around little "Dream" cards to all of us, each with its own individual inspiring quote on the inside.  We all went around and read them... it was very cute and motivational! 

Feeling fully prepared and ready, we finally went out there to compete.  We skated a lovely, clean program, and successfully accomplished even the elements that are most difficult for us!  With smiles on our faces, we awaited our results anxiously, and were all happy to find that we were currently in first!  We waited for the third team to skate and get their marks, and then we were really able to celebrate, as the scoreboard showed Team USA-- Western Michigan University in first place!

While waiting for the on-ice awards ceremony to begin, WMU and the Ice 'Kateers had a chance to bond with a couple different songs and dances!  Spirits were high as we all awaited medals, cups, and our national anthem being played!

Back at the hotel, we're all both exhausted and excited.  Tonight is a night of both packing and celebrating with eachother, with an early morning tomorrow to make our flight back home.

Upon our return to Kalamazoo, we're all ready to work hard in our preparation for Nationals-- just a week and two days until we leave!  With no time to take a break, practices begin again Monday night!

Thank you all for your ongoing support and encouragement throughout this season.  I hope you have enjoyed reading our blog!

~Amanda France~
Team USA Senior
Western Michigan University

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Hurray for the ICE`Kateers! 2nd place at our first international competition! 

We stood at the kiss and cry, linking arms and clutching the American flag, awaiting our results to follow an amazing long program performance. As the screen flashed "first place -  ICE 'Kateers" we erupted into a fit of cheers, jumping and waving our country's flag. With one team left to skate, we knew that first or second, we skated our best, and either way we were ecstatic! 

The awards ceremony will probably be my most memorable experience of the trip. Joining our fellow competitors from Sweden, Finland, Korea, and of course, Hungary, we accepted our first international silver medals! We finished the ceremony with a group picture kissing the ice, and a victorty lap around the rink, waving the American flag.

Congratulations Team USA for bringing home both gold and silver medals!

~Taylor Walker~
Team USA Junior
ICE 'Kateers




Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

After almost twenty-three hours of travel, Team USA Senior has arrived safely back in the cold and snowy Kalamazoo, Michigan.  A few of our wonderful collegiate skaters, as well as a couple boyfriends, greeted us at Lawson Ice Arena after they so kindly scraped the snow and ice off of all our cars!  The freezing temperatures and large amounts of snow are two things we are all NOT happy to be back to!

With spirits high going into Nationals, we're all excited to be back home for a short week before jumping on another plane.  We left Hungary hungry for a successful competition in Portland, Maine, and we hope to see many of you there!

Thank you again for reading our blog and supporting Team USA!  Congratulations to WMU Senior and Ice 'Kateers Junior on successful skates and representing our nation well in Hungary.  Also, a big thanks to Sharon Watson--team leader, and Suzanne Hecht-- team physician, for helping us out every step of the way during the trip.  We appreciate your support so much!

GO BRONCOS!

~Amanda France~
Team USA Senior
Western Michigan University