Day 7 - Tallinn, Estonia

Another beautiful morning in chilly Estonia. The day started with a light pre-training breakfast in our hotel to fuel us on for our day ahead. Some team members also participating in the new morning ritual of "sneaky sandwich making". Focaccia bread and a sneaky filling of choice for a nice light lunch in the comfort of your hotel room or someone elses :). After breakfast kicks off the days first number off; with some daring skaters trying their luck at the Finnish translation of their number. Then comes the bus trip, full of mixed energy levels, some skaters opting for a pre-training power nap, others chatting amongst each other, or singing off key (thanks phoebe :) ), while others just take it all in and try to wake up! Our pre-trainng warm up is a very important part of the session, staying warm in our own personal indoor freezer is harder than it sounds with this morning's temperature being a chilly -6 C! But with a little bit of help from Ike and Tina Turner, our blood was soon pumping as we danced up a storm to the Nutbush. Today's session was a mixture of both the free program and the short. It was a good arm workout as we spent a good amount of time drilling lifts and getting more consistency and shape. It was a very productive session, with lots of videos taken from different angles, allowing for better critiquing. Back on the bus the daily awards were awarded. Today the award going to two people for "Outstanding Edges." Flea and Saara, were the only choice! After training we returned to the hotel for a light dynamic and static stretching session, taking over level 8. Free time allowing our sneaky skaters to enjoy their earlier made lunch, whilst others took naps, went shopping, did school work or ate out. In preparation for our surprise visit back to our training venue for a curling lesson and a few rounds against each other. The team purchased tickets for the local bus to take us to the "rink." The skaters, coaches, management and parents all taking part in this icy, tactical, slippery sport. Our instructors showing us some helpful ways to get the "stones" to the opposite end of the scoring circle. Some skaters with a natural flare for the sport, while others learnt and improved as they went. And as for the coaches and parents....Well, they tried ;). After some teams admitted defeat while others basked in their glory, our time was over and after a quick team photo, we walked to the bus stop, waited and waited and waited for the number 15 bus. For some it was all too much and a little nap on the bench was necessary. Finally the bus arrived and we all squished into the over crowded bus, just. While the daring members of the team went to another shopping mall, others went back to the hotel for dinner. The team then met up for our daily video analysis, wrote in our notebooks of handy things to remember and to correct in the programs and an early night was needed and deserved by all - except for those with school work to FINNISH!!! :) Written by Tania. Advised by Flea.