summer sun's calling my name

My post on Brussels is still in progress, but I had a lovely day today and therefore wanted to post about that and the weekend before it slips my mind as I try to recall the dozen other things I should post about.

We had a surprisingly gorgeous weekend--a bit chilly (meaning highs in the low fifties), but sunny. Saturday Lauren, Caitlin, and I went to the Marche des Lices, where we picked up some pastries as well as food for lunch (I grabbed some brie, amazingly fresh strawberries, and saucisson sec). We also stopped at my favorite tea place in town, which was lots of fun. Both Caitlin and I slept over at Lauren's on Saturday night, and we made tacos for dinner. SO YUMMY. Someone really needs to introduce France to Mexican food. They have no idea what they're missing out on.

I went to the ice rink Sunday morning, figuring that early on a Sunday morning would be my best bet to actually be able to practice. It certainly was! I skated for a solid hour and a half, ran lots of moves and ice dance, and tried jumping. Unfortunately, my ankle seized up due to the jumping, so I decided to stick to moves and dance. It was lots of fun skating on my own again (this was the longest I'd been off the ice since I started skating), and then Lauren and Caitlin showed up a few hours later and I skated around with them. The downside is that I am still in ridiculous amounts of pain. Being in running three times a week shape is nowhere near being in skating shape. My muscles are so not happy with me for skating, and it's possible I somehow managed to bruise my right ankle just by forcing it into my skate. Why did I pick this sport again?

Amazingly, the weather has stayed sunny (I think at this point we're at four straight sunny days, which is incredible). This has done wonders to change my opinion of Bretagne (which, as recently as a week ago, I considered a godforsaken place due to all the rain). I don't ask for much, just a little sun to keep me happy. Today Lauren and I were off of work in the afternoon, so I went into Rennes and we had a picnic lunch at Thabor. It was no Ile de la Barthelasse, but we'll excuse that for now, because there were no clouds in the sky. We were quite French about the meal--more cheese, bread, saucisson sec, strawberries, and wine. We spent about two hours simply luxuriating in the sun without jackets on, and I think I might've gotten a decent amount of Vitamin D for the first time since coming to Rennes.

So yay for food, friends, and SUN.

An American weekend in Paris

Last weekend was excellent.

I don’t usually embrace my nationality a whole lot while in France (aside from the moments when I talk about how where I come from you can go shopping at 3AM on a Sunday if you feel like it whenever I feel particularly bothered with everything being closed). Last time I was here I would flat out lie and pretend to be British or Canadian, because people were seriously not fans of Bush. Obama, regardless of what any Americans think of him, is much more popular internationally, so I’ve stopped lying about being from the US. That said, I only have so long in France, and I’m all about profiter-ing from my time here by embracing the French-ness. And, for the first two and a half months, that was exactly what I did. Then I went to a skating competition.

I haven’t been to a Senior level skating competition (excluding synchro competitions) since I competed at Indy Challenge in the summer of 2004. That, US Junior World Trials in the late 90s, and the 2000 US National Championships are the extent of my competition attending experiences (as a spectator), and all of those were only National competitions. Indy Challenge was an early season competition with only Pairs and Dance teams competing, and since I was busy competing myself, I don’t remember much of that, although I’m pretty sure I saw the Senior Pairs Short. The US Junior World Trials were in a Chicago suburb when I was younger, and my dad took me to watch. That was a pretty fantastic experience—if I was skating at all at the time, I had probably been skating no longer than a year, and I was absolutely in awe of everyone I saw. It was especially nice because I saw several up and coming skaters and then got to see them break through over the next few years. My biggest skating competition experience to date was the 2000 US Nationals in Cleveland. That was awesome. Not even going to get into the details or this whole update will be about that.

Anyway, the point of this recap is that I have not been to a Senior level competition in years, and all the competitions I have been to were National competitions, where most skaters had a lot of friends and family around cheering them on like crazy. And as for the dozens of synchro competitions I’ve competed in over the course of my life, I was always pretty sure that the real competition was to see which team could cheer loudest, not which team could win.

The crowd at Trophée Eric Bompard (which, when I was a kid, was called Trophée Lalique, and thus I shall be calling it Trophée Lalique for the rest of this update and probably the rest of my life as well as I do not adjust well to change) was not nearly so boisterous. On the few occasions when they were boisterous, it was for either for the two Frenchmen competing or for one of the Japanese ladies competing. The German World Champion pairs team also got lots of cheers, as did Finnish ladies champion Kiira Korpi. Not sure how there were so many Japanese fans there, but it makes sense that in Europe there would be a decent German and Finnish turnout. While I like figure skaters from all over, I’m definitely a bigger fan of US figure skaters. Maybe because I know more about them, I see them more often on TV, or because I can find more long, complicated ways in which someone I know knows someone they know—whatever the reason, most of my favorite skaters competing this weekend were American. And I supported them vocally.

At first I figured maybe I just knew too much about skating when I was the only one cheering for American pair team Felicia Zhang & Taylor Toth. I am, after all, far more invested in skating than the average person and they are, after all, just on their first season at the senior level. I could hardly blame people for not applauding them when the former Pairs World Champions were there. So, I continued the pairs event not too distressed by my excessive cheering, and it was a great event. I loved Zhang & Toth’s program, and in general pairs is a much better event to watch live than on TV. I had been completely disillusioned during the Olympics with what used to be my favorite event, but I was pleasantly surprised. Russians Bazarova and Larionov were fabulous. I hate admitting that people other than myself are right (particularly when it means I end up supporting a huge pairs dynasty like Russia, because I’d always rather cheer for the underdogs), but the Russian system of training really leads to amazing ice coverage and fantastic skating skills. It’s incredibly obvious in person but much harder to pick up on when watching on TV. Savchenko and Szolkowy, who won Worlds in 2008 and 2009, were also excellent, even though they did skate to Pink Panther, which is not my favorite music (largely because I had to skate to it and was less than pleased with my costume). They and the Russians were just in a different field from the rest of the competition.

The men’s competition was what I was least excited for, and for good reason. The highlight was Frenchman Florent Amodio, who did a very fun dance-themed program (Michael Jackson music included) and had the crowd going insane. There’s nationalism for you—I heard more “ALLEZ”-ing in the minute before his program started than I probably have in the rest of my life combined. He skated a really strong program and came in second. Brandon Mroz of the US was third, and while he was pretty good, the only thing exciting about his program was that I caught some people waving an American flag, which suggested that maybe I wasn’t the only American around!

There was a short break for the medal ceremonies for Pairs and Men’s. The medal ceremony did not include any real flags, just the images of flags projected onto the center video thing.

Ladies were next, and I was really excited to see the ladies field. Americans Mirai Nagasu and Alissa Czisny were competing (two of my favorite American ladies skaters, both of them former National Champions—Mirai in 2008 and Alissa in 2009), as well as Mao Asada (World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist last year and the only woman competing today with a consistent triple Axel), Kiira Korpi (who won Nebelhorn Trophy earlier in the season, and who is three months younger than me…which makes her old for a figure skater, but I still can’t believe that I’m older than most figure skaters now), Lena Marrocco (who is French and adorable and definitely younger than me), and six or seven others who I will not document so as to keep you from getting too annoyed with me. Unfortunately, the event wasn’t the most well-skated event I’ve ever been to, but it was still fun to watch. Marrocco started off with a nice triple-triple, but she started to fall apart as the program went on, and she was clearly exhausted by the end. I was pleasantly surprised by Sonia LaFuente from Spain. I had never heard of her going into the competition, but she skated a clean (as best as I can remember) program to Les Miserables. I don’t think she has her triple lutz yet, but she’s a lot of fun to watch and I’m excited to see where she goes from here. Mao Asada, who has had a terrible season so far, had a very rough skate. She was going for the triple axel during the warm up with decent attempts—one two-footed landing and one fall, but in the program she did a single and a double on her attempts, which was disappointing. She’s supposedly reworking her jump technique, but I have to wonder at the wisdom of competing while doing that, because I think she only managed to pull off one clean triple the entire program. It’s been a rough fall for her, but she’s a lovely skater and I’m hoping she manages to bounce back by Worlds.

It was when the second group of ladies skaters took the ice for warm-up that I started to realize that yes, I really was the only one cheering for Americans. It’s one thing to not cheer for a team just up from juniors, but Mirai Nagasu was fourth at the Olympics last year. My enthused reaction to her getting on the ice led the woman next to me to ask if I was American, which is the first time I’ve ever been asked that in France. Guilty as charged. This ladies group (which consisted of the medal contenders) unfortunately didn’t end up skating that much better than the first group. Alissa Czisny is an absolutely gorgeous skater. She’s taller than your average figure skater, but that gives her a really nice line on the ice. Her edges and spins are incredible, and I love watching her. Until she jumps. Because, sadly, most of the time she jumps, she doesn’t come down the way she wants to. And, once she makes one mistake on a jump, you can usually assume that she won’t land another clean jump for the rest of the program. As lovely as her program was, that’s exactly what happened. Mirai Nagasu had the strongest program of the night and won the long program (coming in second overall by a mere .05 since Korpi had a lead from the short program). Obviously, she did a great job and was clean on all her jumps (to the naked eye, anyway—she got marked down on a couple by judges using instant replay, which is fine), but she had a sad mishap on a layback spin that was painful to watch. It looked like she caught an edge and then she was completely unable to keep the spin going, which had to cost her a lot of points. Anyway, it was a huge improvement over her earlier long program this season, and it gives her something to focus on for Nationals and Worlds. I’m not wild about her long for the season; it seems a bit dull and doesn’t sing the way her past programs have, but it’s a post-Olympic year and there are bigger problems in skating. Kiira Korpi skated an overall solid program with one fall, and she does a great job on edges and transitions. I still think she needs to attack her last footwork sequence more (the music is Evita and that particular piece is Buenos Aires, which just begs for an awesome footwork sequence), but she’s really polished for this early in the season. Korpi was first, Nagasu second, and Czisny third.

By the time the Ice Dance event came around, I was cold (I think that the amount of time I’ve spent in ice rinks over the course of my life has permanently altered my body temperature and thus makes me get cold far too quickly), tired (despite all that time spent in ice rinks, much of it at six AM, it appears that I’m no longer very good at getting up at six AM to catch trains to Paris), and my back and calves hurt from sitting for so long (yes, I’m an old lady). But ice dance has taken over ladies as my favorite event ever since Michelle Kwan stopped competing, and it’s always been one of my favorite things to work on when I skate. While the Olympic Champions Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir had withdrawn from the event (the nerve of Tessa’s shins to get injured!), another of my favorites teams was there: Nathalie Pechalat & Fabian Bourzat. They, however, were the last to skate, so we had to first get through a Chinese team that skated to a weird techno version of Singin’ in the Rain (I wanted to give them a deduction for poor music). We then got treated to Canadians Kharis Ralph & Asher Hill, skating to Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. They were wonderful, with really nice knees and edges, and his lines on the ice are gorgeous. Following them we had a young American team just up from juniors who I’d never heard of (Cannuscio & Lorello). They had a rough skate, but they have a lot of raw talent and excitement, so they’re definitely another team to look out for. Another American team, Chock & Zuerlein, skated to Cabaret and a had lovely routine except for the part where she fell over and he dragged her along for a few feet. In synchro you’re supposed to immediately let go of anyone who falls, but maybe that’s not a rule in ice dance. They wound up with the bronze, a Russian team that didn’t make much of an impression on me was in second, and the utterly lovely Pechalat & Bourzat won with a Charlie Chaplin themed program. I first came across Pechalat & Bourzat in early 2008 when I was studying in Avignon. They were not the top French team at the time, but I happened to see them on TV during the European Championships and their edges and knee bend were amazing. I wrote in my journal at the time that they were going to be international contenders soon, and here we are, almost three years later, and they’re one of the top three teams in the world.

In case any of you are still reading this (HA! Maybe Anna, if she’s really procrastinating, but I’m pretty sure I lost everyone else with all the skate babble, and the only reason Anna understands it is because I forced the poor girl to learn everything I knew about skating so I’d have someone to talk about it with), I shall now quickly sum up the rest of my weekend and let you get back to your lives. I went to my hostel, got slightly lost on the way there even though I’d been there before, crashed, woke up, enjoyed my free breakfast and the fact that it came with free tea since this was a British hostel, hopped on the Metro since I had a few hours to kill before my train left, and searched out one of the only places that I knew would be open on a Sunday morning in Paris: Starbucks. I splurged on a tall skim mocha (since I am very well acquainted with French milk vocabulary and thus can ask for such things as skim milk) and spent an hour listening to Frank Sinatra and people watching. I figured that while I was being blatantly American over the course of my weekend, I might as well go all the way and have some delicious corporate behemoth-made coffee. And I enjoyed it.

Okay, I had hopes of getting entirely caught up, but I am just going to post this and be done with it. On our next installment: work, weather, and…um…walking? I do a lot of walking, I’m sure I can find a way to bring that up somehow.

Skating in France

I was planning on talking about the lycée a bit, but we’ll save that for another time. Instead you get all the details of skating in a foreign country!

I’ve never been skating outside of the US before (though I have touched Canadian ice), but I have skated in both Alaska and Texas, as well as in most Midwestern states. I looked up the ice rink in Rennes way back in April, so I decided to bring my skates along with me. I was going to head to the ice rink last Wednesday, but I ended up meeting the Spanish language assistant (Adriana, who’s from Mexico) and hanging out with her in Rennes. Yesterday, however, I decided it was time to investigate the ice rink. Adriana was the only one who came with--apparently skating isn’t at the top of most people’s lists upon arrival in France.

The rink is about a half hour bus ride from the center of Rennes, and they have two ice surfaces. There was a very long line to pay for entry, and their rental skates are just as awful as all rental skates (Adriana didn’t bring skates, oddly enough. I thought everyone traveled with their own pair of figure skates…). The excitement started when I sat down to put my left skate on (because I always put the left skate on before the right). I put it on, then pulled the tongue before starting to lace it up. Much to my surprise, the tongue came right out of the skate.

A sign that you may need a new pair of skates: the tongue of your skate falls out.

I’ve had these skates for seven years, and I’ve needed a new pair for a solid three years, I’d guess. But skates are expensive, and I had decided that it was either buy a new pair of skates or go to France. I opted for France, since they were going to give me a lot more money in the end. I have a feeling that some of that money will be going to a new pair of skates once I get back home…

The good news is that I can still use the skates. I’m not crazy enough to try jumping in them, but I was able to wedge the tongue in place and once I laced my skates up, it was pretty stable. It should be fine for coaching and maybe even ice dance, but I didn’t really get a chance to test it too much, because both ice rinks were absolutely packed.

This place seemed more like a nightclub than an ice rink. They had a disco ball, a fog machine, crazy lighting, and a dj. It reminded me a lot of the NCA parties we used to have at Rainbo Roller Rink in my youth, but I had never seen anyone try it with an ice rink. People seemed to be enjoying themselves, but there were no guards/authority figures of any kind out on the ice, and they were desperately needed. I felt myself slipping into skating coach mode (partially because I was helping Adriana skate), and I desperately wanted to: 1) kick all the kids off the ice who were eating candy, because they kept dropping their wrappers and I was the one who picked them up, 2) tell people not to make chains of more than two, as there were several chains of 10 or more, 3) tell everyone that, for God’s sake, if you feel like you’re going to fall, don’t flail your arms—bend your knees and bring your arms in front of you, 4) also tell them NOT to grab on to other people if you feel like you’re going to fall, because then you’ll both fall (some girl grabbed on to me as she was falling. I was stable enough to not fall down, but I was not happy with her), 5) remind them oh-so gently that if they fall, they should get back up immediately so that no one trips over them (and they might want to keep their hands off the ice unless they feel like getting stitches), and 6) stop the tiny hockey boys from weaving in and out of people at top speed. I also had to resist the urge to pull random people off the ice and tie their skates tighter for them. Lucky for everyone enjoying themselves, I didn’t know a handful of the words I needed to give any of these lectures (how do you even say blades?), and I didn’t feel like making any enemies just yet, so I simply shook my head and vented to Adriana.

As you can tell, it was a bit insane. I’ve seen far calmer school field trips end with someone going to the ER, so I’m shocked that I didn’t see any horrible injuries while I was there.

I didn’t do much on the ice—a back scratch, a sit spin, some rockers and counters. The ice was really hard (yes, ice can have different consistencies. Figure skaters like their ice a little softer so they can work the edges more, but hockey players and speed skaters like the extra speed you can get from harder ice), so I didn’t want to push loops or twizzles. I did help Adriana get used to pushing and gliding, and by the end she was okay skating a few feet away from the walls. She thinks I’m a scary skating teacher, though, because I wouldn’t let her hold on to the wall with both hands.

I’m not sure I’d want to go to another public skate there (though I’m tempted to try a weekday evening and see if it’s any calmer), but I did take down the e-mails and phone numbers of the two skating clubs at the rink. They have one for hockey and freestyle, and another one for dance and synchro (don’t ask me why they grouped freestyle and hockey together). I’m hoping they’ll have some figure skating specific hours for non-club members, but even if they don’t, I want to go help out with their synchro teams. How do you say gun hold in French? What about unconnected block? Or three-spoke? Bookend splice? Something tells me I might have to learn some French skating terminology. I wish they taught you that in French class.

In non-skating news: There was a dinner party here last night. When I walked into the room, Kevin and one of the guests were yelling at each other about what an ideal society was. I managed not to laugh. Barely. I love French dinner parties.

Jeanne and Nicolas have been over again a couple of times, and those kids crack me up. I crack them up, too—Jeanne likes me to tell her what everything is in English, and she loved hearing me say everyone’s names without the French accent (or rather, with the American accent, depending on how you want to look at it). Like most five year olds, she also talks nonstop about her birthday and how terribly soon it is (it’s in February). She does gymnastics, and Nicholas is crazy about soccer (shocker, I know). They’re coming over again on Tuesday, and I’m excited.

Also, it’s been raining nonstop lately. I do not enjoy this, which means I’m in for a long year in Brittany. I got my ballet flats completely soaked on the first day of school because I decided it was better to look professional than to have dry feet. This was a life choice that I will not be making again. Rain boots ahoy! With this in mind, I wore my rain boots to the ice rink. Naturally, it stopped raining right before I left the house, and it never started up again. You just can’t win. I did manage to sneak out for a run early this morning when there was a break in the rain, and thank goodness I got it in then, because it is absolutely monsooning now. It sounds like the roof is going to fall in.

So, assuming I don’t drown over the next few days, à bientôt!