As you all know I recently took a trip to Canada in March. It was my second International Assignment out of the country. I went to Canada with my coach Armine, which was different from when I went with Al in Belgium. Going to a meet with only one coach is a great experience because you get to bond and learn more about each other. I have gotten to know Al and Armine very well, and they are like my second parents now.
When we flew into Canada, It reminded me of when I visit my family in Michigan. There was snow on the ground, and when there wasn't it was snowing! I am used to snow, but not in March. The hotel was very nice and it reminded me of a castle. Amber, Corrie, and I got two connecting rooms. We had one or two practices each day before the meet. We transported to the competition site by sharing a bus with the Russians. We became the closest with the four Russian girls because we were around them the most. We even sat in the hot tub with them after the meet, and they taught us how to speak some Russian. It is harder than it sounds!
The first competition day was a Saturday and I thought I had a pretty good meet. The best part of that day was when I hit my bar routine, and it felt like my best bar routine of my life! It felt very clean and I couldn't wait to see Armine's reaction. She was really proud of me, especially because I had a little trouble on bars in the workouts before.
The second competition was even better than the first. I had a chance to do event finals on all four events. I thought it would be kind of hard competing two days in a row, but I found out that the adrenalin helped me. I even won floor, thinking that would be the hardest event to do well at two days in a row. Along with winning floor, I got third on vault and second on beam. I was very proud of myself and I know my family was also. My parents didn't get a chance to come along with me to Canada, but two of my aunts and two of my uncles drove nine hours from Michigan! I had a really great time with them, especially because I hadn't seen them for three years. One of my aunts even cried when I was standing on the first place podium because her last meet that she went to, was a compulsory State Meet.
So that was my fun learning experience in Canada, and my next goal is to make the Pan American team in the next couple of months.
