| | Dear Diary,
My first trip as a senior at the U.S. nationals was exciting and a great experience.
Last Monday I left for Cleveland. My mom, my coach Sanday and I were traveling together. We arrived at Cleveland around 1 p.m. The weather was great, sunny but a little cool.
Once we were at the hotel and unpacked, we went to the hotel lobby to register for the event. That is always a fun part of the competition. You get your picture taken and a goody bag.
| |  | | | Elizabeth Kwon |
Afterwards we were looking for a place to eat. The people at the hotel's front desk said that there was a mall connected to the hotel. So we decided we would eat at the food court. The mall was huge and had almost every store I could possibly want.
When we were done eating, we went shopping. My mom and I went to the Gap, Bath and Body Works, Banana Republic, J. Crew and also the Disney Store. We got a few things but not too much because we couldn't take it all back home. My legs started to get tired from walking around so we went back to the hotel to rest for my first practice that night.
My practice that night at Winter Hurst went very well. I was really excited to be there before, during and after I skated.
On Tuesday I had a morning practice for my short program. It went well. Nobody from my practice group was there, but there were a lot of people who came to watch our practice. My mom and I went back to the hotel, where I saw many other skaters that I have met before at other competitions. I was really excited to meet all of them again.
Later I had an afternoon long-program practice at the Gund Arena. Backstage they had people who could do your hair and makeup. There was also a warmup area and a place where you and your coach could get food. When I first stepped onto the ice I thought, "Wow, it's bright!" It felt weird skating at the Gund Arena, but once I got going it was better. It was really warm there, so after I skated I was hot.
After my practice I wanted to get some new skating dresses, so my mom, my coach and I tried to pick out dresses we all liked. I took awhile to agree on the same ones. We went to the mall to get dinner and brought it back to the room to eat. Titanic was on HBO so I watched most of it and fell asleep.
On Wednesday I woke up at 7 a.m. and stretched and jumped rope in the room to get my body going. I had a Power Bar for breakfast on the way to the rink. Today I was excited for practice because I got to share the ice with Michelle Kwan. She was really nice. After I was done skating I wanted to see Opening Ceremonies later on that night, but I had an early morning practice the next day.
On Thursday morning I had to wake up at 6:15 because my practice was at 7:50. It was a 40-minute practice, and I got a lot more done than I had expected to. Once my mom and I got back to the hotel it was still only 9. I had room service and watched the Disney Channel. I also went to the mall with my mom and got my nails done. Once we got back to the room, we had to go back to the rink for my short program at Winter Hurst.
Friday was the day of my short program. I had a good draw and got to skate in the last warmup. All my practices before my short program were all right. I had lunch and then my coach's friend came over to my room to do makeup. She did an awesome job. I did my hair and it was time to go. Time was flying by.
Once I got on the ice to compete I got really nervous. I had to wait for a couple of skaters to go first, so I kept busy. Once it was my turn to skate, I was really nervous. I fell on my first element, which was my triple lutz. I did everything else in my program better than usual. I was disappointed in the way I skated, but the only thing I could do was skate better in the long program.
On Saturday I had a morning practice at the Gund Arena for my long program. It went very well. For the rest of the day until I competed I tried to keep busy and not think about how I would skate. I also watched the senior men on TV. Everybody skated very well. It was neat to see Michael Weiss regain the national title this year. I was on the second warmup and it went OK. I was more relaxed that day than I was during my short program.
I thought I skated pretty well, but again, I landed all my other jumps but the triple lutz. After I was done skating, I watched all the other skaters downstairs with my skating friends from home. I thought everybody skated fairly well. Once we went back to the hotel, I went to the competitor's party for a little while and came back to the room to sleep.
Nationals didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I learned a good lesson: I have to work even harder to improve for next year's season.
'Til next time,
Bye
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