Training Day: Practice with Colombia

Today was one of those regular days at the World Championships. I had like 6 hours to just lay around in the morning. Some of the Canadian team members toured the city, a few others slept, and some walked around the hotel.

At training, we got to skate at the same time as the Colombian team. There's a lot of them and they are good. Of course I was all giddy because I got to talk to a few skaters like Diego Rosero (Colombia), Pier Davide Romani (Italy), and Jorge Botero. When I said hi to Jorge Botero, I called him Mr. Botero.


I love the Netherlands suit this year. I will definitely try to trade for one of these.


Alex D'mello in good company- red on red. Canada right on Colombia's tail.

We concentrated on 2 things at practice; trying out different wheels and trying to get our lap times down. We're all improving, but there's still a lot of room for improvement in terms of being 'up there' with the most competitive skaters.


The big red Colombian machine; the train gets rolling and doesn't stop until the finish line. Their practices are like clock-work.


Information center at the track


Waiting for the bus after today's practice.


After skating, it was time to eat. After a lot of indecision, we settles on a Korean Grill (there's only hundredes within a stone's throw from the hotel). It was nice to experience genuine Korean culture, you know, the excessively spicy food (Alex D'mello and I love it!). Jesse Pauley, who's eating habits were described to me as someone conservative is really indulging himself with all the different foods. It's great because people are teaching us how to speak Korean, what the manners are, certain philosophies, and about the history of the area.