JGP Courchevel: First Practice Day!

What’s harder to find than Waldo? Wifi in France. Upon arrival in France, we soon discovered that our hotel had wifi, but only if you were standing in the lobby. Every now and then you see a couple of skaters standing in the lobby hoping that the wifi works. 

Day 2 – First practice day. 

The morning started off at 7 AM, which is when I woke up. After my alarm went off a couple of times, I was able to drag myself out of bed, go into the bathroom, and start getting ready for my day. The bathing situation is quite different here than it is back home. For instance, we don’t have a shower – just a shower head. We don’t even have shower curtains. It was actually quite difficult being able to wash my whole body without covering the entire bathroom with water from the shower head. And the shower head isn’t attached to the wall – it’s attached to the bath at knee high level. 

After that incident, Chase informed me that he started laughing because I kept dropping the shower head and he could hear it. Then I continued with my day and went up stairs for breakfast. French croissants…They are excellent. After my quick breakfast I headed out for the rink. 

The rink is amazing. It’s a shame they covered the windows in the rink because they overlook the whole mountains and the view is completely breathtaking. Taking the ice for the first practice was like a dream. The ice was nice and I was on the ice representing team USA in France! Practice wasn’t too bad. It was really good to get my feet under me after a long travel day. 

For the rest of the day was spent watching the rest of my teammates finish their practices. Once the practices were done, Chase, Amber, Emily, and I went on a walk to the local supermarket. Forgetting to pack my Gatorade for the trip, I was able to find Gatorade at that store. We also bought a Kinder Surprise and a couple of other things. We bought a bar for Chloe, and Amber made quite an impressive throw from the street to Chloe’s balcony where Chloe caught the bar.

Dinner was delicious. We had pasta with sauce and carrots on the side. Lets not also forget about our little chocolate squares for dessert. 

Finally, Chase Belmontes and I finish the day by being kicked out of the restaurant next door for using their wifi…so now we’re finishing our blogs in the lobby where we have wifi. And that just about finishes my second day here in Courchevel. 

Kevin