Nationals Part 1: Seattle

Part 1: On the road again, first stop to Nationals was Seattle Wa. The five hour car ride was pretty boring, nothing exciting. I was able to read several chapters in: Rifles for Wattie. I am only half way done with it, but I already love it. I ended up bawling in the car. Such a good book. When we arrived we were 5(ish) hours before our flight to VA. So we went down to Pikes Market. I love it there. We split up, my parents and Sarah went to Sur la Table. Ryan and I went down to the park over looking the ocean. It was so beautiful. A Mariners game had just got out, so there were tons of people there. After walking the packed market, we went to dinner at Ivars. It was fun to have dinner on the pier. I took up enough courage to try Ryan's oysters. It wasn't to bad... as long as I didn't look at what I was eating. After that we fed the birds. Surprisingly I did it without flinching. We walked by all the piers, staring at the gorgeous ocean. One of the high schools had prom out on one of the ferries. Everybody was so dressed up. For once in my life I felt under dresses. I really wish I had gone to the prom. We went to the airport next. We took a shuttle from our parking lot. For the first time that day I heard “real” music that actually had a beat. But that was short lived. We took an overnight flight to Dullas. I didn't sleep a bit of it. :( The played Alice in Wonderland as the feature movie. After the first 20 min. I decided this wasn't the movie for me. So I pulled out “Walk to Remember” and started to read. I ended up reading it in a day, most of it in the airport then the rest at night in the hotel. I really liked it. It was very different then the movie, but I loved it. The last 3 chapters I read at our hotel. I ended up having to read it in the bathroom because I was crying so hard. In the Dullas airport we had a layover. My parents didn't want to buy food because it was expensive and we were going to land in VA in 3 hours. But Sarah and I were really hungry so we went for food. We came across a coffee stand where they couldn't read or speak English well. Sarah wanted to use a coupon for buy one get one free. So he looked at it for a moment saw the logo he said “yes.” We didn't know till later that he had no clue what it said. So he said “one coffee” so Sarah said “Yes! I want to buy one and get one free.” so he said “one coffee”. Sarah went on to try and explain the coupon to him. That went on for 10ish minutes till a line accumilated behind us. Sarah finally gave up and paid for one coffee and a muffin. By the time we came back with food, my family was now hungry. Needless to say Sarah and I didn't really get any of the food. We got on our last flight of the day, that only last 20 minutes.
Yeah, so that was day 1.
Keep me in your prayers, God bless!

National Prepartion

As I was preparing for Nationals,I was going over all the ways I could make my duo more "real". Thinking about how I could get people to see me not as an average teenage American girl, but a Czechoslovakian Jew that had to face sorrow, pain, hatred, death. Holocaust was horrible, something that none of us want to hear, read,or even acknowledge that humans could be so heartless. Living in North Idaho I haven't experience, seen, or understood the holocaust like the people near the Holocaust museum in Washington, or people who lived in Germany. So when I was preparing I had to realize that these two teenagers were real. To think that a girl of 12 lost everyone she loved. Her mother, father, brothers, and sisters all of them gone. The Prodject Judaica Foundation said "Of the vast majority of Czech Jews who were taken to Terezin, 97,297 died among whom were 15,000 children. Olny 132 of those children were known to have survived." Raja was one of those 132. She feel in love at the camp. When she did, she found hope and reason to live. Honza was her everything. He ends up dying in the end. I can imagine how much pain she suffered. She lost her family, forced to work in painful conditions, lost everything she knew, and ultimately lost the only man she loved. For the speech to become "real" I have to capture that desperation. I definitely have my work cut out for me, but I can't do it justice. This story has to be shared. So we will never forget what the world would look like if we had no God. I wanted to share a poem that Raja wrote. (the girl that I am playing.) This is the full poem, if you saw our duo I only read half of it due to time. Also, I wanted to share her ending lines, she says them as an older woman sharing her past story.

So here is her poem:
"I never saw another butterfly
The last, the very last
so richly, brightly, dazzling yellow.
perhaps if the sun's tears sing
against a white stone.
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it
wished to kiss the world goodbye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto,
But I have found my people here.
The dandelions call to me,
And the white chestnut candles in the court.
Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don't live here in the ghetto."

Raja ended up living in the camp till she was 19.
Here is what she said looking back at that time in her life:

"Goodbye. It was the motto of Terezin. It should have been written over the entrance instead of the lie that greeted newcomers: "Work makes us free" It was goodbye, not work, that made us free. It was the only thing we knew would never change. Goodbye... goodbye... goodbye. It freed us all. What was there to fear when you had said goodbye to everone you ever loved?
... My name is Raja. I am a Jew. I survived Terezin, not alone, and not afraid"

That paragraph is so powerful, send chills up my spin everytime. After Nationals I will post a video of Sam and I doing the duo, so you can all see. But I would strongly encourage you to read the play. It is so sad and powerful. It is "I never saw another butterfly" by Celeste Raspanti.

P.S. The writer is really cheesy.

Rainy days

For the last several months, all we have had was rain and clouds. Yesterday was the first sunny day in a long time. In North Idaho people are sick and tired of rain. I haven't really appreciated rain until this year. Today as I was doing my personal devotional, I stared out into they gray sky and the rain. I was captivated by its beauty. As much as I love the sun and warmth, nothing can compare to the beauty of rain. Most people, especially the ones in my family, hate rain. Because we haven't taken a moment to stop and take in how wonderful it is. Take a moment to see all the beauty God created for us. Weather it be rain, sun, snow, grass, flowers, it was created to be enjoyed by us. Stop and delight in the glorious world the God created. It is amazing. Yeah, this was a very random post, but I was so captivated by the rain that I just had to share it.

Cute story? I say yes.

I found this on facebook, but I thought it was a *really* cute story. "When my sister was younger she came home from school one day and demanded I take her to the library so she could get books on sign language.I asked why? She told me there was a new kid at school who was deaf and she wanted to befriend him. Today I stood beside her at their wedding watching her sign "I DO"."

My weekend (part 3)

My last two post wouldn't let me add these. So this is us at Stars on Ice.

(Laura, Michelle, Val, Sarah, and yours truly)

P.s. I love the second one. Val and Sarah looks so cute and I am acting like a dork. It fits us well.

My weekend (Part 2)

On Saturday, we had a very relaxing morning. In the afternoon we had a set of call backs. After that we went to Cici Kliens, ballet school of CDA, "Cinderella." It was incredible. Cici, like always, put on a perfect performance. After being in the school for so many years I knew the dancers strengths and weaknesses. I was very impressed by a few dancer and a little disappointed with others. But overall it was beautiful. The costumes were gorgeous. Cici has the best eye for detail. I sat at the edge of my seat as I watch fouettes, grand jeta, pirouettes. Mascaraed costumes were perfect. The were black and white, white and red, with glitterly masks to match. Each character, weather in the spot light or not, played a important character and played it well. As the four season did their solos, they ended with a leap as they would through leafs, flowers, snow flakes, based upon the season. At the very end the spot light was on the god fairy as she spun glitter would droped. It was so amazing. I loved it.
On Sunday, we played a very small, in size, game of Frisbee. There was only 9 of us, and I was the only girl. It feels so great to have small games, where you run a lot, play a lot, and can talk with everyone.
My weekend was wonderful, which made it all the harder to wake up this moring and do school when my friends had it off. Every time I see something like this weekend, that is beautiful, artistic, gorgeous. It make me think of what heaven will be like. It will be more beautiful then that. I can't wait to see all the beauty.

My weekend

I had such a fantastic weekend, so I thought I would share it. I am a very artistic person so this weekend was perfect. On Friday night my sister and our friends went to Stars on Ice. It was wonderful. We went out to dinner at the onion. Because of a duo practise that went till 2 I didn't have lunch till 3. So I wasn't hungry at five. I ordered the best creme brulee I have ever had. It was great. We decided to walk to dinner. It gave us time to talk, laugh, and just enjoy Spokane. Five gorgeous girls walking down the side walk of downtown Spokane laughing. It almost seemed like it was a scene in a movie. When Stars on Ice started we were all infatuated. There was so many Olympians there. There was so many styles and songs. We all had been to the Ice Skating Nationals last January, but this was so much better. The skaters were so relaxed. The skated as if they were the only ones in the building. So much passion was expressed by all the skaters. Michael Weiss did three flips. Jeremy Abbott did the best performance to Michael Buble's "Hold on." It was so incredible. Sasha Cohen is the most beautiful skater I have ever seen. Her lines were perfect, expression was priceless, she was a joy to watch. Of course, Evan Lysacek was amazing. He skated to Michael Jackson. His costume was the white shirt with one glove and his expression were very Michael Jackson. All of the other skaters were incredible. It was one of the greatest experiences. Afterward, this random "crreper" asked me out. It was very awkward. He was sitting next to me.