July 13, 1998

Hi everyone!

Hi, and welcome to my web page! I just came back yesterday afternoon from the North American Challenge in Lake Placid New york. I thought that it was a lot of fun! This type of competition was very different than any other competition that I had ever been in. In this competion the skaters skated representing team USA. USA and Canada were the two countries that were in this competition, and the idea of it was to make the skaters feel like they were in a foreign country competing in an international competition.

Some of the things that the USFSA did to make us feel like we were in an international competition was to have us stay at the hotel with a room ate, and not with our parents. We also did many things as a team, and not individually. I felt that it was a lot different than a regular competition because I wasn't skating only for myself, I was skating for team USA.

There were only six ladies competing, which was different than most other competitions that I have been in, such as nationals when there are twelve skaters in my group . Three of us were from USA, and three were from Canada. There were six men, five pairs, and five dance. There were also eight junior pairs.

Overall, USA got nine medals and Canada got six.

I competed on Friday and Saturday. I came in third in the short and second in the long. I had a very good time at this competition, and I hope to do more internationals in the future!