Stefs atstājis garāko ierakstu savā žurnālā un ar bilžiem
Dear friends,
Sorry for this long period without any updates; this summer has been crazy, I’ll try to give you a good summary of it. It’ll be hard though to remember everything, so many things have happened and I also took 3 weeks vacation after a long season that started last September at the Nebelhorn Trophy!! Let’s get it started…
After Dreams On Ice, I left Narita airport for Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where I met my best friend Katy with whom I spent a wonderful week! I went there as a new ambassador for SOS-Children Villages. We visited the SOS children village in Ben Tre: in SOS villages children who have lost one or both parents get the opportunity to live together, as a family in a house with a mother, and brothers and sisters get to stay together. Check out the article about my visit on the SOS-Children Villages website. The village also has a school, a kindergarten and a vocational centre; all these facilities also benefit to the children and adolescents that live near the SOS village. I met with the children living in the village and also with the school children: we showed them a video of my performances on ice and I tried to explain what it is like to be a figure skater; the children were so sweet, very attentive and asking many questions. They gave me a lot of energy and I see life from another point of view after this rewarding experience. It was a beautiful country, and very different from what I had seen before while travelling.
My visit to Vietnam was over and I was ready to meet again with my most faithful fans in Japan for a few shows in Niigata with Fantasy On Ice. There I performed the sexy choreography with Shizuka on Beyonce’s song Get Me Bodied and La Traviata exclusively for the last show. It was a big pleasure to feel the excitement of the crowd. Thank you, especially for all the amazing presents you offered me!
Back home, I went to Oberstdorf for a few days to practice with Salome and Peter; then to N.E.R.D’s concert at Paleo (a big music festival between Lausanne and Geneva) with some friends; and it was already time to get my suitcases ready for my next destination: Seoul! How can I describe what happened there? Actually, I was lifted by the magical atmosphere at the venue, and was able to show a clean William Tell program with a 4T, I felt it was so easy and light… please keep sharing your wings my lovely zebras!
End of July, I finally got my 3 weeks vacation including a few days home, a trip to Norway and the warm sun of Cyprus!
Starting skating after 3 weeks holiday, OMG! How can muscles get so lazy after only 3 weeks?! Anyway, I got ready for the inauguration of a new ice rink in Zug, Switzerland, which is a beautiful building! The show was good and I appreciated skating in my country, not far from where William Tell fought for the independence of Switzerland!! I forgot to tell you that I also did a cool photo shoot for the best store in Lausanne! It will come out soon, be patient! Last week, I worked as a consultant with Joannie Rochette for a skating seminar held in Lausanne. We were working with skaters from the Lausanne & Malley skating club and the Suisse Romande team (French speaking part of Switzerland). The children’s eyes were full of sparkles, and I was so happy to watch all those kids with their dreams: it reminded me when I was 7, starting my passion! I wish them a healthy career full happiness and success, even though medals aren’t the most important thing; the life lessons that skating or any other sport gives you can’t be valued! Keep following your dreams! With Joannie, we also attended a small reception organised for us at the Olympic museum where they are exposing our costumes from now on; I decided to lend my costume from the 2006 Olympics. The zebra is hopefully in good hands!
Well, you must be dizzy with all these stories, so I guess I’ll let you go to enjoy every step of your life, new adventures are always waiting for us! Go for it!!!!! Mine is China at the moment and then Japan next week! I’ll tell you all about this in my next Journal entry…
XOXO,
Steph
