Lick my blades.
I spent the morning working on this silly micro/macroeconomics homework - I don't know if my solutions are correct (probably not), but it's the best I can do. I spent so much time on this thing; it will be aggravating to find out that it's all wrong.
I went skating in the afternoon - at the Centralniy again, because I liked it the last time. The rink was slightly fuller than last Sunday, but it was still okay - most of those were just people who skated laps around and around, the obligatory crazies playing chase or skating around backwards at high speed just barely dodging people, the figure skater girl who was there last time, and some other adult skaters like me, of about my level (some a little more advanced, some a little less).
Things I like about the Centralniy:
• the ice (though at the end of the session it gets bad)
• the music they play (very rhythmic and fun)
• the lockers (they're warm and have wash-sinks + mirrors)
• the people (not too many children and no figure skater children with coaches, no people jumping doubles and triples - I mean, skater kids and people who jump are great to watch, but no so great when you have to dodge them/get out of the way of their axels etc.)
Thins I don't like about the Centralniy:
• it's pretty cold (not extremely so, but ear-muffs would be nice ;) also, I wish I had a few turtlenecks here, or more sweatshirts like the one I wore today, ones that can be zipped up high so they cover your neck)
• the lockers (they're quite full sometimes, plus there's no place where to change - I haven't found the restrooms yet, either)
• the people (like I said, the guys who like to chase around. It's an ice-hockey rink first and foremost.)
• the price (it's not expensive like some other rinks, but it's not exactly cheap, either, sigh)
From what I've read, though, the Centralniy is one of the best places to skate in Moscow now that Krylatskoe is closed. The Olympiyskiy has nice ice, too, but it's filled with little figure skaters and there's no music - I know that music is probably a distraction when you're working with your coach, but I like music when I skate on my own. :)
ANYWAY! The important things! What I did!
My skates felt very nice on my feet this time, yay! I warmed up practicing edges: Stroking - mainly forwards (inside, outside edges), I tried going backwards a bit, but I think I'm not doing this entirely correctly. I even figured out one-footed slaloms (forward), I can do these pretty well on my right foot now, the left is a bit more challenging. (All because of the LFO.) One of these days I'm going to learn them backwards, too. I love how you feel your thigh muscles working on these. :)
Then I continued with crossovers, moved on to three-turns - and they were good, much better than the last two times! I did both forward and backward 3s and in the process I had this aha! moment in which I understood the difference between a row of threes and a twizzle. (I think.) I mean, I know what the difference is, in theory, but I felt it in practice now. :D I think I'll try to start working on twizzles a bit the next time.
I practiced spins - what I need to improve is centering. What are the main points to pay attention to keep your spins centered? (I'm only doing two-foot spins so far.) I managed a few times, especially when I entered them without doing crossovers beforehand. I kinda think that part of the trick is the posture, keeping your back and shoulders perfectly straight. One of my spins was so fast and long (for my standards :D), it made me even more dizzy than usual! I felt very proud.
There were a few people doing one-foot spins and I could watch and see how it's done and then try it myself. (It took a while to convert it in my brain, because I spin clockwise, whereas all the others were counterclockwise spinners.) It's not really working yet, because I tend to stand too far on the toe when I spin on one foot, so the toe-pick gets stuck in the ice. I need to work on this. (That was my only fall today, while attempting a one-foot spin. I landed on my butt, no biggie - butt-landings usually don't hurt. My hip and knee are still multi-colored from last week, though. XD)
Also, I jumped. As a consequence of my newly found confidence and stability, I tried to make my waltz jumps higher and bigger - successfully, methinks. I also practiced the toe-loop, which I also tried to make stronger, especially the reachback + toe-picking part. I still don't know if I'm doing it correctly, though.
There was this lady practicing loops and stuff - it looked very cool and kinda made me want to learn the loop. But well, I think it would be more reasonable to try the flip next, as it's rather similar to the toe-loop, only with a different take-off edge.
It's a little difficult for me to jump in these public sessions, because I jump clockwise, i.e. against the general skating direction. But it's okay.
One thing I found myself thinking about was how much it must hurt to jump jumps with 2+ revolutions. I wasn't in pain, but I could definitely feel the impact when I landed my tiny jumps, especially in the ball of my foot. Multiply that by 3 or 4 and... ouch.
I left the ice 5 minutes before the end of the session, when my toes felt a little (or a little more) numb.
It was a great session! I loved my blades and my boots. <3 I hope it will only keep getting better.
After skating, I went to Arbat Prestish to buy some facial powder (they didn't have my usual L'Oréal one, wtf?) and some blusher, because I'm running out of those. I'd been thinking about going to the market at Prospekt Mira afterwards to get some red peppers, tangerines and pastries, but it was starting to drizzle and it was later than I expected it would before I got to the metro, because it took a while to pick the right tone of powder. I think I'll go there tomorrow - I shouldn't, because that way I wouldn't have all those yummy pastries and wouldn't eat so much stuff, but... I want to. And they're cheaper than any similar things I can get in the supermarket, so. :)
I also bought tights in one of the "perehody" under the ground - I managed to rip both the pairs of black tights I'd brought and I'm going to the theater on Monday, so I needed new ones. Though I'm not sure if I'll wear black or skin-colored ones with my dress.
I ate a LOT for dinner, because I was all hungry by the time I got home... In fact, I ate much much more than necessary, sigh.
Talking about food, there are a few things that I've been craving lately:
• Cheesecake! I'll need to go to one of those cafés and get myself a slice soon. But they're so expensive... like half a skating session, for example!)
• Nutella! I walked through this shop on Arbat yesterday that sells European goods, but they didn't have Nutella! How come that there's no Nutella in Russia?! If I end up finding it, I probably won't buy it, though, because I bet it will be ridiculously expensive, kinda like in the USA.
• Donuts! I walked past this booth that had the cop from The Simpsons painted on it, stuffing himself with a donut. I was like... oooh, I'd love a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut! I didn't expect them to have Krispy Kreme, of course, but they didn't have ANY kind of sweet things, pastries, nothing. Just grilled chicken and such. Why would you put a picture of a donut on your shop if you don't sell donuts, I wonder?!
Also, an interesting observation I made while resisting all those writing supplies in the bookstore at Arbat yesterday. The only kind of paper Russians like is checkered - no ruled notepads?! Not that I really need a notepad right now, but... ;)
My roomie borrowed an old laptop from Maria (one of our Russian girls). Good for her. Only the fucker is SO LOUD and she didn't bother to switch it off when she left the room. It's annoying. She better come back soon.
Last but not least: new art journal post. I'm not content with how most of these turned out. I'm running out of materials, kinda, or rather I always need a big selection of various supplies for my collages. Sigh.
Purple colored skies
I went skating in the afternoon - at the Centralniy again, because I liked it the last time. The rink was slightly fuller than last Sunday, but it was still okay - most of those were just people who skated laps around and around, the obligatory crazies playing chase or skating around backwards at high speed just barely dodging people, the figure skater girl who was there last time, and some other adult skaters like me, of about my level (some a little more advanced, some a little less).
Things I like about the Centralniy:
• the ice (though at the end of the session it gets bad)
• the music they play (very rhythmic and fun)
• the lockers (they're warm and have wash-sinks + mirrors)
• the people (not too many children and no figure skater children with coaches, no people jumping doubles and triples - I mean, skater kids and people who jump are great to watch, but no so great when you have to dodge them/get out of the way of their axels etc.)
Thins I don't like about the Centralniy:
• it's pretty cold (not extremely so, but ear-muffs would be nice ;) also, I wish I had a few turtlenecks here, or more sweatshirts like the one I wore today, ones that can be zipped up high so they cover your neck)
• the lockers (they're quite full sometimes, plus there's no place where to change - I haven't found the restrooms yet, either)
• the people (like I said, the guys who like to chase around. It's an ice-hockey rink first and foremost.)
• the price (it's not expensive like some other rinks, but it's not exactly cheap, either, sigh)
From what I've read, though, the Centralniy is one of the best places to skate in Moscow now that Krylatskoe is closed. The Olympiyskiy has nice ice, too, but it's filled with little figure skaters and there's no music - I know that music is probably a distraction when you're working with your coach, but I like music when I skate on my own. :)
ANYWAY! The important things! What I did!
My skates felt very nice on my feet this time, yay! I warmed up practicing edges: Stroking - mainly forwards (inside, outside edges), I tried going backwards a bit, but I think I'm not doing this entirely correctly. I even figured out one-footed slaloms (forward), I can do these pretty well on my right foot now, the left is a bit more challenging. (All because of the LFO.) One of these days I'm going to learn them backwards, too. I love how you feel your thigh muscles working on these. :)
Then I continued with crossovers, moved on to three-turns - and they were good, much better than the last two times! I did both forward and backward 3s and in the process I had this aha! moment in which I understood the difference between a row of threes and a twizzle. (I think.) I mean, I know what the difference is, in theory, but I felt it in practice now. :D I think I'll try to start working on twizzles a bit the next time.
I practiced spins - what I need to improve is centering. What are the main points to pay attention to keep your spins centered? (I'm only doing two-foot spins so far.) I managed a few times, especially when I entered them without doing crossovers beforehand. I kinda think that part of the trick is the posture, keeping your back and shoulders perfectly straight. One of my spins was so fast and long (for my standards :D), it made me even more dizzy than usual! I felt very proud.
There were a few people doing one-foot spins and I could watch and see how it's done and then try it myself. (It took a while to convert it in my brain, because I spin clockwise, whereas all the others were counterclockwise spinners.) It's not really working yet, because I tend to stand too far on the toe when I spin on one foot, so the toe-pick gets stuck in the ice. I need to work on this. (That was my only fall today, while attempting a one-foot spin. I landed on my butt, no biggie - butt-landings usually don't hurt. My hip and knee are still multi-colored from last week, though. XD)
Also, I jumped. As a consequence of my newly found confidence and stability, I tried to make my waltz jumps higher and bigger - successfully, methinks. I also practiced the toe-loop, which I also tried to make stronger, especially the reachback + toe-picking part. I still don't know if I'm doing it correctly, though.
There was this lady practicing loops and stuff - it looked very cool and kinda made me want to learn the loop. But well, I think it would be more reasonable to try the flip next, as it's rather similar to the toe-loop, only with a different take-off edge.
It's a little difficult for me to jump in these public sessions, because I jump clockwise, i.e. against the general skating direction. But it's okay.
One thing I found myself thinking about was how much it must hurt to jump jumps with 2+ revolutions. I wasn't in pain, but I could definitely feel the impact when I landed my tiny jumps, especially in the ball of my foot. Multiply that by 3 or 4 and... ouch.
I left the ice 5 minutes before the end of the session, when my toes felt a little (or a little more) numb.
It was a great session! I loved my blades and my boots. <3 I hope it will only keep getting better.
After skating, I went to Arbat Prestish to buy some facial powder (they didn't have my usual L'Oréal one, wtf?) and some blusher, because I'm running out of those. I'd been thinking about going to the market at Prospekt Mira afterwards to get some red peppers, tangerines and pastries, but it was starting to drizzle and it was later than I expected it would before I got to the metro, because it took a while to pick the right tone of powder. I think I'll go there tomorrow - I shouldn't, because that way I wouldn't have all those yummy pastries and wouldn't eat so much stuff, but... I want to. And they're cheaper than any similar things I can get in the supermarket, so. :)
I also bought tights in one of the "perehody" under the ground - I managed to rip both the pairs of black tights I'd brought and I'm going to the theater on Monday, so I needed new ones. Though I'm not sure if I'll wear black or skin-colored ones with my dress.
I ate a LOT for dinner, because I was all hungry by the time I got home... In fact, I ate much much more than necessary, sigh.
Talking about food, there are a few things that I've been craving lately:
• Cheesecake! I'll need to go to one of those cafés and get myself a slice soon. But they're so expensive... like half a skating session, for example!)
• Nutella! I walked through this shop on Arbat yesterday that sells European goods, but they didn't have Nutella! How come that there's no Nutella in Russia?! If I end up finding it, I probably won't buy it, though, because I bet it will be ridiculously expensive, kinda like in the USA.
• Donuts! I walked past this booth that had the cop from The Simpsons painted on it, stuffing himself with a donut. I was like... oooh, I'd love a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut! I didn't expect them to have Krispy Kreme, of course, but they didn't have ANY kind of sweet things, pastries, nothing. Just grilled chicken and such. Why would you put a picture of a donut on your shop if you don't sell donuts, I wonder?!
Also, an interesting observation I made while resisting all those writing supplies in the bookstore at Arbat yesterday. The only kind of paper Russians like is checkered - no ruled notepads?! Not that I really need a notepad right now, but... ;)
My roomie borrowed an old laptop from Maria (one of our Russian girls). Good for her. Only the fucker is SO LOUD and she didn't bother to switch it off when she left the room. It's annoying. She better come back soon.
Last but not least: new art journal post. I'm not content with how most of these turned out. I'm running out of materials, kinda, or rather I always need a big selection of various supplies for my collages. Sigh.
Purple colored skies