I watched the World Championships until 1am last night. I think that I'm going to work towards ice dancing because I'm too "chicken" to do any fancy jumps and such.

Currently searching for a figure skating coach for the summer.

I'm really happy to report that I can almost do the salchow jump now. I worked for 2 days on the 3turn alone and now I can get the 3turn and spiral into the jump. The only part I need to work on now is the actual take off and landing. I hope to accomplish the salchow by the end of my first year of university. So far, 3 jumps I know how to do: toe-loop, waltz, salchow

During my figure skating class today, I learned two jumps, the toe loop and the waltz jump. I can do both half rotation. I think that's pretty good for the first time learning them.

I can now stop on my skates too! I realized I couldn't with my old skates because my old skates were really flat and had no curve at the side that allowed for any decent stopping.

My goal for the end of the term is to learn the rest of the jumps to a half rotation. Dream big is what I always say.

I bought my first pair of "professional" figure skates today. They're Jackson Ultima skates. I'm not sure of the exact model though (should've checked). My size is 6.5B but I got a 7B. The man says they should be fine. I hope.

My friend asked me if I would be willing to spend thousands of dollars on figure skates if I reached the level that required so. I would. I don't care if I have to work hard for my money and if I will have no disposable income for a while as long as I am able to purchase something that genuinely brings happiness to my life.

Can't wait to skate with my new skates this Thursday

I have a ballet examination in two weeks. I'm quite satisfied with my progress within the past four weeks. Besides myself and my teacher, even some of my classmates have noticed a huge improvement in my performance. It really boosted my self-confidence today when one of my fellow classmates commented on how great of an improvement I've made.

I was speaking to my friend who did 15 years of ballet and she said that the stuff we're doing is equivalent to what she did 10 years ago. So I guess I'm working on ballet technique that kids with 5 years of experience are doing? I'm quite happy about the high rate of success for older ballet dancers.

In about 2 weeks time, my ballet class is going to start doing pirouettes. I can't wait. They look so pretty and graceful and it would be a pleasure to be able to learn the technique behind such a stunning movement.


Today I attended my skating class. My forward and backward crossovers are pretty much rock solid and I don't even stumble a little when I'm switching between legs. My teacher taught us how to spin today and I'm going to set a goal of being able to do 5 rotations on two-foot spin and at least 2 rotations on one-foot spin by the end of this term. Yes, I'm ambitious but I'm hoping that I will be able to learn quickly enough! As of the moment, I can do about 3ish rotations on two-foot and one rotation on one foot.


I went swimming yesterday and I can officially say that I can now do the breaststroke. What a terrific feat! I spent about 3 months working on it and now I can actually do it. It feels really good when you master your goals!

I started my first figure skating lesson on Monday. There were about 20 students all with different levels of training. There were even students who could do triple axles. I don't know what they were doing in a beginner class, lol.

I am hopeful about the next 8 classes. During the first class, I learned crosscuts. I realized that I wasn't doing them properly earlier because I didn't do the undercut. Now I can do forward crosscuts competently in both directions.

Today I went to figure skate at the rink and met a guy from my figure skating class. He's actually an exchange student and started skating for the first time. It's great that this hobby of mine brings me so many new friends :)

I was originally going to name my journal "figure8s" but it was taken. Oh well. jajajajanet is 10x cooler no? Haha, didn't think so.

After going to university, I have been crazed about figure skating. I go out of my way to go to the skating rink at least 3 times a week (although I've been quite inactive ever since the winter holidays started).

With so much time on my hands, I decided to do some research on figure skating online. Lo and behold, I found out that adults can actually participate in adult figure skating competitions. I had always thought that those were only for kids and that there were age limits to these sorts of things. But no! How ecstatic I was when I found out that little piece of information. In fact, so ecstatic that I spent a whole day sitting in front of my computer trying to locate the nearest figure skating coach. Yes, I have no life.

Starting in a week or so, I'm going to take up figure skating lessons. I have never had any formal training in skating before. However, I have self-taught myself how to glide, do 3 turns, mohawks, crossovers, etc. among other things. Having a coach will definitely encourage me and push me to a greater level. I hope to begin competing in adult competitions within 2 years, at the least.

An even greater discovery I made was when I stumbled upon skatingforums.com. It is an online community bringing together figure skaters from all around the world. Everybody is super friendly, encouraging, and motivating. A lot of people started skating when they were older and they've reached high levels of success. I am truly inspired by such individuals.

I know, since I'm starting at 18, I probably won't make it as a big Olympic athlete or anything. That's not what I want to get out of figure skating. Figure skating to me is more of an art. It is so beautiful. It is also challenging - you must push yourself past the utmost of your limits in order to reach perfection. I don't intend on competing in the Olympics but I do want to have the experience of competing against others that are just as passionate about figure skating as I am.