We met in the hotel lobby at 5:45 AM to catch the airport shuttle, but much to our consternation a large group of elderly German people had arrived first — by that point, however, we were used to unexpected delays with regards to travel plans, and were able to roll with it quite comfortably and make it to the airport with time to spare. This time we made sure to religiously monitor the flight information screens, and other than a delay waiting for takeoff position on the runway the flight was thankfully more-or-less uneventful. This means, of course, that we had finally made it to VIGO!!!
Our luggage had been kept safe for us and while we were waiting for the shuttle we entertained ourselves with a photo session in front of the WUTC welcome sign that had been placed in the hotel lobby. A short bus ride later we arrived at the hotel and were assigned rooms/roommates. Now it was finally time to begin training! We attempted to go to the event venue for registration, but it turns out that everything in Vigo completely shuts down on Sundays. We did have a short run-in with the Korean team though, some of whom were very excited to have their picture taken with RDC.
Not to be deterred, Team USA took a stroll down the block and decided to hold practice in a public park. It was quite hot outside, but we had a good upbeat cardio warmup to shake off the rust acquired from two days sitting on planes/in airports. After the general workout/warmup we broke down into groups and RDC, Bobby, and I worked a bit on forms. The highlight for me was when a group of Spanish kids came by and were very interested in our poomsae practice, even going as far to copy some of the motions of Pyongwon! I got to talking with them and they were very excited to learn that we were from the United States, asking whether I lived near Hollywood.
After the workout everyone headed back to the hotel and Bobby and I went out to find the one open convenience store in all of Spain; prices here are much better than in the airports — a large box of good-quality fruit juice for just one euro!). Each of the triples teams then had a very rigorous hour-long poomsae session with Master Chuang; it seems like the forms are starting to pull together nicely. Practice done, it was time for dinner with the team, where we made formal introductions and got our Team USA WUTC shirts to wear to the venue tomorrow and present a united front. Tomorrow we’ll really dive into things; breakfast at 7:30 and our first practice of the day from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. We’re feeling tired from the jet lag, the extended travel, and the workouts today, but spirits are very high and the whole team is very excited for the days of training and competition to come.
-sauza
Posted by jihye on June 30, 2010 at 11:04 pm
err…erika’s not doing a poomsae move. we should incorporate bobby’s into a form.