Friday, February 21, 2014

Home sweet home

Finally made it home. My luggage didn't make it. At Charlotte the airline switched gates on us five minutes before we were suppose to board and they never transferred the luggage. So my bag is in Myrtle Beach right now. It'll be delivered to my house sometime tomorrow. With everything that I've been through today, I really don't care that much about it. I'll get it tomorrow. No big deal. 
Well it's great to be home and I'm looking forward to a good nights rest in my bed. 
I'll do some more posting tomorrow

Almost home

I'm in Charlotte, NC and Marc is still stuck at JFK. His flight to Chicago was delayed four hours so he switched to a flight in the morning from LGA. Now he gets to spend sometime with our brother Brad who lives in NYC. Marc should be at Brad's apartment. He hasn't answered me. Anyways, I'm at my gate waiting for my flight to Savannah. It boards at 10:05pm so I should be boarding soon. I can't wait to go home and sleep in my bed. It's been a lonnggggg day. Almost 24 hours of flying. Still haven't slept. I'm exhausted. I'll probabaly sleep in the car on the way home haha. I always do. Ok well I'll let u guys know when I'm home. Tomorrow I will post more pics of Russia and do a little reflection on my trip. After that, I will be done with the blog. Hope you guys have enjoyed it so far! 

Back in the USA

We finally landed! We landed around noon. Sorry I didn't post earlier. I know some of you were waiting for me to tell you. Sorry about that. 
The flight was great and it actually went by pretty fast, even though it was a 10 hour flight. I guess the movies made it go by quickly. So Marc and I are here in the JFK airport waiting for our flights. We part ways here. Marc goes to Chicago and I go to Charlotte then Savannah. 
It just hit me earlier that my vacation is over and it's time to go back to reality. No more meeting Olympians and other famous people and getting pictures with them. I'm gonna miss it. Russia/Olympics was really fun and pretty awesome. I definitely want to go back someday. 
I think Marc and I were the men's hockey team's lucky charm, because as soon as we left, they lost. They lost 0-1 to Canada. We are now in the bronze bracket and we will play Finland tomorrow morning. 

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Our Russia trip is almost over

Marc and I are in the St. Petersburg airport waiting for our flight to Moscow which is at 10:45pm. We will stay overnight there and then begin our 9 hour flight back to the USA. We're glad that we're coming back home, but we are gonna miss it here. It's been a trip of a lifetime and Marc and I already agreed that when the Olympics are in America, we're going. Once you've been to one Olympics, you always end up going to another. That's what people tell us anyways. Marc has a college friend who lives in Tokyo and Marc and him have already started talking about maybe going to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. 
Alright well I'll write some more later when we get to Moscow. For now here is an article that Rick Morrissey, a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times wrote about us. 

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Last Day in Sochi :(

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I had a headache. Well a lot happened yesterday. We saw and met many athletes and medalists in USA House. Marc met Ryan Miller coming out of the bathroom and asked him if he would take a pic with me. When Marc tapped me on the shoulder and when I saw him, my jaw dropped. He was so nice! And I shook his hand twice. It's funny Marc how met Ryan in the bathroom and I met his wife in the bathroom too. Talk about irony! I also got a pic with Julia Mancuso. She was sitting right next to me on the couch. We also saw part of the USA men's hockey team, former figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi (she was at the table next to us and she looked at me and smiled), figure skater Jason Brown, figure skating ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and bobsled bronze medalists Steven Holcomb and Steven Langton (Nitro). 
Yesterday we went to the men's 10000m speed skating. Speed skating really is a cool sport. I wish I could try it. Marc and I were both kind of bummed that Apolo Ohno wasn't racing, but he deserves to be retired. OMG!! As I am writing this, Apolo Ohno just walked into USA House.. No joke! He is at the table right next to us. I'm gonna try and get a pic with him later. Anyways, Netherlands killed it in speed skating yesterday. 
Today, we were walking to Olympic Park and we heard someone yell, "Cohens!" and we turn around and it was our two friends from Amherst, NY! So that was pretty exciting. 
Well today is our last day in Sochi and let's hope we end our trip with a bang! We are going to the quarterfinal hockey game tonight at 9pm to see USA vs Czech Republic. Go USA!!
Apolo Ohno ^ 
Apolo Ohno ^ 
Apolo Ohno ^ 
^ Me and Ryan Miller!! Go USA!! Go Buffalo!!
^ Me and Julia Mancuso
^ Meryl Davis and Charlie White
Meryl Davis and Charlie White ^
Meryl Davis and Charlie White ^ 
^ Got my pic with Apolo Ohno (:

Monday, February 17, 2014

Videos

http://vimeo.com/86928729 
Ski lift view

Concert

Gangnam Style in Russian - concert

Forgot to post these

^ At the mall the lady had Marc put on this necklace of bagel cookies and said that it was a Russian tradition. Marc said it was really heavy
^ That Awkward Moment in Russian
^ Chips that are crab flavored. Sounds disgusting!! Marc and I both gagged when we saw these in the store
^ Successful grocery trip



Last Mountain Day..

Well today we went to women's biathalon in the mountains. It was interesting. The whole thing only lasted about a half hour or so. We didn't any shooting because of where we were but it was still pretty fun. It only took us about an hour to get to the venue because we actually took the correct ski lifts this time. Yesterday was just a disaster. Anyways, today was our last mountain day. Our trip is sadly coming to an end :( 
Marc and I were talking earlier about how used to Sochi we are and how everything is just so familiar and to us now. We were saying that going back to America will be so weird (for a few days at least). 
Biathalon wasn't until 7pm so until then we just tried to kill some time. We went to the mall and did some more grocery shopping. We're actually getting a lot better at it. We bought some Russian bagel cookies and Nutella. It sounds weird but that's what it looks like and they're actually pretty good. Marc just googled the actually name they are called bublok. 
After biathlon we went over to Rosa Khutor and had some dinner at a sushi and burger place. It was good. Then we went to a concert that was on our way to the bus station. It was really loud and exciting. I will post some videos after this post.
Tomorrow we have speed skating. That'll be fun! 
Also, our last event is Wednesday. Which is a quaterfinal hockey game. We had a one in four chance of us getting the USA game and we got it!! So our last day will be awesome! Especially if we win! We play the winner of the Czech/Slovakia game. They play tomorrow. Let's hope Slovakia wins because we beat them 7-1 last time. 
Here's some pics of biathalon: 
^ One of the ski lifts that was just a bench and a rope. Mom, this is the lift I was talking about earlier. I was kinda scared to go on it. Don't really trust the Russians 
Must of been at least 7ft of snow ^









Relaxing Day

Well the weather has been pretty crappy here lately. Very foggy and cold. Many events in the mountains have been postponed due to the fog. We're suppose to be going to women's biathlon tonight at 7pm, but they need to announce the men's time first because theirs got cancelled last night. Anyways I'm glad that today is a relaxing day because now I get to sleep and try to get healthy again. I'm getting sick :( 
Ok well we'll keep you posted with what's going on with biathlon when we find out more. For now, here are some pics of cross country skiing from yesterday.
















In total, we must have walked at least 8 miles yesterday. We literally walked up a mountain, down a mountain, and around a mountain. I am not exaggerating. 
^ This was Saturday night after the big hockey game. These two Russians congratulated us on our win. When they showed us their Yekaterinburg flag they started naming off all the Russian hockey players that are from there. Then we told them that Yekaterinburg is near my birth town, Artyomovsky. Then we got a pic with them(: