Back on the Ice

Yesterday, it was one of my friends' 20th birthday! As a surprise, we decided to take her ice skating at the rink in town. Since we wanted to keep it secret, though, we blindfolded her before leading her onto the tram. Once we got into the building, she smelled the ice and knew where she was though. But it was still a great surprise!

Waiting for the tram with out blindfolded birthday girl!

It's funny how you can smell the ice. Whether you're in France or in Canada, ice rinks always smell the same.
Anyways, once we paid, we went to go pick up our skates. We all got figure skates, but a few of us went back and asked for hockey skates and were lucky enough to get them.
I really have never been a huge fan of skating. The last two years I have gone skating only one time each, and they were both on outdoor rinks which were very bumpy and difficult to skate on. Before that, I can't even remember the last time I went skating!

Canadian skaters :)

But this time, I had a blast! I actually really enjoyed myself. We stayed for about 2 hours and I didn't even get bored. I even tried to do the crossover when you turn corners, and it sort of worked. Now if I could only learn how to stop...

Here is proof for my Dad that I actually went skating.

The skating was fairly similar here, but there were some differences. For about the last half-hour, there would be random announcements to do different activities... like getting everyone to jump, skate backwards, or skate in the opposite direction. It was a little dangerous and I moved out of the way! As well, whenever they stopped the music everyone had to scream as loud as they could... it freaked us out the first time. They also had a race, in which one of my friends came in third. Go Canada!
Overall, it was a great way to spend my friend's birthday and we all had a blast. The weather has been pretty nice the last couple of days too, which is wonderful.
Today and tomorrow will mostly be devoted to getting myself prepared for my big trip! I'm very excited to go away, but also very nervous. It is the first time that I've really ever traveled without an adult (although I guess that's what I am... but you know what I mean...) so it will be really different. I'm not very good at "going with the flow" and like to have things planned out, so the fact that a couple of our bus/train tickets can't be bought until we're in Italy kinda freaks me out. But it's ok! It will be great and I will see and learn a lot.

Have a great Sunday!