Thursday, May 2, 2013

IHSA National Championships - Guest Blogger!

I am very excited to announce a guest blogger for the duration of IHSA Nationals 2013 in Harrisburg, PA. Senior Kali Cram is representing St. Andrews in both western and hunter seat and asked if she could blog about the experience – of course I said yes! Sit back and enjoy Kali’s reports!

IHSA Blog Day 1 by Kali Cram

It's been a fun, fairly uneventful first full day here in PA. The hunter seat team met for breakfast in the lobby at 6:30 while the western team slept in before their trip to Hershey park for the day. We headed to the coliseum to watch all the horses school. As we watched what felt like eleventy hundred rounds at 2'9" we began to find things to further our entertainment. As veterans to these long schooling days, seniors Katie Hansen, Sami Cram and myself brought things to keep us busy. Katie supplied two GameBoys (and yes she brought Pokemon), I brought a deck of cards that doubled roles as a game of headbandz as well as a normal deck and Sami brought the ever entertaining Harry Potter Jelly Beans. Our coach, Matt successfully picked almost every bad one: Canned Dog Food, Moldy Cheese and Skunk Spray. His expressions were priceless.

Around 11:00 a few of us began to get Hangry ( for those who have never been there that's Hungry+Angry) and its not an enjoyable place when our team has made it to that point. So knowing how we get,  Madison and Matt ordered us a few pizzas from a local restaurant. It was phenomenal. I'm not sure if it was really that good or we were all really just that hungry.

After lunch we all took turns taking naps in the chairs and a few of us went shopping. Personally I spent way too much but I'm graduating so that's a good enough excuse, right?

Once the hunterseat horses were done schooling, the rest of the team left to the hotel and me and Sami stayed with the western team (who were now back from Hershey) to watch the western horses school. Even though it was a long day, we both feel so blessed to be a part of two amazing teams.

Once back at the hotel, me and Sami told stories for a few hours to Cami's mom, Barb and their friend Holly. I HAD to tell the story of getting lost in England, driving a stick shift, turning a 7 minute drive into almost 2 hours. It's a classic at this point. It's so great to have family and friends here to cheer us on. Can't wait to see my mom tomorrow and Dad and DJ (stepmom) on Saturday!

Our first huge team dinner of the trip was to Ruby Tuesdays (always one of Peggy's top picks).
Unfortunately for the waiter he forgot to ask us about the shrimp fondue before he asked our drink borders and Sami didn't let that slip. So we got a free order of that and passed it around the table.

We're now back at the hotel for the evening- all settled in, watching NCIS! We're ready for the first day of competition tomorrow. Kim, Sami, Cami and myself will kick it off all with classes tomorrow.

What a great first day! My cheeks literally hurt from laughing so much!
Xx
-Kali

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