I want to inform you that ever since FreshPhase made my website, I have my blog integrated in it and I usually write blog posts on there only. I will most likely not use this blog anymore, so from now on please go to http://www.alexandra-ianculescu.com/blog/ to read my blog. it has all of these entries plus some more new ones.

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Love,
Alex

I don’t have an outline about what to write, but I’ve been thinking of things for the past 2 weeks and I want to put them down and share them with you. Ah where to start. I will begin by saying a lot of things have already happened since I first woke up this morning. My day started early as we have very early training for 2 days due to the World Cup Fall trials that are going on this weekend. We warm up at 730, which is a different and big change to the 9 o’clock warm up we enjoy daily.

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve encountered a few things that grabbed my attention. First off, we started racing but we haven’t had any big races yet as we are only in the beginning of the season. We have things called Time Trials which occur every Saturday morning and or $8.00 you can race whichever race your coach tells you to race. Started the season with the 3000m, and then 500m. Then we did a 1500m, and finally this past weekend I ended the beginner races with racing a 1000m. I would like to say I am content with the results and well I don’t know if that sounds god enough but it’s that feeling when you’re satisfied for the time being but knowing there is so much more just around the corner. I made a promise to myself that I would give it my all every competition. So far I have been doing quite ok with applying practice skating into racing skating and there are things I really like about my races and there are some that I don’t like…some I don’t need to work on as much, and some that I am just figuring out.

My coach told me very early in the season that the things I do not like doing are the things I am least good at. I really like the start, or the first 100m of the race. And that resulted in me starting the season just a bit faster than where I left it in March. My ‘content-ness’ just got better. I am looking forward to the rest of the season and improving little bits and pieces of the whole idea.

Also, over the past 2 weeks I have come across some weird feelings but I guess that all athletes go through them. No I am not in love if that’s what you think. I guess they were not weird, but mixed emotions towards the sport. It has this beautiful side to it which most of us see, (or at least I hope they do) and it has a darker side that cam take over. For me the beautiful side is waking up every morning feeling thankful for everything I have and my ability to be able to skate well, be healthy and enjoy it. It’s that passion that doesn’t die, and it’s having more than fun. I feel I take it beyond that fine line of doing it for fun competitively and being good at it. I have this drive and passion….and it suddenly hit me when I was thinking. No man in his right mind would do anything as crazy as quit the sport he does if he enjoys it that much! But when the dark side hits you, it’s mainly because you have too much time on your hands and think a lot about useless material that you shouldn’t be thinking of. I am not saying I have too much time on my hands because I really don’t. Working 2 part time jobs, with school and 2 training sessions a day….you’d think I never sleep, right? But my mind wanders a lot and it was wandering when I wasn’t having a fulfilling week of training and crazy thoughts hit my head. I started thinking about injuries and things that can happen and if I am really on the path to success? Am I doing the right thing to skate and keep skating? Who am I skating for? Why am I skating? All these questions were bombarding me all at once. I was terrified of failure.

It’s ok to think about this stuff and ask yourself questions and if you’re doing the right thing. I’d be worried if you weren’t asking anything! Thinking more about it, I came to realize that I am very thankful to have to great ability and talent to do what a lot of people only dream of. I am here living in Calgary and training with such a great team and coach, and have amazing friends and best friends and a house and food and I am healthy. We should enjoy failing and should try and fail even harder because it’s the only way to learn. I’m not trying to be cheesy but it’s true! Take the opportunity to fail and welcome it with open arms cause you only open doors to things you will learn about.

So overall had a triggering Tuesday. Wonderful Wednesday and an oh so amazingly great Thursday. I am 19 today and I am having the greatest day ever. Skating went well, ate a god breakfast, read the news, talked to the family, and read all the Facebook Happy Birthday messages I got, and I just want to say thanks for all the great wishes guys!

I am currently sitting in the stands at the Oval, watching the Fall World Cup trials. I’m excited. Not racing because you have to be in the top 16 from the previous season. I did not go to enough Canada Cups to qualify, therefore I will be a spectator for the time being. Next year though!!

Races started, my eyes need to be somewhere else lovers.

Alex

I have not written since I have returned from Europe, because I was waiting for some time to pass by so I can inform you of all that has been going on and that will be going on. Interesting how I went from updating my blog every day, to updating it once a week and now to once a month. A friend of mine commented on my maturity and said that this is a sign of maturing but I don’t know if I have to agree. I do feel more calm and more laid back than I was in the last year. I find that I do things differently and I approach things in a different more effective way and so I do think a lot has changed.

Where do I start? I’ll be covering the following subjects in today’s blog update:

• training since I got back
• fundraisers I’ve had
• new and potential sponsors
• upcoming agenda

I feel very privileged to be training here at the Olympic Oval in Calgary. I am thankful for having the ability to skate and to have people that support me. I have 2 incredible best friends who are always there for me, and I have the greatest group of people I surround myself with that make everything so wonderful. I do not know what I would do without them. This year I am very happy to say that we have a very strong team of Junior skaters and a very cool coach in my opinion. I feel strong every day on the ice, no matter what goes on off ice. I am very satisfied with my skating so far in the season; I’ve been working on some technical things and attempting to apply them on the ice and I can say that today I finally felt like I made that successful application.

I’ve been back in Calgary since mid August and started officially training. We have been doing a lot of technical work and haven’t started racing yet. Out first race of the season is on Saturday October 2nd, which is this week. We are starting off with the long distance- the 3000m. I am excited not to race my favourite distance just yet. I want to work a bit more on my corners and pushes before I transfer it all onto the race ice. If you want to come watch races, they will most likely start at 10am, on Saturday and there is no fee for coming! I think it’s a good family activity!

Upcoming events for myself include the Mayor’s Breakfast next Thursday morning at the Telus Convention centre, and our first official big race of the season which will be at the end of October. I am also turning 19 years old on the 21st of October, so I am excited to see some people  that night, that I have not seen in a while. That’s what happens in skating; some people retire and move back home, wherever home may be- and then they never come back to the Oval.

This year has been very special because a few amazing things have happened to me that I am so thankful for. I had to suddenly leave the place I was renting because my landlords were not respecting the rental agreement we made. So I moved and applied for a new job; and got it! I made some awesome friends that later introduced me to one special lady that, together with one of the guys from work, totally helped me set up an awesome fundraiser and raise an incredible amount of cash for my Oval fees. I am now just 700 dollars short of my oval fees and am happy that I got so much raised so far. I will be giving a one hour skate lesson to all sponsors and people who have helped support me this year, followed by a tour of the Oval, and hot chocolate and cookies. They are all reading this blog now….so just to let you know, you will receive an email soon about deets! 

I am so excited!!

This season is just the beginning of this 4 year cycle, and everyday feels better and better. (I mean, ok, there are days when I am hurting, but it’s all part of that plan/journey)

So whatever you’re doing in life, remember, there are always hard days that you gotta’ pull through because the end is one sweet emotion. Before I log off, I will leave you with a few pointers that have changed my lifestyle completely in the past 6 months. It’s not too late to change your lifestyle towards a healthy one too!!

• eat greens (salads, artichokes, kiwi, and spinach!(or others))
• replace sweets and candy with fruit, like strawberries and peaches (they are very juicy and give off natural sweets)
• drink lots of water, or tea. Milk doesn’t count!
• When drinking milk, you deserve drinking 3.25% because you need the fat. It’s also the only thing I’ve been drinking for as long as I remember
• Try eating like 13 times a day. No I am kidding. But eating only 3 religious meals a day is actually bad for you. I snack the whole day, and probably do eat 10-11 times a day. Caution: Do not eat if you’re bored
• Almonds and other raw nuts. Very good for you but make sure that they are raw, and not roasted or salted. Trail mixes are also fat inducing but you’re probably a chocolate addict and just HAVE to add chocolate covered nuts to your trail mix. That’s ok, I do too 

Take care,

and check back because I will post again on Saturday.

Alex.

• visit my dad in Romania because my grandma died
• spend time with my great grandmother
• train with different countries

• write
• have independent Alex time
• think about the future
• visit Museums

Ok most of those have happened but I am not entirely satisfied just yet. It is the 18th of July right now and by the time I will be done writing this blog electronically, it will be the 12th of August when I return to the land of speed skaters. How I so look forward to that day. I will start writing about what has happened so far on my adventure. I won’t write my day to day agenda, but instead will write what thoughts I had and what was going through my mind at the same time. Yes you can have a peak inside my mind since I will open it up just this once. — It was 1 am on July 1st and after a few hours of looking for my passport, I had realized I lost it in Banff the day before. I fly in 12 hours. I decided that I will sleep a bit because I knew Marc was getting up to leave to the airport at 5am. I get up at 8am and decide to go to TD Canada Trust to get a new Debit card because I will need something else aside from my other form of payment in Europe. Lovely, it’s Canada Day…TD is closed. This is just the beginning, so I thought. And ok don’t expect me to say ” but it was just the beginning”, it was actually the end of all bad things that would happen until July 18th…NOT that something will happen tomorrow, cross my fingers. As I was sitting in the YYC Airport I was just realizing a lot of things, and taking them in one by one. You so know how someone is French just by the way they dress! It’s brilliant, I mean come on, isn’t it true that they’re the only nation that can wear pink Lacoste sweaters, Khakis and old school Lacoste bags and totally pull it off? Yeah that’s what I thought. Throw that on a Canadian and they’re automatically thought of as a weirdo, and I mean that in no offensive way. But seriously, Canadians have no sense of fashion; they dress for comfort. Please God help them! I get to Paris. Day 2 of 12. What better way to explore the city than by running/jogging? I signed up at a gym nearby. I didn’t know it was a private gym hence my sister’s godmother paying 140 Euros for 10 seances. Expensive huh? I did go into the weight room absolutely every single day because I knew what was coming up in Amsterdam and that I would have no access to a weight room there. There were a lot of things to see in Paris, go figure. I had the best tour guide. Name: Mimi Last Name: Private. No, not Mimi Private…I just won’t put it up. She’s my sister’s godmother and has lived dans Paris pour 31 ans.Et oui mon francais has improved of course! The plane ride to Paris was great too because it was a great warm up for the furutre city that I will live in, eventually. I sat next to an older couple who spoke no word of English, or any other languages that young Alex spoketh at this age. So I spoke French, and we got along quite well. Here’s une photo to show you all:in Paris I saw everything from the Eiffel Tower the Grand Colbert, the opera, Notre Dame, Pere lachaise, to le Pantheon, la Sorbonne, Starbucks, St Sulpice, Des moyenages thermes. SO much I had to write it all down cause I couldn’t take it all in. I got the hang of the Parisian travel by metro. Every time I’d run out of tickets I would jump over the bar cause they never checked haha. I am a terrible child, so I’ve heard. It was a great adventure. I’d go for a run in the morning, then hit the weight room, and later find myself having an espresso and une petite pain au chocolat on the Champs Elysees which I will call the Champs in this blog because I feel French. Thankyouverymuch. Do you see Torontonians wear I {heart} TO shirts? Exactly my point! The worst thing about being a tourist is having another tourist recognize you as one! I thought it was really funny to see people wear I {hear} Paris shirts in Paris. Sorry but if you’re one of those people, please be advised that you’re also one of those people I laugh at inside my mind, and shake my head in disgust. Not kidding. But I am writing this with a smile on so come on cut me some slack. I was also quite excited the first time I pulled a Marilyn Monroe wearing a dress and walking over Subway thingies and then my skirt flies up because the metro passes by. Oh man it was embarrassing. Won’t go there. So much to write about! Met amazing people in paris. One couple from Australia and I talked bikes with Arthur, and at the end we exchanged email addresses. I felt so embarrassed because when his wide Suzan told me his name, I understood Agatha and I was like wow that’s a pretty cool name for a guy and I was telling her how unique it was and so on. She probably was looking at me like what land do you come from lady!? Then I figured it was Arthur and I told her. One other thing I would like to comment on is how much I hate smokers. Now more than ever!! If you smoke please please PLEASE don’t do it in front of me. I have a new name for the City of Lights. It’s the city where I lost a week of life. because I will officially die sooner now due to all that second hand smoke. Honestly. Shall I comment on Dali? My trip was mainly religious- no I didn’t pray in any Churches. Salvador Dali, I like to say is my religion because of how much I admire him. So he was  everywhere. I got to Brugge, Belgium…another religious visit! Dali Expo! Anyhow, the Dali exhibition in Montmartre was most fulfilling of all fulfillment of my heart’s desire. Later after getting my portrait done, I was called over to the side by this French man, famous he be in the land of the French. Goes by Michou. Yes, he is VERY famous. He loved my hair style at the time and called me over to take pictures with him and after gave me an autograph.Paris was a blast. Made new friends, saw business men with lollipops, had my spiked hair touched by a LOT of people randomly in the subway, at the gym and on the street, and last but not least I am now ready to give someone a tour of Paris. I left Paris 12 days after I had arrived and went to see Wim De Deyne in belgium. Made a stop in Brugge where he was and he was nice enough to take me in and even make me a coffee one morning because he lost a bet we had made in the restaurant the night before. We went to a few cities and explored on bicycles and I left 3 nights later and went to Amsterdam.I realized one thing on this trip, and it was more than realizing that I need to eat a pain au chocolate a day to lose weight. Thanks Joe Dassin. I realized that the only way to stay sane on long trips, is to exercise. Without training I would go crazy. I tested myself and last only a week with doing nothing. I very much dislike being normal if I can put it in those words. Anyways, 2 hours later in an Amsterdam home, Alex needs to go to sleep. Will write more another day. Love, Me. —- Today an interesting thing happened at night. I decided to eat in and bought myself what I thought were plain croissants, and some salami, and milk….and some pate. Right, now I open to jug of milk to drink while I walk on to my hostel and it was SO sour….then I found out it wasn’t real milk. It was Karne Melk. Argh! I drank it anyways cause I was thirsty. Then I got to my bed and I open the croissants and the salami but it turned out to be raw bacon……mmmm my favourite not. Actually. And the croissants had cheese and bacon already there. I felt like such a fool. Just imagine me there with food falling out of my mouth and having this disgusted look on my face while reading the contents of that sour milk. Haha It looked something like this:I spent my last few days with some great and special friends I met at the Olympics. One of them is a band player in the Kleintje Pils and they have been playing at the Olympics for the past 20 years; how amazing. I was fortunate enough to be able to meet with one of them and see Holland by car also. He was super nice to do all of that for me. We had a great lunch on the beach and an awesome 2 hour drive to see one of the medal wranglers from the Olympics, Aukje, who I ended up staying at for my last 2 nights in Holland. It was probably the best part of my trip, aside from meeting with Mme Dennis in Amsterdam on my first day there. We went on a Quad the first night, with Aukje’s brother Balling, and just ah so much happened that was so beautiful and nice and home-like, that I can’t even write about it. Aukje is officially the first person that has the same glasses as me. I know some people didn’t dare buy Green Oakley M-Frames because they thought they’d be copying, but I bought her a pair because we’re like sisters from other countries and she has permission to wear the green monsters as I call them. I am very thankful to have such friends and to be able to stay over at their house with such short notice, just like dad’s friend, Calin whom I stayed at my whole time in Amsterdam. Super nice of him also and I learned a TON since he’s an artist and we had some interesting discussions and I saw things a different way. I am now currently sitting in a friend’s apartment. Am sleeping here with my sister, Caroll in Sibiu. Yes we have family here of course but I need to get away for some writing and painting time, and Caroll is just trailing behind so I can show her around and introduce the future Miss Ianculescu to the people she will need to know. Phil Collins is on right now, good mood to write in. No not Genesis. I got here 3 sleeps ago. Had 15 people at the small airport waiting for me. I have so many stories already but as you know me I will only stick to one in particular- Bucharest taxi Drivers- are now my personal drivers every time I get back! For 40 Euros I can get a 3h personal shopping tour, and a tour of my lovely Ikea kitchens and my lunch and internet cafe paid for… you’re probably thing, “Wait, what? A 3h taxi ride costs over 100 Euros…..and they never pay your lunch!”…right? WELL, here’s how it goes. I befriended my taxi driver; I didn’t want to wait 4h in the airport for my flight so I wanted to go downtown. In the middle of he car ride i realize how much money I will have to pay so, me the lady in heels, tells the driver to maybe just drop me off at the closest McD. Anyways long story short…he said to pay him 20 Euros one way and 20 Euros the other way and he won’t charge me taxi fees. He spoke English, held my heavy purse and even paid for my lunch and my internet cafe in those 3hours I was looking around the city that half my friends live in. I didn’t call any of them because my blackberry broke so I had no access to any numbers. Duhh. Ok so a few days later I am in the present. Caroll got out of the shower, I am stuffed with crepes and in the end a very happy person because I have been getting my hourly runs in the rain done, daily. I am not following a particular training program since I don’t have access to certain training facilities or a bike for example. So I just run every day for a ridiculous amount of time and then I do a core program, skating imitations and maximum power jumps instead of weights. I took a week and a bit off because in Holland there was nowhere to train so now I am charging at it fully. I better get all this excess weight off my legs before I hit the ice in 17 days. I’ll just force myself to lose weight in a good way, because I need my muscle to come out! Ah! Ok, logging off. More to write later.  –Big A. —- I trained at 7 am today, July 29th. I know I am complaining but oh my god the day has never seemed longer. Thank god for afternoon naps. Now I am writing again on August 4th. It’s been officially almost a few full days of getting the gym into my training cycle. There’s a close-by gym inside a hotel and my sister and I managed to make a membership for 2 weeks. Everything here is so cheap if you convert CDN dollars into RON lei. (Currency). One dollar is 3.4 lei. A 2l mineral waterbottle is 2.40lei. How cheap. And to get a manicure, it’s 15 lei. Do the math- 5 bucks? My sister got one. But anyways, I feel great again that I can train every day, and have the right space and mind set to do it in. Unlike today when I walked in the gym and Marvin Gaye was playing. The day I forget my iPod at home….Let’s get it on.— It’s the 7th of August and I am very sore. I am making note of this as I have origianlly thought I worked every muscles in my body and that I would NOT be sore. But I was wrong. So now I have trouble getting outta bed, which is good since it’s like 50degrees Celcius ANYWAYS and people don’t wanna do things. SO to conclude my blog I will show you more pictures, but will not include the ones of my pushing the car through the flood under a bridge today. Happy photo watching lovers, -AI- —

To

PS- Unless you’re like my mom and every other adult over 30 years old, then I must say that this list might not work since you might be slighlty paranoid and will want to protect your passport like it’s your life, so you’ll have a million Eagle Creek bags inside your Suitcase and will end up like that woman on Tony Robbins last year (she was cool though- you won’t be). This list isn’t made to have like waist bags around you and secret wallets inside of your shirt where you carry all your money and so on and so forth. I’m leaving everything inside my house in Europe, and my Lululemon purse I will take and go, wherever my vision I shall throw. No I won’t start rhyming again…haha.

So with that being said…Here’s the list I just wrote in 5 minutes. This is all I will take.

Weight Room shoes

New tights

Running Shorts

Sun Screen

Long tights