after receiving the letter, my mom started arranging an apartment for us to live in while in moscow. we were going to stay with my grandparents, but the drive is 11 hours from kazan to moscow...
instead of an 11 hour drive, we opted for a 20-30 minute drive, 10-15 train ride. we found an apartment right in the middle of the kremlin, with amazing views. it was a 2 bed, 3 bath, and it had a gym, indoor pool, restaurants and much more.
march had come and gone, and so had most of april. it was wednesday april 15th, when we officially "moved" to moscow. in total the trip took a whopping 32 hours, since we had a layover in dubai.
we didn't do much sight seeing in dubai because we were exhausted and just wanted to sleep in an normal bed.
i forgot to mention that just my mom and i went on the trip. my dad stayed home since he had some meetings and would come visit us later, if i was invited to train with eteri permanently, which was my goal.
the next morning we arrived at the airport and headed to moscow. once we arrived to the moscow airport there was a valet driver waiting there for us, who was sent through the russian federation. once we made it to our apartment, we slept for like 30 hours. all the flying really had knocked us out.
one really nice thing about russian apartments is they come fully furnished, so we didn't have to do any furniture shopping at ikea or kare.
once we were rejuvenated, we walked all around moscow. the first day we walked about 15 miles and the second we walked about 26 miles. our legs were dead. on april 20th, i got back into training. every day i went to a public skate and multiple free styles. my mom had always been a " dance mom" but instead of dance, it's figure skating. it's super annoying because my mom wasn't a figure skater, she was a gymnast. i guess to her, gymnatics and figure skating are the same sport since she seems to act like she knows what she is talking about, and is 100000% right all the time, especially with my training.
in moscow, i was skating or at the rink for 6-8 hours a day. in boston, i was skating for 5-6 hours, but here it's just all new and different.
my daily training in moscow:
4.30am: wake up and get ready
5.30am: be out the door, and walking to the train station.
5.50-6.20am: take the train to the rink.
6.30am: arrive at megaice.
6.45-8.00am: off ice training, and work out
8.15am-11.30am: on ice training
11.30-11.50am: lunch
11.50-5.15pm: on ice
5.30-7.00pm: off ice again
at 7.30ish we would leave the rink and head back to the apartment. with the rush in moscow, the train ride could take anywhere from 30-60 minutes, even more sometimes..
6 days a week i trained like this, with my mother yelling at the boards. but little did i know, this was nothing compared to eteri.
YOU ARE READING
training under eteri
General Fictionin 2012, anastasia pankova joins the infamous team tutberidze. her dream of becoming an olympic figure skater is so close, but will her teammates pass her in the race to the olympics? will all her hard work amount to nothing?
