Dear Gymternet- Journals from Elena Arenas (Entry #6 November 2014)

Dear Gymternet, 

 This month has been great! I went to the Pan American Gymnastics Union Camp (PAGU) and Developmental camp. 

PAGU was so much fun! I made friends with girls from all around North America, South America and Central America. All of the girls rode a bus from the airport to the ranch except for me and Maile. We got to the ranch before them and were anxiously waiting for the bus to arrive and when it did, we went outside and just kind of stood around not knowing what to say or do. We went back to our room and waited for our roommates to come. My roommates were two girls from Peru along with Maile. One of them spoke a little bit of English but the other one didn’t. In between practices Maile and I made a video star to Shake it Off that was sped up and sounded like a chipmunk voice. It was so funny! 

Practices at PAGU were great! The countries in my group were Argentina, Coasta Rica, and Canada. Valeri was USA’s main coach so he rotated with us everywhere. I was the second to shortest one there and I wasn’t used to that because at developmental camp I’m near the middle of the line up now. Since a lot of the girls didn’t speak English, Maile and I were the examples for everything, even warm up! My dad speaks both Spanish and English very well so he was able to translate. When we first got to the ranch and looked at the schedule, we saw that there was going to be an athlete party! We were so excited! On the second to last day, it was time for the party. I asked Maile to do something cute with my hair so she French braided it on the side and I had it down. When we went to the party, which was in the cafeteria, it was dark but there was a disco ball and strobe lights with music. We listened to music from different countries and learned dances. Overall, PAGU was such a fun and exciting experience!

November developmental camp was about 10 days after PAGU and also went very well. This time my friend Eliza was with me who is from my gym. Our flight was delayed and we literally walked in right as everyone was lining up ... we made it just in time! We had to show our skills this time and I did well on everything. Next camp I’ll have to verify routines. In between practices I got my new floor routine done! I absolutely love it and can’t wait to compete it! Also, I caught my ray on bars while I was there.

Elena with her teammate Eliza

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I don’t have much coming up the month of December, but I hope something exciting will happen!

~ Elena