Apologies

Well I am terribly sorry I haven't updated my blog for a while, I don't have any excuses I just haven't got around to it! This week is an exciting week as 15 performers from our show arrive and on Thursday we have our check point for the owner of Cirque, Guy Liberte. The past couple of weeks have been hard work but very progressive, we are beginning to tie parts of our act together, making it look like an artistic act rather then a gymnastics routine. Our Kung Fu and Haka classes are being utilised within our act as well, and the classes in themselves are really fun! One major change these past couple of weeks has been my diet and exercise regime, which I had to improve to help my endurance in training. Richard and myself have been eating lots of fresh fruit and veg, and I have been a good girl steering away from too much junk food. In order to increase my stamina Richard has been helping me with jogging and exercises on the athletics track. It is ridiculously hard work, nothing like what I am used to, but I feel very healthy, happy and satisfied from pushing myself. But honestly, I couldn't do it without Richards assistance, it is nice having somebody guiding me and motivating me when I want to stop! It has also been nice to get some of the other girls involved in running too, as cardio on the bike or stepper gets rather boring.

This week my schedule changes as we begin to work with the rest of the C2012 cast. I have stopped acting, kung fu and the haka and I start new artistic classes. This week I have three different styles of dance. The first is contact dance which I must admit is not my favourite... rolling around the floor sucks. The second style is Philipino stick dancing and the third is a mystery as of yet. To be honest, I have no idea what the stick dancing is going to be like, but I have a three hour work shop for it on Wednesday so I think I will have a pretty good idea after that! The weather in Montreal is still beautiful, we have been very lucky.

Family

Last weekend was a long weekend in Montreal and eight of us decided to hire a large camper van and road trip it to Toronto. It was a very fun trip and we got to see parts of Canada outside of the Quebec province for the first time. There were many highlights from this trip, my favourite was being able to swim in a lake, something I have always wanted to do in Canada! We swam in a part of Lake Ontario, a massive, massive lake which apparently isn't the best to swim in as the water is dirty but we didn't care, we wanted to make the most of the nice weather, as it is going to be very cold soon! Another highlight was seeing Totem, and being welcomed by the crew and camping on the big top tent site over night. Totem is a beautiful big top show and the cast are lovely people. We were given free tickets, food and a backstage tour. I named this post family because it seemed to be a  re-occuring theme while on our trip. Firstly, the cast of C2012 is becoming more and more like family. We are getting to know each other very well, and I never tire of the girls company. The teeterboard boys (Krito, Julian, Rafael and Antonio) are great too, together we all get along swimmingly! Our main coach Stacey and some of the older girls in our act are like motherly figures to me, having these women to look up to has been amazing and very helpful. Family also popped up when arriving at Toronto at the Totem tent site. Cirque du Soleil is like a large family. We were welcomed so warmly, and treated like old friends when we arrived. They gave us access to the artists kitchen and gave all eight of us including Richard free tickets for the show. Afterwards, we were invited to a bbq for the cast, where we were able to meet the Totem performers. Thirdly, while on the trip, I missed my own family very much. Even though I am having an amazing time in Montreal, there really is no place like home.

Happy Birthday Renee

On Saturday it was Renee's birthday and we went to an Sainte Helene island. We made the mistake of bringing our bikes on the metro, which was a massive effort with no lifts and many a stair! The experience was absolutely hilarious though, especially watching Renee struggle up the stairs with the super heavy bikes. The island was very nice and quite pretty, the biosphere was amazing. The day was very relaxing and we had a very long bike ride home as we decided to avoid another metro/bike experience. This weeks training has been hard but very enjoyable, our act is coming along very nicely. I find the acting class especially challenging, but like all the artistic classes it is a great chance to let go and learn a lot about yourself. This week we changed acting teachers and started contact dance which was rather interesting. We moved into the Cirque studio and have seen our stage, seeing little things like this come together is ridiculously exciting! Next week we are training on the stage, I think doing this will consolidate the fact that I am actually a performer for Cirque du Soleil now! It will be a real honour. This weekend is a long weekend and eight of us (the teeterboard boys have arrived and are coming) are going on a road trip in a MASSIVE (10 metre) camper van. We are going to the Thousand Islands, Niagra Falls and Toronto. I am really excited and I will be sure to put lots of pictures up from the trip.