Our trip to England this time has been the most fun out of all of our trips so far. We arrived in London on Monday the 21^st, practised Monday and Tuesday, and left Wednesday for Blackpool. On our way up, we stopped by Warwick Castle, very close to the home of Shakespeare. There, we were treated to a show of various Birds of Prey, and the three of us (Simeon, Jonathon, and I) were chosen to help load the world’s largest trebuchet (a sling-shot style catapult).

We arrived in Blackpool late Wednesday night, and went immediately to sleep. On Thursday, our competition began. It was a long and tiring week. We danced one day, had one day’s break, then danced five days in a row. In all, our competition went from Thursday to Thursday. We did the best in the Open Amateur events, placing 104^th in the Standard and 141^st in the Latin out of over 300 couples! And, of the couples from USA, we were the top placing 10-Dance couple.

On Friday we left Jonathon in Blackpool and headed off to the Lake District, in Cumbria. John and Patti Torode, two of Simeon’s students, own a beautiful 1800’s house outside a small village called Grasmere. The Lake District is an amazing place, with views to die for. I think that Friday was my favourite day of the trip.

The next day we said goodbye to Blackpool and returned to London, ready to start our training week. We had Standard and Latin lessons on Sunday and Monday, Standard only on Tuesday, Latin only on Wednesday and Thursday, and finally came home on Friday. In Standard we focused our lessons with Michael and Vickie Barr, and in Latin we took the majority of our lessons with Goran Nordin, and a few with Michael Stylianos and Lorna Lee. Blackpool is always our longest trip of the year, but well worth the time.

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Simeon & Kora - Open Latin