Update from Jessica on what she i doing right now oversea's!

I was given the amazing opportunity to participate in the very first International Baltic Ballet Competition in Riga, Latvia. I have had a few fund raisers to help me get to this competition and get to live my dream. I feel truly blessed to have had so much support from my family, friends, fans, facebook friends, twitter followers and the Friends of the Ballet. Thanks to ALL of you I am FINALLY here in Riga with my dancer partner Luis de Castro and coach James Fraser! Thank you, you have been so amazing. This country is such a beautiful place and I am living every moment in absolute awe.
We arrived last night (13 June 2013) at 21:15 and were picked up by the organizers of the competition, Marina and Regina. Wow, Russian/Latvian women are stunning! Marina told us how we are the first of the competitors to arrive and most of the other competitors are from Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Finland, Belarus and Latvia, YIKES! They took us back to the hotel by about 22:00 and it was still light. We were so tired and hungry we briefly unpacked and had a quick shower and then decided to go and find a Mac Donalds as its the easiest thing to eat at midnight. Can you believe that the people in Latvia ride their bikes and walk absolutely everywhere? Even at midnight! The country still looks very old with their trams, buses and buildings, hence the name Old Town. So beautiful to see. After really sore feet and wondering around Old Town we eventually found Mac Donalds and discovered that they don't take Euros but what is called Lats (L's) which is the strongest currency in the world. Thank goodness my Visa card worked. After Luisito and myself complained enough from exhaustion, we went home and went to bed.

This morning we woke up and had breakfast and went to the Riga Choreography School to get our muscles going after the traveling. What a lovely school. It has a total of 8 studios. The lady at the reception was trying to explain which locker I wanted and I have no idea what else as she couldn't speak English at all! We went up to the 3rd floor to use studio 5, one of the small ones, and discover that the studios floor is raked(which is a slant in the floor surface between 5 and 25 degrees, the rake angle is like 25 degrees) At least we get to practise before the actual competition. We warmed up nicely and stretched then rehearsed our contemporary, choreographed by Angela Maree. We ran the piece in my costume. WOW my costumes are stunning! Alta, you are amazing! Thank you! I will post the pictures of the costumes closer to the competition performance. We are now going to get some dinner. I will post our pictures from Paris, which we were lucky to visit on our way to Riga. I can't thank you all enough for this opportunity, I'm loving it!