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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

THE DAY BEFORE POLAND 19th February 2010

Wake up this morning was at 8:30 am, and I was fully in REM sleep and certainly not feeling all that lively. However, the news that Canada had won another gold medal definitely put me in a better frame of mind.

Training was held half an hour earlier than usual, and we started off with some balance work. Then we went through shadow play and finished up with some fast footwork. It was not a hard session as we have a big pre-season game tomorrow. However, the run out did get our legs moving and I appreciated the chance to ease the stiffness in my body.

After training, we traveled as a team to the Mediterranean sea to soak our legs. And, even though the sun was shining here on the coast, the water is bitterly cold. I would estimate the temperature to be about 20 degrees today. It feels really cold and it does the body so much good…. well it does the legs good at least. There is no way I am going in any deeper than my butt.

The coaches watched from the beach and they liked commenting on how white we all are. That's the problem. How did they all get so suntanned? When D and I were last in Rome, it rained almost every day. D and her white skin received the brunt of their scorn, but most people had a comment or two about their fishy whiteness thrown their way.

In the afternoon I had a treatment with Leo, our special trainer brought in from Italy. He has no English, but he tried his best with us and he is definitely good at his job. My body is much better tonight after he worked me over. Following this, I studied some of my statistics homework for a few hours, I am taking some online classes this semester, but trying to be a conscientious student is tiring.

The rest of the afternoon was spent heading to the "Romantic Souvenir" store. Their sign was certainly not the best I have seen, but we were anxious to buy a snack. A secondary motive, on the way back, was to stalk the coaches as they played tennis. It appears that Carolina is a bit of a tennis shark and Andie was doing her best, but she was suffering badly out there on the court. Sinc, D and I snuck up on them, not wanting to ruin Andie's concentration, and definitely wanting to tease them. However, it seems Andie would have needed much more in the way of distraction if she wanted to deal with the flood of volleys and smashes.

The night was a quiet one. After supper, we all headed for a team meeting and bonding session. These evenings are always fun. Among the exercises was one where we had one minute each and we could do what we wanted with it. I told a story. KK hummed a song and tried to have us guess it. Robyn led us in the Fresh Prince of Belair song, and Jodi informed us that she was a shoe-a-holic. It was all very eye opening stuff. It was also a good chance to get to know our youngsters and newbies a little better. And, I did enjoy my Will Smith rap reminder.

We have a game against Poland tomorrow and we are all very excited.