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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

OFF TO THE CYPRUS CUP 29th February 2008

We arrived safely in Lanarca, Cyprus today. The Eastern Mediterranean is a long way away from Canada, but some of my thoughts are still there: Happy Leap Year to everyone, and a special Happy Birthday to my aunt Adrienne who celebrated a big birthday on 29th February, Leap Year itself. Notice the lack of any age. A big happy 60th to my father as well, who celebrated his birthday on 26th February.

For the team, everyone slept well last night. Exhaustion tends to do this. However, despite the tiredness, most of us were up and about at 7:00 am and all met up for breakfast.

At about 10:00am, we then headed out to the beach for a run. I have toi admit that I am not usually someone who particularly enjoys running along the beach, but after a day and a half of travel, I think I was actually excited about doing this. Don’t tell our coaches, but I think everyone felt about the same as I did. The mood of the team was great and everyone was laughing and joking as we ran. This is not usually the case.

Once back from the run, we headed to the pool area to do an ab workout, followed by some stretching. We had quite an audience for this performance, with crowds of people watching from the hotel balconies. I can imagine how odd we must have looked as we stretched out around the pool doing twist abs with bungee cords. This is not a sight that most people are used to seeing when they look out their hotel room windows.

We ate lunch, had physio, and then walked around the area for a while in groups. We are staying in an area that is a little away from the centre of everything, so there is not much to see. There are a few tourists shops, and they visibly started licking their chops as they saw us walking near by, They were quite right in their expectations too, as we were soon buying up their wares. I am sure one vendor thought he would never be able to sell his T-shirt with a map of Cyprus spread across the chest. But he was wrong. You can always count on Team Canada.

We had a snack at 4 … and we began to question if the coaches were fattening us up for something. No problem though, as we were not asked to do much really. It should be noted here that Amy V. and Kiss played scrabble during this tea break and the game lasted for one word. Amy V. got the word "EXPIRES" and won 90 something points. Kiss immediately quit!

I read for a while, while others napped. Then, we went for a sunset stretch, which was not so bad really. It was very good to get outside again, and exercising. The stretching was very relaxing, and we needed it. A few of us are barely getting to 90 degrees on some stretches, and I think that these stretching sessions may need to become a nightly thing.

Upon getting back to my hotel room, I discovered that I had been supplanted by a colony of ants which had moved in. They were in the process of transporting a potato chip across the room. I quickly called in a few of my roommates to witness the spectacle and was immediately blamed for leaving food on the ground. In my defence, I would like to state here and now, that not only was I not eating, but I don’t even own potato chips. Either some of my teammates brought the food in and dropped it, or… the scary answer may be that these ants maneuvered that chip from the hall, under the door and were headed into the bathroom. They are a tough bunch. Even though I admire their efforts I did feel the need to be rid of them, so I phoned the front desk.

I confidently thought that they might give me a new room, but I was sorely mistaken. A few minutes after my telephone call, a formidable-looking woman walked in, armed with cans of what, I think, were RAID. She did not wait for me to take my things out of the bathroom. She did not wait for me to leave. She opened fire with both hands and immediately filled up the room with her DDT or its equivalent. The room stank, but they had no available space for me to move into. That night I was a worried Canadian as I brushed my teeth and headed for bed.

Team supper was at 7:30pm, and none of us was fully awake for it. The stresses of the jet lag, coupled with the relaxing stretching session made it almost impossible for us all to keep our eyes open. More than a few of us had our heads propped up on our arms, and we all had trouble eating. All we wanted was bed. I managed to make it till 9:00pm, before passing out in my insecticide smelling bedroom. I had intended to stay up till later, but was utterly unable to do so. I started messaging on Skype and managed to fall asleep twice while in a conversation. That is an indication of when you are totally spent.

I am off to bed.