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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

READYING FOR GAME DAY 4th March 2008

Game day is tomorrow, and we are gearing up for the start of the Tournament proper. As always I was up early, about 6:00 am. This allows me to go out on the balcony and to do some yoga. I have no real idea what doing yoga really consists of, so I basically do a stretching routine out there, which I call "yoga" and I feel very zen about it all.

Feeling zen is not at all hard to do when one's balcony hangs over a beautiful sandy beach on the Mediterranean and you can close your eyes and listen to the soft crashing of the surf - amazing. Then, I spent about an hour reading out there, and all this before 7:30 am. Then, it was time to head down to breakfast with a sun burned neck. Wow is that sun ever hot?

After breakfast, a bunch of us decided to walk down to the beach for a little swim. At first, I never really even contemplated actually going in the water, so I was impressed with my teammates who decided to take the plunge. You have to trem3ember that this is the off season here, so the Mediterranean water is not at all warm. I did manage to wade out up to my knees, but I left the swimming to the braver ones. I think Martina and Erin were the only two who actually fully immersed themselves. D joined up with us in the midst of all this immersion process, as she had only just woken up. She was carrying her breakfast and promptly dropped it into a wave, which is not a great omen for her day.

For the team, it was a busy morning and I had no downtime. From the splash around in the ocean I went directly to a defenders' meeting, followed by an individual meeting with Even. After this, we had pictures taken, then had lunch and finally headed out for training. We trained at 2:00 pm as this is when we will be playing tomorrow. This time in the afternoon is much hotter out there than our usual training time at 4:00pm..

Most came away from the practice with minimal redness, but you can always count on Booth to burn, and that is exactly what she did. The training went well. it was intense, but also lighter than usual. I have the feeling that everyone is excited about tomorrow and ready for the games to begin./ This is a good thing in my books. Everyone seems loose and relaxed, making the team environment friendly and confident. On other occasions, we have started getting stressed out, and everyone then feels the effects of this

After training, a gang of us headed back to the ocean for a cool bath of sorts. With the strong wind, the waves are bigger than they have normally been. This makes D's improvised game of throw the water bottle as far out to sea as possible a fun one. It never took very long for the plastic containers to come surfing back on a wave. This game also lead to some very wet teammates.. well that game, and the one where you push people in, no names - Tank and Robyn.

For supper, D, Martina, Tank and I decided to head out and try some local fare. I will admit that I was not completely in favor of this idea, but it ended up well. We went to a Greek restaurant a few minutes down the road, and feasted on lamb, Tzatziki, bread, rice pilaf and Greek salad. The meal was not a complicated one, but it was absolutely delicious. You can guarantee that we will be heading back there in the near future. We also got amazing service as people eat very late here, and we were in the restaurant ready to eat by about 5:30 pm. They probably thought we were there for a late lunch.

After eating our fantastic meal, we headed to the team dinner. This is mandatory as are all team events. Even though we just sat there, not eating, we enjoyed ourselves as the team meal seemed to be the worst meal yet. We were feeling very pleased with ourselves. Early mornings equal early nights, so I turned in just after 10pm - the end to a very good day.