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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

RETURN TO NORMAL IN HOT VANCOUVER 3rd July 2008

Okay. I am really sorry that I have not written a journal for some time. The journal writing is a good means of reflection for me, but I tend to take long breaks from Journal writing after trips. In a situation where we lost in the Finals to the United States yet again, the delay becomes even longer.

However, after many pestering phone calls from my father, and the odd comment from readers of the site, regarding my lack of production, I have been shamed into returning to my "pen."

I wish I had more exciting news to provide an update on, but life between games is often boring and humdrum. Training is, as always, what occupies us most of our time and after training, there really isn't much more than the usual routine and not much to talk about.

Before all else though, I should of course mention our amazing Under 20 team who have just arrived home, bringing back the gold from their CONCACAF qualifying tournament in Mexico. There is always a money crunch in terms of funding for all our athletics programs in Canada. This crunch is felt the most by youth teams. The Under 20 soccer women have had to deal with a small budget and little real preparation, so for them to come back, not only as qualifiers for the FIFA Under 20 World Cup, but as champions is fantastic - well done ladies.

In the National Senior Women's program, we were given a week of rest to recover, after arriving back from Korea and the Peace Queen Cup. Most of the team headed home to their respective corners of Canada, but I decided to stay in Vancouver this time, to hold down the fort. I spent much of the time hanging around with my fantastic twin sister Sara. She is an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Nurse at the Vancouver Children's Hospital, and in her spare time, she entertains me . We do not do anything very special, but just getting to spend some quality time with her, instead of snippets of time between training has been great..

As I am writing this, I am desperately trying to think of what things we actually did over the break… and the only thing that comes to mind is the blistering hot weather we have been having on the west coast. Obviously, as a Montrealer, I am used to a humidity and heat that Vancouverites can’t even begin to contemplate. But, Vancouver has lulled me into its cold and rainy ways, so these days, any sort of sunshine and heat gets to me. This past week was a scorcher and I spent most of my time trying to think of ways to cool down. Night time has been the worst as my tiny apartment is without any sort of air conditioning. I end up tossing and turning all night which is unbelievably frustrating. However, I have now come up with a solution. I get a good night's sleep by opening the window wide with an eye mask and ear plugs to deal with the light from the morning sun and traffic. I also leave a bowl of water by the bed with a face cloth in it, to pat myself down. I managed to figure this routine out just in time for …… the rain that arrived this morning.

Team training has been good. We have all had a good rest and break from the game, and we are now ready and excited for the final camp before we head to Toronto to face Brazil on Thursday 10th July at the BMO Stadium in Toronto.

Training sessions have been sweaty ones, not only due to the heat, but because of the level of intensity that everyone on the squad has brought to the training field. It is a very good feeling to be a part of this focused preparation. The Under 20 members of our squad have been taking a well deserved break form soccer after their Mexican “vacation", but they will be returning to the fold sometime soon.

Two days ago, we did have a newsworthy incident which occurred on the way home from training. Amy Walsh has a good description, with photographs, on her website at AmyWalsh.com. Basically, there are only two bridges from West and North Vancouver back into the city of Vancouver itself. One of these bridges was totally shut down by an accident, while while the other one only had one lane open. Now without even knowing the city of Vancouver, I am sure you can imagine the traffic mess this created, if you do know Vancouver, then you were probably with us in this mess - it was awful!

The last thing I want to mention is the fact that D and I, under the guidance of Chef Walsh, have spent the last two days baking. You may therefore be under an assumption that mounds of baked goods have been created and fired in the oven. You would be very wrong.

In fact it has taken we sous-chefs, just over two days to make one pie. This particular pie is still in the oven, so the verdict on whether or not the labor was worth the eating is still out. However, it was definitely fun and entertaining. I enjoyed the challenge of making the pie, and, if I say so myself, it looks very pretty.