TOURNAMENT BANQUET & THE WAIT    28th February 2010

We were allowed to sleep in this morning, and I know that I am not the only one happy about this. We had a bit of a late night yesterday as it was the occasion of the tournament banquet.

Last year, the banquet was held in a different hotel from where we were staying, but this year we were at home. I love this. It is always good to meet other teams off the field, as there are few opportunities for mingling.

As in previous years, the tournament organizers had hired some traditional dancers for our entertainment. They were fun to watch. However, the highlight of the banquet had to be the South African team's performance. They rose as a squad and sang two African songs while they danced - fabulous. We would all have loved to see them perform some more; they were a lot of fun.

Not to be outdone, the New Zealanders also sang a traditional song while two of their players played the guitar, and then they ended by performing the Maori haka. This is a traditional tribal dance to invite battle. Both these soccer squads were great. The other six teams in attendance tried to sink into our seats so as not to have to get up to perform. There were rumors swirling, mostly started by KK, that we were going to get up and sing "I'm Your Lady" by Celine Dion. Thank goodness we talked her out of this. We had only practiced it once, and that was in our locker room. Our rendition might have appeared disrespectful to the professional presentation of these two other teams.

There was another huge storm last night, although I am told I slept through the whole thing. The result of the deluge was that the Mediterranean sea was right at our doorstep this morning. The waves were HUGE and were literally right outside the hotel door. The rain came down in buckets, crazy. Instead of heading out in the deluge for training, the starters walked to an open space to do a little cycling and some stretching while the others went to the gym for a slightly more intense session.

All in all, it has been a quiet day. Most of my time was spent studying maths. Some of the team headed into Larnaca again. Starbucks is always quite a draw, while another group of us spent time resting here in the hotel. Tonight at 6:00 pm, we watched a videotape of the first half of our game against England. Then, at 8:00 pm we watched the second half after dinner. Watching a game again is often painful. It hurts to see the mistakes. However, there is no doubt that this is among the best ways to learn.

Tonight we are hoping to catch at least a bit of the men's hockey game before we head to bed. Our game against South Africa is at 2:00 pm tomorrow, so we are in for an early start.