In Flanders Fields...

We won our last Belgium league game the other night in convincing fashion it was pretty fun we only had 6 players and htey were our rivals also from the city of Namur. Michelle came into town the day before so mom, dad and Michelle headed into Brussels to show Michelle the train system and Brussels as well.
Yesterday was a day off so we were headed into Ypres Belgium to check out Flanders Fields. The drive takes about two hours so the family wanted to leave at 9. If someone told me I was leaving at 9 theday after a game I would wake up around 850 and be ready to go by 9. However there were runs and showers so the alarm was set for 645! I was in a mood in the morning I takes me a long time ot fall asleep after games so this meant I was going on about 5 hours of sleep adn I would be the driver... never good. I had a little coffee and we were off by 850, impressive. Dad was the co pilot and everything was good until we got into town where the directions faltered a little bit and we wound up getting a little lost but finally found the town and parking. Went into a little bakery to grab a snack and headed for the tourism office, the actual museum was closed during December and January so we coudn't go into that but we bought a driving map for 2.50 which was really good because without this we would not have found anything! We turned out hte wrong way in town and I was driving around a round a bout multiple times waiting for someone to tell me where to go (stressful driving when you have no idea where you are) I followed some signs a British Commonwealth War Graves and we were about to turn around when we were smack in front of our first cemetry. We got out took pictures and set out to find the real route. What we were about to find out is that there were so many of those little cemetries all over the surrounding towns and people just built farms or houses around these graves it was wild. Most didn't even make the map of things to see.
We got all turned around in town trying to figure out how to get to the right exit out of town and stopped in for gas and the man set us on the right route. After almost passing the first stop we pulled an illegal u turn and were at Essex Farm Cemetry the site where John McRae wrote the poem in Flanders Fields. There was a plaque commemorating him around 1200 burials headstones and soem bunkers that you could go into. The second stop was the German cemetry and there was tv screens that gave a little history to the land and the quote "Enemys in life, Friends in death" the cemetry was wild there was 44000 buried in the cemetry 24000 were in mass graves it was all so much to take in. Another highlight of the trip was the Tyne Cot Cemetry and memorial it is the largest of the British Commonwealth Graves with 12000 buried there and 8000 unidenitfied.
There was many other sights along the way the Menin Gate where the names of 54000 Commonwealth soldiers all have their names inscribed.
It was a really neat expereince overwhelming for sure!
Dropping mom and dad off at the airport later today, Megs we wish you could have been out here with us.
Pics take a really long time but I am going to try to post one of the Tyne Cot Cemetry just to see.

Euroleage officially ended last night for our team and once again we were in the game in the first half and then got blown out in the second. It was really frusterating some of the girls didn't really try I understand that we are losing but I don't get how people just roll over. Anyways I played a little one again... thank goodness they were not pressuring hte ball! We have a game Saturday and I have no idea if I play until the end of hte month or what is going, quite confusing. I hear rumours they are going to ask me to stay a little longer but nobody has talked to me about it. I do know that I have a plane ticket for home on the 11th and that better not change. The original plan was to stop playing at the end of the month but our other American is injured so she isn't playing so now I don't know if htey want me to play until I leave at which point I would have to negoiate pay it just gets confusing!
Mom and dad are doing well they went ot Antwerp the other day it is a really cool town and they saw a whole lot more than I did when I went but they had a lot of fun and found a train pass for 10 trips that was pretty cheap so they are all over the train now. This meant a trip to Brugge today, now they swear by the train and wonder why I don't take more train trips (still cheaper by car) when just a few days ago they looked petrified as I left them in the Brussels train station to make their way to Paris.
I thought I had changed my ways and became more of a morning person but I have realized the last few days with mom and dad in town this is not hte case. I am still really grumpy in the morning, the difference is if I am awake and doing something for myself (workout, catch a plane whatever) I am okay however when I have nothing to be up for I am not so pleasant. This is regardless of time it is fully dependent on how many hours I have slept so this morning was only 9am but last night I didn't get to bed until around 2, I still need a solid 9 to function. Is this selfish probably but the last few mornings I have woken up to drive my parents to the train station and I do not talk just load em up and drop em off.
I am off to practice, Michelle comes in tomorrow so it will be a full house again! Megs we miss ya!

Lonely nights...

We got killed in our euroleage game again the other night... same old I guess! I got selected for drug testing... the second time this season and since there are rarely time outs in these games and I went pee at halftime I did not have to use the bathroom. Five bottles of water and 1 hour later my trainer went and grabbed me some beer and all it took was a few sips and I was done, only took an hour and a half to complete the process! My family was waiting the whole time, oops.
We got back to the house around 1215am, and there was packing going on and a little eating while I ran up and down hte stairs to go pee every 20 minutes... the water was flowing through me all night long. Ben took off this morning it was a lot of fun having him around going to miss it but we had to leave at 645am and mom and dad were trying to figure out how to book a train to Paris getting a little nervous. They were scared they had to pre book trains ran every 30 minutes from Brussels to Paris!

We loaded up the little car again this morning and first took mom and dad to the train station where they bought their tix now I haven't heard from them so hopefully they made it okay. They had to transfer trains in Brussels as they took the airport commuter to one of hte stations in Brussels. Should be interesting they are pretty funny to watch I am hoping they try out a little French, because they did kiss my President and coaches I was thoroughly impressed. They jumped right into that part of hte culture now they just need to use their pocket French dictionary and they are good. Ben is still en route should soon be finishing the first of his 3 flights today!
As soon as I got back I did some thorough cleaning of the house, four people in a small space creates a whole lotta dirt! Michelle bring some slippers ohh and if you have any extras I could use some more!

One of the girls on my team Jen is leaving the team sometime soon she got a great opportunity to play for a pretty good team in Russia so then there were 6...I received confirmation I am outta here on the 11th so I can get booking all my appointments at home now! This is good because I was at pratice today feeling like a 60 year old could not warm up! My heel has begun to grow again so I think for the first time since maybe high school I am going to take 3-4 weeks completely off. No running, shooting, no going to the gyms. I think my body wants a little break so I am going to try this out taking some time off although this does mean I have to watch my Belgian chocolate and waffle consumption!

Two sides to every story

Alright so time has flown by since my visitors have started arriving. Having Ben here has been so great, unfourtanetly he leaves tomorrow. Alright so there has been a request for a guest entry from my parents on the blog however I feel the need ot tell my side of the story before htey tell theirs. Here it goes...
Mom and dad were supposed to come in Tuesday night at 6pm. I had practice that ended at 5 and busted it to the airport from there Ben and I arrived and were looking everywhere for my parents but could not find them. Ben and I wandered the airport for about two hours before I got really really hungry and tired. I could not find my parents flight info anywhere the British Airways info desk was closed and I had no way of contacting my parents. Now I began to worry if I had the wrong date that htey arrived because I couldn't see their flight number anywhere. After 2.5 hours of waiting I took my visa and charged it for some phone calls first to grandma and grandpa but they were not home and then to moms office hoping to find the flight number. THey said yes their flight was cancelled... so I called them back but they had no information on what flight my parents would be on. Back ot the landings board and there were two BA flights one was leaving London at 10pm the other one was arriving at 9. We said we would wait until the first one arrived, however 9 came and went and everytime we went to the board the time was bumped back so all of hte sudden this flight wasn't getting in until 1015 and at 10 we gave up and left hte airport. The flight kept getting pushed back and we didn't even know if they were on that flight. I drove home in horrible winds, we stopped at our first rest stop thinking if we got some food maybe we would go back to hte airport one last time to check and see if they had landed. Of course the food is all closed up for the night (we still haven't eaten since practice which started at 3) so we took off. Once I got home I checked my email and found that I did have an email from my parents it read "welcome to London" in the subject and that was all folks! Apparnetly the message didn't come through so at 11pm at night I had lost my parents somewhere in Europe and had no way of getting a hold of them. I sent off an email with my phone number and told them to call when they landed.

Meanwhile mom and dad were delayed for an hour in Vancouver and hten their flight was cancelled in Heathrow so I guess they tried ot email that htey were on the later flight but this didn't work out as I recieved was welcome to London. The flight crew was late in Heathrow and then because of hte bad winds in Brussels only one run way was open so they were in a holding pattern in teh air and htat was why the flight kept getting pushed back later and later. All in all we missed them by about 30 minutes! Mom and Dad not understanding why nobody was there waited at the airport until 1am and then went to a hotel and checked email and managed to call me at 130am. We met up the next day and spent a few hours in Brussels.
I actually found downtown Brussels! It was an adventure fitting four people and a whole lot of luggage into my tiny car but we managed and mom and dad and Ben got to see the Grand Place, Pis Mannekin, the Cathedral and few other sights of the city.
I have a game tonight now please keep in mind my side of the story as my parents keep bothering me saying that I left them at the airport but really I was there for over 3 hours waiting, just at hte wrong time.

I finally have my first visitor in Belgium so the posts have slowed down. Anyways here is a quick rundown on what has happened, Russia was good (not the game) but pretty cool to be in Russia. The temperature was a system shock as soon as I stepped outside it felt like somebody smoked you in the lungs but I got used to it quite quickly. After we got blown out in the game their president took us into their team room which had a bunch of alcohol and food and snancks to go along with couches, flat screen tvs you name it to show us around their gym a little. To put this in context we don't even have a locker room... we have a room that we shower in after games kind of like high school where you bring your bag out to the benches. It was wild how much money they have, their president found out that we didn't leave until later so he booked us a tour of Moscow with an English host and lunch downtown Moscow. I saw the Red Square and all around the city some of the buildings looked like they should be in a Dr. Seuss book. Other than the game it was a great trip, I can say I have been to Russia before!

The morning after we got back I went to pick Ben up at the airport, now I only got mildly lost and was overall pretty impressed made it there before he got out. I was thouroughly impressed he slept basically most of the day and then that night passed out again I don't know how he avoided the jet lag but I can't get on a schedule for weeks and he is all good in just one day!

Saturday morning went to the gym to shoot a little with Ben, he told me why I have been shooting horribly and last night I wound up playing in the Belgium leage game and finally shot the ball well! Everyone thinks he should stay around for every game. Also took Ben to the market and up to hte Citadel. Sunday morning we had intentions of heading into Brussels and we made it to Brussels but for the life of me I could not find downtown (directions are horrible around the city... it has happened to teamates before) so we wound up turning around and going to the Citadel in Dinant. The plan is to hit up Brussels tomorrow with some directions from teamates.

I am off to the grocery store...

Russia here we come!

I finally made it to Paris we got an early start to Sunday it was our day off and I was up at 620 and we were on the road by 7am, I was pumped couldn't wait to get there although it was a good thing I wasn't driving because my excitment dimmed and I wound up taking a 2 hour nap and only woke up because we stopped at a rest stop! After my brief nap I was more than ready to explore we got into town around 10am and went straight to Sacre Coeur, spent about 20 minutes trying to park (I do not want to have to drive in that city) and then checked it out very beautiful the grounds and a neat view of Paris. Then it was back in the car for a brief driving tour that included the famous Opera house, Moulin Rouge and then parking (22$). We started off with the Eiffel Tower, we chose to walk the first two stories partly because it was cheaper and partly because a little extra excercise never hurt anyone. It is a little over 800 stairs to the second base with all sorts of neat stories, snow and an exhibit on global warming, restaurants I never would have imagined so much went on up there. We took the elevator to the very top (no stairs to that) there was a bit of a line but not too bad I guess the elevators move something like 1700 people an hour to the top. Then it was back down Jen and I decided for the stairs, while the others took the elevator down so we decided to try and beat them and really trekked down the 800+ stairs my calves were cramping at the end but we did win by about 15 minutes... apparently we could have taken our time! However it was great because there we were standing in the middle of the Eiffel Tower looking confused trying to find our friends so we looked like excellent prey and about every 30 seconds someone was trying to sell us cheap key chains.

The next stop was the Arc de Triumph saw it from a distance and walked down the Champs D'alyesses (yes I am most likely spelling these wrong) took a bunch of pics and walked on towards the Louvre. While we didn't go inside we walked the grounds and continued on to Notre Dame, it was so much to take in for just one day but it was great to see everything and I can't wait to go back and spend a little more time there!

I am off to Moscow Russia tomorrow should be interesting... the temperature is -20 (Megs I am getting close to what you experience) As long as I make it back...

Ben comes in on Friday so I will have visitors now until I leave!

And then there were 6...

Yes we have been down to six players in practice this week, one left the team and two are out with injury and the other player has visa issues. Suprsingly the two practices with 6 players have been my favourite all year, the drills are fun and while the tension is still present I can laugh it all off knowing I am leaving so all I can do now is have fun with everything!

I know I am getting behind in posting pictures I have some of Antwerp and today after practice Jen and I headed to Dinant. It is a town about 25 minutes away and has the same sort of Citadel as Namur except this one was more of a tour guide thing. In the pouring rain Jen and I trekked up 408 stairs (stairs were built in the 17th century) to the top of hte citadel. The view was amazing and would have been much better had it not been pouring but when you stop and think of all the things they built back in the day it is overwhelming! This Citadel had little murals and scenes depicting what the rooms were used for. There was the dungeon and torture cell with the guillotine and prison cells, old guns, armor and canons. The craziest room was at the end they set it up like you were walking through the trenches so the sound of bullets constantly ripped through the air, the room was dark lit by "stars" and they had mannequins at posts to shoot and spy and some dead. The final thing was an old shelter room that had been hit by a bomb and so it was all slanted, a really crazy feeling walking through. Had a hot chocolate on the top of the lookout point and headed back down on the gondola, hey it was slippery we didn't want to fall down the stairs!

Paris tomorrow, I really can't wait to finally see it we have the day off so we are waking up at 630 and heading to the city. After talking about visiting it for so long I really hope it finally happens.

Michelle actually updated her blog!!!!!! I will have to add the link to my page.

Happy New Year

Well the New Years Eve in Paris did not work out apparently you hvae to book a hotel way in advance to stay there on the 31st so it turned out to be rather uneventful. However we did still have the next day off and so my teamate Jen and I headed to Antwerp it was a really cool city. It took some serious driving to get there as we got off on the wrong highway exit multiple times and trying to follow signs to the Centrum proved to be quite difficult! A lot of the shops were closed for New Years day but we walked all around the remains of the Christmas market which even at 1 in the afternoon still had drunk people wandering around the bars and huts buying drinks, went to the water in the olden days it was a huge shipping port. Saw the castle there and it had a plaque commemorating Canadian troops for helping during the war to ward of invasion and keep the port safe. We window shopped the diamond district and then went to see the movie Enchanted.
When we were buying our movie tix the man kept asking if we were students so finally we said yes and hte tix were only 5.90 and so after we paid Jen said "alright so I didn't even make it a day in the New Year without telling a lie"
Headed to be I think I finally got back on Belgium time!