This wil be quick, as it is getting late.
I swam my 200 back prelim tonight and I went a best time and am 2nd going into the semi-final. It felt really easy and I was almost shocked to see the time. Well sort of, haha.
Only 2 more days of the meet remain! Our team is awesome so it is sad to think that this will all have to come to an end!!
bed time!
LIz deux
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
Shucks.
So the 100bk final happened this morning. I really thought I chance of winning it but I ended up with the bronze. It was a best time (by just a smidgen) and I took the first half out faster then anyone else. I realized at the 50 that i was first and I think that got my overly excited, so the 3rd 25 was probably overswum/crazy lady style and left me with no juice by the last 15m. When I got to the 15m rope and saw people catching me all I could do was grit my teeth and think "Fuck, fuck, fuck." It hurt. But it was a good learning experience and nice to know I can go out that fast, that I do have speed. PLUS I will get to swim another 100back in the medley relay, and the time will count since backstroke leads off. so another chance for another best time. I will take it.
Regardless of not winning, coming third was pretty cool. Marching up to the podium and seeing your team cheering for you from the stands is a very nice feeling. And seeing the Canadian flag be raised, and knowing it was my Canadian flag being raised made me very proud of myself and made me realize it could have been worse, I could have come, gasp, fourth! So look for my quotes in the Canadian papers. My brother told me his friends heard my name mentioned on KROCK in Kingston. so that's cool too!
Tonight I am just taking it easy in the village and will probably watch prelims on TV (the village has a Pan Am feed, with almost all the sports being broadcast live on about a dozen channels) in the Canadian Athletes lounge. Then tomorrow night is when the fun begins! The fun being 200bk aka what I train for. YAY!
OKay, so Jill Sterkel is here being an official. She is in the Readyroom being clerk of course or head marshall or something. Basically making sure things happen as they should. I don't even want to know how she managed to get this gig, but I will ask her next time I see her. Oh Jill and your connections.
I guess I promised I would tell y'all about the village and food and stuff, so hear is the something about the food...
The set up for the "Restaurant" is a big tent. Like really big, I'd say football field size, but wider.
At one side there are tables, some round but mostly rectangular banquet style, and plastic chairs with metal legs. And at the other side is the food. In the middle are drink stations that separate the two sides. There is filtered water, juice, soft drinks, NesCafe coffee machines, and hot water for tea or whatever. On the food side first there is the bakery where you can go to get fresh rolls, buns with cheese in the middle, croissants, wholegrain and white sliced bread and other different kinds of bread. The bread is the best part of the food here. I am eating too much bread. There are two other bread stations on the food side, they are in the middle of the food side, so between the food lines and the drinks. They are just a table with baskets of bread on them that are replenished regularly. Next to the bread tables are little tables with condiments. Mustard, ketchup, a bunch of salad dressing, and some weird jams and shit.
Now the food sections themselves are what they call "islands." Salad island, Grilled Island, and Pasta Island. It is basically a cafeteria style set-up, with a place for a tray and you on one side, and a serve and food behind a glass partition on the other. Everything is usually labeled in English, Spanish, and Portuguese but sometimes it's not, so I have taken to reading the menu near the entrance so I can pick which island I want to visit after the bakery, haha. It is usually pasta island so plain pasta and tomato sauce. Sometimes a piece of turkey chest pastry (a little like tortiere with no potatoes) or lasagna (but not the meat or bolognese kind because that means the left over lunch meat is in there) or pizza (they have dessert pizzas sometimes too, like chocolate or brown sugar). Lunch and dinner are much the same. Sometimes there is lunch meat, turkey chest or ham, and a sandwich with the neon yellow mustard is a save bet. But sometimes it is off to pasta island for lunch and dinner. At the end of each island there is also a place for self serve dessert, which is a variety of cakes and mousses and jello and fruit (salad style or whole). The best dessert and only one i have been brave enough to try was this coconut pudding cake thing that they overcooked and ended up more of a cake then the gooey dry on top, wet on the bottom thing they were going for. It was definitely not as good when they cooked it properly. haha.
Now breakfast is another story. At salad island they have the usual stuff: lunch meat, cheese, lettuce, various fruits and weird creations like chicken tart with broccoli for example (leftover lunch meat and cooked broccoli chopped up and added to a dough like substance and then baked). Grilled island has scrambled eggs and bacon, and I think the sirloin steak they serve 24hours a day. Haven't tried this island for breakfast, or salad island, the eggs look runny and the bacon just looks gross. Pasta island is the best for breakfast. It is self-serve and they have yogurt and cereal (frosted flakes, mini cornpops (unsweetened), and a few different grains and a good granola) and white and chocolate milk. The chocolate milk barely qualifies as milk, it just tastes like chocolate and it super thick. The milk is really sweet by itself too. The strawberry yogurt is sweet and very pink, bubblegum pink. All the other yogurt is plain, not vanilla, plain. And then the bread is as per usual. Breakfast is my favorite meal and I get all my dairy then, as it is the only time they serve milk (they have cheese at other times but it is not clear is it has been pasteurized and some people on the team have been getting sick so I've steered pretty clear except for the occasional piece or 2 or 3 of buffalo mozzarella :) ).
Overall the food sucks. I've already started planning what I'll be eating in Calgary and even at our layover in Dallas, since I know DFW terminal D oh so well. haha
More about the village will have to wait til another time. I hope to take pictures of all of this as well, to go along with the words. You know, give you the full package. haha
LIZ TWO
Regardless of not winning, coming third was pretty cool. Marching up to the podium and seeing your team cheering for you from the stands is a very nice feeling. And seeing the Canadian flag be raised, and knowing it was my Canadian flag being raised made me very proud of myself and made me realize it could have been worse, I could have come, gasp, fourth! So look for my quotes in the Canadian papers. My brother told me his friends heard my name mentioned on KROCK in Kingston. so that's cool too!
Tonight I am just taking it easy in the village and will probably watch prelims on TV (the village has a Pan Am feed, with almost all the sports being broadcast live on about a dozen channels) in the Canadian Athletes lounge. Then tomorrow night is when the fun begins! The fun being 200bk aka what I train for. YAY!
OKay, so Jill Sterkel is here being an official. She is in the Readyroom being clerk of course or head marshall or something. Basically making sure things happen as they should. I don't even want to know how she managed to get this gig, but I will ask her next time I see her. Oh Jill and your connections.
I guess I promised I would tell y'all about the village and food and stuff, so hear is the something about the food...
The set up for the "Restaurant" is a big tent. Like really big, I'd say football field size, but wider.
At one side there are tables, some round but mostly rectangular banquet style, and plastic chairs with metal legs. And at the other side is the food. In the middle are drink stations that separate the two sides. There is filtered water, juice, soft drinks, NesCafe coffee machines, and hot water for tea or whatever. On the food side first there is the bakery where you can go to get fresh rolls, buns with cheese in the middle, croissants, wholegrain and white sliced bread and other different kinds of bread. The bread is the best part of the food here. I am eating too much bread. There are two other bread stations on the food side, they are in the middle of the food side, so between the food lines and the drinks. They are just a table with baskets of bread on them that are replenished regularly. Next to the bread tables are little tables with condiments. Mustard, ketchup, a bunch of salad dressing, and some weird jams and shit.
Now the food sections themselves are what they call "islands." Salad island, Grilled Island, and Pasta Island. It is basically a cafeteria style set-up, with a place for a tray and you on one side, and a serve and food behind a glass partition on the other. Everything is usually labeled in English, Spanish, and Portuguese but sometimes it's not, so I have taken to reading the menu near the entrance so I can pick which island I want to visit after the bakery, haha. It is usually pasta island so plain pasta and tomato sauce. Sometimes a piece of turkey chest pastry (a little like tortiere with no potatoes) or lasagna (but not the meat or bolognese kind because that means the left over lunch meat is in there) or pizza (they have dessert pizzas sometimes too, like chocolate or brown sugar). Lunch and dinner are much the same. Sometimes there is lunch meat, turkey chest or ham, and a sandwich with the neon yellow mustard is a save bet. But sometimes it is off to pasta island for lunch and dinner. At the end of each island there is also a place for self serve dessert, which is a variety of cakes and mousses and jello and fruit (salad style or whole). The best dessert and only one i have been brave enough to try was this coconut pudding cake thing that they overcooked and ended up more of a cake then the gooey dry on top, wet on the bottom thing they were going for. It was definitely not as good when they cooked it properly. haha.
Now breakfast is another story. At salad island they have the usual stuff: lunch meat, cheese, lettuce, various fruits and weird creations like chicken tart with broccoli for example (leftover lunch meat and cooked broccoli chopped up and added to a dough like substance and then baked). Grilled island has scrambled eggs and bacon, and I think the sirloin steak they serve 24hours a day. Haven't tried this island for breakfast, or salad island, the eggs look runny and the bacon just looks gross. Pasta island is the best for breakfast. It is self-serve and they have yogurt and cereal (frosted flakes, mini cornpops (unsweetened), and a few different grains and a good granola) and white and chocolate milk. The chocolate milk barely qualifies as milk, it just tastes like chocolate and it super thick. The milk is really sweet by itself too. The strawberry yogurt is sweet and very pink, bubblegum pink. All the other yogurt is plain, not vanilla, plain. And then the bread is as per usual. Breakfast is my favorite meal and I get all my dairy then, as it is the only time they serve milk (they have cheese at other times but it is not clear is it has been pasteurized and some people on the team have been getting sick so I've steered pretty clear except for the occasional piece or 2 or 3 of buffalo mozzarella :) ).
Overall the food sucks. I've already started planning what I'll be eating in Calgary and even at our layover in Dallas, since I know DFW terminal D oh so well. haha
More about the village will have to wait til another time. I hope to take pictures of all of this as well, to go along with the words. You know, give you the full package. haha
LIZ TWO
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Finals bound!
Sorry I haven~t written in a few days. With the meet starting for me yesterday I haven't had much time for email etc, sleep and food come first :)
ANyway, a quick update:
made the final, which goes off tomorrow morning. I'm going in 2nd and went a life time best time this morning in the semi-final. I've worked out all the kinks and know exactly what I need to do in order to dominate or as we like to say here "Catastrophize my heat." haha
More to come later!
Liz dos
ANyway, a quick update:
made the final, which goes off tomorrow morning. I'm going in 2nd and went a life time best time this morning in the semi-final. I've worked out all the kinks and know exactly what I need to do in order to dominate or as we like to say here "Catastrophize my heat." haha
More to come later!
Liz dos
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Stinger, Security, and Smells
Stinger
Last night I did my "stinger" in the pool aka a fast swim that stings and gets me ready to go fast in a few days. I wore one of my new suits and it, the stinger, went really well, as did getting the suit on for the 2nd time, haha.
Security
So let me tell y'all about the secuirty here. First off, on our way from the airport to the village our coach style bus was ascorted, or lead, by a convoy of policia/naitonal forces vehicles, with sirens blazing and some motorcycles speeding ahead to block off/halt traffic. Our bus was able to speed along ignoring stoplights and avoiding all traffic. I don't recall that we stopped even once, which sucked for my drive by shots, but got us to the village very quickly.
Second, at the gates of the village, and at the pool gates, there are armed, like automatic weapon armed, guards. In cameo gear and helmets. One time a car wasn't going to stop as one of the buses to the village was nearing so the armed guard jumped out in front of the car and aimed his big ass gun at the car. The car stopped. I can't remember the name of the guns they carry, some of the coaches were asking them when we were waiting for the bus one time, they told us that when they pull the trigger once, two bullets are fired and that in 1 minute it can do 750 bullets... I think they are comparable to M-16s? Crazy! Also for security, when the bus gets to the driveway into the village they are required to stop, where an armed guard enters the bus and make sures everyone has their accreditation (the tag that hangs around our necks at all times with our picture, name, country, etc on it, basically our life force while at the games). We also have to put our bags through an xray thing and walk through a metal detector when entering the village, like at airport security. But we don't have to take our shoes off :)
Smells
There are some bad smells in this place.
First off, the arrival area where the buses unload and also the bathrooms at the pool smell like "over ripe" porto-potties. Sometimes when I'm swimming at the pool, a strong stench of car exhaust wafts over the pool. There are a bunch of other bad smells. The only thing that smells good is the bakery section at the cafeteria, but only when the weird fish smell doesn't overpower it. The many other bad smells going on around the village and pool i can not identify. Oh, and there is usually the presence of sweaty/dirty man smell. hahaha.
In other news...
THE MEET STARTS TONIGHT!!!!
I'm so excited even though I'm not swimming tonight. I swim 100bk prelim Tuesday/tomorrow evening! YAY!!!! For those of you that don't know, the format is reversed here, they always do it this way in Brazil and will also at Olympics next year too satisfy the wishes of NBC. So that means prelims are in the evening, 7pm start, and finals are the following morning, 10am start. That means the last 2 days of the meet are only in the morning, finals sessions, because they are also doing semi-finals and finals for events 200m and shorter. Fabulous.
Right now handball is on TV. People are trying to figure out the rules. It's a weird game, the score is now 25-19 Dominican Republic.
That's all for now. Maybe later I will write about the pool or the village or the food.
Ciao,
Liz2
Last night I did my "stinger" in the pool aka a fast swim that stings and gets me ready to go fast in a few days. I wore one of my new suits and it, the stinger, went really well, as did getting the suit on for the 2nd time, haha.
Security
So let me tell y'all about the secuirty here. First off, on our way from the airport to the village our coach style bus was ascorted, or lead, by a convoy of policia/naitonal forces vehicles, with sirens blazing and some motorcycles speeding ahead to block off/halt traffic. Our bus was able to speed along ignoring stoplights and avoiding all traffic. I don't recall that we stopped even once, which sucked for my drive by shots, but got us to the village very quickly.
Second, at the gates of the village, and at the pool gates, there are armed, like automatic weapon armed, guards. In cameo gear and helmets. One time a car wasn't going to stop as one of the buses to the village was nearing so the armed guard jumped out in front of the car and aimed his big ass gun at the car. The car stopped. I can't remember the name of the guns they carry, some of the coaches were asking them when we were waiting for the bus one time, they told us that when they pull the trigger once, two bullets are fired and that in 1 minute it can do 750 bullets... I think they are comparable to M-16s? Crazy! Also for security, when the bus gets to the driveway into the village they are required to stop, where an armed guard enters the bus and make sures everyone has their accreditation (the tag that hangs around our necks at all times with our picture, name, country, etc on it, basically our life force while at the games). We also have to put our bags through an xray thing and walk through a metal detector when entering the village, like at airport security. But we don't have to take our shoes off :)
Smells
There are some bad smells in this place.
First off, the arrival area where the buses unload and also the bathrooms at the pool smell like "over ripe" porto-potties. Sometimes when I'm swimming at the pool, a strong stench of car exhaust wafts over the pool. There are a bunch of other bad smells. The only thing that smells good is the bakery section at the cafeteria, but only when the weird fish smell doesn't overpower it. The many other bad smells going on around the village and pool i can not identify. Oh, and there is usually the presence of sweaty/dirty man smell. hahaha.
In other news...
THE MEET STARTS TONIGHT!!!!
I'm so excited even though I'm not swimming tonight. I swim 100bk prelim Tuesday/tomorrow evening! YAY!!!! For those of you that don't know, the format is reversed here, they always do it this way in Brazil and will also at Olympics next year too satisfy the wishes of NBC. So that means prelims are in the evening, 7pm start, and finals are the following morning, 10am start. That means the last 2 days of the meet are only in the morning, finals sessions, because they are also doing semi-finals and finals for events 200m and shorter. Fabulous.
Right now handball is on TV. People are trying to figure out the rules. It's a weird game, the score is now 25-19 Dominican Republic.
That's all for now. Maybe later I will write about the pool or the village or the food.
Ciao,
Liz2
Monday, July 16, 2007
Almost there...
Saturday was a busy day.
We slept in and did nothing about all day! well that's not entriely true... me and Liz (Collins, Liz 1) tired on our racing suits and had a little photo shoot, so that definately killed some time. We had relay practice at the pool at 7pm. Relay practice consisted of relay exchanges. After that was dinner and a little chill time.
Today got up and had breakfast (which is my fav meal at the cafeteria) then went to the pool and kinda dinked around and did some loosen swimming.
Then we had a team meeting back in the village, going over protocol for the meet, like where the ready-room is and how early to be there, where to go after you swim, massage location, etc. Pierre also played some "inspirational" clips, including a Molson Canadian commercial, haha.
After that we fought the wind and found a quiet area on lawn outside our building (the wind is craaaazy today!) to do our rookie skits... There were 4 skits: one was Chanelle and coach John doing a portugese soap opear where they spoke in "portugese" and someone else translated from a script in english... very entertaining. Next was Richard and Caity's James Bond, reversed roles skit, also VG. Then Chad and Hilary did a rap to the tune of "This is why I'm hot" where they had to include everyone on the team's name somehow. it was maybe the best one. Lastly Tommy, or Sammy Taco as he is now known as, and Zsofi did "pick up lines". Tommy wrote one for each girl, while Zsofi wrote one for each boy. then just before they said them they were instructed to switch lists, so Tommy tried to pick up the boys, and Zsofi the girls. All and all it was a pretty good rookie initiation... though I've seen better. sorry.
I just got back from lunch and will probs take a nap in a bit before heading back to the pool for my "Stinger" (a hard/fast effort in the pool) " a la Kim Brackin.
The meet finally starts on Monday evening, at 7, and then I swim 100back on Tuesday night! Gaaaaaaaaaaah, I can't wait!
Results should be available on http://www.swimming.ca/ in the pan ams section, or at the Rio07 website, the link to that is also available through the above link. Go to 'Schedule and Results' on the left and then click on the day you want for swimming. I think they might be slow with the results as the open water ones weren't up for hours... ohyeah! One of our open water girls won the bronze yesterday in the 10k! (they only do the 10k at pan ams, this is the first time open water has been competed at Pan ams.) A bunch of us watched it on TV, live, it was very exciting! She, Tanya Hunks (formly of Hamilton/Brantford area), definately got us off to a great start! It was such a good close race, she was only 7 tenths of a second behind the first place girl. CRAZY!
Anyway, I should get upstairs to my nap!
LIz2
PS Hey Greg and Julia, I wanna see some pics from the party!
We slept in and did nothing about all day! well that's not entriely true... me and Liz (Collins, Liz 1) tired on our racing suits and had a little photo shoot, so that definately killed some time. We had relay practice at the pool at 7pm. Relay practice consisted of relay exchanges. After that was dinner and a little chill time.
Today got up and had breakfast (which is my fav meal at the cafeteria) then went to the pool and kinda dinked around and did some loosen swimming.
Then we had a team meeting back in the village, going over protocol for the meet, like where the ready-room is and how early to be there, where to go after you swim, massage location, etc. Pierre also played some "inspirational" clips, including a Molson Canadian commercial, haha.
After that we fought the wind and found a quiet area on lawn outside our building (the wind is craaaazy today!) to do our rookie skits... There were 4 skits: one was Chanelle and coach John doing a portugese soap opear where they spoke in "portugese" and someone else translated from a script in english... very entertaining. Next was Richard and Caity's James Bond, reversed roles skit, also VG. Then Chad and Hilary did a rap to the tune of "This is why I'm hot" where they had to include everyone on the team's name somehow. it was maybe the best one. Lastly Tommy, or Sammy Taco as he is now known as, and Zsofi did "pick up lines". Tommy wrote one for each girl, while Zsofi wrote one for each boy. then just before they said them they were instructed to switch lists, so Tommy tried to pick up the boys, and Zsofi the girls. All and all it was a pretty good rookie initiation... though I've seen better. sorry.
I just got back from lunch and will probs take a nap in a bit before heading back to the pool for my "Stinger" (a hard/fast effort in the pool) " a la Kim Brackin.
The meet finally starts on Monday evening, at 7, and then I swim 100back on Tuesday night! Gaaaaaaaaaaah, I can't wait!
Results should be available on http://www.swimming.ca/ in the pan ams section, or at the Rio07 website, the link to that is also available through the above link. Go to 'Schedule and Results' on the left and then click on the day you want for swimming. I think they might be slow with the results as the open water ones weren't up for hours... ohyeah! One of our open water girls won the bronze yesterday in the 10k! (they only do the 10k at pan ams, this is the first time open water has been competed at Pan ams.) A bunch of us watched it on TV, live, it was very exciting! She, Tanya Hunks (formly of Hamilton/Brantford area), definately got us off to a great start! It was such a good close race, she was only 7 tenths of a second behind the first place girl. CRAZY!
Anyway, I should get upstairs to my nap!
LIz2
PS Hey Greg and Julia, I wanna see some pics from the party!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
No Thanks, Opening Ceremonies.
Today we got up and went to the pool as usual, except we all had to go in the morning because apparently the pool closed at noon because of opening ceremonies. But then tonight at dinner we found out that the Americans had gone to the pool in the afternoon... so either they~re getting special treatment or someone on our staff is a dumbass, haha. Luckily the 8am wake-up is not bad compared to the before 7 ones we were having in Montreal.
Today was also finally a beautiful day outside. It was sunny and warm, but not too warm, well atleast I thought it wasn~t too warm, others thought otherwise.
So after swimming in the morning we had all day to do nothing... it was great. I read and made door posters/signs (we drew names and had to create a door sign for the person whose name you drew... the girls each did one girl and one boy since the boys didn~'t want to make signs for each other... ) for my people.
Also, I guess if we were not swimming on the 1st or 2nd day we had the choice of going to opening ceremonies. I wasn~t aware of this choice, but didnt want to go anyway... too much standing and waiting. We did watch a little bit of it on TV... looked like the same old, same old.
ALso, today my parents arrived in Rio. Or at least they supposed to... I'm assuming they're at their resort up the coast.
Hope Canada and Texas aren't too hot!
Happy Friday the 13th! and 24th bday Laura!!
Ciao,
Liz
Today was also finally a beautiful day outside. It was sunny and warm, but not too warm, well atleast I thought it wasn~t too warm, others thought otherwise.
So after swimming in the morning we had all day to do nothing... it was great. I read and made door posters/signs (we drew names and had to create a door sign for the person whose name you drew... the girls each did one girl and one boy since the boys didn~'t want to make signs for each other... ) for my people.
Also, I guess if we were not swimming on the 1st or 2nd day we had the choice of going to opening ceremonies. I wasn~t aware of this choice, but didnt want to go anyway... too much standing and waiting. We did watch a little bit of it on TV... looked like the same old, same old.
ALso, today my parents arrived in Rio. Or at least they supposed to... I'm assuming they're at their resort up the coast.
Hope Canada and Texas aren't too hot!
Happy Friday the 13th! and 24th bday Laura!!
Ciao,
Liz
Friday, July 13, 2007
Thanks HBC? haha
We got our bags last night and are now we are now settled in quite nicely.
After a pretty decent sleep we went to the pool in daylight, though it was still overcast and a bit rainy, and the pool still looks cool, but it's dirty. Amazingly dirty for how new it's supposed to be.
Anyway, swim, lunch, short rest, swim, Flag raising ceremony... were Governor General of Canada was present and said a few words, and the mayor of the Vila Pan Americana spoke to us in portugese as well (and then badly translated). It was followed by a sweet drum group of Brazilian youth doing a little drunming and dancing, it was actually really cool. They could definately challenge the Fort Henry Guard Drums...
After dinner we were sent to the basement to change sizes and get things altered of our HBC team Canada gear. The stuff is okay in terms of it fitting well and being well made; but, I would like to meet the designer and ask him or her what is wrong with him or her. It is nearly impossible for most of the males to NOT look they belong in a Gay Pride parade in a few of the shirts. And since when are Canada's colors khaki, pink, blue, gold, yellow, and green? Luckily our "Podium Wear" is red and white (and gold).
Also, this afternoon at the pool I saw team USA, including the Texas contingent, and Tinnon my roommate in Austin. They looked tired as they had just got in... us yesterday.
Anyway, I've got to get going I have a massage at 8 and a team meeting at 8:30! yay!
Ciao!
Liz 2
After a pretty decent sleep we went to the pool in daylight, though it was still overcast and a bit rainy, and the pool still looks cool, but it's dirty. Amazingly dirty for how new it's supposed to be.
Anyway, swim, lunch, short rest, swim, Flag raising ceremony... were Governor General of Canada was present and said a few words, and the mayor of the Vila Pan Americana spoke to us in portugese as well (and then badly translated). It was followed by a sweet drum group of Brazilian youth doing a little drunming and dancing, it was actually really cool. They could definately challenge the Fort Henry Guard Drums...
After dinner we were sent to the basement to change sizes and get things altered of our HBC team Canada gear. The stuff is okay in terms of it fitting well and being well made; but, I would like to meet the designer and ask him or her what is wrong with him or her. It is nearly impossible for most of the males to NOT look they belong in a Gay Pride parade in a few of the shirts. And since when are Canada's colors khaki, pink, blue, gold, yellow, and green? Luckily our "Podium Wear" is red and white (and gold).
Also, this afternoon at the pool I saw team USA, including the Texas contingent, and Tinnon my roommate in Austin. They looked tired as they had just got in... us yesterday.
Anyway, I've got to get going I have a massage at 8 and a team meeting at 8:30! yay!
Ciao!
Liz 2
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Door to door service in just 25 hours!
It took us 25 hours but we made it to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
We left our hotel at 1:30pm EST and got here at about 4:30pm Rio time (one hour ahead, Atlantic time I guess).
We would have been here at 11am but we had a major delay in NYC at JFK... and I thought international flights didn't get delayed. It was for 4 hours and was due to air traffic control being backed up... a bunch of other flights were delayed our cancelled there too. Anyway, the flight was as bad as anticipated, I took a gravol and ended up sleeping for 5 or 6 hours (of a 9 hour flight), I was awakened occassionally by crying babies. I hate babies, especilly the ones that cry.
Once we got to Sao Paulo we were quickly deplaned and put through security, only to be put back on the same plane to get to Rio (why we had to even get off the plane in the first place, I don't know). Once in Rio we went through customs together and then got our accrediation and luggage (which still isn't at the village yet, and it's like 9pm, shitty) and got on a bus to take us to the village. We got to drive past the ghetto, which is unlike any ghetto I have ever since, I tried to get some drive-by shots but I'm not sure how they turned out. It is like a high poverty area, almost like a post-war zone, but there are soccer fields scattered throughout and kids playing the game, usually with no shoes.
When we arrived at the village I felt like I was in Miami. The village buildings have that art deco feel and are in bright colors.
After dumping our carry-ons we had a late lunch (food will be a challenge, it is not very good) and then went to the pool for a swim. As soon as we got there it started to rain and continues to.
The pool though, is breathtakingly amazing! I can't wait to race in it!!!!! and see it in daylight! haha
Well, I have to go get my HBC outfitting and make sure everything fits.
Peace,
LIz 2
(I'm Liz 2 because Liz 1 in my roommate Liz Collins (she's a few months older))
We left our hotel at 1:30pm EST and got here at about 4:30pm Rio time (one hour ahead, Atlantic time I guess).
We would have been here at 11am but we had a major delay in NYC at JFK... and I thought international flights didn't get delayed. It was for 4 hours and was due to air traffic control being backed up... a bunch of other flights were delayed our cancelled there too. Anyway, the flight was as bad as anticipated, I took a gravol and ended up sleeping for 5 or 6 hours (of a 9 hour flight), I was awakened occassionally by crying babies. I hate babies, especilly the ones that cry.
Once we got to Sao Paulo we were quickly deplaned and put through security, only to be put back on the same plane to get to Rio (why we had to even get off the plane in the first place, I don't know). Once in Rio we went through customs together and then got our accrediation and luggage (which still isn't at the village yet, and it's like 9pm, shitty) and got on a bus to take us to the village. We got to drive past the ghetto, which is unlike any ghetto I have ever since, I tried to get some drive-by shots but I'm not sure how they turned out. It is like a high poverty area, almost like a post-war zone, but there are soccer fields scattered throughout and kids playing the game, usually with no shoes.
When we arrived at the village I felt like I was in Miami. The village buildings have that art deco feel and are in bright colors.
After dumping our carry-ons we had a late lunch (food will be a challenge, it is not very good) and then went to the pool for a swim. As soon as we got there it started to rain and continues to.
The pool though, is breathtakingly amazing! I can't wait to race in it!!!!! and see it in daylight! haha
Well, I have to go get my HBC outfitting and make sure everything fits.
Peace,
LIz 2
(I'm Liz 2 because Liz 1 in my roommate Liz Collins (she's a few months older))
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Brazil Tomorrow...?
So tomorrow is the big day, the big travel day that is. After almost 2 weeks in Montreal we are finally heading to Brazil and Pan Ams!! It is going to be a super long travel day and I am really not looking forward to it, but there will be gold at the end of this rainbow... haha.
I still have to pack up all my shit and organize my carry-ons and wash some clothes (these red hoodies and towels that have been leaking red dye onto the white t-shirts they gave us, fun!)
Last night we had a team BBQ at one of the coaches house (he lives in a suburb of Montreal). It was good times chillin in his backyard outside the noise of the city... the whole time we've been here they've been ripping apart our hotel's street. The jack-hammering starts at like 7:15am, so sleeping in is pretty much out of the question. I think I may have mentioned this in the previous post, but oh well, you would complain about it too if you were living in this hole of a hotel... the tap water in our room has been runnning brown as well, thank gawd theres a gorcery store around the corner with cheap bottled water.
Anyway, I must be off to pack and eat dinaire, team meeting at 6:30! EEEEEEEEE!
Look for the next blog from RIO!
LIz-Core
I still have to pack up all my shit and organize my carry-ons and wash some clothes (these red hoodies and towels that have been leaking red dye onto the white t-shirts they gave us, fun!)
Last night we had a team BBQ at one of the coaches house (he lives in a suburb of Montreal). It was good times chillin in his backyard outside the noise of the city... the whole time we've been here they've been ripping apart our hotel's street. The jack-hammering starts at like 7:15am, so sleeping in is pretty much out of the question. I think I may have mentioned this in the previous post, but oh well, you would complain about it too if you were living in this hole of a hotel... the tap water in our room has been runnning brown as well, thank gawd theres a gorcery store around the corner with cheap bottled water.
Anyway, I must be off to pack and eat dinaire, team meeting at 6:30! EEEEEEEEE!
Look for the next blog from RIO!
LIz-Core
Saturday, July 7, 2007
1407
yeah, we are almost in room 1408, how scary would that have been? haha
Anyway, I discovered, or was lead to, the "business centre" in our hotel today, so I am back online, yay!
I'm still in Montreal, we're doing a pre-Pan Ams training camp or staging camp, basically just putting the final preparations into our bodies and whatnot in order to swim fast in less than 2 weeks, yay!
So things are going well, all settled in and such, and into the good old routine of swim, eat, sleep repeat. hahaha. We are staying in a hotel in the heart of Montreal so there is lots to see and do if we so please. However, all I want to do is rest ie watch TV or read all day between workouts and get massages everyday :)
We only have a few more days in Montreal, we fly to Rio overnight on Tuesday... I am starting to get really excited about the meet again (after my collision/shitty weekend swims) and going back to Brazil!!
Hope all is well with all of you...
PEACE!
Liz-COre
Anyway, I discovered, or was lead to, the "business centre" in our hotel today, so I am back online, yay!
I'm still in Montreal, we're doing a pre-Pan Ams training camp or staging camp, basically just putting the final preparations into our bodies and whatnot in order to swim fast in less than 2 weeks, yay!
So things are going well, all settled in and such, and into the good old routine of swim, eat, sleep repeat. hahaha. We are staying in a hotel in the heart of Montreal so there is lots to see and do if we so please. However, all I want to do is rest ie watch TV or read all day between workouts and get massages everyday :)
We only have a few more days in Montreal, we fly to Rio overnight on Tuesday... I am starting to get really excited about the meet again (after my collision/shitty weekend swims) and going back to Brazil!!
Hope all is well with all of you...
PEACE!
Liz-COre
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Montreal
Well I am in Montreal and have been here since Thursday morning at 4am. Yes 4am. Our flight, mine and Pan Am teammate Tommy, was supposed to get to Montreal at 5:15pm on Wednesday, but it was cancelled, so we were re-routed through Chicago. But we had to leave Austin and that flight was originally at 12:20 but got delayed to 5:00pm. Good times in AUS, haha. So since we were so delayed in AUstin we thought we were going to have to RUN to our gate in Chicago to make our connection. So we did run, we had about 20 mins. We made it to our gate and there was a 10min delay, so we had time to grab dinner. When we got back from dinner our flight was delayed 2 more hours! so til 10pm. so we wait. and then they delay it til 11pm because our crew has not arrived. blah. Our crew arrives and we start to board. Then our boarding passes were rejected because there was a weight restriction on the flight! So the airline people are trying to get a bag count from the tarmack to see if they can let more people on board. They can let 3 more on, we are amongst them, i almost have a heart attack from relief. We finally get to montreal at 2:31am EST. it is thunder and lightening. we can't get off the plane because during lightning no one can operate the gate thingy. Meanwhile, as we sit on the plane for 45 more mins we see a continental plane arrive, deplane, and then be towed away empyt. we still sit there. Finally they let us off and we go through customs and get our bags. I arrive at my hotel at 4am! but luckily I can sleep til noon. BUT at 9:30am contruction starts down the hall and it sounds like they are in my room with sledgehammers knocking down my walls.
I am swimming okay at this Grand Prix meet. I was in a head-on collision in warm-up before my 200bk final so that distracted me and my swim suffered. But I still won, the time was just a little not so good, haha.
Anyway, one more day of the meet remains and then we start our "staging camp" on Monday.
It is cold here.
Au Revoir.
La Core de Liz.
I am swimming okay at this Grand Prix meet. I was in a head-on collision in warm-up before my 200bk final so that distracted me and my swim suffered. But I still won, the time was just a little not so good, haha.
Anyway, one more day of the meet remains and then we start our "staging camp" on Monday.
It is cold here.
Au Revoir.
La Core de Liz.
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