Day 10
Fwds have an 8:30am pool recovery, backs at 9am. Being a SH is convenient and for this I decide I am a back so I can sleep a few more minutes. During the pool recovery I always wonder if it really does anything, but afterwards I am sure it does. Hedwig, Ellie and I eat a slow and leisurely breakfast and go back upstairs to pack our big bag to go on the bus to England. We bring that down by noon and then we have the rest of the day free until 6pm. I’m still a bit tired so I don’t really want to walk all around town. I had some indecision about it because I wanted to get out of the hotel and Keenya and Tina were going back into town. I get my stuff and plan to go with them but can’t find them at the lobby so I started walking out because they might have already started walking. I can’t see them so I decide just to walk by myself through the university campus. It was nice to have some time to myself and walk at my pace discovering some new things. The architecture of the campus is nice and I wander through some buildings getting a feeling for the students and the people. There is a group of Chinese exchange students who seemed a bit out of place, but other than that it was a university like other universities (maybe a bit greener). I walk through the student center and figure out that I’m close to the sports facility that will have a free lunch for us (because we had a training session planned). I go there and find some of my teammates and eat with them.
We walk to the bookstore to buy some gifts and I decide to stay behind to read a little more of a book. I walk home by myself which is nice and come back to find Hedwig, Shouse, and Dude playing scrabble. I order some tea, check my email, and begin writing my journal entry from the day before. It’s a bit distracting because I’d prefer to hang out with people so I don’t get much done. I also burned a bunch of Mari’s CDs so I could get some new tunes.
Katie Wurst (USA rugby rep and studied in Limerick for a bit) tells me that this hotel, the Catletroy, is where the Irish men’s national team stays when they are in training. She also said that they train on the fields that we have been training on at the University of Limerick, which is pretty cool. The Irish men’s team is pretty well-respected and we’re getting the same treatement as they get. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but the town of Limerick is the rugby capital of Ireland. Everyone here knows rugby and all the sporting goods shops have rugby gear. Thomond Park, where we played, is where all the Munster games are played (and I read today at the university campus bookstore that they defeated the All-Blacks in Thomond Park sometime in the 1970’s). It was a pretty small stadium, but it was one of the pitches used in the Heineken Cup (and had Canon signs around the park!).
Dinner starts at 6pm and it is roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (drippings that are breaded and fried, I think). After dinner, we go to the O’Mara room to watch the game tape from yesterday with the projector and for Kathy to announce the lineup. It was strange that the lineup was already out on the internet before we knew about it and one of our NYRC teammates had already forwarded it to the list. Kathy said that would never happen again but it wasn’t the best way for people to find out the lineup.
The game tape starts and every time I watch our games I get a bit anxious even though I know the outcome and I know I can’t change anything. I have to say that it wasn’t as bad watching it as it seemed in the game. I see some of the things that weren’t working and I realize that I’m still learning. This gives me a lot of comfort – they expect me to do my best but aren’t expecting perfection (yet!). After the tape, Phaidra shows us an email with pictures from a ghetto prom and we all get a quick laugh before we break.
I go to see Doctor Bartoli (I actually try to bypass her by setting up time with Sarah, the other trainer) for my “cankle” (calf/ankle) which I got from someone stepping on me. Doc said it’s a hematoma (translation: big swollen bruise) and she does some acupuncture. I don’t really like needles but I make a bigger deal about it than I should. It’s not painful at all, but I get clammy hands and whine about it. I try to relax but I don’t like to sit still for too long but Patty (Jervey) keeps me company while Hedwig and Pam also get some acupuncture too. She puts some arnica cream on the area and I find that the acupuncture helps pretty quickly. I was concerned about the range of motion in my ankle, but now it’s fine. Amazing stuff – I’m not exactly sure how acupuncture works, but it’s effective (it moves around my chi!). Now I’m finishing my journal, gonna take a hot shower and go to bed. 11:45 – not too bad.
One other thing – there are only a few converters and we all are trying to use them. There’s one that the hotel owns that I “borrowed” overnight and they didn’t like that too much. So now it stays in the lobby, which is where I am, but it’s drafty here. My computer is also getting quite the workout with many people checking their mail and using it. Baja just got sick (Claudia was the first sick one on tour) which is bad timing because she’s playing #10 in the England A game. I just hope that other people don’t get sick because that’s terrible when the entire squad comes down with something.
Fwds have an 8:30am pool recovery, backs at 9am. Being a SH is convenient and for this I decide I am a back so I can sleep a few more minutes. During the pool recovery I always wonder if it really does anything, but afterwards I am sure it does. Hedwig, Ellie and I eat a slow and leisurely breakfast and go back upstairs to pack our big bag to go on the bus to England. We bring that down by noon and then we have the rest of the day free until 6pm. I’m still a bit tired so I don’t really want to walk all around town. I had some indecision about it because I wanted to get out of the hotel and Keenya and Tina were going back into town. I get my stuff and plan to go with them but can’t find them at the lobby so I started walking out because they might have already started walking. I can’t see them so I decide just to walk by myself through the university campus. It was nice to have some time to myself and walk at my pace discovering some new things. The architecture of the campus is nice and I wander through some buildings getting a feeling for the students and the people. There is a group of Chinese exchange students who seemed a bit out of place, but other than that it was a university like other universities (maybe a bit greener). I walk through the student center and figure out that I’m close to the sports facility that will have a free lunch for us (because we had a training session planned). I go there and find some of my teammates and eat with them.
We walk to the bookstore to buy some gifts and I decide to stay behind to read a little more of a book. I walk home by myself which is nice and come back to find Hedwig, Shouse, and Dude playing scrabble. I order some tea, check my email, and begin writing my journal entry from the day before. It’s a bit distracting because I’d prefer to hang out with people so I don’t get much done. I also burned a bunch of Mari’s CDs so I could get some new tunes.
Katie Wurst (USA rugby rep and studied in Limerick for a bit) tells me that this hotel, the Catletroy, is where the Irish men’s national team stays when they are in training. She also said that they train on the fields that we have been training on at the University of Limerick, which is pretty cool. The Irish men’s team is pretty well-respected and we’re getting the same treatement as they get. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but the town of Limerick is the rugby capital of Ireland. Everyone here knows rugby and all the sporting goods shops have rugby gear. Thomond Park, where we played, is where all the Munster games are played (and I read today at the university campus bookstore that they defeated the All-Blacks in Thomond Park sometime in the 1970’s). It was a pretty small stadium, but it was one of the pitches used in the Heineken Cup (and had Canon signs around the park!).
Dinner starts at 6pm and it is roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (drippings that are breaded and fried, I think). After dinner, we go to the O’Mara room to watch the game tape from yesterday with the projector and for Kathy to announce the lineup. It was strange that the lineup was already out on the internet before we knew about it and one of our NYRC teammates had already forwarded it to the list. Kathy said that would never happen again but it wasn’t the best way for people to find out the lineup.
The game tape starts and every time I watch our games I get a bit anxious even though I know the outcome and I know I can’t change anything. I have to say that it wasn’t as bad watching it as it seemed in the game. I see some of the things that weren’t working and I realize that I’m still learning. This gives me a lot of comfort – they expect me to do my best but aren’t expecting perfection (yet!). After the tape, Phaidra shows us an email with pictures from a ghetto prom and we all get a quick laugh before we break.
I go to see Doctor Bartoli (I actually try to bypass her by setting up time with Sarah, the other trainer) for my “cankle” (calf/ankle) which I got from someone stepping on me. Doc said it’s a hematoma (translation: big swollen bruise) and she does some acupuncture. I don’t really like needles but I make a bigger deal about it than I should. It’s not painful at all, but I get clammy hands and whine about it. I try to relax but I don’t like to sit still for too long but Patty (Jervey) keeps me company while Hedwig and Pam also get some acupuncture too. She puts some arnica cream on the area and I find that the acupuncture helps pretty quickly. I was concerned about the range of motion in my ankle, but now it’s fine. Amazing stuff – I’m not exactly sure how acupuncture works, but it’s effective (it moves around my chi!). Now I’m finishing my journal, gonna take a hot shower and go to bed. 11:45 – not too bad.
One other thing – there are only a few converters and we all are trying to use them. There’s one that the hotel owns that I “borrowed” overnight and they didn’t like that too much. So now it stays in the lobby, which is where I am, but it’s drafty here. My computer is also getting quite the workout with many people checking their mail and using it. Baja just got sick (Claudia was the first sick one on tour) which is bad timing because she’s playing #10 in the England A game. I just hope that other people don’t get sick because that’s terrible when the entire squad comes down with something.
posted by Lee Knight at 8:26 PM
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