As did most of the days since our arrival here, the morning began with a team walk. Tracey went along with the team today and got a few pictures early this morning.
Athletes then got free time until lunch.
Some took this time to go shopping, rest at the hotel or even just walk around town a little more; while others saw this as a great time to go play in a park. Not a green, walking trail, trees kind of park. A kid’s playground type of park! Can you guess who that was? I don’t have pictures of this yet but I am working on it.
It was then time for lunch at the hotel followed by travels to the arena for an hour long practice. We got more photos of this practice as well. The team worked on a few specifics and again they looked great out there, as they did yesterday. There was a bit of a slip up during one of the drill explanations but nothing to be worried about. Don’t worry, the athletes are on track... the slip and fall was not one of them
Post practice includes cool down, snack time, and skate sharpening! It also meant my debut as net moving person for the zamboni driver; I can do it all I tell ya! J Too slow on the camera and didn’t get a photo of this. But Tracey did get a shot of me ‘live tweeting’ the practice.
Then it was back on the bus, quick meal and off to the hockey game. Tappara (home team) was playing Pelicans. Both teams are part of the Finnish Elite League. It was a very interesting game with the home team taking the lead late in the third and adding an empty net goal at the end. The hockey part was great. But most of the entertainment came from our own group.
Now as you may know they have a dance team (aka Cheerleaders) at their game here. Some of our athletes felt compelled to learn the dance moves over the course of the game and I must say they were doing pretty well near the end. We even got some of the young hockey players in the stand chanting CANADA!
The other interesting thing was the gold helmet. One player on each team was wearing a gold coloured helmet. Not really sure why? So if anybody has a clue let me know! I’m thinking it has something to do with scoring titles or something like that.
We are now back at the hotel and ready for another night’s sleep.
Tomorrow is another short day. Team walk, early practice and free time in the afternoon. This is to get ready for our big day on Saturday. Team Canada takes on Finland in an exhibition game. This will be the first time these two teams meet up since the 2007 WRC Final! Be sure to log on to Twitter as I will be reporting live updates as I did during the game vs the U19 team.... except this time I won’t be alone in the stands! Many family members and friends of the team will be arriving tomorrow, so I will have cheering buddies! Tomorrow is also the arrival of other Ringette Canada personnel: Alayne Martell (Media PR, my roommate for this event and contrary to popular beliefs she is not the person behind the 10 things I think I think), David Patterson (Executive Director) and Jane Cason (President).
Taking a que from the 10 things ... here are my non-WRC thoughts:
1. Tulli is my new word. I’ve decided that it can fill in for any word when needed. It means customs I know that much, but we seem to see it all over the place in random un-customs related locations. Any help on clarifying this would be great!
2. Pretty excited that I got to watch One Tree Hill online yesterday!
3. Tracey and I didn’t get lost today! Yay for us! I guess that 17 Euro map was worth it!
4. Chocolate milk is hard to find here. I’m starting to think it doesn’t exist. But we did find Nesquik today. So we made our one. Yum!
Good night y’all!
-FL
