Day 9 is coming to a close. A day off but not really a day off.
We were supposed to practice at 9AM but I cancelled that so the girls could rest. They put everything they had into our comeback last night and we were tired. Sleep in for them with breakfast scheduled for 10AM. I slept until almost 8. Woo hoo. I rolled over and tried to snooze until about 8:30. It was relaxing but no sleep. Got up, grabbed a shower and went to breakfast.
A mix today. Some scrambled eggs, cheese pancakes, a curd patty or something, a chicken type of patty thing, small potato cake and a meat ball thingy. I really have no idea what some of the things are. I had to skip the braised duck with almonds that was at one station. That wouldn't be a yummy breakfast choice. Grabbed a coffee and was on my way back to the dorm. Got back a little after 11 and Patrice our therapist was just arriving back from a walk in the city. He suggested we get the girls out of the village for about an hour or so. I mulled it over and decided to go for it. The girls were very appreciative. We jumped on the public bus and headed downtown to a mall where he had found a Nike and Adidas store. The public transport was an interesting ride and it was all free because we are with the games. So many different people and different stops. Well worth the ride. When we got to the mall it looked like an office building but inside was a mall and the Nike and Adidas stores were nice. There were also some other cool shops. I got some neat things so I was pleased.
The ride back was just as interesting. Along the way we made a stop and 2 older women got on and sat beside our girls. The Russian grandmother looking ladies are called Babushkas and these weren't too far away from that. They tried talking to the girls in Russian and our girls responded in English and they were laughing away and nobody understood each other. finally a young (and may I add Stunningly beautiful) lady interrupted and she was an interpreter for the games. She explained that the women wanted to know why we weren't on a special bus for the games and why we were on this one. We said that we just wanted to experience the Russian people and a bit of their culture. They seemed to be happy with that. I found 2 Canada buttons in my bag and gave each one a button. One of the junior babushkas pinned it on her dress right away. It was neat and she was smiling from ear to ear.
What a great ride it was the whole way. I am glad that Patrice took us there.
We arrived back to the village and I went back to my room. Skipped lunch to work on the video and prep work for tomorrow. After about 2 hours I decided to go over and get a bite to eat. Another hodge podge. A piece of pork (dry and bland), a turkey skewer (imagine flakes of turkey compressed on a skewer), some potatoes, a few dumplings and I was pretty much disappointed with that outing. Stomached what I could and headed back to the dorm. Did a little more work and we had meetings planned with each girl. Short and sweet just to touch base and see how they were doing. Gave them some things to work on for the next 3 games.
After the meetings we had a quick video session to show the girls some clips of our good things and some of what Australia did. We then met as coaches to discuss the game tomorrow. After some good discussion (and some very frustrating) we ended it and I came up here to do some more video work. Now the video is complete and all is left is to tidy up some notes for practice tomorrow.
We practice at 9AM with breakfast at 7AM. Video session when we return to give them specific technical details and then we will break until our team meal before we depart. Game is at 6 and we have a LARGE mountain to climb. If we get on our heels we are in big trouble. We have to out work them in every aspect and really play well to beat them. They are big, quick and VERY talented but I love the challenge and I feel if we "show up" we could be fine.
So now I must head off to prep the details for tomorrow. Sleep may not have much time on its' side tonight, we will see.
Until tomorrow..............
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