Surviving the Storm (both literal and figurative)...

Hey it's Jocelyn again! Sorry it's been so long since anyone has written, but we spend most of our "free" time lying down, forcing down disgusting cafeteria food, or travelling hours on buses. But ok, here is the update!

We finished last in our pool after a struggle against Slovenia (we lost in 5, should have won). Then we had to beat Chinese Taipei to have a chance at advancing to the medal side. We battled really hard, but came up short 18-16 in the 5th. Needless to say the team was devastated at having lost 2 tough 5-setters in a row. Then, since we finished 4th in our pool, we had the toughest cross-over...Brazil. They didn't make it to the medal rounds either because they had Italy and Serbia in their pool (both of whom are in the Gold medal game...go figure). We played well for 2 of the 3 sets against Brazil, but ended up losing 3-0. Yesterday we played Mongolia and slaughtered them. it was nice to finally get a win under our belts. And now it seems that fate has given us a second chance to beat Slovenia. We play them tonight at 8pm in our favourite gym... 1 hour away. We are all pretty excited to get some redemption and prove to them how good we really are. Go Canada!

Ok, so that's the news for the volleyball. Yesterday during our rest time, some of us happened to glance out the window and notice "hey it's pretty windy out". I thought I should get some of our clothes off of the ledge, in case they happened to blow away. Then we really took a good look and realized, just like David After the Dentist, that WE COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING!! Get the Jerseys, get the cameras!! There was what looked like a hurricane outside! The wind was blowing the rain sideways and none of us could even see the buildings next to us at some points. Tents and garbage cans were FLOATING down the street. There was a short time when we wondered if we'd be able to make it to our game after all. The water was over the tire level of the cars on the street. It was a total flood. Luckily, the weather has a tough time making up it's mind, so the rain stopped and life could proceed normally. But there was a 10 minute period there where we weren't so sure... It was a pretty interesting experience and some of the girls got parts of it on tape.

What else?? Oh ya, we had a day off a few days ago! The whole team cabbed down to Republica square, a really touristy area with a lot of history behind it. There were cobble stone streets and some very quaint little cafes and restaurants. We were all mostly excited just to get away from the cafeteria food! Lots of the girls had pizza, which apparently was good, but was basically dripping with grease. I ordered a chicken salad, assuming that lettuce would be included, but it was just giant chucks of chicken, tomato, and cheese all mixed up. Weird, but way better than the cafeteria! Plus, the banana split with chocolate ice cream was a definite high point. Olivier and Ryan thought they had to prove their manhood by eating large chucks of meat at the restuarant. They ordered a giant plate of all different meats and couldn't even finish it all. Olivier bet Holly she couldnt finish her whole pizza, but she easily did and now Oli owes her a 6-pack. Questionable bet by Olivier indeed. Then we just walked around for awhile, exploring the area. It wasn't long before we were all dying for water and perspiring terribly. So we hopped in a cab to check out our Canadian fellas playing some basketball. The End.

So we have one more game left, and then we have 4 days of sight-seeing and Canadian cheering! Our vball boys are in the 1/4 finals, so hopefully they move on and we get a chance to support them in the semis and finals! We all want to check out some diving, track, and some other sports as well. But first, we need to kill the bear. And excuse my language, but this is a quote from Sir Anthony Hopkins... "today, we're gonna kill the mutha f*cker!"

Cultural Experiences All Around us!

Playin chicken with the trucks

Oook. So today we played China! We knew they'd be pretty good going in, but we were prepared to give them a run for their money. We ended up losing 3-0, but our offense was solid; we can definitely improve on that game in the future and learn from our mistakes. But enough of that stuff... We seriously almost died in traffic today, AGAIN! We have a police escort to every game, so we just follow that car, apparently even when he is driving like a maniac. The roads here in Belgrade are kind of narrow... definitely not enough room for a bus AND some big trucks to be driving past each other at the same time. Some of us were nervous for the game today, sure, but I think we were all more nervous that our bus driver was willing to play chicken with other drivers!

Today is Dayna's birthday!! So some of the girls and our new found friend (attache) Dragana went and got her some delicious cakes and a fire cracker to celebrate the event. We lit the fire cracker out the window of our residence, crossing our fingers not to get tossed out for bringing dangerous materials into the village, haha! So far so good, but it's only been a few minutes...

We have a meeting tonight, in 15 minutes. Olivier thinks that we'll all be awake for some reason... and of course we will be because there is some sort of musical performance occuring outside at this very second. I think it may be classified as death metal... but I am kind of a wimp when it comes to hard music, haha.

Anyways, we play Slovenia tomorrow and we have a great chance at coming out with a victory! Go Canada!

more updates and pictures to come...

Happy Canada Day!

So I think it's about time for an update...Turns out that Reese and Fabris finally made it to Belgrade just incase you were not informed.
Our first day here all together we drove to a venue about an hour away for our first Serbia practice. We must admit, jet lag was going strong at this point and so was the sun as it shined straight into our eyes. One side of the gym is all windows so let's cross our fingers and hope it isn't sunny on game day at 3pm! Half of us were feeling dizzy while the other half were having issues from the lamb served up in the caf. From practice, we boarded the bus and headed back to Athlete's Village and the caf. Our bus has to get stopped a few 100 metres back from Athlete's Village to check for bombs.. no big deal. We feel like quite the celebrities since our bus is escorted by police through t he city. Police with rifles are just lining the streets and are all around us, feel very protected, that's for sure. So the caf.... it's in a warehouse and let me tell you, going at rush hour is a horrible idea. We have caught ourselves in that place with what seemed to be a thousand other starving athletes from around the world... good for people watching- don't get me wrong- but not so great if your stomach is aching. We all crashed pretty early that night, trying to get onto this time zone.
The Athlete's Village is just something else. 5,000 athletes from around the world living within feet of each other is pretty cool. Our building is all Canadian athletes and our neighbours are Australia, South Africa and USA. You can walk around the place and j ust chit chat, get your picture taken, play pick up soccer or dance and sing with them all. Most of us walk around with our jaws open at the men we sight each day- gotta love this place.
Tuesday... our days all seem to scrabble into one...we drov e back to the same venue on a bus with Sweden to play a quick two sets against them. We only had one hour with an actual net so we had to warm up in what we like to call the "sauna." It was a gym at the top of this glass building that was SO hot we all sweat like crazy. While sweden took the full hour to hone their volleyball skills, the Serbian volunteers got a good kick out of our teams' athletic abilities in soccer and basketball..and my face being a BALL MAGNET (thank you fabreezy and harp). The scrimmage was alright for our first game like experience in belgrade and against a different country...MP put it well when she s aid we played "shy"- gave up a few big leads, and split with them in the end. No big deal. That night we were invited to a reception at the Canadian Embassy in Belgrade with a bunch of Serbian VIP's and other important people we weren't too aware of. I guess we were slightly underdressed at the event but how can you not be classy in a black polo and lulus with sneaks? :| Needless to say we had a enjoyable time... most of it spent at the chocolate fondue fountain...however it was an experience we'll probably never have again! You can check out all the action at http://www.youtube.com/CANFISUGAMES2009 you'll fi nd a lovely interview of joc and dayna, and spenny making an appearance at our favorite fountain!!

I guess that brings us to today!? We had another scrimmage at the same venue, this time against Great Britain. We played a lot better than we did against sweden and basically dominated them in the first set, and sort of again in the second. Woop woop! We rushed back for dinner and then had to get ready for the opening ceremonies! We de

finitely looked like a bunch of babes in our red polo shirts, black basketball shorts, white running shoes, and BASEBALL hats. Yes, we looked good. And did i mention we did not have time to shower after our practice. hahaha. The procession was actually really cool, we had to walk a few km's to the Beograd Arena where the opening ceremonies were held. Apparently its like the biggest indoor sports stadium in Europe? don't quote me on that, but it was a really cool place. All these Serbians lined the streets as we marched to the stadium and a bunch of people were waving little canadian flags and even the gypsies were cheering for us from behind the fences!! We kept taking so many photos that the volunteers had to make us run for part of the walk because we were falling so behind haha. They also had these huge speakers th at were playing classic music that suddenly turned into wicked beats. So awesome. When we got into the stadium we had to wait for a few hours before all of the countries finally arrived. Some of us had to take off for therapy but the rest of us that stuck around only stayed for the introduction of all 130 some countries and their flag barers to do a lap around the stadium. We were quite bagged and apparently missed the best part of the ceremony. Oh well right? We need to rest up for China tomorrow! Ok that's all I got for now. Good night!

Survival of the Fittest

This week the team had received the flight itineraries for our trip from Winnipeg to Belgrade and it seemed as though Marisa and I had lucked out. We got to leave Winnipeg on the last group, only had 3 flights, short lay-overs and arrive in Belgrade before half of the team. We laughed at everyone else who had 3-4 flights with massive lay overs and those ending up having to travel solo for portions of the flights. The coaches were joking that those that actually make it to Belgrade will play- so it is Survival of the Fittest... Marisa and I thought we had this in the bag. Our laughs stopped quite abruptly. Reese was woken up at 8:20am (June 27) by text from Ruste informing her that they were leaving the food bag behind for us to figure out what to do with because it weighed 100 lbs. (max weight limit = 70 lbs.)
We were picked up from residence at 11am by taxi with Marie-Pierre and Alex. We didn't realize it at the time but we were strapping in for the rides of our life. Literally was a near death experience! Dude drove on average 100 km/hr through the city of Winnipeg, believing there existent a middle lane specifically for him. At one point he passed 5 cars as he went 150 km/hr.. no big deal right!? Then he gunned a red light and had to swirve at the last minute to avoid hitting another car. A few minor heart attacks occured and we were all thankful when the car was put in park.
So we divided up the food bag into another bag. Reese and I considered leaving behind the 10 lb. bag of chocolate macaroons- but with Ruste and Kyla in mind, we decided to keep it (you are welcome girls!) So after nearly 45 minutes at the check-in counter tossing food from bag to bag, we passed through security to realize that MP had packed her food bag as her carry-on and had to say goodbye to quite a few delicious items. Our flight to Toronto was heavenly, no problems there, arrived on time at 4pm. We got off our flight and looked at the departure board for our next flight to Warsaw. We saw what we thought was a delay of 2.5 hours- thought we would just enjoy one last Canadian meal before our 3 weeks abroad. We walked with MP and Alex to international connections but got stopped and re-routed through the airport to go get our boarding tickets. We found ourselves out by check-in counter amongst 200 other people in line. Reese and I stood in line for another hour, realizing we read the board wrong. It wasn't a 2.5 hour delay, the flight was actually set to depart at 2:30am (8 hours of delay). To add to the excitement of the line, there was a Doberman nearby ready to pounce on us. That wouldn't even surprise me if that went down. Reese and I stayed calm and just continued to giggle at our situation. We talk to the lady at the desk for her to inform us that the plane is having major mechanical problems. She said 2:30 am is the earliest it would leave but could be up to a 2 day delay. We laughed that one off. She also told us that once we get to Warsaw she does not know when our flight out to Belgrade would be and that could take another day. Keep the good news rollin' in!
We finally got to the Toronto Airport hotel around 7pm (as everyone else on the team was just taking off across the Atlantic) and could only muster up enough energy to eat and lay supine until having to leave for the airport at 1am. We grabbed our last bit of Tim Horton's while we waited another 3 hours in the airport for our flight. This day seemed never ending and the craziest thing is that we were still in CANADA! Not much progress made. But at 4am, our plane finally took off toward Poland. Reese and I immediately put on our complimentary eye masks and tried to spread out as much as possible between 3 seats to get some sort of sleep.
We got to Warsaw to a familiar scene. A huge line, people confused, and being informed we have to stay in the hotel. We will be catching our flight tomorrow morning (June 29) at 11am. Great news was that we have all our luggage. Reese's food bag made it which is the most important thing.
The other girls have all arrived in Belgrade, which is great! So Reese and I will be expecting a huge welcome committee upon our arrival tomorrow. Hopefully it is smooth sailing from here after these 43 hours of traveling. Cross our fingers! SERBIA here we come!